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

The torrential rain that had been raging in Jingzhou finally subsided the next morning.

The air was filled with a strong smell of ozone, and the ground below was covered with the pungent dampness of the asphalt road surface soaked by rain.

The third floor of an old residential building on Guangming Road.

Old Li, a retired fitter, wearing a faded old vest and slippers, walked to the window.

He had barely cracked open the rusty aluminum window when a fine layer of pockmarks instantly appeared on his scalp.

"Old woman...come quickly and look outside!"

Old Li's voice cracked, and his withered fingers clung tightly to the window frame, his knuckles turning bluish-white.

"Is this some kind of alien invasion?"

The sky was grayish-blue.

But in mid-air, there were countless dark, mechanical lumps.

Thousands of black Lingxiao heavy industrial drones resembled a swarm of mechanical locusts drawn by the smell of blood.

They surrounded the nearby municipal substation and waterworks, making it impossible to pass through.

The buzzing sound of the drone's rotors churning the air made the windowpanes tremble.

There was no wrangling, no stamping.

Not a single official in a jacket was seen to set up a platform for the ribbon-cutting and handover ceremony.

The Lingxiao Consortium's entry was as brutal as cracking a walnut with a hammer.

Old Li witnessed it with his own eyes.

Several mechanical spiders with eight alloy legs climbed off the construction vehicle.

They pried open the manhole cover in the middle of the road, which was emitting the stench of swill, and slid down the pipe wall.

On the towering iron tower of the municipal power supply bureau, several hydraulic robotic arms were clamping high-voltage cables, sending sparks flying high into the air.

"What are you yelling about! Hurry up and get some water to cook; we need to take our grandson to school later!"

From the inner room came his wife's angry scolding.

Old Li swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down a couple of times, before quickly turning and going into the kitchen.

Turn on the tap, and "hiss—" a dry, leaking sound.

Normally, the water pressure in this old residential area in the south of the city is so low that it's like you're urinating; you have to squat for ages to fill a basin with water.

It also had a pungent bleach smell and yellowish-brown rust slag inside.

The municipal party committee held meetings and argued for three whole years to repair this broken main water pipe, but they didn't even dig a mud pit.

Available today.

"Splash!" A jet of water shot out like a high-pressure water gun, splashing half of Old Li's face.

He wiped the cold water from his face, shivering from the cold.

His eyes, however, were wide open.

The sink was half full of water, clear and transparent, with not a single impurity visible.

He reached out and scooped up a handful, then brought it to his lips and took a big gulp.

Cool and sweet.

The water slid down my esophagus into my stomach, suppressing even my usual morning acid reflux and heartburn.

This is premium purified water that has undergone multi-stage filtration using heavy metal ion membranes by the consortium.

"My God..."

Old Li's knees buckled, and he almost knelt in front of the stove, holding the faucet in his hands as if it were a gold ingot.

"This Lingxiao Consortium... they're practically saints descended to earth!"

This is the top floor of the Lingxiao Building at this time.

Yan Qingfeng was leaning back in a custom-made ostrich leather sofa, his hand clicking as he cut the sterling silver cigar cutter.

Hua Linglong, wearing heels over ten centimeters high, swayed her waist like a water snake as she strode in.

"Master Yan, the water pipe replacement in the south of the city is complete. It took 31 minutes and 4 seconds."

She handed over the tablet, her bright red lips curving into a seductive smile.

A strong yet not overpowering scent of high-end perfume wafted through the air.

Zhou Yuan sat next to him, crunching on ice with his big teeth.

"Damn, thirty minutes." Zhou Yuan swallowed the ice chips, shivering from the cold.

"We got what Li Dakang and his gang of bastards had been arguing about for three years without getting it done, but we got it done in the time it takes to have breakfast."

He slapped his thigh, "The official stance has been completely humiliated!"

Yan Qingfeng didn't respond and casually tossed the cigar cutter onto the coffee table.

The metal struck the glass panel with a dull thud.

"How is the experience for ordinary people?"

He picked up his black coffee and took a sip; the bitter liquid stimulated his taste buds.

"They've gone mad, the whole city has gone mad."

Hua Linglong covered her mouth and chuckled softly, her chest rising and falling with her laughter, revealing a glimpse of snow-white skin through her collar.

"As you instructed, I pushed the videos of AI automatically taking over the substation and water plant to the entire internet without blurring them at all."

She tapped the tablet screen with her red nail polish.

The fingernail hit the screen with a "bang".

"We've taken up eight of the top ten trending topics. Netizens are all asking when we can bring Ling Xiao to their province."

Yan Qingfeng stood up and walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

Looking down at the city below, which is being reshaped by steel and AI.

"Keep pushing."

His voice was icy and ruthless, and his trousers clung to his calves from the cold air.

"I want the whole country to see how well Handong can function without those useless bureaucrats who only know how to stamp documents."

At the same time, in the capital city.

In a heavily guarded courtyard house in Xishan.

The old locust tree in the yard was shedding its withered leaves in the autumn wind.

The room was heated by underfloor heating, making it very hot and dry, which made people's hair very dry.

Several elderly men with white hair, dressed in traditional Chinese jackets, were gathered around a tea table made of rosewood.

The air was filled with the delicate fragrance of top-grade pre-Qingming Longjing tea, mixed with the fermented smell of old wood.

In the very center of the table was an encrypted military-grade tablet.

The video playing on the screen was the live recording of Lingxiao AI taking over Handong, which was being pushed across the entire internet by Hua Linglong.

Mechanical spiders spray cleaning agents in sewers, while unmanned engineering vehicles precisely cut the road surface.

There was no human intervention throughout the entire process; the data flowed like a waterfall scrolling across the side of the screen.

The efficiency is so high it's mind-boggling.

The gaunt old man sitting in the main seat was holding a blue and white porcelain teacup.

Watching the heavy robotic arm on the screen snap the old high-voltage line and connect the new cable, I saw it cut the old one with a snap.

His hand, covered in age spots, trembled violently.

"Clang!"

The tea lid struck the rim of the bowl with a sharp, jarring sound.

A few drops of scalding hot tea splashed out and landed directly on the back of his hand.

The old man didn't even flinch, letting a clear blister form on the back of his hand from the burn.

"Old Xu, are your hands shaking?"

A plump old man next to him, who was playing with walnuts, stopped what he was doing.

Two well-patinaed old walnuts collided together, producing a dry "crackling" sound.

"Where did Yan Qingfeng get this kind of skill?"

Old Xu swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing laboriously in the loose skin of his neck.

He felt as if his heart was being squeezed, beating fast and frantically.

"This isn't robbery, he's reshaping the rules!"

The fat old man slammed the walnuts on the table, his face so gloomy it looked like it was about to drip water.

"Qi Weidong backed down at the train station, and Li Dakang even sold the franchise rights."

He forced out the words through gritted teeth, the flesh on his cheeks twitching.

"Yan Qingfeng has completely hollowed out Handong's resources!"

The room was eerily quiet, with only the mechanical hum emanating from the tablet.

Old Xu took a tissue and pressed it firmly against the back of his hand, which was covered in scald blisters.

The pain stimulated his nerves, and a fierce, murky light flashed in his eyes.

"Old buddy, we can't pretend we're blind anymore."

Old Xu stared at the dark gold Lingxiao logo on the screen, his voice hoarse as if he had swallowed ice.

"Could you inform the military region to raise the combat readiness level?"