"You have a new Ele.me order. Please handle it promptly."
Lin Xiaofan steadied his electric bike with one foot, holding a jianbing guozi in his left hand while his right hand blurred across his phone screen. September sunlight filtered through the plane trees and fell on his delivery box. The "heat-preserving talisman" stuck to its lid glowed faintly green. He had traded for it last month while delivering spicy hot pot to a sword cultivator from Mount Shu.
"Abandoned steel mill in the eastern suburbs... Those big shots from the cultivation world again." He glanced at the delivery address and shoved the last bite of his jianbing into his mouth. Crispy pastry mingled with the salty, spicy flavor of latiao, bursting across his palate. The spiritual energy gauge on his electric bike's dashboard suddenly jumped into the red.
When his wheels rolled over the third warning talisman, the air suddenly grew thick. Lin Xiaofan slammed on the brakes, and the peachwood sword charm hanging from his basket shook wildly. He looked up. The steel mill's rusted gate now shimmered with a bronze sheen, and the eyes on the taotie designs on its knocker glowed eerily.
"A delivery from the Bank of Heaven and Earth! Could you open the gate?" he shouted, pressing the modified horn on his handlebars. A mechanical female voice echoed across the empty industrial grounds: "The core values of socialism remind you: cultivate with civility and undergo tribulation in harmony..."
