Chapter 7 - The Job Interview at My Kitchen Table
Eli reached the apartment in nine minutes.
His previous record was twenty-two.
Ember Body had advantages.
Grant Mercer sat exactly where the photo showed him, drinking Mei's tea.
Mei looked delighted.
"He says they have a management training program."
Grant smiled. "Your son has unusual talent."
Eli closed the door.
"Mom, can I talk to Grant alone?"
"Why?"
"Corporate stuff. Very boring."
"You got fired yesterday. You don't have corporate stuff."
Grant coughed into his tea to hide a laugh.
Eventually Mei went to shower.
The moment the bathroom door closed, Grant's smile vanished.
"You're causing expensive problems."
"Your soup is stealing people's lifespan."
"That is a childish description of a sophisticated process."
Eli's Purifying Flame flickered around his fingers.
Grant did not flinch.
"If I wanted your mother dead, Mr. Chen, we would not be having tea."
"Comforting."
Grant slid a folder across the table.
Inside was an employment offer.
Salary: $140,000.
Eli read it twice.
For a dishwasher with unpaid tuition, it looked like a hallucination.
"What do you want?"
"Come work for us. Learn the system. Stop distributing uncontrolled food."
"And the curse?"
"We can remove your mother's seal."
Eli hated that his heart jumped.
Grant noticed.
"You think morality is simple because nobody has ever paid you enough to complicate it."
"That's a very rich-person sentence."
"It's also true."
The system remained silent.
That bothered Eli.
"Why me?"
Grant leaned back.
"Because the Heavenly Kitchen Ledger chose you."
Eli's blood cooled.
"You can see it?"
"No. But we've been waiting for it to reappear."
Grant reached into his jacket and placed an old photograph on the table.
A younger man stood beside a food truck, laughing at the camera.
Eli recognized him instantly.
His father.
Jian Chen.
Around Jian's neck hung the same faded red character painted on Eli's rice cooker.
"Your father was the last Ledger bearer," Grant said.
For seven years Eli had believed Jian ran away after debts crushed the family restaurant.
"Where is he?"
Grant smiled sadly.
"That depends on whether you accept the job."
Eli wanted to punch him.
Instead he Appraised the contract.
Black text crawled over the page.
[Employment Contract]
[Hidden clause: Host voluntarily assumes Nutritional Stewardship Covenant.]
[Effect: Transfers 60% generated Gratitude Qi to employer.]
[Additional effect: Family classified as company dependents.]
[Termination penalty: severe.]
Eli looked up.
"One hundred forty thousand is low."
Grant blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"For sixty percent of my soul points? Insulting."
For the first time, Grant looked afraid.
"You can read covenant text already?"
Eli burned the contract with Purifying Flame.
Grant shot to his feet.
The fire turned gold.
The hidden contract screamed.
[Predatory contract destroyed.]
[Gratitude Qi +50 — beneficiary: future self.]
Eli grinned.
"Apparently I can."
Grant's expression hardened.
"Then your father made the same mistake twice."
He left.
On the table, beneath the burned contract, Grant had deliberately left the photograph.
Eli turned it over.
An address was written on the back.
NourishNow Central Kitchen.
And one sentence in Jian's handwriting:
ELI, IF THEY SHOW YOU THIS, I FAILED.
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