At the far end of the Star-Gate platform, Chief Highway Engineer Ye Guhan set his empty noodle bowl down on a stack of iron railroad ties.
He wiped his mouth with a clean white handkerchief, adjusted the strap of his bright yellow construction hard-hat under his chin, and stood up with the solemn grace of an ancient sword immortal walking onto a sacred dueling peak.
Except clipped to his white silk belt were a carpenter’s chalk-line box, a folded paper blueprint of the Planet Eleven highway interchange, and a tin lunchbox painted with a fat red pig.
“Lord Pei,” Ye Guhan said, bowing slightly with his three-foot black-iron sword held horizontal across his palms. His cold, handsome face was dead serious. “I heard the track-laying locomotives have stopped at Mile Marker Zero. Is there an enemy sword master blocking the road?”
[Ye Guhan — Rank 7 Peak (Planetary Sword Lord) | Loyalty: 93/100] [Current Thought: My last noodle debt was technically paid off three worlds ago, but Old Guo added pickled mustard greens to the beef broth this morning! How can a man of the sword leave before mastering the Dao of the Four-Lane Overpass?!]
Pei Xuan walked over and clapped a hand on Ye Guhan’s shoulder, steering him toward the edge of the platform where Lead Locomotive Number One was puffing thick white spirit-steam from its brass smokestack.
