80: The Second White Crane

I was at the small careful eastern lane at 3:50 PM IRL.

The lane was, on the small careful Saturday-mid-December afternoon, the small careful narrow-cobbled lane it had been on the small careful Friday a month ago when I had walked it to the small careful first White Crane visit. The small careful pair of camellia bushes at the small careful door of the small careful White Crane were at the small careful December-flowering — small careful white-and-pink against the small careful dark green leaves. The small careful pale-wood front of the small careful tea-house was at the small careful December-light's small careful pale gold.

I came in at 3:58 PM.

The small careful five-table room was the same small careful five-table room. The small careful corner-back-table was at the small careful southwest corner; the small careful corner-window table — the small careful Mrs. Pan table — was at the small careful east window two tables west of the small careful corner-back. The small careful corner-window table was, this Saturday afternoon, empty.

It was not, however, unset.

There was, at the small careful corner-window table, a small careful single place setting: a small careful porcelain cup at the small careful east edge of the small careful round table; a small careful small-folded paper cone of chestnuts in the small careful porcelain cup; a small careful small folded note pinned to the small careful side of the small careful paper cone with the small careful small Pingjiang-Road auntie-network's small careful December-thirteenth-Saturday-witness-pin.

I did not, before sitting at the small careful corner-back-table, walk over to the small careful corner-window table.

I sat down across from Sister Lin at the small careful corner-back-table.

She had on the small careful pale-grey blazer.

She said: "Cangtian."

I said: "Sister Lin."

She said: "Thank you for coming."

I said: "Thank you for the small careful Wednesday-window-and-receipt-return arrangement."

She nodded.

She said, in the small careful even voice she had spoken at the first White Crane meeting four IRL weeks ago: "I have one revised offer. The revision is — by the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-pace decision in the wake of the small careful November-twenty-fifth Mei Yulan dual signature you signed and the small careful December-second-Doctor-Yan four-month-flat extension your father received — at the small careful upward tier the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-pipeline-tier-conversion-protocol allows for a small careful candidate the small careful Coalition's small careful seven-day-window observation has — by its small careful close at the small careful 0.78 confidence interval — read at the small careful careful-commander-not-yet-bound branch."

She paused.

She said: "The revised offer: the small careful same Coalition-quiet-section-civic-historical-context-vendor-rotation lead position at the small careful Quiet Section Limited's small careful Beijing office, post-Continental-One, beginning the small careful eleventh IRL month from the small careful first White Crane visit. The small careful base compensation has been, by the small careful internal-pipeline-tier-conversion, raised from the small careful 240,000-yuan-annual to the small careful 320,000-yuan-annual. The small careful Beijing apartment at the small careful Wangfujing residential building has been, by the same small careful conversion, upgraded from the small careful entry-tier-one-bedroom to the small careful mid-tier-two-bedroom-with-study. The small careful entry-tier civic-historical-context analyst portfolio has been, by the same small careful conversion, expanded to the small careful mid-tier portfolio that includes the small careful Coalition continental committee's small careful pre-Continental-One vendor-pipeline reading."

She paused.

She said: "You may decline, accept, or defer."

I said: "I defer."

She nodded.

She said: "Thank you, Cangtian."

She said: "The small careful Coalition's small careful internal-pace has — by the small careful seven-day-window's small careful 0.78-confidence-interval read and the small careful Mei Yulan dual signature and the small careful Bai Tianyu Article 14 pre-positioning request — lengthened the small careful four-week interval. The next knock will be at the small careful end of January. I will, in person, be the small careful knocker. The small careful knock will be at the small careful White Crane corner-back-table at four PM on the small careful last Saturday of January — the small careful 31st."

I said: "All right."

She said: "Cangtian. The small careful Coalition has — by the same small careful seven-day-window's read and the small careful Bai Tianyu Article 14 pre-positioning — also decided that the small careful Bladeless-of-Severing-Light file at the small careful 60-line cap is — by the small careful TT-shareholder-disclosure mechanism's small careful Article 14 oversight that will, at the small careful February quarterly, be invoked by Bai Tianyu — the small careful kind of file the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-pace will, by the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-protective-redaction-protocol, be small carefully redacting from the small careful current 60-line down to the small careful 38-line operational subset over the small careful December and January period. The small careful redaction is — by the small careful protective-redaction-protocol — the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-acknowledgment that the small careful Article 14 oversight will, at the small careful February quarterly, expose any small careful 60-line file to the small careful 12.4%-block-disclosure that the small careful Coalition prefers to not have, at the small careful 12.4%-block-disclosure, exposed. The small careful 38-line operational subset is the small careful subset the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-pace can, by the small careful 38-line redaction, defend at the small careful Article 14 oversight."

I held that.

I said: "Sister Lin. The small careful 38-line redacted subset is the small careful subset the Coalition has decided to keep on me through the small careful February quarterly."

She said: "It is."

I said: "The small careful 22-line difference between the small careful 60 and the small careful 38 is the small careful subset the Coalition will, by the small careful Article-14-pre-emption protective redaction, drop."

She said: "It is. The dropped 22 lines are — by the small careful internal-redaction-protocol — destroyed at the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-shred-bin in the small careful December's small careful late-month tier."

I said: "Bai Tianyu's Article 14 pre-positioning has — by the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-redaction-protocol — already, by the small careful end of January, gained the small careful 22 lines back. He will not, at the small careful February quarterly, be able to read the 22 lines, because the 22 lines are gone. The 22 lines are gone because of the small careful Article 14 pre-positioning."

She said: "Yes."

I said: "The small careful 12.4% block has — by the small careful pre-positioning's small careful 22-line dropping — already won."

She said: "By the small careful pre-positioning's small careful 22-line dropping, the small careful 12.4% block has, in the small careful subset of the file the small careful 22-line dropping covers, already won. The small careful 38-line operational subset that remains is — by the Coalition's small careful internal-redaction-protocol — the small careful subset the Coalition has decided to defend at the small careful February quarterly. The small careful 12.4% block will, at the small careful February quarterly, read the small careful 38 lines. The small careful 38 lines are the small careful kind of lines the Coalition has decided are, by the small careful 12.4%-block-disclosure threshold, defensible at the disclosure."

I said: "All right."

She said: "I am telling you this because the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-pace's small careful end-of-January knock will be — by my own small careful judgment — the small careful kind of knock that will, by the small careful 38-line operational subset's small careful defensibility, be a small careful different kind of knock from the small careful first two. The small careful first two were the small careful entry-tier and the small careful mid-tier offers. The third knock will be the small careful kind that will, by the small careful Coalition's small careful 38-line subset's small careful structural defensibility, raise the small careful question of whether the small careful Bladeless-of-Severing-Light file is — at the small careful 38-line cap — at the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-acknowledgment that the small careful Bladeless of *Severing Light* is, at the small careful 38-line subset's small careful structural defensibility, a small careful candidate the small careful Coalition will, by the small careful internal-pace, prefer to not have on the small careful file at all."

She paused.

She said: "The small careful end-of-January knock will, by my own small careful judgment, offer the small careful candidate the small careful internal-acknowledgment-and-file-closure protocol's small careful one-time-only mutual-disengagement clause. The clause is — by the small careful Coalition's small careful internal-protocol — the small careful kind a Coalition pipeline only offers when the small careful pipeline has decided that the small careful candidate is the small careful kind the small careful pipeline will not, by any small careful pipeline-internal-pace, recruit. The small careful clause is the small careful Coalition's small careful 'we are walking away' clause. The clause is — by the small careful Coalition's three-IRL-year history — the small careful kind the Coalition has, in the small careful three years, offered four candidates. The small careful four candidates were Bai Wenya in 2011, Mei Qing in 2011, Sun Xiulan in 2012, and the small careful 2013 Hangzhou-9 third-cycle-adjunct candidate the small careful Coalition has not — by my own small careful Beijing-pipeline-internal-knowledge — yet, by 2014, identified."

She paused.

She said: "Bladeless. The small careful end-of-January knock will, by my own small careful judgment, be the small careful fifth offer."

I held the small careful four seconds.

The four candidates she had named — Bai Wenya in 2011, Mei Qing in 2011, Sun Xiulan in 2012, and the unnamed 2013 Hangzhou-9 third-cycle-adjunct — were four names I was cross-referencing against the small careful drawer at the back of the desk where the old-timeline pieces sat. Sun Xiulan I knew from Old Wolf's south-gate step encounter. The other three I did not have. The fact that I did not have them was itself a piece of information: those three had not been, in the old timeline, visible at my level of the old-timeline map. The Coalition's walking-away clause was rarer than I had known.

The tea-house at this hour was empty except for the three of us — Sister Lin, the small careful tea-house attendant at the counter, and myself. The December afternoon light through the east window was flat and pale and it caught the small folded note pinned to the chestnut-cone at the corner-window table with the kind of indifferent clarity the winter afternoon had for things sitting quietly at east-facing windows.

I said: "Sister Lin. Thank you for telling me at the small careful December-thirteenth-Saturday."

She said: "Don't thank me. The Beijing pipeline pays me to deliver knocks. I am — at the small careful telling — exceeding the small careful pipeline's small careful instruction. The exceeding is — by my own small careful judgment — the small careful kind of telling I am, at this small careful career-and-pipeline-position-in-2014 stage, free to do. The small careful Coalition has not, by my own count, audited my small careful White Crane afternoons since 2008."

I held the small careful four seconds.

I said: "All right."

She finished the small careful tea cup.

She said: "Goodbye, Cangtian. The small careful White Crane Saturday-the-31st-of-January at four PM."

I said: "Goodbye, Sister Lin."

She walked off east toward the small careful staircase.

I stood up.

I walked, at the small careful steady walk, the small careful three meters from the small careful corner-back-table to the small careful corner-window table.

I stopped at the small careful east edge.

The small careful porcelain cup was at the small careful east edge. The small careful small-folded paper cone of chestnuts was at the small careful porcelain cup. The small careful small folded note was pinned to the small careful side of the small careful paper cone with the small careful small Pingjiang-Road auntie-network's small careful December-thirteenth-Saturday-witness-pin.

I unpinned the small folded note.

I unfolded it.

The small note read, in the small careful pale-blue cursive of an older woman's careful retired-mathematics-professor's hand:

*Wednesday at four. — P.*

I folded the small note. I pinned it back to the small paper cone. I left the small paper cone in the small porcelain cup at the small east edge of the small corner-window table.

The corner-window table had held the place-setting since before I came in at 3:58. It would hold it until the White Crane closed this evening, and then the attendant would clear it and the table would be the empty table it was on any Wednesday at four when Mrs. Pan was not at it. On the Wednesday the seventeenth at four PM it would have Mrs. Pan at it. The note in the pale-blue cursive would be the note I had just refolded and pinned back to the cone, and the cone would be on the table, and I would be across from it.

I walked at the small careful steady walk to the door.

I left the White Crane at 4:18 PM IRL.

In my chest the second voice — *four-month-flat* — was quiet. The first voice — the old counter — said:

*Wednesday at four. The small careful Wednesday the seventeenth at four PM. The small careful last day of the small careful Hangzhou-Six 1968-founding-formation's small careful naming-window. The small careful corner-window table at the small careful east window two tables west of the small careful corner-back. The small careful Mrs. Pan invitation. The small careful naming-window will, on the small careful Wednesday the seventeenth at four PM, be at the small careful Mrs. Pan's small careful chair across from mine.*

I walked back to the dorm.

I lay down on the lumpy pillow at 5:42 PM IRL.

I slept.