The rusted iron gate rattled violently against its stone pillars.
Second Uncle Lin Dahai shook the bars with both hands, his face flushed red from corn liquor and pure avarice. His greasy hair stood on end, and he bared his stained teeth like a cornered dog.
“Lin Mo!” Lin Dahai bellowed, spraying spit through the iron grating. “Don’t pretend you are deaf! I am your father’s own brother! You were practically raised by our family! Now that you made a little fortune in the city, you think you can lock your elders outside like stray animals?!”
Standing beside him, Cousin Lin Bao shoved a smartphone between the bars. His bleached yellow hair caught the glow of the landscape floodlights.
“That’s right, cousin!” Lin Bao sneered, angling his phone camera straight at Lin Mo’s face. “The camera is live! You bought fifty luxury villas for delivery drivers and hospital workers, but you leave your own uncle in a broken van!”
“If you don’t give my dad thirty million yuan and make me Vice-President of Taichu Group tonight, I will post this clip to every news agency in Jiangcheng! We will show the world what an unfilial monster you are!”
Lin Mo stood three paces back on the manicured lawn. His hands rested in his overcoat pockets, his expression as calm and unruffled as a mountain lake.
Beside him, Su Wan’s eyes turned sharp with icy disgust.
“Practically raised by your family?” Su Wan asked, her voice cutting through the evening air like a cold blade. “According to municipal civil archives, when Chairman Lin’s parents died four years ago, Lin Dahai filed forged guardianship documents within forty-eight hours. You seized his parents’ two-hundred-thousand-yuan survivor insurance payout.”
Su Wan took a step forward, her tablet illuminating her sharp profile.
“You lost eighty thousand at an illegal card room in County Three that same night,” Su Wan continued coldly. “Then you dumped eighteen-year-old Lin Mo’s clothes into the winter snow, padlocked the family home, and sold the deed to a local timber merchant.”
Lin Dahai flinched for half a second. A flicker of guilty panic crossed his eyes before his face hardened into stubborn malice.
“That was family business!” Lin Dahai roared back, waving his fist through the bars. “I held that money in trust! The insurance company shortchanged us! Besides, he survived, didn’t he?! He is a billionaire now! That proves my strict upbringing gave him character! As his elder, I am entitled to my reward!”
The psychological flexibility of selfish relatives is truly miraculous, Lin Mo thought, watching the two men with deadpan fascination. They rob an eighteen-year-old orphan in the dead of winter, lose his dead parents’ pension on three-card poker, and then claim credit for his net worth. If Olympic medals were awarded for shamelessness, my second uncle would be on a postage stamp.
Lin Mo activated his [Pure-Heart Eye].
Two glaring, toxic markers hovered over the gate:
[Target: Lin Dahai, Age 52.]
[Moral Integrity Score: 9/100 (Shameless Kinship Predator & Habitual Gambler).]
[Status: Embezzled Orphan Nephew's ¥200,000 Pension in 2022; Multiple Default Warrants.]
[Target: Lin Bao, Age 24.]
[Moral Integrity Score: 8/100 (Petty Extortionist & Online Bully).]
[Status: Paid ¥50,000 by Zhao Kai's Proxy to Stage a Defamation Stunt at the Villa Gate.]
Lin Mo noticed the extra line on Lin Bao’s status panel.
Paid fifty thousand by Zhao Kai’s proxy, Lin Mo noted silently. Zhao Kai never learns. Whenever his commercial syndicates get crushed, he hires petty relatives to stage a moral blackmail show. He operates like a spoiled toddler throwing pebbles at a fortress.
Lin Mo’s sharp senses detected a faint, unnatural rustling in the dense weeping willow bushes thirty yards to the left of the stone gate.
A microscopic electronic hum pulsed through the evening air.
Before Lin Mo could signal Tie Niu, an elderly figure in a gray maintenance jumpsuit stepped quietly out from the garden shadows.
It was Deaf Janitor Old Wu.
Old Wu had been sweeping the fallen willow leaves along the river path with a traditional bamboo broom. Days ago, in the underground corridors of Grand Golden-Plume Plaza, arrogant mall managers had bullied the deaf old man and docked his meager wages. Lin Mo had stepped in, bought him steaming wontons, and hired him with a permanent living wage at Taichu Sanctuary.
Old Wu had sworn in his heart to protect Chairman Lin with every ounce of his remaining strength. Although he could not hear spoken words, his tactile vibration sense was sharper than a hunting hound’s ears. Having eaten Grandma Chen’s vitality-infused broth for two straight days, his physical senses were keener than ever.
Old Wu placed the back of his calloused hand against the bark of a weeping willow tree.
He felt an abnormal mechanical vibration: the tiny, rhythmic hum of an electric zoom motor and the micro-current of a directional microphone cable running through the grass.
Old Wu did not shout. He pointed his bamboo broom handle straight toward the thickest cluster of wild jasmine bushes beside the stone perimeter wall. Then he tapped his palm against his chest and pointed directly at Commander Tie Niu.
Tie Niu instantly understood.
The veteran commander vanished from Lin Mo’s side like a phantom. Moving with the silent, predatory speed of a stalking tiger, Tie Niu circled behind the stone wall.
A second later, a terrified yelp shattered the darkness of the bushes.
“Ah! Let go of me! My camera! My ten-thousand-yuan lens!”
CRASH!
Tie Niu stepped out from the foliage, dragging a thin young man in a camouflage vest by the scruff of his neck.
The man held a heavy telephoto digital camera, an audio receiver, and three spare memory cards. A plastic press pass dangled from his collar: Jiangcheng Daily Gossip Channel — Senior Reporter Liu.
Tie Niu slammed the reporter down onto the stone apron before Lin Mo. He raised his combat boot and brought his heel down onto the heavy telephoto lens.
CRUNCH!
The glass lenses and aluminum chassis flattened into metal pancakes under Tie Niu’s crushing weight.
“Chairman,” Tie Niu reported, tossing a digital audio recorder to Shen Qiaoqiao. “This rat was hiding in the bushes with a long-range microphone and a satellite transmitter. He was broadcasting audio directly to an offshore cloud server.”
Shen Qiaoqiao caught the recorder, plugged it into her smartphone with an adapter cable, and tapped the screen.
Within five seconds, her dimples deepened into a sweet, predatory smile.
“Target identified,” Shen Qiaoqiao announced cheerfully. “Reporter Liu received a fifty-thousand-yuan advance wire transfer two hours ago from an advertising company wholly owned by Zhao Kai’s personal shell account. The payment memo was labeled: ‘Media Hit: Lin Mo Disowns Rural Family.’”
Tie Niu snatched the reporter’s locked phone, held it up to the reporter’s terrified face to unlock it, and scrolled through the chat history.
“Chairman, look at this chat log,” Tie Niu said, his deep voice thick with disgust. “Zhao Kai’s secretary promised this little rodent an extra one hundred thousand yuan if he baited you into striking your uncle on camera. They wanted a viral assault headline for the morning papers.”
Reporter Liu scrambled backward on his hands and knees, his face white with terror. “I... I was just taking freelance photos! You have no right to destroy my equipment!”
“Under the National Cybersecurity Law, unauthorized surveillance of private residential sanctuaries carrying municipal civic infrastructure status constitutes commercial espionage,” Shen Qiaoqiao informed him sweetly. “You can explain your freelance photos to the State Security Bureau.”
Grandma Chen walked down the garden path, carrying an iron ladle in her hand. Little Guo’er peeked out from behind her apron.
When Grandma Chen saw Lin Dahai’s face through the iron bars, her maternal eyes turned fiercer than a tigress defending her cubs.
“Lin Dahai!” Grandma Chen shouted, pointing her ladle at the man. “I remember your shameless face! Four years ago, when Xiao Mo collapsed from hunger outside my wonton cart in the freezing rain, he didn’t have five fen in his pockets!”
“His dead parents’ funeral wasn’t even cold, and you took every cent of his survivor pension! You let your own nephew starve on the frozen curb! And now you dare bring your worthless hides to this gate to ask for villas?!”
At the gate, Second Uncle Lin Dahai and Cousin Lin Bao went pale.
Lin Bao quickly tried to tuck his phone into his back pocket. “Dad... they caught the camera guy...”
“Shut up, Bao!” Lin Dahai hissed, though his throat felt like dry sandpaper. He turned back to the iron bars, banging them with renewed desperation. “Lin Mo! Don’t try to change the subject with reporters! That has nothing to do with us! You cannot deny you are my nephew! You cannot deny my brother’s blood flows in your veins!”
Lin Dahai puffed out his chest, trying to regain his haughty, overbearing demeanor.
“In our hometown, elder relatives come first!” Lin Dahai yelled. “I am telling you right now: give us Villa Number Eight, buy Lin Bao a luxury car, and deposit twenty million yuan into our county bank account! Do that, and we will sign a statement saying you are a filial nephew! Refuse, and I will sit outside this gate every day until you are ruined!”
Lin Mo finally walked forward.
He stopped half a pace from the iron bars. The evening light bathed his calm, chiseled features in warm gold.
“Second Uncle,” Lin Mo said, his voice quiet, steady, and terrifyingly cold.
Lin Dahai flinched under Lin Mo’s direct gaze. For the first time, he noticed the subtle, crushing aura radiating from his nephew’s body. It was like standing before a hibernating dragon that could crush him with a single breath.
“You want Villa Number Eight,” Lin Mo said calmly. “And you want Lin Bao to be Vice-President of Taichu Group.”
“Yes!” Lin Dahai swallowed hard, greed overcoming his fear. “That is our rightful family share!”
Lin Mo signaled Su Wan.
Su Wan walked forward, carrying the sleek, emerald-green [Voice-Broadcast Benevolence POS Machine].
She mounted the device on a polished stainless-steel pedestal built directly into the center of the automated security gate. A wide, illuminated scanner plate faced outward toward the driveway.
Lin Mo looked at Lin Dahai and Lin Bao with a deadpan, faintly amused expression.
“Second Uncle, Taichu Group is a modern corporate conglomerate,” Lin Mo said smoothly. “We do not assign multi-million-yuan villas or executive titles through verbal arguments. We use the Taichu Family and Morality Verification Terminal.”
Lin Dahai stared suspiciously at the glowing emerald machine. “A morality machine? What does that mean?”
“It means our company rewards upright, honest family members,” Lin Mo explained, his voice smooth and inviting. “The scanner connects directly to municipal judicial records, banking ledgers, and moral integrity scores. The standard passing threshold for family executive appointments is eighty points.”
He looked directly into Lin Dahai’s bloodshot eyes.
“If you and Lin Bao press your palms against that plate and achieve a passing score of eighty,” Lin Mo said, “I will hand you the deed to Villa Number Eight. I will also wire twenty million yuan to your account and appoint Lin Bao Executive Vice-President before the clock strikes eight.”
Lin Bao’s eyes flared with feverish, uncontrollable excitement.
“Dad! Did you hear that?!” Lin Bao shouted, gripping his father’s arm. “Villa Number Eight and twenty million cash! Plus a Vice-President title! That machine is just a company fingerprint scanner! We didn’t do anything illegal! The statute of limitations on that old pension passed years ago! The machine can’t know anything!”
Lin Dahai looked at the glowing emerald plate, then at Lin Mo’s impassive face.
Twenty million yuan. A private riverside villa with a swimming pool. An executive title that would make them the kings of their county.
The sheer, overwhelming weight of their greed completely shattered whatever tiny shred of caution remained in their minds.
“Fine!” Lin Dahai spat onto his palm and rubbed his hands together. “We’ll scan your little machine, Lin Mo! Get the keys and the twenty million ready!”
Lin Dahai stepped up to the pedestal, raised his beefy right hand, and slammed his palm flat against the emerald glass plate.
Beside him, Cousin Lin Bao shoved his left palm onto the secondary scanner pad with a triumphant, greedy roar.