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

The ink on Sha Ruijin's signature on the letter of appointment had not been dry for even half a month.

Inside a gray building within Beijing's Second Ring Road, chaos erupted.

This place is the National Macroeconomic Data Statistics Center.

The main lights in the lobby were not on.

The cooling fans of hundreds of computer mainframes hummed and spun, blowing out dry, warm air.

The curved screen covering the entire wall emitted a faint, cold light, casting a ghastly green glow on the faces of the group of white-haired old men sitting below.

The recent Wall Street sell-off, coupled with the earthquake in Beijing's entertainment industry, all contributed to this situation.

The aftershocks haven't completely subsided yet.

The bar charts for the major coastal economic provinces all turned completely green on the big screen.

It was a dark, almost blackish green, lying near the baseline like a dead fish, belly up.

"This...this market in the Yangtze River Delta region has shrunk by nine percent?"

An old man wearing thick-rimmed glasses extended his trembling fingers.

The fingertip touched the air, then suddenly withdrew.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, which was shiny with oil.

"The fourth quarter has just begun, and the national economy has already suffered a major setback."

"Hey, Lao Li, look over there!"

The bald man next to him slammed his hand on the table, making the teacup lid jump and spill tea onto the mousepad.

He pointed to a corner at the very edge of the screen, his voice cracking as he shouted.

"Then... what's that red pillar? Is the machine leaking electricity?!"

Dozens of eyes immediately turned to look.

Quiet.

A deathly silence.

Only the central air conditioning vents overhead emitted a hissing, sucking sound.

The far right of the screen.

The red GDP bar representing Handong Province looks like a glaring, bloodstained spear.

It directly pierced the red line at the top of the statistical table.

The numbers went wildly upwards, eventually getting stuck at a number that could cause a brain hemorrhage.

Four hundred.

It defied the trend and surged by a full 400%.

"Cough cough... cough cough cough!"

Old Li couldn't catch his breath and clutched his chest, coughing violently.

His face turned purplish-red, and he almost spat out his dentures.

"Even data fabrication needs some basic principles! Is Sha Ruijin desperate for money? How dare he submit such outrageous accounts to his superiors!"

"Investigate! Send a special investigation team immediately!"

The bald man slammed his fist on the keyboard, and one of the plastic keys flew off.

"Let's go to Handong! I want to see if their printing press has come to life, or if gold bars have sprouted from the ground!"

That afternoon.

It was quite windy on the tarmac at Gyeongju International Airport.

The autumn wind carried a sour, pungent smell of aviation kerosene, which wafted straight into people's collars.

Qi Weidong, the head of the investigation team, wrapped his black jacket tighter around himself.

The zipper was pulled all the way up to his chin; the cold metal zipper pressed against his skin, raising goosebumps.

Behind him followed four or five auditors carrying briefcases, their necks hunched against the cold wind.

"Director Qi, shall we go to the provincial party committee compound to meet with Secretary Sha?"

Xiao Liu, who was standing next to him, pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and sniffled.

Qi Weidong pulled a crumpled cigarette out of his pocket and put it in his mouth.

It took two tries to light the windproof lighter.

He took a drag, exhaled a grayish-white smoke ring, which dissipated in the wind.

"What kind of connection is this? Go down to the grassroots level first, go to the farmers' market, go to the supermarket, and see where this 400% confidence comes from."

Half an hour later, at the largest agricultural wholesale market in the south of Jingzhou City.

Qi Weidong walked through the rotten vegetable leaves and muddy water on the ground to a meat stall.

The pork on the cutting board had a fresh reddish sheen and didn't have that sour smell of pork that had been sitting out for too long.

"Master, how much is this pork belly?"

He pointed to the piece of meat with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

The stall owner was a bald, fat man.

He was wiping his hands with a dirty rag, and then wiped his greasy fingers on his apron.

"One yuan and fifty cents a pound. These are pigs raised by Lingxiao Agriculture, fed with some kind of high-tech feed."

The fat man grinned, revealing a large gold tooth.

"It smells delicious! How much do you want? I'll cut it for you right away."

The cigarette butt in Qi Weidong's mouth fell to the ground.

Cigarette ash splattered on the tips of the leather shoes.

"One dollar and fifty cents? You're selling diseased pigs, aren't you!" Xiao Liu chimed in from behind, his face full of disgust.

"Get out of here! Stop talking nonsense!"

The fat man was displeased upon hearing this and slammed the butcher's knife on the chopping board with a loud bang.

The blade embedded itself in the wood, causing the skin to tremble violently.

"This price is the same throughout Handong! You wouldn't know anything about the perks Master Yan is giving us!"

Qi Weidong squatted down.

He pulled a red 100-yuan bill from the inside pocket of his jacket; it was quite new, with stiff creases.

"Give me ten pounds. Keep the change."

He handed over the money.

The fat man stared at the money as if it were an alien.

He didn't even extend his hand.

Instead, she took half a step back, pouted her thick lips, and rolled her eyes.

"Uncle, where did you come from, you caveman? This piece of paper is too stiff even to wipe your butt around here."

Qi Weidong's hand holding the money froze in mid-air.

Being stared at by several middle-aged women buying groceries nearby made him feel a little embarrassed.

"What do you mean by that? You dare refuse to accept RMB?"

"Who refused to accept it? You're making a big deal out of buying meat."

The fat man pulled off the towel around his neck and wiped away his sweat.

He pointed to a small blue holographic projection floating above the stall.

"We're all farming 'Lingxiao Points' here now. You can bind an account to the holographic system and spend as much as you earn."

The fat man waved his hand, as if swatting away flies.

"If you don't have any points, get out of here. Don't hold me up from doing business. These days, you can't even buy a bottle of mineral water in Jingzhou City with paper money."

Qi Weidong silently stuffed the hundred yuan back into his pocket.

The corner of the coin was bent and felt a bit prickly.

He turned and walked back, his steps a little heavy, his shoes making a squelching sound in the mud.

8 PM, temporary office at Jingzhou Hotel.

The ashtray was crammed full of twisted cigarette butts, like a small mountain.

The windows were closed, and the pungent smell of secondhand smoke made my eyes sting and water.

A pile of account books bearing the official seal of the Provincial Development and Reform Commission were scattered on the table.

Several auditors had their hair tangled up like a bird's nest, and their eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion.

"Director Qi..."

Xiao Liu slammed the mouse heavily onto the table, the plastic casing making a crisp click.

He irritably loosened his tie, his voice filled with despair.

"We can't find anything. The provincial finance department's treasury accounts are so clean they could starve a mouse."

"There's only a few tens of thousands of yuan left in there, and there hasn't been a single decent inflow of money in the past few months."

Qi Weidong leaned back on the sofa.

He held a cigarette between two fingers, the ash burning long and falling onto his crotch.

He didn't take the picture.

"Where are the taxes? With such large solid-state battery factories and so many heavy-duty logistics vehicles running around, where did the taxes go?"

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper being ground.

Another auditor next to him, wearing black-rimmed glasses, swallowed hard.

They pushed a cracked electronic report in front of Qi Weidong.

There were some oil stains from instant noodle soup on the edge of the tablet.

"Director Qi, please take a look at this."

The man with the black-rimmed glasses trembled, and his fingers, which were pushing up the glasses, wouldn't obey him.

"In Handong today, businesses and ordinary people can't even afford to buy a cabbage when they receive their wages."

He took a deep breath, as if to bolster his courage.

"They completely bypassed the national settlement network. They used virtual credit points created by the Lingxiao system backend."

The room was deathly quiet.

All that remained was the buzzing sound of the computer case cooling.

"That's 400% of GDP..." Qi Weidong gritted his teeth.

The flesh on his cheeks bulged out.

"It's all data that Yan Qingfeng passed from one hand to the other."

Xiao Liu slumped in his chair, staring blankly at the ceiling light.

"Lingxiao lends money, Lingxiao pays wages, and Lingxiao sets prices. Ordinary people earn points by working, and then use those points to buy things at Lingxiao's supermarket."

He gave a bitter laugh, which looked worse than crying.

"Those official tax stamps with red headers are just a pile of waste paper here."

Qi Weidong suddenly stood up.

He stood up too suddenly, and his vision went black for a moment. He quickly reached out to hold onto the edge of the table.

The wooden table creaked under the weight.

He walked to the window and pulled back the heavy blackout curtains.

Outside the window, the night view of Jingzhou City is so dazzling it makes one's heart race.

There wasn't a single dark corner.

Several mega-factories in the distance were brightly lit, and huge logistics trucks surged through the city like glowing blood vessels.

In mid-air, the dark gold Lingxiao logo hangs at the highest point.

Like a cold, indifferent eye, it looks down upon the masses below.

Qi Weidong grabbed the red secure telephone on the table.

When dialing, I pressed the wrong key and quickly undoed it to press it again.

The call connected, but there was a slight hissing static.

"Hey? Lao Qi, have you investigated thoroughly? Was that data fabricated by Sha Ruijin?"

The bald man on the other side of the capital spoke with an impatient tone.

There were also background noises of typing.

Qi Weidong's knuckles turned white as he gripped the receiver.

My palms were covered in cold, damp sweat, and the plastic earpiece was a bit slippery.

He opened his mouth, but there was phlegm stuck in his throat. He coughed twice before making a sound.

"Chief...it's not fake."

Qi Weidong's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, and his voice trembled like a leaf.

"This increase of 400 was achieved through real hard work."

The sound of typing on the keyboard stopped.

"Then hurry up and seal up the ledgers and bring them back!"

"I can't take it back."

Qi Weidong closed his eyes, his eyelids twitching.

He looked at his pale, old face reflected in the glass.

"Sir, this 400 billion in GDP did not go into the national treasury."

He was panting heavily, and the sound of wind breaking through his chest was heard.

"This is all because of the charity that Yan Qingfeng gave away between his fingers... He distributed welfare to the people of Handong, and the plate was so full that it burst."

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone.

Qi Weidong bit his trembling lips.

Cold sweat trickled down my temples and into my collar; it was icy cold.

He gripped the edge of the windowsill tightly, trembling as he uttered the last half of his sentence.

"Reporting to the commander... Handong can no longer be considered a province."

He sniffed, his tone revealing deep fear and helplessness.

"It is a highly developed... completely independent... conglomerate empire!"