Snap!
Before she could finish speaking, Gu Moran pressed down with his wrist, and the hard ebony whip handle struck Takaichi Nanako's right shoulder blade!
A crisp snapping sound.
Takaichi Nanako's body went numb on one side, her coquettish tone turned into a scream, and she collapsed back onto the bed, her forehead slamming heavily against the edge of the wooden board, instantly swelling up into a large bump.
"You... you dare to hit me?!"
Takaichi Nanako clutched her throbbing shoulder, her eyes wide open, barely able to speak.
You're crazy!
Without my signal and the path to safety, the fleet at sea will flee tomorrow, and your cavalry will perish in the Silver Mountain!
Gu Moran looked down at her, casually picked up a handkerchief from the table, and carefully wiped the handle of the horsewhip that had just touched her skin.
"Isn't it just a red lantern with a tallow tassel hanging on the east side of the Sea-Gazing Tower, supposedly to 'show off a few bad luck'?"
"As for the life-saving gate of Iwami Silver Mine..."
Go in through the drainage ditch at the embankment, and walk back thirty steps along the third bluestone slab on the right. It's hard to guess.
Takaichi Nanako lay face down on the bedding, her breath caught in her throat, and she froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.
She stared at Gu Moran with her mouth agape, as if she were looking at a ghost.
"You... how could you possibly know?!"
Aside from my own idiocy, he has no defenses against me.
That Shōni Sukemoto only told two assassins, and those two assassins were scalded to death with boiling water this morning!
"I not only know this, I also know that you have a poisoned fishbone hidden under your tongue."
Gu Moran threw the handkerchief he had used to wipe the whip directly at her face, then turned and shouted at the closed door.
"Someone come here!"
With a creak, the door was pushed open, and two rough-looking soldiers who had been guarding the corridor rushed in.
Kim Seon-a and Lin Qingdai also stood outside the door, peeking inside through the crack in the door.
Gu Moran didn't even turn his head, pointing to the disheveled Takaichi Nanako on the bed:
"This woman is disgustingly filthy; don't let her ruin Shen's clothes."
"Go to the kitchen and get a wooden cage used for storing rotten salted fish. Chain her hands and feet, dislocate her jaw, remove the poisonous barb from under her tongue, and stuff it directly into the cage to seal it up!"
Takaichi Nanako heard "a wooden cage for rotten salted fish," her legs trembled, and she struggled to shrink further into the bed.
"How dare you! I am a prince of the Capital!"
Gu Moran, you'll die a horrible death!
I will haunt you even in death!
"Keep your breath alive, and go to Iwami Silver Mine to be a live target for my army."
Gu Moran didn't even bother to lift his eyelids, turned around and stepped across the threshold.
"Gag her tightly. Anyone who lets her utter a single bark will be court-martialed!"
Two rough-looking soldiers agreed, each grabbing one of her arms, and with a snap, dislocated Takaichi Nanako's jaw.
They removed the poisonous thorn, then bound her tightly with iron chains and stuffed her into the stinking, salted fish cage in the backyard like a dead pig.
The rotten fish entrails from the cage smeared all over Takaichi Nanako, and she made a hissing, gurgling sound in her throat.
Tears mingled with mud and water streamed down his face. He banged his head against the wooden railing desperately, but couldn't utter a single curse.
Gu Moran stood under the corridor, exhaling a breath of stale air into the night breeze, and waved to Lin Qingdai beside him:
" Qingdai, you and your men keep a close eye on the docks."
"I'm going to Sea-Gazing Tower to see how Zhen's fire and thunder preparations are going."
On the Wanghaijiao building, which connects to the pier, the sea breeze stung one's face.
Two ox-horn lamps, designed to protect against the wind, were lit on the stone platform outside the corner tower.
Zhen Meili squatted on the cold bluestone slab, wearing only a thin blue cloth craftsman's tunic, and holding a copper box about half a foot square in her arms.
He was holding a small pair of iron pliers, slowly tightening the copper wire mechanism inside that connected the gunpowder fuse.
The sea breeze, carrying a salty, fishy smell, rushed in, making her shoulders shiver, and a speck of black gunpowder ash smeared on the tip of her nose.
My fingers, red from the cold, almost slipped from the pliers several times.
Yun Shuyue squatted to her left, her back to the wind, holding a frozen osmanthus cake in her left hand, biting into it like it was a rock, while her right hand made sure to pass over the spare copper wire at her feet from time to time.
" Sister Zhen, this place is so cold!"
This pastry almost broke my teeth.
When will we finally finish calibrating these 300 Underwater Subduing Fire Thunder?
I'm so sleepy my eyelids are drooping.
"Don't move anything, we still need the last three main leads."
Zhen Meili bit her lip, her eyes fixed intently on the gears inside the bronze box.
The tide from the open sea will be surging into the harbor in another hour.
If the mechanism jams, and the twenty large ships of that Vice Minister of Ministry of War arrive tomorrow morning, if even one escapes, the Prince's encirclement plan will fail."
She fastened the last copper wire in her hand into the slot, let out a long breath, and, supporting herself on her knees, tried to stand up to move the bucket of spare gunpowder at the bottom of the steps.
But she had been squatting on that stone platform for too long, and her legs had long since gone numb from the cold.
As soon as he exerted force, his right ankle buckled, and he landed directly on the slippery, moss-covered stone steps.
With a cry of alarm, he plunged into the pile of rubble below the corner tower!
" Sister Zhen!"
Yun Shuyue was so startled that she almost dropped the half-eaten osmanthus cake in her hand. She reached out to grab it but only managed to catch a piece of clothing.
Just as Zhen Meili closed her eyes, thinking she was going to break her bones that day,
Suddenly, a large, hot, and powerful hand reached out from below the steps, grabbed her slender waist, and lifted her up!
Bang.
Zhen Meili crashed into a broad, hard chest.
The iron pliers in his hand clattered onto the stone steps and rolled a long way down the slope.
The air was filled with a masculine scent, a faint blend of medicinal and leather aromas.
Zhen Meili stood frozen in place, her back pressed tightly against the fabric of Gu Moran's clothes.
The image that flashed through my mind a few days ago, when I was perched on the roof beam of the central command tent, watching this man kiss the Goryeo princess.