The heavy dragon-leather boot whistled through the morning air. Crimson sparks danced along the golden heel as Managing Director Ao Jin stomped straight down toward Old Master Xuan’s unbolted Ancestral Primordial Dao-Shell.
Around the diamond pier, the crowd of Wall Street floor-brokers leaned forward with eager grins.
Floor-Broker Long Wei puffed hard on his spirit-tobacco cigar, waiting for the sickening crunch of three-million-year-old turtle bone.
Old Master Xuan tried to pull his shell back, but his ruptured dorsal meridians gave out. He coughed a spray of golden blood onto the white diamond tiles and shut his eyes.
Before Ao Jin’s heel could strike the shell, a blur of grey intern wool and white cotton shot across the marble floor.
It was rookie teller Bai Xiaoxiao.
Her white rabbit ears streamed straight back as she threw her small frame across Old Master Xuan’s bleeding spine. She spread her steamed white spirit-towel over the fractured bronze runes of the Dao-Shell to cushion the blow with her own shoulders.
“Stop! Don’t break his life-shell!” Bai Xiaoxiao cried out.
