Liu Chengzhi ignored him. His gaze passed through the darkness, over Wang Hu, as if it could see through layer upon layer of grain stacks, and landed precisely where Gu Chuan was hiding.
Their eyes met.
A chill rose from the depths of Gu Chuan's heart.
He'd been discovered!
Liu Chengzhi's gaze was calm. There was no surprise, no anger—only a kind of... understanding. It was as if he'd known all along that Gu Chuan was here, and had even known all along that Gu Chuan had arranged everything.
This was an opponent a hundred times more terrifying than the Second Prince.
Gu Chuan's mind raced as he searched for a way out. Should he rush out now and explain that he was a granary clerk on night watch who'd just happened to stumble upon this? No. The timing was too coincidental; he'd practically be confessing. Keep hiding? Even worse. Liu Chengzhi had already locked onto him. There was nowhere to run.
What should he do?
Seeing that Liu Chengzhi wasn't saying anything, Wang Hu thought he was angry and hurriedly explained, "Sir, we found a thief sneaking in and were about to catch him, but the scoundrel got away! Don't worry. The men have already secured the area. He won't get far!"
Liu Chengzhi still didn't look at him. He simply gazed toward the spot where Gu Chuan was hiding and asked mildly, as if speaking to the air—or perhaps to Gu Chuan.
"This rice... smells a little sweet, doesn't it?"
Boom!
Gu Chuan's mind exploded.
He knew! He knew everything!
He knew this wasn't the ordinary aroma of rice! He knew this was the sickly-sweet, rotten smell that signaled the "Golden Ear" was about to grow mold!
It was over.
Before an absolute intellectual advantage, every clever maneuver