Chapter Summaries

Su Li forged a metal core for the ship and promised Saina it would take her to see the sea. The Imperial engineers revised their warship plans into a family vessel with gardens, living quarters, and space for animals.

• Su Li forged a core capable of handling fifth-tier aether and magical propulsion, then told Saina it was for her to look at the sea.
• Saina rejected the Imperial cruiser plans because they lacked vegetable beds, a chicken coop, and space for everyday life.
• Su Li explained that the ship was meant to be a seafaring home, and Elena handed the engineers a detailed list of requirements.
• Talia and Elonore proposed runes to keep the garden warm and secure vegetable crates in rough seas.
• The engineers revised the plans into a Family Ocean-Going Integrated Living Vessel as Saina directed changes to its garden, fish-drying area, and chicken enclosure.
• Su Li promised Saina she would stand at the bow when the ship launched, and she invited him to eat radishes and pork ribs.

Elena received the title of Iris Princess and used it to secure her family’s properties as permanently independent holdings. Back at the Royal Wilderness, Su Li showed Old Buck the new workshop and asked him to teach the resettled youths to forge farm tools.

• Old Ford bestowed the title of Iris Princess on Elena, granting her responsibility for financial audits and approval of overseas trade.
• Elena declined to take on broader kingdom affairs and used her title to formalize tax-exempt, independent status for the Royal Wilderness, the southern shipyard, and Ginkgo Alley No. 3 Courtyard.
• Elena returned to the Royal Wilderness with the stamped property documents, while Saina prepared soup for the household.
• Su Li asked Elena whether his flour would now be discounted, and she agreed on the condition that he stop using fifth-tier materials to make fishhooks.
• Su Li brought Old Buck to the new workshop and asked him to train more than twenty resettled youths in forging farm tools.

Old Buck began teaching three young men at his new forge, while Su Li discovered that his fifth-tier core was growing very slowly because the continent lacked enough free ether. At breakfast, Elonore pointed to a possible source of richer ether in the southern archipelago, leaving Su Li with a potential place to seek faster cultivation.

• Old Buck inspected three aspiring apprentices’ hands, demonstrated forging, and shaped a hoe after Su Li helped him adjust the furnace temperature.
• Saina watched Old Buck hang the hoe in the forge, and Old Buck asked Su Li to call him father-in-law instead of uncle.
• Su Li measured his fifth-tier core’s growth and recorded that it would take at least two years to form another ring.
• Talia analyzed Su Li’s records and concluded that the continent’s free ether was too scarce to nourish a fifth-tier core adequately.
• Elonore showed the family a map marking a deep-sea mineral vein region that might have much higher ether concentrations.

Su Li accepted that his cultivation would advance slowly and set aside the unexplored sea route while the ship and homestead took shape. Meanwhile, Saina and Elena harvested an unusually large crop of radishes and agreed how to divide it between the household, gifts, and sale.

• Elena and Su Li discussed the cost and danger of sailing into unknown waters, and Su Li agreed to stop forcing his cultivation and postpone the voyage.
• Su Li put away the sea chart, did his chores, and watched Old Buck train apprentices as the ship continued to take shape.
• Saina, Martha, and resettled women harvested oversized radishes from the temperature-controlled vegetable plots while Elonore brought a cart.
• Elena calculated that the radish crop could earn far more through noble markets, but Saina insisted on saving food for the household, apprentices, and refugee children.
• Elena divided the crop between personal use, gifts, and commercial sale, then warned Saina not to spend the profits on unusual feed or insect powder.

Su Li, Saina, Talia, Elonore, and Elena advanced their agricultural and shipbuilding projects as imperial supplies arrived. Elonore proposed modifying the prototype thruster, but Talia raised concerns about its safety in salt mist.

• Su Li tasted Saina’s carrot and rib stew, while Silver burned his mouth trying to steal a carrot and was sent outside without dinner.
• Talia found that carrots grown in the Temperature-Controlled Field carried aether, and Elonore proposed enclosed greenhouses for medicinal herbs and voyage supplies.
• Saina signed the agricultural allocation ledger as Head of the Agricultural District and quietly reflected that she could manage the land.
• Elena and Su Li reviewed the Empire’s shipyard report and accepted its equipment and materials while planning a measured reply.
• Elonore examined the prototype thruster and proposed narrowing its aether channels with an Active Circuit, but Talia warned that salt-mist corrosion had not been tested.

Su Li and his companions prepared to move to the shipyard, revising the ship’s kitchen plans and organizing the people and supplies for their stay. Elena’s inventory meeting ended with Saina listing enough cooking gear and food to make the trip sound like a move.

• Su Li settled Talia and Elonore’s disagreement by prioritizing the Empire’s original, stable ship design until they had data from three sea runs.
• Su Li adjusted Saina’s kitchen plan to keep the room small while adding an outdoor prep counter and canopy, then sent the revised plan to the shipyard.
• After the engineer asked about securing the kitchen counter against rough seas, Su Li announced that the family would stay at the shipyard so he could install the core and adjust the propeller connection.
• Elena began organizing the departure, decided that only Su Li, Saina, Elonore, and Talia would go, and refused Saina’s request to bring chickens.
• Elena reminded Su Li of his past oversized packing list and said she would inspect his Space Ring before departure.
• Saina began listing seeds, flour, salt, meat, and cooking equipment, prompting Elena to ask whether she was moving house.

Elena and her companions traveled to the coastal shipyard to inspect the unfinished ship and prepare for its propulsion-core installation. She caught the shipyard steward inflating timber costs and ordered him to correct the accounts within three days.

• Elena finalized the travel party and supplies, while Talia joined the expedition and Violet was left behind with papers to organize.
• Martha made hard flatbreads for the journey, and Elena packed twelve as emergency rations and possible weapons.
• After four days of travel, the group reached the coast, where Saina inspected the ship’s planned vegetable beds and chicken coop.
• Su Li reviewed the shipyard’s plans, Elonore identified a rubber seal that needed replacement with a mithril-alloy gasket, and Talia requested an observation window for the engine room.
• Elena found inflated and misclassified timber charges in the shipyard accounts and gave the steward three days to correct them.

Saina tested salt-tolerant vegetables at the shipyard, and Su Li, Elonore, and Talia helped protect the seedlings from the harsh sea wind and platform vibrations. The vegetable beds were secured in the ship’s budget, and the chapter ended with Silver muddying a planter box and being confined to a temporary cat nest.

• Saina planted salt-tolerant seeds in boxes at the shipyard, but strong sea winds bent and flattened the sprouts.
• Elonore added windbreak circuits, Talia installed humidity monitors, and Su Li built iron frames with shock-absorbing mithril bases.
• Saina asked whether the frames could be used across the ship, and Elena calculated the cost of equipping forty boxes.
• Saina offered to reduce the number of boxes if money was tight, but Su Li insisted they all remain and said custom daggers would cover the cost.
• Saina blushed when Su Li found extra meat in his dinner bowl, while Elena noticed their exchange and stayed quiet.
• Silver jumped into a planter box, covered itself and Saina with mud, and was put in a temporary cat-nest area.

Elonore completed a flexible buffer layer for the ship’s propulsor, and Su Li led a successful low-power test that reduced losses compared with the Empire’s original design. The test revealed that full-power exhaust would destroy Saina’s vegetable plots, so Su Li proposed an exhaust-deflection circuit for Elonore to add.

• Saina replanted the damaged seedlings and named the garden plot First Sea Plot.
• Elonore fitted the final mithril-alloy gasket into the propulsor’s buffer layer, which had passed a forty-day salt-corrosion test.
• Elena secured the test-loss agreement, and the Imperial engineers signed before Su Li began the ignition test.
• Elonore detected an uneven pressure load and adjusted the left buffer layer until the propulsor’s readings stabilized.
• The older Imperial engineer reported that losses were forty percent lower than in the original design, while Talia recorded the test’s preliminary success.
• Saina asked whether the full-power exhaust would damage her vegetables, and Su Li directed Elonore to add a circuit that would deflect the exhaust upward.

Su Li, Saina, and Elena traveled to Wading Village so Saina could visit her home and take her parents to honor their ancestors. The visit ended with the village receiving practical improvements and Elena beginning to understand Saina’s attachment to it.

• Saina asked to return to Wading Village, and Su Li agreed while Elena arranged guards and paid to improve the road.
• Saina and her family arrived in Wading Village, where the villagers welcomed her and Old Buck revisited his former blacksmith shop.
• Saina gave the villagers temperature-control stone slabs and higher-yield, drought-resistant seeds.
• Su Li repaired Old Buck’s furnace, then installed defensive detection plaques at the village entrance.
• Elena watched Saina among the villagers and told Su Li that she now understood why Saina cared about the place.
• Saina sat beneath the Old Locust Tree after nightfall.

After returning from Wading Village, Su Li and his companions spent ten years preparing an oceangoing ship while delaying their voyage so Saina could stay with her aging parents. The ship was finally ready to launch, but its name remained undecided as the group gathered to choose one.

• Su Li postponed the sea voyage so Saina could spend more time with Old Buck and Martha, and she expanded the ship's seed reserves for a longer journey.
• Elonore refined the ship's core design, Talia completed a marine-circuits manuscript, and Elena secured the ship priority docking rights at three southern ports.
• Su Li accepted that his cultivation had nearly stopped progressing and spent his days forging, being with his family, and studying sea charts.
• Over ten years, Saina expanded her vegetable plots, Elonore revised the thruster design, and the oceangoing ship was completed.
• Representatives from the royal family, the Empire, and merchant groups arrived for the launch, but Su Li returned the ship emblem because they had not chosen a name.
• Su Li, Saina, Elena, and Elonore gathered around the ship's blueprint and prepared to discuss its name.

Su Li and the others named their ship Ginkgo and successfully tested it on a three-day coastal voyage. When Saina postponed the long voyage because her mother had fallen and her knees were hurting, Su Li returned the ship to dock and left the departure date undecided.

• Elonore suggested the name Ginkgo, and Saina, Elena, and Su Li accepted it for the ship.
• Ginkgo launched successfully, and Saina stood at the bow, marveling at the vast sea and resolving to see what lay beyond the horizon someday.
• Ginkgo completed three days of coastal trials, with its systems, vegetable beds, chickens, and Silver all adjusting well.
• At dinner, Saina told Su Li and Elena that her mother’s knees were hurting and she had fallen, so the long voyage would have to wait.
• Su Li ordered Ginkgo back to dock and asked Elena to leave the departure date blank.
• The next day, Ginkgo returned to dock, and Elonore compiled the sea-trial data with a chart of ether frequencies measured in the southern deep-sea waters.

Over twenty years, Saina and Su Li built a life in Royal Wilderness while caring for her aging parents, and the Ginkgo remained docked despite its repeated maintenance. Old Buck finally confronted Su Li about delaying the voyage, insisting that Saina wanted to see the sea and that they could not wait forever.

• Su Li dismissed the valuable aether readings and chose to return home to eat rather than investigate the vein region.
• Saina visited her parents, and Su Li made Old Buck warming knee braces and Martha a temperature-regulating mattress.
• Saina told Su Li she had seen the sea and hoped they would see the farther sea another day; he gave her a fresh cup of hot tea.
• Twenty years later, Saina managed the fields while Martha watched from the greenhouse, Elena handled the kingdom’s finances, and the Ginkgo still waited in harbor.
• Old Buck told Su Li that Saina wanted to see the sea and demanded to know how much longer they would wait to sail.

After Old Buck and Martha died, Su Li stayed with Saina in Wading Village until she was ready to leave. The Ginkgo was prepared for a voyage, and Saina agreed to go; on the night before departure, she felt nauseous from the smell of cooking oil.

• Old Buck told Su Li that he and Martha would not be around forever, then advised him to temper and adjust the shovel before leaving the forge.
• Old Buck died in the rain, and Martha died three months later; Saina cried only after Martha told her that her life had been worthwhile.
• Su Li stayed with Saina in Wading Village for a month, then returned with her to the Royal Wilderness, where she kept Old Buck's hammer and Martha's apron.
• Elonore confirmed the Ginkgo was ready for long-distance travel, while Talia and Elena said their preparations were complete; Su Li waited for Saina to decide.
• Saina told Su Li they could go, and he set their departure for two weeks later.
• On the night before departure, Su Li found Saina looking pale in the kitchen, where she said the smell of cooking oil made her nauseous.

Elonore confirmed that Saina was about six weeks pregnant, so Su Li suspended Ginkgo’s long voyage and the household began preparing for the baby. Royal Wilderness adjusted to Saina’s pregnancy while Su Li stayed close and Elonore designed a gentle conditioning circuit.

• After Saina felt unwell, Su Li asked Elonore to examine her the next day.
• Elonore confirmed three times that Saina was about six weeks pregnant, and Su Li accepted the news.
• Su Li suspended Ginkgo’s voyage, while Elena began arranging supplies and harbor shifts.
• Elena planned a pregnancy fund and contacted Priestess Shen En, and Elonore prepared pregnancy precautions.
• Su Li followed Saina during her usual rounds, and Elonore designed a gentle conditioning circuit for her.

Su Li and Saina prepared for their child while Saina worried about becoming a mother, and Elonore secretly knitted a hat for the baby. Elena discovered signs of a pregnancy and, after Elonore checked her, returned to work without asking what she already suspected.

• Su Li installed a safe monitoring device for Saina, while Saina drove off Talia when she tried to observe her.
• Su Li built an elaborate crib from Silverwood and mithril, and Elena told him to add another shock-absorbing layer.
• Su Li cooked for Saina in the middle of the night, and she admitted she feared she would be a bad mother; he confessed he was scared too.
• Elonore knitted a small cashmere hat for the child and hid it when Saina asked who it was for.
• Elena grew unusually sleepy and made repeated mistakes in her accounts, then felt dizzy when she stood.
• Elonore checked Elena and froze; Elena composed herself and asked who could deliver the Royal Capital documents due the next day.

Elena and Saina discovered they were both pregnant, so Su Li postponed the Ginkgo’s voyage until their children were older. The ship remained docked for maintenance as the family began planning for the children’s future aboard it.

• Elonore told Su Li that Elena was about five weeks pregnant, and Su Li decided to lock away the expedition materials and halt the voyage.
• Saina learned that Elena was pregnant and joked that she had beaten her to it by three months; Elena asked her for pickled cabbage.
• Old Ford sent twelve crates of tonics, six guards, and an eight-page letter, which Elena kept instead of burning.
• Su Li announced that the Ginkgo would stay docked for long-term maintenance and that they would sail again when the children were grown.
• At the dry dock, Saina imagined teaching the children to grow vegetables aboard the Ginkgo, while Elena began planning a children’s room and a study.

Su Li and the others prepared the ship and a safe teaching circuit for their future children, while Talia agreed to sign a confidentiality contract about her observations. Su Li discovered the ship’s core absorbed aether faster at sea, and a dinner-table argument ended with Saina choosing the pet name Stone while Elena reserved the formal name.

• Elena planned child-safety modifications for the ship, and Su Li approved the work as dockyard maintenance.
• Elonore showed Su Li and Saina a low-power teaching circuit for children, and Su Li encouraged her to keep the design.
• Elena required Talia to sign a confidentiality contract before recording information about the children, and Talia agreed to sign the next day.
• Su Li found that the Ginkgo’s core absorbed aether nearly twice as quickly at sea as it had in the Royal Wilderness.
• Saina and Elena argued over a child’s name, and Su Li settled on Saina choosing the pet name while Elena chose the formal name.

Saina went into labor, and Su Li waited anxiously outside the delivery room as Elena, Elonore, and Shen En helped her. The chapter ended when a newborn’s cry came through the door.

• Elonore showed Su Li and Saina her long list of possible names, and Su Li asked her to keep the name short.
• Talia brought a device to test the child’s aether affinity, but Saina forbade instruments near the baby for the first three days.
• Elena gave Su Li a draft plan to protect the child’s inheritance from the Royal Capital’s noble system, and he approved it pending a final legal review.
• Saina told Su Li that she only wanted their child to be safe and sound.
• Saina went into labor at four in the morning, and Shen En sent Su Li out of the delivery room.
• Su Li paced anxiously with the child’s protective amulet in hand until he heard the newborn cry.

Su Li and Saina welcomed their son, and seven months later Elena gave birth to a daughter while Old Ford waited anxiously outside. The family met the new baby, Elena handled legal protections for her, and Su Li ended the night in the blacksmith's workshop.

• Elonore announced that Saina had safely delivered a boy, and Su Li held his son for the first time.
• Seven months later, Old Ford nervously waited as Elena gave birth to a girl, and both mother and daughter were safe.
• Elena asked Su Li to bring her legal documents so they could sign her daughter's birth certificate, inheritance protection papers, and property separation agreement.
• Saina introduced Little Stone to his baby sister, and he cried while Elena declared her daughter calmer.
• Elonore gave Su Li protective charms for both children, while Elena reminded Talia to keep her distance and avoid instruments for three days.
• Su Li went to the blacksmith's workshop that night.