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The second short story was so intense! It felt more like reality than fiction, it’s scary to think someone who never harmed anyone can have their life legally destroyed by an unfortunate meeting of bad luck and bad timing. The character got investigated when she had done nothing wrong, but how the law is interpreted, the current public opinion, the police officer she faced, many factors changed a perfectly innocent citizen into a criminal.
It’s also easy to see how the right to file criminal complaints can be abused, it’s really scary.

6 books finished in August! With the Archon Quest and On Another’s Sorrow, I thought I would read less in August. Not being on social media anymore really gave me more time to read. It’s not even that I was spending my day scrolling, but I’m so stressed out when interacting with people, constantly overthinking, and super anxious that everything took more time and energy than it should.

Wow the short stories of this collection are all incredible! I had the same feeling with last year’s collection, but the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award collections are filled with gems. I also really loved that this time we had two short stories set in Taiwan, one set in Hong Kong, one in England and finally one was in a Harry Potter-like setting. Sub-genres and tone were also all very diversified but all were really excellent.

My favourite is 白骨無聲 by 羅永昌 (Law Wing-cheung), I loved the plot as well as the main character, a journalist disenchanted by his profession, but who still gets passionate about finding the truth while struggling with moral dilemma. It’s the kind of character that I would love to read more about…

When reading anthologies by different authors, I rarely end up loving all of the stories, but I did for 奇巧玩具店. This also gives me more authors to follow, and I will catch up on previous editions too.

The last short story 奇巧玩具店 by 夜間飛行 was so sweet, I loved it a lot! It pulls you in immediately, and I soon became as obsessed by the monthly toy prize as our young protagonists.
It was fun to go over all this games and other references from the 90s, I looked everything up and learnt a ton of Chinese names through it. The story does feel quite nostalgic, the old shopkeeper remembers how, when he was a child, they would create a whole world out of paper and stones, whereas in 1995, when the story takes place, children have a myriad of games to choose from. Now I guess, children are mostly using their phone?
In any case, the setting was extremely interesting, the characters were very likeable, and the mysteries were also very good!

I was confused by 爹地媽咪 (diē dì mā mī), it’s just Daddy and Mommy. It sounds obvious now!

The book takes place in 1995 and it says Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is You that released the year before was broadcasted everywhere. I didn’t realise this song was so old! Well, 30 years later and it’s still broadcasted everywhere in Seoul during the whole month of December. I can’t stand this song, I came to accept the fact that you can’t escape the Christmas playlist, but hearing this one over and over is torture.

One good thing with reading Taiwanese editions of Hong Kong books is that there’s always footnotes for Cantonese expressions and vocabulary. Most of the time, I assume it’s a word I don’t know rather than think it’s Cantonese.

I brought my 2026 bingo challenge (I guess I should find a proper name for this), and of course I haven’t done it diligently since I started paper, then didn’t touch it for maybe 3 months since I switched to here, and I’m just starting again. But I did find a horse! Except it’s a wooden horse… Does it count? I’ll write it down, because it’s end of August and it’s the first horse I see.

I finished adding words from Act I to my wordbook! I’ve never been so much on track when studying current events.

I don’t know if I should also work on the WQ, I haven’t started any yet. Given that they’re not voiced, they’re more difficult to study, but they’re also the content that needs the more effort so worth studying…

I cleared with Mizuki and Xiao as usual!

The obvious distribution was to play Mizuki stellar swirl first half and Xiao second half, but I couldn’t pass the Baptist, at least not with Durin-Nicole. Breaking the pyro shield with anemo only took too long. I didn’t try FFXX but it would have been the same for the cryo shield. So I decided to play Xiao first half, with Odette for the stellar mechanics, and Mizuki lunar-charged second half with Durin for pyro support. It worked perfectly. Not only that, but I realised afterward that I had kept Mizuki on a 2p-2p crit. instead of moving her back to VV full EM.

First half:

Xiao

Odette

Faruzan

Xianyun

Second half:

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Durin

Columbina

Ineffa

I tried a fearless clear, but I don’t know how to beat the second boss. Xiao can’t do it (I believe there’s too much anemo res, he can break the shield very easily, but there’s not enough damage overall), Lohen and Durin have good DPS but take too much time breaking the shield… I don’t know if other lunar teams can do it…

I finished 沉默的曼德拉 by 赤蝟, and I found the mystery overall very good.

The magical powers of the mandrake are cleverly used in the plot, and overall, I found that the tricks, motivations and setting were all good. But personally, I don’t really like fantasy, so even though I enjoyed reading the short story, it also failed to completely get me involved. I would also say that the solution was very foreseeable right from the beginning. but even then, the investigation was pleasant to follow, and the characters’ motives felt solid and relatable.

Finished it!
3.x main story is my favourite so far, the three chapters were all incredibly good, and this final instalment was fantastic. Fast paced, a lot of suspense, a lot of meaningful confrontations, some characters having real development and going through important changes through the story… But I feel so utterly sad that we completely lost Merel…

3.x has given us the best main story, but the worst event stories in my opinion. I skipped several partially and one entirely. I’m also not hyped at all for the next two coming, 4.x can’t come soon enough.

Now I’m free to start Rhiannon story, but given that Eagles anecdote ends earlier, I’ll do that first.

I’m halfway through the fourth short story, 沉默的曼德拉 by 赤蝟, a murder mystery in a Hogwarts-like setting. Not really my cup of tea, but the story is enjoyable, albeit quite predictable (I’d be happy to be proven wrong though!). I like the world and the different characters positions and backgrounds, but it’s just that the genre and tone are not really for me.