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

Lin Ting waved his hand, and two men from Zhongtang stepped forward, grabbed Sun Dazhi's arms, dragged him out of the construction site gate, and threw him into a mud pit by the roadside.

Sun Dazhi's face was covered in blood, his right leg was twisted and deformed, and he lay on the ground without even the strength to groan.

Lin Ting turned his head to look at the four black metal boxes on the desk.

"Lin Fu, get the roster and attendance sheet, and distribute the money," Lin Ting said.

Lin Fu opened his briefcase and took out a thick stack of forms. He stood in front of his desk and took out a calculator and a red pen.

The workers quieted down, and no one dared to make a sound.

Lin Ting kicked Sun Dazhi's kneecap, shattering it, and then threw out a record of three million yuan in gambling debts. These two tactics, combining soft and hard approaches, completely intimidated the group of men who spent their lives working on construction sites.

"Wang Jianjun, carpenter, 140 days of attendance, 14,000 yuan." Lin Fu loudly read out the name and counted out 150 red banknotes from the box.

Wang Jianjun stepped forward, vigorously rubbed his hands on his muddy trouser legs, and took the stack of money.

He counted three times with his saliva-covered fingers, tears mingling with the rain. He hugged the money, stepped aside, squatted on the ground, and wailed loudly.

"Zhao Tiezhu, steelworker, 160 days of attendance, 16,000 yuan," Lin Fu continued reading.

Zhao Tiezhu ran over and took the money with both hands.

A man wearing a yellow hard hat suddenly squeezed out from the back of the crowd.

This man, Liu Qiang, was a small-time contractor under Sun Dazhi. He saw the 16,000 yuan in Zhao Tiezhu's hand and became envious.

"Two thousand yuan of this money is my management fee! Give it to me!" Liu Qiang reached out to snatch the money from Zhao Tiezhu's hand.

Lin Fei stood to the side, holding a seamless steel pipe in his hand. He took a step forward and kicked Liu Qiang in the back of the knee.

Liu Qiang fell to his knees in the mud with a thud. The steel pipe in Lin Fei's hand pressed down on Liu Qiang's shoulder, making it impossible for him to straighten up.

Lin Ting walked over and looked down at Liu Qiang on the ground.

"Who dares to lay a finger on the money the Lin family distributes?" Lin Ting asked.

Liu Qiang was in so much pain that he broke out in a cold sweat and begged for mercy repeatedly: "Boss Lin, I was wrong, I won't do it again."

"Get out," Lin Ting said.

Lin Fei kicked Liu Qiang away, and Liu Qiang scrambled out of the construction site gate without daring to look back.

The remaining contractors were so frightened that they huddled behind the crowd, not daring to utter a single word.

Some of the workers who owed them living expenses quickly took out the money in their pockets and secretly gave it to the workers to settle the accounts.

The line for distributing money was very long, with more than a hundred people taking turns to receive their share.

The cash in the box gradually decreased, and after the workers received their money, none of them left; they spontaneously stood by the roadside.

Their gazes towards Lin Ting had completely changed. Before, they looked at him with hostility towards the unscrupulous boss; now, they held him in high esteem.

These days, business owners who can settle accounts on the spot with real money are rarer than pandas.

Half an hour later, the last worker received his wages.

Lin Fu closed the last, half-empty safe and stepped back behind Lin Ting.

Lin Ting looked at the group of men.

"I've got the money. My family needs it, so I can leave now. I won't stop me," Lin Ting said.

Nobody moved.

Wang Jianjun stuffed the money into the inside pocket of his undershirt and took a big step forward.

"Boss Lin, you're a man of principle. That bastard Sun Dazhi cheated us, but you didn't kick us out with him; you even made up the difference in the money."

Wang Jianjun patted his chest. "We guys are good for nothing but hard labor. If we can keep working on this construction site, we want to stay."

Zhao Tiezhu chimed in, "That's right! As long as Boss Lin provides meals and pays wages, we'll keep working!"

"We'll stay!" More than a hundred workers responded in unison, their voices echoing through the unfinished building.

Lin Ting smiled. These were the words he had been waiting for.

"The Lin family is neither short of money nor lacking in resources." Lin Ting reached out and tapped on the desk.

"I'm establishing a rule here today: the Lin's Construction Engineering Team is officially inaugurated today."

Anyone willing to stay—steelworkers, carpenters, scaffolders, concrete workers, regardless of their trade—will receive a 20% raise on their existing wages.

These words immediately caused an uproar among the crowd.

A 20% pay rise! I've never heard of such a high price in the county's construction industry.

Lin Ting raised his hand to lower his voice.

"Meals and accommodation are provided, and wages are paid on the 10th of each month without fail, but the Lin family also has its own rules."

Those who cut corners will have their hands broken and be kicked out. Those who cause trouble and fight will not get a penny and will be fired.

Those who can follow the rules, stand on the right. Those who can't stand it, take your money and leave.

Wang Jianjun was the first to walk to the right, followed closely by Zhao Tiezhu.

In less than a minute, all of the more than one hundred workers stood on the right, forming a neat square formation.

A loud rumbling sound came from the end of the street.

Twelve large agricultural trucks and tractors drove up and stopped in front of the construction site.

Lin Dayou, dressed in coarse work clothes, stood in the back of the first truck.

He jumped out of the car, followed by more than three hundred bricklayers from Yitang. They carried trowels, plumb bobs, and shovels, and lined up to enter the construction site.

The Lin clan members were extremely imposing, with more than three hundred people standing together, exuding an unyielding spirit.

"Grandpa, all the people from Yitang have been brought here," Lin Dayou reported to Lin Ting.

Lin Ting pointed to the more than one hundred skilled workers on the right.

"Uncle Dayou, there are over a hundred skilled workers here. Mix them up and group them with the people from Yitang. You'll be the chief foreman for the Lin family construction team," Lin Ting instructed.

Lin Dayou rubbed his hands together and nodded repeatedly.

He had worked in construction for half his life, but he had never managed so many people, let alone such a wide variety of jobs.

Lin Ting took a long, rectangular drawing tube from the back seat of the SUV and handed it to Lin Dayou.

"These are the construction drawings for our Lin's New City, and they also contain the practical parameters for that special high-strength concrete," Lin Ting said.

Lin Dayou opened the cover of the blueprint tube, pulled out a blueprint, and unfolded it. He spread the blueprint on his desk and looked closely at the process parameters in the lower right corner.

Lin Dayou had worked as a bricklayer for thirty years, and the data on this completely shattered his common sense.

"The load-bearing columns don't need to be tied with thick steel bars? They're all assembled by drilling holes with bolts?" Lin Dayou asked, pointing to the structural diagram on the blueprint.

"Yes. All the prefabricated parts are made in the factory, and we just bring them over and assemble them directly," Lin Ting replied.

Lin Dayou flipped to the second sheet of paper and looked at the concrete mix proportions.

"Twelve hours to remove the mold and increase strength?" Lin Dayou's face turned red, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

Traditional concrete requires more than half a month to cure, but this formula shortens the curing time by dozens of times.

"Follow the blueprints. Old Zhao's earthmoving truck will deliver the materials first thing tomorrow morning." Lin Ting opened the door of the SUV.

Lin Dayou, holding the blueprints in both hands, took two steps to catch up.

"Grandpa, if we really follow these parameters... how many days will it take to top out these dozen or so buildings?" Lin Dayou asked.

Lin Ting got into the driver's seat and rolled down the window.

"You can choose three buildings to make prototypes first. As for the timing, you can check the blueprints yourself." Lin Ting started the SUV.

The vehicle turned around and drove out of the construction site gate.

Lin Dayou stood in the mud, looking down at the blueprint in his hand, his palms sweaty.

Those in the same industry in the county were all waiting to see the Lin family make a fool of themselves. Once these three buildings rise from the ground, they'll all be kneeling on the ground watching.