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 I may have to upgrade my asessment of the fire in Nai  at the moment.

This could be my model....

This follows on from I Manage To Cause Contention. It runs to 2,926 words. (There are over 182,000 words of Nai written....)

When I got home Master Que was very interested in the conversation I’d had with Wang Shuai. “He’s worried about a forced eternal attachment? I admit that I’d never considered that the members of the Solar Court weren’t where they were and where they are of their own volition. Interesting. I’ve never heard of this Xi Tan Li, but I’ll make enquiries through the Hoshun Association. You should enquire at that library you showed me at the University.” He gave me a wide grin. “If we can’t find anything, perhaps you should write to the esteemed members of the investigation committee and see if they’ve heard of the book or its author.”

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This follows on from In Which the Minutae of Daily Life Does Not Grind and runs to 2,582 words.

Tong Nao was already opening the mat storage when I arrived, so I put down my things and helped him lay out the mats. Then we pulled out the Club’s supply of damas to check on their state. Apparently, the carry-over team members from last year all had their issued ones at home but there were going to be new team members this year, and they couldn’t be handed damaged garments to represent the university in. The pants were cream, and the tops were mid-blue and black with the Club logo on the back and the left upper chest in white. I was a little thrown by the absence of tabaki, but then I remembered that these were for an amateur competition, so the team members would be fighting barefoot.

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This is now followed by Thank Heaven, Not Everything That Happens Is About Me.

This follows on from It's Not All New Now and comes in at 2,663 words. It also seems to be the 55th episode of Nai....

I put down my things, sat on one of the other seats around the small table he was using, and asked, “What do you want to do?”

“I want you to win, of course,” he told me, punctuating this statement by exhaling a stream of cigarette smoke. “I also want to rub a certain young Master’s nose in his own ignorance.”

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This is now followed by In Which the Minutiae of Daily Life Do Not Grind.

This follows on from Social Business and runs for 2,745 words.

Madam He continued to be penetratingly dissatisfied with He Ban first thing in the morning, and I escaped to the bathroom as quickly as I could on waking. I went downstairs for breakfast and provided for the family shrine before I ate my own meal. Master Que was not evident until I came downstairs with my university things to grab my lunch before I left, which was when I found him making a fresh pot of tea in the kitchen.

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This is now followed by Returning to the Scene of Someone Else's Crime.

This follows on from Unexpected Afternoon Episodes and runs for 2,921 words.

We repaired to The House of Internal Repose, which I would never have found on my own as it was in through a side door between two shop entrances on the Boulevarde, and then up a flight of stairs to a large room that was open to the afternoon air over a courtyard or alley on the opposite side of the building to the Boulevarde. The outlook of a wall of apartment windows in a brick wall was partly obscured by a row of ornamental plants along the ledge of the tea house, and I hoped that the large bamboos and jade plants also enhanced the outlook of the apartment dwellers. We were met at the top of the stairs by a lady of the formidable category universally addressed by the rest of us as “Aunty”.

Master Dang asked the middle-aged lady with permed hair tied back in a headscarf for a table for five, and in one breath she both introduced herself as Aunty Reng and then flirted with both Master Dang and Mr Li.

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This is now followed by It's Not All New Now.

This follows on from Last Day of the School Week and runs for 3, 089 words.

I got up before the He family next door, that or He Ban was permitted to sleep in on weekends, and quickly dressed before going downstairs to address the family shrine before spending a quiet hour in the garden on my gi forms.  When I went back inside for breakfast Master Que was just pouring out tea for both of us, and he had rice with pickles set out on the table for us both.

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This is now followed by Unexpected Afternoon Episodes.

This is follows on from Last Day of the First Week (Part 1) - there are two parts because the whole post was too long.


The signs led me to a desk at the western end of the floor where it looked like a room had been demolished and remodelled into an open support area. There were several empty desks, storage cupboards labelled with the names of stationery items, and a board of names with statuses such as ‘teaching’ or ‘out of office’ beside them. A thin, middle-aged woman with a heavily powdered face sat at the desk labelled ‘Reception’. I bowed politely, and said, “Good afternoon, I’m here to deliver some letters of introduction. I realise that the addressees probably aren’t available now, so how should I proceed?”

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This is now followed by More Domesticity and Business.