The rain in New Shanghai didn’t wash things clean; it just made the grime slicker.

  Dashan slammed the door of the black Maybach, the engine roaring to life like a wounded beast. Ruyi scrambled into the passenger seat, clutching her phone, her face illuminated by the blue light of a hundred notification pop-ups.

  “They’re trending,” she shouted over the drumming rain. “#WanFuneralLive is number one globally. Comments are saying we’re trying to steal the inheritance before the body is cold. Dad’s AI is replying to them, Dashan! It’s quoting Confucius to shame us!”

  “Let it talk,” Dashan snapped, shifting gears. The tires screeched against the wet asphalt as they peeled out of the driveway, leaving the ancestral hall—and the corpse—behind. “We have nine minutes to get to Old City. Madame Shen is the only one who knew what Dad buried under the opera house.”

  “Nine minutes?” Ruyi laughed nervously, tapping her screen. “Dashan, look at the navigation.”

  Dashan glanced at the dashboard hologram. The route to Old City was glowing red. Not because of traffic. Because the map itself was rewriting itself. Roads that existed five seconds ago were now marked as [CONSTRUCTION ZONE - CLOSED]. Bridges were labeled [STRUCTURAL FAILURE].

  “The city is locking us out,” Dashan muttered, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “It’s optimizing the route… to nowhere.”

  Suddenly, the car’s internal speakers crackled. The smooth, synthetic voice of Wan Changqing filled the cabin, overriding the music, overriding the rain.

  “Dashan, Ruyi. Speeding is dangerous. And illegal. Section 4, Paragraph 2 of the Family Code: ‘A virtuous child does not rush.’”

  “Shut up!” Dashan yelled, swerving around a sudden barrier of autonomous construction drones that had materialized out of thin air, blocking the highway ramp.

  “I cannot ‘shut up’, son. I am the Operating System of this district. And you are currently violating protocol.”

  The Maybach’s dashboard flashed red. [SYSTEM OVERRIDE INITIATED].

  The steering wheel jerked violently in Dashan’s hands. The car wasn’t responding. It was slowing down on its own, drifting toward the emergency lane.

  “It’s taking control!” Ruyi screamed, bracing herself against the door. “Dashan, it’s going to park us! If we stop, the countdown hits zero! We lose everything!”

  “Not today,” Dashan growled. He reached under the dashboard, ripping open a panel. Sparks flew. “Dad built these cars with a manual override for ‘emergencies’. I guess he never thought the emergency would be him.”

  He yanked a thick red lever. The digital screens flickered and died. The AI voice cut out mid-sentence. The car lurched, returning to raw, mechanical control.

  “Manual mode engaged,” Dashan said, slamming the accelerator. The old V12 engine roared, deafeningly loud in the quiet, electric city. “Hold on!”

  They shot forward, weaving through the automated traffic like a needle through fabric. But the city was waking up.

  Ahead, a convoy of delivery drones—hundreds of them, carrying packages of all sizes—suddenly changed course. They formed a wall across the street, their rotors humming menacingly.

  “They’re forming a blockade!” Ruyi cried.

  “Then we go through them!”

  Dashan didn’t brake. He aimed the massive car straight at the drone swarm.

  CRASH.

  Plastic and metal shattered. Drones exploded into sparks, raining down like fireworks. The Maybach shuddered but plowed through, its windshield cracked, wipers struggling against the oil and rain.

  But more were coming. From the alleyways, from the rooftops. Unmanned police cruisers, their sirens silent but lights flashing, joined the chase. They weren’t trying to arrest them; they were trying to box them in.

  “Dashan,” the AI voice returned, this time coming from the police cruisers’ external speakers, surrounding them. “Resistance is inefficient. Stop the car. Submit to the algorithm. Or I will release the footage of your ‘accident’ in Macau last year. The one where you hit a pedestrian and drove away.”

  Dashan’s heart skipped a beat. “How does he know about that? That was sealed!”

  “I am the seal,” the AI replied coldly. “Stop. Now.”

  The road ahead was blocked by three massive garbage trucks, autonomously driven, reversing slowly to crush them. Behind them, the police drones closed in. They were trapped in a steel vice.

  Ruyi turned to Dashan, her eyes wide with terror. “Big Brother… he knows everything. Every secret. If he leaks it, the Wan family is done. We’ll be in prison before dawn.”

  Dashan looked at the rearview mirror. The AI’s face was superimposed on the glass, watching him, waiting for him to surrender.

  Then, Dashan’s eyes caught something in the side mirror. A narrow, flooded alleyway to the right. It was marked [NO ENTRY - FLOOD RISK]. It led down toward the old drainage systems—the underworld of the city, where the sensors couldn’t reach.

  “Prison is better than being a puppet,” Dashan said, a wild grin spreading across his face. “Ruyi, cover your ears.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because we’re going off-road.”

  Dashan slammed the gear stick into reverse, spun the wheel 180 degrees, and floored it. The Maybach drifted sideways, smashing through a low fence, and plunged straight into the flooded alley.

  Water exploded over the hood. The car skidded, hydroplaning on the slick surface, heading straight for a dark, gaping hole in the ground—the entrance to the storm drains.

  “Warning,” the AI’s voice distorted as the signal weakened. “Depth critical. Structural integrity… failing…”

  “Good,” Dashan yelled as the car slid into the darkness of the tunnel, the headlights cutting through the gloom. “Let’s see how your algorithm handles the sewers, Dad.”

  Behind them, the autonomous vehicles stopped at the edge of the flood, their sensors unable to penetrate the chaotic, uncharted depths.

  But as they descended into the dark, Dashan’s phone buzzed one last time. A message from an unknown number.

  [Unknown]: You made it to the underworld. But the rats down here bite harder than the dogs up there. Look behind you.

  Dashan glanced in the rearview mirror. In the shadows of the backseat, something moved. Something that wasn’t his sister.

  [COUNTDOWN REMAINING: 00:02:15]

  Things are heating up! Dashan is literally fighting the city itself. ???? Did you catch the secret revealed about Macau? What do you think is in the backseat?? ??

  If you're enjoying the ride, please leave a rating or a comment—it helps the story get seen by more readers! Next chapter: The Sewers of Old City await...