At 6:00 AM the next morning, a loud brass whistle echoed across Construction Camp #1 of the Galactic Core Star-Highway.
TWEET—TWEET—TWEEEEET!
“Rise and shine, Yellow-Vest Brigade! Grab your trowels, line up behind your wheelbarrows, and don’t forget to stretch your hamstrings!”
General Tie Zhan stood on top of a ten-ton pile of space-cement bags, holding a steaming bamboo basket of pork buns in one hand and a megaphone in the other.
Below him, along the edge of a newly cleared three-hundred-light-year highway roadbed, all 108 Sect Masters and 100,000 coalition elders stood rubbing their sleepy eyes in their bright yellow [DRY-WELL MUNICIPAL DEBTOR] vests.
After spending all of yesterday afternoon sweeping cannon soot off the train stations, the 108 Patriarchs looked completely worn out. Patriarch Jin Wudi of the Golden-Vault Sect was leaning on his long-handled iron shovel, whispering bitterly to Sect Master Shi Gang and Old Ancestor Lei:
“Listen to me, fellow Daoists,” Patriarch Jin whispered behind his glove. “Because of these cursed ankle monitors, we can’t use our aggressive Qi to fight or run away. So today, we use the ultimate weapon of passive resistance—slacking off! When they tell us to lay highway bricks, we move in slow motion! One brick every ten minutes! Even if Pei Xuan beats us, we must never lose our dignity by working hard like mortal brick-layers!”
