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

A crisp "ding" sounded.

The elevator doors on the 33rd floor of the Lingxiao Building opened smoothly to both sides.

The air conditioning in the corridor hit people's faces directly, exuding a dryness reminiscent of an industrial-grade filter.

This is the legal department headquarters of the Lingxiao Consortium.

The air is perpetually filled with the smell of ozone emitted from the heat of a photocopier.

The bottom still smelled strongly of ink from high-grade A4 paper.

Suddenly, an aggressive, cold perfume scent cut through the dullness like a blunt blade.

"Da, da, da."

The crisp sound of stiletto heels clicking on the gleaming marble floor was clean and crisp.

Lin Yubing strode over, wearing twelve-centimeter red-soled high heels.

Her all-black business suit was tailored to a perfect fit, without a single extra wrinkle.

Those eyes, hidden behind frameless glasses, were as cold as the highest wattage searchlight on the ceiling of an autopsy room.

She pushed open the heavy double glass door of the legal affairs hall.

The metal hinges of the glass door emitted a dull "humming" sound.

The lobby was bustling with noise, with over three hundred men and women in suits crammed into the spacious office area, frantically typing away on their keyboards.

These people were all top-tier rogue lawyers whom Yan Qingfeng had just poached overnight from Wall Street and London at exorbitant prices.

All of this is to play the "legal cannibalism" card to a ruthless degree.

"Mr. Lin, the air conditioning here is stronger than in a London morgue."

A blond foreigner in the front row rubbed his red nose and sneezed loudly.

His name is John. He used to set up schemes for Wall Street oligarchs, causing tens of thousands of people to jump off buildings. He was so ruthless that even dogs wouldn't eat him.

Lin Yubing didn't even glance at him, and went straight up the steps to the front of the stage.

"If you think it's cold, go back to London and beg for food."

Lin Yubing's voice was cold and aloof, with a metallic quality that seemed to detach him from human emotions.

She flicked her wrist, and a heavy cardboard box she was holding under her arm tipped over.

"Bang!"

A document, five hundred pages thick and bound like a brick, was slammed onto the podium.

The paper rubbed violently, producing a dry, grating "hissing" sound.

A pungent smell of ink rose up and, carried by the cold wind, went straight into the nostrils of the people in the front row.

John's shoulders trembled at the sudden sound of the table being slammed.

The black coffee I just drank kept rising up in my stomach, bringing back a bitter, acidic liquid.

The hundreds of people in the hall immediately stopped what they were doing, and the sound of typing on keyboards came to an abrupt halt.

"Master Yan just gave a direct order."

Lin Yubing braced his hands on the edge of the podium.

Her neatly trimmed, sharp nails pressed hard against the wood grain of the podium.

"The water in the ponds in Handong is so clear now that even the old loaches hiding at the bottom won't show their faces."

Her cold gaze swept across the room, as if she were picking through dead fish on a chopping board.

"What Master Yan said was that it's too crude to just use the security department to dismember and break arms and legs, and it's easy to give people something to criticize."

A mocking sneer curled at the corners of her mouth, which was painted with bright red lipstick.

"From today onwards, our Ministry of Justice will use 'legality' to completely eradicate those disobedient troublemakers, skin and bones."

"Legal harvesting?"

A bald male lawyer who had just switched jobs from a major firm in Beijing pushed up his glasses and his Adam's apple bobbed dryly.

"President Lin, the old forces in Handong are deeply entrenched. If we really go through legal proceedings, wouldn't it drag on for three to five years?"

"Arguing? Do you think this is some neighborhood committee auntie mediating a couple's fight?"

Lin Yubing glanced at him coldly and tapped the heavy document twice with her fingers.

"Master Yan has secured the 50-year franchise rights for Handong. Water, electricity, gas, and public transportation are all managed through Yunxiao AI's system gateway."

She pushed the document forward half an inch.

"This 500-page 'Supplementary Clauses for the Construction and Security of Lingxiao City' is the coffin I tailored for these troublemakers."

Lin Yubing turned to the first page, and the sharp edge of the paper almost cut her index finger.

"If anyone dares to smash a piece of Lingxiao's glass on the street, or dares to curse the conglomerate."

Lin Yubing's voice was like a knife chilled to the bone, "You don't need Shen Pojun's men to beat him up, just send him a lawyer's letter."

The group of seasoned, ruthless lawyers below were practically spitting out their saliva as they listened.

John felt a fine layer of cold sweat break out on the back of his neck.

The cold wind made it feel really cold.

"Send a lawyer's letter demanding compensation? What if they refuse to pay, becoming deadbeats?"

"Not paying? Then just use this clause to determine that he endangered the safety of public infrastructure."

Lin Yubing let out a cold laugh, her eyes revealing a ruthless intent to kill.

"Notify Yunxiao Network to freeze all of his Lingxiao Points for the next three generations within seconds."

The moment those harsh words were uttered, a collective gasp of shock rippled through the crowd.

The bald male lawyer was so startled that his hand trembled, and the plastic pen fell directly to the floor.

"Freeze, freeze three generations of points? That means they'll default on their mortgages, unable to buy even a scallion in Handong, and unable to take public transportation!"

"What I want is for them to be unable to buy a single grain of rice!"

Lin Yubing suddenly straightened up, his tight black suit accentuating his sharp lines.

"Once you're on our legal department's blacklist."

She gritted her teeth, each word dripping with chilling coldness, "Yunxiao AI automatically shuts off the power, so his house can't even flush the toilet, he'll suffocate and rot inside!"

This is not a lawsuit; this is a legal deprivation of a living person's right to life.

They forced a living person into becoming a socially dead body, unable to breathe.

The hundreds of rogue lawyers in the room were all feeling a nauseous, indescribable chill churning in their stomachs.

This is more than a hundred times more ruthless than the Wall Street methods of fleecing retail investors!

Killing the rules with the rules—that's the real cyberpunk!

Lin Yubing looked at the group of legal elites below who were completely stunned, her eyes filled with arrogance.

She swept the more than 500-page document under the podium.

"Use this document to completely plug all the loopholes and blind spots in public security in Handong Province."

She crossed her arms and impatiently stomped the heels of her high heels on the floor.

"I want to bury all the old forces that dare to breathe loudly in Handong alive with a thick stack of lawyer's letters."

John rubbed his arms, which were covered in goosebumps from the cold, and bravely stood up.

"Mr. Lin, who's the first unlucky guy we'll have to operate on?"

His blue eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty excitement; the chill he had felt moments before had transformed into eager anticipation.

Lin Yubing pulled a high-resolution photo from his black briefcase and slammed it on the table.

The photo shows a middle-aged man with a beer belly and a thick gold chain around his neck.

The man was smoking a cigar and directing two excavators to dig haphazardly in an open space in the south of the city.

"This bastard is called Hei Laosan. He used to work with Zhao Ruilong in demolition cases."

Lin Yubing's voice was cold and hard.

"The Zhao family has fallen, but he's quite adept at hiding. Last night, the conglomerate was building a signal tower in the south of the city, and he went and cut half of our fiber optic cable."

"They were still yelling things like, 'Fiber optic cables aren't worth much, I'll give you 20,000 yuan as a reward.'"

John leaned over and glanced at the photo, then grinned.

"Got it. Sue them for damaging the conglomerate's assets and demand a few million in compensation?"

"Millions? Are you trying to fob off a beggar under a bridge?"

Lin Yubing glanced at John as if he were an idiot and snorted coldly.

"That fiber optic cable connects to the data from the Yunxiao electricity meters of 30,000 households in the south of the city."

She placed her hands on the table, leaning forward, creating a very imposing presence.

"Go write a lawyer's letter now, accusing him of: attempting to incite a large-scale social blackout panic and endangering the franchise infrastructure."

"Including economic losses, emotional distress, and damage to goodwill."

Lin Yubing pointed sharply at the photo with her red-painted index finger.

"We demand 500 million. Not a single coin less."

The lawyers below were completely dumbfounded when they heard this.

The bald male lawyer swallowed hard, his throat feeling dry and parched.

"Mr. Lin... this third brother is at best a thug who lends money at exorbitant interest rates. Even if you boil all the fat off his body, you still wouldn't get 500 million."

"Will the court support such an outrageous claim for extortion?"

Lin Yubing smiled.

His laughter sent chills down your spine.

Whether the court supports it or not is irrelevant.

She took out a dark gold Lingxiao employee card from her pocket and tapped it twice on the wooden table.

"As soon as this lawyer's letter is sent, the Yunxiao AI system will immediately initiate the 'asset preservation' procedure."

"All the Lingxiao points gateways, license plate recognition systems, and water, electricity, and gas payment channels under this black-hearted man's name."

A chilling killing intent flashed in Lin Yubing's eyes.

"It will remain frozen for the next three to five years before the verdict is handed down."

The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

John's teeth chattered involuntarily, making a soft, grinding sound.

He now fully understood that there was no need to wait for a court ruling.

During the years of the freeze, Hei Laosan had no points to buy rice and couldn't even get a sip of untreated water.

People would have starved or died of thirst on the streets long ago!

"That's a vicious move... This is what Master Yan meant by killing without shedding blood through legal means!"

John swallowed hard, his mouth watering, and quickly grabbed the thick supplementary clauses.

He was about to turn and leave when he suddenly seemed to remember something and stopped in his tracks.

"Mr. Lin, this third brother is a tough nut to crack, he has dozens of thugs with steel pipes under his command."

John licked his chapped lips. "What if he tears up the lawyer's letter on the spot and comes with a group of people who're armed and causing a scene?"

Lin Yubing glanced at him coldly, the mocking smile on her lips deepening.

She slowly picked up the pure black thermos on the podium and unscrewed the lid.

"Using a knife? That suits me perfectly; that makes the crime even more serious."

She took a sip of warm water, her voice muffled as it came through the cup, "You just go and put out the tickets, tell him: if he dares to lay a finger on you, I'll make sure his grandson can never even open a public toilet door for the rest of his life."