June 1st — Tuesday Morning
The sunlight filtered softly through the curtains of Eli's Blue Fern apartment, painting delicate lines across the wooden floor. He stirred slowly beneath the light duvet, his body enjoying the rare sensation of waking up not to an alarm, or a crisis pinging in his System panel. Just warmth.
For a few moments, he let himself enjoy it.
Then habit took over.
He stretched, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and rolled out of bed with the ease of someone used to squeezing every second out of the morning. The air in the apartment was cool, faintly scented with the lavender laundry soap Jin insisted on using. From the other room, he could hear the quiet hum of the fridge and the distant shuffle of his ward still asleep.
Bathroom. Toothbrush. Splash of cold water.
He pulled on a clean T-shirt and moved to the small kitchen, setting the kettle to boil. While waiting, he opened his System panel, blinking past notifications and tapping the gold icon labeled: Sign-In
[Sign-In Complete! You have received 10,000 yuan.]
A faint shimmer of light pulsed over the panel before fading.
"Nice," he murmured, sipping his tea.
Then it hit him.
First of the month.
He reached for his phone, fingers moving automatically as he pulled up the contact labeled [Golden Cross Hospital – Billing Department]. It rang once, then twice, before a clipped voice answered:
"Golden Cross Hospital, this is Aimei at accounts."
"Hi, this is Eli-Eli Jiang. I'm calling to cover the monthly extension on Room 1147. Mei-Lan Jiang, coma patient. Same arrangement as before."
"Yes, I have your record here." A pause. "Continuing for June. The balance is 5,000 yuan. Shall I process the payment now?"
"Yes, please," Eli said, already authorizing it through his bank app.
Moments later, the transaction confirmed with a chime.
[5,000 yuan Paid – Golden Cross Hospital (Mei-Lan Jiang)]
[Bank Balance: 118,000 yuan]
Eli exhaled slowly. It wasn't that he begrudged the cost. He'd pay it a thousand times over. But each payment was a silent reminder that his mother was still in that room, hooked up to machines, her presence reduced to vitals on a screen.
He leaned against the kitchen counter and stared out the small window at the skyline of Briggon, morning light shimmering off the nearby electric pole . Life was moving. People were heading to work, school, dates, disasters. And his mother was still in that quiet stillness. Somewhere between breath and sleep.
"Hang in there," he murmured aloud.
He took one more sip of tea, squared his shoulders, and turned toward the hallway. Jin would be waking up soon, and the day was just beginning.
The System had been generous that morning but Briggon wasn't a place that stayed quiet for long.
Eli heard the sound of his phone buzzing insistently against the nightstand. His first instinct was to silence it and steal another five minutes, but the caller ID read: Mr. Duan – The Corner Pocket.
He sat up, rubbing this eyes. "Hello?"
"Eli," came Mr. Duan's voice, low and urgent, "you need to come down to the store. Now. Something's happened."
Eli was already pulling on a hoodie. "What kind of something?"
There was a pause. "They've started offering free delivery within three kilometers. No fees. No minimums. They're targeting our regulars, directly. This isn't expansion anymore. It's precision."
"Ok, give me a few minutes and I will be there" Eli responded
Eli then cut the call, Woke Jin up and gave him instructions , before leaving in a hurry
The Corner Pocket – 8:12 AM
The Corner Pocket felt tense. The staff hadn't even finished opening the shutters when Mr. Duan handed Eli a printout someone had slipped under the door: a bright red SuperMartX flyer, aggressively designed, featuring a grinning mascot holding a QR code.
"Free Delivery All Week! No Minimums. No Memberships. Just Savings."P.S.First 100 Briggon residents to order today receive 100 yuan in store credit.
Eli's stomach tightened. "They're not just expanding anymore. They're attacking."
Mr. Duan nodded grimly. "This is a slow war. They want to bleed us out, make us irrelevant before the rent's even due."
Customers were already thinning. That line outside SuperMartX? It had stretched into morning. A few Corner Pocket regulars came by to offer sympathy, or to whisper about neighbors who'd "just wanted to try the free stuff, just once."
Worse still, when Eli checked The Corner Pocket's delivery stats, he noticed a 40% drop overnight.
Later That Day – Brainstorming
Eli sat with Mr. Duan,
"They're going for speed and novelty," Mr Duan said. "So we go for soul."
Eli frowned. "Soul doesn't pay rent."
"But loyalty might," Eli countered. "What if we host something this weekend? Not a sale—a gathering. Bring the neighborhood together. Games. Food. Local bands. A thank-you event for our regulars.
Mr. Duan considered. "We'd need permits. Can we pull that off in three days?"
Eli smiled sure and don't worry i will cover the cost
That made Mr. Duan pause. "You sure?"
Eli nodded. "If SuperMartX wants to fight a war of price and convenience… then we fight with community."
So they began to form a plan together on how the event will go, the advertising and logistics
The Corner Pocket – Back Office, 2:17 PM
"So," Mr. Duan said, straightening a notepad on the table, "what do we call this thing?"
Eli leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "It has to sound warm. Inviting. Not corporate."A beat."Briggon Block Day," he suggested. "A celebration of local shops, families, and the people who kept this district running before neon chains came knocking."
Mr. Duan scratched it down with a nod. "I like it."
They spread out supplies, old event posters, leftover flyers, a few rolls of colored tape. It wasn't much, but it was something.
Planning Phase:
1. Venue & Permits:
They would set up in the small park and open sidewalk space beside The Corner Pocket. Mr. Duan offered to speak with Ms. Lei, a retired civil clerk who still had friends at the district office, to fast-track the temporary event permit.
Eli made a note: Permit deadline – Thursday morning.
2. Vendors & Food:
Eli suggested reaching out to:
Mrs. Yang, who made handmade dumplings and sold them out of a cart.
The twins from Briggon, who ran a bubble tea stand and were looking for exposure.
Mr. Ren, a local guitarist who used to busk outside the train station.
"Let them set up for free," Eli said. "We'll take the hit this week to remind people what Briggon tastes and sounds like."
3. Advertising:
They brainstormed three fronts:
Printed flyers, fast and cheap. Eli would design one that evening and print them overnight at Jin's school, where a teacher still owed him a favor.
Social media blast on Briggon's community boards. Mr. Duan didn't understand hashtags, but Eli assured him that photos of steaming dumplings and kids playing tug-of-war would work.
Handwritten invites to regulars. Not bulk-printed. Just ten or twenty names written by hand with a warm "Thank you. Come celebrate with us." Sent with each delivery over the next two days.
"That's… different," Mr. Duan said.
"Exactly," Eli replied. "SuperMartX blasts ads. We give invitations."
4. Activities:
They brainstormed quick, affordable events:
Lucky draw raffles for donated items.
A trivia game about Briggon history.
A "memory wall" where locals could write favorite Corner Pocket memories or pin old photos.
5. Budget:
Eli checked his balance—113,000 yuan left after the morning's hospital payment. He committed 13,000 yuan for the entire event: flyers, food reimbursements, prizes, setup rentals, and emergency buffer.
"I'll make it work," he said. "We don't need flash. We just need heart."
By evening, they had a rough plan:
Event Name: Briggon Block Day
Date: Saturday, June 4th
Time: 11 AM to 6 PM
Location: Corner Pocket sidewalk and park area
Goal: Strengthen local ties. Reclaim visibility. Remind people this place has value.
As Eli left to meet Jin for dinner, Mr. Duan remained seated, flipping through the old notepad. The edges were dog-eared, the ink fading, but for the first time in weeks, there was fire in the air again.
And outside, beyond the humming neon of SuperMartX, Briggon's heart still beat.