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

Outside the revolving glass doors, the black Hongqi limousine without license plates was still running.

The exhaust pipe sputtered out white smoke carrying the dampness of rain.

Li Dakang had just stepped out of the car with one leg.

The cold wind, carrying the smell of mud after the rain, seemed to have no eyes and blew straight in through the unbuttoned collar of his white shirt.

He shuddered, and goosebumps instantly rose up his spine.

The upper and lower rows of teeth are completely out of control.

They clattered together violently, making a soft, clattering sound.

His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the two dark red bloodstains on the marble steps.

That was left behind when that thug called Scorpion was dragged out.

The bloodstains were not completely dry.

The strong, cold air blowing from the building carried a nauseating, rusty smell.

The pool of old, acidic fluid in Li Dakang's stomach churned and surged upwards.

The sour liquid burned his esophagus with a fiery pain.

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down with difficulty, forcing back the gagging.

He had been harboring some shady plans in his heart.

I was thinking of waiting until things calmed down in the next few days.

Then, slowly use the official "legal procedures" and policies to trip up Yan Qingfeng and regain some face for the government.

But now, he was seeing a living, breathing man with his own eyes.

Two lawyers from the Lingxiao Consortium, dressed in suits, issued two tickets that still smelled of ink.

They were literally stripped of their right to be human.

Without shedding a single drop of blood, a living person can be rendered unable to even get a sip of cold water on the streets of Jingzhou.

"Secretary Li, please watch your step, the ground is slippery."

Secretary Xiao Jin stood beside him, holding a black umbrella, her voice trembling like a broken leaf in the cold wind.

Xiao Jin looked at the pool of blood, his legs trembled, and he could barely hold onto the umbrella handle.

Li Dakang didn't respond.

He felt as if his legs had been drained of their marrow, as limp as two overcooked noodles.

He wasn't walking at all.

Instead, he dragged his muddy leather shoes little by little, stepping on the bloodstains left by Brother Scorpion, and numbly shuffled into the entrance of Lingxiao Building.

Conference Room No. 2, Legal Department, 33rd floor of the building.

The main light in the room was off.

Only a single, cold white spotlight shines directly onto the dark gray carbon fiber tabletop.

The air was filled with a pungent smell of ozone from the heat of a photocopier.

The scent, a blend of aggressive, cool perfume, seemed to penetrate right into my nostrils.

Lin Yubing, dressed in a tight black suit, sat across from the table.

Her lips, painted with bright red lipstick, were stretched out straight.

The eyes behind those frameless glasses were as cold as razor blades just pulled from a freezer.

"Secretary Li, Mr. Yan's time is precious, so I won't go through the formalities of drinking tea and pouring water with you."

Lin Yubing's voice was clear and crisp, with a metallic, hard quality.

She flipped her slender wrist.

A document, hundreds of pages thick, slid across the desktop.

A soft "snap" sound.

The document stopped right in front of Li Dakang's withered hands covered in age spots.

The edge of the paper scraped across the table, the dry sound sending chills down my spine.

"Comprehensive Commercial Development Agreement for Land in Guangming District"

Several bold, black characters pierced Li Dakang's retina like a death warrant.

"What...what does this mean?"

Li Dakang's voice was split in two, dry and rough, like two pieces of sandpaper grinding against each other.

His fingers gripped the edge of the table tightly, his fingernails turning a deathly pale white.

Lin Yubing crossed his hands and rested them on his chin, his eyes full of mockery.

"Literal meaning. The remaining core land in Guangming District, along with the redevelopment rights of the old city area."

She paused, her tone leaving no room for negotiation.

"From today onwards, the entire development will be exclusively entrusted to the Lingxiao Consortium. The Municipal Party Committee doesn't need to get involved; they can just wait for their share of the tax revenue at the end of the year."

"To delegate everything? That's against the rules!"

Li Dakang suddenly raised his head, the flesh on his cheeks twitching violently.

He stood up abruptly, the chair leg scraping against the carpet with a dull thud.

"Guangming District is the administrative center of Jingzhou! You've taken away all the development rights; what face does the municipal party committee have left?"

Li Dakang's chest heaved violently, his breathing sounding like a broken bellows.

"Are the people from the Planning Bureau and the Urban Construction Bureau even doing their jobs anymore?!"

"Rules? Secretary Li, you're talking to me about rules?"

Lin Yubing also stood up, her high heels slamming heavily on the floor.

She pulled out an asset freeze order stamped with Ling Xiao's red seal from the black folder.

It was slammed directly onto the table in front of Li Dakang.

"Just now downstairs, our legal department, following regulations, legally froze the three generations of points belonging to a rogue."

Lin Yubing braced her hands on the table, staring intently at Li Dakang's pale old face.

"Because he broke three bottles of liquor belonging to the conglomerate. So tomorrow he won't even be able to get a sip of tap water. That's legal and compliant."

Li Dakang froze.

The veins on his forehead throbbed, making his mind go blank.

Cold sweat streamed down my temples, stinging my eyes.

"If you think the municipal party committee needs to save face, then it's too simple."

Lin Yubing pointed to the holographic screen in the corner that was flashing dark gold data.

"Within one minute, I can have Yunxiao AI shut down all the traffic lights and sewer pumping stations in the Guangming District."

She lightly touched the holographic projection with her red-painted index finger.

"Then you can go to the streets yourself and talk to those ordinary people whose toilets overflow or who get hit by cars at intersections."

"Let's have a proper talk about your government's reputation and rules. How about that?"

Li Dakang's legs went completely limp.

He swayed and then slumped back into the large leather chair with a thud.

His tailbone was throbbing painfully, but he didn't utter a single groan.

He knew very well that the woman in front of him was not joking.

The Lingxiao Consortium not only monopolized hydroelectricity.

Now even the "final right to interpret the law" is in the hands of that Yunxiao system.

Yan Qingfeng did not need to use a single gun or bullet.

A single string of code could plunge the entire Jingzhou into annihilation.

The government's rudimentary legal principles are utterly worthless in the face of this capitalist tyranny.

Li Dakang trembled as he reached out his right hand to take the black carbon pen.

My hands are shaking so badly, it looks like I have Parkinson's disease.

I rubbed my thumb and forefinger together several times, but I still couldn't pull the tightly closed pen cap off.

Large beads of cold sweat seeped from his sparse forehead hair and gathered on the tip of his nose.

The drop of sweat finally couldn't bear the weight and fell straight down.

"Clatter".

A drop of water landed on the signature area on the last page of the contract.

A dark gray water stain instantly spread across the white paper, wrinkling the black dotted line underneath.

"Click".

Li Dakang gritted his teeth, tasting a salty, metallic flavor in his mouth, and finally managed to pull off the pen cap.

The pen tip landed on the paper.

He drew out the three characters "Li Dakang" in a crooked and illegible way, characters that even he himself didn't recognize.

The ink soaked through the paper, each stroke filled with the humiliation of being exploited to the bone.

After he finished signing, the pen in his hand fell to the table with a "clang".

It rolled down the smooth tabletop onto the carpet without making a sound.

Li Dakang slumped in the chair like a lump of mud.

He closed his eyes, and two fine, deep lines appeared at the corners of his eyes.

It felt like there was a rusty wire stuck in my throat; I tried to swallow, but couldn't get anything down.

Lin Yubing decisively pulled the contract back.

Without even glancing at it, he stuffed it directly into the carbon fiber briefcase.

The zipper zipped open with a "rip".

"The agreement is in effect."

Lin Yu turned around coldly, her high heels clicking on the ground, and walked towards the door.

"Secretary Li, you can take your men and go back now."

Li Dakang kept his eyes tightly closed, half of his face hidden in the dim halo of the overhead light.

The back of his suit jacket was soaked with sweat, clinging tightly to his spine.

Hearing the sound of high heels fading into the distance, he used his last bit of strength.

He forced out a hoarse, deathly voice as he looked at the tall, departing black figure.

"Go back and tell President Yan..."

Li Dakang's lips trembled as he personally trampled the last vestige of official dignity into dust.

"From now on, in Guangming District, no, in the entire Jingzhou... even what trees are planted along the roadside will be decided by President Yan."