More than one thousand shoppers, retail clerks, and local residents crowded along the third-floor brass railings of Grand Golden-Plume Luxury Plaza, aiming their smartphones down at three men in bright yellow debtor vests kneeling outside the public restrooms.
They were stripped of their bespoke Italian suits, gold cufflinks, and handmade leather shoes. Instead, each man wore cheap blue rubber boots, thick yellow dishwashing gloves, and a bright, fluorescent neon-yellow vest.
Stenciled across the backs of the vests in bold black letters were the words:
JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT: FRAUDULENT DEBTOR - RESTITUTION LABOR
The youngest of the three was Zhao Kai. His Goodness Score flickered at 9/100. His hands were covered in chemical blisters from toilet bleach, and his expensive haircut was matted with dirty suds and gray floor grime.
Beside him knelt Chairman Zhao Kun. His Goodness Score hovered at -18/100. His bandaged forehead was stained with gray runoff, and his lips twitched with helpless, boiling rage as he scrubbed the grout lines around a porcelain floor drain.
Furthest inside the stall knelt eighty-year-old Patriarch Zhao Tianxiong, whose Goodness Score glowed at 6/100. The once-mighty patriarch of Jiangcheng held a plastic scrub brush with his trembling hands, leaning against the cold tile partition just to keep from falling flat.
Standing over them with a silver whistle and a metal clipboard was Old Wu.
Above Old Wu’s head, his Goodness Score shone in a clean, brilliant green: 89/100.
As Chief Sanitation Supervisor of Grand Golden-Plume Plaza, Old Wu tapped his pen against the side of a plastic water bucket.
CLANG. CLANG.
“Scrub harder, Zhao Kai!” Old Wu barked, pointing to the base of the urinal pipe. “You missed a spot right there! Right where you used to stand and brag about your three-hundred-thousand-yuan Patek Philippe watch! Clean the base until I can see my reflection in the porcelain!”
The crowd of onlookers along the concourse roared with laughter.
“Look at Young Master Zhao scrubbing toilets!” an office worker shouted, holding up his phone. “Last month he parked his Ferrari in the ambulance bay and told the guards they were peasants!”
“And look at old Chairman Zhao Kun!” a former pharmacy clerk called out. “He sold expired oncology medicine to cancer patients! Now he has to wipe the urine off the floor tiles!”
“Keep scrubbing, Zhao Kun! You have thirty-six hours left on your court sentence!”
Zhao Kai began to sob, his tears dripping into the soapy puddle on the tile floor.
“Uncle Wu... my hands hurt...” Zhao Kai cried, his voice muffled by the yellow vest. “I have scrubbed twelve stalls since morning! The bleach is burning my skin! Please let me sit down for five minutes!”
Old Wu blew his silver whistle sharply.
TWEET!
“Sit down?” Old Wu said, his voice firm and unyielding. “When you hired four saboteurs to pump three hundred pounds of toxic acid into this mall’s ventilation ducts, did you think about the three thousand workers who make their living here? When you stole the pensions of elderly grandmothers, did you give them five minutes to rest? Keep scrubbing!”
Zhao Kun raised his head, his teeth clenched so hard blood seeped from his gums.
“Old janitor...” Zhao Kun snarled, his voice trembling with humiliated rage. “When our family’s allies in Tianhai hear of this insult, they will tear you limb from limb!”
Old Wu looked down at Zhao Kun, shaking his head with cool disdain.
“Your allies in Tianhai did not even send a single boat to pull you off Reed Island,” Old Wu said plainly. “In this plaza, there are no chairmen and no masters. There are only honest people and criminals paying their debts. Put your brush back on that tile, or the bailiffs will add five days to your sentence.”
Two uniformed court bailiffs stood at the restroom entrance with arms crossed, their hands resting on their batons as they nodded in firm agreement.
Zhao Kun choked on his own spit, lowering his head in bitter silence as he scrubbed the yellowed grout.
Up on the fourth-floor mezzanine balcony, Lin Mo leaned against the glass railing, looking down at the spectacle.
He wore his clean white linen shirt and dark trousers. To his left stood Su Wan, holding an executive portfolio, and to his right stood Shen Qiaoqiao, reviewing court restitution filings on her tablet.
Tie Niu stood behind them, munching on a paper bag of roasted chestnuts and grinning broadly.
The Zhao family ruled this city for half a century through intimidation and corruption, Lin Mo thought, watching Zhao Kun scrub the tile floor. They thought wealth gave them the right to treat human beings like dirt. Now, justice has placed a toilet brush in their hands. There is no better medicine for arrogance.
Beside Lin Mo, Shen Qiaoqiao adjusted her designer spectacles, tapping her screen.
“Chairman Lin,” Shen Qiaoqiao reported. “The High Court’s restitution liquidation of the Zhao Consortium has recovered four point eight billion yuan in physical property, machinery, and commercial real estate. However, over three hundred impoverished families whose family members died from Zhao Pharma’s expired oncology drugs still face severe medical debt. Many of their homes are facing foreclosure.”
Su Wan looked up, her expression serious and compassionate.
“Those families spent everything they owned trying to save their sick children and elderly parents,” Su Wan said softly. “The bankruptcy dividend from the courts will take six months to process. By then, dozens of families will be evicted onto the streets.”
Lin Mo turned away from the balcony, his expression calm and resolute.
“A grieving family cannot wait six months for bureaucratic paper,” Lin Mo said. “Su Wan, activate the Taichu Citywide Victim Restitution & Worker Welfare Dividend.”
Su Wan opened her payment terminal with a crisp click.
“What are your parameters, Chairman Lin?”
“Fifteen million yuan,” Lin Mo commanded. “Transfer fifty thousand yuan directly to each of the three hundred victim families to clear their outstanding medical debts immediately. In addition, allocate the remaining funds to established community welfare centers across the city, providing free nutritional supplies and medicine vouchers.”
Tap.
Su Wan swiped Lin Mo’s Black-Gold Sovereign Benevolence Card across the console.
BEEP.
A magnificent, earth-shaking system chime rang out deep in Lin Mo’s consciousness:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥15,000,000.00 RMB on Civic Restitution & Bereaved Family Welfare Dividend!]
[Target Beneficiaries: 300 Cheated Patient Families & Impoverished Community Workers (Goodness: 82–93/100)!]
[Purpose: Direct medical debt relief (¥50,000 each) and municipal free medicine voucher reserves!]
[Pure Altruistic Intent Verified: Healing urban medical trauma, lifting impoverished family debt, and restoring civic dignity!]
[Triggering 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Cash Refund Received: +¥1,500,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥98,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +1,500,000 BMP | Total BMP: 190,949,528 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 9,850 Verified Righteous Allies (+10 community health and welfare coordinators formally integrated)!]
One point five billion added to the vault, Lin Mo noted, watching his liquid vault climb to ninety-eight billion yuan. Ninety-eight billion in cash. Only two billion short of the hundred-billion milestone.
Suddenly, something extraordinary occurred.
Across the entire city of Jiangcheng, as three hundred grieving families received their debt-clearing bank texts, a collective sigh of profound relief and gratitude rippled through the municipal spirit-field.
Mothers wept with relief over their kitchen tables, tearing up debt collection notices. Old men held the hands of their bedridden grandchildren, murmuring prayers of gratitude for Chairman Lin and Taichu Hospital.
The fifty years of dark, toxic karma accumulated by the Zhao family’s extortion, poison warehouses, and violent oppression began to shatter and dissolve like melting frost in spring.
BOOM!
A warm, radiant pillar of Golden Benevolence Qi erupted from the core of the earth beneath the luxury plaza, swirling straight up through the marble floors.
The golden light was invisible to ordinary shoppers, but to Lin Mo, it shone as bright as a thousand suns.
The torrent of pure, unblemished civic gratitude flooded into Lin Mo’s dantian.
His internal Jade-Gold Viscera hummed with crystalline vibrations. His meridians expanded, glowing with pure imperial gold as the final bottlenecks of his cultivation dissolved like morning mist.
[Ding! System Notice: Vast Civic Karma Harmonized!]
[Host Cultivation Breakthrough Achieved!]
[Martial Realm Advancement: Rank 2 Peak Martial Artist (Half-Step Grandmaster)!]
[Physical Body Enhanced: Flawless Jade-Gold Divine Physique Completed!]
[Qi Sense Expanded: Spherical Radius Reaches 2,000 Meters!]
Lin Mo exhaled a breath of pale golden mist, feeling completely weightless.
His mind was crystal clear. The subtle flow of spiritual qi through the city felt as familiar as the palm of his own hand.
His physical senses stretched outward in an effortless two-kilometer sphere. He could hear the hum of elevator motors four blocks away. He could feel the pulse of every fish swimming in the municipal river. He could sense the heartbeat of every shopper in the eight-story plaza.
His physical skin was now layered with an impenetrable, self-generating Jade-Gold armor aura capable of withstanding heavy artillery fire and high-level internal martial arts strikes.
He stood at the absolute threshold of becoming a true Martial Grandmaster.
Half-Step Grandmaster, Lin Mo thought, feeling the immense, harmonious strength humming in his veins. A two-kilometer perception dome. Jiangcheng is truly under my watch now.
Down on the third floor, the laughter of the crowd was suddenly interrupted by the loud, erratic clatter of high heels running across the marble floor.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
The shoppers parted in surprise, whispering among themselves.
A young woman in her early twenties stumbled through the crowd, breathing heavily.
It was Lin Mo’s ex-girlfriend, Liu Yan.
Above Liu Yan’s head, the System displayed a dim, murky crimson rating: Goodness: 14/100.
Liu Yan was a shadow of her former arrogant self. Her hair was frizzy and unwashed, her mascara was smeared with tears, and her fake mink coat was torn at the shoulder seam. On her feet, she wore imitation designer heels with scuffed toes.
Two hours ago, court bailiffs had arrived at her rented riverfront apartment, seizing her luxury handbags, jewelry, and sports car because they had been purchased with fraudulent funds embezzled from Zhao Pharma.
She had exactly one hundred and sixty yuan left after pawning her fake pearl hairclips at a street kiosk.
Liu Yan shoved past the onlookers, bursting into the entrance of the public restroom.
When her eyes fell upon the three men in fluorescent yellow debtor vests scrubbing the floor tiles, she froze.
She stared at Zhao Kai, who was down on his knees holding a dripping sponge.
“Zhao Kai!” Liu Yan shrieked, her voice cracking with hysterical fury. “What are you doing on the floor?! Look at me! The bailiffs took my apartment! They took my Porsche! They took my diamond necklace! You swore you were the undisputed king of Jiangcheng!”
Zhao Kai slowly looked up from his yellow plastic bucket.
His face was streaked with bleach and gray grime. When he saw Liu Yan, a spark of bitter, venomous hatred flared in his bloodshot eyes.
“Liu Yan...” Zhao Kai rasped, his voice full of acid. “Get away from me, you greedy leech.”
Liu Yan lunged forward, her fake acrylic nails clawing at the collar of Zhao Kai’s yellow debtor vest.
“Don’t you dare call me a leech!” Liu Yan screamed, shaking him violently. “You made me dump Lin Mo when he had forty-eight yuan in his pocket! You promised me a ten-million-yuan wedding! You promised me a villa on Emerald River Island! Now Lin Mo owns this entire plaza and ninety-eight billion in cash, while you are down on your knees scrubbing toilets! Where is my breakup settlement?! Give me my five million yuan right now!”
Around the restroom entrance, dozens of shoppers pointed their phone cameras directly at Liu Yan, laughing openly at her desperation.
“Look at her!” a young woman called out. “She dumped Chairman Lin for a criminal playboy, and now she is begging for money in a public bathroom!”
Zhao Kai’s teeth ground together with a harsh, grating sound, his bloodshot eyes turning completely wild with humiliated fury.