Tang Yan hadn’t thought that he would be blocked from entering as well. He ended up standing right next to Mo Chenggui in the corridor.
Tang Yan shook his head helplessly and turned to Mo Chenggui. He complained, “Leader Mo, I’ve been dragged down by you!”
Mo Chenggui had no desire whatsoever to acknowledge a literary official, who was just a weak chicken in his eyes. He simply harrumphed.
Tang Yan wasn’t deterred by the cold response and said, “Li Xing, see here. I’m not Leader Mo and I didn’t argue with your mistress. Why can’t you let me in?”
“Sir, please don’t make it difficult for this subordinate. This subordinate is simply following Honoured Lady’s orders. Honoured Lady said that this matter is top secret. Even when it’s finished, she won’t be able to give you a demonstration. The first priority is to send it to the border camp.”
Fine! He was dealing with another stick in the mud! Tang Yan finally gave up on trying to enter. His heart was itching with curiosity and he really wanted to know what miracle Chu Lian had somehow come up with to save fifty thousand border troops. However, since she wasn’t willing to divulge the secret to him, he had no other choice.
Tang Yan immediately turned around and left. He wasn’t going to stand there in the cold wind and snow like that silly Mo Chenggui.
On the way back to his own courtyard, Tang Yan was still trying to guess at what Chu Lian’s solution was.
What kind of magic powers did that Chu Lian have? Why was it that every single person by her side was so loyal to her? Even the guards from Prince Wei’s estate, Li Xing and Li Yue, were already treating her like their real master. Could it be due to her foodie ways?
As expected, foodies were full of potential.
Tang Yan was shamelessly disregarding how he had taken every chance he could to take a meal over at Chu Lian’s courtyard. During the past few days of heavy snowfall, he had constantly been sending guards over to check on what Chu Lian was eating in her courtyard…
Once the old carpenter had the rest of the materials in hand, he was able to work fast. They had already planned out the designs. Before actually starting the project, they had also made prototypes.
Even so, they wasted a portion of the wood that had been gathered while working. Now on the brink of finishing, their materials fell short: they still needed one last plank…
Chu Lian had been watching from the side this whole time. The old carpenter stopped working and hurried over to Chu Lian a little anxiously. “Esteemed Madam, we’re still lacking one more piece of wood. It was all this old man’s fault for having such clumsy skills… We wasted some of the wood earlier…”
Chu Lian looked at the project. It did indeed look like it was nearly finished, so she sent the orders down to her subordinates.
Wenqing quickly ran out to inform Manager Qin.
Manager Qin had only gotten hit once with the rod, so he could bear with the pain in his buttocks. However, he could only stand and he wasn’t able to sit. It would take a few days for him to recover enough to sit and lay on his back.
When he saw Wenqing rushing out of the workroom, he moved forward to meet her. “What’s wrong? Are we lacking something?”
Wenqing sighed. “We just need one more piece of fir wood! Why didn’t you buy just one more this morning?”
Manager Qin sighed bitterly. It really wasn’t because he hadn’t bought enough materials. He had been captured by Mo Chenggui while on the way back and Mo Chenggui had burned some of it as firewood. If not for him struggling and shouting that the fir wood was expensive, they might not have even had what they did.
However, it wasn’t the time to explain this to Wenqing.
“Ask Third Young Madam to wait a little longer. I’ll go out right now and look for more fir. Rest assured, I’ll definitely bring the remaining materials to Third Young Madam today.”
“Alright, go quickly. I’ll pass your words on to Third Young Madam.”
Manager Qin rubbed his backside gingerly and hobbled towards the courtyard entrance.
He cursed and swore at Mo Chenggui hundreds and thousands of times over in his heart.
When he reached the entrance and looked up, only to see the man he had been cursing at, Manager Qin was so frightened he almost fell onto the ground. Once he could see the man’s face clearly, Manager Qin spat on the ground and mumbled angrily under his breath, “How unlucky!”
Although Mo Chenggui found it awkward as well, he still reached out to help Manager Qin find his feet before asking anxiously, “Manager Qin, how is that thing that Third Young Madam is building? I definitely won’t interfere or leak any information, could you let me in to look at it?”
Manager Qin snatched his arm back in a cold manner before sending a side-eyed glance at Mo Chenggui. Then, he said, “Thanks to Leader Mo’s heroic actions, we’re now short on fir wood so we can’t complete the project. This humble one is about to go out and search for more!”
