72: The Quarterly

The Wednesday seminar ran from nine to ten-fifty.

Doctor Mu's small applied-coursework module covered, this Wednesday, the small careful relationship between the small careful column-bed-asymmetry coefficient and the small careful late-eluting-band tail variance. He spoke for thirty minutes. He set us a small paired exercise. He paired me again with Yu Chen at the next table. We worked for forty minutes. We finished at ten-thirty. Doctor Mu reviewed the room's solutions for twenty minutes. He dismissed us at ten-fifty.

Bai Yueran was in the small front row in the rust-colored sweater. She did not, leaving, look at me.

In the small corridor outside the basement classroom, at the small drinking fountain, she stopped to drink. She did not, drinking, look up. She said, into the basin of the fountain, in the lab register:

"Four PM at the Mu lab. Three pages this Wednesday. The third page has — at the bottom — a small note in my own hand. The note is for you to read at the lab and hand back at the lab gate. Don't take it home. The note is — by my own small careful judgment — the small careful kind that requires the small careful destruction at the small careful Mu-lab eyewash-station's small careful incinerator drain after the small careful one-time reading. Burn it before you leave the lab."

I did not stop walking.

I said, into the corridor, in the same register: "All right."

I went up the stairs and out of the Mu building into the small Wednesday-late-morning grey light.

I walked back to the dorm.

I read for an hour. I ate the small lunch. I worked the small applied-coursework problem set for an hour. At three-forty I tied the small backpack and walked back to the Mu building.

The Mu lab on Wednesday at four was, this Wednesday, more empty than usual.

Doctor Mu was at his fourth-floor office with the door shut. The two grad students were at a small careful out-of-town small careful conference at the small careful Beijing-Tsinghua chemistry department. The lab was the small careful empty I had not, in the small careful eight Wednesdays I had volunteered, seen the lab in.

Bai Yueran was at the eyewash station washing a single small beaker.

I came in at three-fifty-eight. I tied the apron. I went to the bench at the small second-from-the-window stool.

She rinsed the beaker. She set it on the drying rack. She dried her hands on the small white towel.

She said, without lifting her eyes: "Two minutes early."

"Two minutes."

She turned. She looked at me. The look held a longer than the small careful two-second standard.

She said: "There is no column to run today. There is the deposit. Read it at the bench. The third-page note is in pencil. After reading, fold each page along the original creases, set the three pages on the bench-edge, and burn them at the small careful incinerator drain at the eyewash station with the small careful match in the small careful drawer at the small careful left of the eyewash station. The third-page note will, by the small careful pencil-on-Suzhou-cotton-paper density, take fifteen seconds to burn cleanly. The first two pages will take eight seconds each. Don't, while burning, look away. Watch the burn complete. Confirm complete combustion at the small careful incinerator's small careful ash-tray. Sweep the ash into the small careful eyewash-station drain with the small careful brush in the small careful same drawer."

She handed me the small folded paper of Suzhou cotton — three pages this time, folded together along the small careful single shared crease.

I went to the bench. I sat at the second-from-the-window stool. I unfolded the three pages.

The first page was the small careful Hu Xiaodu intelligence file's small careful structural mechanism, written in MoonShadow's careful annotated hand.

The mechanism was, at its small careful structural level, a small careful three-tier file-cap mechanism: forty-nine lines as the small careful default cap, sixty as the small careful Wang Jingxun-signature-extended cap, and ninety as the small careful Wang Yongming-signature-extended further cap. The forty-nine cap reset every quarterly to zero unless a small careful Wang Jingxun signature on the quarterly extension form converted the file from default-cap to extended-cap. The extended-cap reset every two quarters at the small careful continental committee chair's small careful annual meeting unless the small careful Wang Yongming-signature-further-extended-cap kicked in. The further-extended cap, once kicked in, did not reset.

The structural implication was: if Wang Jingxun signed the small careful Nov 20 quarterly extension on Bladeless's file, the file became permanent at the small careful sixty-line cap until the small careful next two-quarter chair's-meeting in March 2015. If Wang Yongming additionally signed the further-extended-cap conversion at the small careful next chair's-meeting, the file became permanently permanent at ninety lines.

The small careful Wang Jingxun signature on the small careful Nov 20 quarterly extension was, by the small careful Coalition-internal-signature convention, contingent on whether *Severing Light* accepted the Brigade-leadership-residual offer at the small careful Nov 18 meeting.

The acceptance branch: Wang Jingxun reads *Severing Light*'s acceptance as the small careful Brigade-residual-line-Severing-Light-affiliation-confirmed event that the small careful TT intelligence file was opened for. Signs the extension. File becomes permanent at sixty.

The non-acceptance branch (which my deferral was, at the small careful TT-internal read, an ambiguous instance of): Wang Jingxun reads the small careful deferral as either a small careful weak-commander-not-yet-bound event (signs the extension on the small careful precaution rationale) or a small careful careful-commander-not-yet-bound event (does not sign on the small careful insufficient-data rationale). Which branch he reads — by MoonShadow's note — depended on what the Coalition's small careful quiet section's intelligence file read of Bladeless's seven-day-window character was. The seven-day-window observation had begun at 6 AM Wednesday — twelve hours after my deferral.

The first page was, in itself, four hundred careful words.

The second page was the small careful Wang Yongming Quiet Section Limited Q4 staffing plan.

The Q4 staffing plan named the small careful nine staff hires Quiet Section Limited would, over the small careful November 20 to February 20 quarter, make at the small careful Beijing office. The first hire was the small careful pre-Continental-One civic-historical-context vendor-rotation lead position that Sister Lin had offered me at the small careful White Crane on Friday a week ago. The other eight hires were the small careful supporting analyst-tier portfolios that the small careful lead position would manage. The small careful job descriptions were dense.

What the second page revealed — by MoonShadow's careful annotation at the small careful margin — was: the small careful lead position was, by the small careful Coalition's small careful internal compensation-tier convention, anchored to the small careful 240,000-yuan annual base; the small careful eight analyst-tier portfolios were each anchored to the small careful 120,000-yuan annual base; the small careful total compensation-package outlay for the small careful Q4 staffing was approximately 1.18 million yuan. The compensation outlay was, by the small careful Coalition Q4 budget, paid through the small careful Quiet Section Limited self-deal vendor agreement.

In other words: the small careful nine staff hires were paid through the small careful self-deal vendor agreement that was paid through the small careful Coalition's Continental One war-budget that was paid through the small careful continental committee's small careful 18-million-yuan flagship-guild operational reserve. The small careful nine staff hires were, in structural terms, paid out of Wang Jian's reserve for Wang Jian's flagship-guild Continental One pre-positioning.

I read the second page twice.

The third page was the small careful Bai father's preparation note.

The preparation note was — at the small careful Suzhou-cotton-paper handwritten-pencil level — short. It read:

*To my daughter's small careful Bladeless of Severing Light:*

*I have been reading, since September, the small careful pattern of your small careful seven-week refusals at the south-gate step, the small careful four-things charter at the long oak table, the small careful 12.4%-block-abstention pattern I have small carefully maintained on the Hangzhou-cell question at the small careful TT quarterlies, and the small careful Pingjiang-Road auntie-network's small careful Wednesday-meeting third-row-table accumulation of the small careful seven-week vendor-naming.*

*I have, on the small careful November-twentieth quarterly that will hold tomorrow at 10 AM at the TT-headquarters fourth-floor boardroom, decided to vote my small careful 12.4% block in favor of the small careful Wang-Jingxun-signature-extension-to-sixty.*

*I have so decided because: the small careful sixty-line file becomes the small careful continental civic-historical-context vendor-pipeline's small careful Bladeless-of-Severing-Light entry the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-process small carefully visible to the small careful 12.4%-block-and-larger small careful shareholder-disclosure mechanism. By making the small careful entry visible to the disclosure mechanism, I have, by the small careful 2011 TT-shareholder-charter Article 14, the small careful authority to small carefully request the small careful entry's small careful contents at the small careful next quarterly. By requesting the small careful contents at the small careful February quarterly I will, by the small careful Article 14 authority, place the small careful entry under the small careful shareholder-disclosure protective oversight that the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-process does not, in the small careful unextended-file state, permit.*

*The small careful Article 14 oversight is — by my own small careful 2011 read of the small careful TT-shareholder-charter — the small careful single legal mechanism the small careful 12.4%-block-and-larger has to small carefully constrain the small careful continental committee chair's small careful self-deal vendor pipeline.*

*I am, by the small careful vote tomorrow, declaring my side. The declaring is — by my own small careful judgment — the small careful gift. I do not, by my own small careful judgment, ask anything in return.*

*— Bai Tianyu, in the small careful 2011 hand.*

I read the third page three times.

I folded the three pages along the small careful original creases. I stood up. I walked to the small careful eyewash station. I opened the small careful left drawer. I took out the small careful match. I struck. I held the first page at the small careful incinerator drain. The small careful Suzhou cotton paper caught at the small careful corner. It burned in the small careful eight seconds Bai Yueran had said. The ash fell into the small careful incinerator's ash-tray. I watched. I held the second page. I burned. I watched. I held the third page. I burned. The small careful pencil-on-Suzhou-cotton-paper density took the small careful fifteen seconds. I watched.

I swept the small careful ash into the small careful eyewash-station drain with the small careful brush in the small careful same drawer.

I rinsed the drain with the small careful eyewash flow for the small careful sixty seconds the small careful incinerator-protocol asked.

I closed the small careful drawer.

I walked back to the bench.

Bai Yueran was at her own bench. She was, at her own bench, washing a second small beaker she had not, at three-fifty-eight, been washing.

She said, without looking up: "The deposit is destroyed."

"It is."

"You read the third page."

"I read it."

"My father's vote is, on Thursday, his."

"It is."

She rinsed the second beaker. She set it on the drying rack. She dried her hands.

She said: "Walk me to the west-campus quad. I would like, by my own small careful Wednesday-judgment, the small careful walk this Wednesday."

I said: "All right."

We walked.

We walked the four flights of stone stairs down to the west-campus quad. We crossed the quad. We stopped at the small kiosk by the gate. She bought a small paper cone of chestnuts. She paid in coins. She broke one open. She ate it. She did not, this Wednesday, offer me one.

She walked east toward the Mu campus residence.

I walked west toward the dorm.

The Thursday ran at its own pace.

I was at the dorm in the morning. I worked the small applied-coursework problem set. At noon I ate. At one I slept. At three I read. At five I made the small early dinner. I went to the pod at five-fifty.

I logged in at six.

The TT quarterly had, by Bai Yueran's small careful Wednesday-night DM, run at 10 AM IRL Thursday. I bonded-DM'd Old Wolf at 6:14 PM IRL: *The quarterly outcome.* He bonded-DM'd back: *I am at the south-gate step at 8 PM IRL. I will tell you and Wanqing then.*

I worked the in-game evening at small inventory at the south-gate.

At 8 PM Old Wolf was at the south-gate step.

He had on the silver-and-blue. He had at his right hand, this evening, the small wooden tankard half-full.

He said: "Wang Jingxun signed the extension to sixty at 11:42 AM IRL today. The extension was — by the small careful TT-internal vote-tally — a small careful seven-of-eight TT-sub-board vote in favor; the small careful one against was, by the small careful TT-shareholder-disclosure mechanism, Bai Tianyu's small careful 12.4% block voting against the extension on the small careful procedural rationale that the small careful Article 14 oversight the extension activates is, in his small careful read, the small careful purpose of the extension. The vote-against was, by the small careful 2011 TT-shareholder-charter Article 14 procedural mechanism, the small careful procedural-instrument by which the small careful 12.4%-block-and-larger shareholder placed the small careful Bladeless-of-Severing-Light entry under the small careful Article 14 oversight at the small careful February quarterly."

He paused.

He said: "Wang Jingxun read the small careful vote-against as a small careful procedural maneuver and not as a small careful substantive opposition. He extended on the small careful seven-of-eight read. The file is, at this hour, at the sixty-line cap. The Article 14 oversight will, at the February quarterly, be Bai Tianyu's to invoke."

Wanqing said: "And the small careful Coalition's quiet section's seven-day-window observation."

Old Wolf said: "The Coalition's small careful quiet section's seven-day-window observation is — by the small careful Bladeless-Wednesday-Mu-lab-incinerator-protocol observation Sister Lin's December-second-Saturday knock-handler will have read off the small careful HZUT-Mu-building's-fourth-floor surveillance-camera time-stamp — proceeding. The observation has, by the small careful Coalition-quiet-section convention's small careful Wednesday-Bladeless-handles-deposit-destroys-cleanly read, gained one small careful entry on its small careful seven-day-character-assessment register. The entry was: *Bladeless of Severing Light handled small specific Coalition-related-deposit destroy-cleanly protocol at small specific Mu-lab incinerator at 4:14 PM IRL Wednesday. Handle was clean.* The Coalition reads the clean handle as the small careful kind of careful-commander-not-yet-bound entry that, at the small careful seven-day-character-assessment register's small careful close on Tuesday at noon, will weight the small careful careful-commander branch."

He paused.

He said: "The seven-day-window will, by my count, close at the small careful Tuesday twenty-fifth at noon with the small careful careful-commander branch weighted at approximately the small careful 0.78 confidence interval. The Coalition's small careful quiet section will, by the small careful 0.78 read, brief the Coalition's continental committee at the small careful Tuesday-night briefing at 9 PM IRL — two hours after your small careful Tuesday-25th-at-7-PM Mei Yulan signing or deferring."

I said: "All right."

He said: "Get some sleep. Tomorrow at the cafe Manager Fang will have the small careful third-of-three-Friday-pipeline-handler-rotation observation note. By tomorrow night you will have, by Manager Fang's count, the small specific full small specific picture."

He walked off west.

Wanqing and I sat on the south-gate step at the eight-centimeter mark for the next thirty-four minutes without speaking.

I logged out at 9:14 PM IRL.

In my chest the second voice — *three months and three weeks* — was quiet. The first voice — the old counter — said:

*Bai Tianyu has voted against the extension on the small careful procedural rationale that the small careful Article 14 oversight the extension activates is the small careful purpose. Wang Jingxun has signed. The file is at sixty. The Article 14 oversight is Bai Tianyu's to invoke at February. The small careful 12.4% block has, by the small careful November twentieth vote, declared. The declaring is the small careful gift Bai Tianyu told MoonShadow he would, by his own small careful judgment, give. The gift is given.*

I closed my eyes.

I slept.