Master Builder Lu Jian lowered his walkie-talkie outside the North Campus dormitory plaza forty-eight hours after the pledge in the alley, signaling two thousand builders and forty engineering teams to remove the final safety scaffolding.
Before them, the once-dilapidated nineteen-seventy-five dormitory towers stood transformed into modern architectural marvels after three rotating shifts had worked around the clock without pausing for a single hour.
Cracked exterior masonry had been resurfaced with smooth, waterproof ceramic facades that gleamed like polished river jade. Ancient single-pane wooden frames were replaced by triple-glazed acoustic windows that sealed out street noise completely. On the rooftops, sleek solar array panels captured the morning light, feeding clean electricity into brand-new central heating and cooling grids.
Master Lu Jian stood near the entrance, tapping his yellow hard hat with a broad, booming laugh.
“Every room is engineered to last fifty years!” Lu Jian declared to a gathering of curious professors. “We installed Nine-Palace thermal circulation vents, sound-dampening rock-wool insulation, and automatic fresh-air filtration units. In winter, these rooms will stay at twenty-two degrees Celsius with zero draft!”
Inside the buildings, drafty hallways were replaced by bright corridors lined with soundproof individual study pods. Every four-student dormitory room now featured solid oak bunk beds with ergonomic memory-foam mattresses, built-in bookshelves, private bathroom suites with instant hot water, and high-speed fiber internet ports.
On the ground floor of Dormitory Building One, double mahogany doors opened into a spacious, sunlit dining hall.
Above the entrance hung a carved wooden sign in warm gold calligraphy: Grandma Chen’s Taichu Campus Sanctuary Canteen.
The aroma of rich bone broth and roasted scallions drifted into the crisp autumn breeze. Steam billowed from ten gleaming stainless cauldrons behind the service counter, where twenty culinary masters from Old Lantern Street worked in spotless white aprons.
Grandma Chen stood behind the main broth station, scooping plump wontons with a bright, maternal smile. Beside her, Little Guo’er wore her miniature yellow apron, carefully placing porcelain spoons onto stainless-steel meal trays for an endless line of students.
“Two yuan per person, children!” Grandma Chen announced warmly into a microphone. “All-you-can-eat fresh river-shrimp wontons, tender mountain black pork, and pasture-fed Wagyu beef broth! Eat as much as you need to power your brains!”
Loud cheers erupted from the hundreds of students gathered at the front of the line.
A freshman in a faded green jacket took his tray with trembling hands. His name was Xiao Liang, a mathematics prodigy from an impoverished mountain village who had lived on dry instant noodles and tap water for three straight months to save money for textbooks.
Xiao Liang took his first bite of a Wagyu beef dumpling.
The wrapper melted on his tongue, releasing a burst of rich, savory broth and tender meat infused with the sweetness of river shrimp. Warmth rushed down his throat, filling his empty stomach with deep, comforting vitality.
Tears spilled from Xiao Liang’s eyes, dripping onto his stainless-steel tray.
“Grandma Chen...” Xiao Liang whispered, his voice shaking with pure emotion. “I haven’t eaten fresh meat since the semester started. How can you give us Wagyu beef for only two yuan?”
Grandma Chen reached across the counter, gently wiping the young scholar’s tears with a clean linen napkin.
“Because you are our country’s future, child,” Grandma Chen said softly, placing three extra dumplings into his bowl. “Chairman Lin told us that no honest student who studies under these roofs should ever go to sleep hungry. Eat until you are full, and come back for more whenever you wish.”
In the center of the courtyard outside the canteen, a crimson ceremonial ribbon was stretched between two polished brass pedestals.
University President Gu stood beside Lin Mo, holding a pair of gilded ceremonial scissors. Beside them stood Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, Chen Yu, and Master Lu Jian, surrounded by more than two thousand cheering students and elderly faculty members.
President Gu looked at the transformed buildings with eyes full of deep emotion.
“Forty-eight hours ago, our students slept under leaking roofs and studied in freezing corridors,” President Gu said, his voice echoing across the quadrangle through public speakers. “Corrupt administrators stole our repair funds, while corporate predators tried to profit off our students’ misery. But today, Taichu Group has proven that righteousness and action can rebuild in two days what corruption destroyed for twenty years.”
President Gu turned to Lin Mo and bowed his head with heartfelt sincerity. “Chairman Lin, on behalf of sixty thousand faculty and students of Jiangcheng University, we declare the North Campus Scholar Sanctuary officially open!”
SNIP.
President Gu and Lin Mo cut the crimson silk ribbon together.
Deafening applause and cheers swept across the quadrangle. Students threw their notebooks into the air, while elderly professors embraced each other, wiping tears of relief from their cheeks.
Lin Mo stepped forward, holding his Black-Gold Card. He handed the card to Su Wan.
“Su Wan, execute the final infrastructure grant immediately,” Lin Mo instructed in a calm, clear tone. “Fifteen million yuan directly to the university housing and nutrition endowment. Ten million covers the complete construction costs for Master Lu’s team, and five million will subsidize Grandma Chen’s two-yuan student meals for the next five years.”
Su Wan swiped the card on her mobile reader: ¥15,000,000.00.
BEEP.
A magnificent, resonant chime echoed deep inside Lin Mo’s consciousness:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥15,000,000.00 RMB on University Dormitory Renovation & Long-Term Nutrition Subsidy!]
[Beneficiaries: 10,000 Impoverished University Scholars & Faculty Members (Avg Goodness: 89/100)!]
[Target Integrity Verified: Transforming student living standards, eradicating educational hardship, ensuring clean universal nutrition.]
[Triggered 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Received Cash Refund: +¥1,500,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥63,500,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Personal Wealth Milestone: Vault Surpasses ¥63,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +1,500,000 BMP | Total BMP: 156,449,528 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 9,200 Verified Righteous Allies (Existing Campus Sanctuary Beneficiaries — Dormitory & Canteen Upgrade)!]
One point five billion cash refund, Lin Mo thought, watching his vault balance reach sixty-three point five billion yuan. Spending fifteen million to give ten thousand honest scholars warm beds and hot meals, while gaining one point five billion in cash. Doing good is the most unstoppable economic power in existence.
The celebration in the courtyard reached its peak. Brass bands played festive university anthems, and students flooded into the canteen to enjoy their two-yuan wontons.
Meanwhile, across the four-lane boulevard outside the campus iron fence, a very different scene was taking place.
Outside the campus gates stood a dingy, twenty-four-hour convenience store with flickering neon signs.
At the checkout counter stood Liu Yan.
Her elaborate salon hairstyle from two nights ago was completely ruined, tangling in greasy strands around her pale face. Her eighty-thousand-yuan designer dress was stained with street mud and torn at the hem. She wore no makeup, and her red-rimmed eyes were sunken with exhaustion and terror.
She had spent the last two nights hiding in a cheap hourly motel after Zhao Kai dumped her like a piece of trash. Zhao Kai’s father had frozen every company account, evicted Liu Yan from her rented riverside apartment, and confiscated her leased sports car. She had not eaten a warm meal in thirty-six hours.
With trembling, unwashed fingers, Liu Yan placed three items onto the glass counter: a twelve-yuan box of instant noodles, a two-yuan bottle of tap water, and a cold steamed red-bean bun.
“Fourteen yuan total,” the young convenience store clerk said, chewing gum without looking up.
Liu Yan pulled a gold-embossed credit card from her purse and handed it over with a shaking hand. “Swipe it, please.”
The clerk swiped the magnetic strip through the reader.
BEEP. BEEP.
A harsh, flat buzz sounded from the machine: [CARD DECLINED: INSUFFICIENT FUNDS / ACCOUNT SUSPENDED].
“It didn’t go through,” the clerk said flatly. “Card is blocked.”
“Try this one!” Liu Yan pleaded desperately, digging into her purse and pulling out three more bank cards. “Try the silver card! Or the platinum card! I am a senior public relations executive! I have credit lines!”
The clerk swiped each card in turn.
BEEP. DECLINED.
BEEP. DECLINED.
BEEP. ACCOUNT FROZEN.
“None of them work, lady,” the clerk said with open disdain. He reached out and snatched the box of instant noodles and the water bottle right out of her hands, sliding them back onto the shelf behind him. “No money, no food. If you can’t pay fourteen yuan, stop wasting my time. Step aside for paying customers.”
“Please... just let me have the noodles,” Liu Yan begged, her voice cracking with humiliation. “I haven’t eaten in two days... I will pay you tomorrow! My family used to—”
“I don’t care about your family,” the clerk snapped. “Move, or I will call security.”
Liu Yan stumbled backward out of the convenience store, clutching her empty purse against her chest.
She collapsed onto the dirty concrete curb, the cold autumn wind whipping through her torn evening dress. Her stomach twisted with agonizing hunger cramps.
Just then, a roar of applause echoed across the street from the university quadrangle.
Liu Yan looked up through her tears.
Directly across the street, mounted on the university’s fifty-foot electronic information billboard, the live campus broadcast was playing at full brightness.
On the giant LED screen, Lin Mo stood on the sunlit stage outside the new dormitory towers.
He looked calm, composed, and radiant with authority. Beside him, elegant CEO Su Wan handed him event folders with genuine respect, while brilliant legal counsel Shen Qiaoqiao smiled warmly. President Gu and Professor Xu held Lin Mo’s hands, raising them high in the air as ten thousand students chanted Lin Mo’s name in thunderous admiration.
The broadcast ticker scrolled across the bottom of the screen in bold gold letters:
“Taichu Group Chairman Lin Mo Endows ¥15 Million for Student Sanctuary Dormitories & Infinite ¥2 Wagyu Dining Canteen! Personal Charity Contributions Cross Hundreds of Millions!”
Liu Yan stared at the screen, her chest heaving as tears of burning, suffocating regret poured down her face.
Before she threw him away weeks ago, Lin Mo had loved her with an honest, devoted heart. He had ridden his electric scooter through winter storms to bring her hot soup. He had saved every hard-earned penny from his delivery shifts to buy her birthday gifts.
And she had mocked him. She had thrown his wontons into the gutter, spat on his humble origins, and run into the arms of a cowardly playboy with a fake check.
Now, that same humble boy was the untouchable sovereign of an empire, adored by thousands, wielding tens of billions in wealth, while she could not even buy a twelve-yuan box of instant noodles.
“Lin Mo...” Liu Yan sobbed into her dirty hands, her body shaking violently as she huddled against the stone curb. “I was so blind... I threw away a king for a handful of dirt...”
Nobody stopped to look at her. Commuters walked past, avoiding the disheveled woman weeping in the gutter.
From her coat pocket, Liu Yan pulled out a crumpled, green paper flyer.
It was a seventy-five-yuan night bus schedule to the provincial capital of Tianhai. Her reputation in Jiangcheng was completely destroyed. Unless she could scrape together one last desperate scheme at the plaza, she would have to flee the city where Lin Mo reigned supreme as a penniless beggar.
Across the boulevard, the grand bells of Jiangcheng University chimed with clear, majestic resonance.
Lin Mo stepped down from the ceremonial stage, surrounded by cheering scholars and faculty.
Chen Yu and Lin Xiaoxiao hurried through the crowd, their faces flushed with excitement as they reached Lin Mo’s side.
“Chairman Lin! Professor Xu!” Lin Xiaoxiao whispered eagerly, clutching a secure digital tablet. “The assembly is finished! The prototype of the Taichu-1 Solid-State Graphene Battery has completed its automated manufacturing run!”
Chen Yu’s eyes burned with scientific fire. “We hooked the battery pack to our heavy-lift medical drone in the wind-tunnel test chamber. The telemetry data is unbelievable. You must see this for yourself!”
Lin Mo took a sip from his thermos, his eyes glinting with calm anticipation.
“Let us go to the Advanced Lab,” Lin Mo said with a faint smile. “It is time to show the world the true power of honest science.”