Buy a Hundred Chocolates, Get a Free Case of Anxiety

Salt grains gathered behind the shelf into a round blue-gray hamster. Each time its cheeks swelled, a box vanished from a cart and a gray knot of emotion appeared in the transparent storehouse on its back. Su sniffed. “Memories of poverty, shortage anxiety, and artificially amplified scarcity. OmniTaste deliberately supplied only three hundred cartons.” The announcement system warned that stock was almost gone. Every eye reddened at once. Chen scanned the manager. “Is it really gone?” Green light illuminated half the store. Luo Dapeng emerged from behind a shelf with a portable camera. “Two thousand cartons in back. Now we have it live.” “Why are you here?” “Repaying my consulting fee,” Luo said. “In installments.”