At 8:00 AM sharp—under the warm, golden morning light of the Three Golden Spring-Sun Ceiling Lamps—every citizen across the fifty worlds of the newly renamed Sunny-Rift Sector gathered in front of the public sky-screens.
At the center of the sector, atop the three-thousand-foot red-brick clock tower of Central Rift Hub Station, Pei Xuan stood with his hands resting on the master brass control lever.
Behind him stood his core team: Old Wei polishing his broadsword, Hong Ling holding the golden ceremonial scissors, Abacus Su checking the fifty toll-plaza counters on his abacus, Old Guo and Boom-Pot Sun ladling out morning soup to the crowd below, General Tie Zhan and Emperor Shi Shan leading the cheering Titan Heavy Construction Corps, Ye Guhan checking the straightness of the tracks with a spirit-level, Ao Ming warming the central boiler pipes, and Old Yellow wearing a big red silk flower on his head.
Right beside the lever stood Chief Night-Shift Manager Xuan Ming—the former Nine-Nether Ghost Ancestor—wearing his crisp navy-blue railway cap over his favorite plaid electric blanket and holding a brass green-flag baton.
“Lord Pei,” Chief Manager Xuan Ming reported proudly, his rosy old face beaming with energy after a full night of patrolling the tunnels and eating three bowls of ginger-lamb soup. “All fifty spatial rifts across the five-hundred-light-year Mid-Arm Belt have been cleared of space-ice by my ten million ghost inspectors! Titan Emperor Shi Shan’s boys have stacked the concrete and heating pipes at all forty-nine remaining rift entrances, and Master…
