Chapter 157
Lu Hanzhi’s eyes widened. At last, he had gotten a crucial clue from Ah Shu. He asked, “Chou Nu?”
Ah Shu giggled foolishly. “Chou Nu… Chou Nu… Chou Nu!”
Lu Hanzhi immediately covered her mouth, pulled her into his arms, and whispered, “Behave, Ah Shu. We’ll talk about this at home.”
For some reason, Ah Shu always nodded obediently when Lu Hanzhi spoke to her.
By age, Ah Shu was a year younger than Lu Hanzhi. If she were his biological cousin, such a perfect cousin would surely have been a darling little girl, adored by all.
Ah Shu was so obedient, so sensible, and so clever. Thinking about how Su Wan’ning had harmed her, Lu Hanzhi’s hands trembled with rage.
He swore to make Su Wan’ning suffer in the eighteen layers of hell, never to be reborn again!
Seeing the Crown Prince’s entourage walking away, Yuwen Min stepped forward and asked, “Has Ah Shu remembered anything?”
Lu Hanzhi replied, “We’ll talk while we walk.”
Yuwen Min nodded, and they climbed into the carriage.
Once inside, Lu Hanzhi said, “Ah Shu just called Su Wan’ning ‘Chou Nu’! Get the investigation team at Xinglin Slope to check whether, back in the Su Mansion, there was a maid called ‘Chou Nu.’”
“A maid?” Yuwen Min asked. “Are you sure it was a maid?”
Lu Hanzhi said, “Ah Shu remembers her, which means she was someone familiar. If she weren’t, she couldn’t have remembered. Ah Shu can’t even recall her parents clearly, yet she remembers this name. This person had to have been very close to her! Check directly: among the maids who served Ah Shu, was there one named Chou Nu?”
Yuwen Min nodded. Before returning to the residence, he sent Shadow Guard No. 1 to deliver the pigeon message.
Back at Prince An’s residence, Lu Hanzhi tried many methods but still couldn’t extract any other useful information from Ah Shu.
He sighed. At that moment, he felt the impulse to rush to Su Wan’ning and shoot her with a Browning.
What reason could justify someone harming a girl in her prime like this?
Even if offered unimaginable wealth, he would never do such a thing.
Moreover, Su Wan’ning was a woman too, a girl in her prime. What could she possibly gain from this?
Lu Hanzhi’s eyes were red, and tears streamed uncontrollably.
Since entering this strange world, facing unfamiliar people, he had never cried.
Facing the immense challenges of his mission, he had never cried.
Even when constantly facing life-threatening danger, he had never cried.
But seeing Ah Shu, whose scars were mostly healed, he wept.
If the others had been harmed by Su Wan’ning for the sake of the plot, Ah Shu was the only truly innocent victim.
She had done nothing wrong. She had merely existed, fulfilling a role necessary for the story, and that had been enough to ruin her.
Why she hadn’t died, Lu Hanzhi still didn’t understand. Why would she leave such a potential threat alive?
Perhaps… something had gone wrong with Ah Shu?
Yuwen Min stepped forward, embracing him and brushing his cheek. “Hanzhi, don’t be sad. Those who do evil will eventually be punished.”
Lu Hanzhi felt extremely down today, but his mood was affecting his family, and he didn’t want that.
Normally, he rarely felt this low, and this time he didn’t even know why.
He adjusted his emotions and said, “You’re right! Justice may be delayed, but it will never be absent! Good and evil will eventually be repaid—evil-doers will not escape.”
Yuwen Min repeated Lu Hanzhi’s words: “Justice may be delayed, but it will never be absent? Hanzhi, I like that line of yours.”
Lu Hanzhi: …
He had only meant to liven up the atmosphere, but it had unexpectedly become a quotable line.
Then Yuwen Min continued, “You know… I’ve actually regretted not waiting until Yuwen Mingji killed our father before taking the throne directly. But thinking back, in my previous life, I did the same thing, and it didn’t end well. Back then, I thought about killing people every day. If I didn’t, it was unbearable. After killing those I deemed worthy of death, I realized—everyone should die. They were greedy, selfish, cruel, and cowardly. But I also realized, they didn’t truly deserve to die. Every villain had reasons for their evil. Without those reasons, they wouldn’t have ended this way. I thought about sparing Yuwen Mingji and Yuwen Jing. They did want the throne and intended to harm me and elder brother, but if given a chance to repent, they might not have appreciated it anyway.”
Lu Hanzhi chuckled softly. “Then why did you kill them?”
Yuwen Min said, “Because they would kill you. In the previous life, they killed elder brother and Mother Concubine. In this life, they want to kill you again. Anyone who harms my loved ones—I have no reason to be merciful. My mercy toward them would be cruelty to you. Therefore, Yuwen Mingji and Yuwen Jing had to die.”
Lu Hanzhi hugged Yuwen Min’s head and planted a smack on his lips. “Don’t worry, I won’t die. Look at me—I’m loaded with all these buffs, covered like a turtle shell. How could I possibly die?”
Yuwen Min didn’t understand what he was saying, but he was used to it. He figured he might as well just listen since asking would get him nowhere.
Still, the object in Lu Hanzhi’s hand that had shattered Yuwen Jing’s skull intrigued him.
He asked, “Hmm… Wang Fei, can I take a look at that noise-maker of yours?”
Lu Hanzhi pulled the Browning out from the back of his waist. “You mean this? Be careful, it can explode.”
Under Lu Hanzhi’s guidance, Yuwen Min picked up the Browning and asked, “What… is this thing?”
Lu Hanzhi replied, “A firearm.”
Yuwen Min’s expression clearly said: Don’t try to fool me.
Lu Hanzhi laughed. “It’s called a pistol, an automatic pistol, used to—”
Suddenly, he stopped mid-sentence, his expression turning subtly awkward.
Yuwen Min looked at him in confusion. Clearing his throat, Lu Hanzhi said, “Nothing… nothing. Just pull the trigger. Let’s go to the shooting range—it’s not suitable to fire indoors.”
So the two of them went to the shooting range.
In the end, Yuwen Min used up all of Lu Hanzhi’s bullets.
One pistol, one magazine.
He glanced at the cost for a new magazine—just a hundred exchange points each.
Ha, he could afford the gun, but not the bullets.
He was so broke he felt like disappearing. The new mission had rich rewards but was extremely difficult to complete.
Although he had already obtained pre-cast cement boards and various construction materials, he had overlooked a major problem: how to transport cement boards to the upper floors of a ten-story building.
He had already started building the first three floors. The fourth and fifth floors were manageable, but what about the sixth and above?
Even with safety ropes for high-altitude work, how would the cement boards get up there?
Lu Hanzhi was frustrated. He remembered that in ancient times, buildings nearly a hundred meters high existed.
For example, the Yingxian Wooden Tower and Wu Zetian’s Tongtian Pagoda were both nearly a hundred meters tall.
But those buildings were towers. Even in Great Zhao, there were nine-story towers.
Lu Hanzhi thought that constructing a four-story building by himself wasn’t a problem, but ten stories—that was truly difficult.
Yet, according to the system’s usual logic, if it weren’t difficult, it wouldn’t count as a mission.
If he could make this ten-story building as a milestone, other building projects would naturally follow.
Lu Hanzhi decided to consult the Ministry of Works.
The next day, he went to the construction site with Yuwen Jue.
Upon arrival, they saw the workers had already built up to the sixth floor using scaffolding.
Those floorboards had been carried up one by one by hand.
When lifting them, they had placed crossbeams at the highest points, tied ropes, and slowly hoisted the boards up, one by one.
Lu Hanzhi watched from below for a while, then said to Yuwen Jue, “The wisdom of the laboring people is truly immeasurable. But… lifting like this is still exhausting. I think I can devise a way to save everyone some effort.”
In mechanics, there are pulleys and levers.
If they attached a pulley under the crossbeam, added a steel cable drum, and a swinging lever, hoisting cement boards would require much less effort.
Lu Hanzhi grabbed a sheet of paper and started sketching. Minister of Ministry of Works Zhou Cong, Lord Zhou who was supervising this project, peeked over with interest.
Zhou Cong, temporarily in charge of overseeing Lu Hanzhi’s side, smiled. “Your Highness, what are you drawing?”
Lu Hanzhi said mysteriously, “A lifting device!”
Zhou Cong looked at the blueprint. “Ah, I understand. Shall I supervise its construction?”
Lu Hanzhi nodded. “Alright. And besides this, make me another item.”
Zhou Cong asked, “What item?”
Lu Hanzhi pulled out another blueprint. “Safety helmets. Safety in production is everyone’s responsibility. Once completed, everyone gets one. No helmet, no entry to the construction site. Violators only eat half portions of food.”
Zhou Cong: …
It was the first time he had seen a Wang Fei who genuinely considered the safety of the laborers.
He couldn’t describe the feeling exactly. Coming from a poor family himself, he had always assumed royal family members were all lofty and aloof. He never expected to meet someone so meticulous and kind-hearted.
Zhou Cong was never one for strict formality anyway. With his usual cheeky smile, he said, “Your Highness, rest assured. I will make sure the task is completed properly.”
Lu Hanzhi brushed the dust from his hands. Seeing that it was nearing noon, he beckoned Yuwen Jue to join him and headed to the place where he had hidden the eggs last time.
Two young servants carried out a large basin filled with eggs coated in lime. Lu Hanzhi waved his hand and said, “To reward the workers, today I, the young master, will provide an extra meal for everyone!”
He then directed the servants to peel away the lime covering the eggs.
Yuwen Jue, puzzled, asked, “Hanzhi, these are all covered in mud. Are you sure they’re still edible?”
Lu Hanzhi handed an egg to Yuwen Jue. “Second Sister-in-law, open it and see for yourself.”
Yuwen Jue thought to himself, It’s just an egg. Opening it will at most spill some yolk.
He gently cracked it open, only to find that the egg white had solidified.
Curious, he peeled more of the shell away and discovered something remarkable: the egg white was a translucent pale gold, with delicate patterns on its surface.
Through it, he could faintly see the dark yolk inside.
Yuwen Jue exclaimed in surprise, “This… how did it turn out like this?”
Lu Hanzhi smiled. “Today at lunch, I’m treating everyone to ginger-flavored century eggs!”
Your favorite BL chaos wouldn’t be possible without coffee… lots of coffee….
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