Gate Commander Tie-Bing stood in the center of the obsidian bridge outside Barrier Gate #1, his heavy frost-halberd leveled at the front wheels of the [Trojan Nine-Grid Hotpot Cart]. Behind him, three thousand elite Outer-Ring Frost-Guards stood in three tight phalanxes, their armor clattering as they shivered in the minus-two-hundred-degree draft.
Every single guard had hollow cheeks and bloodshot eyes fixed hungrily on the brass cauldron at the front of the wagon.
“State your cargo and permit ID immediately!” Tie-Bing barked, though his halberd tip wobbled half an inch as a fresh gust of Sichuan peppercorn steam drifted under his visor. “Warden Tianfa issued Decree #44 six months ago: all hot food, spices, salt, and meat are strictly prohibited in the lower three rings to sharpen our Emotionless Dao! Only unseasoned frost-cabbage bricks are allowed past this gate!”
Inside the hidden living room of the cart, twelve-year-old Gu Nian looked up from his morality workbook and frowned through the one-way crystal window. “Six months of eating frozen raw cabbage bricks? No wonder these guards look like they’re about to chew on their own spear shafts.”
“Even the prisoners in the outer mines got warm gruel once a week,” Auntie Qin clicked her tongue, shaking her head as she arranged stacks of paper sample bowls by the serving hatch. “Warden Tianfa treats his own border soldiers worse than livestock just to brag about their ‘emotionless discipline.’”
