I wake up, shooting up from my bed “Woah instant read, I wonder how this works?” I walk over to a small desk that is in the corner of my room, where I had laid down a couple scrolls that were copies of some general history about the local area. I begin to scan the scroll, as if I’m only doing a cursory read of the information, before I feel the Technique activate, and my eyes blur, instantly reading through the whole scroll in a matter of moments.

“Alright, so this Technique, like perfect recall is also passive, so I don’t need to activate it, just kicks in on its own” pondering to myself, trying to determine what type of a technique I might get that would require conscious activation to work.

“While you are right that perfect recall is indeed passive, instant read is not passive from I am hearing” I hear Baohu’s from echo from the shadow, making me jump slightly. “Perfect recall is passive because it is always active, for practical purposes, but from I have seen, instant read, does in fact, ‘activate’, just does not require your conscious will to do it. A better term for your Technique is instinctual “he continues before I see Zhou Baohu walk out of my shadow.

“What do you mean instinctual?” I ask, curious about the distinction. “The difference is that there are ‘active’ techniques, which require us to mentally, physically, or otherwise ‘activate’ before it is used. Meanwhile, instinctual Techniques don’t require any sort of activation sequence, and are often used to prompt the use of active Techniques or activate on their own to perform an automatic function that we may otherwise do unconsciously, but just better”. He finishes, while walking around and inspecting the room.

“An example is I have a Technique, [Muscle Memory] that activates in response to unforeseen attacks to either me or those nearby I am protecting, which automatically activates one of my active Techniques that I would have chosen myself to defend against that attack. The technique itself does nothing on its own and is not constantly active but is inactive until needed” he says before finishing his inspection.

“That sounds like a very powerful Technique, does everyone get stuff like that?” I ask wondering about the potential. “No, in general instinctual skills, at least the truly powerful, not utility ones like yours, are only achieved at higher ranks with years of practice” a shadow by the wall shimmers slightly before Baohu begins to walk towards it. “However, our clan, Zhou, has a history with dragons, which results in a lot of Techniques with a ‘forethought’ component to them, resulting in a higher than normal inactive a technique appearing in our clan members. Probably the only reason you got instant read so early” he manages to say before he disappears back into the shadows, his presence gone from the room.

“Well, I didn’t know Bao Bao was a peeping Bao Bao” I smirk to myself before finishing getting ready for the day. I gather a couple few sheets paper, to help write down organizational notes, before heading off to the clan records room.

Arriving at the double doors of doom, I spend the next few hours of the morning speed reading through the first pile of scrolls, arranging them on the shelves into a modified Dewey decimal system, since some categories don’t really apply, while Qi and Path related scrolls get their own categories in the system. While shelving the books according to a drawn-out schematic I made for the room. Lunchtime arrives, a servant bringing in a small box of dumplings. The servant pauses for a second, notifying me that Lady Zhou will be requiring the Dewey decimal schematic for a couple hours, to get copies made and other decorative pieces made for the room. Not minding due to perfect recall, I let the schematic be taken, eating through the light lunch quickly before getting to work on the second pile of scrolls. When I am nearly done with the second pile, another servant comes in, quickly setting the schematic back down onto the table in the center of the room, nodding their head to me, and leaving just as quickly as they came in.

Nighttime arrives with me putting the last few scrolls away from the third pile. I do a bit of tidying up, putting away what I had brought to my room the previous day, before heading back to my room for the night. I get to sleep early, hoping to finish things by lunch in case Lady Zhou comes home early, slipping off into my dreams shortly after I get in bed, the long day having tired me out.

Waking up shortly after dawn has arrived, I stop a servant and ask for some Chinese porridge at the records room. I get ready quickly before heading over to the records room myself. Arriving there, I dust off and otherwise tidy up the last bit of the room before the breakfast arrives. I take a short break to have breakfast before beginning the last step of organizing everything. Cleaning up the dishes and putting them outside, I spend the next few hours putting the last of the scrolls away. Lunch arrives, deciding to take a couple of the spare maps and have lunch in my room, giving myself time to get acquainted with the local area. After finishing up lunch, deciding I got a good enough glance at the local maps, I head back to the records room to put away the borrowed documents. Arriving back at the double doors of doom, I hear some sounds from inside, thinking that I thought no one came here since I had no real visitors while working on reorganizing, I open the doors to see was inside.

I spot a young man, roughly my age, talking to a young servant girl, who appears very uncomfortable. “Now servant, what did I say? I am the Young Master of this branch and I require some female attention before I head out for a hunt, so hurry up”. The man says to the shy servant. At the sound of me opening the doors, the servant takes advantage of the distraction to run out of the room, her cheeks bright red.

The “Young Master” glares at my arrival, acting as if he is about to launch into the greatest dramatic monologue.

Stopping him in his tracks, “Yea, no. I’m not going to be involved with someone who needs to resort to rape for sex” I quickly put away the scrolls and leave the room. The Young Master sits there fuming, deciding how he is going to get back at Zhou Mingzie and the servant who rejected his “affections”.

“I will make that nobody pay for the insult he has given me! I will give him a face slapping a thousand times worse so that even his ancestors will lose face”.