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

Lin Fei pressed his right foot on the accelerator pedal, and the roar of the diesel engine reached its peak.

The exhaust pipe spewed out thick black smoke as the forty-ton dump truck moved forward, its wide cab now less than three meters away from the half-meter-thick load-bearing column on the first floor of the building.

The wheels crunched and creaked as they crushed the marble tiles on the ground.

The chairman's office is on the 20th floor rooftop.

Wang Dafa knelt on the carpet, smoke still rising from the hole in his crotch where a cigar had burned him.

Hearing the roar of the motor coming from downstairs, he scrambled to his feet.

Sun Qiang came over to help him up, but was kicked in the stomach and fell to the ground.

Wang Dafa rushed out of the office, not even waiting to press the elevator button, and smashed open the fire door of the fire escape.

The stairwell was packed with people; all the employees of Dafeng Group were crammed onto the steps.

The building was without power, the air conditioning was off, and the stuffy air was mixed with the smell of sweat.

Wang Dafa rushed down the steps like a madman, losing one of his expensive leather shoes. He simply threw the other one onto the steps as well.

Barefoot on the dusty cement floor, his suit jacket hung on the handrail, a large tear in the sleeve.

Upon reaching the third floor, the staircase was completely blocked. People in front of him were shouting that they couldn't get out from the first floor, so Wang Dafa pushed through the crowd.

He saw that the floor-to-ceiling windows in the second-floor corridor were smashed, and tons of yellow river sand were piled up outside the windows, giving off a strong earthy smell.

Wang Dafa climbed onto the windowsill and jumped down.

He fell heavily onto the soft river sand, which filled his mouth and nose, causing him to cough repeatedly.

He used both his hands and feet to climb out of the sand dune. Sun Qiang jumped down after him, and the two rolled around in the sand, their suits stuffed full of coarse sand.

Outside in the square, thousands of citizens were taking pictures with their mobile phones.

Team Leader Zhang stood outside the cordon with a megaphone, watching this scene unfold, unable to utter a single word.

Wang Dafa rolled down the sand dune onto the asphalt road in the square.

He didn't bother wiping the mud and blood off his face, and scrambled to the front of the dump truck where Lin Ting was sitting, gripping the safety bar of the dump truck tightly with both hands.

"Don't crash! Old Master Lin! Don't crash! I admit defeat!" Wang Dafa shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing throughout the square.

Lin Ting sat on the hood of the car, stubbed out his cigarette, and flicked the butt at Wang Dafa's feet.

Lin Fei released the accelerator and pulled the handbrake. He opened the car door, jumped out, and walked to Wang Dafa's noodle shop.

"Didn't President Wang want the Lin family's fruit to rot on the trees? Didn't he want to cut off the Lin family's path?" Lin Ting looked at him, his tone calm.

Wang Dafa knelt on the ground and kowtowed frantically, his forehead slamming against the asphalt road with loud thuds.

"I was wrong! I was blind! Old Master Lin, please have mercy and spare my life. This building mustn't be demolished!"

Lin Ting tilted his head slightly.

Lin Fu got out of a car behind him, holding a brown paper document bag in his hand.

He untied the thread from the document bag and pulled out a contract of several pages. He walked to the car and slammed the contract onto the sand in front of Wang Dafa's face.

"You, Wang Dafa, control half of the fresh food market in the county. I've heard that Dafa Group owns five large chain supermarkets."

"The locations are all good, and the distribution channels are very extensive." Lin Ting reached out and picked up two walnuts. The walnuts made a crackling sound as he turned them in his palm.

Wang Dafa stared at the contract on the ground, his hands trembling so much he could barely lift it. "Grandpa, what do you mean...?"

Lin Fu chimed in, "Grandpa means that the Lin family wants these five supermarkets."

Wang Dafa panicked. He braced himself on the ground with both hands.

"Those five supermarkets are my lifeline! The stores and the goods alone are worth at least 20 million!"

"Grandpa Lin, if you want to invest, I'll give you 50%, no, 70%!"

Lin Fei walked over and kicked Wang Dafa in the shoulder.

Wang Dafa turned the paper upside down, and Lin Fei pointed to the paper on the ground: "Can you read? Look for yourself."

Wang Dafa got up, picked up the contract, and flipped to the last page showing the acquisition amount. It read: 1 yuan.

Wang Dafa's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins in his neck were bulging.

"One dollar? You're trying to buy my 20 million dollar property for one dollar? This is robbery! This is extortion!"

Lin Ting jumped off the hood of the car, his black long coat billowing in the wind, and walked to Wang Dafa's noodle shop.

"I believe in fairness in business. You're offering me the exclusive rights to sell tens of thousands of kilograms of my Lin family's golden fruit for five yuan, and you also want my family's technology and 70% of the shares."

"I'll buy five of your supermarkets for one dollar, that's perfectly reasonable." Lin Ting looked down at him.

Wang Dafa gritted his teeth and crumpled the contract into a ball.

"Grandpa Lin, these five supermarkets have shares held by Brother Guang in the county. If you take them all, Brother Guang won't let you off the hook!"

In the county town, if Brother Guang stomps his foot, the ground shakes!

Lin Ting was fiddling with walnuts in his hand. "I don't know any Brother Guang. I only know that whoever touches the Lin family's goods will have their livelihood taken away by the Lin family."

If he's not satisfied, let him come find me in Tazhai.

Lin Ting turned to look at Lin Fei. "He thinks the price is too high and keeps crashing."

Lin Fei turned around and walked to the driver's seat, opened the car door, and stepped on the pedal with one foot.

"I'll sign! I'll sign!" Wang Dafa roared.

He knew that the Lin family really dared to break the load-bearing pillar.

If the building collapses, the loans and debts he carries could drive him to suicide. If he stays alive, there's still a chance to turn things around.

Lin Fu handed over a black pen, and Wang Dafa lay down on the sand pile and smoothed out the crumpled contract.

After signing his name on the last line, Lin Fu took out a red inkpad box from his pocket.

Wang Dafa pressed his thumb into the inkpad and left a red fingerprint on his name.

Sun Qiang huddled up in a ball beside him, trembling uncontrollably.

Lin Fu checked the contract, dried the ink, put it in a document bag, and handed it to Lin Ting. The Lin family officially stepped into the county's business district.

Lin Ting held the file bag and looked at Wang Dafa, who was kneeling on the ground.

"Tomorrow morning, hand over the account books and keys for the five supermarkets to the Lin Family Ancestral Hall. If there's a penny or a key missing, I'll send someone to your house to retrieve them."

Lin Ting turned and walked towards the lead car, while Lin Fei raised the megaphone in his hand.

"Grandpa has ordered! Retreat!"

One hundred men from Zhongtang, who had been sitting on the roof of the trucks, nimbly dismounted. The one hundred dump trucks were then restarted and put into reverse.

The massive vehicle turned in the square, crushing more paving stones and flowerbeds.

The convoy formed a long line, roaring out of the square and returning along the main road.

All that remained was a mountain of river sand on the first floor of the Dafa Group building, and Wang Dafa kneeling in the sand.

The onlookers made way for the convoy, and Captain Zhang and several policemen stood by the roadside, watching the convoy leave without daring to make any gestures to stop it.

After today, everyone in the county will remember the Lin family of Tazhai.

The convoy drove through the central intersection of the county town.

A black Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan was parked under a large banyan tree on the street corner.

The car windows were covered with dark explosion-proof film, and the rear windows were lowered by a gap of about two fingers.

Inside the car sat a middle-aged man dressed in a Tang suit, with two iron flasks jingling in his hands.