The technician in the bridge control booth reached his hand toward the master water cutoff valve.
“Touch that switch,” a sweet, melodic voice called out from the bridge deck, “and you become an unindicted co-conspirator to municipal infrastructure sabotage.”
Shen Qiaoqiao stepped forward through the evening mist. She held a thick, blue legal folder stamped with three red municipal seals. Her gold-rimmed glasses reflected the fading orange sunset, and her dimples blossomed on her cheeks.
Manager Wu spat another sunflower seed shell onto the asphalt. He crossed his arms over his heavy chest, laughing arrogantly.
“Little lawyer girl, are you trying to intimidate me with city regulations?” Wu scoffed. “The Emerald River Property Owners Association is an independent legal entity! I have the backing of Zhao Real Estate! Under our bylaws, I manage the gates and the water valves!”
“You did manage them, Mr. Wu,” Shen Qiaoqiao replied with a radiant smile. “Past tense. Until three minutes ago.”
She pulled a stamped certificate from her folder and slapped it directly against Manager Wu’s clipboard.
“Pursuant to Article 76 of the Property Rights Law,” Shen Qiaoqiao announced in a crisp, ringing tone, “the homeowner assembly holds supreme authority over property management companies. Any resolution approved by two-thirds of the total registered square footage carries immediate, binding statutory force.”
Manager Wu frowned, glancing down at the document. “Two-thirds? What nonsense are you talking about?!”
“Taichu Benevolence Group just acquired fifty freestanding villas and both twelve-story residential towers,” Shen Qiaoqiao said cheerfully. “That represents exactly seventy-one point four percent of the total residential square footage of Emerald River Island.”
She tapped the red seal on the page with her yellow pencil.
“As the seventy-percent supermajority homeowner,” Shen Qiaoqiao continued, “Chairman Lin has executed Resolution 001. Your property management company is terminated effective immediately for breach of duty. Your employment as HOA manager is dissolved. You are legally trespassing on private property.”
Manager Wu’s face turned from smug mockery to sickly green. “Terminated?! You cannot fire me! I built this security force!”
“Wait, there is a second document,” Shen Qiaoqiao added, pulling out a second sheaf of printed forensic spreadsheets.
She stepped closer to Manager Wu, her smile turning terrifyingly sweet.
“Over the past twenty-four months, you transferred eight million four hundred and twenty thousand yuan from the public maintenance reserve fund into an underground sports betting app registered in the Philippines,” Shen Qiaoqiao stated. “You disguised the withdrawals as emergency plumbing repairs for villas that were never occupied. I forwarded the bank records to the Economic Crimes Division eight minutes ago.”
Wu’s knees went completely slack. His clipboard slipped from his numb fingers, clattering onto the asphalt.
“Eight... eight million...” Wu babbled, his eyes bulging with terror. “How did you get my private betting accounts?!”
“Fiber-optic servers and forensic accountants, Mr. Wu,” Lin Mo said calmly from behind Shen Qiaoqiao. “Stealing public maintenance funds from empty houses is remarkably lazy accounting.”
Down the approach road, two blue-and-white police cruisers screeched to a halt with flashing red-and-blue lights.
Manager Wu panicked. He whipped out his gold-trimmed smartphone with trembling fingers, speed-dialing his executive contact at Zhao Real Estate.
“Director Zhao! Save me!” Wu screamed into the receiver. “Lin Mo bought the whole island! He brought lawyers and forensic audits! The police are on the bridge right now!”
A cold, irritated voice answered from the speaker. “Wu Yongqiang, you fool. Chairman Zhao ordered all ties with low-level contractors severed this morning. If you stole maintenance funds, rot in prison yourself. Do not call this number again.”
CLICK.
The line went dead.
Wu stared at his silent phone screen, his knees turning to jelly as four uniformed officers jogged onto the bridge deck, handcuffs drawn.
“Wu Yongqiang, you are under arrest for commercial embezzlement, utility tampering, and property extortion,” the lead inspector declared, snapping heavy steel cuffs around Wu’s wrists.
The twenty private security guards in black uniforms exchanged frightened glances. Without a word, they dropped their wooden batons onto the road, threw their plastic shields into the ditch, and backed away with raised hands.
Tie Niu stepped forward to the locked steel barrier.
He did not wait for a bolt cutter. He gripped the heavy padlock with both bare hands, braced his boots against the concrete curb, and gave a sharp, explosive twist.
SNAP!
The hardened steel shackle sheared in half like brittle chalk. Tie Niu tossed the broken lock into the river, kicked the steel gates wide open, and turned toward the waiting convoy of fifty emerald moving vans.
“Clear the bridge!” Tie Niu bellowed. “Taichu Iron Guard, take over perimeter security! Escort our families home!”
The fifty moving vans rolled across the bridge in a triumphant, gleaming procession.
Lin Mo, Su Wan, Grandma Chen, and Little Guo’er walked across the stone archway onto the island. The evening breeze carried the fresh scent of wild mountain water, willow leaves, and blossoming jasmine.
Little Guo’er pointed at the stone bridge lanterns, her eyes sparkling with delight. “Big Brother Lin Mo, the water looks like green glass! I can see silver fish swimming near the reeds!”
“Those are river carp, Little Guo’er,” Lin Mo smiled gently, holding her hand. “Grandma Chen can catch them for fresh soup.”
Grandma Chen wiped her apron, her face glowing with maternal pride. “Oh, Xiao Mo, look at the soil along this riverbank! Dark, rich loam! A handful of seeds here will grow the sweetest squash in Jiangcheng!”
Lin Mo looked across the private island. While the fifty villas were magnificent, the communal infrastructure needed immediate, uncompromising upgrades.
He turned toward newly appointed Housing Director Sister Lin Fang and Su Wan.
“Sister Lin Fang,” Lin Mo said calmly. “Taichu communities do not compromise on security, health, or education.”
He drew his emerald-green [Benevolence Charity Card].
“We are disbursing fifteen million yuan for immediate island infrastructure upgrades,” Lin Mo commanded.
Lin Fang quickly brought up her terminal. “How shall we allocate the endowment, Chairman Lin?”
“Five million yuan to Commander Tie Niu to install an integrated perimeter security grid,” Lin Mo instructed. “Automated thermal sensors, infrared night cameras, and twenty-four-hour patrols staffed by forty retired special-forces veterans.”
Tie Niu snapped a crisp military salute. “I will turn this island into an impenetrable fortress, Chairman. Not even a stray sparrow will cross that bridge without clearance.”
“Four million yuan to convert Villa Number One into the Taichu Pediatric Kindergarten and Daycare Center,” Lin Mo continued. “Free Montessori preschool, certified pediatric nurses, and early childhood education for Little Guo’er and all employee children.”
Lin Fang’s eyes welled with tears of gratitude. “My deaf daughter can attend preschool with loving speech therapists right beside her home. She will never have to feel isolated or afraid.”
“Three million yuan to Dr. Gu Qinghe to plant a two-kilometer medicinal herb garden and botanical walking trail along the riverbank,” Lin Mo said. “Fresh mint, wild chrysanthemum, and ginseng to restore our elderly residents’ breathing.”
Dr. Gu smiled warmly, taking notes on his pocket ledger. “We will design therapeutic walking circuits with aromatic pine mulch. Our retired patients with cardiovascular strain will recover thirty percent faster in this microclimate.”
“And the remaining three million yuan,” Lin Mo concluded, “for a deep-aquifer German water purification system and high-efficiency geothermal heating loops for all two hundred worker apartments.”
Sister Lin Fang nodded vigorously. “I will oversee the installation personally. Every apartment will have hospital-grade drinking water from every kitchen tap.”
Su Wan pressed the authorization key on her tablet. “Transaction executed, Chairman Lin. Fifteen million yuan disbursed from the Taichu Community Endowment.”
A resonant, celestial chime echoed in Lin Mo’s consciousness.
[DING! Major Pure-Heart Community Sanctuary Expenditure Confirmed!]
[Recipient: 250 Model Worker Families & Community Children — Received: ¥15,000,000.00 Sanctuary Infrastructure Endowment.]
[Calculation: Total Spent: ¥15,000,000.00 RMB | Multiplier: 100x Pure-Heart Return.]
[Refund Amount: +¥1,500,000,000.00 RMB Transferred to Personal Vault!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +1,500,000 BMP Awarded!]
[Milestone Reached: Total System Asset Value Exceeds ¥100,000,000,000.00 (¥100 Billion)!]
[System Optimization: ¥90,000,000,000.00 Allocated to Taichu Sovereign Reserve Trust.]
[Personal Liquid Vault Balance: ¥10,688,180,000.50 RMB!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 4,680 Verified Righteous Allies!]
A pure, shimmering torrent of golden benevolence qi flooded through Lin Mo’s dantian.
The energy felt like liquid golden starlight. It circulated through every microscopic capillary in his body, washing over his internal organs with soothing warmth. His skeleton hummed with dense, crystalline jade vitality.
His Rank 1 Absolute Peak Martial physique reached an uncanny state of absolute balance. His five hundred-meter sensory awareness expanded effortlessly across the entire island, picking up the rustle of leaves, the laughter of children unpacking boxes, and the bubbling of the river.
Over one hundred billion yuan in total accumulated assets, Lin Mo noted silently. Ninety billion secured in sovereign public reserves to protect our people, and nearly eleven billion in pure liquid cash in my personal vault. In less than two weeks, we went from forty-eight yuan in wontons to an untouchable sovereign sanctuary.
Down along the central avenue, lights flickered on inside fifty villas and two hundred apartments.
The warm glow of dinner lamps illuminated the willow trees. The savory scent of Grandma Chen’s wild-shrimp wonton soup drifted through open kitchen windows. Children laughed on the manicured lawns, chasing fireflies in the twilight.
Old Ma sat on his villa porch, sipping hot jasmine tea with his wife. The chronic cough that had plagued the woman for ten years had already lessened in the clean, humid river air.
Suddenly, the peaceful evening silence was broken by an aggressive, rattling mechanical roar.
A rusted, silver domestic minivan with a dented bumper and a missing headlight came careening across the stone bridge.
The vehicle blew thick clouds of blue exhaust smoke into the clean evening air. It screeched to a halt directly outside the wrought-iron gates of Villa Number Eight, where Lin Mo stood with Su Wan.
The sliding passenger door was shoved open with a violent metallic screech.
A burly, fifty-year-old man in grease-stained polyester trousers and a loud Hawaiian shirt hopped out. He had a beer belly, thinning oily hair, and yellow nicotine-stained teeth.
Beside him stepped a twenty-four-year-old young man with bleached yellow hair, torn jeans, and a cheap faux-leather jacket, holding a smartphone camera.
Lin Mo looked at the two men through the gate bars.
His eyes narrowed slightly with cold, instant recognition.
The older man was his Second Uncle, Lin Dahai. The younger man was his cousin, Lin Bao.
Four years ago, when eighteen-year-old Lin Mo’s parents died in a tragic highway accident, Second Uncle Lin Dahai had swooped in with forged guardianship papers. He had stolen the two-hundred-thousand-yuan survivor pension left by Lin Mo’s parents, gambled it away at illegal mahjong parlors, and kicked a grieving, penniless Lin Mo out into the freezing winter snow.
Lin Dahai gripped the wrought-iron gate bars, rattling them with frantic, entitled fury.
“Lin Mo!” Lin Dahai bellowed at the top of his lungs, his breath reeking of cheap corn liquor and garlic. “Open this gate right now! I am your eldest blood uncle! You bought an entire island of luxury villas, and you didn’t even send a car to fetch your own blood family?!”
Beside him, Cousin Lin Bao pointed his phone camera through the bars, sneering with insolent arrogance.
“Film him, Dad!” Lin Bao yelled, waving his free hand. “Let the whole internet see how unfilial my cousin is! He’s living in a fifty-million-yuan paradise while his own blood uncle drives a rusted van with broken shock absorbers! If he doesn’t give us the master keys and twenty million in cash, we’ll post this video on every news platform in Jiangcheng!”
Lin Dahai pounded the iron gate with his calloused fist, his red face contorting with insatiable greed.
“Did you hear that, Lin Mo?!” Lin Dahai barked. “Blood is thicker than water! Hand over the keys to that center villa and make your cousin Vice-President of Taichu Group tonight, or we will ruin you before morning!”