Translator: churnie
No editor
“The cotton armor you made today will soon become countless items. From now on, our soldiers no longer need to face the arrows of the enemy without any protection and more people can survive and return to their hometowns alive. You will be the saviors of countless soldiers!” When Feng Ming talked about emotions, he can’t help but being excited, “on behalf of Rong Tian, on behalf of millions of soldiers, i thank you!” Holding the cotton armor in his hands, he unexpectedly kneel down upright.
When the three maids know that Feng Ming knelt down, their faces turn white and they are so frightened that they don’t know what to do, and all the three of them hurriedly kneel down.
“Duke Ming get up quickly, do you want to kill this servants?”
“Duke Ming, please don’t do this, even this servant died, we can’t afford this!”
Qiu Lan and Feng Ming kneel face to face, taking a deep look at Feng Ming, her lips seemed to be heavy, and she slowly whispering, “Duke Ming don’t thank us, if you really want to thank, it’s thanks to The Grace Of Order.”
Feng Ming looks at Qiu Lan in surprise and realized.
Autumn basket pursed her lips, showing a yearning and excitement on her delicate cheeks that had never been seen before.
She closes her bright eyes, as if reminiscing a poem, she gently says aloud, “Life is like a blank sheet of paper, what to draw on it is up to one to decide.”
Opening her eyes, the smiling eyes look at Feng Ming who is surprised, and she asks gently, “Wasn’t Duke Ming saying this?”
There’s a smile on his lips and it’s so beautiful.
Qiu Xing kneels beside, timidly pulls Feng Ming’s sleeve, and says with a voice softer than mosquitoes, “Isn’t this the small thing that came out after this servant drawing on my blank paper too?”
Feng Ming is stunned.
In an instant, he was full of pride, like a gust of wind.
“No! What you draw is not a small thing, but a big thing with thick pens and inks, which is more refined than the heavenly bird phoenix drawing by Tang Bohu…”
(t/n: Tang Bohu (courtesy name, nickname Tang Yin) is a painter, calligrapher and poet from Ming Dynasty)
Luo Yun happen to stride in at this moment and sees a man and three women kneeling strangely together, he stops abruptly and asks in a deep voice, “What happened?”
The four of them feel embarra.s.sed and quickly get up from the ground.
Feng Ming sees Luo Yun holding two wooden swords in his hand, he coughs to draw Luo Yun’s attention to himself, “Luo Yun, You want me to practice swordsmans.h.i.+p? It just so happens that I can spare some time today… ”
“This subordinate doesn’t come to look for the Young Master.” Luo Yun interrupts Feng Ming bluntly. His tone is always like this, but it doesn’t mean to make Feng Ming looks troubled. “Today Rong Hu should be responsible to guard Young Master personally, this subordinate have something else to do.”
Feng Ming nods with good temper, “Un, are you busy? I misunderstood because I saw you holding two wooden swords and i thought that one was for me.”
He’s unintentionally speaking, but Luo Yun feels guilty like a thief.
No wonder, this is the cottage where Qiu Yue and Qiu Xing live together, every time Luo Yun sends Qiu Yue to Fu Qi Men, he comes here to meet QiuYue. He gradually used to entering this small wooden door, who knows he b.u.mps into everyone today.
Boss Luo Yun uncomfortably says, “This subordinate did take two wooden swords, but these two wooden swords are not for the young master, but one is for this subordinate himself to use….”
He’s skillful in killing and burning, but he’s absolutely inexperienced in seducing girl, the more he explains, the more suspicious he becomes, as he said, his cheeks flushed for no reason.
(t/n: 杀人放火 to kill and burn (idiom): murder and arson)
The two wooden swords in his hand seem to be ten times heavier and the joints of his five fingers are pale.
Feng Ming, Qiu Lan, Qiu Xing look at him and then look at Qiu Yue, the three’s eyes again stare at Luo Yun, their eyes are obviously uncommon and narrow.
Qiu Xing has a lot of hatreds towards Luo Yun and also hate him the most, she not only looks at Luo Yun up and down numerously, but also prolongs her nasal ‘oh’ voice and asks, One is for yourself, so who is the other for?”
Qiu Yue is not easy to be bullied, but because Duke Ming is in front of her, she has endured it for a while, when she heard Qiu Xing provoke Luo Yun, she no longer endure it, she stomps her foot and raise her eyebrows, says “That wooden sword is for me, if I beat him on horseback, he has to obediently teach me swordsmans.h.i.+p. Why? Envy?”
Without waiting for everyone to react, she goes straight to Luo Yun and glares at him. “First of all, it will take two days before I have time to learn swordsmans.h.i.+p. I have something important to do these two days, by the way, your handwriting is also good, right? Just right, come and help me copy the book.”
With pulling Luo Yun’s sleeve, the two of them slip out the door like wind.
Luo Yun is embarra.s.sed to death and takes advantage of this opportunity to escape, although Qiu Yue pulled him away, the soles of his feet actually run faster than Qiu Yue.
The three watch them run away, look at each other, and burst out laughing the next second.
Feng Ming laughs so much that his stomach hurt, with twisting smiling and hurting facial muscles he intermittently says, “Qiu Yue’s draw, it looks… it looks like has been written on Luo Yun’s blank paper, hahaha, i can not.. Qiu Xing quickly rub my belly for me, aiyo.”
Qiu Xing also laughs out of breath, she comes over to help Feng Ming rub his belly, and says, “Oh G.o.d, did Luo Yun’s face blushed just now?”
Qiu Lan is more reserved than them, she covers his mouth and laughs for a while, she’s the first who think of serious matters, and asks Feng Ming for instructions, “Duke Ming, we asked manager Luo to use almost all the cotton, if we still have to do it, we need more materials, needle and thread, to make ten more…”
Feng Ming waves his hand generously, his spirit soaring, “What ten more? Qiu Lan, now that you have invented the most precious patent in the world, after testing the effect again, you should start ma.s.s production immediately. I will call manager Luo to immediately mobilize a large number of cotton, needle and thread from nearby cargo s.h.i.+ps, and then send you a group of maids who know how to sew. You and Qiu Xing will be responsible to manage and teach them. If you need anything, you can tell me directly.” After thinking for a while, he attaches a word of advice, “This is a painstaking effort, everyone has done a good job, the crucial technique-related matters, can’t be disclosed to the outside. Be careful.”
Qiu Basket nods smartly, “Duke Ming rest a.s.sure. This servant only divides those helpers into several ones, some pressing cotton, some coating, and some sewing, each of them doing only their own part of the work, not mixing with each other. This is headless and brainless, no one can guess that it is making cotton armor.”
“Yeah,” Qiu Xing says, “using cotton as armor and tell it to others, no one will believe it. Not to mention guessing.”
The three of the have figured out, so they are full of energy.
Returning to the inner room in high spirits, he b.u.mps into Rong Hu who comes out of the room with a box in his hand.
Rong Hu sees Feng Ming and says, “This subordinate is just about to go to Duke Ming. Um? What happened to Duke Ming? The look is very different from usually.”
Feng Ming punches him affectionately on the shoulder and scolds. “Oh, Rong Hu, you’re really good at deceiving people, working with Qiu Xing and Qiu Lan to hide it from me completely. I just saw the earth-shattering refine and outstanding epoch-marking new armor, I was so happy that I almost fainted, how can I look bad?”
When he was excited, he started talking nonsense, what earth-shattering epoch-marking, Rong Hu doesn’t understand at all, but he guesses it and a little uneasy, he says, “Does Duke Ming know? This subordinate doesn’t want to hide it from Duke Ming.”
Feng Ming never thought of blaming him, he looks at the box on his hand, “What is this?”
“Oh, this subordinate comes to Duke Ming to show this. This thing was made secretly from the Xiao family’s private shop in Tong Ze this morning. As soon as the news was received, manager Luo immediately sent someone to fetch it.”
Rong Hu and Feng Ming step into the room together and open the box on the wooden table.
Looking at the contents inside, Rong Hu shows his praise and nods, “Although it’s only a model, it is surprisingly subtle.”
He reaches out and tries to pull the thin leather rope on it, he’s even more surprised, “It’s amazing, it can even be moved. If the upper one is sunken to the place, it will throw a boulder to kill the enemy. But the most amazing is still the Great King, when he heard Duke Ming talked about the trebuchet he could fully understand it, however it took him two nights to come up with such a powerful new weapon.”
In this day and age, all men who have learned martial arts have indescribable interest in war weapons, especially Rong Tian, who is fortunate to read a large number of books in the palace, and knows most of the weapons. Encountering what might be the most advanced giant weapon in this world tossed out by Duke Ming and the Great King, of course he can’t help but be moved.
Rong Hu fiddles with it seriously and seems to encounter difficulties and frowns. “Huh? Looking at it carefully, why does it seem to be a little different from the Great King’s drawing? The twisted rope here, according to the king’s idea, should be erected at the top. There is an extra round thing out of nowhere here that I don’t know what it’s for. Duke Ming, I’m afraid the master who made this didn’t understand what the Great King drew and something went wrong. Should I go to manager Luo and ask him to make another correct one?”
He doesn’t hear the answer even after asking twice.
Rong Hu looks up at Feng Ming as if he had a sense of it.
Feng Ming stares at the concrete and miniature model of the trebuchet on the wooden table, his eyes grow bigger than the bronze bell, completely stunned.
Rong Hu asks with concern, “Duke Ming? Is there anything wrong?”
Feng Ming moves his neck stiffly, barely shaking his head.
For a while, he, the initiated person of the principle of the trebuchet, takes a deep breath and stares at the model from Rong Tian’s design made by skillful craftsmen of the Xiao family.
“Oh My G.o.d …” Finally Feng Ming exhaled a weak groan and with breathing difficultly he says, “this modification, this long-distance thing, this design… it’s obviously… is… ” In the middle of his speaking, he gasps from excessive excitement.
He makes Rong Hu nervous by his appearance and asks, “what obviously?” Feng Ming still with disbelief expression, as if he couldn’t be sure that what he saw was real.
He reaches out and touches the model, he’s so shocked that he swallows a spit with difficulty, finally he spits out the words, “Winch!”
Rong Hu still doesn’t understand, he frowns, “Winch? What is winch?”
Feng Ming is still in excitement and makes another strange groan, he suddenly slammed hard on the wooden table, blushed and shouts, “Winch! Torsion springs! The killing weapon of ancient Rome! The range can reach 450 meters, which is frightening. Oh my G.o.d! How could i be so stupid, i just remember the principle of leverage, but forgot about the beloved Roman army? But it doesn’t matter, hahaha, as long as the law of physics remains the same, someone will find it”.
(t/n: Torsion spring: A mechanical storage structure, mainly used in ancient crossbows and other crossbows. The torsion spring acc.u.mulates force by twisting or rotating elastic materials that are soft and tough)
When Duke Ming was excited, he got carried away and danced, Rong Hu is not surprised, he shakes his head helplessly and leans over to say, “Duke Ming don’t be excited, this subordinate hasn’t figured out yet, is the model made the master wrong or not?”
“Wrong? This is a good wrong!” Feng Ming is in high spirit as if he has picked up a treasure, and says loudly to Rong Hu, “Don’t you understand? We found a genius one, a genius among geniuses. He made modifications based on Rong Tian’s design drawings and even knew how to use a winch to quickly increase power. What is winch? Do you know how prisoners in the past broke the iron railings of their cell? They tied the two iron railings with a wet towel and twisted them so that they could bend the iron railings with their bare hands! That’s the principle of the winch. And this genius, he didn’t know how to grasp this principle, only read Rong Tian’s idea and then came up with a more dexterous and accurate offensive weapon for us!” His look suddenly changed, “No way, talent can be met but can’t be sought, we must take him with us immediately, with such a master, it will be enough to report the completion of our mission to the prime minister!”
Although Rong Hu only understood one fifth of it, he generally knows it’s a good thing and says with a smile, “Manager Luo is responsible for this matter, if Duke Ming wants to find the master as mentioned, it seems that he has to ask Manager Luo first. He has just personally handed over the box to this subordinate, he should still be in the small living room in the front…”
Before he finished speaking, Feng Ming has rushed out of the inner room in high spirit.
Luo Deng finished some ch.o.r.es in the small living room and was about to go to the riverside to see the condition of the fleet and the curtain was like blown open by the strong wind, before Luo Deng realized it, Young Master Feng Ming already wheezing in front of him, opens his mouth and ask, “Who made that model?”
Luo Deng is startled, “What? Is there something wrong with that model? Aih, it’s all this subordinate’s carelessness, Originally i did tell the veteran master to do it according to the picture. Unexpectedly, the master suddenly got an acute illness and could only found a fairly good apprentice to do it. Otherwise, this subordinate will find someone else… “
“No, no, just this one!” Feng Ming shakes his head vigorously, takes out the young master stamp, incomparably dignified, writes word by word, “Now you go immediately and personally, and give me this genius model, i mean the master, sincerely —— please, come, here!”
With a confused look on his face, Luo Deng is driven out before he could figure out the whole story, he hurriedly accepted the young master’s order to go out to pick up the “Weapon Master.”
The young master Feng Ming, who is scorching with pa.s.sionate and talent, is rubbing his hands around the room, giggling.