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

On the phone, Lei Zhen's voice was as noisy as a high-end nightclub.

The sounds of smacking and chewing were mixed with the harsh noise of knives and forks scraping against the porcelain plate.

There were also several mixed-race models with sweet, coquettish voices, giggling and calling out in broken Chinese, "Boss Lei is so naughty."

Li Dakang stood in the bright lobby of the Lingxiao Energy Building.

The sound drilled into my ears through the receiver, like a series of loud slaps to my face.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the churning, metallic taste in his throat.

"Lei Zhen! Don't try to fool me!"

Li Dakang adopted the demeanor of a municipal party secretary, his voice so stern it could scrape off a layer of rust.

"I'm speaking to you on behalf of the Handong Provincial Committee and the Jingzhou Municipal Committee!"

"Wow, what a display of official power!"

On the other end of the phone, Lei Zhen rudely spat out a piece of bone, which clattered into the bone dish.

He didn't take this bluffing seriously at all.

"Secretary Li, you've come to check on me in the middle of the day?"

Lei Zhen chewed on his tomahawk steak, his tone revealing a roguish and unruly air.

"How about I ask the receptionist to pour you a glass of water to soothe your throat? After all, your municipal party committee can't even afford tea anymore, can it?"

"Stop grinning at me!"

Li Dakang's voice instantly rose an octave, attracting the attention of several passing employees in the lobby.

"The oil outage notice that Lingxiao Energy issued today is utter nonsense!"

He gritted his teeth and used the most effective rhetoric within the system.

"Police cars across the province are grounded, fire trucks can't respond to calls, and ambulances are just sitting in yards gathering dust!"

"This is a serious political incident! This is undermining the overall social stability of Handong Province!"

Li Dakang grew increasingly angry as he spoke, and the veins on his forehead throbbed with each word.

"I order you to immediately reinstate the fuel card accounts for all government vehicles!"

"Otherwise, the municipal party committee will immediately issue an official document to take direct control of your dispatch center!"

There was a sudden two-second silence on the phone.

Immediately afterwards, Lei Zhen's unrestrained, maniacal laughter erupted.

The laughter made Li Dakang's eardrums buzz.

"Hahaha! Honey, did you hear that? This big shot said he's going to issue an official document to take over my position!"

Lei Zhen hugged the young model in his arms, laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight.

"Secretary Li, Secretary Li, I think you've been sitting in your office all day and it's made you stupid!"

Lei Zhen casually picked up the whiskey and took a swig, his tone suddenly turning cold.

"Take over me? What right do you have to take over me?"

"This is a damn market economy now! Our Lingxiao Consortium has bought up all the energy property rights in Handong with real money!"

He snorted coldly, and you could feel the murderous aura emanating from him even through the screen.

"The procedures were legal and compliant, and I paid every penny of tax."

"Even the billions of dollars in bad debts owed by your nearly bankrupt oil refineries were all settled by Master Yan!"

Lei Zhen's words came like a barrage of bullets, showing no mercy whatsoever.

"Are you trying to pressure me with an official document from the municipal party committee?"

"Li Dakang, you're using a Ming Dynasty sword to behead a Qing Dynasty official?"

Li Dakang was so shocked by the retort that he felt a heavy stone pressing on his chest.

His lips trembled, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence.

"This is malicious monopolistic behavior! You're using public resources as leverage to threaten the government!"

"Don't try to label me like that, I'm not buying it."

Lei Zhen wiped his greasy mouth with a napkin, his tone arrogant.

"When it comes to business, it's all about business. We open our doors to sell oil, and you pay for it—that's only fair."

"Then why should we have our privilege of having our accounts receivable revoked?!" Li Dakang roared.

"Special privileges? In Master Yan's rules, the concept of special privileges doesn't exist in Handong Province!"

Lei Zhen shoved the woman in his arms away, his voice booming like a firecracker.

"Your city's crappy account can't even produce a single coin, yet you expect to get my oil for free?"

"Master Yan gave these specific instructions before he left."

"The government can buy oil; we're open to doing business, and we welcome that."

Lei Zhen paused for a moment, then slowly and deliberately revealed the bottom line of the Lingxiao Consortium.

"But there are three conditions, so listen carefully."

"First, there's no negotiated price; give me a 20% premium over the current market price!"

"Secondly, we do not accept checks or bank transfers between companies; we only accept bundles of cash!"

"Thirdly, no credit! Even if it's a fire truck, you won't get a single drop of diesel from me if you're short by just one dollar!"

Upon hearing these three conditions, Li Dakang felt dizzy and almost collapsed to the ground.

A 20% premium? And it has to be settled entirely in cash?

This isn't just taking advantage of someone's misfortune; it's like rubbing blood out of the Han Dong government with a blunt knife!

With the municipal finance bureau's account being as clean as a face, they can't even afford a base coat of oil, let alone a premium!

"You...you're extorting me! This is outrageous!"

Li Dakang's knuckles turned white as he gripped his phone, his eyes filled with utter despair.

"Lei Zhen! You really think your Lingxiao Consortium can control everything?!"

"Yes, that's exactly what it means to have absolute power."

Lei Zhen replied casually, and lit a cigar.

"Master Yan has set the rules, and I've also stated the conditions. It's up to you whether you buy it or not."

He didn't give Li Dakang a chance to retort, his tone full of disdain and sarcasm.

"I'm not selling today, and I'm not going to sell. What are you going to do about it?"

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The call was abruptly ended, leaving only a cold, dial tone in the receiver.

Li Dakang held his phone stiffly, his whole body resembling a weathered sculpture.

The Lingxiao employees coming and going in the lobby looked at the distraught municipal party committee leader with amusement.

The receptionist maintained her impeccable smile and looked at him politely.

"Secretary Li, if there's nothing else, please don't block the turnstile; it's affecting our employees' normal passage."

This sentence became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Li Dakang suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

The scenes from the past two weeks flashed wildly through his mind like a revolving lantern.

In order to counterbalance Yan Qingfeng, he did not hesitate to invite a wolf into the house, bringing in the William Consortium.

As a result, the foreign capital was acquired as scrap metal, making them the biggest joke.

He hoped that speculative capital would enter the market and disrupt things, using the stock market to force Ling Xiao to back down.

As a result, top domestic speculative investors were wiped out by Su Jianxin's quantitative system, and many jumped off buildings.

Now, even the public power that we are so proud of has been strangled by a single legal notice.

All of his political blueprints.

His ambition to control the overall situation in Handong.

Under Yan Qingfeng's absolute capital-driven crushing attack, they were reduced to rubble that couldn't be picked up anywhere.

Anger, humiliation, and despair instantly coalesced into a raging, malevolent fire.

The fire broke through his body's limits and rushed straight to his heart.

"Yan... Yan Qingfeng..."

A hissing sound, like air leaking from Li Dakang's throat, escaped his lips.

He felt as if a red-hot dagger had been plunged into his chest, causing him to instantly hunch over in pain.

The glaring holographic screen displaying the energy distribution in front of me began to shake and distort violently.

All the light vanished in that instant, turning into a bottomless black hole.

"Secretary Li!"

The secretary, Xiao Jin, standing next to her let out a distorted scream.

Li Dakang rolled his eyes and smashed his phone on the ground with a "thud," shattering the screen.

He didn't even have the strength to struggle; he fell straight backward.

With a muffled thud, it crashed heavily onto the cold marble floor of the Lingxiao Building.

The hall instantly descended into chaos.

Xiao Jin suddenly knelt on the ground and frantically unbuttoned Li Dakang's shirt collar, her face covered in snot and tears.

"Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance now!"

Xiao Jin yelled hysterically at the receptionist.

The receptionist's expression changed, and she quickly picked up the landline to dial, but stopped after pressing only two numbers.

She looked up, her face full of embarrassment, at the unconscious Li Dakang on the ground, her voice weak.

"Um... the ambulance from the First Municipal Hospital is stuck because it's out of gas. Why don't you use your own car to tow it?"