Su Wan pressed her glowing blue earpiece inside the forty-seventh-floor Taichu Logistics Command Center as red flood-warning icons flashed across fifty wall-sized municipal traffic screens.
Outside the reinforced glass of the International Law Tower, Category-12 typhoon winds shrieked around the financial district, turning Jiangcheng’s low-lying avenues into swirling rivers of brown water inside forty minutes.
Su Wan turned from the central console toward Lin Mo. “Chairman Lin, rival delivery apps Swift-Flash and Feiyang just updated their algorithms. They activated disaster surge pricing. Delivery fees jumped by five hundred percent. A bowl of porridge now costs one hundred and fifty yuan to deliver.”
“Disaster capitalism is remarkably predictable,” Lin Mo replied, looking at the glowing map. “They treat human misery like an options contract. How are our drivers?”
“All twenty-four hundred Taichu Sanctuary couriers are assembled at our thirty regional depots,” Su Wan reported. “Tie Niu and forty Iron Guards have already fueled sixty heavy-duty amphibious vans and reinforced rafts.”
Shen Qiaoqiao stepped up to the terminal, her spectacles reflecting the storm radar. “Municipal emergency dispatch is completely overwhelmed. Calls are backed up by two thousand tickets. Over six hundred citizens—mostly elderly residents living in ground-floor lanes and children stuck in flooded school buses—are trapped across the city.”
Lin Mo drew his emerald-green [Benevolence Charity Card] and slid it across the glass console.
“Su Wan, issue the Taichu Benevolence Emergency Order,” Lin Mo commanded. “Disburse twenty million yuan immediately.”
Su Wan paused, looking up. “How shall we allocate the funds, Chairman Lin?”
“Ten million yuan for immediate triple-hazard bonuses wired to all twenty-four hundred couriers and sixty Iron Guards,” Lin Mo said calmly. “Five million yuan for heavy-duty rescue gear, industrial floodlights, and fuel. Three million yuan to Dr. Gu’s hospital to prepare two thousand hypothermia kits, portable oxygen tanks, and insulin packs. And two million yuan to Grandma Chen.”
“Grandma Chen?” Shen Qiaoqiao blinked.
“Ten thousand insulated thermal thermoses filled with hot ginger syrup and shredded beef broth,” Lin Mo said deadpan. “Rescuing someone from freezing floodwater only to give them cold water is half-hearted customer service. When people are shivering, hot soup is more convincing than a motivational speech.”
Down in the Sanctuary Canteen on the second floor, Grandma Chen already had eight massive iron cauldrons boiling over blue gas flames. Fresh ginger slices, yellow rock sugar, and wild spring water filled the entire kitchen with a fragrant, spicy steam.
Little Guo’er stood on a wooden stepstool beside her grandmother. The little girl wore a miniature apron and carefully tucked golden honey candies into each thermal carrier bag.
“Hurry, my good girls and boys!” Grandma Chen shouted to thirty volunteer cooks. “Pack the insulated thermoses tight! When our riders pull those poor shivering folks from the cold mud, I want this ginger broth steaming hot! An honest stomach cannot fight a chill on empty wishes!”
Besides, Lin Mo thought, twenty million yuan on flood relief yields two billion in pure cash. If I leave the money in a commercial checking account, the bank only pays me zero point three percent interest. Rescuing people is vastly superior accounting.
Su Wan tapped her tablet screen. “Order dispatched. Funds cleared through judicial escrow.”
A clear chime resonated inside Lin Mo’s mind.
[DING! Massive Pure-Heart Disaster Relief Expenditure Confirmed!]
[Recipient 1: 2,400 Taichu Couriers & 60 Iron Guards — Received: ¥10,000,000.00 Hazard Pay.]
[Recipient 2: Dr. Gu Qinghe & Taichu Hospital Emergency Units — Received: ¥3,000,000.00 Medical Supplies.]
[Recipient 3: Grandma Chen Sanctuary Canteens — Received: ¥2,000,000.00 Vitality Broth Provision.]
[Recipient 4: Municipal Rescue Fleet & Equipment Pool — Received: ¥5,000,000.00 Gear Endowment.]
[Calculation: Total Spent: ¥20,000,000.00 RMB | Multiplier: 100x Pure-Heart Return.]
[Refund Amount: +¥2,000,000,000.00 RMB Transferred to Personal Vault!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +2,000,000 BMP & 2,000 Golden Merit Points Awarded!]
[Personal Vault Current Balance: ¥73,958,180,000.50 RMB!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 4,200 Verified Righteous Allies!]
A tremendous wave of pure golden benevolence qi cascaded into Lin Mo’s dantian.
The energy felt like liquid sunlight pouring into a deep stone well. It washed through his four limbs, scouring away every microscopic impurity in his cellular structure. His bones hummed with resonant golden vibrations. His muscle fibers grew as dense as braided titanium wire.
His cultivation reached Rank 1 Absolute Peak Martial. His punch force crossed seven thousand pounds. His reaction speed was now ten times faster than that of an Olympic sprinter.
Down on the flooded streets, the emerald army moved.
Two thousand four hundred Taichu couriers rolled out into the torrential rain. Their electric vans were fitted with high-clearance water shields. Their helmets beamed powerful LED beams through the driving spray.
At the South Lake Underpass, four feet of murky water trapped a yellow school bus. Twenty-six elementary school children cried inside as water crept over the lower seats.
Tie Niu jumped from the lead heavy-duty van into the waist-deep current. His massive hands gripped the rear bumper of the bus.
With a roar that rivaled the thunder above, Tie Niu dug his combat boots into the submerged asphalt. His healed Rank-1 external physique flared with raw power. Single-handedly, he stabilized the sliding bus until five Iron Guards tethered industrial winches to its frame.
Couriers in emerald raincoats waded into the vehicle, lifting children onto their shoulders.
“Do not be afraid, little girl,” young courier Xiao Dong said, wrapping a shivering seven-year-old in a heated emergency blanket. “Drink this hot ginger soup from Grandma Chen. Taichu Express is here. You are going home.”
The little girl took a sip of the sweet, piping-hot broth. Warmth bloomed across her pale cheeks, and she stopped crying.
Across the district, similar scenes unfolded.
In the old residential quarters behind East Gate, floodwaters submerged ground-floor apartments up to the window sills.
Old Ma steered an amphibious emerald raft into a narrow alleyway where an eighty-year-old retired teacher sat on a floating dining table, clutching her wheezing chest. The power grid had failed two hours ago, shutting off her electric oxygen concentrator.
“Hold on, Teacher Liu!” Old Ma shouted, cutting the outboard motor and tossing a mooring rope around a stone lintel.
Two young couriers splashed through the chest-deep water with an airtight emergency kit from Dr. Gu’s hospital. Within forty seconds, they hooked up a portable, battery-powered medical oxygen tank and slipped a warm silicone mask over the elderly woman’s face.
As Teacher Liu’s breathing steadied, Old Ma unscrewed a thermos of Grandma Chen’s ginger broth and handed her a steaming porcelain cup.
“Drink slowly, Teacher,” Old Ma said with a warm grin. “Chairman Lin sent us. The whole building is being evacuated to Taichu Sanctuary Hospital’s dry observation ward. You don’t have to pay a single fen.”
Tears welled in the old teacher’s eyes as she wrapped her trembling fingers around the hot cup. “Heaven bless you children... bless Taichu...”
Across forty similar alleys, couriers carried bedridden stroke patients down fire escapes on waterproof stretchers. Dr. Gu’s emergency vans served as mobile triage clinics, administering free insulin, tetanus shots, and thermal foil blankets to anyone shivering in the dark.
Meanwhile, on the city’s commercial platforms, chaos reigned.
Citizens who ordered basic bread and bottled water on rival apps were charged two hundred yuan per delivery. Dozens of courier accounts on those platforms refused orders, demanding extortionate cash tips before stepping outside.
Social media feeds began to explode with side-by-side videos:
On the left: rival drivers arguing with desperate mothers in flooded doorways over delivery surcharges.
On the right: lines of emerald-coated Taichu riders hauling rafts through waist-deep mud, handing out free steaming thermoses of soup, and refusing every tip offered to them.
“Taichu Express is delivering free food and medicine!” “They pulled my grandmother out of her flooded ground-floor flat!” “They saved twenty-six kids from the South Lake bus!”
By five o’clock in the morning, the eye of Super Typhoon Black Jade passed toward the sea. The torrential rain tapered into a gentle gray drizzle.
Water levels began to recede through cleared storm drains. Not a single casualty was reported across the thirty sectors patrolled by Taichu Express.
Exactly six hundred and forty-two citizens had been pulled from dangerous floodwaters. Over ten thousand thermoses of hot soup had been distributed.
At dawn, three black government sedans escorted by police motorcycles pulled up outside the Taichu Logistics Command Center.
Mayor Zhao Mingde stepped out of the lead car. His trousers were splattered with dried mud, and his eyes were bloodshot from coordinating the city’s disaster response all night. Behind him walked the chief of the Municipal Emergency Bureau.
Lin Mo, Su Wan, and Tie Niu walked down the front steps to meet them.
Mayor Zhao reached out with both hands, gripping Lin Mo’s fingers with profound, heartfelt gratitude.
“Chairman Lin,” Mayor Zhao said, his voice thick with emotion. “While other delivery platforms raised fees fivefold and abandoned our people, Taichu Express mobilized four thousand workers and spent millions of your own funds to hold this city’s front line.”
The Emergency Bureau Chief opened a velvet-lined rosewood presentation box. Inside rested a heavy, solid-gold medal suspended from a tricolor silk ribbon. The crest of Jiangcheng gleamed against the polished surface:
The Jiangcheng Golden Civic Hero Medal.
“By unanimous decree of the municipal standing committee,” Mayor Zhao announced in a ringing voice, pinning the heavy gold medal to Lin Mo’s charcoal lapel, “Taichu Benevolence Group is awarded the highest civic honor of Jiangcheng.”
He clapped Lin Mo’s shoulder firmly. “You mobilized when state resources were stretched to the breaking point. You showed this province what true corporate responsibility looks like.”
Mayor Zhao turned toward the television cameras that had gathered at the bottom of the terrace.
“Furthermore,” the Mayor declared sharply, his tone icy with administrative wrath, “the municipal transport and market regulation bureaus are initiating immediate antitrust investigations into Swift-Flash and Feiyang Logistics. Their operating licenses within municipal boundaries are suspended effective immediately for predatory price-gouging during a declared state of emergency. Their corporate officers will face administrative hearings before the end of the week.”
The crowd of two hundred exhausted, mud-spattered couriers gathered on the sidewalk erupted into wild cheers.
Lin Mo smiled calmly. He glanced down at the golden medal.
“Thank you, Mayor Zhao,” Lin Mo said. “We do not believe in profiting from rainstorms. It is simply bad business.”
Earning the city government’s total backing while bankrupting rival platforms, Lin Mo thought with a deadpan grin. The municipal council gave me a solid gold medal, and the system gave me two billion yuan. Doing the right thing continues to be the highest-margin enterprise on earth.
Mayor Zhao patted Lin Mo’s shoulder warmly before departing with his entourage to inspect the harbor seawall.
Su Wan walked up beside Lin Mo, holding a silver-embossed VIP invitation card that had just been delivered by a courier.
“Chairman Lin,” Su Wan said, her eyebrows lifting slightly. “An official invitation just arrived from the Jiangcheng International Auto Expo organizing committee.”
“The Auto Expo?” Lin Mo asked, turning around.
“Yes,” Su Wan replied. “Tomorrow morning is the private VIP opening at the International Convention Center. The flagship exhibitor is Supreme Star Luxury Auto, the regional distributor for Maybach and Rolls-Royce.”
She glanced at her tablet and let out a soft, amused sigh.
“Our intelligence feed picked up something interesting,” Su Wan continued. “General Manager Qian of Supreme Star Luxury Auto has a new companion. It appears Miss Liu Yan moved into his riverside penthouse last night after leaving her rental apartment.”
Lin Mo tilted his head, a faint, dry smirk touching his lips.
“Liu Yan,” Lin Mo murmured. “She truly has an extraordinary talent for finding middle-aged executives with impending legal liabilities.”
Tie Niu stepped up, wiping grease from his calloused knuckles. “Chairman, our delivery fleet needs thirty executive commuter cars and twenty transport vans for Grandma Chen’s vegetable runs.”
Lin Mo turned toward the morning sunrise.
“Then let us attend the Auto Expo tomorrow,” Lin Mo said smoothly. “I hear Maybachs make excellent vegetable vans.”