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

Wang Fang held a half-bowl of sour leftover rice in her hand, and stepped hard on Zhong Xiaoai's soft fingers with the tip of her shoe.

The hard heels of the high heels pressed against the joints, producing a dry, grinding sound that made your teeth ache.

"You want to clean toilets in Handong, huh? Open your dog eyes and see clearly."

Wang Fang sneered and decisively activated the holographic projector on her wrist.

The pale blue beam of light instantly struck the cement wall in the basement, which was covered with green mold.

The scene shows Guangming District in Handong Province at noon.

The scorching sun was blindingly white; you could almost feel the scorching heat through the screen.

Zhong Xiaoai was in so much pain that her whole body was trembling, and her upper and lower teeth were uncontrollably chattering together, making a soft, crackling sound.

She stared intently at the light screen, her stomach churning violently.

The sour, putrid bile rushed to her throat, choking her and causing tears to stream down her face, mingling with the black mud on her cheeks.

In the light screen, the asphalt road was softened by the sun and emitted a pungent smell of tar.

Several figures dressed in tattered clothes were lying like stray dogs in the garbage heap outside the Lingxiao University construction site.

Several China Construction Bank platinum cards and Swiss Bank black cards were scattered on the ground.

These things that once symbolized absolute privilege are now so hard they're not even good enough to wipe your butt.

Faced with Lingxiao Points, the official bank card became utterly useless plastic, its edges covered with disgusting, foul-smelling mud.

"Oh my, isn't that Director Liu from the Economic Development Zone?"

Wang Fang, in a shrill voice, her tone filled with the cruel schadenfreude of someone watching a spectacle, said, "That guy next to him, doesn't he look like Professor Li, the most famous legal intellectual at Handong University?"

Zhong Xiaoai's Adam's apple bobbed dryly as she swallowed a mouthful of bitter saliva with difficulty.

She recognized him.

When these people visited the Zhong family years ago, they were dressed in suits and their hair was combed so neatly that even a fly couldn't stand on it.

But now?

Old Liu's slicked-back hair had long since become a chicken coop covered in dandruff and bird droppings.

The high-end custom-made suit he was wearing, worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, was now tattered into strips of cloth, emitting a strong smell of stale sweat.

He was bent over, frantically rummaging through the construction debris mixed with shards of broken glass.

The fingernails of all ten fingers had long since curled up, filled with dark, bloody sludge.

“Ding Di—”

A heavy-duty, all-black transport drone flew out of the construction site and landed above the garbage dump.

The belly hatch opened with a loud crash.

A pile of garbage, mixed with canteen kitchen waste and cement dust, came crashing down on me.

The pungent smell of fermented swill instantly filled the air.

From that pile of dusty garbage, half of a mutated potato covered in green mold rolled out.

Old Liu was so hungry that his eyes were bloodshot, and when he saw the half potato, he immediately became furious.

He used both hands and feet, lunging forward like a giant toad, and grabbed the potato tightly in his hand.

They dug their fingernails into the softened potato flesh and squeezed out a few drops of yellowish-brown rancid liquid.

"Give it to me! I saw it first!"

The old Professor Li next to him had lost all trace of the refined elegance of a public intellectual; his shouting voice sounded like a piece of iron being ground on sandpaper.

He had been starving for three whole days, and the walls of his stomach felt like they were being rubbed raw with a knife.

Professor Li suddenly sprang up and bumped his head into Old Liu's chin.

With a muffled thud, Old Liu's jaw dislocated, his lips were broken by his teeth, and he spat out a mouthful of blood with a salty, fishy taste.

"You dare steal my food, you surnamed Li! I'll kill you!"

The muscles in Lao Liu's groin tightened instantly, causing him to gasp in pain.

Ignoring his dislocated jaw, he grabbed Professor Li's already thinning hair and pulled it back with all his might.

Professor Li was in so much pain that his eyes rolled back, and his scalp was being torn open, revealing streaks of blood.

He panicked completely, his fingers curled into claws, and he lunged at Old Liu's face.

Two withered fingers, covered in black mud, forcefully gouged towards Old Liu's left eye socket.

"ah--"

Old Liu let out a piercing scream that sounded inhuman.

He dug his finger into the soft flesh at the edge of his eye socket and instantly scraped off a piece of oily skin.

Dark red blood streamed down his face, dripping into the muddy water on the ground.

Old Liu was in so much pain that he was shaking violently all over, his legs were cramping, and he pulled Professor Li into the stinking ditch next to him.

The two rolled and fought wildly in the foul-smelling sewage that was up to their ankles.

Professor Li's expensive suit trousers were completely ripped, revealing his thighs covered in psoriasis.

What dignity, what integrity? In the face of a shriveled, cramping stomach, they are nothing but a fart.

"You old academic tyrant! You embezzled so much project funding before, and now you're trying to steal a rotten potato from me!"

Old Liu was spitting out blood and foam as his knee slammed heavily into Professor Li's stomach.

Professor Li suffered from acid reflux and gagged violently, spraying yellowish-green bitter fluid directly onto Old Liu's face.

The two fought fiercely, their bodies covered in black mud that reeked of urine.

Several homeless people passing by did not try to break up the fight; instead, they squatted by the roadside, clapping and cheering.

"Bite him! Bite his ears! These two old geezers used to be so powerful that we had to block the road when they went out, now they're worse than dogs!"

Just as the two were about to bite each other over the half of the moldy potato.

A low-frequency humming sound of an electric motor silently approached from the street corner.

A silver-white Lingxiao driverless sweeper drove smoothly in.

The front of the car was flashing bright red and blue lights.

"Illegal fighting by individuals without points was detected, seriously affecting the city's appearance."

From the loudspeaker at the front of the sweeper, the cold, emotionless mechanical voice of Yunxiao AI emanated.

"Physical eviction procedure initiated. Countdown: three seconds."

Old Liu and Professor Li were stuck in the mud.

They turned their heads in terror, their Adam's apples bobbing wildly, unable to utter even a plea for mercy.

"Sizzle—"

Two thick jets of high-pressure water shot out instantly from the nozzles at the bottom of the sweeper.

The water pressure was terrifying; when it hit a person, it felt like being slammed with a heavy hammer.

"Bang!"

Old Liu was hit head-on by the water jet, and his chest caved in instantly.

He was thrown more than two meters away by the enormous impact, like a tattered sack.

Professor Li fared even worse; he was slammed onto the curb by the water pressure.

The ribs struck the granite, producing a sickeningly loud "crack" sound.

He was in so much pain that his vision went black, and he couldn't even scream. He could only curl up and convulse like a shrimp.

The water, carrying mud, sand, and garbage, relentlessly washed over these two former elites of the old era.

The immense force propelled them like garbage, forcefully shoving them towards the sewer opening on the street corner.

"Gurgle, gurgle."

The pungent black sewer water instantly flooded into their nasal cavities and lungs.

The two men were struggling violently at the entrance of the filthy sewer, clinging desperately to the rusty iron bars with their hands.

The fingernails scraped against the metal sheet with a piercing shriek, and the oozing blood was quickly washed away by the black water.

Rotten vegetable leaves and foul-smelling toilet paper covered their faces, causing them to cough violently and spray bile incessantly.

The sweeper didn't stop at all, and the mechanical brush head under the chassis spun rapidly.

He casually tossed the half of the moldy potato that had caused the bloodshed into the trash can and drove away.

In the basement, Zhong Xiaoai stared at the light screen on the wall, completely collapsing into a limp mess.

She was trembling like a leaf, and she covered her mouth tightly to stop herself from crying out loud.

Even high-ranking leaders like her have to eat sewage in Handong, so what is she?

In one corner of the screen, two Lingxiao Group employees wearing hard hats stood next to the construction site.

The two held a glass of freshly squeezed mutated watermelon juice with ice, and cold air was billowing out.

"These unregistered people with no points are really pathetic. They're willing to risk their lives for a rotten potato."

The tall employee cracked the ice cube in his mouth with a crisp "crunch".

The short employee took a big gulp of watermelon juice and let out a sweet, satisfying burp.

"What a load of rubbish! Did they go easy on us when they were exploiting us before? This is karma."

The short man casually tossed the empty cup into the smart trash can, then turned and nudged his companion with his elbow.

"Alright, stop looking. We'll go home once this job is done. Did you hear? That mess in the center of Guangming District is finally cleaned up?"

The tall man's eyes lit up, and he suddenly lowered his voice, his tone revealing an uncontrollable fervor.

"You mean... that 'Lingxiao Global Employee Welfare Community' that was converted from the original Dafeng Factory site? Is Master Yan really planning to give all that prime land to us lower-level employees as dormitories?"