The glass scanner plates flashed with dual streaks of violent violet light.
Lin Dahai leaned his entire body weight onto the pedestal, his yellow teeth bared in a greedy grin. Beside him, Lin Bao stared at the digital display, his breath hitching as he waited for the confirmation chime of twenty million yuan.
For one second, the terminal hummed with high-speed forensic computation.
Then, the dual scanner pads flared into blinding, strobe-flashing crimson.
WHEEEEE-OOOOO-WHEEEEE-OOOOO!
A deafening, one-hundred-and-twenty-decibel alarm erupted from the pedestal’s acoustic horns!
Four high-intensity crimson laser projectors snapped on. A massive, rotating holographic billboard flared six feet above the front gate, casting brilliant blood-red text across the entire avenue and the facade of the villas:
[ORPHAN-ROBBING PARASITES DETECTED! CRITICAL MORAL FAILURE!]
[TARGET 1: LIN DAHAI, AGE 52 | MORAL INTEGRITY SCORE: 9/100.]
[TARGET 2: LIN BAO, AGE 24 | MORAL INTEGRITY SCORE: 8/100.]
[FORENSIC BANKING EVIDENCE:]
[CRIME: EMBEZZLED ORPHAN NEPHEW'S ¥200,000.00 SURVIVOR PENSION IN 2022.]
[TRANSFER TRACE: WITHDREW ALL CASH FROM COUNTY POSTAL BANK 48 HOURS AFTER PARENTS' FUNERAL.]
[DISPOSITION: LOST ¥84,000.00 AT ILLEGAL MAHJONG PARLOR THAT NIGHT.]
[CURRENT STATUS: PREDATORY EXTORTION FOR HIRE (ACCEPTED ¥50,000 FROM ZHAO CONSORTIUM PROXY).]
[VERDICT: ZERO PERCENT CHARITY ELIGIBILITY! PERMANENT CIVIC BLACKLIST!]
The electronic voice was so piercing and thunderous that residents across the river paused on their balconies.
Lin Dahai jumped back as if scalded by boiling water. His face turned from greedy red to a sickly, corpse-like gray.
“Turn it off! Turn that devil machine off!” Lin Dahai shrieked, his voice cracking with terror. “It’s lying! That money was four years ago! The county police closed the case!”
Lin Bao fell backward onto the pavement, his knees shaking so violently that his phone clattered across the asphalt. “Dad... the machine showed the exact bank withdrawal... it showed the mahjong parlor...”
Fifty model delivery captains, nurses, and doctors stepped out from their villa porches, their faces dark with burning indignation.
“Stealing an eighteen-year-old orphan’s pension?!” “His own brother’s life insurance?!” “What kind of human animal steals from his dead brother’s child?!” “Look at them! They took fifty thousand from the Zhao family to stage a scene!”
Dozens of residents walked toward the gate, glaring at the two men with absolute contempt.
Lin Dahai scrambled toward his rusted minivan, grabbing Lin Bao by the collar. “Get in the car! We’re leaving!”
SCREECH!
Before Lin Dahai could touch the sliding door, two heavy black executive vans and an official judicial enforcement sedan boxed the rusted minivan against the curb.
Four court bailiffs in gray uniforms stepped out, flanked by officers from the County Commercial Police.
Chief Bailiff Chen unrolled an official, red-ribboned judicial execution order.
“Lin Dahai, Lin Bao, stand down!” Bailiff Chen commanded, his voice echoing across the driveway. “Acting on emergency filings submitted by Taichu Legal General Counsel Shen Qiaoqiao, the Jiangcheng Intermediate People’s Court has reopened Case 2022-094.”
Shen Qiaoqiao stepped forward with her legal folder, her spectacles catching the streetlight.
“Under Article 108 of the Civil Code,” Shen Qiaoqiao said cheerfully, “embezzlement of a minor’s survivor pension under fraudulent guardianship carries mandatory restitution plus compound statutory interest at fifteen percent per annum.”
She handed a certified ledger to Bailiff Chen.
“The total outstanding debt owed to Lin Mo is three hundred and sixty-two thousand yuan,” Shen Qiaoqiao stated. “Furthermore, under Section 270 of the Penal Code, fraudulent appropriation of ward funds constitutes grand larceny.”
Bailiff Chen pointed to the rusted minivan and handed an asset-seizure notice to Lin Dahai.
“Your minivan is seized on the spot,” Bailiff Chen announced. “Your three-story residential house in County Three has been placed under emergency judicial foreclosure. You will be held in detention pending criminal indictment.”
Two officers moved forward, snapping steel handcuffs around Lin Dahai’s thick wrists. Two more officers handcuffed a sobbing, thrashing Lin Bao.
“Lin Mo! Xiao Mo!” Lin Dahai wailed, thrashing against the officers as tears of panic poured down his face. “I am your second uncle! We have the same blood!”
“Forgive me! Don’t take my house! Where will your aunt and cousin live?!”
Lin Mo stood quietly behind the gate, his hands resting in his pockets.
Blood only matters when people honor its obligations, Lin Mo thought, his expression as flat as carved jade. When I was shivering in an unheated room four years ago with zero food, you didn’t think about blood. You thought about mahjong tiles. Accountability is not cruel; it is simply basic arithmetic.
“Sister Lin Fang,” Lin Mo said calmly.
Lin Fang stepped forward immediately. “Yes, Chairman Lin?”
“When the county court auctions Lin Dahai’s house,” Lin Mo instructed, “use our legal fund to buy the property. Demolish the card rooms and build an honest community clinic for our hometown’s elderly villagers.”
“Understood, Chairman!” Lin Fang nodded firmly.
Bailiffs loaded the wailing father and son into the judicial transport van. The van turned around, its sirens echoing into the night as it carried them away to county detention.
The driveway fell peaceful once more.
Grandma Chen walked over and gently patted Lin Mo’s shoulder. Her maternal eyes were soft with deep, protective warmth.
“It is over, Xiao Mo,” Grandma Chen said softly. “The ghosts of your past have no power over you anymore. Your parents are watching from the heavens, and they are proud of the man you have become.”
Lin Mo felt a knot in his chest loosen completely. The lingering shadows of his eighteenth winter vanished like morning mist beneath the sun.
He turned toward Su Wan and Dr. Gu.
“Su Wan,” Lin Mo said, his voice resonant and filled with purpose. “My parents worked their entire lives as rural schoolteachers. They spent forty years taking in abandoned village children and teaching them to read by kerosene lamps.”
He pulled out his emerald-green [Benevolence Charity Card].
“We recovered the three hundred and sixty-two thousand yuan stolen by Lin Dahai,” Lin Mo said. “Add twenty million yuan from the Taichu Benevolence Trust. We are establishing the Lin Family Parents Memorial Orphan Shelter and Scholarship.”
Dr. Gu’s scholarly eyes widened with profound respect. “A dedicated shelter and scholarship, Chairman Lin?”
“Yes,” Lin Mo nodded. “Dispatch ten Taichu executive vans to County Three tonight. Bring fifty orphaned and destitute children between the ages of six and sixteen to Emerald River Island. We will house them in Villa Number Two and Villa Number Three.”
Lin Mo looked at Sister Lin Fang and Grandma Chen.
“They will have free food from Grandma Chen’s canteens, full medical care at Taichu Hospital, and private tutoring through high school and college,” Lin Mo commanded. “Not a single child from our hometown will ever freeze in the snow or beg for bread.”
Su Wan’s fingers danced across her tablet, executing the charter documents and escrow deposits with machine precision.
“Charter confirmed, Chairman Lin,” Su Wan said, her eyes shining with admiration. “Twenty million yuan disbursed into the Lin Family Parents Memorial Orphan Endowment. Transport vans dispatched to County Three.”
A magnificent, celestial chime resonated within Lin Mo’s consciousness.
[DING! Monumental Pure-Heart Philanthropic Expenditure Confirmed!]
[Recipient 1: 50 Hometown Rural Orphans (Avg Goodness: 94.6/100) — Received: ¥20,000,000.00 Housing, Nutrition & Educational Endowment.]
[Recipient 2: Memorial Foundation for Upright Rural Educators — Fully Endowed.]
[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 Awarded!]
[Personal Vault Current Balance: ¥12,668,180,000.50 RMB!]
[Taichu Sovereign Reserve Trust: ¥90,000,000,000.00 RMB (Unchanged).]
[Good People Network Expanded: 4,730 Verified Righteous Allies!]
A tremendous, golden surge of benevolence qi roared into Lin Mo’s dantian.
The energy felt like liquid sunlight warming his entire physical core. His Rank 1 Absolute Peak Martial foundation hummed with absolute perfection. The accumulated merits from uplifting thousands of honest lives settled into his bones, preparing his body for the impending leap into Rank 2 Iron-Jade Bones.
Nearly thirteen billion yuan in liquid cash, Lin Mo reflected with a deadpan grin. And fifty children who will never have to endure what I went through four years ago. This is the only kind of compound interest that truly matters.
By midnight, ten black executive vans rolled silently across the stone bridge onto Emerald River Island.
Fifty children stepped out onto the driveway. Some wore faded cotton coats that were two sizes too small, their sleeves frayed to threads. Others wore thin plastic sandals with bare, dust-caked toes. Many clutched battered cardboard boxes containing their only possessions: a few worn school textbooks, a stubby pencil, or a faded photograph of deceased parents.
A twelve-year-old boy named Xiao Hu carried his six-year-old sister, Xiao Duo, on his thin back. The little girl had fallen asleep against his shoulder, clutching a chipped enamel cup. Xiao Hu looked at the towering palm trees, the private riverbank, and the magnificent Spanish villas with wide, guarded eyes.
“Sir...” Xiao Hu whispered timidly, pulling his sister closer as he saw Lin Mo. “Is this really a school shelter? We... we don’t have any money for tuition. Our village chief said someone in the city paid for everything, but...”
Lin Mo walked down the terrace stairs, kneeling slightly so his eyes met the boy’s level.
“Nobody here will ever ask you for tuition, Xiao Hu,” Lin Mo said gently, placing a hand on the boy’s frail shoulder. “Your sister can sleep in a clean bed with soft cotton sheets tonight. From now on, your only job is to study hard and eat your fill.”
Dr. Gu Qinghe stepped forward with two head nurses in white coats, holding thermal infrared scanners and warm woolen socks.
“Let Dr. Gu examine your sister’s chest cough, Xiao Hu,” Dr. Gu said with a warm, grandfatherly smile. “We have warm herbal medicine that will make her throat feel like honey in five minutes.”
Grandma Chen rushed forward, her eyes brimming with tears. She wrapped Xiao Duo in a thick cashmere shawl and handed Xiao Hu a pair of fleece-lined boots.
“Come inside, my sweet babies!” Grandma Chen called out warmly, her maternal voice ringing across the lawn. “The wontons are piping hot! There is braised beef, sweet potato buns, and warm milk for everyone! Nobody goes to bed hungry on this island!”
The fifty children looked at each other, the cautious fear in their eyes melting into bright, radiant smiles.
They followed Grandma Chen into the warm, sunlit dining hall of Villa Number Two, where steaming porcelain bowls waited on polished mahogany tables. The aroma of wild-shrimp broth, simmered beef brisket, and freshly baked scallion rolls filled the air.
Little Guo’er bounded between the tables, giggling as she handed out lotus-honey candies and soft plush rabbits to the younger girls.
“Eat lots of wontons!” Little Guo’er chirped happily. “Grandma puts extra big shrimp in them! They make your tummy feel like sunshine!”
Lin Mo stood on the terrace with Su Wan, watching the fifty children laughing, drinking warm milk, and eating under the crystal chandelier.
Su Wan looked at him, her expression soft and genuinely fond. “They have never seen anything like this, Chairman. For most of these kids, a warm meal and a clean bed was a distant fairy tale.”
Tie Niu walked up to the terrace, wiping his hands with a clean cloth. “Chairman, all fifty children are settled into private rooms across Villa Two and Villa Three. Our veteran guards have secured the perimeter. Not even a stray mosquito will disturb their sleep tonight.”
Lin Mo took a sip of hot green tea. A faint, deadpan smirk touched his lips.
“A clean bed is only the baseline, Su Wan,” Lin Mo said smoothly. “Tomorrow is Saturday. It is important for growing children to experience proper maritime logistics.”
He walked toward the dining hall entrance and clapped his hands gently.
Fifty smiling children turned their faces toward Lin Mo, their eyes bright with curiosity and adoration.
Lin Mo smiled warmly, his voice ringing through the hall.
“Eat your wontons, kids,” Lin Mo announced. “Then pack your bags. Tomorrow morning, we are taking the biggest superyacht on the river!”