Heartstrings Resonance: The Beloved Princess of the Female Power

She felt that Mu Yunxi was like a strict male master, making her feel oppressed and restrained. In addition, she was also a little afraid of Mu Yunxi deep in her heart.

Because Mu Yunxi only smiled when she was with Yongle, when she was like the blazing June sun. But to everyone else, she was always cold and indifferent. Even when she smiled, the smile never reached her eyes. Moreover, she felt that Mu Yunxi's words were as cold as a knife except for Yongle's.

Yongle knew Ruoling was somewhat afraid of Mu Yunxi, so he stopped forcing her. Instead, he assigned a female guard named Ruochan to take care of Mu Yunxi's food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Ruochan was clever, nimble, and, most importantly, skilled in martial arts, and capable of taking care of Mu Yunxi. Yongle also told Mu Yunxi that if she needed anything, she could always ask Ruochan to come back and tell her.

Mu Yunxi looked at the reluctance in Yongle's eyes and comforted him with a smile: "I will be back as soon as possible! You must eat well and sleep well, but don't miss me so much that you can't sleep or eat. If you lose weight, I will be sad!" The two of them were talking in private here, and the carriage and luggage were ready over there!

After seeing Mu Yunxi off, Yongle stood at the gate of the mansion, reluctantly watching the carriage depart. Ruo Ling consoled him, "Your Highness, didn't Lord Mu say he'd be back soon?"

Yongle sighed, "How could it be that fast? If she could be back soon, she'd be a responsible person. She returned yesterday before leaving the yamen, and then she wouldn't be seen for a long time."

In the Ministry of Works, everyone had already arrived.

But Mu Yunxi's rule was to be on time. She arrived at the courtyard that was her responsibility, and her first order of business was to take roll call. After checking everyone's names and their positions, she proceeded to assign tasks. She pulled out her prepared plan, assigning everyone what tasks they would perform, and then assigned everyone to their workstations.

For several days, she picked out the ones she had learned first, and then had them teach the ones she hadn't. After a month, they had almost learned everything. During the process of making the ten-arrow crossbow, the craftsmen's designs failed several times and had to make several revisions. However, these craftsmen were highly skilled, and through the revision process, they perfected the ten-arrow crossbow. It also looked much better than Mu Yunxi's. Although there were some setbacks during this month, everyone was excited. Knowing that they were making weapons to protect their country, they were all as motivated as if they had been injected with chicken blood. Mu Yunxi has now made a batch of lightweight crossbows using an assembly line. The next step is to make a large ten-arrow crossbow using the same method. The blacksmiths continued to make parts for the warships. Once this was finished, they would move on to building warships at the new dock in the southwest.

At the same time, these craftsmen who learned to make crossbows would be quietly transferred to military camps across the country to make more crossbows. Especially for the border defenses, Emperor Qing Zhao meant that every military camp should be equipped with them.

Mu Cheng also went to Beijing a few days ago. He now holds the position of Minister of Works, Mu Yunxi's superior. He also brought the people that Mu Yunxi asked him to bring with him.

Mu Yunxi's mission at the Ministry of Industry is about to end. She will hand over the work to the craftsman who helped her build model warship parts before. Mu Yunxi let him take over this place because his craftsmanship is better than all the blacksmiths he has seen in the Ministry of Industry, and this person's carpentry skills are also very good. Letting him stay in the Ministry of Industry to teach people how to build can also provide more craftsmen for Zhao State.

Furthermore, Mu Yunxi had another goal: to protect this family. Now that those people had some information, they would definitely investigate what she had done, and would also find this person, which would definitely make things difficult for him. So, she simply asked Mu Cheng to bring the person over to join the Ministry of Industry to help protect them and also give the Ministry of Industry an extra skilled blacksmith. Furthermore, this person was a quiet and family-oriented person, and his only request was to protect his wife and children.

Emperor Qing Zhao was reluctant to promote an ordinary craftsman at first, but when he compared the iron made by this craftsman with the iron made by those in the Ministry of Works, he could see the difference. The iron made by this craftsman had a smooth surface, flowing lines, a solid structure, uniform color, and exquisite details.

This man was somewhat famous in Youzhou Prefecture. The locals called him the West City Craftsman because he lived in West City and no one knew his real name, so they gave him this nickname. It was not until Emperor Qing Zhao gave him a seventh-rank iron official position and asked him to teach ironwork that Mu Yunxi learned that this West City craftsman's surname was Luo Mingbing.

Mu Yunxi decided to enlarge the warship parts that needed to be built according to the same proportion, and then arranged for Luo Bing to build a batch first, and teach some craftsmen related techniques so that they could be taken away later.

Time passed quickly, and half a month later, Mu Yunxi led this group of craftsmen to successfully produce 1,200 crossbows that could fire ten arrows at a time using an assembly line method.

Afterwards, Mu Yunxi, escorted by the Imperial Guards, brought the two meticulously crafted crossbows to the palace. Emperor Qing Zhao enthusiastically visited the training grounds to try them out for himself, and was incredibly pleased with their performance. Delighted, he even gave them poetic names.

Emperor Qing Zhao praised the light and flexible crossbow highly: "It is so agile and accurate, as light as a shadow. Let's call it the 'Spirit Shadow Crossbow'!" Then, he stared at the crossbow that fired ten arrows at once, and after thinking for a moment, he said: "This bow fires ten arrows at once, with great momentum, like the force of thunder. The sound of arrows breaking through the air is sharp, and it has unstoppable power. So it is named the 'Ten Thunder Breaking the Sky Crossbow'." After speaking, he looked at Mu Yunxi, his eyes seemed to ask for her opinion.

However, Mu Yunxi only responded with one word: "Yeah."

Emperor Qing Zhao was completely speechless. Seeing the tension building, Eunuch Fu, standing by, smiled and said, "Your Majesty, these two names are both excellent and brilliant! The Spirit Shadow Crossbow, light and agile, is as elusive as a shadow; and the Ten Thunder Sky-Breaking Crossbow, just hearing the name, speaks volumes about its immense power; it's both imposing and powerful."

Emperor Qing Zhao nodded with satisfaction, then looked at Mu Yunxi with a half-smile, and said sarcastically: "You old fellow still understand me! Unlike some people..." After that, he walked away and said to Eunuch Fu beside him: "I haven't seen Yongle for a long time. She should be asked to come to the palace to accompany the queen. She should stay in the palace for at least ten days to half a month!" Eunuch Fu nodded in response.

Mu Yunxi could hear the hidden meaning behind Emperor Qing Zhao's words, but he could only smile bitterly.

At this moment, Emperor Qing Zhao suddenly turned around and asked Mu Yunxi: "Master Mu, you have been busy these days. Do you still not know where your home is?"

Mu Yunxi truly didn't know where the Mu Mansion was now. For over a month, she'd been busy at the Ministry of Works, crafting bows and crossbows and measuring the ironwork needed for warships. She only knew her father was now the Minister of Works. So, she said, "I don't know!"

Upon seeing this, Emperor Qing Zhao deliberately showed a regretful expression and sighed, "It doesn't matter if I don't know. After all, you've been busy all the time. I don't have a mansion suitable for your family, and it's not easy to find a suitable house in the capital. Your parents are still temporarily staying at the post station!"

Mu Yunxi glanced at him calmly. In her heart, she only wanted to see her A Yin. She responded in a somewhat cold tone: "Your Majesty, please speak frankly. I don't want to bother guessing."

Emperor Qing Zhao was irritated by her lukewarm attitude. He snorted coldly and said, "I will immediately order Yongle to enter the palace to accompany his mother. I estimate that he will need to stay for ten days or half a month to ease the Queen's longing..."

Mu Yunxi felt helpless in her heart. That was someone else's biological daughter, what could she say? She knew that Emperor Qing Zhao just wanted to see her give in. In order to be able to meet A Yin, she respectfully bowed and requested, "Your Majesty, please make it clear!"

Seeing her attitude change 180 degrees, Emperor Qing Zhao said with satisfaction: "Follow me!" Then he walked towards the imperial study and said: "You have made great contributions this time, and you should be rewarded. There is a house next to Yongle's Princess Mansion, but it is a deserted house. Because the former owner of the house had some special hobbies, everyone disliked the house for being unlucky and no one wanted it. If you don't mind, I will talk to your father and set up the Mu Mansion there. So that you two don't have to run back and forth so far!" When saying the last sentence, Emperor Qing Zhao glanced at her sideways.

Yongle had told her about the house next door, but she didn't know much about it. She only knew that many children had died there, and that no one was willing to take over the house after the incident in this house. As for how these children died, no one told Yongle in detail.

So Mu Yunxi asked, "What kind of special hobby makes everyone stay away from you?"

Emperor Qing Zhao knew she would ask this question, so he prepared an answer. He took a deep breath and said, "A prince once lived there. Although it's been a long time, people still feel a little scared." He sighed and continued, "Haven't you noticed? On the bustling streets of this capital, there are almost no children of primary school age!"

Mu Yunxi tried hard to recall the scenes when she passed by the streets of Kyoto several times. It was indeed as Emperor Qing Zhao said, she did not see any children around ten years old, or even younger children.

So she asked curiously, "Why is this happening? Is it related to the owner of that house?"

Emperor Qing Zhao nodded and replied, "Yes, he was the first king of a different surname to be enthroned by my royal grandfather. He was named King Ding'an. This happened when I was still young. Because he had accompanied my royal grandfather on the battlefield, we all respected him very much. On his seventieth birthday, my father took us all to his residence to celebrate his birthday.