"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Li Ding, who had been helping mix mortar, brought over a jar of mud mixed with rice straw. After setting it down, he looked at Zhang Xing and asked.
"In what way?" Zhang Xing asked blankly, holding a trowel and a brick, about to spread the mortar. Then he spotted Yue Niang coming over with a basket of eggs and turned his question on her. "What are those eggs for?"
"Mix them into the mortar. It'll be especially strong..." Yue Niang declared with conviction.
"Take them back... we're not building a city wall." Trowel in hand, Zhang Xing was utterly speechless. "Should we have Master Li bring an awl to test it afterward, too? If he can drive it in, kill me; if he can't, kill him? If you have the time, steam us some egg custard."
Yue Niang pursed her lips and could only carry the eggs back into the kitchen.
"Who taught her that? What a little spendthrift." Zhang Xing began laying bricks in earnest as he grumbled. "We're hiding gold, so the simpler and shabbier it looks, the better. Who are we trying to impress with such a sturdy chicken coop?"
"She probably thought of it herself." Li Ding glanced back at the kitchen. "The girl's eager to learn. Those books, paper, and brushes you bought her haven't gone to waste. She even came to ask me about some characters last time."
Zhang Xing kept shaking his head, then remembered their original topic. "What were you saying just now? Thinking the same thing about what?"
"Duke Ma's case," Li Ding said seriously. "The case itself hardly matters. A crime of passion, revenge, espionage-none of that matters. What worries me is that Duke Ma was a trusted attendant from His Majesty's old