Fellow Daoists: we're moving tomorrow, so after this evening's chapter, I'm going to take a short break of (hopefully) just one day. I'm moving my office (basically just a desk, computer, and chair) to my parents' house in the morning. In the afternoon, we're putting furniture and stuff into storage and handling other packing/moving. If everything goes as planned, I'll be able to resume work the day after moving, thus the goal is to start posting chapters again on Wednesday.

I'm sure you've all heard of the coronavirus outbreak in China. Unless there is some dramatic end to the outbreak in the next few days, we're going to temporarily cancel the trip we originally had planned for about two weeks from now. Although the epidemic is primarily centered in Wuhan, which is relatively far from our travel destination, I still don't want to put my family into any unnecessary risk. Two of the earliest fatalities were in the province we call home, with rumors swirling that one of them was in our home city, although that turned out to be untrue. It also seems that, as of yesterday, Beijing has halted some or all inter-provincial bus and train service, effectively shutting down travel within China itself.

Of course, this changes my original plan of staying with my parents for a couple weeks, then going to China, then coming back to find a new apartment. Now I'm not sure if we'll stay with my parents longer than anticipated, or instead, find a new apartment sooner than planned, and push the China trip back later in the year. We do have some urgent business that needs to be handled in March, so I'm not sure what we'll do about that.

On top of all of this, Madam Deathblade came down with a really bad cold over the past few days. No, it's not the coronavirus, but it really knocked her out, which means that I've had a bunch of extra BDB duty, including making his meals, taking him to school, etc. And I've also had to do about 90% of the initial packing in preparation for the move. And all of this is while my mouth is still full of stitches from the recent surgery. When it rains it pours, or as the Chinese saying goes 一波未平一波又起 hardly has one wave subsided when another rises. Thankfully, I did prepare a good chapter stockpile, so there shouldn't much of an interruption in chapter releases. Incidentally, I'm not looking for pity points here, I just want to explain the situation clearly so you readers understand the reasons for the delays. 

Sorry for another long update, for those of you who have read this far, thanks so much for your support. Regardless of the complications of life, I'm going to do my best to keep the chapters coming smoothly and efficiently.