Su Li walked over and sat down beside her.
Saina did not look at him, staring instead at the pitch-black fields in the distance.
"After we see the sea, I still want to come back and stay for a few days."
Su Li braced his arms on his knees and looked up at the Old Locust Tree.
"Stay as long as you want."
Saina turned her head and glanced at him. Her expression was hard to make out beneath the moonlight, but he could see the corners of her lips curve upward.
After returning from Wading Village, life suddenly slowed down.
The forged steel plates for the dockyard arrived, and the workers riveted the hull with a constant clanging. Every morning, Su Li would make a round to check on the progress, then spend his afternoons in the workshop at the Royal Wilderness.
There was no rush to get work done.
He simply made things whenever the mood struck him. A new soil-turning shovel for Saina's vegetable patch, an iron pen stand for Elena's study, a new set of charcoal-pencil holders for Elonore's toolkit.
They were not worth much, but they were exquisite.
Elena's account books truly were piling higher and higher. The income and expenses from the Royal Wilderness, Silver Crown City, the Royal Capital, and the dockyard—along with the trade dealings with the Empire—meant that reconciling accounts alone took her three days every month.
"This month's net profit is seven hundred and eighty-two gold coins," she casually reported at the dinner table, turning a page and continuing her calculations.
Saina picked up a piece of meat and put it in her bowl. "Is that enough to spend?"
Elena's pen paused. Slowly, she raised her head.
"Enough to feed your twenty-six chickens for a thousand years."
The corner