You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

Chapter 443 Arrival at the Imperial Tutor's Mansion in the Capital (2 in 1 Order)

Zhong Wuye began to march towards the capital of the Dayuan court.
News from distant battlefields continued to arrive along the way.

The villages on either side of the road were deserted, and the once fertile fields were now overgrown with weeds. The outlines of the dilapidated houses cast mottled shadows in the sun, and the air was filled with a burning smell, as if you could still smell the smoke of war.

The Liuli team members around him wore solemn expressions, their pace gradually slowing. Once upon a time, they too were peaceful inhabitants of this land, leading a tranquil and idyllic life. But the smoke of war soon engulfed them, forcing them into a long journey of wandering. Now, upon returning to their homeland, the sight before them filled them with emotion.

"Everyone, be careful. There might be some hidden guards left in the village ahead." Zhong Wuye lowered her voice. She was already used to surviving in this kind of environment. The Liuli group nodded, picked up branches from the ground and used them as weapons, moving forward cautiously.

Soon, they stopped at the edge of a village. From here, they could see gray smoke rising in the distance, and faint explosions could be heard from time to time in the air.

Zhong Wuye frowned, realizing they were approaching a frontline position. Everyone hid behind a ruined wall and began to discuss their next move.

Just then, two middle-aged men who looked like villagers in ragged clothes walked towards them.

One of them pointed at the smoke in the distance and said, "That's the Julu Plain. I heard that the Dayuan Army and the Northern Zhou Army have been fighting there for more than ten days, and both sides have suffered heavy casualties."

"That's right. We don't know who will win in the end. But even if Dayuan wins, I'm afraid the court is doomed." Another person said angrily, "This time, they were forced by the Northern Zhou to sign a humiliating treaty. They have to pay them millions of taels of silver every year, and they also have to agree to that abominable marriage. I think the Dayuan court is doomed!"

"You'd better be careful with what you say, in case the Royal Guards target you." Another man hurriedly pulled his companion's sleeve.

"Hmph, I don't care." The man straightened his clothes, his voice filled with resentment. "First, we were defeated by the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and then we had to agree to those harsh and blasphemous tax conditions. I think the powerful people in the court are already hopelessly corrupt and have no regard for the lives of the people."

"That's right. I heard that the court is divided into two factions. The pro-war faction wants to take advantage of the Northern Zhou's exhaustion to find an opportunity to counterattack, while the appeasement faction wants to seize the opportunity to seek peace. That Grand Tutor Ouyang seems to be the leader of the latter."

The two men muttered to themselves as they quickened their pace and soon walked away. Zhong Wuye and the others looked at each other in silence for a moment. Ding Quan finally spoke, breaking the silence: "If the situation is truly so dire, Grand Tutor Ouyang may not be able to provide much help."

"But we can only gamble on this last glimmer of hope." Zhong Wuye sighed, his eyes full of tenacity.

Everyone nodded and set out again. Their future seemed shrouded in a thick fog, with no certainty of what opportunities or obstacles they would encounter. The only thing they could do was to move forward, step by step, searching for that last ray of hope.

……

The streets of the capital were bustling with people, and Zhong Wuye couldn't help but slow down her pace. The scene around her made her feel a little dizzy.

There are all kinds of shops on both sides of the street, all decorated with lights. The merchants are either shouting loudly or displaying all kinds of strange props to attract tourists.

The streets were lined with mansions adorned with carved beams and painted rafters, and beyond the walls could be vaguely seen neatly trimmed trees and meticulously arranged courtyards. The prosperous scene of the capital of Dayuan was as enviable as depicted in historical records.

The Liuli Group members followed Zhong Wuye, looking around with curiosity. In this bustling city, their simple clothes seemed out of place.

However, soon, several burly men used their shoulders to casually push aside passersby, clearing a path for the team. This instinctive reaction of surviving in a vast crowd quickly came back to them.

Zhong Wuye took out a crumpled piece of paper with an address scribbled on it.

This was the destination pointed to by the clue left by Tai Shi Bo—the residence of Grand Tutor Ouyang. She looked in the direction indicated on the paper and saw a majestic palace standing tall in the distance, solemn and imposing.

Just then, Zhong Wuye caught sight of a stained notice posted on a street corner. She slowly walked over and took a closer look. She saw it was a wanted poster with a portrait of her!
It seems that since she set a fire in the Jianjia Pass camp last time, her identity has been exposed and she has become a wanted criminal of the court.

Zhong Wuye took a deep breath, carefully tore the wanted poster from the wall, and stuffed it into her arms. The next move was even more difficult. To avoid attracting too much attention, she had the Liuli Group members spread out in the nearby streets, secretly following her from a distance while waiting for an opportunity to pick her up. She herself decided to go to Grand Tutor Ouyang's residence alone, hoping to test the true strength of this elder of the dynasty.

Zhong Wuye pulled her cloak, wrapped herself tightly, and began to dodge through the streets. From time to time, she would pass through an alley, hide in a small courtyard to get some fresh air, and then quietly move to another street.

Even in such a bustling city, the vigilance and caution honed through countless life-or-death battles never left her body and mind. If someone could recognize her face among a crowd of tens of thousands, it would be a true miracle.

After an indeterminate amount of time, carefully circling the gate, Zhong Wuye finally saw the main gate of the Grand Tutor's Mansion. The tall red walls gleamed in the sunlight, radiating an air of majesty. Several guards in brocade robes stood solemnly on either side of the gate, their gaze fixed squarely on either side.

……

Zhong Wuye walked carefully through the streets near the Grand Tutor's Mansion, turning back from time to time to check if anyone was following her. Just then, a familiar figure emerged from the alley and almost bumped into her.

"Brother Qin?" Zhong Wuye's eyes widened in surprise. It was none other than Qin Huan, the member of the Golden Cicada Thieves who had warned him that day at Jianjia Pass. He looked flustered, his face flushed, as if he had run into some trouble.

"Miss Zhong, what a coincidence." Qin Huan looked around and lowered his voice, "I'm in a little trouble right now and I need your help." As he said that, he winked behind Zhong Wuye.

Zhong Wuye turned his head and saw a group of eunuchs and guards in yellow jackets running on the street to help each other. The leader seemed to have noticed something and looked over here suddenly. Zhong Wuye was startled and subconsciously wrapped his cloak tighter. "What have you done wrong?" Zhong Wuye lowered his voice and asked the doubts in his heart. Qin Huan's expression flashed with embarrassment, but he still said frankly: "Our gang recently stole an important secret letter from the Grand Tutor's Mansion, but unfortunately our tracks were exposed during the operation, and now we are wanted by them."

Zhong Wuye frowned. She herself was a fugitive wanted by the imperial court, and now she had to associate with thieves, which really made her hesitant.

But she immediately thought, if the secret letter was as Qin Huan claimed, it might contain some secrets about the Jianjiaguan camp. Moreover, Qin Huan had come to her rescue at a critical moment. So, she gritted her teeth and nodded to Qin Huan.

Seeing this, Qin Huan said quickly: "Then let's go in from the alley at the back. As long as we pass through the nearby residential area, we can reach the lair of the Golden Cicada Group. But..." He paused, smiled bitterly, and pointed at the hilt of the sword that was faintly visible under Zhong Wuye's cloak.

"I'm afraid that the two of us alone won't be able to handle the guards we might encounter along the way."

Zhong Wuye understood and winked at Qin Huan. Qin Huan quickly pulled out a piece of cloth embroidered with a strange pattern from his bosom and wrapped it around Zhong Wuye's sword handle several times. Zhong Wuye looked closely and saw that the surface of the cloth was faintly glowing with a faint blue light. She was moved. Could this be the power of glass?
"Okay, from now on you can use the power of colored glass to influence reality." Qin Huan explained to her in a low voice, "You only need to think about it to control the surrounding environment and make various changes. However, this ability is limited in time. Once the energy of the cloth is exhausted, it will automatically disappear. You must hurry."

At this moment, the sensor strapped to Zhong Wuye began to emit a pale blue light. "The power of the glass has been activated. Please operate the somatosensory handle in the somatosensory cabin to control it." The system's prompt sounded in her ears.

"Everyone, watch me operate!"

G-chan took off the VR headset and stood in the center of the somatosensory cabin. The large screens on all four sides fully displayed the street scene of Chang'an City, and a three-dimensional scene image was also projected on the ground.

G-chan took a deep breath and gripped the palm-sized motion controller. Immediately, a translucent giant hand appeared in her hand. She waved the controller, and the giant hand followed suit, waving across the virtual Chang'an City streetscape, as if aided by some magical power.

First, G-chan blocked the exit of the alley with his giant hand, piling up a pile of debris and wooden boxes in the middle of the road, forming a roadblock. The guards stopped in their tracks and began to cautiously approach the barrier, looking for any signs of trouble.

G-chan took the opportunity to put down a heavy wooden beam from the roof of a house behind, so that it spanned between the two houses, creating a new roadblock in the alley.

Soon, the guards were completely trapped in the alley by these two roadblocks and had no choice but to go around and find other ways out.

G-chan's virtual perspective switched to the corner of another nearby street. Through her makeshift shelter, she watched the trapped guards moving through the streets. They gradually fell into a residential area. G-chan took the opportunity to move the roadblocks on the street, guiding them further and further away from Zhong Wuye and Qin Huan.

With several deliberate attempts to create cover, Zhong Wuye and Qin Huan quickly and successfully reached the lair of the Golden Cicada Thieves Gang.

G-chan breathed a sigh of relief; her arm was already aching from constantly manipulating the giant hand's shadow. But she soon discovered that Liuli's power only lasted half an hour, and the shadow began to gradually dim. In the final moments, G-chan had to rely on the directional control of the controller and special commands, swaying left and right to avoid the last few guards, and finally sent Zhong Wuye through the gate of the lair.

Soon, they arrived at a dark and dilapidated inner courtyard. A golden cicada-patterned thieves' emblem hung prominently in the corner. Qin Huan shouted a signal, and the inner courtyard door opened. Several men with ungainly beards gathered around them and welcomed the two inside.

Zhong Wuye finally breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the old, stained house in the courtyard, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.
……

The narrow alley was flanked by high grey walls. With the few rays of moonlight filtering through the cracks in the roofs, hazy human figures could be seen emerging from the puddles of water on the ground.

Zhong Wuye followed Qin Huan closely, carefully passing through each corner to avoid making too much noise. Finally, they came to a secluded place, and a heavy wooden door stood before them.

Qin Huan knocked gently on the door, then put one eye to the crack and peered inside. Soon, the door was opened a crack from the inside, and a pair of narrow eyes stared at the two of them in the darkness. Qin Huan spoke a few words in a low, dry voice. The man nodded and opened the door completely.

Inside was a messy, dilapidated courtyard, furnished with a few crude tables, chairs, and benches, with debris and hay scattered on the ground. In the center burned a kerosene lamp, beneath which several figures sat huddled together.

Zhong Wuye took a closer look and was shocked - those were the members of the Golden Cicada Bandits who were captured during the attack on Jianjia Pass! It seemed that this was their contact point.

A burly man in a yellow jacket stood up immediately when he saw Qin Huan coming in, and said anxiously: "Brother Qin is finally back! We have been waiting for your order." Qin Huan nodded, took out a stained letter from his arms, opened it and showed it to everyone under the light.

The letter contained lines of scribbled sentences written in code, describing a conspiracy by the then Grand Tutor Ouyang Huang. It turned out that the weapons that were attacked at the Jianjia Pass camp that year were secretly allocated by Ouyang Huang in order to ambush the marriage delegation heading to the Northern Zhou Dynasty! Ouyang Huang's move was undoubtedly an attempt to kill with a borrowed knife, to provoke conflicts between the two countries, in order to prepare for his own seizure of power in the future.

Seeing these shocking contents, the members of the bandit group present all showed angry expressions. Zhong Wuye recalled the strange scenes she had witnessed in the camp before. At that time, she suspected that there was a traitor behind the scenes. Now it seemed that this was just the tip of the iceberg of a huge conspiracy! She couldn't help but feel cold all over, secretly glad that she had escaped that disaster.

At this moment, Qin Huan stroked his thin beard and spoke slowly: "My dear brothers and sisters, today you and I have met with this disaster by chance, because there is a dark hand plotting against us. This villain Ouyang only wanted to seize power and cause chaos, and he ignored the court's plan for marriage and ignored innocent people. He really deserves to be executed along with his entire clan!"

At this point, he suddenly turned to Zhong Wuye, his face straightening and his expression becoming much more solemn. "Miss Zhong, I can now reveal the truth about my identity. I am actually an informant sent by Prime Minister Sima Ru himself, specifically to investigate Ouyang Huang's greed and ugly deeds, and this adventurous journey is precisely for this purpose. When the camp was attacked in a strange way, I suspected a traitor was at work."

Seeing Zhong Wuye's surprised expression, Qin Huan smiled lightly and continued, "Thankfully, Miss Zhong helped me out of danger, otherwise I would have lost my life and property. Now that we know how daring Ouyang is, we should completely destroy this conspiracy. And my Sima family will naturally not be stingy in repaying our benefactor, so please help me with this matter."

Zhong Wuye's heart warmed after hearing this. She remembered that she had mistakenly entered Jianjia Pass because of a public case, and now she was meeting with an official from the imperial court here. It was truly a fate. She took a deep breath and nodded solemnly in agreement: "Okay! I will definitely do my best to help you and put an end to this disaster at the gates of the city!"

(End of this chapter)