After breaking up with my boyfriend, I made a fortune and rose rapidly in my career.

A Santana was in front, followed by a van, and the two vehicles drove one after the other toward Qingfeng Villa in the western suburbs of Yunzhou.

Qingfeng Villa, though it sounds prestigious, is actually a very high-end private club in Yunzhou. It doesn't have a star rating, isn't open to the public, and only the wealthy and powerful can enter. At the entrance, two security guards in black suits stood ramrod straight, their faces expressionless.

Seeing Chen Ping's Santana and the beat-up van behind it, the security guard frowned, stepped forward, and raised his hand to stop the car.

"Hello, this is a private club. Please show your membership card."

Chen Ping rolled down the car window, his expression calm: "I'm looking for Director Liu Dezhi of the Municipal Finance Bureau. I have urgent business to report to him."

The security guard said expressionlessly, "I need to verify whether Director Liu is here. Please wait a moment."

"I can't wait." Chen Ping's tone turned cold. "There's a problem with the demolition compensation for the Jinshuiwan project. Hundreds of villagers are blocking the construction site, and they're very emotional. I just came from the scene, and I can't afford to waste a minute! If you stop me, and things escalate into a mass incident, can you bear the responsibility?"

The moment the words "mass incident" were uttered, the security guards turned pale. They were just there for a paycheck and didn't want to be burdened with such a huge responsibility.

The security guard in charge turned pale and whispered a few words to his superiors through his earpiece. Soon, the barrier was raised.

Chen Ping stepped on the gas, and the Santana drove straight in.

The car was parked at the entrance of Courtyard No. 3, a quaint two-story building. A black Audi A6 was parked at the entrance, with a very conspicuous license plate—Yun A00023, the car of the Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee.

Chen Pingfang knew that Zhou Wenyuan's secretary, Zhang Mingyuan, was indeed here.

He opened the car door and said in a deep voice to the old Party Secretary and village representatives who got out of the car, "Remember, no matter what you see later, listen to my instructions and don't act impulsively."

The group nodded solemnly.

Chen Ping took a deep breath, walked to the front, and pushed open the half-closed gate of Courtyard No. 3.

The courtyard was quiet, except for the sounds of mahjong and men's laughter coming from the opposite booth.

"Haha, a pure suit, a pair! Give it to me, give it to me!"

Without hesitation, Chen Ping strode over and pushed open the door to the private room.

"Splash—"

With a loud crash, the door slammed against the wall.

The noise inside the house stopped immediately.

In a room filled with the smell of smoke, an automatic mahjong table sat in the middle. Liu Dezhi, the director of the Finance Bureau, was reaching for money with a ruddy face. The tiles in front of him were neatly arranged, indicating that he indeed had a good hand.

His superior, a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, was Zhang Mingyuan, the chief secretary of Zhou Wenyuan, the municipal party secretary. The other two men were a portly businessman and another Chen Pingfang didn't recognize.

The air seemed to stand still.

Liu Dezhi's smile froze. He stared at Chen Pingfang at the door and the few people behind him who looked like they were from the village. He paused for a moment, then his temper flared up.

Zhang Mingyuan reacted even faster, his face turning pale instantly. His gaze passed over Chen Pingfang and landed on the young man behind him with the camera; his pupils contracted.

"Um...I...I need to go to the restroom." Zhang Mingyuan practically jumped up, his movement so sudden that his knee slammed against the mahjong table with a dull thud. He didn't even glance at Liu Dezhi, his face pale, head down, and he jogged past Chen Pingfang and ran off.

His running away made Liu Dezhi's face turn extremely ugly. He slammed his hand on the table, causing the mahjong tiles to jump up.

"Chen Pingfang! How dare you!" Liu Dezhi roared, pointing at Chen Pingfang's nose. "Who gave you the audacity to bring people here? Do you have any respect for your superiors?!"

Chen Pingfang seemed not to see his fiery eyes, nor did he pay attention to his roar. He simply looked at him quietly, then spoke softly, his voice not loud, but everyone in the room could hear him clearly:

"Director Liu, we can't get through to you by phone, and we can't find you anywhere. Hundreds of villagers in Jinshuiwan are waiting for their demolition compensation, and everyone is panicking, thinking that the project has fallen through and the government is abandoning them."

He turned to the side, revealing the old Party Secretary and village representatives behind him.

"Since no one could find you, they had to come to me. As the head of the project command center, I had no choice but to bring everyone here to find you, the God of Wealth, for on-site work."

He emphasized the phrase "on-site work" very much.

Liu Dezhi almost choked on his breath. Looking at the bloodshot eyes of the village representatives and the faintly visible camera lens, he felt for the first time what it meant to be caught in a dilemma.

"Nonsense! Utter nonsense!" he stubbornly insisted. "There are procedures for allocating funds. Your documents are incomplete; how can you approve it? This is a matter of principle!"

"We brought the materials." Chen Ping didn't give him a chance to catch his breath.

He took the funding application from the old Party Secretary's trembling hands, walked step by step to the mahjong table, bent down, swept the mahjong tiles aside, and then slammed the document onto the center of the table with a "thud".

"Director Liu, Secretary Zhou and Mayor Xiao's signatures are all on it. Now it just needs your final approval."

Chen Ping straightened up and stared at Liu Dezhi.

"We don't have a printer or official seal here, and we don't care about those things. You should have your personal seal in your bag, right?"

"The livelihoods of hundreds of families depend on your decision. Please, right here at this mahjong table, do us the people of Yunzhou a favor."

The room was eerily quiet.

The merchant was already so frightened that he huddled in a corner, not daring to utter a sound.

Liu Dezhi's chest heaved as he glared at Chen Pingfang, his eyes filled with a murderous intent. He knew he was finished, utterly finished. In front of the villagers, reporters, and subordinates, at the table that represented his workday and his mahjong games, he was cornered with no way out.

If I sign it, I'll never be able to face anyone in the officialdom of Yunzhou again.

He didn't even dare to think about what the newspapers would say if he didn't sign. He couldn't bear the responsibility for a mass incident either.

Finally, all his strength seemed to have been drained away. His hands trembled as he fumbled in his briefcase for a long time before pulling out a small mahogany box. He opened it, and inside was a personal seal engraved with his name.

He picked up the inkpad, pressed it down heavily, then picked up the seal and slammed it down on the signature field for "Approval of Funding" on the document.

A muffled thud.

Liu Dezhi shoved the documents in front of Chen Pingfang, slumped into his chair, and looked ashen-faced. He raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, and spoke to Chen Pingfang, each word hoarse:

"Chen Pingfang, you're something else."

"The money is approved. But remember this: once the money is transferred from the finance department's account to your command headquarters' account, if there's even a single penny of error..."

He grinned, forcing a smile that was more like a grimace.

"You will bear the consequences."