"Lin... Lin Ke?!"
The middle-aged man before him visibly paled, his pupils trembling violently.
But when Lin Ke said he wanted to go inside and look around, the man merely nodded. He seemed about to say something, but ultimately held his tongue.
Lin Ke stepped inside first, passing a screen and entering a corridor lined with rooms on either side, each resembling a private office.
The screen by the entrance seemed to block both sight and sound. Once he passed it, a clamor of conversation reached his ears.
"Found one! I heard about it at the Xuan Gate Restaurant. There's a Second Realm Confucian Scholar in the Shu Region whose righteousness towers to the heavens. He slew three demons for his hometown and had his cultivation destroyed!"
"What a scholar, with righteousness towering to the heavens! This is a good deed. It certainly deserves to be recorded!"
"Agreed! Just like that devoted filial son from a few days ago. Record them all for Lord Lin to review!"
"Quite right, quite right."
"Hm? Why has Lord Huang been gone so long? Why isn't he back yet?"
"Did something happen to him? Could someone go check?"
Although the surrounding offices had doors, most stood open. People sat inside, each attending to their own work.
Seeing this, Lin Ke nodded in satisfaction.
There was none of the slacking he had imagined, nor any of the foul, smoke-choked atmosphere he had feared.
These people were working diligently.
Although they seemed to be boasting and chatting, this was precisely the task Lin Ke had assigned earlier: gathering accounts of people great and small, along with all manner of strange tales.
In other words, they were doing proper work.
And they all seemed quite absorbed, enjoying themselves.
Lin Ke looked around. Almost everyone here was working;