Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Luoyang Imperial City, Satellite City.
The headquarters of Tingyu Floor was set in the city Lord’s Manor of the Satellite City and looked over the entire city. In the west courtyard of the manor, Jianqi Leiyin stood beside the window as she looked out at the distant skies absentmindedly.
Behind her was a young woman dressed in swordsman attire. She looked really well trained. She was the deputy guild leader of Tingyu Floor – Stranded Tears.
Looking at the expression of the guild leader, Stranded Tears said, “Leader, even Blood Evil Mercenary Guild invited Ouyang Shuo to be their Independent Director. Can we do the same to repair the relationship?”
Jianqi Leiyin did not turn back, “A broken mirror will have cracks no matter how you try to repair it. Since we already chose to betray them, let’s not return.”
“….” Stranded Tears remained silent.
World matters were like that; there was no medicine for regret, and there was no way to reverse decisions.
Once one took the step out, it would be too late.
Within the reading room, Jianqi Leiyin let out a long sigh. ************ Returning to a week ago, Shanhai City.
After the Guards Legion Corps attacked Xunlong City, Ouyang Shuo placed most of his attention on the Capital City upgrade quest. As for the matters of the Battle of Minnan, he left it all to the Military Affairs Bureau and Huo Qubing.
Ouyang Shuo did not rush the choice of governor and settled the military reorganization plan. Minnan Province would temporarily be under military rule until Shanhai City became a Capital City.
Ouyang Shuo did not pay attention to Minnan as there was another matter that needed his attention.
It was none other than the arrival of the evaluators from the Dali Imperial Court. … On the morning of the 14th day, a merchant ship entered Lianzhou Basin from Friendship River. Along the way, it did not stop at the port in Xila Lake but headed directly for the central port in Shanhai City.
After docking, the men carried down boxes of tea leaves, they were all high quality Pu’er Tea.
Shanhai City’s central port was bustling with people; there was always merchant ships docked and many coolies of second hand merchants would crowd around. People who were not familiar would be conned by these second hand sellers and directly sell off their products.
Once these sellers purchased the items, as long as they found the right buyer, they could earn a massive sum in the middle.
After learning that these merchants actually brought Pu’er Tea, the second hand merchants were on drugs, jumping up and down. However, since the tea leaves were really popular overseas and were easy to transport, western merchants loved them.
After a change of hands, the second hand sellers could earn 20% profit.
Weirdly, these merchants sold all their tea leaves at the port.
After selling the tea leaves, they started to stroll around the city empty handed. Strolling and buying any items that interested them, they truly looked like a new merchant team.
Unfortunately, their actions at the port had already attracted the attention of the Shanhai City agents.
Their superiors had given strict orders to not let off anyone who appeared suspicious.
The spies tailed these ‘merchants’ and as expected, they found that something was up. The one leading this group was a middle aged man who was a merchant. Weirdly, while they were strolling, four of the men broke away from the group and blended into the ocean of people.
This time, the Shanhai Guard spies who were in charge of monitoring were excited. They felt like they had captured a big fish, and they arranged men to start monitoring those who had left the group whilst reporting back to the headquarters.
After a short while, the news reached Ouyang Shuo’s ears.
When he received the news, he got the Shanhai Guards to continue monitoring and not alert them. At the same time, he instructed them to not relax on the supervision of others lest they were trying to misdirect them.
This supervision basically locked onto the merchant squad.
There was nothing up with the main force – the key was the four men that left. The four of them seemed to be working together, strolling around, examining the construction and placement of the city and jotting down notes.
Some entered shops and casually talked to the workers inside, some entered the houses of civilians, and the last fellow changed into a scholar and entered Xinan University.
They all felt that they were acting covertly but little did they know that all their actions were observed by the eyes of the Shanhai City spies.
The mock evaluation led by Jiang Shang had no issues and could even be called good. Some small problems were dealt with during these few days.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to see what kind of problems they could create.
An afternoon passed quickly.
When night arrived, the merchant group found an inn to rest. The travel permit they used was given by Dali. Based on the rules of Shanhai City, visitors and merchants must have a permit. Otherwise, they could not spend the night here.
The four men quietly rejoined the group at night. They all had rather depressed expressions as if they had not caught any mistakes of Shanhai City in the day.
Another day passed and everything went normally.
Ouyang Shuo sat in the reading room. As long as these people did not take the initiative to reveal themselves, Ouyang Shuo would not either. He wanted to see what tricks these people would play.
The chance arrived during the morning of the 16th.
That morning, the merchant group entered a clock shop opened by a westerner. They looked like they were about to purchase some clocks and watches, nothing seemed strange.
However, not long after, these people started to act unreasonable and told the workers to break apart the clock. They wanted to see the internal structure before they would buy it.
How would the workers comply with such a rude demand?
This time, they were furious. They started smashing items in the shop.
The workers tried to stop them but were beaten up.
One worker was pushed down, and his head was smashed onto a clock, causing him to immediately bleed.
The commotion at the front of the shop alerted the manager at the back.
The manager was an English merchant. The situation left him furious, and he instructed one of his workers to call the officials. In less than 10 minutes, the Shanhai City bailiffs arrived at the scene and locked all of them up for interrogation.
When the Shanhai Guard spy monitoring the situation saw these events, he was anxious and immediately reported it.
When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he frowned.
Based on the territory law system, sowing trouble and injuring someone meant that the person in question would at least be locked up for three months. However, if they locked up these people like that, what would happen to the evaluation?
However, this matter was already in the lands of the Procurator Division and Ouyang Shuo could not interfere. He only instructed Wei Yang to pay attention to the case.
On the morning of the 17th, after the investigation into the case was clear, Ouyang Shuo summoned Wei Yang to ask for his opinion.
Based on the results of the investigation, the merchants were sentenced to three months in jail while the ones that participated in breaking the clocks were sentenced to four months.
As for the man that injured the shop worker, he was sentenced to six months.
Apart from that, the merchant had to pay for all economic losses and medical fees of the clock shop.
The entire process was fair, just, and open.
Originally, it was nothing. After all, the evaluators were the four secretive men. Even if the merchants were sentenced to jail time, it would not affect the mission.
However, the difficult part was that, who knows whether it was a coincidence or on purpose, but when they entered the clock shop, the one in charge of evaluating shops also entered and even participated in the smashing of items.
“Preposterous!”
“Wei Yang, what should we do?” Ouyang Shuo asked.
Wei Yang knew what was going on, but his attitude was resolute, “Monarch, no matter what, as long as they broke our laws they have to be punished.”
Ouyang Shuo was placed in a tough spot, “Then what about the quest, do we really have to wait for four months?”
“We have no choice.”
“….” Ouyang Shuo was speechless.
A lot could happen in four months.
“Can we give that person a chance?”
Ouyang Shu tried asking as he was desperate to upgrade Shanhai City to a Capital City. This did not only affect their establishment of a country but also pertained to Ouyang Shuo’s considerations regarding the Satellite City.
If he let things drag on for too long, Ouyang Shuo was worried that things might change with Yimeng Pavilion and Shadow Alliance. Even Qingfeng Pavilion might not be able to hold on if they lose the Satellite City.
Wei Yang said, “Monarch, if we let him off, what would happen to our law system? Where’s the fairness? Without it, the law system would fail the evaluation.”
Ouyang Shuo was stunned for a moment. He had let his emotions get to his head, “You’re saying that this could be a trap? They were trying to see if we let him off to pass the quest?”
Wei Yang nodded, “It is highly possible. I went to understand the details, and they were just fooling around for no reason. The timing was too coincidental.”
Hearing Wei Yang say such words, Ouyang Shuo decided to trust him. The evaluators thought that they were sneaky but everything they did was under the control of the Shanhai Guards.
Hence, they thought of such a preposterous idea.
Ouyang Shuo trusted Wei Yang’s analysis, “That’s good, let’s just handle it normally then. If the heavens want to delay us by four months, so be it.”
“Monarch is wise.”
Wei Yang bowed. … The progress of matters was just as Wei Yang had expected.
The three men who did not join in were locked up in the inn. When they saw that Shanhai City was really going to judge them fairly, they changed into their uniforms and revealed their identities.
Ouyang Shuo gave them face and personally received them at the inn.
