Inside the small, dimly lit roadside tea-tavern on Training Planet #1, twelve-year-old Zhao Tie lay curled on the rough wooden floorboards in his oversized, gaudy green paper-silk “Evil Young Master” robe, his skinny shoulders shaking with silent, terrified sobs as seventy-year-old Granny Zhao held him in her trembling arms.
Around the tavern, a dozen other local villagers—all wearing equally ridiculous paper villain hats and heavy black Orbital Soul-Whip Collars—turned their heads away and wiped their eyes in helpless despair.
Nobody dared to speak too loudly, because every Orbital Soul-Whip Collar had a built-in acoustic and contract-compliance rune linked to Chief Elder Sha’s orbital relay station.
Before anyone else in the tavern could move, however, a small pair of boots stepped quietly across the floorboards.
Twelve-year-old Gu Nian knelt down beside the crying twelve-year-old boy, reached into his warm [Plot-Proof Honor-Student Schoolbag], and pulled out a steaming, freshly wrapped [Auntie Qin’s Golden Pork-and-Scallion Bun] along with a clean white handkerchief.
“Don’t cry, Big Brother Zhao Tie,” twelve-year-old Gu Nian said earnestly, his black-gold eyes radiating a gentle, soothing Redeemed Chaos-Star Guardian Warmth that instantly eased the cold electrical pricking of the iron collar around Zhao Tie’s neck. Meanwhile, He pressed the warm meat bun into the boy’s calloused hands.
