831 Small Tricks by the Evaluators (1/2)

Chapter 831 – Small Tricks by the Evaluators

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.