I had yet another insomnia, I have zero energy today. I’ll probably focus on working on the database and the transcription of character names. It’s a repetitive task that takes forever but doesn’t require all my attention.
I’ll probably won’t read much today.
But tonight is Genshin SP for Snezhnaya!
Blog
Monthly Wrap-up
Friday · 31 July
July 2026
I have both 烧灼 and 灼烧 in my flashcards and one has an ease of 2.5 and the other of 1.8. How is my brain even working?
Update
Thursday · 30 July
8%
I haven’t made a lot of progress, but the beginning is really good, I love it very much. The chapter names are very intriguing too…
-
阿吉 Police ā jí Ah Kut
- Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island Organisation 港島總區重案組Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong IslandThe Regional Crime Unit (RCU) handles major criminal cases such as murder.
Yuen Man’s subordinate, joined the RCU this year -
周淑芬 Case zhōu shū fēn Chow Suk-fan
- Haven Court Place 希雲大廈Xīyún DàshàHaven CourtResidential building complex
Wife of Cho Kwan-yu. Mother of Cho Man-chun. -
陳傑仁 chén jié rén Chan Kit-yanAlso in 第二章：後果（二） 千禧前夜 › 第二章：後果（二） 阿仁ā rénAh YanYuen Man’s nephew, found a job as technical support in a financial magazine. Son of Wong Yuen-yee.
-
鄭家宜 Police zhèng jiā yí Cheng Ka-yee
- Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island Organisation 港島總區重案組Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong IslandThe Regional Crime Unit (RCU) handles major criminal cases such as murder.
Subordinate to Wong Yuen-man. -
莊仔 Police zhuāng zǎi Chong Jai
- Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island Organisation 港島總區重案組Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong IslandThe Regional Crime Unit (RCU) handles major criminal cases such as murder.
-
李岸誠 Case lǐ àn chéng Lee Ngon-shingSenior manager at kong.com
I’m working on making better character/glossary lists for the books I read.
Reading 百年の時効 made me realise that I needed to rethink the character list. A static, chapter-sorted list was not that useful because the plot was so complex. I think it would have been nice to be able to link characters with one another, link them to cases, timeline, places, etc. It’s too bad I hadn’t had the idea sooner, doing this kind of mapping for 百年の時効 would have been perfect.
But better late than never, I’m working on it now. Not every book will need it, but some will, and anyway, I find it fun to do! I’m testing with my current book, 千禧黑夜, so I’m progressing very slowly on this one as I am both taking notes and improving the website tools while reading.
| Word | Reading | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| 一氧化碳 | yī yǎng huà tàn | carbon monoxide CO |
| 煤氣 | méi qì | coal gas |
| 沙盒 | shā hé | (computing) sandbox |
| 編譯器 | biān yì qì | compiler |
| 麵條式程式碼 | miàntiáo shì chéngxì mǎ | spaghetti code |
-
Organisation 港島總區重案組 Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong IslandThe Regional Crime Unit (RCU) handles major criminal cases such as murder.
-
Place 香港島魚涌海山樓 Xiānggǎng Dǎo Zéyú Chōng Hǎishān Lóu Hong Kong Island, Quarry Bay, Montane MansionMontane Mansion is one of the five blocks of the Monster Building (怪獸大廈), a dystopian looking housing built in the 60s and a famous photographic spot. Quarry Bay a neighborhood in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island
-
Organisation 北角分 區重案組 Divisional Crime Unit of North PointDCU is a local division. North Point is a Division under the Eastern Police District on Hong Kong Island (Region).
-
Person 林過雲 Lam Kor-wan Lam Kor-wan 1982Hong Kong serial killer who killed four women working as a taxi driver by night. He is known as the 雨夜屠夫 “Rainy Night Butcher” in HK. He was arrested in 1982, sentenced to death, which was then commuted to life emprisonment.
-
Place 希雲大廈 Xīyún Dàshà Haven CourtResidential building complex
-
Organisation 電腦罪案組 Computer Crime SectionThe section was created in 1993 to prevent any use of computer to commit crimes. It will be replaced in 2001 with the 科技罪案組 Technology Crime Division (TCD)
-
Place 深水埗高登電腦中心 Shēnshuǐbù Gāodēng Diànnǎo Zhōngxīn Sham Shui Po Golden Computer CentreSham Shui Po is a neighbourhood in Kowloon famous for its electronic street shopping. The Golden Computer Centre is shopping complex for anything tech culture, custom computer building, etc.
-
Person 泰德·卡辛斯基 Ted KaczynskiAmerican mathematician and terrorist, also known as Unabomber. From 1978 to 1995, he killed 3 people and injured 23 through mail bombing, targeting people linked to modern technology. His manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, rejects all form of technology.
-
Organisation 刑事情報科 xíng shì qíng bào kē Criminal Intelligence BureauThe CIB is a specialised unit whose mission is to gather intelligence to dismantle organised crime, triadic syndicates and criminal networks
No time to read today, I really wanted to start 千禧黑夜… Well I did open the book, read three or four pages and noted down some characters, but that’s about it, and it’s not even worth logging an update for that.
I looked at my reading stats and the language split is actually almost even so far this year!
13 books read in Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional)
11 books in Korean
11 books in Japanese
It’s the idea of the language competition that motivated me to consistently record my readings, which I started in Summer last year. It’s pretty close this year, and everything is possible! Still 5 months to go, let’s see if Korean or Japanese can overtake Chinese.
-
黃菀雯 Police huáng wǎn wén Wong Yuen-man督察dū cháInspector
- Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island Organisation 港島總區重案組Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong IslandThe Regional Crime Unit (RCU) handles major criminal cases such as murder.
Detective Inspector in the Regional Crime Unit of Hong Kong Island -
陳振龍 Police chén zhèn lóng Chan Chun-lung警長jǐng zhǎngSergeant
- Divisional Crime Unit of North Point Organisation 北角分 區重案組Divisional Crime Unit of North PointDCU is a local division. North Point is a Division under the Eastern Police District on Hong Kong Island (Region).
Sergeant in the Divisional Crime Unit of North Point -
梁春暉 Case 1999 liáng chūn huī Leung Chun-fai
- Hong Kong Island, Quarry Bay, Montane Mansion Place 香港島魚涌海山樓Xiānggǎng Dǎo Zéyú Chōng Hǎishān LóuHong Kong Island, Quarry Bay, Montane MansionMontane Mansion is one of the five blocks of the Monster Building (怪獸大廈), a dystopian looking housing built in the 60s and a famous photographic spot. Quarry Bay a neighborhood in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island
50. author or wuxia novels. Husband of Leung Chow Fung-yee. -
梁周鳳宜 Case 1999 liáng zhōu fèng yí Leung Chow Fung-yee
- Hong Kong Island, Quarry Bay, Montane Mansion Place 香港島魚涌海山樓Xiānggǎng Dǎo Zéyú Chōng Hǎishān LóuHong Kong Island, Quarry Bay, Montane MansionMontane Mansion is one of the five blocks of the Monster Building (怪獸大廈), a dystopian looking housing built in the 60s and a famous photographic spot. Quarry Bay a neighborhood in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island
Leung Chun Fai’s wife -
阿仁 ā rén Ah YanYuen Man’s nephew, found a job as technical support in a financial magazine. Son of Wong Yuen-yee.Also in 第四章：後果（三） 千禧前夜 › 第四章：後果（三） 陳傑仁chén jié rénChan Kit-yan
-
黃菀兒 huáng wǎn ér Wong Yuen-yeeYuen Man’s big sister, lives with her son.
-
曹昆如 Case cáo kūn rú Cho Kwan-yu
- Haven Court Place 希雲大廈Xīyún DàshàHaven CourtResidential building complex
resident of 希雲 building. Father of Cho Man-chun. -
曹文俊 Case cáo wén jùn Cho Man-chun
- Haven Court Place 希雲大廈Xīyún DàshàHaven CourtResidential building complex
Student in the English department of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Son of Cho Kwan-yu. -
李承軒 Police lǐ chéng xuān Lee Shing-hin
- Computer Crime Section Organisation 電腦罪案組Computer Crime SectionThe section was created in 1993 to prevent any use of computer to commit crimes. It will be replaced in 2001 with the 科技罪案組 Technology Crime Division (TCD)
30+, computer expert, described as 大小孩
-
馮智義 féng zhì yì Fung Chi-yeeis assembling some kind of weapon.
I don’t really have time to read today, but I opened 千禧黑夜, and there’s a reference to one of Beyond’s songs right at the beginning.
There was also a reference to Beyond in the last HK book I read! That’s actually how I learnt about the band for the first time.
This time the song quoted is 打不死, it’s a song released after Wong Ka Kui‘s death, when the band only had 3 members.
Now I know two songs by Beyond, if I continue to read Hong Kong literature, I might deepen my knowledge of their discography haha.
打不死
Beyond
作曲 黃貫中作词 葉世榮/劉卓輝
不偏不激不反 然而無力救你
不枯不萎不倒 仍然全賴勇氣
不屈不朽不囂 昂然重拾武器
不可不知不懂 隨時隨地你要
打不死
不偏不激不反 然而無力救你不枯不萎不倒 仍然全賴勇氣不屈不朽不囂 昂然重拾武器不可不知不懂 隨時隨地你要打不死
I decided to go back to the Readmoo reading challenge, starting with my first of the long books category: 千禧黑夜 by 冒業. I never read this author before, but I saw that he won the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award and also participated in several editions of 偵探冰室, an anthology of mystery and detective fiction by Hong Kong authors. I still haven’t read any volume, but it’s definitely something I want to do. I also plan on reading previous issues of the MWT Award collections, so I know I’ll encounter this author again in the future.
I think it’s the second time this year when I find myself with no current book at all.
I also read 7 books in July, the most so far this year! Several of them were short, but one was very long.
It’s completely random, but all the covers of July are either grey/black and white or red/orange in tones.
Review
Tuesday · 28 July
★★★★★
I liked 교통사고 전문 삼비 탐정 at first, especially the first story/chapter, but the more I read, the more I realised it was rather a “not for me” type of book.
I really appreciate that it’s easy to read and entertaining, but it’s a bit too light to me. Everything seems a bit too simplified and sometimes unrealistic to facilitate the plot going to its resolution. Characters are mostly either good or bad, though our protagonist, 3B, has a more complex personality that makes him interesting, though I personally did not really like him all that much.
I think the novel is good overall, it’s just that the style and tone were not what I’m looking for. I did enjoy reading it to some extend, as I said the first story was great, the third had an interesting plot and twists, the second and fourth ones had interesting topics like corruption or frauds.
Update
Tuesday · 28 July
100%
I read the last chapter in one sitting, I had forgotten how easy to read this book is!
I’m trying out using a mini keyboard page-turner for my e-reader, and it’s really comfy for long reading sessions, especially when I have my e-reader on a stand, I can flip the pages without having to reach for it.
박지만
Bak Ji-manPark Ji-man
Victim of fraud
엄성일
Eom Seong-ilEom Sung-il
used car dealer
이진우
I Jin-uLee Jin-woo
used car dealer
김민수
Gim Min-suKim Min-soo
journalist for the 인천일보
It’s crazy to think that crime fiction is by far my favourite genre, and I’m reading a lot of crime novels, and I’ve loved most of them… but my favourite book of 2026 might end up being Gu Long’s 流星蝴蝶剑… 
