20: Chapter 20 Delivery Failure

Zhao Fan rode his rattling, second-hand motorbike, hurrying all the way to the Shunxin Home-style Restaurant in the west of the city. After parking steadily, he walked quickly into the shop, nimbly reported the pickup number to the owner, received the packed stir-fry set meal, and hung it on the delivery hook on the handlebars.

After confirming everything was correct, Zhao Fan glanced at the delivery countdown on his phone; there were still 32 minutes left. It was 7 kilometers from the restaurant to the Qin Family, and at his motorbike's speed, even with some minor traffic, he had plenty of time.

He straddled his motorbike and twisted the throttle. The old engine emitted a "putt-putt-putt" roaring sound as he sped off in the direction of the Qin Family.

The afternoon streets weren't very congested. With a breeze brushing against his cheeks, Zhao Fan's mood became increasingly cheerful. He even hummed a little tune unconsciously, his mind filled with fantasies about the system's rewards.

If this order were completed successfully, the system might reward him with a luxury car, or add another huge deposit to his account, or perhaps even give him a top-tier industry. After all, the previous designated order had rewarded him with shares in the Starry Sky Group. This was also a designated order, so the reward definitely wouldn't be bad. The more he thought, the more he got carried away, and his speed unconsciously increased a bit.

Meanwhile, Qin Yi had already calculated Zhao Fan's route and arrived early at a quiet corner leading to the Qin Family. The road here was narrow, flanked by old residential buildings, and traffic was sparse—the perfect location to make a move.

Qin Yi stood under the shade of a tree by the roadside with his hands behind his back. His aura was restrained, blending perfectly with the surrounding environment; passersby wouldn't even notice his presence.

He slowly closed his eyes, his spiritual sense spreading out like an invisible net, covering a radius of one kilometer.

In an instant, an aura appeared within his spiritual perception—it was Zhao Fan, wearing a deep blue delivery uniform and speeding over on his second-hand motorbike.

Qin Yi precisely locked onto his aura and predicted his trajectory. With a slight concentration of his fingertips, a wisp of true qi, so faint it was nearly transparent, quietly seeped out and attached itself silently to the road surface at the corner.

He had specially marked this true qi; it would only trigger when it detected Zhao Fan's aura and would have absolutely no effect on other passing vehicles or pedestrians. After finishing all this, Qin Yi flashed away, leaving silently. The road remained as it always was, as if there had never been any anomaly.

Not long after, Zhao Fan rode his motorbike to this corner. At this moment, he was still immersed in fantasies about the system's rewards, his eyes unfocused, not noticing the anomaly on the road ahead at all.

He habitually turned the handlebars slightly, preparing to ride steadily around the corner. Just as the front wheel of the motorbike rolled over the patch of road surface attached with true qi, a sudden change occurred!

An invisible but powerful lateral force suddenly acted on the motorbike's handlebars without any warning. There was no sound, no visible collision, just as if an invisible hand had suddenly pushed the handlebars from the side.

The smile on Zhao Fan's face instantly froze, his pupils constricted sharply, and his hands subconsciously gripped the handlebars tightly, trying to stabilize it. But the force came so fast and fierce, and coupled with the motorbike's not-slow speed, the huge inertia instantly broke his control. The handlebars went completely out of control and swerved violently to one side.

"What's going on?!" That was the only thought that flashed through Zhao Fan's mind. Before he could even cry out in alarm, he and the motorbike were flung heavily away.

His body experienced a brief moment of weightlessness in the air, followed immediately by his elbows and knees slamming into the rough concrete ground. The intense friction instantly tore his skin, and a burning pain swept through his entire body. Excruciating pain also radiated from his arms and legs.

He slid several meters on the ground before stopping. The second-hand motorbike fell on its side, slamming heavily onto the roadside. The delivery meal box in the front basket flew out, hitting the ground with a "clatter." The lid of the box instantly cracked, and the food and soup inside spilled all over the ground. The white rice mixed with vegetable juices spread across the road—a complete mess.

Zhao Fan endured the intense pain in his body and gritted his teeth as he climbed up from the ground. The knees of his pants were worn through, blood was seeping from the skin on his elbows, and he was covered in dust from head to toe, looking utterly wretched.

He couldn't care about wiping the dust off his body, nor could he tend to his wounds. He stumbled over to where the delivery food had spilled. Looking at the mess on the ground, his face instantly turned pale. Annoyance, regret, and confusion flooded his mind. He kicked the ground hard and muttered angrily to himself:

"How could this happen! I was riding perfectly fine, so why did the steering suddenly become unstable? It was like someone gave it a hard push from the side. How could something like this happen out of nowhere!"

He squatted on the ground, watching the spilled delivery food, his mind in a state of panic. If he couldn't deliver this order, not only would he not get the reward, but most importantly, he would be punished by the system.

Right! The system rules only required him to deliver the food without being overtime. And this delivery wasn't completely spilled, Zhao Fan thought, trying to comfort himself.

He was completely panicked. In his panic, he hurried over to the overturned motorbike and used all his strength to lift it up. He reached out and twisted the throttle, but the motorbike engine only emitted a series of "clack-clack-clack" sounds, with no sign of starting at all. The exhaust pipe even puffed out wisps of black smoke.

Zhao Fan wouldn't give up and twisted the throttle several more times, but the motorbike still didn't react. He squatted down to check carefully, only to discover that the motorbike's engine casing had cracked, the internal parts were severely damaged, and it was completely scrapped; it couldn't be ridden at all.

Looking at the motorbike that could no longer start, and then at the little bit of delivery food left on the ground, Zhao Fan could no longer hold it together. He instantly collapsed on the ground, his eyes hollow, his face full of despair.

"It's over... it's all over!" Zhao Fan grabbed his hair with both hands, his eyes filled with despair. "The motorbike is broken, the food is spilled, this order is definitely going to be overtime. It's over! Completely over! Why am I so unlucky? I was riding perfectly fine the whole way, but I had to have an accident at this corner..."

The more he thought, the more panicked he became. Before, he had been completely immersed in the joy of fantasizing about system rewards, never thinking about the consequences of failing a task. Now that the order was completely ruined, he feared the unknown punishment the system would inflict. The smooth sailing he had experienced over the past five days seemed to have come to an abrupt end at this moment. His past arrogance and smugness vanished, leaving only utter annoyance and helplessness.