Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

Just as Song Jianguo's secret letter was placed on the desk in the capital.

Lingxiao Manor, on the outskirts of Jingzhou.

Large swathes of neatly trimmed green grass gleamed glistening in the late autumn sun.

Yan Qingfeng was dressed in a pure white sportswear outfit and wearing golf gloves.

He weighed the custom-made titanium alloy golf club in his hand and slightly twisted his waist.

A crisp "bang" sounded.

The white golf ball traced a perfect parabola and landed precisely on the distant green.

"Master Yan's skill is absolutely amazing!"

Zhou Yuan handed over a chilled hot towel and quickly offered a word of encouragement.

But there was little sign of relaxation on his face.

Yan Qingfeng took the towel, wiped his hands, and glanced at him sideways.

"Tell me, where are those guys?"

Zhou Yuan swallowed hard and lowered his voice.

"Song Jianguo had just taken an early morning flight back to Beijing when an undercover team from the Anti-Monopoly Bureau entered Handong."

"The person leading the team is a deputy director surnamed Zhao. Right now, he's leading a group to conduct a surprise inspection of the accounting books of several of our large companies."

Yan Qingfeng casually tossed the towel into the tray and chuckled.

"Anti-monopoly? These office workers' minds are still stuck in the last century."

He turned around and strode towards the open-air rest area on the sidelines.

Under the large parasol, Chief Legal Officer Gu Ming and several senior executives were already waiting.

Upon seeing Yan Qingfeng approach, the group of people stood up in unison.

They didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

"Alright, everyone, sit down."

Yan Qingfeng pulled out a chair, sat down with an air of authority, and took a sip of the soda water on the table.

"Old Gu, people from the capital have come to audit the accounts. You're sweating profusely; are you feeling guilty?"

Gu Ming pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and took out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead.

"Master Yan, after all, we've been eating too much lately."

"One-third of the private enterprises in Handong have been squeezed out and forced to close down by us. This data is too shocking. It's not easy to withstand the blow of the anti-monopoly stick."

"A run on them? Who said I was going to run them over?"

Yan Qingfeng leaned back in his chair, crossed his long legs, and gave a mocking look.

"I'm tired of that old-fashioned way of spending money all over the world to buy companies and forcibly merge them."

The executives looked at each other, somewhat bewildered.

Not going for a merger? Then what's all this talk of liquidation that's been making headlines for the past two weeks?

Yan Qingfeng tapped his fingers twice on the glass tabletop.

"Listen up, everyone. I, Yan Qingfeng, do not engage in monopolies."

What I want is absolute control over the ecosystem.

He pointed to the grass under his feet.

"I'm opening the doors to anyone who wants to do business in this land of Handong."

"Let a hundred flowers bloom, let them compete freely. I will absolutely not stop them."

Gu Ming was stunned.

"So...how will we make money?"

"Making money by following the rules."

Yan Qingfeng's lips curled into a cold, sharp smile, making him look like a Yama, the King of Hell, manipulating an abacus.

"You want to open a supermarket in Handong? Sure."

"But the office building and shops you rent are all owned by Lingxiao Real Estate. I set the rent."

He counted them off one by one on his fingers.

"Your supermarket needs to stock up? I'm sorry, trucks from other provinces can't get in. You have to use Lingxiao Logistics' cold chain fleet."

"Your daily business turnover must go through the accounts of those rural banks under my control."

The pavilion was deathly quiet.

The only sound was the rustling of leaves in the wind.

The more the executives listened, the more chills ran down their spines.

"Do you understand?"

Yan Qingfeng spread his hands, smiling like a merciful devil.

"I don't invest in your company; I don't own a single penny of your shares. Legally, you own 100% of the equity."

"But every time you breathe in Handong, even if it's just to buy a plastic bag, you're paying my toll!"

This is a case of dimensional reduction attack.

There is absolutely no need for those brutal and exclusive unfair terms.

Yan Qingfeng directly bought out all the ground floor buildings in Handong.

The business owner works himself to the bone all year, and the bulk of the profits flow into Ling Xiao's pocket through this ecosystem.

Zhou Yuan, listening from the side, slapped his thigh repeatedly, his face contorted with laughter.

"Brilliant! Master Yan, your move to cut off our supply lines is absolutely brilliant!"

He turned to look at Gu Ming, gesturing animatedly with his eyebrows raised.

"Old Gu, guess what? That investigation team leader surnamed Zhao spent the whole morning checking our accounts."

"I strained my eyes so hard they almost bled, but I still couldn't find a single flaw!"

Gu Ming's eyes lit up, and he quickly stepped forward.

"Didn't you find a single flaw?"

"Where did the flaw come from?"

Zhou Yuan snorted coldly.

"Our contracts are all for common goods. We don't require merchants to use our logistics, it's just that other logistics companies can't get into the elevated highway in Jingzhou."

"We didn't force them to use our bank. It's just that we squeezed all the other bank branches out of the streets by offering higher prices."

All of this is a completely compliant market operation.

Even if the gods of the capital descended to earth and examined this with a magnifying glass, they would still call this a legitimate and legal free market.

"The man surnamed Zhao was so angry that he smashed his coffee cup on the spot."

Zhou Yuan laughed so hard his shoulders twitched.

He dropped a string of veiled threats, then slunk away with his men into the car and drove off.

The executives in the pavilion finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Immediately afterwards, a suppressed low laugh erupted.

This is an imperial envoy sent from the capital.

They didn't even get to see Lord Yan; they crashed headfirst into the impenetrable ecological barrier of Handong and suffered a bloody defeat.

Just then, a black convoy of Hongqi cars slowly drove away along the road at the foot of the mountain.

That was the car the anti-monopoly investigation team left in.

They drove very slowly, exuding an indescribable sense of frustration and dejection.

Yan Qingfeng sat in the pavilion and glanced at the cars from a distance.

The mockery in his eyes grew stronger.

With such limited skills, you dare to investigate him?

Handong's plate had long since become a plaything in his hands, impervious to water or needles.

But this is not enough.

Simply controlling logistics and capital makes one merely a slightly more sophisticated landlord.

Yan Qingfeng casually tossed the golf gloves off the table.

He beckoned to Zhou Yuan with his finger.

Give me the tablet.

Zhou Yuan quickly handed over the encrypted black tablet computer.

Yan Qingfeng lightly swiped his finger across the screen.

Complex code and 3D modeling popped up instantly.

Those were several detailed blueprints for microchips, and a basic system architecture called "Cloud".

The blue fluorescent light reflected off Yan Qingfeng's cold and stern face, casting a harsh, mechanical glow.

Gu Ming's pupils contracted sharply when he saw what was on the screen.

"Master Yan, this is what our lab was working on..."

"right."

Yan Qingfeng picked up the glass of soda water and drank it all in one gulp.

He looked at the Red Flag convoy at the foot of the mountain, which had shrunk to a black dot, and the smile on his lips was cold.

"It's not enough to just strangle them."

Yan Qingfeng tapped his fingers on the chip blueprints on the screen, his voice filled with a chilling fervor.

"Now, I'm going to take over their brains."