In the blink of an eye, it was the eighth day. Mo Zi brought a table’s worth of people to the Leopard Gang headquarters to freeload food and drink.

The Leopard Gang headquarters was located in a large riverside city called Fengqi City, fifty li from the capital. Upon entering the city, it seemed no different from an ordinary town, but when they inquired about the specific location, they received no response—cold stares, red eyes, fearful looks—the expressions were quite varied.

It wasn’t until later that Mo Zi discovered the trick. She found a tavern with an obvious cloud leopard pattern insignia, showed Xu Jiu’s invitation to inquire, and indeed received incomparable enthusiasm from the proprietor. Not only did he provide them free tea and refreshments, he also specially assigned a clever young attendant to guide them.

“The headquarters is right by the wharf. You’ll see shortly how lively it is. The old gang leader has been in office for thirty years—it’s been a long time since our gang had such a major event.” The young attendant sat on the cart shaft, chatting with Mo Zi.

“In office for thirty years, such a long time—seems the old gang leader is very popular.” Mo Zi wanted to probe the situation.

“That’s right. The old gang leader was quite fierce back then—his paired staffs had no rival in the Leopard Gang, his heroic spirit covered the sky. It’s just…” The young attendant’s voice suddenly dropped very low, requiring careful attention to hear. “After getting old, he became a bit senile.”

Mo Zi’s thick sword-like brows rose. “I heard Huo Ba is the old gang leader’s adopted son. Could it be the old gang leader has no son of his own?”

The young attendant immediately showed a contemptuous expression and answered, “The gang leader never had a son. When he was nearly forty, he got a daughter, who was later betrothed to Huo Ba. Not only an adopted son, but also a son-in-law.”

No wonder Huo Ba’s call to become gang leader was so strong—it turned out it wasn’t based on ability, but on connections. Mo Zi understood.

“I just asked several people where the headquarters was, but no one answered me. Little brother, do you know why?”

“Those must have been subordinates of the stewards who originally supported Huo Ba. This gentleman needn’t take it to heart. Today, once our Ninth Master takes the gang leader position, they’ll have their day of misfortune.” The young attendant snorted through his nose.

Things were somewhat beyond Mo Zi’s expectations. She had thought that with Huo Ba dead, Xu Jiu would be what the people wanted, and the gang leader position would be like taking something from a bag. Now it sounded like he wasn’t anywhere near having absolute certainty, as if there was quite a bit of dissent. In that case, could today’s ceremony proceed smoothly?

Mo Zi suddenly had the urge to slip away, but felt she couldn’t fail to give Xu Jiu face.

After seeing the main gate of the Leopard Gang headquarters and the young attendant had left, she had the carriage stop to the side and thought it over repeatedly. The burly men carrying weapons constantly passing before her eyes finally led her to decide to have everyone except Zan Jin leave. This seemingly festive ceremony clearly had a crisis lurking on the verge of eruption—she couldn’t risk the few talents Hongyu had.

Who knew that Ding Xiu, Niu Gao, Min Song, and Wei Qing—these four people refused to leave no matter what. Since they wouldn’t leave, the other six shipwrights wouldn’t leave either.

Speaking of Ding Xiu, he had already reunited with his wife and daughter. Mo Zi allocated a private courtyard for this family of four. Ding Xiu and his wife were endlessly grateful to Mo Zi—if she hadn’t said she feared it would shorten her life, the couple would have already set up a Buddhist shrine and burned incense for her three times a day. Now, the young couple—one building boats, one cooking—had become Hongyu’s first dual-income workers.

“Brother Mo, you’re Hongyu’s manager. If you won’t leave, how can we, as members of Hongyu, leave?” Although Mo Zi had already voiced her concerns, Ding Xiu didn’t retreat. He had experienced the disaster of national destruction—would he fear a small gang dispute?

“Brother Mo, you have the courage to break through three trials, yet you think everyone else is a coward?” Another rhetorical question, this one from Niu Gao.

Though Min Song and Wei Qing said nothing, they sat straight-backed on their horses, their attitude toward her words one of complete disregard.

Seeing she couldn’t persuade them to leave, Mo Zi sighed and said something to Zan Jin that left people uncertain whether to laugh or shudder.

Holding a silver ingot in her palm, she said: “Zan Jin, since everyone plans to advance and retreat together, go buy eleven axes.”

Under the sun, cicadas called.

While Zan Jin went to buy axes, Min Song asked curiously, “Fine, axes for self-defense—I can understand that. But why eleven?”

Before Mo Zi could answer, Wei Qing laughed scornfully. “Are you brainless? Isn’t Brother Mo a person too?”

“You’re the brainless one. Does she even need an axe? A bunch of people will stand in front of her to block blades.” Min Song cursed back.

Don’t be surprised—the young master had only been at Hongyu a few days and had only learned to curse crudely.

A line of white egrets ascending to the azure sky, nothing! Mo Zi chuckled in a very… “enlightened” way. “A Qing, whether I’m human or not is obvious at a glance—do you even need to say it? However, you’re right, I do need an axe. Thank you for explaining it to A Song.”

Wei Qing couldn’t feel any gratitude, only wondered how this Manager Mo’s appearance had suddenly become so bewitching. His eyes immediately narrowed to slits, staring intently.

“As for whether there will be a bunch of people blocking blades for me—I’m really curious about that. A Song, are you a fortune teller? Something I’ve never experienced, you saw with your heavenly eye? How about this—if things really do get chaotic later, you charge forward first. Otherwise, if your prediction isn’t accurate, I’ll send you back home.” The deeper her smile, the more radiant Mo Zi’s face became.

Could it be she had forgotten she was cross-dressed?

No, she had an ulterior motive. Just as she had let Chou Yu and the others know early on, she didn’t plan to hide it from Hongyu’s people much longer. This way, she wouldn’t need to frequently change disguises and deliberately speak in a masculine tone.

So Min Song’s heart also produced the same feeling as Wei Qing—Brother Mo’s features were excessively beautiful. He stood there stunned.

“Manager Mo isn’t a woman, so don’t smile like that—people will say you’re effeminate.” Wei Qing’s voice was neither loud nor soft. Ding Xiu, Niu Gao, and the other shipwrights chatting up front couldn’t hear it, but Mo Zi could hear it, and so could Min Song.

Though Min Song felt Wei Qing was being rash and rude, this time, he quite agreed with what he said.

“I originally am a woman.” This was called going with the flow.

She was relaxed and at ease, but beside her, two thunderbolts struck Min Song and Wei Qing’s heads. Both men’s faces immediately turned charred black on the spot, smoke rising from their eyes.

“What did you say?” Min Song ground his teeth. He must have misheard. Definitely misheard.

Basically, everyone asked twice when hearing such a fact. Therefore, Mo Zi was very patient.

“Min Song, do I really look that much like a man?” she asked.

The scenes from breaking through the three trials returned to his mind. Such delicate features, yet such common expressions. During the sea of flames, entering the water fully clothed. When the old injury relapsed, refusing to let Risheng’s physician treat it. During recovery, only allowing one maid to attend. Actually, there had been doubts. But how could he have imagined? In this industry, no matter how wild one’s imagination, who could have anticipated there would be a woman building boats, and with such astonishing skills at that. Probably everyone would be like Wei Qing just said—only thinking this Brother Mo was a bit effeminate, unwilling to think deeper, because it was too absurd.

The more he thought, the angrier he became. Min Song suddenly yanked hard on the reins, forcibly turning the horse’s head around, then immediately cracked the whip and galloped away.

This startled Ding Xiu and the others. Watching the trail of dust, they looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what had happened.

“It’s nothing. Manager Mo had A Song go buy some things, just to be prepared.” Seeing Zan Jin approaching with a large hemp sack, Wei Qing lowered his head to ask Mo Zi in the carriage, “Can we go now?”

Mo Zi’s mood hadn’t been affected by Min Song’s departure. Instead, she was surprised that Wei Qing would actually help her calm people’s hearts.

The carriage moved forward. She asked Wei Qing, “Why aren’t you leaving?” His expression earlier hadn’t been any better than Min Song’s.

“He’s a young master, I’m not. He has somewhere to complain, I don’t. He can choose again, I can’t.” Wei Qing followed unhurriedly beside the carriage, his words as coldly indifferent as always. “I only know that following you, I can learn skills to make a living.”

When they were recruiting workers, Wei Qing and Min Song had come together. Hearing Mo Zi call him Young Master Song this and Young Master Song that, he could roughly guess Min Song was a wealthy family’s son. However, since Mo Zi concealed Min Song’s identity before everyone, he didn’t meddle and naturally wouldn’t expose it.

“Besides, such a willful and arrogant fellow—you shouldn’t have hired him in the first place. It’s better he left, saves trouble.” As fellow Hongyu shipwrights, Wei Qing quite disapproved of Min Song.

A concubine-born son not valued by his family, versus a proud son treated as the family heir—their upbringings were worlds apart. How could they get along harmoniously?

Mo Zi smiled. “He’s not that bad. He has some young master temper, but his character is actually quite good.”

Wei Qing lowered his eyes to look at her, his features hard as stone carvings, as usual keeping people at a thousand li distance. “I can’t see it.”

Mo Zi smiled again, looking at the main gate right before them. “You’ll know in the future. We’ve arrived. Wei Qing, help me tell Ding Xiu and the others—the axes are just for show, no one expects them to fight to the death. If anything goes wrong, run. Staying alive is most important.”

Wei Qing looked at her again, then suddenly said, “Tell them you’re a woman sooner rather than later, so they don’t act like that spineless fellow and run faster than a rabbit. Especially Master Niu—that temper is explosive.”

“That’s the plan.” Mo Zi nodded.

Wei Qing dismounted and strode forward to speak with Ding Xiu and Niu Gao.

Mo Zi took out the invitation.

The gatekeepers were clearly Xu Jiu’s people and warmly invited them inside.

The so-called gang headquarters was actually not much different from an ordinary wealthy household. However, there were no gardens or other showy but useless places. Between the rows of buildings were large open spaces, like training grounds. Now they were densely packed with over a hundred dining tables covered in bright red silk cloth, with bowls and chopsticks set out, just waiting for the feast to begin.

It seemed they had arrived neither early nor late—the outer courtyard banquet was half full.

The stewards within the Leopard Gang were generally young, all wearing tight-fitting clothing, full of energy and vigor. Even better, there were both male and female stewards.

The one who came forward to receive Mo Zi was a steward called Aunt Chun. She was very polite and somewhat embarrassed to say that gang guests could only bring two people inside—the others had to stay at the outer banquet.

Mo Zi then left Ding Xiu, Niu Gao, and the others behind, taking Zan Jin and Wei Qing with her. She figured that since Xu Jiu was today’s main character, bringing one with good martial skills and one who was clever should allow her to get through this in a low-key manner.

Reaching the middle courtyard, she saw an even larger venue, similarly filled with round tables. When the wind blew stronger, the red silk cloth billowed into boundless clouds of sunset color—quite spectacular. Over there, a high platform had been erected, with a long altar table on which several people were arranging offerings and incense burners. Unlike the outer courtyard, this venue didn’t have many people yet.

“Brother Mo honors us with your presence—our humble establishment shines with glory!”

A hearty laugh came riding on the wind.