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

"Click."

The crisp sound of Wu Huifen chewing an apple came through the broken cell phone's earpiece, which had a slightly distorted signal.

The sweet and refreshing aroma of fresh fruit juice seems to travel directly through this wave of energy.

This smell clashed completely with the musty, sour smell of rotten paper that had been sitting in the basement for a long time.

The fumes instantly caused Zhong Xiaoai's stomach walls to contract wildly.

She swallowed hard, her throat feeling sour, and her Adam's apple throbbed painfully.

The muscles in his groin were twitching uncontrollably from hunger.

My knees buckled on the dusty cement floor.

Her tattered shirt was already soaked with cold sweat, and the underground wind made her bones ache from the cold.

On the other end of the phone, Wu Huifen was sitting in a large leather sofa in the Lingxiao Global Employee Welfare Community.

The central air conditioning precisely locks the room temperature at a constant 24 degrees Celsius, making people feel comfortable all over.

A faint, sophisticated freesia scent filled the air, a world apart from the scorching sun outside at over 30 degrees Celsius.

She casually tossed the half-eaten, specially-made apple into the smart trash can.

He took out an expensive velvet tissue and slowly wiped the sweet juice from between his fingers.

"Cleaning toilets?"

Wu Huifen's voice was as cold and hard as a piece of iron plate just taken out of the freezer, carrying a condescending disdain.

"Zhong Xiaoai, have you gone crazy from being cooped up in this basement?"

"Do you really think that Mr. Yan's conglomerate is like the shelters your family used to run, where you can just slip in a note?"

"Teacher Wu, I can endure any hardship! I really can do anything!"

Zhong Xiaoai was so anxious that her whole body was trembling, and her upper and lower teeth were uncontrollably chattering.

The empty basement was filled with the crackling sound of her teeth chattering.

She gripped the broken phone, its screen shattered like a spiderweb, her nails digging deep into her palm.

The rough shards of glass cut her thumb right at the base of her thumb.

Dark red blood seeped out mixed with cold sweat dripping down, emitting a salty, rusty smell.

But now she can't feel any pain at all.

"Just give me a bite of Handong's mutated rice, and I'd do anything, even lick the toilet floor tiles!"

Her voice was as mournful as a female ghost in a mass grave, trying to evoke even the slightest bit of affection in the other person.

"Wang Fang and the others kick me with high heels every day. The soft flesh on my shoulders is so festering that it's oozing yellow pus."

"I can only drink rusty, cold water from the toilet pipes every day; it churns in my stomach like it's being stabbed with knives!"

Wu Huifen picked up the crystal glass on the coffee table and took a sip of the top-quality chilled bird's nest.

A cool, sweet sensation flowed down her throat, and she forced a sneer.

"You can't even handle this?"

Wu Huifen's tone was devoid of any of her usual hypocrisy and politeness; it was all sharp and incisive.

"Back when your Zhong and Hou families were high and mighty, sending people to Handong to investigate this and that."

"How arrogant that face was, wielding a chicken feather as if it were an imperial edict!"

She shifted to a more comfortable position and leaned back comfortably against the leather sofa back.

"Didn't you used to love arguing the most, always talking about rules and laws?"

"What? Now, Master Yan is using absolute technology and strength to crush you all and skin you alive."

"So now you know how to kneel on the ground like a dog and beg for help, instead of talking to me about your damn rules?"

Zhong Xiaoai was speechless after being scolded like this.

It felt like a rusty lump of iron was stuck in her chest, making her gasp for breath.

Tears mixed with snot smeared her sallow, withered face, and she didn't even have the strength to reach out and wipe them away.

"Playing the victim with me won't work. Do you know what kind of life I'm living right now?"

Wu Huifen looked at the cyber city with drones shuttling through the floor-to-ceiling windows, her eyes filled with fervor.

"I live in a large apartment with a holographic butler service every day, and I have a drone car to pick me up when I go out."

"The special ingredients that the conglomerate distributes to us every day are even served on cleaner plates than those old, broken antiques you used to send us."

Wu Huifen's voice, coming through the microphone, shattered Zhong Xiaoai's last hope, word by word.

"Don't even dream about it. You can't afford the food here at Master Yan's place."

"The Lingxiao Consortium now even integrates the advanced computing power of Yunxiao AI into its robot vacuum cleaners that clean sewers."

"That's a god-level system that performs trillions of calculations per second!"

"In Handong, even a watchdog in a conglomerate has a biometric identification chip strapped to its neck."

"Who do you think you are?"

Wu Huifen coldly delivered her final verdict.

"Master Yan doesn't accept unregistered trash like you who don't even recognize the system."

"You can just stay in that basement in Beijing and rot and stink, as if you're being buried with your old era."

Before Zhong Xiaoai could say another word...

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The phone call was abruptly ended, the mechanical busy tone like the relentless ticking of a water clock, slamming into Zhong Xiaoai's eardrums.

A long buzzing sound went through her mind.

The last bit of energy and spirit I had was completely drained in that instant.

His legs went completely limp, like overcooked noodles.

With a "thump," he collapsed onto the cold, damp cement floor like a tattered sack.

The ground was covered with thick black ash and hard rat droppings.

It stung her sunken cheek, but she didn't even have the strength to move her neck.

A violent spasm erupted in my stomach, as if a serrated knife forcibly shoved into my throat.

The sour bile rushed directly into her mouth, making her tongue numb with bitterness.

"ah--"

Zhong Xiaoai clutched her tangled, dirty hair tightly with both hands and let out a heart-wrenching wail.

Tears streamed down her face, leaving two distinct black and white streaks of mud.

Everything she was once proud of—her education, family background, and dignity—had rotted away in the musty smell of this basement.

Just as she was crying uncontrollably.

At the end of the corridor, the "clack-clack" of those pointed high heels returned, making a deafening sound.

The female supervisor, Wang Fang, walked over with a cold face, carrying half a chipped, broken bowl in her hand.

The bowl contained a few mouthfuls of spoiled leftover rice from the cafeteria.

She frowned in disgust as she looked at Zhong Xiaoai, who was lying in the mud wailing.

The tip of the high heel ruthlessly kicked Zhong Xiaoai's hip, flipping her over.

"What are you crying about? Do you really think that lawless place in Handong is paradise? You think you can just go there and wash toilets and they'll take you?"

Wang Fang slammed the half-bowl of spoiled rice down in front of Zhong Xiaoai with a loud bang.

Yellowed rice grains mixed with rat droppings rolled all over the ground, emitting a pungent, sour smell.

Zhong Xiaoai gasped in pain, staring intently at the rice grains on the ground, and swallowed hard.

"Hurry up and eat this and get back to work."

Wang Fang crossed her arms, looked down at her condescendingly, and gave a sarcastic sneer.

"You want to go beg for food in Handong? Don't you even look in the mirror and see if you're worthy?"

Wang Fang kicked the broken bowl on the ground, her tone full of cruel spectator's amusement.

"Would you like to see the latest holographic video that just surfaced online?"

"What kind of behavior are those self-proclaimed upright bureau chiefs and professors who used to be your backers now on the streets of Handong?"