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

Construction site of Jiangjing Haoting in the East District.

A hundred heavy trucks lined up in a long queue, dumping sand, gravel, and special cement from their trailers onto the open ground, raising clouds of dust.

Lin Dayou, wearing a yellow hard hat and holding a walkie-talkie, yelled, "Group Two! Load the materials! Turn the mixer up to the highest setting!"

Wang Jianguo led several workers over, looking at the grayish-black cement powder on the ground with puzzled expressions.

"Mr. Lin, this gray color is wrong. Where can you find cement this color on the market?" Wang Jianguo grabbed a handful of powder and rubbed it together. "Will this stuff even hold its own?"

Lin Dayou snorted, "The recipe was personally formulated by my great-grandfather, what do you care about the color? Add water and make two batches of paste for me to try on the spot!"

The mixer roared.

Two cubic meters of dark gray cement slurry were poured into a test mold at the edge of the foundation pit.

Lin Dayou glanced at his watch: "Wait two hours."

Two hours passed.

The cement slurry in the mold had completely hardened, and its surface had a bluish-gray metallic sheen.

Lin Dayou dismantled the mold and pointed to the square cement block: "Jianguo, bring the steel shovel and the twenty-pound sledgehammer."

Wang Jianguo stepped forward with his tools and placed a steel shovel, about the thickness of a thumb, in the center of the cement block.

Another strong worker swung a 20-pound octagonal sledgehammer and smashed it down hard on the tail of the steel sledgehammer.

"when!"

A loud bang rang out, and sparks flew everywhere.

The worker wielding the sledgehammer was thrown back two steps by the recoil, his hand went numb, and he almost dropped the hammer handle.

Wang Jianguo looked down.

The steel shovel tip resting on the cement block was already chipped, but the surface of that special cement didn't even leave a white mark.

The surrounding workers were all dumbfounded.

"My God, this isn't cement, it's harder than steel!" Wang Jianguo exclaimed, his eyes wide and his voice trembling.

"It dried completely in just two hours? If this were used to pour concrete for load-bearing walls, it wouldn't even save the time needed for curing!"

Lin Dayou patted the cement block: "Stop talking nonsense! With this material, we can build two floors a day!"

"Get the tower crane moving! All four floors must be poured before dark today!"

More than 400 workers rushed to the construction site like they were on steroids.

Cranes lift precast components into the air, while cement mixers continuously deliver special cement to each floor.

The construction speed of Riverview Mansion is more than twice as fast as before.

In the center of the county town, a penthouse suite in a high-end hotel.

Leng Qiu, wearing a red silk bathrobe, sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, drinking freshly ground coffee.

She glanced at the clock on the wall.

10:00 AM.

"Judging by the time, the Lin family's construction site should have completely stopped work by now," Leng Qiu said, putting down her coffee cup with a confident tone.

The assistant standing to the side flipped through the schedule in his hand: "President Leng, General Manager Liu from Longhai Building Materials just called. Not a single building materials truck from the surrounding five counties has entered Tazhai. The Lin family's supplies have been completely cut off."

Leng Qiu gave a cold laugh.

"A nouveau riche from a small town dares to compete with me for key projects in the city just because he has a large population."

"If we cut off their building materials, they won't even be able to get through the gates of the bidding conference this afternoon."

Leng Qiu walked to the dressing table, picked up a lipstick and applied it.

The suite door was pushed open.

The overweight manager rushed in, sweating profusely, without even knocking.

"President Leng! Something's happened!" The chubby manager gasped for breath, his clothes completely soaked.

Leng Qiu stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him.

"Have you forgotten the rules? Get out and knock before you come in," Leng Qiu scolded.

The portly manager, ignoring all else, braced himself on his knees and exclaimed, "President Leng, the Lin family hasn't stopped construction! Their trucks are running again!"

Leng Qiu frowned.

"What nonsense are you spouting? I personally issued the blacklist; who would dare supply them with information?"

The portly manager swallowed hard. "They didn't buy any materials! They made it themselves!"

Leng Qiu walked over and grabbed the fat manager by the collar: "Build it yourself? Cement and sand, you think you can just build them like that? Do you think I'm a three-year-old?"

The portly manager slapped his thigh anxiously, "President Leng, I'm not lying to you! There's a dilapidated cement factory that's been abandoned for ten years in the back mountains of Tazhai. The Lin family bought it for two million, used a special formula, and managed to produce a batch of special cement!"

The chubby manager took out his phone, opened a video, and handed it over.

In the video, Lao Zhao's convoy is continuously unloading gray-black cement into the Jiangjing Haoting construction site.

The scene shifts to Lin Dayou directing workers to smash the test block with a sledgehammer, sparks flying everywhere, but the cement block remains intact.

"The people I sent to keep an eye on it said that this cement can reach its strength in two hours, and its hardness is twice that of the best high-grade cement on the market!"

The portly manager's voice trembled, "Their construction speed is now even faster than before!"

Leng Qiu stared at the phone screen, her face turning pale. She snatched the phone and smashed it to the ground.

"Snapped!"

The phone screen shattered, parts flying everywhere. Leng Qiu grabbed the coffee cup from the table and slammed it against the wall.

Coffee spilled all over the floor, staining the expensive carpet a dirty brown.

"Make it themselves? They don't even have a production line, how can they make special materials that are better than those of the city's conglomerates!" Leng Qiu gritted her teeth.

The assistant was so frightened that he took two steps back, lowered his head, and dared not utter a sound.

Leng Qiu paced back and forth in the room, unaware that she was walking barefoot on broken glass.

They thought they could use building materials to blockade and crush the Lin family in the county town, but the other side turned around and pulled out a complete supply chain, and even the quality of the materials was absolutely overwhelming.

"Fine, very well." Leng Qiu gritted her teeth. "Lin Ting, you really dare to play hardball with me."

Leng Qiu turned around and walked to the wardrobe, taking out a set of pure black haute couture business attire.

"Prepare the car, we're going to the city government building," Leng Qiu said coldly after changing her clothes.

"So what if we can make cement? I set the rules for the bidding process, and the judges were from the city."

"I'm going to crush the Lin family's last trump card at the meeting, in front of everyone!"

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

Outside the large conference room on the third floor of the city office building.

The corridor was covered with a red carpet and lined with security personnel on both sides.

Ma Jinlong and more than a dozen other construction bosses from various counties stood in a corner, not even allowed to enter, and could only wait for news from the outside.

The elevator doors opened.

Leng Qiu walked out in high heels, followed by four chaebol representatives in suits, each carrying a thick briefcase.

She walked straight to the conference room door without looking to either side.

As Leng Qiu reached the door, she stopped. Lin Ting was sitting on a bench in the corridor, smoking.

Lin Dayou and Lin Fu stood behind him, each holding a stack of documents.

Leng Qiu turned her head and glanced at Lin Ting.