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

The tablet screen emitted a cold, eerie blue light.

Chen Yanshi's hoarse, choked sobs echoed in the empty No. 1 office of the Provincial Party Committee.

"Only Yan Qingfeng... only he truly cares about the lives of ordinary people!"

Drag the video progress bar to the bottom.

The image is frozen on Chen Yanshi's old face, which is covered with tear troughs.

Sha Ruijin leaned back in the rattan chair, his hand, which was holding half a cigarette from a special supply, frozen in mid-air.

A long, grayish-white cigarette ash could not withstand the weight and snapped with a snap.

It fell onto his navy blue trousers.

Two seconds later, a spark burned through the fabric, scalding the flesh of the thigh.

He gasped sharply, frantically patting his trouser leg, kicking up a small cloud of cigarette ash.

Li Dakang, sitting on the opposite sofa, looked even more disheveled.

He was holding a white porcelain teacup, his wrist trembling like a leaf.

The lukewarm tea sloshed out and splashed onto the tips of his leather shoes.

He didn't feel the heat at all; he was just busy wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"Secretary Sha..."

Li Dakang swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"Is Old Chen getting senile? He's a true gentleman from Handong... you know, a paragon of integrity!"

He placed the teacup on the coffee table, making a crisp sound.

"How could he sing a hymn to Yan Qingfeng in the street? If word gets back to the capital..."

"It's been reported to the capital?" Sha Ruijin scoffed.

He stubbed out the cigarette butt hard in the ashtray, crushing all the tobacco shreds in the process.

"Do you think the capital is blind? This video is probably already on some bigwig's desk."

There was a knock on the door twice.

Secretary Xiao Wang pushed open the door and came in carrying several thick brown paper bags.

The windows were closed, and the pungent smell of smoke made Xiao Wang turn his head away, pinch his nose, and cough.

"Secretary, the summary reports from all departments for the third quarter are out. Could you... could you please take a look?"

Xiao Wang placed the paper bag on the mahogany desk.

Shrinking his neck as if afraid of being scolded, he slipped away.

The door clicked shut.

Sha Ruijin tore open the thread wrapping around the kraft paper bag.

He pulled out a stack of A4 papers that smelled strongly of ink.

The paper edge was a bit rough, making a rustling sound when scraped against the fingertips.

He turned to the first page, which was a public security report submitted by the Public Security Bureau.

My gaze swept down the form, then stopped, and my eyes slowly widened.

"Zero?" Sha Ruijin's voice cracked, sounding like a broken bellows.

He slammed the paper down in front of Li Dakang, sending dust flying across the table.

"The province's serious crime rate was zero last month!"

Li Dakang quickly moved closer, his eyes almost touching the paper.

"No, how could that be? Zhao Donglai and his group spend all their time playing cards and drinking tea!"

He scratched his itchy scalp, and dandruff fell onto his shoulder.

"Oh...right, the holographic eye."

Li Dakang slapped his thigh, his voice booming.

"Lingxiao Security has taken over street patrols, and the holographic system locks identities. Anyone who dares to steal an onion will be pinned to the ground by security within three minutes."

He smacked his lips twice. "The Public Security Bureau is now in charge of... in charge of going over there and arresting someone."

Sha Ruijin did not respond.

My fingers trembled as I turned to the second document.

Employment data from the National Development and Reform Commission.

The unemployment rate line, which used to be undulating, is now flat at the bottom, as if someone drew a line with a ruler.

"The unemployment rate is zero." Sha Ruijin uttered these words, his tongue twisting in knots.

"With the expansion of the super factory and the deployment of the drone logistics network, Yan Qingfeng has drained all the idle labor force in Handong."

Li Dakang chimed in from the side, his tone tinged with sarcasm.

"That's right, even the old blind beggar under the bridge in the south of the city was recruited by Ling Xiao to do sorting."

"Four thousand a month! I'd even consider putting my good-for-nothing brother-in-law in there!"

Sha Ruijin then opened the third copy.

The price bureau's reports were as stable as stagnant water.

The mutated rice, priced at 1.2 yuan per kilogram, has firmly fixed the overall price level in Handong to the ground.

An unsettling silence fell over the office.

Only the ticking of the clock on the wall struck their nerves.

Sha Ruijin leaned back in his chair, letting out a complete sigh of relief.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his throbbing temples.

Images of past meetings flashed through my mind.

For the sake of a simple food supply project, more than a dozen departments were passing the buck and shirking responsibility.

They argued heatedly, stamped dozens of seals on the documents, but in the end, they were just empty shells.

To improve public security, special campaigns are launched every year, but the problem persists year after year.

The officials have been trying for decades to accomplish something they've been trying to do but haven't been able to.

What about Yan Qingfeng?

Several months.

In just a few months, relying on overwhelming capital and technological dictatorship, they directly delivered the results to their faces.

The sky outside the window darkened without us even realizing it.

The early winter dusk is short, and the cold wind sneaks in through the window cracks, raising goosebumps on the neck.

The room was dark, with only the light from the computer screen illuminating half of Sha Ruijin's face.

"Dakang."

Sha Ruijin's voice was tinged with an overwhelming weariness, as if he had sand stuck in his throat.

"Take a look at what our provincial party committee compound has been doing for the past two weeks."

Li Dakang was stunned for a moment.

He counted on his short, stubby fingers.

"Drinking tea, reading the newspaper..."

He smacked his lips and uttered a blunt truth.

"The planning document submitted to the Lingxiao Consortium... is stamped."

Li Dakang grinned self-deprecatingly and reached out to loosen his tie.

"Secretary Sha, I'm more idle than a neighborhood committee auntie these days. All I do is stamp things all day. I've already gone through two seals and inkpads."

Sha Ruijin opened his eyes.

My gaze fell on the very edge of the mahogany table.

There lay there quietly a beautifully bound agreement.

The cover is made of dark gold paper and printed with Lingxiao's logo.

Agreement on the comprehensive entrustment of urban planning and people's livelihood management of Handong Province to Lingxiao Foundation.

This was delivered by Zhou Yuan yesterday afternoon in a very swaggering manner.

It's nominally a commission.

In reality, it means getting the authorities to voluntarily hand over the last bit of administrative power.

Sha Ruijin stared at the agreement.

My fingertips brushed against the dark gold paper, feeling its coolness.

If this is signed, the regime in Handong will be completely stripped of its fig leaf, inside and out.

The entire family shares the surname Yan.

What if we don't sign?

Chen Yanshi's tears, the cheap rice in the hands of ordinary people, and these alarmingly bright quarterly data.

In the darkness, Sha Ruijin let out a long, stale breath.

The sigh in the unlit office revealed a deep-seated resignation.

He fumbled in the dark and grabbed the Hero fountain pen from the table.

The pen cap was removed with a "click".

The pen tip touched the signature area, making a scratching sound.

The ink seeped into the paper fibers.

After finishing the last stroke, he casually tossed the pen handle aside, and the pen stub rolled across the table.

"Signed?"

Li Dakang peeked out from the shadows, his tone unreadable, neither revealing disappointment nor relief.

"Otherwise what?"

Sha Ruijin leaned back, sinking into the rattan chair, too exhausted to even move a finger.

He stared at the dark ceiling, as if asking Li Dakang, or perhaps asking himself.

"The government can't compete with the conglomerates; public opinion is entirely in their hands. What can we do besides be a useful rubber stamp?"

Li Dakang picked up the now-cold tea in the dark and took a big gulp.

The old tea dregs stuck between his teeth, tasting bitter, and he licked them hard with his tongue.

"That's true. But Secretary Sha..."

Li Dakang put down his teacup, the bottom of which hit the coffee table with a dull thud.

In the darkness, his eyes darted around, his tone tinged with a hint of apprehension.

"Yan Qingfeng has completely monopolized the market in Handong. Do you think his next move... will be to extend his reach into Handong and try to grab a piece of the big pie in the capital?"