I chose one of four options at the start, and I chose the number one clan in Lingnan.

At 5:20 a.m., the night fog outside the Tazhai Ancestral Hall had not yet dissipated.

Three black SUVs covered in mud and scratches crashed into the square. The doors opened, and Lin Fei dragged Leng Qiu into the main hall, placing the silver combination lock box on the heavy bluestone table.

Leng Qiu's hair was disheveled, her suit jacket was covered in mud from the hospital lawn, and her face was pale.

She glanced at Lin Ting, who was sitting in a grand chair playing with walnuts, his hands pressed on the edge of the stone table, his knuckles turning white.

"The combination lock has three layers of anti-tamper and self-destruct mechanisms. If you enter the wrong combination twice, the strong acid glass tube inside will break, and the paper ledgers and hard drives will all turn to water."

Leng Qiu's voice was hoarse as she recited a string of numbers, "970314, my mother's birthday."

Lin Fu stepped forward and quickly dialed the combination lock.

With a crisp click, the lock popped open.

There was no cash in the box, only three heavy ledgers wrapped tightly in waterproof oil paper, and a black portable hard drive with a special encryption chip inserted.

"Computer," Lin Ting said.

Lin Fu plugged the portable hard drive into his laptop, and a dense array of red verification boxes immediately popped up on the screen.

He entered the Level 2 dynamic key provided by Leng Qiu one after another, and dozens of hidden folders appeared on the screen in a waterfall-like fashion.

"Grandpa, look at this." Lin Fu pointed at the lines of flowing water on the screen, his tone barely concealing his anger.

"The province allocated a total of 1.2 billion yuan in special support funds for the thirteen infrastructure projects, while the Jiangnan conglomerate raised 1.8 billion yuan on its own, making it a 3 billion yuan project for people's livelihood."

Lin Ting stopped spinning the walnuts in his hand and looked at the screen.

"The project hadn't even finished its foundation when the Su family's building materials company issued 700 million yuan in false purchase invoices, raising the price of steel bars and cement by four times."

The Bai family used the port of the South District Logistics Park to conduct more than 30 fictitious import and export transactions with empty cargo ships, thus laundering the money.

Lin Fu's face grew increasingly gloomy. "The Wang family is even more ruthless, using the pretense of importing high-end medical equipment from overseas."

They applied for an 800 million foreign exchange quota from the bank, and the money was directly deposited into an anonymous account in Switzerland. Not even a single screw of the equipment was shipped back.

Leng Qiu pulled out a wooden chair, sat down, grabbed a cup of cold tea from the table, and took a big gulp.

"The money used for building bridges and roads domestically has all become a pledge of allegiance to foreign capital." Leng Qiu wiped the corner of her mouth.

"The Zhao family's underground bank was responsible for the final hedging, putting the 3 billion into the Mitsui Group's offshore pool in batches."

Murakami took the money and then exchanged it with outdated second-hand machine tools and expensive raw materials from the Japanese headquarters, which he then sold at high prices to manufacturing companies in the province.

They profit from both ends, leaving not even scraps for the land.

Lin Fei, standing nearby, heard this and cursed, "A bunch of traitorous beasts! They're using the money meant for road construction by ordinary people to fill the holes left by foreigners!"

Lin Ting stood up, walked to the bluestone table, and reached out to open the three paper account books.

Every single transaction was recorded with the signatures and seals of Bai Yu, the head of the Su family, the second son of the Wang family, and the person in charge of the Zhao family's money shop. Even the specific time, teahouse location, and weight of the gold bars used to bribe various provincial officials were meticulously documented.

"If you keep these things, the Jiangnan conglomerate won't tolerate you." Lin Ting pressed his fingertip against Bai Yu's signature.

"I did dirty work for them for five years, so I know their methods better than anyone else."

"Without this life-saving charm, my mother and I would have been feeding fish in the Gan River a month ago." Leng Qiu raised her head, meeting Lin Ting's gaze.

"Grandpa Lin, the four major families have jointly posted a message about Baiyun Manor. What they want now is not your dock and Hongtu Factory."

They want to use the Lin family as a scapegoat, pinning all the blame for the broken 3 billion yuan financial chain on Tazhai.

Lin Fu looked up from his computer: "Grandpa, with the account books in hand, if we take them to Baiyun Manor to negotiate with them, it will be enough to force the four major families to back down and make them return all the docks and projects they've taken in."

Lin Ting threw the account book back onto the bluestone table with a dull thud.

"The Lin family can't afford to sit at the same table with robbers and divide their loot," Lin Ting said calmly, yet with unwavering determination.

"Since they like to drain the market dry, let's dig up their roots too."

"What does Grandfather mean?" Lin Fu asked.

"Disassemble." Lin Ting slammed his cane heavily on the bluestone slab.

"Scan all the original vouchers for Sujia Building Materials Company's false invoicing and tax evasion of 400 million yuan over the past three years, and send them to the director of the Provincial Tax Bureau's Inspection Bureau via express mail to his home."

Lin Fu's spirits lifted, and his fingers immediately began typing classifications on the keyboard.

"Pack up two documents: the financial records of smuggling at Baijia South District Port and the transfer of huge profits to the Mitsui Group through false trade, and the purchase contract for Deputy Director Liu's overseas villa."

One copy was sent to the provincial discipline inspection team's complaint mailbox, and the other was sent to the desk of the Beijing-based supervisory team stationed in Jiangnan Province.

Leng Qiu's heart skipped a beat. This move left no way out, directly using the power of the official high command to choke the four major families.

"What about the Wang family and the Zhao family?" Lin Fei asked.

"The Wang family controls private hospitals, and they are most afraid that their secret of profiting from the national crisis will be exposed." Lin Ting looked at Leng Qiu.

"The evidence that the Wang family transferred 800 million foreign exchange under the guise of medical procurement, as well as the recordings and contracts of Tiankang Group deliberately destroying the Chixueteng medicinal material in an attempt to monopolize the special drug for severe illnesses."

It was sent to several mainstream media outlets in the provincial capital that were vying for territory with the Wang family, as well as an investigative reporter from the Southern Daily.

"As for the Zhao family's money shop," Lin Ting sneered.

"Back up the key to the offshore account in the safe and anonymously send it to an international money laundering and anti-corruption organization. Then send the specific addresses of the bank's dozen or so underground vaults in the province to Captain Chen of the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Municipal Public Security Bureau."

He was worried about how to explain his arrest of Murakami and Watanabe to the city authorities; this generous gift was enough for him to uproot the Zhao family's underground bank.

Lin Fu's fingers tapped rapidly, and the printer in the corner whirred, spitting out pages of black ledgers bearing signatures.

"Grandpa, there's some new information." Lin Fu stared at the special monitoring channel that had just popped up in the lower right corner of his computer.

"There's chaos in the provincial capital. Half an hour ago, an ambulance from Ruihe Hospital, owned by the Wang family, drove directly into the Bai family mansion."

Lin Ting's gaze darkened: "Old Master Bai?"

"Yes." Lin Fu pulled up an internal emergency room registration form.

"Last night, the news that Lao Zhao led three hundred heavy trucks to level the provincial border toll station and that Deputy Director Liu was taken away from his bed in the middle of the night reached the Bai family."

The old man from the Bai family, nearly eighty years old, couldn't catch his breath after hearing this. He was so angry that he suffered a stroke, vomited blood, and fell into a coma. He was rushed to the ICU at four in the morning and is now being kept alive by a ventilator.

Leng Qiu's expression changed slightly: "Once Old Master Bai falls, the struggle between Bai Yu, the eldest son of the Bai family, and his illegitimate son, Bai Hao, will become completely intense."

Bai Yu used two million yuan to get Deputy Director Liu to block the road, which completely severed his connection with the Road Administration Department. The Bai family must be in an uproar right now.

"The old man had no choice but to get sick just when the accounts were about to be exposed, and he ended up in the ICU." Lin Ting picked up the freshly brewed tea on the table and blew on it to cool it down.

"Bai Hao controls the South District Logistics Park and has been constantly suppressed by Bai Yu. Lin Fu, send someone to secretly deliver to Bai Hao a copy of the specific figures for Bai Yu's money laundering activities at the port, showing him the largest share of the profits."

Lin Fei grinned: "Let the dogs fight, so we don't get our hands dirty, Zhongtang brothers."

"Make sure all the smear materials that were sent out are thoroughly investigated." Lin Ting put down his teacup and glanced at the gradually brightening morning light outside the door.

"Spread the word that the 3 billion yuan deposit from the Jiangnan conglomerate has all gone into the pockets of foreigners, and that thirteen infrastructure projects have been officially halted today."

At 8:00 a.m. sharp, more than a dozen postal express and same-city delivery motorcycles drove out of Tazhai, carrying irrefutable evidence, and delivered it to important government agencies and media buildings in the provincial capital.

9:30 a.m.

The opening bell rang precisely on time at the provincial capital's stock exchange.

On the huge electronic display screen, numbers were jumping wildly.

In less than ten seconds, the K-line of the three core stocks absolutely controlled by the four major families—Bai's Port Affairs, Su's Building Materials, and Tiankang Medical—suddenly plummeted, breaking through the bottom line.

The screen was a sea of ​​green, with massive sell orders worth billions pinning them to their daily limit down.