Mo Zi sat by the river, lost in thought.

Seven or eight days had passed since the appointment at Western Mountain. Jin Yin had been intercepted on his way back after reaching the mountain peak and finding no one there. The ambushers were generals from Yuling’s last resistance army, wanting to invite Chu Yu, Yuling’s sole remaining bloodline, to return and inspire the people’s morale and confidence.

This was a necessary step for restoring or founding a nation—otherwise there would be no Cao Cao holding the emperor hostage to command the nobles, nor Liu Bei recruiting soldiers under his imperial surname.

However, Jin Yin didn’t appreciate this sentiment. His attitude was resolute and decisive, filled with hatred toward Yuling’s imperial family. But she could completely understand this kind of resentment.

The King of Yuling, like all emperors, had three palaces and six courts, dozens of consorts, and countless palace maids who had been favored. But the harem had an extremely formidable empress from the Jun family, Yuling’s most powerful noble clan—even the king dared not offend her. Under the empress’s exceptionally cruel iron fist, aside from her own biological son, no other consort ever gave birth to another son, or they all died young.

This situation persisted until the Crown Prince turned ten, when the Persian envoy presented the King of Yuling with a beautiful woman. This woman was intelligent and versed in medicine. She actually asked the King of Yuling to help conceal her pregnancy and secretly gave birth to a baby boy. This child was Chu Yu. In his youth, Chu Yu was very clever and lovable. Since the King of Yuling only had those two sons, he naturally doted on him. But the good times didn’t last long. The empress used various methods to persecute the mother and son, making the King of Yuling believe they harbored sinister intentions toward the Crown Prince. With younger beauties catching his eye, he gradually grew distant. Finally, Chu Yu’s mother exchanged her own death for the empress’s promise to spare Chu Yu’s life.

On the day he lost his mother at age ten, Chu Yu was sent to Great Qiu. Nominally for study, but completely different in nature from Wu Yanle’s visit to Great Zhou—he was actually a hostage. Life as a hostage was difficult, especially since Great Qiu’s imperial clan were proud horsemen who looked down on Han people and deliberately mistreated a ten-year-old neighboring prince. He lived in commoner housing, ate commoner food, was limited to two attendants, could only go out in a shabby carriage, and had to wear a veil covering his head and face. Though teachers were hired to instruct him, they cut corners and had no intention of helping him succeed.

When Mo Zi met Chu Yu, he had already been in Great Qiu for six years. She was twelve then, sharp and aggressive, but not yet confined to the palace. She often disguised herself as a boy to sneak out and play—that’s how they met.

She accidentally overheard him talking to himself. As she listened, she spoke up with a few responses, and he immediately ran away. She didn’t care. Two days later she came to play again and ran into him once more. Seeing his strange appearance with his head and face covered, she wasn’t surprised or curious, just assumed he was introverted. He didn’t speak, she didn’t speak—each played on their own.

The third time, he told his experiences as someone else’s story, still in the form of talking to himself. She rattled off a whole bunch of things—she couldn’t quite remember the specific words, but roughly things like “work hard and improve yourself,” “build a solid foundation,” “play the pig to eat the tiger,” “economics determines the political superstructure,” and so on. She seemed to have also said that if you can’t win, you can hide—when you control the world’s wealth, you won’t need to worry about birthplace or status. The world is so big, find a place to build your own country if you want—why hang yourself on one tree?

At first he dismissed her words, but in the end, he asked her what the fastest way to make money was. She said banks, and explained modern banking operations to him at great length.

Back then she thought ancient people were stupid and rigid. Not knowing how to hide her upright military passion, she was a hundred times more straightforward than now—just a fool who, after transmigrating, was too self-righteous and idealized human nature. Chu Yu told her it was a story, so she listened as if it were a story.

The two never met a fourth time, because she and Dou Lu were sent by her father and brothers to live in the palace and could no longer come and go freely as before. A year later, she heard that Yuling’s hostage prince had returned home. Only from the palace servants’ descriptions did she learn that the veiled youth was Chu Yu.

She thought it was just a shallow connection.

Mo Zi tossed a pebble. It struck the water creating ripples that spread in circles. She never expected that he would not only open a bank based on her nonsensical rambling, but also change his name and identity, completely abandoning his past as Yuling royalty.

“Brother Mo, you’re slacking off here.” Min Song strode over, his blue robe fluttering and white sleeves billowing, black hair wet with sweat. “The dragon boat goes in the water this morning. Did you forget everything we discussed last night?”

“Look at this brain of mine!” Mo Zi jumped up with an exclamation and dusted off her bottom.

Seeing this, Min Song rolled his eyes. “You… I’m not criticizing, but can you show a bit of feminine modesty?”

“If I act modest, the ship will sink.” Shipbuilding required using knives and saws, and getting in the water—could modest behavior handle this kind of work?

“At least maintain it when you can. Otherwise, seeing you like this, who would dare marry you?” This was probably something everyone at Hongyu Cove cared about.

“This is my nature. If you can’t stand it, don’t marry me. Those who want to marry me must be able to accept it. Stop worrying about me—hurry up and marry your fiancée.” She was prepared to be an old maid. Though she now encountered far more men than women, anyone who saw her profession would probably keep their distance.

Min Song’s face reddened. He wasn’t used to discussing this topic with people. “You don’t need to worry about it either.”

“I’m your boss. It’s proper to care about employees’ lives.” Mo Zi smiled with ill intent. “You’re not getting any younger either. Why haven’t you married yet? Does she think you’re not accomplished enough?” The more you mix around, the more you regress—from a small manager at Risheng to a worker at Hongyu.

“Before I pass the Grand Master exam, I won’t let anything else distract me.” Apparently he had great determination.

“So that’s at year’s end then.” Mo Zi remembered he’d mentioned this.

Min Song recalled what his grandfather had instructed. “Do you want to come with me to Yun Zhou?”

“Yun Zhou?” Mo Zi had never paid attention to these master craftsman exams. “Isn’t it in the capital?”

“Only after passing the local exam can you go to the capital to take the Imperial Works Bureau’s advancement test. The old master said that if you want, the Min family can recommend you to directly take the master craftsman exam. Of course, as a woman.”

“Women can also take the exam?” This was novel.

“There’s no explicit rule saying they can’t, but in a hundred years no woman has ever taken it.” However, when Grandpa Min heard about the wood-reading incident at Muxin Building, even the main family grandfather learned of it and very much wanted to meet her. The Min clan had always highly valued people talented in craft arts, regardless of whether they bore the Min surname.

“I can go watch for fun, but I’ll pass on participating.” Mo Zi thought that by year’s end she should be free. If Sanniang no longer let her manage Hongyu, then staying close to the Min family might help her find a good position.

Hee hee, ha ha—she walked along laughing heartlessly to herself.

Min Song didn’t understand why she had no interest in the Grand Master title. Having built ships with her for over two months, he increasingly felt she was capable. Her left-hand skills—the first time he saw them, his eyes went straight. When he carved one plank, she finished two. When he followed the palace diagrams to make a model of the celebration boat, gluing half of it in one night, she produced an entire ship—and it was assembled piece by piece. He even felt that if this woman could learn his family’s nine techniques, she might compare to their founding ancestor Min Zhen.

“So you’re agreeing to visit my family? Then I’ll have someone send word back?” The main family grandfather was best at reading people—let him take a look at her.

“Isn’t your Min clan’s main family in Nande?” The main shop of Fozhen Zhai was in Nande’s imperial capital.

“We moved out these past few years.” Nande’s court was corrupt. Any merchant with long-term vision would seek other places to settle. “We’re in Yun Zhou now.”

Mo Zi made an acknowledging sound, understanding the reason. “Good that you moved out. Yun Zhou faces the sea and river—you can advance or retreat, a good location.”

Walking into the boat shed, she saw the three Chouyu brothers gathered around looking at the dragon boat. The final step was to test it in the water—there were no better boat handlers than them.

“Brother Mo, this dragon boat is really strange.” As soon as Chouyu saw her, he called out, “Why does it have a cover with all these holes drilled in it?”

“To help fix the position of the body, legs, and feet, concentrating power in the wrists and arms.” The design principle of racing boats.

“Don’t understand.” Chouyu was quite frank.

“You’ll know once you test it in the water.” Mo Zi believed in the principle that practice produces true knowledge.

“How do we get the boat into the water?” Done with small talk, Min Song asked. He didn’t know what purpose this boat shed served besides blocking the sun. “It’s still some distance from the river surface. Should we call people from Shed No. 1 to help carry it?”

Mo Zi laughed heartily. “No need—the few of us are enough.”

The dragon boat could seat twenty people in a long, narrow line—five people carrying it was absolutely impossible. Min Song wanted to say it wouldn’t work, but what he’d learned here was that whenever Mo Zi said something would work, nine times out of ten it definitely would. So he waited, waited for Mo Zi’s next move.

“Fei Xia, open the gate and release the water. Shui She, open channels five and six.” She indeed had a plan.

Min Song knew that between the two large sheds, Mo Zi had people dig in a two-zhang-wide canal from the riverside that went all the way to the main kitchen. It was usually filled with water, and he’d thought it was for watering the kitchen and vegetable garden.

Fei Xia turned the wheel on the wall. A dark iron plate rose, and immediately river water flowed in. However, the shed didn’t flood—instead, it filled two channels that had long been built, then flowed back out to the river from the other end of the boat shed.

Every shed had six such channels, not wide—half a zhang—occupying one side of the shed. Usually tools and wood were piled there. Min Song had thought they were storage pits, never imagining they were for flooding with water.

“Good, mount the wooden wheels on the dragon boat.” The wooden wheels were Mo Zi’s design—thick and fat, the size of automobile tires.

With the wooden wheels mounted under the dragon boat, it could be pushed. Following Mo Zi’s instructions, they pushed it toward channels five and six. The wooden wheels floated on the water, and naturally the dragon boat on the wheels floated too. Never mind five people—just two people watching the front and back could easily push it into the river.

Min Song was convinced in his heart, but found fault with his words. “What about large river ships or sea ships—can they still be built in sheds?”

Mo Zi thought for a moment and said, “If you have enough capital, building an extra-large shed isn’t impossible. But without capital, you can only build directly on the river surface.”

“On the river surface?” He’d never heard of this and was very curious. “How would you build it?”

“Not telling you.” Mo Zi raised one eyebrow, the corner of her mouth lifting. “Min Song, don’t be so blatant about stealing techniques.”

Min Song felt embarrassed.

Chouyu had already boarded the dragon boat. Unable to swing the long oars properly, he fumbled about in confusion, shouting loudly for Brother Mo to come quickly.

Mo Zi was just about to board when she saw a boat entering from the river mouth.

A Cloud Leopard flag fluttered on the boat, as if competing with the sky in height.