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

The yellow taxi, like a small beetle, drove further and further along the straight asphalt road.

Until it completely merges into the hazy smog, its outline can no longer be seen.

The tea room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and the sandalwood smoke rose straight up.

Yan Qingfeng casually poured the cooled, leftover tea into the Jian River and slowly turned around.

Outside the heavy wooden door, Lin Yubing, Su Jianxin, and the other eight powerful figures were already standing in a row.

A wolf-like greed and fanaticism flickered in everyone's eyes.

"Master Yan, Hou Liangping is gone, and the provincial party committee has been completely exposed."

Su Jianxin clutched his briefcase, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

Yan Qingfeng straightened the cuffs of his cotton-linen shirt, a domineering smile curving his lips.

"The game should end now."

He raised his eyes, his gaze piercing through the manor, as if he already held the entire capital in the palm of his hand.

"Let's take back what belongs to us, Handong."

Half an hour later, in Conference Room No. 1 of the Hantong Provincial Party Committee.

The atmosphere was as oppressive as a pressure cooker about to explode.

Sha Ruijin and Li Dakang sat side by side, with the ashtray in front of them piled high with cigarette butts.

With a loud bang, the double doors were violently pushed open from the outside.

Su Jianxin, dressed in a flamboyant floral shirt, led Lin Yubing and a dozen top lawyers in, swaggering in.

Without even a greeting, Su Jianxin pulled out the chair opposite the main seat and sat down with an air of authority.

"Secretary Sha, Mayor Li, we've kept you waiting."

Lin Yubing stepped forward in her high heels, took out two documents from her bag, and slammed them lightly on the table.

"Master Yan is kind-hearted and can't bear to see ordinary people suffer. This is the restructuring and acquisition document for the Guangmingfeng project."

Li Dakang snatched the document as if it were a lifeline.

But when his gaze swept to the acquisition amount on the first page, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"One dollar?!"

Li Dakang suddenly stood up, the chair screeching as it scraped against the floor.

"Guangming Peak spent 5 billion yuan on the initial demolition alone! The land is worth over 10 billion yuan! And you're taking it over for just one yuan?"

He pointed at Su Jianxin's nose, his voice booming, "This is robbery! This is taking advantage of someone's misfortune!"

Su Jianxin picked at his ear and blew a breath into his fingertip.

"Mayor Li, have you lost your mind? The land is valuable, but how are we going to fill those hundred-plus holes?"

He leaned forward, his gaze sharp as a knife across Li Dakang's face.

"Those tower cranes that have stopped operating, the contractors who have absconded, plus tens of millions of yuan in breach of contract fees every day, are all bad debts."

Su Jianxin pointed to his own nose and smiled like a refined scoundrel.

"In the entire Handong region, besides our Lingxiao Consortium, who the hell can come up with hundreds of billions in cash flow to settle this for you?"

Li Dakang's face turned purplish-red, his lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

He knew better than anyone that the government's finances were now cleaner than its face.

If we don't sell, it's a dead end.

"Bright Peak is just an extra."

Lin Yubing pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses and pointed her nail-painted index finger at the second document.

"This is the main event. The franchise rights for Jingzhou's core infrastructure, water supply, and gas network for the next fifty years."

Sha Ruijin suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Lin Yubing.

"Fifty years? And you want all the water, electricity, and gas?"

He braced himself on the edge of the table, veins bulging on the back of his hands: "You're trying to swallow the lifeline of Jingzhou whole!"

"This is called resource integration, Secretary Sha."

Lin Yubing spoke calmly, showing no intention of backing down.

"We've spent hundreds of billions cleaning up your messes, we need some stable returns as collateral, right?"

Sha Ruijin gritted his teeth, the muscles in his cheeks twitching.

"What if we don't sign?"

"Not signing?" Su Jianxin leaned back in his chair and scoffed.

He raised his wrist and glanced at the diamond-encrusted Richard Miller.

"It's four o'clock in the afternoon now. If you don't sign, it will be six o'clock tomorrow morning..."

Su Jianxin's smile vanished, a chilling murderous intent flashing in his eyes.

"All water plants, power plants, and gas pipelines in Jingzhou will be shut down due to 'aging equipment and lack of funds for maintenance'."

He spread his hands, his tone full of cruel mockery.

"At that time, the entire Jingzhou will become a dead city without water and electricity. Those hundreds of thousands of starving people will probably eat the red brick walls of the provincial party committee alive."

A naked threat.

A legitimate and overt conspiracy without any disguise.

You know perfectly well that there's a bottomless pit ahead, but you still have to obediently jump in.

Sha Ruijin slumped back into his chair, feeling as if his spine had been forcibly pulled out.

The final ultimatum from the top official in Beijing weighed on my head like a mountain.

He had no money, no power, and not even the right to overturn the table.

"Dakang." Sha Ruijin closed his eyes, his voice hoarse as if he had swallowed a handful of sand.

"Take the stamp."

Li Dakang shuddered, his eyes instantly reddened, and tears welled up in his eyes.

His once-proud political career is now being laid bare, slowly being ripped apart by the dull knife of capital.

"Secretary Sha, once this seal is affixed, we'll be the sinners of Handong!"

Li Dakang held the municipal party committee seal in both hands, his hands trembling like a Parkinson's patient.

"Cover!" Sha Ruijin suddenly opened his eyes, roared, and a tear of humiliation welled up from the corner of his eye.

"Don't you think the people have suffered enough hunger?!"

Li Dakang closed his eyes and held his breath.

The red inkpad fell heavily onto the white paper.

"Bang!"

That muffled thud seemed to shatter the last vestige of backbone of the Handong government.

Su Jianxin snatched the document away and flicked the bright red seal on it.

"It's a pleasure working with you. Secretary Sha, Mayor Li, you've made a wise decision."

He stuffed the documents into his bag, snapped his fingers, and strode out of the conference room.

The moment the agreement took effect felt like flipping a magical switch.

The hundreds of billions of yuan frozen by the Lingxiao Consortium were instantly reinjected into the main artery of Handong, like surging blood.

The frozen transfer channels are now fully operational.

Officer Liu was so excited when he saw the "salary has been credited to your account" notification on his phone that he almost jumped for joy.

"We've got money! Quick, go fill up the police car with gas! Let's go patrol the streets!"

"Buzz—"

After five days of silence, hundreds of heavy excavators at the Guangmingfeng construction site were started up at the same time.

The sturdy robotic arm rose high, and the roar of the diesel engine echoed through the sky.

At the farmers' market in the south of the city, more than a dozen refrigerated trucks bearing the Lingxiao Logistics logo lined up to enter.

"The vegetables are here! Affordable cabbages are here!"

The middle-aged women who were buying groceries cheered with joy, and the price of vegetables dropped back to its original level within ten minutes.

The entire Handong region, like a person who had just undergone cardiac resuscitation, was gasping for breath and coming back to life.

But the official nightmare has only just begun.

Two days later, the provincial party committee held its quarterly economic summary meeting.

The huge tiered conference room was filled with the top leaders of the entire province.

The atmosphere was even more deathly still than a graveyard.

On the big screen, a bloody chart of quarterly economic data trends stung everyone's eyes.

That was a terrifying, precipitous V-shaped drop.

Sha Ruijin sat on the platform, his face ashen, the teacup in his hand now completely cold.

Li Dakang lowered his head, his graying temples particularly striking under the light.

The officials below the stage stared at each other, none daring to break the dead silence.

Secretary Bai swallowed hard and walked to the microphone with a stiff upper lip.

"Secretary Sha, the data verification by the Provincial Bureau of Statistics is complete."

Secretary Bai's voice trembled violently as she clutched the thin report in her hand, the pages rustling in mid-air.

Sha Ruijin slowly raised his head, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"read."

Secretary Bai took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and spoke with a look of grim determination.

"Affected by the withdrawal of foreign capital and the suspension of infrastructure construction, the GDP of our province plummeted by 40% quarter-on-quarter this quarter..."

He paused, a hint of undisguised despair in his voice.

"All key economic indicators have fallen back to...the levels of ten years ago."

A collective gasp rippled through the audience, and Li Dakang's pen clattered to the floor.

Sha Ruijin's vision went black, and he gripped the table tightly with both hands, barely managing to keep his balance.

"Anything else?" Sha Ruijin asked through gritted teeth.

Secretary Bai wiped away a cold sweat, stole a glance at the audience, and lowered his voice.

"Also... the provincial petition office and the mayor's hotline were just overwhelmed with calls."

"Hundreds of chambers of commerce and representatives of the public from across the province put up banners outside the compound gate."

Sha Ruijin frowned: "Why are they putting up banners? Haven't they already paid their salaries?"

Secretary Bai lowered his head even further, his face contorted with grief, and stammered that he had given the wrong report.

"The common people say that thanks to Lord Yan's kindness these past few days, no one in Handong has starved to death."

"They jointly requested the provincial party committee to relinquish power... allowing the Lingxiao Consortium to take full control of Handong's economy."