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Fate's Attendant 1.47

The timing of a fire now was suspicious. Hong Fei didn’t even bother with thinking it was mere coincidence—not when the house’s only effective Qi Blossoming-realm fighters were away. Chen Wenbin and Zhang Dehua had already headed out to raid the Ma residence.

There was the du...

Fate's Attendant 1.46

Hong Fei took shuddering breath once he was out of view. He paused in an empty corridor to wipe his palms dry. The meeting had gone better than he’d hoped. It helped that all three men were smart. All he’d had to do was provide a plausible framework for them to fill in the connections for the...

Fate's Attendant 1.45

Beitang Rong arrived early the next morning at the estate’s gate. The shízhǎng on duty, Cai Shi, dutifully attempted to turn him back, but the clerk insisted he had important news for the Yu’s steward.

That meeting in the visitor’s hall only lasted for about the time it takes one to...

Fate's Attendant 1.44

Bravery is strange, Hong Fei thought, walking back to his courtyard with Auntie Ling. Passing through a garden along the way, he spotted Li Chun tending to the plants. Another servant—the one whose left hand trembled; it took a moment for Hong Fei to remember that people called her Sof...

Fate's Attendant 1.43

The salon’s interior was quiet; the shutters were closed and none of the lamps burned. The only illumination came from the now-open door, cutting across the floor and furnishings like a blade of light.

Auntie Ling stepped inside. She pursued the scent of the dream blossom wine, and Hong F...

Fate's Attendant 1.42

Hong Fei didn’t return to his courtyard. Instead, he continued to surveil the Ma residence through the rest of the night, and when Ma Mo left in the morning, he followed him to the Gallant Hero.

The staff there patted Ma Mo on the back, and the boss praised him for his heroism. It was too...

Fate's Attendant 1.41

That night, Hong Fei brought his people together in the salon. He handed Fortune’s Favor to Little Ruyun with strict instructions not to draw the sword. He would know if she did, and the repercussions would be serious. The young girl was then placed into Auntie Ling’s custody for the two of t...

Fate's Attendant 1.40

Over the course of the day, the consequences of Yu Yong’s misadventure unfolded like a fan—a series of actions one after the other. Visitors came to the Young Master’s salon. They brought gifts and amusements in hopes of lifting his spirits. They were turned away at first, because he was as...

Fate's Attendant 1.39

Hong Fei had already reported to the steward and the duchess on his return to the estate, but if people were spreading lies, he needed to take action before those rumors took root.

“Walk with me,” he told Sun Han and Auntie Ling, exiting the salon.

The lack of a hot bath turned ou...

Fate's Attendant 1.38

Auntie Ling was tough; she ignored the sharp, shooting pain radiating from her paw as she forced her way through the forest. She considered herself stubborn, too. One had to be to live in a world of strife and misery. Yet, this was perhaps the first time she’d met anyone more stubborn than her....

Fate's Attendant 1.37

Night fell, and Auntie Ling was still on Yu Yong’s trail. The lantern Hong Fei had brought was nearly useless; the trees and the brush blocked the light on all sides. If the duchess were present, she would’ve likely demanded he keep searching despite the hindrance, but she wasn’t and wouldn...

Fate's Attendant 1.36

From the Wing Span Bridge, Hong Fei and Auntie Ling saw how the Tistkil River pressed the city walls. The stone obstruction funneled the flood waters toward the barred gap that was the river’s normal exit from the city, as well as the main gate doors, which were left open to help the water drai...

Fate's Attendant 1.35

Hong Fei strode toward his courtyard with Kang Lian. At first, she’d tried to fall in behind him as was proper, but he had no time for that nonsense. There was planning to be done.

“There will be chaos in the house,” he said, his mind running ahead. “Soldiers pulled from their regul...

Fate's Attendant 1.34

Hong Fei awoke alone. Briefly, he was uncertain of his whereabouts. He’d dreamt of the steppe and the bloodshed there, and was confused by the sudden stillness around him. There was a sense of dislocation, as if he’d become unmoored from his own history.

At some point, the door to his b...

Fate's Attendant 1.33

Hong Fei changed clothes in the rain, the wind whipping them against. The window shutters and doors in the alley were all closed tight, so there was no chance of anyone catching him half-dressed.

When Auntie Ling was summoned, her brows rose in surprise, not expecting the sudden downpour. 2025-09-26 22:06:52 +0000 UTC View Post

Fate's Attendant 1.32

“Good, you see it,” Zhang Dehua said. “The clerk wants us to do his work for him.”

The steward shifted in his chair, the cushion too soft for his liking. The visitor’s hall as a whole displeased him. Anyone coming to the Yu estate for official business usually meant trouble. H...

Fate's Attendant 1.31

Little Ruyun sat on the steps of the salon with Auntie Ling beside her. The young girl held a children’s book between them, pronouncing the words associated with the pictures. Often, she stumbled—before the family’s troubles, she’d been mostly learning how to manage a household—but Aunt...

Fate's Attendant 1.30

Hong Fei sat in his chair, looking aggrieved, while Sun Han paced the salon. The scholar’s hat had gone askew, and it stayed that way unnoticed. The story of how Hong Fei had found Andrew’s corpse had greatly affected the young man.

Auntie Ling huffed to herself. She was correct yet aga...

Fate's Attendant 1.29

Yu Yong paced restlessly through the estate, moving from courtyard to courtyard, but no matter where he turned, there were guards nodding to him, greeting him, and reminding him of their presence. Rather than finding comfort in the security they provided, he felt stifled.

The cool night bre...

Update: Two Stories, One Amazing Journey

Hey y'all.

We're coming up on two months since the transition to writing full-time began, and it's been a wild ride so far.

I've settled into a rhythm that I never could have imagined in my old life: writing Fate's Attendant in the mornings and editing Eight 5 in the...

Fate's Attendant 1.28

The last remaining Rock Knife had fled; the alley was empty when Hong Fei and Auntie Ling checked it. A search of the surrounding streets turned up a similar result.

By the time the two of them came back, the other servants had been roused from their residences behind the back courtyard. A ...

Fate's Attendant 1.27

Hong Fei peeked around the door’s jamb. The Rock Knives stood over the body of an older man who’d had his head bashed in. To the right, a plump woman in servant’s clothes stood with a hand pressed to her mouth in shock. She appeared to have just entered from the corridor behind her.

M...

Fate's Attendant 1.26

Hong Fei awoke from a dream in which he was an old tree whose trunk had cracked open. Qi seeped out of him like a golden syrup, and the hungry ghosts of his dead comrades crowded around to lap it up with their tongues.

He rubbed his eyes, then grabbed for the tea cup on the table beside him...

Fate's Attendant 1.25

If gray numbers required the removal of nodes from the web, then might yellow be the color of adding them? Hong Fei considered the idea that it involved matching people to a thing they were meant to do or a person they were meant to meet.

After escorting Lin Yan back to her shop with Little...

Fate's Attendant 1.24

Ma Mo wove a restless path between the merchants specializing in fine furnishings for the well-to-do residents of the middle city. Ostensibly, he was supposed to be guarding the Yu family’s own Gallant Hero Marble Sculpture Gallery, but the man simply couldn’t seem to stay in one place for lo...

Fate's Attendant 1.23

The next morning, Hong Fei felt a shift in his lower cauldron. He’d been half-asleep and dreaming of a giant badger dancing dizzily around a cherry tree. The members of his old troop were in the branches throwing knives, which missed because their heads were gone and they couldn’t see past th...

Fate's Attendant 1.22

Kang Lian and Little Ruyun arrived at the courtyard in the company of the xiàowèi, Chen Wenbin. The murmur of his voice carried down the corridor ahead of them—a steady rhythm of his assurances.

He promised that no one would bully the mother and daughter. If anything untoward should hap...

Fate's Attendant 1.21

Hong Fei shut the doors to his courtyard, then leaned his back against them, letting himself slide down into a sitting position. Auntie Ling offered a huff, to which he replied, “Yes, it’s been a long morning.”

He touched his face and winced at the sting of the cuts. They’d thankful...

Fate's Attendant 1.20

A tame spirit beast wasn’t so rare as to be unheard of, especially in a remote city surrounded by wilderness, but they were uncommon enough to cause a stir. People stopped to stare, and word spread about the fierce creature.

There were faster routes to the Yu estate, yet Hong Fei chose th...

Fate's Attendant 1.19

“Where’s the woman?” the man with gravelly voice asked. “She owes us.”

“You’d best take that up with the steward of Duke Yu,” Hong Fei replied. “She works for his estate now.”

The man stared. His mouth opened and closed like a fish. “W—what?”

“Don’t...