Dozens of used electric scooters formed a long, winding line as they rode into the commercial district west of the city.
Their wheels rolled through puddle-filled potholes, sending mud splattering everywhere.
Not a single man on a scooter slowed down.
The roadside pushcart vendors scrambled to drag their stalls backward, stumbling over themselves as they retreated.
A grandmother out buying groceries clamped a hand over her little grandson’s mouth and pressed herself against the wall, not daring to move.
Xu Hu led the way, twisting the throttle all the way down with his right hand.
When they reached their destination, he slammed on the brakes.
The rear tire left a half-meter-long black skid mark on the asphalt.
The electric scooter came to a steady stop in front of Old Chen’s Fast Food.
Xu Hu took off his cheap oversized sunglasses and casually hooked them onto his suit collar.
Holding a cracked plastic helmet under his arm, he strode into the shop.
The fast-food shop’s owner, Old Chen, was bent over slicing potatoes into fine strips.
He looked up and saw a Black-Suited Burly Man, built like an iron tower, walk in.
The muscles in his chest stretched his cheap synthetic suit to the limit.
Old Chen’s hand shook. His cleaver struck the edge of the chopping board with a heavy thud, numbing the web between his thumb and forefinger.
“Boss.” Xu Hu’s voice was gravelly. His fan-sized palm slapped down on the glass countertop.
“I’m here to pick up an order.”
Old Chen’s knees began to wobble, and his hand instinctively reached for the landline.
He thought some newly arrived gang branch had come to collect protection money.
“Brother Hu…” Old Chen forced out a smile more painful-looking than a sob.
“Didn’t I already pay this month?”
Xu Hu frowned.
He recalled Jiang Che tapping the blackboard that morning and saying customers were prey.
Xu Hu forcibly tugged the corners of his mouth upward, bunching the flesh on his face.
The scar that ran across his cheek twisted with it.
“What protection money? I’m a legitimate businessman now.”
Xu Hu pulled a crumpled order slip from his pocket and slapped it on the table.
“Pork and green peppers over rice. Deliver it to Building 3, Room 204, Sunshine Residential Community. Where’s the food?”
Old Chen stood stunned for a full five seconds.
Only then did he realize that this menace had come to pick up a food delivery order.
He hurriedly handed over the packed plastic meal container.
Xu Hu picked up the plastic bag and turned to step over the threshold.
In Songjiang in 2008, there was no mature dispatch system for smartphones.
Ding Sheng’s food delivery hub was a dispatch room temporarily set up in the first-floor lobby.
Several battered billiards tables had been pushed together, with seven or eight landline phones set on top.
A few underlings who usually guarded the turf were now wearing headsets and acting as customer service agents.
The phones rang nonstop.
The delivery riders outside were all gangsters who could barely read.
They navigated using nothing but a torn map of Songjiang.
There were too many old alleys and too many confusing one-way streets.
In less than half an hour, the lobby had descended into chaos.
“Damn it, which way do I turn on Changfeng Street? I’ve gone around three times already!”
A subordinate of Chen Dao’s shouted angrily over the walkie-talkie.
Yellow Hair, who was manning the phones in the lobby, gripped the receiver, sweat covering his forehead.
Just then, line two beside him rang.
He picked up, and a man’s shrill roar came through.
“It’s been an hour! Where’s my food?”
“I ordered food delivery—did you all go plant rice?”
Yellow Hair’s temper flared, and he instinctively wanted to curse back.
But when he raised his eyes, he spotted the four red-painted characters for “Bottom-Rank Elimination” hanging on the wall.
Yellow Hair forced the curse back down his throat.
He bit the tip of his tongue, and the taste of iron filled his mouth.
“Boss, the roads are really hard to navigate. Please wait a little longer.”
The man on the other end wouldn’t let up.
“I don’t care! When the food gets here, I’m absolutely giving you a bad review!”
“I’ll make sure you get reported!”
With a click, the call ended.
Yellow Hair clutched the receiver, still buzzing with a dial tone, his face deathly pale.
A bad review.
The Boss had said yesterday: the department with the most bad reviews would see its manager kicked out and its subordinates disbanded and reassigned.
Xu Hu had just finished a delivery and returned to headquarters.
He happened to see Yellow Hair trembling.
His leather shoes clapped against the floor tiles as he strode over.
“What’s going on?”
Yellow Hair swallowed and pointed to the beef-and-potato order in the logbook.
“Brother Hu, one order is overdue, and the customer says he’s going to leave a bad review.”
“It’s in the west of the city, at Sunshine Residential Community.”
Xu Hu’s jaw bulged abruptly.
A bad review meant elimination, which meant the 100,000-yuan bonus would go up in smoke.
This was cutting off Xu Hu’s livelihood.
Xu Hu snatched the address slip and picked up the meal box from the insulated box beside him.
“I’ll handle this delivery myself.”
Sunshine Residential Community. An old apartment building with no elevator.
The stairwell reeked of damp mold from the sewers.
Xu Hu took the stairs three at a time, his 1.9-meter frame charging up the narrow staircase like a bull.
“Thud, thud, thud.”
His leather shoes slammed against the concrete steps, the echoes deafening.
Xu Hu stopped outside Room 502.
He took a deep breath and tugged at the black tie choking his neck.
He raised a fist as big as a cooking pot and pounded on the door.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The thin metal security door shuddered violently, and flakes of plaster sifted down from the frame.
The sound of slippers shuffling came from inside.
“Coming! What are you banging on the door for? In such a hurry to die?”
The lock clicked open.
The security door swung open a crack.
The male customer, wearing a tank top and shorts, was about to open his mouth and curse.
The words caught in his throat.
A human iron tower stood outside.
His broad shoulders blocked the stairwell’s already feeble light completely.
Xu Hu lowered his head and fixed his gaze on the customer through his cheap sunglasses.
The stairwell fell deathly silent.
The only sound was Xu Hu’s heavy breathing, like a broken bellows.
Xu Hu held out the plastic bag in his hand.
The muscles in his arm tensed, and the stitching on his suit sleeve gave a faint tearing sound.
“Your food delivery.”
His voice was low, like two rusty sheets of metal scraping together.
The male customer froze.
He looked at the face crossed by a knife scar, then at the ill-fitting black suit.
Then he glanced at the faint glimpse of a blue dragon-claw tattoo beneath the suit collar.
This wasn’t a delivery rider.
This was a goddamn hitman sent to silence him.
The customer’s knees weakened, and his tank top was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
“B-Boss.”
His hands trembling, he reached out and respectfully took the plastic container.
Xu Hu remained where he was, his leather shoes planted on the doormat.
He ran through that morning’s training in his head.
Then he stiffly forced out a few words.
“Remember to give me a five-star review.”
The customer’s mind went blank.
He looked at Xu Hu’s fist hanging at his side. How could he dare say no?
“Yes! I’ll definitely leave a good review!”
The customer’s teeth chattered as he clutched the meal box tightly.
“The service was so thoughtful. I’ll call the platform right away!”
Xu Hu stared at him for several seconds.
After confirming the man wasn’t lying, he gave a stiff nod and turned to go downstairs.
Only after his footsteps had completely faded away did the customer collapse onto the floor, gasping for breath.
Three in the afternoon.
Ding Sheng Company, top-floor office.
Jiang Che leaned back in his office chair, holding a cup of freshly brewed green tea.
A simple Backend webpage was open on the computer screen in front of him.
He pressed F5 to refresh the page.
A list of customer feedback popped up.
The first comment:
“Thanks for your hard work, big brother rider! May everything go your way, and may your whole family stay safe!”
The second comment:
“Five-star review! Please, big brother rider, don’t knock on my door again. The doorframe at my place is cracked.”
The third comment:
“The food was delicious, but I really don’t have any money left to pay protection fees.”
Jiang Che looked at the unbroken string of five-star reviews.
His hand, holding the teacup, came to a halt.
He read the feedback, every line of which practically screamed a desire to survive.
He had a vague feeling that his employees’ service attitude seemed to be a little off.