Chapter 211: A woman harder than tungsten steel has appeared!

Mysterious iron.

Chinu's pupils shrank slightly.

He had wandered north and south for many years, hearing many strange tales, but this term was something he had only ever heard.

In the mouths of jianghu storytellers, whenever they reached the crucial exciting part, they would inevitably hype swords forged from 'meteoric iron from beyond the heavens' or 'black-gold mysterious iron,' claiming they could cut iron like mud, slice hair with a breath, and be worth a fortune.

He had also once hoped it were real, to help the world repel invaders and drive out the Tatars......

But storybooks are ultimately just storybooks, and hopes are ultimately just hopes.

The Northern Dynasties marched south, the Southern Dynasties retreated, already sealed in the history books—there is no escaping it.

However, however.

Now——

Now, the Wife Master actually said, 'Does mysterious iron truly exist in this world?'

Then, what is the fine steel that the Wife Master mentioned?

Chinu pondered without cease, while Du Shanü stood up and brushed the dust from her hands.

Her gaze swept over the pile of dark, gloomy ore at the cave mouth, then fell toward the deep recesses of the mine.

The sunlight at the cave mouth could not ignite the depths of the mine, but her eyes could ignite heaven and earth.

Her gaze toward the depths of the mine held not only the reflection of firelight, but also something vast and encompassing that brought reassurance.

Chinu was still blowing the bellows; just one more glance left him dazed.

Du Shanü bent down and gently patted the face that haunted her dreams.

Chinu's eyelashes trembled slightly, but Du Shanü's voice grew ever softer:

"Good slave slave, your Wife Master says maybe there truly is a bit of luck on you......"

All the way, wandering and impoverished to this day, whenever he felt sleepy someone would bring a pillow.

When short of money, heaven would send tin ore; this could be cast into coins, made into tools, and sold to fund soldiers......

Even now, black tungsten has been discovered.

Pure tungsten has an extremely high melting point; with today's limited metallurgical technology, lacking sealed furnaces, pure-oxygen bellows, special crucibles, powder metallurgy...... one cannot reach that temperature, making full smelting utterly unrealistic.

Although one cannot reach pure-tungsten grade, a small amount of tungsten can still be blended into an iron base, producing low-content tungsten steel with under about five percent tungsten, thereby significantly increasing hardness and wear resistance.

The weapons of this era have not yet undergone quenching and alloying; their sharpness and durability are rather pathetic.

Thus, although the quenching process is more troublesome, quenched fine steel naturally possesses an advantage over ordinary weapons.

A single knife, if it could cleave ten swords without nicking......

Anyone who dares to move against Du Shanü had better weigh whether his underlings have enough lives to fill the gap!

Du Shanü was very pleased, her eyes full of smiles.

That smile, speckled here and there, fell into the eyes of the already enamored Chinu, becoming a radiant proof soon to rival heaven and earth.

An instant, merely an instant.

Chinu seemed to suddenly become a little frightened.

He reached out his hand to cover and caress that hand on his face, murmuring:

"...... That...... if the Wife Master has luck...... and someday becomes the sole person under heaven, will she still remember Ah-nu?"

A slave is a slave.

Forever unable to rise to the table.

Even if one sees him calling wind and summoning rain, with a bad temper......

But in the end he is merely 【slave】.

Upon meeting the one he loves, he will bend his heart and bow his head, employing wicked, underhanded tactics repeatedly.

Moreover, he will endlessly feel inferior about his own shortcomings.

Nowadays, anyone with eyes can see that Du Shanü's future is bright and promising.

And his first thought is not whether he can walk that path alongside her, but rather that he himself is aging, losing vigor, being grown tired of, and despised......

He didn't even dare to ask whether Du Shanü would love him in the future; he merely asked——

【Will the Wife Master remember him?】

Du Shanü's heart had originally been filled with grand ambitions; upon hearing this, she halted all her thoughts in a single breath.

Chinu is always like that.

And she is always willing to stay for Chinu.

Du Shanü let out a light sigh and helped Chinu up from the ground:

"I've said before, read fewer histories; they are like husband and wife in ruler-minister relations, but we are truly husband and wife...... there's no need to ask these."

No matter how many times Chinu asks, a thousand, ten thousand,

Her answer is always the same; she and Chinu are truly destined to be together for all lifetimes.

Between ordinary ruler and minister, the emperor's schemes run deep; ministers are used, suspected, forced to write their final testament, and in the night ride their horses to plunge into the Miluo River......

Such scenes will never occur between her and Chinu.

If it were Du Shanü, she would only, and could only, say:

"...... Good slave slave, this time I truly owe it to you; you are my great fortune star."

If there were no Chinu, there would be no Afang; if Afang did not manage Dun Cheng for her, then surely no one would think of going to the fertile lands of Ju Cheng......

Nor would digging up the earth lead to the discovery of an entire tin mine.

How should one describe Chinu's importance to her?

That is nothing less than heaven-splitting, earth-shaking, without equal.

How could one forget Chinu?

How could one bear to abandon Chinu?

How......

Don't you love Chinu?

Now, even if someone told her that in the future Chinu would stab her with a knife, she'd probably have to first reflect, wondering if her future self had done something to provoke Chinu.

She is loving.

She is just loving.

Love to the point of being unbearable, one would even want to fiercely engrave hatred into one's heart.

Her gaze dimmed, filled with a thousand kinds of pity and ten thousand kinds of cherishing love.

Chinu had just settled old scores this morning, having resented the Wife Master for favoring Yu Baobao and not loving herself enough; upon being moistened by this gaze, she again felt wistful, as if in a dream.

Du Shanü took his hand and walked confidently toward the small boat moored at the cave entrance.

The two boarded the boat just as they had come, but this time, having left behind the awkwardness after their earlier argument, their figures nearly overlapped, inseparable in every way.

Du Shanü still sat at the boat's bow; having entered the mine this time, her feet were specked with debris, so she simply took off her shoes and socks, patting them while stepping along with the waves.

Tiny tin stones rattled down into the river, scattering sparks of light, only to be stepped upon by a pair of bare feet.

Du Shanü idly pointed and stirred the river, her expression as usual, yet she bore a touch of unconstrained ease, her spirits soaring.

Chinu gazed at her in silence for a long while, his fingertips loosening as he slowly took off his shoes and socks, then plunged his sturdy feet into the water.

He made no sound to disturb her, merely shifting slightly to draw closer.

The water murmured softly; his toes, hidden by the ripples, touched hers ever so lightly and slowly.

Not a playful clumsiness, but rather a deliberate teasing; his warm instep gently brushed her cool sole, then lightly hooked, quietly winding around her ankle.

The water concealed the small motion, leaving only a faint, sticky warmth where skin met skin, soft and entangling.

Du Shanü's instep trembled slightly from the hook, and she glanced dubiously at Chinu:

"Good slave, what are you doing stepping on my instep?"

You step on me, what are you doing.....

What are you doing.....

Chinu: "......"

Of course I'm trying to seduce someone!!!

What else could I do!??

He at least came from the palace intrigue circles and has seen plenty of tricks!

But in the end, how did I end up with such an oblivious Wife Master......

Leaving all his skills with nowhere to use!

?? Here it comes, here it comes! ||ヽ(*￣▽￣*)ノミ|ЮTitle reclaimed! We Shasha are a woman harder than tungsten steel......!