Chapter 552: Winds and Clouds Gathering

“Sure enough, they are suspicious after all.”

Chen Ling stood on the second floor of Jinghong Tower, his hands resting on the railing, his gaze leisurely watching the casino and the dance hall on the same street. Although to ordinary people these two shops looked the same as usual, in the eyes of someone like Chen Ling, he could still see the difference.

Overnight, there were several more homeless people, rickshaws, and grumbling passersby around the Great World Dance Hall. Although there were quite a few people coming in to spend money, most of them were likely plainclothes officers... Li Ruohong didn't have experience in this area and probably couldn't see anything unusual, not knowing that his dance hall had already been labeled as a “suspected Twilight Society stronghold.”

Chen Ling was even certain that the [Floating Life Painting] people had already started monitoring the dance hall, which meant he couldn't enter the dance hall as casually as he did yesterday, nor could he recklessly direct another big show under their noses.

However, this wasn't a problem for Chen Ling. He didn't want to use the same method a second time. Even without entering the dance hall, he still had ways to continue “packaging” it.

“Frequent accidents and continuous exaggerated performances will only make the [Floating Life Painting] people suspicious and backfire... It’s better to let things take their course these few days.”

“I left a few small Easter eggs in the dance hall yesterday. At this stage, letting them explore on their own might be more effective than me actively intervening.”

“What’s more, there are those two spies from the Wuji Domain in the dance hall. I don’t need to intervene too much for it to have a great show effect...”

Chen Ling quickly sorted out the current situation and formulated the subsequent “script” direction. Just as he was about to go downstairs, his peripheral vision saw a few plainclothes officers guarding the casino entrance exchanging something, and then someone’s gaze flicked toward Jinghong Tower, looking very puzzled.

Chen Ling’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Have they noticed this theater... That’s normal, after all, there have been conflicts between here and the dance hall recently, so they’ll pay some attention.”

“But my background can’t be reasonably explained for the time being. If they really start an investigation into me, the situation will be quite bad...”

Chen Ling thought as he turned to go downstairs.

As soon as Chen Ling reached the first floor, he saw Kong Baosheng holding a stack of things, jogging in from outside. The two “door gods” at the entrance were still staring at him viciously, but Kong Baosheng seemed to be used to it now and ignored them directly.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve bought the newspapers you wanted.”

“Good, put them down.”

Chen Ling returned to the rocking chair, sat down, held the stack of newspapers in his hand, and while eating the fruit Kong Baosheng had cut, began to flip through them one by one.

These were newspapers from the last half-year in the Red Dust Main City, connecting exactly to the time when Chen Ling was last here. And having learned from the last lesson, this time Chen Ling only had Kong Baosheng buy non-entertainment newspapers, filtering out most of the invalid information.

Seeing this, Kong Baosheng didn't step forward to disturb him, but instead took the ingredients he had bought on the way from the bag and went into the kitchen to start cooking.

The clatter of the kitchen knife on the cutting board mixed with the sound of newspaper pages turning from time to time, fermenting in the warm sunlight. The entire theater was shrouded in a leisurely, slow-paced atmosphere.

“Excuse me, can you watch plays inside here?” a passerby asked cautiously as they passed the theater entrance.

“Watch your mother! Get lost!!”

The two door gods glared, and the passerby fled in a panic.

This was the second guest they had scared away today. Although there weren't many people who watched operas in this era, there were still some. No matter how low-key the newly opened Jinghong Tower was, given the foot traffic on this street, people would occasionally come to ask.

Having scared away another guest, the young man holding the baseball bat didn't feel very happy. He looked back at the peaceful theater and, for some reason, felt like he had become a little monkey guarding the house...

“No, we’re ruining his business like this, is he really not angry at all?” he asked in confusion.

“I don’t know. His emotions are too stable. He even smiled at us just now.”

“He’s faking it... he must be faking it!”

“I think so too. Actually, he’s furious inside, he just doesn't show it... In the end, he’s still a softie who likes to put on an act.”

The two whispered, occasionally glancing at Chen Ling inside the house, not knowing if they were really mocking Chen Ling or trying hard to find some psychological comfort for themselves.

Chen Ling casually put a newspaper back on the table, picked up the latest one, and his brow suddenly raised when he saw the headline.

“Beidou Consortium Chairman Mu Chunsheng is holding a birthday banquet... Those two spies seemed to have mentioned it too.”

Chen Ling’s gaze looked at the main text. The scale of this birthday banquet seemed very large. Not only were a large number of stars, dan actors, and famous performers from the Red Dust Main City invited, but also a large group of well-known figures from the political and business circles, most of whose names Chen Ling was very familiar with.

“Whale Shark Consortium Chairman Su Xiaohong, Paradise Consortium Chairman Pang Shan, Dinglu Consortium Chairman Lu Yuanzheng, Huang Consortium Chairman Huang Suyu... Hmm??”

Seeing the last name, Chen Ling was stunned for a moment.

Chen Ling had a deep impression of this Huang Suyu. When he first entered the Red Dust Main City, he had swindled her out of 500,000. The then-desolate Huang Consortium daughter had transformed into the chairman of one of the new five major consortia half a year later.

Chen Ling carefully flipped through the relevant newspapers and discovered that on the day he left the Red Dust Main City half a year ago, Flower Capital Consortium Chairman Zong Wen had been skinned and killed. The already crumbling Flower Capital Consortium had completely collapsed, and the Huang Consortium had reacted the fastest, sparing no cost to annex the Flower Capital Consortium’s industries and heritage, developing into a new upstart in the Red Dust Main City in just half a year.

It seems the reminder he left her before leaving had worked.

“But... who killed Zong Wen?” Chen Ling thought thoughtfully.

Whoever could kill Zong Wen with such cruel means was likely a deep-seated enemy? But how did the other party break through the Flower Capital Consortium’s security measures and silently reach Zong Wen to carry out such a long murder process?

Chen Ling pondered for a long time, temporarily put the newspaper aside, and his attention returned to the news about Mu Chunsheng’s birthday banquet.

“If nothing goes wrong, Li Ruohong will definitely go to this birthday banquet, and he will secretly take those two spies with him... A birthday banquet that is lively and joyful on the surface, but involves a conspiracy confrontation between two major domains behind the scenes. The water here is really deep...”

“But that’s fine. The deeper the water, the more suitable it is for me to fish in troubled waters... If it goes smoothly, not only can I solve the casino’s predicament, but I can also deal with those two Wuji Domain spies, and at the same time establish a foothold for myself in the Red Dust Main City.”

“It’s just, what kind of role should I play in this birthday banquet...”

Chen Ling rubbed his chin with one hand and fell into deep thought.