He had secretly worked with the Second Prince for years, handling some unsavory transport businesses. The day before yesterday, he had received a secret letter from the Second Prince, telling him to be ready at any moment over the next two days and follow the orders of a man named Gu Chuan. He had assumed he would be transporting some classified documents or valuables, but he had never imagined it would be something so astonishing.
—A secret underground dock had been excavated beneath an official granary, on a hidden river connecting to the Capital City's main artery!
—And now, ten thousand shi of grain were to be spirited away overnight without anyone noticing!
The scale of it, the audacity—it was unheard of.
Old Rat looked at Gu Chuan and thought to himself: Where did His Highness the Second Prince find someone like this? He's not just a talent—he's a genius!
Meanwhile, Third Master Li of the Caobang, a dark-skinned man with a ferocious dragon tattoo coiled around his arm, stood at the bow of a boat, directing the boatmen as they adjusted the mooring ropes.
When Wang Hu found him and showed him the wooden token engraved with half of the character "Chuan," he asked no questions. He immediately gathered the most reliable men in his gang and their fastest boats, then entered this unknown underground river against the current through the mouth of an abandoned tributary.
This wooden token was the highest token of trust between him and that "benefactor." Three years ago, his enemies had hunted him down until he had nowhere left to run. The benefactor had saved him and helped him become the Caobang's leader. Back then, the benefactor had told him only that if a young man came to him one day carrying the other