Chapter 36 The Eastern Kingdom is in Turmoil!

"Activate the highest-level emergency administrative procedure immediately! I want to sanction this toy factory."

The order was issued with lightning speed.

The entire state apparatus of the Ugly Country, like a giant beast awakened, began to operate at high speed for the sake of a tiny, obscure toy factory far away in the Eastern Country.

...

The Ugly Country Ministry of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security.

In an ordinary office, the civil servants responsible for drafting the sanctions bill were all dumbfounded as they looked at this urgent document with the highest security classification, issued directly by The Pentagon.

A young blond analyst who had just joined the job and still had a full head of hair was named Kevin. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes, tired from working all night, and repeatedly confirmed the name of the sanction target on his computer screen.

Li Family Toy Factory?

Kevin felt his worldview being shattered. He hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he couldn't hold back. Carrying a cup of coffee that had already gone cold, he walked over to his supervisor, whose hairline was already receding toward the back of his head.

"Sir... are you sure there isn't a typo?" Kevin lowered his voice, pointing at his screen, and asked in a highly uncertain tone, "Our target for sanctions is... Li Family Toy Factory?"

"Are we... really going to sanction a... toy factory?"

The supervisor was already frazzled by this sudden overtime. He irritably took off his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose, and hissed at the oblivious rookie in a low voice: "Shut up, Kevin! This is an order from The Pentagon! Don't ask why, just do it! Do you think you know more about war than those generals?"

"But, sir," Kevin was still unwilling to give up. He turned his computer screen toward the supervisor, "This kind of toy factory typically has a business scope of... producing and selling plush toys, plastic building blocks, and children's rocking cars. This... shouldn't we verify it again? What if..."

"What if what? Kevin, let me tell you, in our line of work, logic and common sense are the most useless things." The supervisor picked up a red stamp on the desk marked "Highest Emergency" and waved it in front of Kevin.

"Do you see this? It means 'shut up and type'. Close your mouth and hit your keyboard. Whether they produce toys or tactical nuclear weapons, our job is to type their name, exactly as written, onto this Entity List. Now, get back to your seat immediately and finish the draft for me before dawn, or none of us are going home!"

Kevin was left speechless, and could only return to his seat, filled with confusion.

He looked at the terms listed in the sanctions document, from prohibiting the use of the ugly yuan settlement system, to cutting off all its upstream technology and raw material supply chains, to freezing all potential overseas assets of its founder and all executives... Each item was a thunderous measure that would only be used against a mid-sized country.

And all of this, just to deal with a toy factory that might be producing plastic ducks?

Kevin was speechless, feeling that the world was becoming increasingly magical. He could only numbly tap on the keyboard, formally adding the name of Li Family Toy Factory to the very top of that long Entity List, which symbolized a technological noose.

...

At four in the morning, when the Eastern Country's capital, Didu, was still immersed in deep sleep, a sharp, urgent telephone ring woke the military attaché of the Israel Embassy in the Eastern Country.

On the other end of the line was the furious roar of the Israel Foreign Minister.

Half an hour later, a line of black sedans with diplomatic license plates sped through the silent streets, ignoring traffic rules, and finally screeched to a halt at the entrance of the Eastern Country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Israel ambassador had also been urgently dragged out from his warm bed. Dressed in a wrinkled suit, with sleepy anger on his face and a hint of confusion he hadn't even noticed himself, he brought the "irrefutable evidence" provided by the Ugly Country side and, accompanied by the military attaché, submitted a formal diplomatic note with extremely stern wording to the Eastern Country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the diplomatic note, the Israel side strongly condemned the Eastern Country for providing high-tech offensive weapons to conflict regions, claiming it severely undermined regional stability. They attached photos of the devastating strikes caused by drones on the battlefield, as well as that incredibly clear battery cover plate imprinted with the Li Family Toy Factory logo as core evidence.

This diplomatic note, like a pebble thrown into a pond in the middle of the night, stirred up ripples within the Eastern Country's diplomatic system.

The duty officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who received the note was an experienced middle-aged official. His first reaction to the accusation was one of ridicule.

'Li Family Toy Factory?' Such a thought surfaced in his mind, 'Are these Israel people crazy? Or has their intelligence department been taken over by some third-rate novelist? Making an international joke out of something like this?'

But when his gaze moved to the bloody battlefield photos attached to the document, and that technical analysis report endorsed by the Ugly Country military, his smile gradually faded.

He immediately realized that the seriousness of the matter might far exceed his imagination. Behind this, there must be the shadow of the Ugly Country.

This matter was too absurd, so absurd that... it might even be true.

After dawn, this diplomatic note, mixed with absurdity and bloodshed, was submitted at the highest security level to the desk of the person in charge of the Eastern Country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

An international diplomatic storm surrounding Li Family Toy Factory officially began.