Gu Chuan's breathing stopped for half a second.
So that was it.
Liu Chengzhi had chosen him not by chance, but because it was inevitable.
He wasn't a chess piece who could be discarded at any time. He was the heart of the entire play—the stage itself!
This so-called "theft," from beginning to end, had been a double act performed in perfect understanding by Liu Chengzhi and Gu Chuan, ruler and subject.
They had exploited everyone's Information Gap.
The Crown Prince thought the grain had been stolen.
Wei Xun thought it had been carried away by the military.
Wang Hu and the others thought Liu Chengzhi's men had secretly moved it.
Only Gu Chuan himself knew the truth: the grain had been here all along.
He slowly descended the slope, his palm brushing over a sack of plump grain. This was his trump card, and the Second Prince's true means of turning the tables.
Liu Chengzhi had wanted him to put on a show.
So he would give him one: a "cicada shedding its shell."
Now, everyone's attention had been drawn to that fake tunnel and the so-called Xishan Camp.
And he, Gu Chuan, would begin putting his plans into action in this underground kingdom known to no one.
He would make these ten thousand shi of grain appear, in a way nobody could imagine, where they were needed most—and deal a fatal blow to this seemingly secure game.
Barehanded, he descended the slope like a king inspecting his domain.
This underground granary was far more than a simple storage space. It was the culmination of Gu Chuan's skill, combining memories from his past life with the techniques of this world. The ventilation system mimicked the effects of a limestone cave, maintaining a consistently low temperature and dry conditions. Beneath