In the days that followed, Shamohan finally set out for Luoyang again.
The good news was that he had shaken off Wen Yang; the bad news was that someone even more formidable had arrived.
Zhong Hui was completely different from Wen Yang. Wen Yang was a hotheaded brute through and through, while Zhong Hui was a distinguished scholar well versed in the Five Classics.
Yet in temperament, the two seemed much the same: exceedingly arrogant. In fact, Zhong Hui was even more arrogant than Wen Yang.
When Wen Yang wanted to probe the Xianbei's inner workings, he still had to do it on the sly. Not Zhong Hui. He simply asked.
His overbearing manner was truly unsettling.
Shamohan had already learned that this man was the emperor's foremost favorite and a powerful figure at the imperial court. That worried him even more. Having someone so overbearing in power was certainly no good thing for the countries surrounding Great Wei.
A man like him had eyes only for winning merit and making his name. He cared nothing for anything else. For fame and achievement, he would probably stop at nothing, even a full-scale war with the Xianbei.
Zhong Hui, however, thought very highly of him.
Zhong Hui had truly never expected a Hu man to have the makings of a distinguished scholar!
Zhong Hui's standards for choosing friends were rather strict: they had to be handsome, talented, and virtuous. They could also be younger than him, but they could not be doing better than him.
Shamohan met quite a few of those conditions.
Almost all along the journey, Zhong Hui asked him about the Xianbei's internal affairs.
Shamohan did not dare lie. After only a stretch of the journey, Zhong Hui already had a general grasp of the Tuoba Tribe's situation.