74: The Promotion Run-Up
The Monday ran at its own pace.
I worked the small applied-coursework problem set in the morning. I ate the small lunch. I slept from one to three. At three I went to the Mu lab for the small make-up volunteer slot — I had missed the small Wednesday Mu lab through Doctor Mu's small careful approval because the small careful Wednesday Mu lab session of the Bai-Yueran-deposit-burn had used the lab's eyewash-station incinerator under the Doctor-Mu-permission convention, and Doctor Mu wanted the small careful regular Wednesday-volunteer time-equivalent reimbursed at the small careful Monday-afternoon make-up slot. I worked at the bench alone — Bai Yueran was not, this Monday, at the make-up slot — and I cleaned six small careful flasks for the upcoming small careful Friday seminar's small careful glassware-set. I went back to the dorm at 5:30. I made the small early dinner. I went to the pod at 5:50.
In-game I worked at the south-gate inventory and at the small careful pre-signing review of the six clauses of Mei Yulan's small folded square. The small folded square had been at the small inside pocket of my dark cloak in-game-render since the small careful Tuesday a week ago. I had not, in the seven IRL days, opened it.
I opened it Monday evening.
I read the six clauses three times.
I composed, at the dorm desk after log-out, the small careful pencil signature I would, on the small careful Tuesday at 7 PM IRL, write at the bottom of the small folded square in the small in-game-character-customizer's small careful pencil-signing-mode that the small careful in-game-civic-charter convention used for principal-to-principal arrangements at this small specific tier.
The small careful pencil signature was the small careful three-character *Bladeless* in the small careful pencil-on-Suzhou-cotton-paper rendering my own small careful old-timeline guild signing of two timelines had used.
I held the small careful pencil-signature draft at the desk for fifteen IRL minutes.
I confirmed.
I went to bed at 11:42.
The Tuesday ran.
I went to the small Tuesday seminar at 9. I worked the small paired exercise with Yu Chen. I came back at 11. I ate the small lunch. I slept from one to three. I read for an hour. I went to the small dorm-courtyard for the small three slow laps. The small grey cat was at the corner of the bicycle rack. I went back up. I made the small early dinner.
I logged in at 6:50.
Wanqing was at the south-gate step at 6:51. Old Wolf in the eastern alcove with the small wooden tankard at 6:54 — empty this evening, the small specific empty Old Wolf carried at the small specific kind of evening when the small specific arrangement-or-deferral-signing was about to be done.
Mei Yulan came up the south road at 7:00 PM exactly.
She had on the same Brigade-mourning silver-and-blue with the small black band at the cuff. She did not, this evening, carry the small folded square — I had it. She stopped at three meters from the south-gate step.
She did not bow.
She said: "Bladeless."
I said: "Mei Yulan."
I took the small folded square out of the inside pocket of my dark cloak. I unfolded it. I held it for the small two seconds the holding took. I took out the small in-game-character-customizer's small careful pencil. I wrote the small careful three-character *Bladeless* signature at the bottom of the small folded square in the small careful pencil-on-Suzhou-cotton-paper rendering. I folded the small square along the small careful original creases. I held it out.
Mei Yulan took it. She unfolded it. She looked at the signature. She folded the small square along the same small careful original creases. She put it in the inside pocket of her own silver-and-blue.
She took out a small careful second small folded square from the same inside pocket.
The small second square was — at the in-game render — the same green-rice-paper she had handed me a week ago, but with her own signature already at the bottom in her own small careful pencil-on-Suzhou-cotton-paper rendering of her name: *Mei Yulan*.
She held it out.
I took it.
I unfolded it. I read her signature. I folded it. I put it in the inside pocket of my dark cloak.
She said: "Bladeless. The arrangement, at the dual signature, is at this hour permanent."
I said: "It is."
She said: "The thirty-IRL-day-notice clause is the small careful escape valve. We will, by the small careful clause, by either of our own small careful judgments, have the small careful exit if the small careful arrangement does not, in its small careful three-IRL-month operational test through the small careful Continental Qualification Round One opening, hold."
I said: "Yes."
She said: "I am, at the small careful dual signature, going to ask one further small careful question I had not, on the small careful Tuesday a week ago, asked. The question is — by the small careful Brigade-leadership-widow convention's small careful permanent-arrangement-signing first-question protocol — the small careful kind I am required to ask."
I said: "Ask."
She said: "Will you, at the small careful Saturday the twenty-ninth at the small careful Pingjiang Road kitchen at the small careful end-of-November family meal — at the small careful kitchen-table conversation your own mother will, by the small careful Pingjiang-Road auntie-network protection-protocol's small careful Mei-Yulan-eve authorized-disclosure clause, have with you — receive the small careful disclosure she will give you with the small careful clean reception the small careful 1962-Pingjiang-Road-cadence-line's small careful third pair's first hand has been waiting, since 1985, to small carefully give a son who would, by his own small careful son's-judgment, receive it cleanly."
I held that.
I said: "Mei Yulan. I will."
She said: "Then the arrangement is, at the small careful dual signature and at the small careful Saturday-the-twenty-ninth clean-reception, complete."
She turned.
She walked west down the south road in the silver-and-blue.
She did not, at twelve meters' distance, turn. The not-turning was — by the small careful Brigade-leadership-widow convention — the small careful signal that the principal-to-principal first meeting cycle was, by the small careful dual signature, closed.
When her bond marker had gone off the south-gate map Old Wolf came out of the small eastern alcove.
He said: "The arrangement is signed."
I said: "Yes."
He said: "The Coalition's quiet section will, at the small careful 9 PM IRL briefing two hours from now at the Coalition continental committee, read the small careful dual signature off the small careful Brigade-leadership-residual-internal channel that Mao Lianxi at Hengtai Cheng will, by the small careful Brigade-leadership-residual-internal courier convention, relay at the small careful 8:14 PM relay window. The Coalition's continental committee will know by 9:00 PM. Wang Jingxun will know by 9:14. Wang Yongming will know by 9:42."
I said: "All right."
He said: "Get some sleep. Tomorrow we begin the small careful five-day Lv 30 promotion prep. The promotion is on Saturday the twenty-ninth at the small careful 8 AM IRL morning. The kitchen-table conversation is at the small careful Pingjiang Road kitchen on the small careful Saturday afternoon. By the small careful Sunday the thirtieth — at the close of the small careful Saturday — beat six is open at the small careful chamber exit and the small careful 1962-Pingjiang-Road-cadence-line is at the small careful son's clean reception."
He walked off west.
The Wednesday and Thursday and Friday ran at their own pace.
Wednesday at the Mu lab Bai Yueran was at the small careful bench washing six small careful flasks for the small careful Friday seminar I had cleaned six others for on Monday. We did not, this Wednesday, run any column. She handed me — at the lab gate at 5:42 PM IRL — a small folded paper of Suzhou cotton in her own small careful pencil hand. The note read: *The Coalition continental committee read the dual signature at 9:00 PM Tuesday as expected. Wang Jingxun read the dual signature at 9:14 as expected. My father read the dual signature at 9:18 PM at his Bai Tianyu Tech sub-board chairman's office. He has, at the small careful 9:24, registered the small careful pre-Article-14 oversight pre-positioning request at the small careful TT-shareholder-disclosure mechanism's small careful pre-positioning queue. The small careful pre-positioning request is — by the small careful TT-shareholder-charter convention — the small careful 30-IRL-day-advance notice that the small careful Article 14 invocation will, at the small careful February quarterly, be made. The 30-IRL-day-advance lands at December the twenty-fourth. The Coalition will, by the small careful pre-positioning, know my father intends to invoke. The intending is — by my father's small careful judgment — the small careful kind of declaring that the small careful gift is. — M.*
I read the note. I burned it at the small careful incinerator drain. I went back to the bench.
She did not, at the bench, look up.
She said, in the small careful lab register: "The Saturday the twenty-ninth is — by my own small careful Wednesday-judgment — the small careful kind of Saturday. I will, this Wednesday, in the small careful Wednesday-evening's small careful in-game session, be at the small careful Withered Hollow extension chamber's small careful private-balcony tab-instance. The small careful tab-instance is — by my own small careful Wednesday-judgment — the small careful kind of in-game spot at which the small careful Wednesday-MoonShadow can, on the small careful Saturday-the-twenty-ninth in-game evening after your small careful kitchen-table conversation, raise — if you wish — the small careful glass of in-game wine for the small careful 1962-Pingjiang-Road-cadence-line that I have, since the small careful Sunday a week ago at the small careful western fountain bench's small careful four-civic-line intersection, become the small careful Coalition-quiet-section-internal-witness of by the small careful November-fourth Quiet-Section-Limited-self-deal observation channel my father has, by the small careful 12.4%-block-Article-14 mechanism, opened."
I held that.
I said, in the same register: "MoonShadow. I will, on the small careful Saturday the twenty-ninth in-game evening, be at the small careful Withered Hollow extension chamber's small careful private-balcony tab-instance. We will raise the small careful glass."
She said: "Good."
She did not, until the small careful end of the lab session at 5:42, say anything else.
The Thursday ran.
I went in-game at 8 PM. Wanqing and I worked the small careful Lv 28 cap two cycles at Black Iron Beasts. Yu Tieshou was at the small careful Black Castle Foothills approach reconnaissance — he had been there since 6:00 PM — and bonded-DM'd at 9:14 to confirm the small careful chamber-entrance-line-of-sight reconnaissance was clean. The small careful Old Wolf-arranged Brigade-leadership-residual corridor protection — by the small careful Mei Yulan dual-signed arrangement's clause-2 mechanism — was, by 9:42 PM, in place at the small careful three-cross-server trade-route waypoints around the small careful Black Castle Foothills approach. The small careful corridor protection had no small careful in-game-render visible signal — it was, by the small careful arrangement, the small careful kind of protection that was visible only to the small careful absence-of-incident.
The Friday ran.
The morning cafe shift was the empty-pod-12-week-three-of-three-empty-slot shift. Manager Fang gave me the small envelope at 11:30. I walked back to the dorm at noon. I slept until five. I made the small early dinner. I went to the pod at 5:50.
At 8:00 PM IRL Wanqing bonded-DM'd:
> *Saturday morning at 8 AM IRL I will be at the cairn 300 m out from the small careful Black Castle Foothills trial chamber. I will be on the small careful bench-rock there. I have brought, in the in-game inventory, the small careful seven-item waiting receipt my aunt taught me at the small careful kitchen table at the same small careful seven-item-cadence I taught it to you. I will sit it. Don't go before me — wait. I want, on the day, to be at the cairn first.*
I bonded-DM'd back: *I will, on Saturday morning at 8 AM IRL, be at the small careful chamber-entrance approach at three hundred meters out from the cairn. I will wait for you to be at the cairn first. After you are at the cairn I will, by your small careful waiting receipt's small careful third item — don't, in the seven rings, message her — not message you. I will go in at 8:14.*
She bonded-DM'd back: *Yes.*
I logged out at 11:18 PM IRL.
I lay down on the lumpy pillow at 11:30.
In my chest the second voice — *three months and three weeks* — was quiet. The first voice — the old counter — said:
*The arrangement is signed. The promotion is tomorrow at 8 AM. The kitchen-table conversation is tomorrow afternoon. The Coalition has read. Bai Tianyu has pre-positioned. The corridor protection is in place. By the small careful Sunday-the-thirtieth-morning the small careful Saturday will, by Old Wolf's count, be the small careful day beat six opens at the small careful chamber exit and the small careful 1962-Pingjiang-Road-cadence-line is at the small careful son's clean reception. Tomorrow.*
I closed my eyes.
I slept.