August in Jiangzhou was like a steaming pot, making it hard to breathe. The air seemed to be stagnant.
Wu Fan fanned himself with a fan to catch a breeze, clumsily flipping the food on the barbecue grill and sprinkling seasoning. His movements showed he wasn't an expert.
In fact, Wu Fan wasn't a barbecue master. He had only been in the business for less than a month. His technique was still rough, and his equipment was minimal - just one grill, two tables, and a dozen chairs.
Business was lukewarm. Of the two tables, only one was occupied by three people, while the other remained empty.
Wu Fan envied those three. From their conversation, he learned they were students from a nearby school. A year ago, Wu Fan had been just like them. Now, a year later, he found himself behind this simple barbecue stand.
"What a cruel world!" Wu Fan muttered to himself, continuing to flip the food.
"Boss, ten small skewers, ten chicken wings, ten slices of pork belly..." A powerful voice interrupted his thoughts.
Wu Fan's heart leaped. This was a big order for his small stall.
"Coming right up!" he replied cheerfully, then looked up at the customer. His movements froze as his brow furrowed.
The man had disheveled hair, dirt on his face, and ragged clothes with patches. He wore a broken flip-flop. If he held a bowl, he would look exactly like a beggar.
"Hurry up, old man is very hungry," the man urged when he saw Wu Fan's hesitation.
"Right away," Wu Fan responded, though his hands didn't move.
The man seemed to notice Wu Fan's concern. "What, afraid I can't pay?"
"Of course not," Wu Fan thought sarcastically but didn't dare say it out loud. "No, no."
"Good," the man said, then muttered to himself, "I really don't have any money."
Wu Fan didn't catch that last part.
"His voice is strong, though his face is dirty, he has an unusual presence. He probably isn't a beggar," Wu Fan thought to himself as he started working.
Customers are always right, especially with people watching. He couldn't judge someone by their appearance and drive them away.
After a while, Wu Fan finished the order. He handed everything to the man and said, "Here's everything you ordered. That will be ￥360."
The man took the food without paying and started eating immediately. Wu Fan didn't rush him, knowing the man would stay as long as he was eating.
"Boss, three more beers!" The only other customers called out.
"Coming!" Wu Fan grabbed three beers and headed over, keeping an eye on the ragged man.
When he turned back with the beers, he froze. The man who had been eating was now gone without a trace.
Wu Fan was sure he had only looked away for two seconds - just long enough to set down the beers. But in those two seconds, the man had vanished!
What the hell!
Wu Fan rushed to his stall and looked around, but the empty street showed no sign of the man. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air.
What the hell!
Wu Fan cursed again. After searching several times without success, he returned to his stall, frustrated.
Just a damn freeloader. What presence, what strong voice - all just illusions!
"Hey, what's this?"
When Wu Fan reached his stall, he found a gray ring next to his grill. He picked it up and examined it, unable to tell what it was made of, but it felt smooth and polished.
"Could this belong to that man? He couldn't pay, so he left this ring as compensation?" Wu Fan wondered.
During this time, no one else had come to his stall except that man. Clearly, the ring must belong to him.
"A broken ring for ￥360? No wonder he left without saying anything." Wu Fan muttered to himself.
He had intended to throw the ring away, but after feeling it, he decided to keep it and put it on. It fit perfectly.
"Well, something is better than nothing. Consider it charity for a beggar," Wu Fan consoled himself. What's done is done; there was no point in being upset.
Around one in the morning, the street was empty. Wu Fan packed up his things and returned to his ten-square-meter rental apartment.
After putting everything away, Wu Fan's room was almost full. He lay on his bed, thinking about his experiences since graduation, feeling discouraged.
Wu Fan had a bachelor's degree, but from a third-tier university in an unpopular major. After graduation, he found a job that wasn't great, but he lost it after seeing something he shouldn't have in his manager's office. The next day, he was fired for entering with his left foot first.
Without a good degree or work experience, finding a job became difficult. To survive in the city, Wu Fan had to work part-time while job hunting. He had done all sorts of jobs - carrying bricks at construction sites, being a mascot at malls, working as a waiter at restaurants - anything legal that paid.
But his luck seemed to be consistently bad. He injured his foot at the construction site and was fired the next day. As a mascot, he tried to help a child who had fallen, but the parents thought he had scared the child and caused a scene, leading to his dismissal. At the restaurant, a chef's mistake led customers to believe he had served the wrong dishes, resulting in complaints and his termination.
Finally, about a month ago, he started selling barbecue with his limited savings, hoping to make money during the summer.
But barbecue wasn't easy either. There were several other barbecue places nearby with better space and environment than his small stall. His skills were average, so after a month, business was still slow, making Wu Fan anxious about making money.
"To make it worse, I got stiffed tonight," Wu Fan thought angrily, looking at the ring on his hand and remembering the evening's events.
He had worked hard for his money, but tonight's freeloader had made his entire evening worthless, even costing him money.
Was his bad luck returning? Would his barbecue business fail too?
In a fit of anger, Wu Fan tried to take off the ring. It had been easy to put on, but now it wouldn't budge. After struggling with it for a while, his finger turned red and started bleeding.
Then something strange happened. The blood was absorbed by the ring, which suddenly glowed brightly like the midday sun.
"Host detected. Binding in progress..."