When Bai Changkong took his son out, above their heads, thousands of feet above the ground, in the thick dark clouds, a red bird shadow was staring at them.

From Yushunfang straight into Wuyinfang, Bai Changkong and others ran all the way, and the bird shadow followed closely.

Several guards were left at the young official's house to wait. Bai Changkong and Bai Lang went underground. Niaoying took a long breath and slowly landed on the roof of a small building in the backyard of the young official's house.

The big parrot raised by Lu Ying looked sneaky. It poked its head out from behind the roof beast, stared around with its round eyes wide open.

The big parrot silently raised its wings and shook them vigorously, cursing under its breath.

"I'm a big shot, when did I start doing hard labor?"

"A bunch of troublesome grandsons!"

The big parrot cursed a few times, exhaled, lifted its tail, and held its stomach hard. A pool of bird shit came out, and drops of it were scattered in the backyard of the little official.

The big parrot flapped its wings and flew into the air, disappearing into the dark clouds in an instant.

About a quarter of an hour later, a round and fat caracal, which gained weight with every step it took, climbed up the wall stealthily, twitching its nose, and came to the roof where the big parrot had just hidden.

The caracal grinned, and a human-like, yet cunning expression appeared on its round face.

It poked its head around the yard for a while, sniffed the fragrance left by the big parrot in the air, and silently followed the roof to the room where Bai Changkong and others entered the underground passage.

The two long hairs on the tips of the caracal's ears trembled, and it listened carefully to the movements in the room.

After a while, it let out a breath, jumped directly from the roof, and jumped more than ten feet away. It landed lightly on the courtyard wall, walked along the wall for seven or eight steps with a proud look on its face, raised its tail and left a puddle of cat urine on the top of the wall, then curled up and jumped off the wall, disappearing without a trace.

Yushunfang, the main gate of the Survey Department’s headquarters.

Lu Yi had someone bring a rocking chair and put it under the porch at the gate.

He sat in a rocking chair, holding a small purple clay teapot, sipping tea in small sips, and smilingly watched the workers busy in the ruins of Lantianyuan opposite.

The huge Lantian Garden was burned down into a broken brick kiln. The Bai family hired workers to clean up the ruins early in the morning.

During the time that Lu Yi was looking around, cartloads of broken bricks and tiles, roof beams and pillars that had been burnt into charcoal, and some ancient trees that had been affected by the fire and burned black, completely losing their ornamental value, were all cleared out and transported out in special large vehicles.

The Bai family is very civic-minded. They are afraid that these wastes will be left on the streets and pollute the environment of Yushunfang.

Therefore, the workers they hired and the vehicles they used to move the construction waste were all four-wheeled trucks specially made by wealthy grain merchants to transport large quantities of grain.

The four-wheeled truck is five meters long and has a square compartment made of iron sheets. It is fully enclosed without any cracks. After the garbage is piled into the truck, not a single piece of residue will fall to the ground.

As the workers were busy, one truck after another left the ruins of Lantianyuan and slowly drove along the street towards the Yushunfang Pier No. 2 not far away.

Yushunfang is inhabited by high-ranking officials and nobles, and the land has been almost fully developed. It is impossible to find a place to dispose of these construction wastes in Yushunfang.

According to the information gathered by their subordinates, the Bai family hired a large number of sleds at Pier No. 2. These construction wastes will be transported along the canal to Yanzifang, a Jiupinfang city thousands of miles to the west, where they will be buried in pits.

Yanzifang is a 'preserved village' and a 'firewood village'.

Jiupinfang Market is the largest market in Gaojing City in terms of area, but its development level is almost zero. Yanzifang is almost ten times larger than Yushunfang, but the entire Yanzifang has less than 100,000 residents, and all of them are "firewood men" who have been chopping wood and burning charcoal for generations.

The purpose of Chaixinfang's existence is to provide firewood needed for daily life to the high-end markets in Haojing.

After these construction wastes are buried deep in the pits dug in Yanzifang, they will be assimilated into the land in a few years and become nutrients needed for the growth of firewood.

Lu Yi tapped the armrest of the rocking chair with his fingers.

He turned his head and looked at Ah Hu, who was standing beside him and had changed into a white brocade gecko robe.

Ah Hu grinned, put two fingers in his mouth, and blew a very high-pitched and shrill whistle.

At the distant street corner, more than a mile away from where Lu Yi was, a dozen idle men dressed in various clothes and with strong bodies, who were squatting at the foot of the wall in a daze, stood up.

A few four-wheeled trucks passed by them slowly, and these idlers suddenly shouted in unison: "Why are you looking at me?"

There was a whistle, and these idle men all pulled out iron bars more than a foot long from their sleeves, and rushed towards the Bai family servants who were escorting the delivery truck. The iron bars made a "whoosh" sound and landed heavily on the Bai family servants who were caught off guard.

Amid cries of pain, the wheels of several freight cars were smashed to pieces, the axles were broken, and the carriages were overturned heavily to the ground. The heavy broken bricks and tiles crushed the iron sheets of the carriages, and they rolled all over the ground with a "clatter".

Several trucks were overturned in succession, and the servants of the Bai family fell to the ground with bruises all over their heads.

The idlers who attacked them for no apparent reason turned around and ran away with laughter and skipping. They turned the corner and blended into the crowd on the street in a few seconds and disappeared without a trace.

The Bai family's guards reacted very quickly. When seven or eight guards heard the screams of their family members, they rushed out immediately and rushed over in a hurry.

The idle man ran away without a trace, leaving only the knocked-down servant rolling on the ground wailing.

The Bai family's guards looked around blankly, not knowing how to deal with the situation for a moment.
Lu Yu stood up with a smile and handed the small teapot to the eunuch standing beside him: "Keep a close eye on the Bai family. Send people to keep an eye on these trucks as well. Why do I feel like they are transporting something else outside?"

The young eunuch took the teapot and laughed sinisterly: "My Lord, they must be possessed by a demon. We will send a letter to the brothers along the way to keep an eye on the boat they hired, and make sure they can't fly into the sky."

Lu Yu nodded.

A sharp curse was heard from the air, and the big parrot fell from the sky, panting and flapping its wings. It opened its claws and grabbed Lu Yi's shoulders hard.

Lu Yi stretched out his fingers and pinched the big parrot's mouth.

"Shut up and stop yelling. I'll give you something delicious to eat later. You guys, just do what you need to do. If you get any news from the supervisor, don't delay and report it to me immediately."

Lu Yu raised his head.

Perhaps because those who deserved to die from the Ghost Mother Cult were already dead, and the other wounded had been transferred to the secret prison of the Guard Palace, the red lanterns that were originally floating in the sky disappeared without a trace at some point.

Lu Yi looked towards the direction of Lantianyuan again.

Across the old Lantian Garden, Lu Yi saw that the window on the fifth floor of the Xiulou building that belonged to Bai Lu was open. Early in the morning, the tall and beautiful girl he had seen was sitting by the window, playing with the various musical instruments collected by Bai Lu.

Bailu is not at home.

There was a big fire last night and she didn't show up.

No one knew who this girl was in the Bai family, but she was able to gain entry to Bai Lu's showroom and fiddle with Bai Lu's collection at will!

Lu Yi looked at the girl deeply, turned around and entered the base, and went into the third courtyard, where there was an office specially prepared for him.

Six years ago, Lu Yi obtained the visualization map and rescued Ah Hu, who had traveled thousands of miles from Dazhou in the far north and finally arrived in Haojing. After Lu Yi had gained some strength, he began to build his own power.

Several years of hard work, starting from small things.

Stinky tofu, grilled cold noodles, baked pancakes, wonton stalls... these are all small businesses with low capital and meager profits. These little things that powerful people don't even look down upon are actually hanging around, allowing Lu Yi to gain a small position.

Nowadays, stinky tofu stalls are distributed in more than 600 markets in Gaojing, and there are more than 100 stinky tofu stalls in each market on average.

These stinky tofu stalls, as well as other small stalls, have to hand over half of their profits to Lu Yi every day.

A stitch in time saves nine. A drop in the ocean makes a mountain. Lu Yi's daily income is a frightening number.

But more importantly, relying on these spies on the streets, Lu Yi's intelligence collection may not be as good as some official government offices in Dayin with a history of thousands of years, but it is far better than that of ordinary wealthy families.

After sitting in the study for a short while, Ah Hu came in and out, bringing in dozens of thin scrolls.

Lu Yi unfolded the scroll, and what was happening on the streets of Wuyinfang, Kunpengfang, Fengtiaoyushunfang, Guotaimin'anfang and the other four major squares today was clearly visible to Lu Yi.

"You old thief!" Lu Yi looked at the information on the small scroll and suddenly clapped his hands in exclamation.

Bai Changkong, as expected, made another move.

The big parrot set fire to his Blue Garden, and the palace sent people to nail a gold medal of Chu Xiu on the door of his house.

In Lu Yi's opinion, the burning of Lantian Garden was a blow to the reputation of Bai Changkong and the Bai family.

And Chu Xiu's gold medal has pushed the Bai family into an extremely embarrassing situation.

But in just one morning, the cultural and educational disciples in the several towns and markets closest to the imperial city had actually begun to make a commotion.

They talk about the principle of "the connection between heaven and man".

They said that the fire destroyed Lantianyuan because the heaven and earth were moved and the Bai family's house was too "cramped".

They said that the Bai family was going to produce a "noble person", and the noble person was like a "golden phoenix", which would only fall on paulownia wood and would not fall on ordinary wood.

Therefore, the destruction of Lantian Garden proved that the Bai family would prosper - the saying "the old must go and the new must come" is exactly this truth.

Some even swore that the Bai family was going to become "prosperous".

A small six-courtyard house was no longer worthy of the "Bai Family" that was about to rise to prominence, so this was a sign that the Bai Family was going to renovate their house. The only way to build a bigger and better garden was to burn the garden first.

Lu Yu sat in the study, looking at the information in front of him, unable to speak for a long time.

Is there any other explanation like this?

These disciples of culture and education, and Bai Changkong, what's wrong with their mouths?

Before Lu Yi could recover from Bai Changkong's offensive of public opinion that turned the tide, bursts of noisy sounds came from the direction of Bai Changkong's home in the distance.

Lu Yi couldn't sit still any longer, so he quickly stood up and led his men straight to where the noise came from.