Me! A high-ranking official!

"I'm here to do business, not to run a charity! Anyone who spouts nonsense again will be disqualified!" Liu Tao waved his hand domineeringly. "Does the village committee have a printer? Go print out the contracts right now! Who's the first to sell? Come on, take me to inspect the house!"

The crowd, which had been indignant and clamoring to sell their houses, suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

Nobody moved.

Even the middle-aged man who had just been shouting that he wanted to sell seemed to have taken root in his feet, stammering, "Um... boss, wait a minute, I... I need to talk to my wife about it."

"What's there to discuss! Are you selling or not? If not, I'm leaving!" Liu Tao pretended to open the car door.

The villagers looked at each other, their minds racing with calculations.

They're not idiots! These people have been holdouts for so many years, and their biggest belief is that no one gets up early without a reason. They desperately tried to give the government their dilapidated houses, but the government refused to take them. Then, a big boss driving a Maybach suddenly appeared and offered to buy them at a premium, with no limit on the number.

What does this show?

This means there's a gold mine buried under this dilapidated house!

The villagers couldn't help but recall Zhou Qingyan's words, slamming his fist on the table, spoken earlier in the village committee: "Once the cultural tourism project is launched, you'll all be NPCs (players who remain in the same area), these are the core shops, their value will double in the future!"

It turns out the county party secretary wasn't lying! Even big-time investors from other places have caught wind of this and are rushing to grab a piece of the pie. If we sell this house now, won't we lose everything in the future?

Seeing the villagers, who had been as fierce as wolves just moments before, now reduced to shrewd silence, the county leaders standing on the steps were completely dumbfounded.

Zhou Qingyan's beautiful eyes darted around, her gaze once again passing over the crowd and landing on Zhao Jianguo's face. She instantly realized what was happening.

What a brilliant psychological tactic of turning the tables! Human greed is the best shackle. The government tried to persuade them with all its heart, but they felt that the government was just making empty promises. When capitalists came with real money to grab it, they held on tightly and refused to let go. These villagers have been completely trapped by Zhao Jianguo's feint!

But then, an unexpected change occurred.

"I'll sell!"

From the back of the crowd, a disheveled middle-aged woman suddenly shrieked and pushed her way out, her eyes red and swollen, shouting, "My husband is sick and needs money to save his life! I don't want to wait any longer for these bastards to waste our time. We've been waiting for seven or eight years and haven't seen a single penny! Boss, come on! Let's see my house!"

This sudden shout made Zhou Qingyan's heart leap into his throat.

She subconsciously frowned and stared intently at Liu Tao.

This is the easiest part of the charade to be exposed. If the accomplice Zhao Jianguo hired now makes various excuses to avoid inspecting the house and signing the contract, these shrewd villagers will immediately realize what's going on, and their backlash will be ten times more intense than before! But if he really accepts the money, where will Zhao Jianguo get the remaining 20 million?

Just as Zhou Qingyan was about to have someone forcibly intervene to smooth things over.

Instead of panicking, Liu Tao laughed heartily, slung his suit jacket over his shoulder, pointed at the woman, and shouted, "Good! That's satisfying! So many grown men, and not as generous as an old woman! Come on, ma'am, let's go to your house! I'll take it as long as it hasn't collapsed. See you at the housing authority first thing tomorrow morning!"

After saying that, Liu Tao turned his head and glanced at the others with a half-smile: "You all better think about this! Besides me, do you really expect the government to be a sucker and take your broken bricks and tiles? Dream on!"

To everyone's astonishment, Liu Tao actually followed the woman, swaggering through the crowd to go look at the house.

This left the remaining villagers completely bewildered.

Are you really buying?! How about... we sell too? No, what if it really increases tenfold?

Taking advantage of the villagers' confusion and bewilderment, Zhou Qingyan took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in her heart, and glanced at Zhao Jianguo on the outside. Zhao Jianguo was giving her a slight smile.

Zhou Qingyan understood. Zhao Jianguo had more than ten million yuan in real money. He really intended to buy one or two houses as a stabilizing force to completely solidify this scheme!

"County Chief Han, bureau chiefs, let's return to the county."

Zhou Qingyan made a decisive decision, his voice clear and authoritative, and led his men down the steps.

"Hey! Leaders, don't go!" Several villagers who hadn't come to their senses instinctively tried to stop them.

Zhou Qingyan abruptly stopped, turned around, and unleashed the full aura of a Standing Committee Secretary, his gaze sweeping over the leading villagers with piercing eyes: "What? You've decided to sell your houses?"

The men were speechless, their Adam's apples bobbing as they hesitated. Sell it to the government? The owner was looking at houses in the village; the government would never offer a higher price. Not sell? Then why were they blocking the government's way?

Seeing their conflicted and contorted expressions, Zhou Qingyan coldly uttered a single sentence:

"The county government has always encouraged the free market and will not prevent or interfere with normal commercial acquisitions. Fellow villagers, if you want to sell your houses, the government will not stop you. If you want to keep them and wait for appreciation, the government welcomes you even more! The choice is yours!"

After saying that, Zhou Qingyan ignored the stunned villagers and walked straight to the official car parked by the roadside.

As Zhou Qingyan opened the car door, he glanced at the outer edge of the crowd.

Zhao Jianguo, riding a beat-up electric bike and wearing a wrinkled shirt, was casually mingling in the crowd of onlookers, like a vagrant who had nothing to do with it, keeping his achievements hidden.

"This Zhao Jianguo..." Zhou Qingyan sat in the car, leaning wearily against the back of the seat, but couldn't help but curl a very faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

In officialdom, there are plenty of writers like Zhang Baocheng who write reports and smooth things over, but it is extremely rare to find a strategist like Zhao Jianguo who dares to wrestle in the mud and carve out a bloody path through chaos.

"Return to the county committee and notify the Public Security Bureau to withdraw the team," Zhou Qingyan instructed his secretary with his eyes closed.

As soon as the county leader's car started emitting smoke, the air pressure outside the cordon immediately became tense.

The government's statement of "neither obstructing nor participating" was like a soft knife, directly stabbing into the hearts of these holdout residents who were originally united. The less clear the government's stance was, the more uneasy they became.

"Damn it, whatever happens in the future, I'm selling it!" A bald man slapped his thigh. "Cash in hand is the only real money. Who knows if that poor county government can even make tourism a success?"

He'd barely taken a step when his wife grabbed him by the back of the collar, whispering, "Are you in such a hurry to be reborn? Don't you know 'no businessman is honest'? That big boss drove his multi-million dollar car to this dump and threw money around; he must have inside information from the county! Secretary Zhou just let it all out, saying this house has great potential. If we sell now, what if it increases tenfold later? Are you going to hang yourself?"

The bald man scratched his head anxiously, pointing to the dilapidated roof of the village committee building: "What if the development project falls through? It's happened before! Then we'll be stuck with these broken bricks, unable to even sell them to pay for repairs!"