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

In the early morning in Jingzhou, the first rays of sunlight had not yet pierced through the clouds.

The newsstands on the street were already packed with frenzied crowds.

"Don't push! Give me two copies of the *Handong Daily*!"

Bundles of freshly printed newspapers, still smelling of ink, were snapped up.

The front page headlines no longer featured the dry, bureaucratic jargon of the past.

The entire page was completely dominated by eight bold, dark gold characters:

Lingxiao Consortium, bringing benefits to Handong!

The breakfast stall on the street corner is steaming hot.

A retired teacher wearing reading glasses was clutching a newspaper tightly, his hands trembling like a leaf.

He abruptly took off his glasses, and tears "plop" fell onto the greasy dining table.

"A living bodhisattva! Lord Yan is truly a living bodhisattva who saves people from suffering!"

The middle-aged man next to him, who was eating a fried dough stick, leaned over and his eyes widened instantly.

"All retired teachers in the province will have their imported special-effect drugs fully reimbursed? The Lingxiao Special Fund will cover the costs?!"

The man gasped, not even noticing that the half-eaten fried dough stick in his hand had fallen to the ground.

The elderly teacher wiped away her tears, her voice choked with emotion.

"My husband needs to take rejection medication for his kidney transplant. A box costs over 8,000 yuan, and it's not covered by medical insurance."

"Those people in the provincial party committee are all talk and no action; we haven't even dared to eat meat in recent years."

"Master Yan's words literally pulled my wife back from the brink of death!"

A few young students not far away were frantically browsing local forums on their phones.

"Did you guys see the pinned trending topic? It's not just about medication!"

A young man with a buzz cut was so excited that his face turned red, and he shoved his phone screen in front of his companion's face.

"The Lingxiao Consortium is investing an additional 100 billion yuan to build Asia's largest supercomputing center in the southern suburbs!"

The young man shouted at the top of his lungs, as if afraid that others wouldn't hear him.

"Master Yan said that once the computing power base is completed, it will be given priority access to local universities free of charge!"

His companion was so excited that he slapped his thigh, spilling all the soy milk on the table.

"Holy crap! A hundred billion just like that? That's some nerve! Li Dakang couldn't even come up with a fraction of that before!"

"Why bother taking the civil service exam! I'm going to work for the Lingxiao Consortium cleaning toilets after graduation!"

This is Yan Qingfeng's open strategy.

There was no underhanded dealing, and no digging up dirt in the middle of the night.

He brazenly laid out hundreds of billions of dollars in real money under the sun.

The eyes of the people are discerning.

They will recognize whoever feeds them and gives them life as their god.

Faced with this overwhelming wave of fervent public opinion.

Those bureaucrats of the old era, accustomed to speaking in official jargon and following procedures, are like fragile sheets of paper.

At 10:00 AM, Jingzhou Environmental Protection Bureau.

The environmental impact assessment report for the South Suburb Supercomputing Center was delivered to Director Ma's desk early in the morning.

Director Ma is a seasoned veteran who's about to retire.

He leaned back in his chair, twirling his pen, and slowly turned two pages of the report.

"Director, Ling Xiao is pressing us hard, saying the construction period can't be delayed even by a day."

The section chief stood in front of his desk, forcing a smile.

Director Ma snorted coldly and slammed his pen on the table.

"Urge him? Just because Yan Qingfeng has money doesn't mean he can break the rules?"

"Several ecological indicators are missing from this environmental impact assessment report. Send it back and make them resubmit the application!"

The section chief wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling somewhat apprehensive.

"Chief, that's Master Yan's project. If we block him, won't that cause trouble?"

"What trouble have you gotten yourself into?"

Director Ma picked up his thermos and blew on the floating tea leaves with a dismissive air.

"I'm just following the rules. I'll leave them hanging for three days to let them know that in Handong, money isn't all it takes to get things done."

He's used this bureaucratic maneuvering for half his life, and it's always worked.

But he forgot that the person sitting on the top floor of the Lingxiao Building doesn't play by the rules at all.

Less than half an hour.

The water in Director Ma's thermos was still warm when the office door was suddenly slammed open.

The section chief stumbled in, his face as white as if it were covered in putty.

"Chief! Something's happened! Something terrible!"

Director Ma frowned, his face full of displeasure.

"What's the panic! Is the sky falling?"

"The main gate is blocked!"

The section chief pointed out the window, his voice trembling, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Hundreds of students from Handong University, along with residents from the southern suburbs, completely surrounded the gates of our Environmental Protection Bureau!"

Director Ma's hand trembled, and the scalding hot tea splashed directly onto his crotch.

He jumped up with a loud "whoosh," completely ignoring the heat.

He scrambled to the window and looked down.

A dark mass of heads loomed before me.

A white banner, more than ten meters long, was held high by several young students.

The words written on it were in large, blood-red characters:

"Resist bureaucracy! Severely punish Ma, the criminal who hindered the development of science and technology in Handong!"

Director Ma's mind went blank, and he almost collapsed.

"What...what happened? Who leaked the information?"

The section chief was so anxious that he stamped his feet and handed over his phone.

"There's absolutely no need to leak it! The Lingxiao Consortium's official website just made a pop-up announcement!"

"They say the supercomputing center might be forced to relocate to another province due to difficulties in obtaining approval from the environmental protection bureau!"

Director Ma stared at his phone screen, a chill running down his spine.

The local forums have completely exploded.

The top ten trending topics were all posts criticizing him.

"Investigate Director Ma thoroughly! He's definitely trying to extort money and bribes!"

"They even dared to block projects that Lord Yan was working to benefit the people; they should be skinned alive!"

Some people even dug up all the details about Director Ma, such as what kind of car his wife drives and where his son goes to school.

This is Yan Qingfeng's oxygen control method.

He didn't even make a single phone call, nor utter a single threatening word.

It's just about making the progress transparent.

Angry netizens and ordinary people could drown this Director Ma with their spittle.

"Director, Secretary Sha's secretariat just called."

The section chief swallowed hard, his eyes filled with despair.

"They said if they can't quell public anger, they'll make you go through the retirement process this afternoon."

Director Ma's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

His much-vaunted approval power is utterly worthless in the face of absolute capital and public opinion.

"Where's the seal? Where's my company seal?!"

Director Ma scrambled back to the table like a madman, rummaging through drawers and cabinets to find the red official seal.

His hands trembled as he slammed the environmental impact assessment report down.

"Quick! Send this to Ling Xiao right away! Beg them to issue a statement clarifying the situation!"

Noon, top floor of Lingxiao Building.

Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the expensive mahogany floor.

Yan Qingfeng leaned back on the sofa, flipping through news briefings on his tablet.

A bored, cold smile hung on his sharply defined face.

Zhou Yuan strode in, grinning from ear to ear.

"Master Yan, your brilliant strategy is simply divine!"

"That stubborn old man surnamed Ma from the Environmental Protection Bureau was so scared he wet his pants and personally delivered the permit to our building!"

Yan Qingfeng didn't even lift his eyelids, casually tossing the tablet onto the coffee table.

"What an idiot. Even Sha Ruijin didn't have the guts to stop me, but he wants to pull out my tiger whiskers."

He picked up the black coffee next to him and took a small sip.

"Now Sha Ruijin understands that he can't even find an excuse to cause me trouble."

Zhou Yuan gave a thumbs up, his face full of enthusiasm.

"That's right! Now the people of the whole province treat you like a living god."

"Once you dig this moat, those people in the provincial party committee will be completely isolated."

As he spoke, Zhou Yuan carefully pulled a dark red envelope from his pocket.

The envelope was made of the finest velvet and had the Hantong University emblem printed on the seal.

There are also several large gold-plated characters on it.

"Master Yan, this was just delivered by a special car from Handong University."

Zhou Yuan held the envelope with both hands and respectfully handed it to Yan Qingfeng.

"The principal personally signed it. He said it's for next week's opening ceremony and he'd like you to make an appearance."

Yan Qingfeng took the envelope, his slender fingers gently tracing the gold foil patterns on it.

He didn't open it to check; he just threw it in the corner of the coffee table.

"You want me to give a speech?" Yan Qingfeng scoffed.

Zhou Yuan took a half step closer and lowered his voice.

"Yes. The principal almost knelt down on the phone, saying that today's college students admire no one but you, a hero of our time."

"Master Yan, if you find these dry, polite words annoying, I'll go and decline."

Yan Qingfeng tapped the armrest of the sofa with his fingers.

The sunlight shone on his cold, stern face, reflecting an arrogant disdain for the world.

He didn't take the letter; he simply stood up slowly.

"Refuse what? This is the lifeblood of Handong for the next ten years."

Yan Qingfeng walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked down at the faintly visible campus of Handong University in the distance, and a bloodthirsty smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Go prepare the car. Since they want to hear the truth, I'll go teach these little brats what real cannibalism is."