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

The expensive whiskey that Yan Qingfeng poured onto the Persian carpet had a pungent, spicy smell.

It was as if it had drifted back to Handong Province along with the strong convective air currents over the Pacific Ocean.

Over there at the deep-water port.

Lu Yuan's EMP fleet weighed anchor and set sail, the dull blast of the ship's horn piercing through the clouds, making people's eardrums buzz.

The provincial government compound in Handong, separated by only one wall, was deathly silent, like a giant morgue.

The thick, mutated ivy, resembling a green python, tightly coiled around the mottled red brick building.

The weeds in the yard grew taller than a person, and occasionally a few wild cats with red eyes would dart out from the depths.

Sha Ruijin huddled in a dark corner of the office.

He was wrapped in a sour and smelly old military overcoat, looking like a frail and lonely old man.

He was holding a disposable plastic lunchbox, which had just been airdropped by the Lingxiao Consortium's drone.

There wasn't a single green vegetable in it, only half a box of white rice.

The rice had long since cooled down and was as hard as pebbles frozen in the refrigerator.

"Gurgle."

Sha Ruijin's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty as he forced down a mouthful of dry, hard rice.

Without the lubrication of soup, the dry, hard rice grains directly pierced the fragile esophageal wall, roughly slicing their way into the stomach.

The stomach lining, which had been starving for too long, was stimulated and suddenly contracted violently.

The sour bile mixed with undigested rice milk surged up and stuck in my throat.

He threw down the lunchbox, clutched his chest with both hands, and curled up like a shrimp.

"Ugh—cough cough cough!"

Sha Ruijin retched violently, tears and snot smearing his age-spotted face.

He spat out a mouthful of bitter, yellowish liquid, the sour smell hitting his nasal cavity.

"Secretary, please slow down... have some water to calm your nerves."

In a nearby corner, Secretary Wang, carrying a broken enamel mug, approached with trembling hands.

Old Wang's once-valuable suit had long since rotted into dusty, worn-out strips of cloth.

In this "haunted house" without water or electricity, the two of them were worse off than beggars.

Sha Ruijin took the jar, just about to take a sip of the tap water that had a raw, rusty, metallic taste.

"Beep—creak—"

In the office, which was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, a sharp electronic buzzer suddenly rang out.

The two of them shivered simultaneously.

The red secure fax machine in the corner, covered in a thick layer of dust, had its indicator light flashing red wildly.

This equipment is supported by an independent underground backup battery pack, and it hasn't been used for five years.

The fax machine's rollers were turning with difficulty.

The thermal paper made a grating "crunching" sound when rubbed together, like sawing bone with a rusty saw blade.

Old Wang put down his enamel mug and scrambled over to get closer.

He ripped off the piece of paper, still warm from the cheap ink, and glanced at it.

His legs felt as if they had been instantly ripped out of their bones, and he collapsed onto the dusty cement floor with a thud.

"What's wrong?"

Sha Ruijin felt a slight twitch in the muscles at the base of his thigh, and an ominous premonition gripped his heart.

"Secretary...Secretary..." Old Wang's hand holding the paper trembled violently, his voice split in two, "The capital...The capital has issued a top-secret document."

"Your five-year term is up."

"You are required to submit a 'Five-Year Performance Summary Report of Handong Province' within three days to prepare for the handover and performance review..."

A loud "buzz" went off in Sha Ruijin's head.

It felt as if I had been kicked into an ice cave at a temperature tens of degrees below zero.

He snatched the yellowed fax paper from his hand.

In the lower right corner, the bright red imperial seal of the capital city is so glaringly obvious that it looks like a dripping blood knife.

He was required to submit a written report detailing the economic, public security, and livelihood developments in Handong over the past five years.

Cold sweat broke out in my mouth instantly.

Dense beads of sweat seeped from his sparse forehead hair, trickled down his eye sockets and into his mouth, tasting both salty and bitter.

The smelly old military overcoat instantly became icy cold from being soaked in sweat.

It was damp and stuck to my back, and when a draft blew through, it felt chilling to the bone.

The cold made his upper and lower teeth chatter uncontrollably, making a "clucking" sound.

He spent his life working his way up within the system, holding countless prestigious and lucrative positions.

He could write an eloquent report on his achievements even with his eyes closed.

But now? He faces the most ridiculous and terrifying predicament of his life.

"A report? What the hell am I supposed to report?!"

Sha Ruijin's eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was so hoarse it sounded like he was chewing sandpaper.

"I have no soldiers! I have no money! I can't even control the traffic lights at the intersection outside this compound!"

"I'm now just a transparent ghost kept here by Yan Qingfeng!"

Panic caused his thigh muscles to spasm uncontrollably and violently.

The cramping pain made him gasp for breath, and he could only lean against his desk, panting heavily.

Old Wang sat on the ground, anxiously pulling at his already thinning hair.

"Secretary, can we just make something up? Let's just go along with what the capital wants and write some platitudes to get by?"

"Are you stupid or am I stupid?!"

Sha Ruijin slammed the enamel mug in his hand against the wall.

With a muffled "bang," rusty water splashed all over the ground.

"Report the facts? Tell the capital that Handong is no longer under the jurisdiction of the state?"

Sha Ruijin's chest heaved violently, and a bitter smile, more painful than crying, tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Those people in Beijing know the current situation in Handong better than anyone! They want this report just to cover their tracks!"

"If I dare to tear off this fig leaf, they'll risk a heart attack and kill me in this dilapidated house tomorrow, all for the sake of saving face!"

Old Wang's Adam's apple bobbed twice with difficulty, his eyes filled with a deathly despair.

"Then... let's write down the actual data from Handong."

"GDP increased ten thousandfold, the province achieved zero crime, and the mutated agriculture had a bumper harvest. Should we claim all the credit?"

"Take it? Go ahead and risk your life to take it!"

Sha Ruijin was so angry that his stomach lining convulsed again, and his fingernails dug into the edge of the wooden table.

A few streaks of dark red blood seeped from the curled-up fingernails.

"Handong's GDP is entirely settled using Lingxiao Points! The RMB isn't even strong enough to wipe your bottom here!"

"Zero crime in the entire province is the result of Yunxiao AI cutting off water and electricity in seconds, erasing living people like garbage!"

"The bumper harvest is because Yan Qingfeng monopolized the mutated seeds!"

As Sha Ruijin spoke, his whole body trembled more and more violently, and his clothes made a soft rustling sound as they rubbed together.

"I would take credit for even half a word of it in the report."

"Yunxiao AI can intercept the data in a second. If that ruthless Yan Qingfeng is unhappy, he won't even airdrop us this leftover rice tomorrow!"

Dead end.

This is a sure-fire, flawless trap.

He wrote the truth, and was silenced in the capital.

He took credit for things he shouldn't have, and was subsequently eliminated by the conglomerate.

A suffocating silence fell over the office.

All that could be heard were the two men's heavy, rapid breathing and the faint sound of rats gnawing on wood in the corner.

Sha Ruijin gripped the fax paper tightly, his fingernails almost digging through the thin paper.

The yellowed paper rubbed against his fingertips, producing a dry, harsh "hissing" sound.

He closed his eyes in despair.

The creases on his eyelids trembled slightly from the exertion.

He swallowed hard, his saliva tasting of blood, and finally understood a humiliating truth.

He served as a puppet ruler in Handong for five years.

When they pass away, they don't even have the right to give their own final verdict.

"Old Wang."

Sha Ruijin suddenly opened his eyes, a heartbreakingly humble look flashing in his cloudy old eyes.

"Secretary, please speak." Old Wang quickly got up from the ground, at a loss for what to do.

Sha Ruijin loosened his grip on the document and smoothed out the crumpled fax paper on the table.

He swallowed the nauseating sour water in his throat, his voice dry as if two stones were rubbing against each other.

"Go find my old suit that I wore at my wedding and wipe off the dust with cool water."

Sha Ruijin gritted his teeth. "If we want to leave Handong alive, we have no other way."

"Come with me to Lingxiao Building first thing tomorrow morning."

Sha Ruijin's voice revealed a complete and utter resignation, "We have to get Yan Qingfeng, that living devil, to nod and sign this official performance report before we're even qualified to take it out of Handong."