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

President Liu stood in front of the bedside table, the effects of the alcohol completely worn off.

He stretched out his right hand, his fingers trembling violently, and pinched the sealing line on the edge of the paper bag.

With a forceful tug, the brown paper bag was torn open, and he poured all its contents onto the large bed.

At the top is a high-resolution color print photo.

The photo is taken in a park in Brisbane, Australia, showing a boy of about five years old riding a scooter with a young woman standing next to him.

Bank Manager Liu's legs went weak, and he slumped onto the edge of the bed. It was his deepest secret, one that even his wife didn't know.

He grabbed the second sheet of paper, a remittance slip from the Nancheng Tongda Trading Company's public account, with the recipient being his account at an overseas underground bank.

The amount, time, and signature of the person in charge are all clearly recorded, down to the last two decimal places.

The third sheet is a money laundering transaction record from the VIP room of the Lisboa Casino in Macau. It bears the casino's coded seal.

Bank Manager Liu held his head in his hands, cold sweat dripping from his forehead onto the bedsheets.

If these things are handed over to the provincial inspection team, his life is over. The death penalty wouldn't be an exaggeration; this is 50 million yuan of public funds.

He flipped through the papers and found a small white note at the very bottom.

There are only two lines of text above.

Before eight o'clock in the morning, at the ancestral hall in Tazhai Village.

President Liu looked up at the clock on the wall; it was 2:30 a.m., five and a half hours until 8:00 a.m.

He didn't even bother to change his shirt, which reeked of alcohol and perfume, and scrambled out of the master bedroom.

He ran to the entrance, grabbed his car keys, and without even putting on his leather shoes, slipped on a pair of soft-soled slippers, opened the door, and rushed out.

The elevator numbers were scrolling very slowly, and Director Liu kept pressing the open button. As soon as the door opened a crack, he forced his way out.

The underground parking garage was empty. He ran to his black Mercedes, opened the door, and climbed into the driver's seat.

It took three tries to insert the key into the ignition hole.

He started the engine, floored the accelerator, and the Mercedes sped out of its parking space, its tires screeching as they rubbed against the concrete.

Before the gate of Yujingwan residential complex could even be raised, the Mercedes-Benz crashed into and broke the plastic gate.

The security guard ran out of the booth, pointing at the car's taillights and yelling, "Mr. Liu! Are you crazy?!"

Bank Manager Liu couldn't hear him at all. All he could think about right now was the ancestral hall in Tazhai Village.

Once the car entered the city's main road, the traffic lights lost all meaning for him. He ran four red lights in a row, heading straight for the highway leading out of the city.

The car was deathly silent. President Liu held the steering wheel with one hand and rummaged through the glove compartment with the other, pulling out half a pack of cigarettes.

He took a bite out of a cigarette and picked up a lighter.

His hands were shaking so badly he couldn't light it. The flame had just started to rise when his trembling fingers extinguished it. In a fit of rage, he smashed the lighter against the windshield.

During the day, in the bank corridor, Lin Fu held up an official document and begged him to grant a loan.

He acted superior and ordered the security guards to kick Lin Fu out.

That evening at the Golden Goblet Club, he assured Leng Qiu that the Lin family wouldn't receive a single penny, and Leng Qiu promised to hand over the cement factory behind the Lin family's house to him.

He thought he had crushed the Lin family, but now he realized that the Lin family had already put a knife to his throat.

Bank Manager Liu picked up his phone and dialed the number of the owner of Nancheng Tongda Trading Company. It rang for a long time before being answered.

"President Liu, is it urgent in the middle of the night?" came a muffled voice from the other end of the phone.

"Has anyone checked your ledgers recently?" President Liu asked in a hoarse voice.

The boss yawned: "No, all the ledgers are locked in the safe, and I'm the only one with the key. Don't worry, nothing will go wrong."

After hanging up the phone, President Liu felt a chill run down his spine.

The ledgers are in the safe. How did the Lin family get these detailed transaction records down to the single digit?

They can trace even the transfer records of underground banks to the very bottom; even the three major financial groups behind Leng Qiu cannot do this.

What kind of monsters are the Lin family?!

The Mercedes exited the highway and turned onto the provincial road leading to Tazhai Town. The road conditions became extremely poor, with the bumpy asphalt causing the car to bounce violently.

President Liu pressed the accelerator firmly, daring not to slow down even slightly. The chassis occasionally scraped against gravel, producing a screeching noise.

He glanced at the time; it was 4:30 a.m.

Unable to bear the inner torment any longer, he pulled out the business card Lin Fu had left at the bank counter during the day and dialed the number.

The backyard of the Lin Family Ancestral Hall in Tazhai Town.

Lin Fu sat at his desk, looking at the unfamiliar number flashing on his phone screen. He then looked up at Lin Ting, who was sitting in a grand chair.

Lin Ting held his teacup and nodded gently.

Lin Fu pressed the answer button and turned on speakerphone.

"President Lin! It's me, Liu Jianming!" The voice of President Liu, trembling with sobs, echoed in the empty ancestral hall.

Lin Fu leaned back in his chair and slowly began, "President Liu? It's the middle of the night, why aren't you sleeping in your luxurious bed at Royal Bay? What are you calling me for?"

"I was wrong! I was blind during the day, I was blinded by greed! President Lin, please be magnanimous and let me off the hook!" President Liu shouted on the other end of the phone.

Lin Fu sneered: "I don't understand what you're saying, Director Liu. You are the head of the city branch, while our Lin family is just a construction team with no qualifications, not even a second-level qualification. How dare we give you a break?"

Bank Manager Liu was almost in tears: "I'll approve the funds! No need for procedures, I'll use the branch's special approval authority, this morning at eight o'clock! Twenty million will be directly deposited into your Lin family's public account!"

"President Liu, you didn't say that during the day." Lin Fu tapped the table.

"You said all the banks in the city are connected and reporting to each other, and anyone who dares to lend a single penny to the Lin family will be fired. Can you really take that responsibility?"

"I'm talking nonsense! I was just spouting gibberish!" Bank Manager Liu slapped himself hard across the face in the car, the sound ringing out clearly.

"Mr. Lin, please just ignore me and let me go. Don't hand over that document on my bedside table!"

Lin Fu glanced at Lin Ting. Lin Ting put down his teacup.

"Materials? What materials?" Lin Fu asked calmly. "Our great-grandfather said there's no rush."

"Deputy Commander Chen from the Municipal Construction Commission is coming to the site tomorrow morning to collect our bid documents, and we're really worried about that."

"I'll talk to Deputy Commander Chen! I'll take care of it! I'll pay the deposit for entry!" President Liu shouted frantically.

"Mr. Lin, I need to see Mr. Lin. I'm on my way now."

"Grandpa is having tea in the ancestral hall. You can decide what to do," Lin Fu said, and then hung up the phone.

The only sound inside the car was the busy signal.

President Liu threw his phone on the passenger seat and gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands.

Upon entering the territory of Tazhai Town, one is surrounded by continuous farmland and orchards on both sides, and occasionally one can see the searchlights of the Lin family construction team working through the night.

President Liu lowered the car window, and the cold wind rushed into the car, making him a little more awake. He dared not think about Leng Qiu's twenty million right now.

He just wanted to save his own life. He'd do anything as long as the Lin family didn't hand over the materials.

What's a loan approval? He can personally deliver the money to the Lin family's construction site.

The car drove through the streets of Tazhai Town and headed towards the entrance of Tazhai Village, where the road ahead became increasingly narrow.

Just as dawn was breaking, Director Liu's mud-covered car pulled up under the century-old archway of Tazhai Village.