“You will spar Zexi,” our mother says casually. “Now. Step aside, everyone.”
There is that moment of silence that always comes after someone spontaneously makes a random decision like ‘my two children will fight right here right now on the front lawn’, and we all simply stare at...
2025-07-24 10:34:03 +0000 UTC View PostHere are some fun facts about The Capital: first, its actual name is Rising Phoenix City, but everyone calls it The Capital, so much so that even some of the people who live there don’t know its actual name; second, while not the largest, or most populous, city on The Continent, it is ...
2025-07-21 15:36:47 +0000 UTC View PostYesterday was for saying goodbyes, today is for cleaning.
Since we’re certain we won’t be returning for a while, the house needs to be cleaned out and locked up.
Perishables from the kitchen need to be removed, certain items need to be packaged properly, and what few valuables rem...
2025-07-19 16:50:57 +0000 UTC View Post“I know I asked for private,” I say, staring around the windowless room, “but isn’t this a bit much?”
Despite the lack of a window, the room is comfortable, airconditioned through some means I can’t discern, and tastefully designed.
Frankly, it’s perfect for a small grou...
2025-07-12 18:41:20 +0000 UTC View PostBeing bathed by Meng Yi isn’t a new thing, but being bathed by her after she kissed me is.
I seem to be the only one with thoughts going in that direction though, because Meng Yi is obviously appreciating my body in a manner that has very little to do with sex, and much more to do with gr...
2025-07-09 12:08:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe doctor Meng Yi went to get, Doctor Lei, turns out to be a woman. A woman who seems personally offended by my good health.
Not in the ‘I wish you were dead’ way, thankfully, but more in the ‘you are making me question and doubt everything I know and that’s really pissing me off...
2025-07-01 16:43:22 +0000 UTC View PostThank you all for your patience through this trying time.
You are incredible each of you.
Enjoy the chapter.
—❈——❈——❈—
—❈——❈——❈—
Xian Weiju
Of the sev...
2025-06-25 19:52:49 +0000 UTC View PostHello, everyone.
So, it is done. it is finished. The burial has been seen to with all the 'i's crossed and the 't's dotted.
I'm... not okay. I don't think. But I am grateful. Both for the fact that it is behind me now, but mostly for how fortu...
2025-05-28 18:52:28 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone.
So, things are progressing steadily, the burial has been set for the 24th of this month. Which is good.
Thank you all so much for all the support. Truly. It's been much more than I dared to hope for.
Seri...
2025-04-30 14:32:30 +0000 UTC View PostOkay, story time.
So, I've never been close to my father. He was always too stern. Too distant. His presence felt suffocating.
He wasn't a good father. He wasn't a good husband either. And the older I got the more I came to understand how unhappy he made my mother.
As some of yo...
2025-04-02 19:41:43 +0000 UTC View PostXian Weiju turned back to Meng Yi. “Where are you?” she asked.
—❈—
“I’m at Young Master Qigang’s manor, in Silver Springs,” Meng Yi said.
The Young Mistress turned to the man behind her again, and though she said nothing, the man understood her desire.
So...
2025-04-01 17:10:40 +0000 UTC View PostMeng Yi
After her search group had been slaughtered by Old Xian’s corrupted abominations, Meng Yi had been carried to the portal by birds, and it had taken them hours of flying to get there.
Pan Cai ran the distance in mere minutes.
While her movement techniqu...
2025-03-21 15:43:26 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:: every now and then, my mind betrays me. And suddenly it's like there's this other person in my head.
The things he tells me are not very nice, but he says them like he's my friend, so even though I don't want to listen, I hear him.
I wou...
2025-03-12 17:15:09 +0000 UTC View PostSo I commissioned an artist to make a poster, and after almost completely ignoring everything I said and failing to send me sketches before committing to the finished work, she sent me this.
Suffice to say, I am unhappy with the end result, but unfortunately, I have paid and she does not do...
2025-02-08 10:50:31 +0000 UTC View PostI'm sorry for ghosting, but my brain refuses to write book two until I'm done with one, ergo, I'll be working on preparing that for publication, after which book two will begin.
I understand that this is an inconvenience, but I ask that you bear with me and I thank you for your patienc...
2025-02-06 19:56:51 +0000 UTC View PostPan Cai
There was an old saying; ‘Send a bird to pluck a mango, send a frog to catch a fish, and send a man to do both.’
The saying supposedly alluded to human ingenuity, but for Pan Cai, it had always been a reminder in picking the right person for a task, and so...
2025-01-23 22:02:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe sun in my soul burns with a heat so intense it damn near steals my breath away.
I’ve never felt it like this before, so hot it borders on uncomfortable.
This is, without doubt, the work of the Ginde Pepper, and I find myself wondering, ‘if a peasant rank one can cause such a c...
2025-01-19 21:37:13 +0000 UTC View PostMy eyes open to a bright, blue sky.
For the first time since my first tango with one of Xian Qigang’s corrupted creatures a few minutes ago, my body is entirely free of pain, and it is that, more than the changes around me, that clues me in that this might not be real. Or, at least, physi...
2025-01-17 17:09:08 +0000 UTC View PostXiuying
Xiuying booked it back to Qigang’s place, the doctor, Gu Chi, slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
She knew her shoulder wasn’t the most comfortable riding place, not at the pace she was moving and for a man as soft as the healer was, but the d...
2025-01-13 16:34:45 +0000 UTC View PostQigang, this is worse than we thought. I’m coming back to your house.
Deng Mu’s dead.
—❈—
I should have waited.
In hindsight, it’s so obvious.
All it would have taken are a few extra hours of waiting, and I would have received this note ...
2025-01-05 20:23:32 +0000 UTC View PostSince we want to be part of the search and the last known people to go missing were headed towards the manor, Captain Quan Qiu suggests, to our agreement, that it would be best to meet up here.
In light of that, Meng Yi, Xiuying and I spend several tense minutes waiting for the Captain and ...
2024-12-30 22:33:20 +0000 UTC View Post“—so I kicked her in the pussy,” Xiuying finishes her story with a casual shrug, drawing an expression of slack-jawed horror from me.
“By the way, tell your manager she’s not fooling anybody,” she adds.
I blink at the non sequitur, then look down at Meng Yi as my mind proc...
2024-12-24 21:44:51 +0000 UTC View PostSilence reigns in the room for several minutes after Meng Yi returns to sleep, and I don’t know if it’s because Xiuying actually respects Meng Yi’s obvious need to sleep, or if it’s because she respects me enough to keep quiet because I told her to.
Considering the expression on her...
2024-12-20 12:46:57 +0000 UTC View PostMeng Yi
Awareness began within. Her self. Her qi. Fuller, richer, greater, by factors so large that what she was now and what she’d been were so far apart as to not be comparable even by the most accommodating scale.
Meng Yi marvelled at it, utterly awed by...
2024-12-15 18:14:01 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the many things about life on modern day Earth that too many people take for granted is just how many entertainment options there are readily available, even if you don’t have much money.
Between streaming services, social media, the steadily declining cable, games, and even e-book...
2024-12-14 19:48:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Sleep tight,” I say. “And seriously, sleep. I’ll be fine on my own for a few hours. I think I’ll do some reading.”
…with a breath that sound an awful lot like a sigh, I turn and head for the library.
—❈—
I’ve never been much of a reader, not even of fictio...
2024-12-11 16:46:34 +0000 UTC View PostI’m starting to feel bad for the rickshaw driver.
With the manor located as it is at the top of a cliff, the path up to it is, naturally, steep and winding. Walking it unencumbered would be a challenge for most, but running it, while pulling two people and a rickshaw… I hadn’t even kn...
2024-12-08 12:21:17 +0000 UTC View PostHong Li rushes to me again as the auction ends.
“Honoured Customer,” he says, bowing, and my eyebrows climb at the new term of address. “Please, if you would follow me, so we can finalize the arrangements.”
“Sure,” I say, rising.
Meng Yi rises too, but then she stagg...
2024-12-03 20:43:32 +0000 UTC View PostThere are ten items on the list for today. The Ginde Pepper was number five.
“I’m guessing you want the manual for Meng Yi?” Xiuying asks, as item number six is brought up for sale.
Meng Yi and I look at each other, then back to her.
Xiuying rolls her eyes. “You said tha...
2024-11-30 23:54:55 +0000 UTC View Post