The system waited until Yang Ruoqian felt tired enough to hope.
Then it opened.
At nine, before the first cup of tea had performed its duty, the panel displayed:
Wait-time boundary valuation update.
Yang stared.
"No."
The system continued:
Direct revenue: 0.
Communication fee: 0.
Priority fee: 0.
Guidance fee: 0.
Owner-side preparation: measurable.
Internal response burden: reduced.
External expectation stability: increasing.
Yang looked at the four zeros.
Once, four zeros would have felt like music.
Now they sounded like footsteps.
"Waiting is not value."
The panel displayed:
Repeated waiting in a known boundary creates decision discipline.
Yang stood up.
"Do not use discipline."
The system did not accept vocabulary feedback.
At ten, finance arrived with the human version of the same injury.
"Boss Yang, we cannot record the venue archive as revenue."
"Good."
"We cannot record quiet files as revenue."
"Better."
"We cannot record wait time as revenue."
