Chapter 194: The Great Wall
“Father, I searched everywhere just now and couldn’t find that man. I went to his room and found a farewell letter under his pillow, along with the two hundred taels of silver notes you gave him yesterday. Be careful, and if anything happens, go into Mother’s clinic.”
After saying this, Yu Luo looked at Yu Haojie suspiciously. “I remember he had a whole stack of gold notes. Why did you still give him silver notes? Yesterday, when you mentioned this, I didn’t really think about it.”
Yu Haojie froze for a moment before nodding. In truth, he was also somewhat uneasy about his daughter leaving.
Last night, he and his wife had discussed whether they should go with her, but Yu Luo had immediately refused and told them to stay home and guard the estate.
“Ah? Weren’t those gold notes soaked through? A lot of the writing was smudged. Do you really expect ancient printing techniques to be waterproof? Your mother and I mentioned it to A’Yu before, and he didn’t seem to care at all. He just said to use them as firewood.”
“You actually burned them?!”
Yu Luo’s eyes widened in disbelief, her expression filled with heartache.
She clearly remembered that although those gold notes had been soaked, they were all worth five thousand taels of gold each!
Five thousand taels of gold— that was fifty thousand taels of silver per note. And there was a thick stack of them! There could have been hundreds of thousands of taels of gold in that pile!
That A’Yu must have had too much money and no common sense. If it were Yu Luo, she would have been crying over the loss.
Yu Haojie let out an awkward laugh. “How could I? I haven’t even stepped into the kitchen these past two days, so I haven’t burned them yet.”
Hearing this, Yu Luo sighed in relief. “As long as you haven’t burned them. Once the system is repaired, I’ll ask if it can restore those gold notes. Since he left, we’ll just consider it payment for Mother’s medical treatment. We’ll have plenty of expenses in the future.”
Yu Haojie nodded in agreement without hesitation.
“Make sure to keep the medicine Mother gave you—it might come in handy.”
“Understood. Originally, I planned to take Tao Ming and the other two with me, but now I don’t feel comfortable leaving you both alone. And with all the grain I stored in the estate, I’ve decided to leave Zhang Hu’s brother with you. I’ll just take Tao Ming.”
“No, no, no! You’re not letting us go with you, and we’re already worried sick. Why leave us with two guards? Zhang Hu is the most capable of the three, and he’s the oldest. If something happens, he can help make decisions. Take him with you, and just leave Zhang Xiao Liang behind. This estate is so big—if it’s just me and your mother, it really is a little eerie.”
“Alright. We’ll be back in three to five days, so don’t worry, Father.”
Not wanting to waste more time, Yu Luo agreed readily.
She then left with Tao Ming and Zhang Hu, wearing raincoats and bamboo hats.
Yesterday’s effort making thick cushions for the carriage was now wasted. Just as she was about to set off in the carriage, Zhang Hu stopped her.
He reasoned that the horses were too valuable and that traveling in the cold rain could make them sick, which wouldn’t be worth the risk.
That made sense. Now that they had a whole city, horses would be crucial for transportation in the future. They only had a dozen horses, so they had to take good care of them.
“Will Feng City have horses for sale?”
Since they weren’t short on money, she figured they should stock up on useful animals.
“Five years ago, when I last went, there were livestock markets. But they mostly sold wild animals, though there were some horses. However, they were likely more expensive than in Lan Yue Dynasty. We never dared to ask about the price back then—we were too broke.”
“Wild animals? Can wild animals pull carts?”
“Yes. The locals hunt large beasts and tame the smaller ones over time. They use them for transportation, plowing, and even hunting.”
Thinking back to when they first arrived in the wilderness and saw wolves tied outside the stone houses of the natives, she understood now.
Using their light footwork, the three of them moved much faster than a horse-drawn carriage.
But after traveling only a few dozen miles, Yu Luo suddenly noticed something shocking—a massive wall, similar to the Great Wall, stretching across the entire landscape, dividing the wilderness into two halves.
At first, she thought the system had built this as well, but Zhang Hu led her up to the wall for a better look.
“Miss, look ahead! It’s bright and sunny over there—it’s not raining at all!”
Yu Luo had been too focused on the Great Wall to notice anything else, but Tao Ming’s words snapped her back to reality.
Looking into the distance, just a few meters beyond the wall, the land was dry and cracked. The trees were withered, barely surviving under the scorching sunlight.
Only a few drought-resistant grasses and poplar trees stood in clusters, the only traces of green.
“How strange… Why is it pouring non-stop in Lan Yue Dynasty’s territory, but to the northeast, it’s as dry as ever?”
“Tao Ming, what did you just say?”
Yu Luo suddenly felt like she had stumbled upon an important clue.
“Miss, I said why is it raining in Lan Yue Dynasty’s territory, but to the northeast, toward Bei Guo and Dong Feng Guo, it’s still completely dry?”
“Wait… I thought this wilderness didn’t belong to any country? Why did you say it’s Lan Yue Dynasty’s land?”
Yu Luo’s mind fixated on this point. If the land they were standing on was actually considered part of Lan Yue Dynasty, then her plans to mine coal and develop the land would directly benefit the emperor of Lan Yue!
“Miss, this Great Wall-like structure was originally part of Lan Yue Dynasty thousands of years ago. Back then, Lan Yue wasn’t even called Lan Yue—it was a different dynasty. But for the past three hundred years, Lan Yue and the neighboring kingdoms abandoned this land, turning it into a dumping ground for exiled criminals.”
“Since this land is barren and barely produces any crops, it became useless for any of the kingdoms. It was also full of dangerous wild beasts, making it even harder to settle. So the four bordering kingdoms agreed—no one would claim it. Instead, they all dumped their criminals here.”
“Tao Ming is right,” Zhang Hu added. “This is a land without an owner, but that also means it became a place where criminals could take advantage of the chaos and continue living here.
“Even though the four kingdoms abandoned it, they would never allow one of the others to claim it. It’s a balance of power—‘I don’t want it, but I won’t let you have it either.’
“The four kingdoms surrounding the wilderness are: Lan Yue Dynasty (to the south), Bei Guo (to the north), Dong Feng Guo (to the east), and Xi Mo Guo (to the west).”
