A Wondrous Woman with Divine Mechanical Hands, Another Page Turned on Substitute-Marriage Torment
A pure Yang sword aura pierced through the tiny hole in the window paper, passed straight through the night wind in the courtyard, and struck the core bearing of the ebony cylinder in Zhen Meili's palm.
The tightly meshed copper teeth inside the cylinder were forcefully locked shut by this internal force.
The sharp snapping of several springs breaking sent shivers down her spine, and the shattered brass shrapnel shattered the wooden mechanism box into several pieces, stinging the back of her hand.
The taut black iron wire, having lost its axis of support, limply fell from the night sky.
Zhen Meili suddenly lost her footing in mid-air and began to spin and fall.
Relying on the strength in her waist and legs that she had developed on the cliff of the Mohist School, she managed to straighten her body in mid-air, rolled half a circle on the ground with her hands protecting her chest, and her knees hit the cold bluestone slab.
Her ponytail, which had been tied up on top of her head, had fallen down, with a few stray hairs hanging on her forehead, which was damp with a thin layer of sweat. She looked quite disheveled.
She rubbed her aching wrists, looked down at the shattered brass parts scattered on the floor, her chest heaving violently.
"Huh--what's going on?"
"You have no sportsmanship!"
Zhen Meili clicked her tongue in distress, poking at the broken brass gear next to her boot with her toe.
That was the meshing spring that she had painstakingly crafted inch by inch with fine sandpaper over three whole months, and now it had been casually smashed into a pile of scrap metal through the window.
Before she could even get her footing, the hinges of the rosewood door in the warm pavilion, which had been tightly fastened, creaked open, and someone slowly pushed it open halfway.
Gu Moran was loosely wrapped in a white fox fur coat with a crane design, the hem of his moon-white satin robe trailing on his shoes. He held a half-eaten jujube in his hand, its flesh already bitten out, and stepped over the high threshold, standing on the steps facing the night wind.
His gaze settled on the dusty-faced girl in the courtyard, and a pale blue ethereal light curtain unfolded before his eyes.
[Name: Zhen Meili ]
[Identity: Eldest daughter of Zhen Daijin ]
[Destiny Tag: Daughter of Destiny, Divine Strategist]
[Martial Arts Cultivation: Third Rank Lower Stage ]
[Original storyline: After completing her studies in the Mohist School Valley, she is tricked by an elder of the Luoyang clan into marrying the disabled and tyrannical second son of the Marquis of Luoyang in place of her sister;]
They had not consummated their marriage for three years, but he helped her win the title of king with his arithmetic, mechanical skills, and martial arts.
On the night of his investiture ceremony, he was framed by the second young master and his beloved, and his tendons in both hands were severed, causing him to sink into an icy river.
Fortunately rescued by a reclusive ancient sect, he severed all ties of affection and embarked on a thirty-year path of bloody revenge.
[Fate line deviation: 30% ( Zhen Daijin and Zhen Shizhong sided with the Prince Yi's Residence's Mansion ahead of time, and the Marquis of Luoyang's Residence failed to Chancellery )]
Gu Moran twirled the jujube pit between her fingers, her gaze sweeping over the tiny characters, and she couldn't help but laugh in exasperation.
This female-oriented approach is even more irritating than the cheesy excerpts from traditional operas performed in teahouses.
She was forced to marry in place of her sister at the drop of a hat, marrying a lame prince and suffering all kinds of filth. In the end, her tendons were severed and she was thrown into an ice cave, only to crawl out and then spend thirty years killing with bitter hatred.
So, unless she completely dismantles and destroys herself, she can't show that she's the destined heroine.
Even though the writers of female-oriented novels are all girls, why do they have to make their female protagonists suffer like this?
Standing on the ground, Zhen Meili saw that the young prince on the steps neither drew his sword nor called for help, but instead looked at her with the eyes of someone looking at a pitiful creature, and her whole body felt extremely uncomfortable.
She patted the lime dust off the hem of her thick cloak, kicked the broken iron pieces on the blue bricks, sending them flying with a clanging sound, and held her chin high.
"What are you looking at! Haven't you ever seen someone visiting your neighbor's house in the middle of the night before? You're all grown up!"
Zhen Meili gripped her slender waist with both hands, huffed, and took two steps forward, her deerskin boots creaking loudly on the stone slabs.
"You good- Prince Yi, everyone outside says you're out of breath after just a few steps and cough up blood all the time. And those two sneak attacks you just made to smash my mechanism box..."
Goodness gracious, even if all those burly vanguard officers in my dad's camp were tied together, they wouldn't be as strong as you!
Gu Moran casually flicked the fruit pit into the muddy flowerpot under the eaves and patted the white fox fur on his sleeve.
"In the middle of the night, instead of using the main gate, you were strapped to a deadly iron chain and tried to crash into my residence. The fact that I didn't hang you from the rafters to dry as an assassin is already a mercy, considering General Zhen is freezing on the front lines."
Zhen Meili was momentarily speechless, her prepared barrage of words stuck in her throat, but her ever-unyielding mouth remained defiant.
"Wow, look how clever you are, you even know who I am?"
"Don't try to intimidate me with my father! If I hadn't heard that your royal palace is rarer than a fairy's grotto, I wouldn't have bothered climbing over your back wall!"
She sniffed her nose, which was red from the cold, and her gaze suddenly fell on the half-hidden corner of her skirt behind a pillar. Her ears twitched with remarkable dexterity.
"Is someone hiding inside? Why don't you come out and let me see you? Are you afraid I'll steal your prince's sweet dates?"
Seeing that no one came out, Zhen Meili snorted coldly, put her hand behind her back, and with a crisp sound of steel meshing, a folding crossbow with a dark, matte finish was directly in her palm.
The crossbow was about a foot long, with three rotating spiral shafts embedded in its body. Two short copper arrows were pressed into the quiver, their arrowheads glowing with a dark blue medicinal color, and were half-pointed at Gu Moran in front of the threshold.
Before she could pull the trigger, a very faint sound of a sword being drawn suddenly came from behind the six large rosewood screens on the inside of the door.
Zhen Meili, with her sharp ears, suddenly turned her wrist two inches away and shouted at the dark crack in the door.
"Who's hiding? What are you doing! Aren't you ashamed of sneaking around like that!"
Gu Moran stood in front of the door, gesturing for Lin Qingdai to go back to sleep.
He didn't move an inch, even brushing his outer robe off in the cold wind, and pointed at the crossbow in her hand from a distance.
" Gongshu Family's triple attack was changed to a dual-track system, and the power was indeed increased by 30%."
But the side springs are tightly engaged; if it gets damp during a heavy snowfall, the third arrow will definitely get stuck in the groove, and the splintered iron will cut your own thumb first.
Just as Zhen Meili was about to unleash a torrent of abuse, her thumb involuntarily retracted.
He rubbed his fingertips against the hard iron edge a couple of times, and his arrogance immediately diminished by half.
This crossbow was her most prized possession, brought from the Mohist School Valley. Half a month ago, it actually jammed its spring during freezing rain in the Qin Mountains, nearly shredding her deerskin gloves.
Even though the man was several feet away, he could be seen clearly by the light of the lantern.
"Stop trying to fool me!"
Zhen Meili took half a step back.
"I came all the way from Luoyang, not to listen to your princely airs."
My father risked his life in Bronze Gorge under heavy snow, personally overseeing even the grain transport route.
You, on the other hand, are comfortably holed up in your room, warming yourself by the fire and eating dates. Has your conscience been stolen by a dog?
Gu Moran turned to the side and pushed the door open halfway. The warm aroma of tea and charcoal wafted out of the room, suppressing the cold wind blowing from under the eaves.
" Bronze Gorge is the gateway to Jiannan Circuit. If the Tubo army wants to bypass Dali and launch a surprise attack, the first thing they have to do is take over that mountain pass."
He raised his hand and turned up the brightness of the brass lamp hanging beside the door frame, his gaze falling on the little girl who was wrapped up like a black fur ball.
"Your father is an experienced military commander; he knows how to grind the Tubo cavalry into a pulp on a rocky beach."
"If he doesn't stand at the front, do you expect your second uncle to grab a knife and fight to the death?"
Zhen Meili immediately pictured her second uncle, Zhen Shizhong, in her mind. Her lips moved, and she burst out laughing. Her previously tense face immediately fell.
[Thanks to: Wan Guining for his strong support and suggestions, Bubu for his love letter, Huanxi, Yan Yan, Nai Zi's flowers, Shuai Ge's update reminder tokens x2, Wang Chen for his inspiration capsules, and everyone else for their love and support!]
[To all the students who have started school, please study hard! Youth is fleeting, otherwise there wouldn't be so many stories about rebirth. Good luck! Wishing you all the best! Love you all (づ￣3￣)づ╭❤~]