The evening had begun with stacks of registration forms, the hum of thermal printers, and the rich, savory smell of braised pork bone broth.
Hours before midnight, the forty Taichu Emergency Halls scattered across the city had been overwhelmed by a second, even larger wave of humanity. Twenty thousand dockhands, warehouse packers, and textile weaving technicians had arrived in orderly, patient columns. Their damp jackets steamed in the warm air of the heated pavilions.
Su Wan stood beside the central dispatch terminal on the eighty-eighth floor of Cloud-Crown Sanctuary Tower, her voice hoarse from hours of non-stop coordination.
Beside her, Tie Niu drank tea from a heavy steel mug, keeping a watchful eye on the security monitors. Dr. Gu Qinghe sat at a side table, cross-referencing medical assistance requests with his hospital beds.
[Target: Su Wan. Goodness Score: 95/100. Chief Executive Officer, tireless organizer.]
[Target: Dr. Gu Qinghe. Goodness Score: 96/100. Grandmaster physician, guardian of life.]
“Chairman Lin,” Su Wan said, handing him an updated electronic tablet. “The second wave is verified. Twenty thousand honest workers have passed through our morality screening gates. Over four thousand families have pending bank foreclosure notices from loans forced on them by Murong financial affiliates. Another eight hundred workers have children or parents with critical illnesses.”
