59: Chapter 59 "Is what he said true?"

Cloud Top Palace, main gate plaza.

Lin Yuan, accompanied by Su Muxue, Qin Yumo, and Su Xiaonuan, walked slowly out of the gate of Tiangong No. 1.

He had just finished instructing Fat Dragon to reinforce the perimeter electric fence defenses.

Although fewer than ten percent of the workers remained, Lu Yan and Fat Dragon's core team could still finish the last few minor tasks if they spent a little more time.

The plaza was unusually bustling.

A self-proclaimed "Homeowners' Association Director" was standing next to a supply truck, gesticulating wildly.

"Gentlemen, neighbors, I just spoke with an acquaintance in the city government. This lockdown is merely a preventive drill."

"Given your special status and how essential you all are to various industries, the authorities will never let our residential complex run out of supplies."

When Lin Yuan appeared with the line of stunning women of varying beauty and temperament behind him, the wealthy individuals whispering in the plaza fell silent in unison.

The "Homeowners' Association Director's" eyes lit up. He immediately dropped the microphone, stepped forward quickly, and pulled a pack of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes from his pocket.

"My friend, you look unfamiliar! I also just moved in recently. My name is Zhang Qidong, and I do some small business in the internet sector."

Lu Yan stood in front of Lin Yuan like a wall, his gaze icy.

Behind Zhang Qidong, two bodyguards in black suits also stepped forward, their temples slightly bulging.

One of them reached out to block Lu Yan and hissed, "Our boss means no harm."

Their arms collided with a dull thud; they were evenly matched.

Zhang Qidong's smile remained unchanged; he seemed accustomed to such scenes.

He bypassed the confronting bodyguards and continued to offer the cigarette to Lin Yuan, adopting an overly familiar, bureaucratic tone.

"My friend, don't be so hot-headed."

"It's a special time right now. The authorities have said it's just a mutation of the flu. The epidemic won't last forever."

"People in our circle should help each other out, don't you think?"

Lin Yuan kept his hands in his pockets and didn't even spare him a glance, staring straight at the supply truck instead.

It actually contained steak, seafood, and even high-quality dairy products.

One had to know that the footage transmitted from the drone earlier showed the supply trucks in the neighboring complex were only distributing pork, leafy greens, and rice.

Two other wealthy men nearby gathered around.

A balding man in a plaid suit rubbed his hands together and laughed, "Chairman Zhang is a truly righteous man. Anyone else wouldn't have been able to get this truck of supplies."

Another short, fat man with a cigar in his mouth looked Lin Yuan up and down, exhaling a puff of smoke: "Brother, in a place like Cloud Top Palace, being a lone wolf isn't a good habit."

Zhang Qidong awkwardly held out the cigarette, but seeing that Lin Yuan still ignored him, his expression faltered.

Suddenly! A shrill siren sounded from afar, drawing closer, followed immediately by the frantic roar of an engine tearing through the air!

A Wuling Hongguang with a severely dented front end and a piece of a metal road barrier hanging from its bumper charged out from a fork in the mountain road, its engine emitting a dying roar.

There were at least three dents on the vehicle's body—this van had clearly forced its way through more than one blockade.

It smashed directly through the million-dollar alloy railing outside the gate of Cloud Top Palace!

Screech—! Amidst the ear-piercing sound of brakes, the Wuling Hongguang fishtailed and skidded to a halt ten meters in front of Lin Yuan, emitting black smoke.

"Bang!" The car door was kicked open.

Wang Hongfa, the former director of the Hongfa Meat Processing Plant, jumped out, his hair disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, and gripping a half-meter-long steel wrench tightly in his hand.

He stared fixedly at Lin Yuan, like a mad dog backed into a corner, emitting a wheezing sound from his throat.

"Damn it, none of you are answering my calls! You've all blocked me, haven't you?!"

The wealthy elites who had been talking loudly just a moment ago instantly fell silent and took several steps back.

Lu Yan's eyes turned cold, and he prepared to step forward and punch the head of this armed trash.

However, Lin Yuan casually raised a finger and blocked Lu Yan's shoulder. Lu Yan's forward momentum came to an abrupt halt.

"Lin Yuan! You devil!!" Wang Hongfa let out a hysterical roar across the empty plaza.

"My cold storage! My two thousand tons of cold storage! It has all become empty boxes, damn it!!"

He looked like a madman, waving the wrench in his hand and pointing at Lin Yuan.

"Where did you take my one hundred tons of pork?! Huh?! Give me back my pork!"

"Pork prices have risen tenfold now! It's trading at over three hundred per jin on the black market! You must pay me one hundred million at today's market price!!!"

One hundred million? Pork? The wealthy in the plaza looked at each other in confusion.

Since when were meat sellers qualified to live in Cloud Top Palace?

Zhang Qidong even ordered his two bodyguards to stand in front of him, while he tossed the cigarette that Lin Yuan had refused into the bushes.

Facing this insane accusation, Lin Yuan didn't even twitch an eyebrow.

"Oh?" Lin Yuan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly across the entire scene.

"Director Wang, do you mean to say that the supplies I left in your cold storage for you to 'keep safe' have also vanished into thin air?"

He paused, his tone even colder. "Very well, according to your logic. My ten thousand tons of seafood, beef, and mutton, which are far more expensive than your lousy pork, have also gone empty."

Lin Yuan took half a step forward, staring directly at Wang Hongfa. "May I ask, Director Wang, how many hundreds of millions are you prepared to compensate me?"

"I..." Wang Hongfa was choked red by these words, a breath stuck in his chest, unable to speak for a long time.

He was just a small-time factory director; where would he have seen such a situation?

In his shame and anger, his reason was completely consumed by madness.

"I'll pay your mother!" Wang Hongfa roared, raising the heavy steel wrench and pointing it at Lin Yuan!

Qin Yumo's muscles instantly tensed!

A more urgent siren sounded!

A police SUV drove through the gap in the gate that Wang Hongfa had smashed, its tires leaving two charred marks on the ground as it braked to a stop in front of everyone.

After the city-wide home quarantine order was issued, the perimeter of affluent areas like Cloud Top Palace became a key lockdown patrol zone.

This Wuling Hongguang that had broken through the blockade had certainly rattled the nerves of quite a few big shots.

The car door pushed open.

A pair of long, beautiful legs wrapped in crisp uniform trousers stepped out first, and military combat boots stomped heavily into the mud.

Captain Han Xue, deputy captain of the Jiangcheng Criminal Police Brigade, had arrived.

She was wearing a capable-looking duty uniform today, looking heroic and spirited.

Seeing Wang Hongfa brandishing the wrench to commit violence, she didn't even draw her gun. Her figure moved like lightning.

With a clean and efficient step forward, her right hand gripped Wang Hongfa's wrist like an iron clamp and twisted it outward. Crack!

While Wang Hongfa let out a pig-like scream, Captain Han Xue used her left knee to pin his lower back, performing a standard wrist-lock takedown, forcing the two-hundred-plus-pound Wang Hongfa face-down into the muddy ground.

The steel wrench dropped to the side with a "clang".

"Police! Nobody move!" Captain Han Xue shouted sternly, suppressing the violently struggling Wang Hongfa beneath her while vigilantly scanning the crowd.

Wang Hongfa, pressed into the mud, struggled desperately, his cheek against the cold ground. Seeing Captain Han Xue pinning him down, he felt like a drowning person grabbing onto a rock on the shore.

He didn't care about the pain in his wrist and used all his strength to let out a distorted scream at Captain Han Xue: "Officer! Forget about me! Investigate him! Go investigate him!!"

"He has a massive amount of supplies! He emptied out all the pork in the city in advance!"

"Hundreds of thousands of tons! It's all in his hands!!"

Once these words were spoken, the entire plaza fell into a deathly silence.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of pork? In normal times that would be over ten billion; with the current premiums, wouldn't that be worth hundreds of billions!

Zhang Qidong's eyes darted around rapidly, and the expression on his face changed from disdain to contemplation.

Captain Han Xue's heart skipped a beat. While pinning the suspect beneath her, those eyes that had spent years staring at suspects in interrogation rooms instantly locked onto Lin Yuan, who was standing in the center of the crowd with an expressionless face.

"Is what he said true?"

Under the gaze of countless eyes, Lin Yuan did not deny it, nor did he explain.

He simply pulled his hands out of his trouser pockets. Then, his right fingers gently brushed against the seam of his trousers.