Chapter 1: The Three-Kilometer Curse. Wherever He Is, Crime Follows
Jiangcheng, late July. Sweltering heat rolls through the city amid the clamor, while evening rush-hour traffic crawls like a winding river.
Lin Hao straddles a battered electric scooter, his blue delivery uniform marked with faint patches of sweat. His helmet sits low, and beads of sweat run from his forehead down along his jaw.
Other people take part-time jobs to earn a steady living.
But for Lin Hao, every job is a nerve-racking adventure.
He has an inexplicable, unsolvable affliction: wherever he goes, crimes of all kinds are extremely likely to break out within a three-kilometer radius, centered on him, and the effect takes hold in real time. There is no warning period and no need to stay for any length of time. The moment he arrives, crime follows.
At his last night shift at a convenience store, he had just changed into his uniform and stepped behind the counter when an armed robber rushed in. When he went to work sorting packages at a warehouse, a theft ring in the neighboring rental building erupted into a fight over the spoils as soon as he stepped inside. When he set up a stall at the night market, a group of scammers began conning people in the street nearby just as he parked his scooter and got everything ready.
It wasn't coincidence. It wasn't bad luck.
It happened so often that even Lin Hao had accepted the cruel truth: wherever he went, crime spread within a three-kilometer radius.
The delivery app on his phone mount chimed incessantly, sending him one new order after another.
Lin Hao wiped the sweat from his face, twisted the throttle, and sped into the tangled streets and alleys of the old district. Huimin, an aging residential complex, was a maze of old buildings and intersecting corridors, with a constant mix of people coming and going.
