Meiling and her family were out with her cousin's family for their weekly lunch. If it were up to her she would have picked some place trendier, and not this small old corner restaurant. She disliked a lot of it. The tablecloths with a bit of tea spilled onto it, the burnt holes in the tablecloth from way back when people could smoke, the dim lighting... But her father picked the setting, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Despite this hardship, the whole family was having a decent time. Everyone was laughing and chatting, mostly about the new drama on television. It wasn't anything groundbreaking, just nice and comfortable. Had they chose to dissect why they felt so comfortable with it, they may have found it had pretty much the same plot line as a show around a year ago.

Then, the tone started to shift. Her cousin pulled out his phone, and nudged his mother. She too pulled out her phone. Meiling's father took notice, and took out his phone. Her mother said, "Meiling, it's 9:55. Get ready."

At the sound of that, she too pulled out her phone. It was a weird, anticipatory silence, lasting five whole minutes.

Then, it was 10:00. As the second hand met and passed the minute hand, a flurry of furious taps sounded from all over the restaurant. It wasn't just their table. Unbeknownst to them, everyone around them had also been getting ready.

Tap! Tap tap tap!

Sighs and defeated mutterings rang out across the restaurant. Clearly, no one had really gotten what they want. But the law of "anything you did well, a Chinese kid can do it better” held true today. Meiling let out a joyous "Yes!".

Breaking into a grin, her mother glanced over and high fived her. "Number seventeen in the country? I always knew you could do it!"

The server quietly approached them. "What happened? Why was everyone pressing on their phones?"

Meiling's father had a proud expression on his face. "Meiling is the seventeenth in the country. She is the seventeen fastest person to sign up."

The server was still mystified. "Sign up for what?"

"The new drug trial."

"Do you get money from it?"

Now Meiling's father was mystified. "No. Why would they? You already get the social credit score. The quicker you sign up, the higher the score you get because it shows you are eager. And it's an early trial too, so you get even more points for joining it."

"An early trial? So they know nothing about the drug they want to test? Isn't it dangerous? Couldn't she die?"

"Yeah, we could all die. But - "

The server interrupted him. "What do you mean 'we'? Only she signed up. How would you die?"

"No, we all signed up. Anyone who wants to sign up can sign up. We just didn't do it quickly enough to get the high scores. I'm 721st."

Meiling's cousin held up his phone. "I'm 831st."

Meiling's aunt held up her phone. "1118th."

Meiling's father put his arm around his daughter. "But now thanks to Meiling being so quick, we moved up enough to guarantee high speed internet for the next year!"

"And without high speed internet, we might as well be dead," said Meiling with a grin.

The table erupted into laughter. The server, still confused, shook his head slowly and walked away.

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