Although I loved the previous two stories in this series, I was hesitant to buy this because 12.00 seemed (still seems) a high price for a novella. However, no local libraries had it when I looked, so I finally gave in and bought it.

I liked it a lot, though not as much as the Tiger Comes Down, but - at the end I was mightily confused as to who was who. Spoiler space follows.
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Okay, we know that Lao Bingyi is Beautiful Nie, due to the scar on her throat. I assume that "Master Nie" is Gravewraith Chen, as Chen was the only one of the three in the story within a story who was male (and also Chen was older than Beautiful Nie and Wild Pig Yi.) But where is Wild Pig Yi? I thought at first that the stories misremembered / misgendered Wild Pig Yi and that she was actually Khanh. But Lao Bingyi comments that half the stories don't remember Khanh, which means that he's himself. So who is who and what did I miss?

Kylinn
Who hasn't posted in this group for a long time but still lurks the threads

On Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 1:58:52 PM UTC-5, kyl...@gmail.com wrote:
> Although I loved the previous two stories in this series, I was hesitant to buy this because 12.00 seemed (still seems) a high price for a novella. However, no local libraries had it when I looked, so I finally gave in and bought it.
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> I liked it a lot, though not as much as the Tiger Comes Down, but - at the end I was mightily confused as to who was who. Spoiler space follows.
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> Okay, we know that Lao Bingyi is Beautiful Nie, due to the scar on her throat. I assume that "Master Nie" is Gravewraith Chen, as Chen was the only one of the three in the story within a story who was male (and also Chen was older than Beautiful Nie and Wild Pig Yi.) But where is Wild Pig Yi? I thought at first that the stories misremembered / misgendered Wild Pig Yi and that she was actually Khanh. But Lao Bingyi comments that half the stories don't remember Khanh, which means that he's himself. So who is who and what did I miss?
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> Kylinn
> Who hasn't posted in this group for a long time but still lurks the threads

I've been super puzzled by this at well but I have a slightly different interpretation: I think Lao Bingyi is Wild Pig Yi, because she fights with a lance, and Khanh is Gravewraith Chen, because he fights with a hammer. Gravewraith Chen isn't always mentioned in the stories (for instance, the first one about the girl from Taiyuan and the Earth Shaker), so that would fit with his being "forgotten". But then it gets a bit jumbled for me because they implied that Master Nie was somehow Beautiful Nie and Master See and the Earth Shaker, but Lao Bingyi was implied to also be the girl from Taiyuan. So I'm not really sure what's going on. Possibly that's the intent, that the stories will always mix up the truth, but I have to admit not having a solid identity for everyone bugs the hell out of me.