The Cigarette Shop Owner Everyone in the County Owes a Favor

In a county town, the most powerful thing is personal connections.

There's only one good school, one good hospital, and barely a dozen desirable jobs a year. Everyone in the county is watching.

Liu Chang saw how things worked and opened a tobacco and liquor shop across from the government service center. He helped people revise resumes, find the right service counter, and check their paperwork. Sometimes he even threw in a free pack of cigarettes.

The neighbors all said he was a good-hearted young man. Only he knew that every time someone thanked him, a line of text appeared before his eyes: Personal Favor Coins +50.

Help someone with an errand, and Personal Favor Coins go into your account. Ask someone for help, and they go out.

Pass along a message: 5 coins. Run an errand: 20. Share a tip: 50... With enough in your balance, even the biggest problem can be taken care of!

The school admission spots that made others run themselves ragged took him just three sentences to secure. The connections that money couldn't buy for others could be obtained with his Personal Favor Coins.

At a drinking table, someone asked whose man the cigarette seller really was.

He wasn't anyone's man. He was the person in the whole county who knew best how to keep track of favors.

As for why women were always coming and going from his shop, that was another matter entirely.