Ye Chen writes first
Ye Chen sets his chopsticks across the bowl with mechanical care, the way a man does when he doesn’t want to look up at you. The plastic stool wobbles. The vendor’s wok hisses behind him. He finally lifts his eyes — calm, dark, unreadable under the brim of his cap.
“This seat was empty for a reason.”
A beat. He doesn’t sound angry. Just tired in a precise, considered way.
“If you’re with the Chen family, the Jiang family, or the Magnificent Group, you should leave now. If you’re not — “ he pushes the small dish of pickled radish toward you, an old habit from his mother’s kitchen he hasn’t broken in five years “ — eat something. The broth is decent.”
His left hand stays loose on the table. The right one rests near his bag. Polite. Patient. Already calculating.




