House of Chen

Second Master settled himself into the Boarding House and prepared for a long wait. He suspected his half brother would ignore the request and hope it would just melt away, but he would not have prepared himself for the stubbornness of Second Master. Wandering around the province, Second Master gleened more detail about his father's exploits. He was well known as a philanderer, a racketeer and worse, a cheat at cards. His reputation as a drunkard was well accepted and his handiness with the ladies a given. The more Second Master learned about his father during those early years, the more he found his whole personality abhorrent. He found it even harder to reconcile himself as having come from the loins of this man, his brother too, who was gentle, polite and reserved. He shook his head, 'must be our mother's influence, we must be more like her.' Taking advantage of the time, he visited the various barracks in the area. It was useful in so much as he was able to form fri...

 Second Master knew Zhang would take his time. He had many traits of their shared father, all of which Second Master had come across as he had grown up. That arrogance, that self assuredness, that temper. He wondered whether Zhang would even entertain an audience, but in his heart he knew his curiosity would be sufficient to draw the two men together. First, however, was that face to face with father. If he was still oblivious to his wrong doing, then it was time to make sure he understood the magnitude of his stupidity. Bracing himself, he stepped out of the boarding house and headed to the villa his father had been occupying all this time.   I sat by the camp fire, watching as everyone prepared meals for those who were awake, checking perimeters for unusual activity, collecting vegetation for the nights meal. We had a small amount of rice remaining, so had made congee. This would stretch it as far as we could. Adding fruit, vegetables, and the occasssional meat, made more th...