Lin Mo stepped forward and caught the weeping young mother by her shoulders, gently lifting her to her feet.
“Stand up,” Lin Mo said softly. “In front of Taichu, honest people do not need to kneel.”
Shen Qiaoqiao rushed into the pavilion, her tailored charcoal suit crisp and her briefcase in hand. Behind her followed four young attorneys from the Legal Hammer Division, already pulling out digital recording devices and legal intake pads.
The old homebuyer, trembling with rage, thrust the chunk of crumbling concrete into the open air. Green strips of dry bamboo poked through the chalky gray matrix.
“Look at this!” the old man shouted to the gathered reporters. “My name is Gu Tiancheng! I worked thirty-five years at the municipal textile mill! My son took out a thirty-year mortgage, and our three generations paid one million two hundred thousand yuan for our flat in Zhao-Imperial Garden! The balcony cracked this morning, and this came out of the pillar! When my son went to the sales center to ask for an inspection, Lei Bao’s thugs beat him with wooden clubs and fractured his left collarbone!”
The young mother sobbed, hugging her infant tightly. “My husband’s ribs were cracked! The hospital told us to pay thirty thousand yuan for surgery, but all our savings went into the down payment! The developer locked the gate and told us to get lost or they would burn our furniture!”
A soft chime sounded in Lin Mo’s vision:
[TARGET GROUP: 120 DUPED HOMEBUYER FAMILIES (480 CITIZENS)]
[AVERAGE GOODNESS SCORE: 85/100 — HARDWORKING CITIZENS, LIFE SAVINGS SCAMMED BY PREDATORY FRAUD]
[CRISIS: THREATENED WITH HOMELESSNESS AND VIOLENCE AFTER SEVERE STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE OF THIRD-FLOOR BALCONIES]
Replacing high-tensile steel with split bamboo in high-rise buildings is not cost-cutting, Lin Mo thought deadpan. It is mass murder disguised as real estate. Charging families thirty years of honest labor for dry grass and river mud is evil on an industrial scale.
Lin Mo turned to Su Wan and Shen Qiaoqiao.
“Su Wan, execute an immediate emergency benevolence allocation,” Lin Mo ordered. “Twenty million yuan from our sanctuary fund. Relocate all one hundred and twenty families into our Emerald River Sanctuary Apartments today. Fully furnished, zero rent, zero utilities for three years.”
The young mother stared at him in utter disbelief. “Zero rent? For three years?”
“Every family also receives a fifty-thousand-yuan living stipend to cover emergency medical bills and moving costs,” Lin Mo continued. “Chief Counsel Shen, take their power of attorney. File an emergency court injunction to freeze Zhao Real Estate’s accounts before the banks open tomorrow.”
Shen Qiaoqiao pushed her glasses up her nose, her eyes flashing like polished steel blades. “Consider it done, Chairman. Under consumer protection statutes and criminal safety codes, building with organic fiber instead of certified structural steel constitutes criminal endangerment. We will seize their sales escrow accounts by noon.”
A wave of crying and shouting broke out among the families.
“Benefactor!” “Chairman Lin, you saved our families!”
Relocating one hundred and twenty families takes empty apartments and turns them into lifelong allies, Lin Mo thought. And when every cent spent comes back multiplied by a hundred, saving good people is simply the most profitable trade on earth.
Master Lu Jian took the piece of concrete from the old man’s hands. He rubbed the crumbly gray powder between his calloused fingers and brought it to his nose.
“Unwashed river silt,” Master Lu said, his voice trembling with professional outrage. “The salt inside corrodes rebar within two years. But Zhao Real Estate did not even bother using rebar. They bundled green mountain bamboo and tied it with cheap hemp rope. When the bamboo rots, the concrete cracks like dry bread.”
Master Lu grabbed his aluminum equipment case from the display table.
“Chairman Lin, I have an industrial ultrasonic flaw detector,” Master Lu said. “Let us take the news cameras directly to Zhao-Imperial Garden. I will expose their entire foundation to the city!”
Lin Mo pulled out his phone and dialed a direct number.
“Captain Chen Lie,” Lin Mo said. “Are you on duty?”
“Chairman Lin!” Firefighter Captain Chen Lie’s booming voice came through the line. “Our Municipal Fire and Structural Safety Taskforce is running emergency inspections downtown. What do you need?”
“Bring your heavy safety testing teams to Zhao-Imperial Garden,” Lin Mo said. “A residential building just suffered a balcony collapse. The developer used bamboo rebar.”
“Bamboo?!” Captain Chen Lie roared so loudly that the phone speaker vibrated. “Those murderous bastards! Our taskforce is rolling with six heavy response units right now!”
***
Twenty minutes later, a massive convoy arrived outside the wrought-iron gates of Zhao-Imperial Garden.
Three television broadcast vans followed closely behind Lin Mo’s Maybach. Behind them, sirens wailed as Captain Chen Lie’s red command vehicles and fire rescue trucks screeched to a halt along the avenue.
Captain Chen Lie jumped down from the lead command truck, his heavy boots hitting the pavement with a solid thud. He marched straight to Lin Mo and snapped a crisp, respectful salute.
“Chairman Lin!” Captain Chen Lie said, his eyes full of admiration. “Ever since you funded the advanced burn trauma wing at Taichu Hospital, our rescue crews have had the best protective gear in the province. Now you tell me Zhao Real Estate is locking families inside bamboo death traps?”
“See for yourself, Captain,” Lin Mo said calmly. “Their security is blocking the courtyard.”
At the entrance to the residential complex, thirty private security guards wearing helmets and wielding wooden batons formed a tight line.
“Halt!” their captain shouted, pointing a baton. “This is private property! No cameras allowed! Anyone who trespasses will be arrested for breaking public order!”
Tie Niu stepped out of the Maybach. He did not say a word.
He walked forward like a moving wall of solid iron. When three guards swung their batons at his shoulders, Tie Niu caught two batons in his left hand and snapped them across his knee. With a quick sweep of his right arm, he tossed the guards into the flowerbeds.
Behind him, Captain Chen Lie marched through the gate, holding his gold-crested municipal safety badge high.
“Municipal Fire and Structural Safety Taskforce!” Captain Chen Lie barked. “Under emergency disaster prevention protocols, we have full legal authority to enter any occupied structure! Stand down, or face immediate criminal obstruction charges!”
The remaining guards dropped their clubs and scattered into the courtyard.
Reporters hoisted heavy television cameras on their shoulders, broadcasting live across Jiangcheng’s evening news channel.
Master Lu Jian led the group into the grand lobby of Building 3.
Along the exterior wall, a third-floor balcony had broken off, dangling by a few strands of wire mesh. Inside the lobby, deep zigzag cracks ran down the two central load-bearing pillars.
Master Lu pulled out a sleek yellow device with two magnetic sensor pads: [Industrial Ultrasonic Flaw Detector].
He pressed the pads against the plaster of the central pillar.
BEEP... BEEP... BEEEEEEP.
The digital display on the screen flashed bright red. Instead of the sharp, regular pulse waves that indicated dense steel rebar, the screen showed flat, chaotic ripples.
“Look at the density reading,” Master Lu called out to the cameras. “Standard structural concrete registers over thirty megapascals. This material reads under eight! There is zero metallic resonance in this pillar. It is hollow!”
Captain Chen Lie stepped up, his jaw clenched tight. He swung a twelve-pound forged steel demolition hammer.
CRACK!
A single blow shattered the outer concrete shell like a thin eggshell.
Piles of loose, sandy gravel tumbled onto the polished floor.
Exposed inside the core of the pillar was not a cage of thirty-two-millimeter deformed steel bars. Instead, three bundles of dried, splintered bamboo stalks stood upright, wrapped in rotten brown hemp rope. Many of the bamboo stalks had already split from the building’s weight.
The television reporters pushed their lenses directly into the hole.
“Viewers of Jiangcheng News,” a reporter said, her voice shaking with horror. “You are seeing this live. Building 3 of Zhao-Imperial Garden, sold at twenty-eight thousand yuan per square meter, has zero steel rebar in its primary load-bearing pillar. The core is stuffed with split bamboo.”
Across the city, millions of people watching the live broadcast erupted in fury. Phone lines at the municipal housing bureau and police stations jammed within five minutes.
Captain Chen Lie ran his gloved hand over the splintered bamboo. His eyes were bloodshot with rage.
“These monsters,” Captain Chen Lie whispered. “If this building reached full occupancy, a single minor tremor would have brought eighteen floors down on four hundred people!”
He pulled out a heavy red stamp and a stack of yellow official notices.
With loud, sharp thuds, Captain Chen Lie slapped emergency closure orders onto the glass doors of every building in the complex:
[MUNICIPAL EMERGENCY CLOSURE ORDER]
[REASON: CATASTROPHIC STRUCTURAL CODE VIOLATION — USE OF PROHIBITED BAMBOO MATERIALS]
[STATUS: IMMEDIATE EVACUATION & COMPLETE ASSET FREEZE UNDER DISASTER PREVENTION LAW]
Shen Qiaoqiao stepped forward with her tablet, handing digital injunction copies to the police officers who had just arrived.
“Zhao Real Estate’s corporate accounts across four state banks have been placed under temporary judicial freeze,” Shen Qiaoqiao announced. “All sales revenue is impounded to refund homebuyers.”
On the outdoor screen, the financial ticker showed Zhao Real Estate’s stock plummeting twenty percent, triggering an automatic trading halt.
Standing near the perimeter fence, Zhao Kai and Lei Bao watched from inside a tinted Mercedes sedan. Zhao Kai slammed his fists against the steering wheel, his face pale as paper.
“My family’s thirty-billion-yuan project...” Zhao Kai choked out. “Ruined in one afternoon!”
Lei Bao gripped the door handle, his knuckles white. “That kid Lin Mo... he has eyes everywhere. This feud is not over!”
The Mercedes screeched its tires and fled down the side street.
In the lobby, the one hundred and twenty families wept with overwhelming relief. They gathered around Lin Mo and Master Lu, bowing again and again.
“Thank you, Chairman Lin!” “Thank you, Master Lu!”
A clear, sweet chime rang out in Lin Mo’s mind:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥20,000,000.00 RMB on 120 Duped Homebuyer Families (Goodness: 81–88/100) for Emergency Sanctuary Relocation and Legal Relief!]
[Target Integrity Verified: Honest citizens victimized by criminal construction fraud.]
[Triggered 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Received Cash Refund: +¥2,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥30,587,180,000.50 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +2,000,000 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 6,970 verified righteous allies (+120 families / 480 citizens)!]
Thirty point six billion in liquid capital, Lin Mo thought, watching the families board the comfortable shuttle buses to Emerald River Island. A two billion cash refund for saving four hundred lives from a deadly collapse. Zhao Kai thought he was saving millions by using bamboo. Greed makes men unimaginably stupid.
Two hours later, the crowd had cleared, and the evening sky turned deep indigo over the river.
Lin Mo, Master Lu Jian, and Tie Niu returned to the central drafting office at the Taichu Sky-Tower site. The twenty apprentices were working quietly, their faces solemn in the warm light of the drafting lamps.
Master Lu closed the door behind them and locked the heavy deadbolt.
He walked to the far corner of the room, knelt down, and pulled a heavy wooden chest from beneath a drafting table. The chest was made of dark, ancient camphor wood, reinforced with copper straps and engraved with interlocking geometric runes.
With steady hands, Master Lu unlocked the ancient padlock.
Inside rested a roll of yellowed silk bound with red cord, its edges darkened with centuries of reverence.
“Master Lu,” Lin Mo said, tilting his head. “What is this?”
Master Lu looked up at Lin Mo, his eyes burning with deep, sacred reverence.
“Chairman Lin, today I watched you spend millions to save ordinary families,” Master Lu said, his voice dropping to a solemn whisper. “You do not build towers to squeeze money out of the poor. You build to protect them. You have the heart of an ancient sage.”
Master Lu lifted the yellowed silk roll with both hands, offering it to Lin Mo.
“For three hundred years, my Lu clan has guarded our ancestral secret,” Master Lu said, trembling. “Our ancestors served as chief mechanism architects for the imperial capitals. They designed foundations that stood through ten-magnitude earthquakes by channeling subterranean earth qi into interlocking jade conduits. It neutralizes seismic tremors, clears dampness, and restores the vigor of every honest worker inside.”
Master Lu unrolled the first few inches of silk, revealing delicate gold-ink schematics of gear assemblies and underground vitality channels.
“Corrupt developers only care about fast profit, so they buried our ancient science,” Master Lu said with tears in his eyes. “This is the complete [Heavenly Luban Mechanism & Nine-Palace Array Manual]. With your resources and this knowledge, we can embed an ancient Feng-Shui Vitality Array into the Sky-Tower’s bedrock. It will protect this sanctuary from earthquakes, saboteurs, and time itself!”