Chapter 750 - 524: Deepening Feelings

Chapter 750: Chapter 524: Deepening Feelings

By the time the two of them finally came back, another month had already slipped by, and now the height of summer had passed and autumn had set in.

The houses for the craftsmen to live in had also been put up, and over this past month, people were still continuously moving in with their teams.

They weren’t just coming from the Capital City, but also from various other prefectures—craftsmen who knew how to build ships.

Rumor had it that the court was recruiting skilled shipbuilders to build great ships and sail the vast seas. There was no need for any mobilization at all; once the call went out, crowds of craftsmen came to sign up on their own.

Who didn’t want to be part of something monumental? If you could take part in the grand enterprise of shipbuilding and ocean voyages, that would bring glory to your ancestors and be something you could boast about for a lifetime.

So a great many people came, and of course, the more the better.

Near the bay, a small town had practically taken shape, though everyone living there were craftsmen and their families.

A large labor force had also been assembled, and they began cutting down sakura wood from the nearby slopes and transporting it to the bay.

Mi and Wei Ziang also became busy in turn. They sought out the craftsmen who had come from the Capital City—those with experience building large ships, and those with experience making firearms.

After showing them the blueprints, everyone was extraordinarily excited. A combination of large ships and cannons—this was something they had never even heard of.

Everyone felt that this time, it might truly be up to them to create a miracle.

Mi had never worried much about this to begin with, and after their discussions this time, she realized even more clearly that when it came to shipbuilding, she only had some theoretical knowledge; she was far from sufficient in hands-on practice.

But it didn’t matter. As long as she had the theory, even if it was just "talking on paper," it was enough to provide those master-level craftsmen with very good suggestions.

Sometimes, a small bit of advice was more important than personally doing the same thing many times over.

So what Mi ended up doing the most afterwards was discussing with the masters. Whenever they ran into difficulties, she would find a chance to enter the space and look up information; after a few days, she would always manage to find a suitable solution.

Every time this happened, the masters would be astonished and say she was simply a genius.

Mi herself actually felt a bit embarrassed, because it was basically cheating. But in other people’s eyes, this just meant Miss Mi was being modest again.

Mi sighed. She couldn’t very well say that she had a trove of information at hand, and she didn’t dare to take it out directly either. She could only let it be and then go find her brother to talk about it.

Wei Ziang, however, was far from as relaxed as Mi. Not only did he have to look up materials, he also had to work with the craftsmen to research new cannons.

After all, the existing cannons were a bit too clumsy and not very powerful.

So once news spread that Wei Ziang had designed a cannon that was more powerful and more portable, the Capital City immediately sent people to deliver materials for gunpowder mixing. Of course, they also quietly took a copy of the cannon design.

The shipbuilding and cannon-making proceeded at the same time. The shipwrights only needed to reserve in advance the positions where the cannons would be installed.

Because the bay was really too far from Quan County, Mi and Wei Ziang naturally couldn’t go back every day, so the two of them also had a small courtyard here.

Their parents had originally assigned them a little maid to help wash clothes and cook, but Mi and Wei Ziang refused together.

When it was just the two of them at home, they could simply close the gate and slip into the space, which was incredibly convenient. For Ling’er to help them wash clothes and cook was just a matter of a single thought, and it wasn’t tiring at all.

If they had an extra maid in the house, they would have to be mindful of everything they did, which would be a real bother.

Fortunately, everyone already knew about the space, so since they didn’t want the maid, no one forced the issue.

Once a month, Mi would make time to go to the Sakura Tree Forest, following the ditches they had dug before and using the river water from the space to irrigate the trees on each mountain.

Regardless of how slight the effect might be, she firmly believed it had to be better than not irrigating at all.

Time slipped by again, and another three years passed. Perhaps because the two of them were living alone together by the bay, the feelings between Wei Ziang and Mi heated up rapidly.

With Wei Ziang growing ever more mature and steady, the way Mi looked at him finally stopped being the way one would look at a junior or a younger brother.

She began to see him as a truly grown, adult man.