I bought a prison in the United States.

Harmon wanted to say something, but realized he couldn't really help, and his boss didn't seem to need comforting.

Just then, the phone rang. Lin Ge glanced at it and answered it:

"Hello, this is the McLean Heart and Mind Correction Center office... Yes, I'm the head, Ringo Chen."

After listening for a moment, Lin Ge's brows quickly furrowed.

The person on the other end of the phone was a credit manager at a Tulsa bank:

"Mr. Chen, we have reassessed the loan risk associated with your McLean County Correctional Center."

"Given the recent receipt of multiple administrative rectification notices by the prison, we believe this may affect the stability of your cash flow."

"The bank has decided to advance the repayment period for the remaining principal of your loan, totaling $68000."

"You need to settle the entire balance within thirty days. Written notice will be sent this afternoon."

"Who gave the order?" Ringo asked bluntly.

"...Mr. Chen, this was an independent decision made by the bank's risk management department, without any external factors."

"I hope you understand."

The call ended quickly; the credit manager seemed unwilling to get involved in the matter further.

"snort!"

Ringo slammed the receiver back onto the landline, as if afraid he would smash it.

Ringo knew this was Hart's network of connections, the chairman of the purchasing committee, who was a member of the same Freemason borough as the credit minister of Tulsa Bank.

Ray told him this last week, and at the time, Ringo thought it was just a loan shark showing off his connections.

It now seems that Ray knew all along when this card would be played.

……

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Eleanor pushed open the door and came in.

"I thought the jail was on fire. How come you've become public enemy number one in McLean County after just a few days?"

She was wearing a light blue coat today, her hair was tucked back, and she was carrying a briefcase full of documents.

Eleanor had just returned from Oklahoma City by train. Her makeup was unchanged, but her dark circles betrayed the fact that she had stayed up all night reviewing case law.

"Stop making fun of me."

Lin Ge placed the rectification notice and the bank's demand letter together on the table:

"This is the judge's retaliation against me; he's trying to force me to comply. What do you think I should do?"

Eleanor picked up the notice, flipped through it page by page, and exclaimed in amazement:

"What a great example of multi-departmental collaboration."

"Hamond used all his connections in the county, built up over decades, to put your cash flow under immense pressure in the short term."

"Renovation funds are frozen, loan applications are being chased, and the order payment cycle is 45 days."

"Within thirty days, your working capital must simultaneously cover bank early repayments, renovation project quotes, construction team labor costs, monthly equipment rental fees, and the purchase of food for normal operations."

"If that bed subsidy from the state corrections department gets stalled by the audit report again..."

She put the file back on the table and looked up:

"Then your cash will be exhausted in about five or six weeks."

Lin Ge frowned. "So he succeeded?"

The female lawyer chuckled softly:

"In terms of legal procedures, every step he took was legal."

"That's why I said last week that you can't expect to fight back through the courts; the doors of that system will open to him first."

"Hoping for so-called legal justice is completely meaningless."

Eleanor sat down in the chair and pulled out a case law compilation from her briefcase, which she had been repeatedly reading on the train the night before.

The edges of the book pages were covered with yellow sticky notes, on which she had written her notes about the case.

She turned to one of the pages and pointed to a summary of a case:

"However, there is one thing he forgot."

"While the legality of administrative inspections is difficult to challenge in court, there is one exception."

"If the party being inspected can prove that the inspection was motivated by bad faith and constituted selective enforcement in substance, they can apply for an injunction in federal court."

"Proving malicious intent is extremely difficult, almost impossible, unless you have irrefutable evidence."

"But we don't actually need to win this lawsuit."

"We just need to convince the people who initiated the investigation that we have the ability and the willingness to take this matter to the federal court."

She took another document out of her briefcase, a legal opinion issued by a professor of constitutional law at the University of Tulsa School of Law.

The opinion letter analyzed the timeline of the joint inspection by multiple departments, the continuity of document numbers, and cited two cases from the Federal Supreme Court as references.

Eleanor is indeed an excellent, meticulous, and reliable lawyer.

In just three days, she used her connections to take action.

Such things were commonplace for her and were no longer surprising.

This opinion letter itself does not constitute a lawsuit, but it sends a clear enough signal that there is sufficient grounds to elevate this administrative dispute to a federal-level judicial review.

"Mr. Underwood is willing to cooperate with us; this is a letter of opinion he obtained through connections from an elderly professor."

"Although this opinion letter alone cannot represent a formal legal judgment."

"But within the legal community, once someone knows you've prepared this counterattack, they'll have to think twice before putting unrestrained pressure on you."

"Once the federal court's application for an injunction is accepted, all administrative investigations will be suspended, and officials from relevant departments may be summoned to testify."

"Nobody wants to be summoned. This tactic of striking a chord with them is enough to make them hesitate."

Lin Ge took the opinion letter and flipped through a few pages.

The dense citations of precedents and footnotes left him no time to read them carefully, but he still understood what Eleanor meant.

This tactic isn't about winning, but about stalling; it's a common legal trick.

Use federal court procedures to counter the abuse of administrative procedures, and use the laws that the other party is most familiar with to disrupt their rhythm.

"Will this thing make Hammond back down?"

"No, but I think as long as he retains a shred of reason, he will hesitate, and as long as he hesitates, our opportunity will arise."

She placed her briefcase on her lap and leaned forward slightly.

This pose made her breasts appear even more magnificent, and Lin Ge noticed a long-lost excitement in her eyes.

"Mr. Chen, I'll tell you now how to make him stop."

She opened a confidential document containing the findings of private investigator Parker's investigation over the past three weeks.

Dozens of photos, hundreds of copies of invoices, a record of spending at a golf club private room, and most importantly, a summary of the county procurement contract.

"Detective Parker spent five whole nights staking out behind the warehouse of Baylors Building Materials Company before he finally found these."

"The imitation marble panels used in the renovation of the county court building have been basically identified."

"Belles' purchase invoices are from the Mexican factory, but the shipping invoices state that they are genuine Italian products. I don't need to tell you who pocketed the price difference."

"Hamond didn't sign a single word on this purchase, but Parker got the spending records for the golf club suite."

"Hamond and Hart's total spending in the week before the contract was signed amounted to $34,000, all of which was charged to Bayless's entertainment expenses account."

Lin Ge looked at the photo.

The photo shows a marble panel being hoisted into place. In the lower left corner, you can see a blurry line of inkjet printing and the manufacturer's name.

He turned to the next page, which contained Parker's handwritten notes, written in a very fluent and rigorous style.

The time, place, people, and dialogue excerpts were all arranged according to that detective's standard format.

Ringo looked up and asked you:

"Is this evidence sufficient for a conviction?"

"not enough."

Eleanor closed the folder:

"What Parker obtained might at most prompt the county council to launch an internal investigation, but it wouldn't meet the standard of 'beyond a reasonable doubt' in court."

"But that's no longer important. Once Underwood's report is published, Parker's investigative report will be the second straw that breaks his back."

"He will realize that the multi-departmental joint investigation he initiated has exposed him to the dual pressures of public opinion and the law."

"If Hammond doesn't stop here, there's more that Parker has that will be revealed during the federal court's discovery process."

She placed the folder in front of Lin Ge, a knowing smile on her face.

"His administrative investigation was legal, but his financial activities couldn't withstand scrutiny."

"You're using your ledger as bait and reality as your weapon. It's a dangerous but ruthless move."

"His weapon is also his ledger, except that the numbers on the ledger cannot withstand the sunlight."

"When Le Monde's report forces him to the opposite side, every page in this folder will become a bullet aimed at him."

"You're willing to lay your books on the table for the media because every penny you have is clean."

"But this time, you might be the one to open the account books he's kept hidden for over twenty years!"