“Go on, what do you know?”
Inside the hall, the petite girl was straddling a rocking horse she had hammered together herself, her cheeks flushed and her teeth biting her lower lip.
At first glance, she seemed to be just sitting there playing on the horse, but in reality, Su Mu had bound her hands and feet to the horse with invisible threads.
The rocking horse had not been sanded or painted, its surface quite rough.
With the slightest rock, the tiny splinters would viciously rub against Tang Yin’s tender skin through the fabric.
Under a tenfold pain amplification, it caused her immense agony.
This was Su Mu’s self-taught interrogation technique.
From a distance, they looked like a refined scholar playing with the Crown Prince on a rocking horse, but in reality, she held Tang Yin’s weakness tightly in her grasp, forcing her to confess the truth.
Tang Yin panted weakly, her body slumped over the rocking horse, fine beads of sweat on her forehead.
Her voice trembled: “Ugh… stop rocking, let me rest a little…”
It was clear she had reached her limit.
“Then come clean. If I find out you’re lying, I’ll—”
Su Mu narrowed her phoenix eyes and lightly kicked the rocking horse again.
The little horse immediately creaked and swayed, nearly shaking Tang Yin’s consciousness out of her.
Hearing the girl’s soft pleas for mercy, Su Mu inexplicably felt as if she were bullying Tang Nai, and a hint of pleasure arose in her heart.
‘Tang Nai said she was a yandere? That’s it? She can’t even take a little roughhousing.’
Thinking this, Su Mu tied the lie-detecting thread around Tang Yin’s slender neck, ensuring she couldn’t pull any tricks, and finally stopped the rocking horse.
After a moment of relief, Tang Yin could finally speak clearly, though her mind was still fuzzy.
Pale-faced, she half-reclined and focused her gaze on Su Mu, hesitating: “Sorry, I won’t dare anymore… I just wanted to get your attention…”
‘Is she talking to Tang Nai? Speaking of which, can Tang Nai hear this?’
But that didn’t matter.
Because now Su Mu, holding the voodoo doll, had absolute control.
“We’ll deal with the mess between you and your sister later. Now it’s time to talk about what’s between us.”
A moment later, Tang Yin painfully forced out words: “She lied to me, said if I helped her one last time, she’d forgive me… but then she took my core when I wasn’t paying attention… so now I’m just an ordinary person, you don’t have to go this far…”
Su Mu raised an eyebrow, lightly stepping on the back of the rocking horse, tilting it backward.
Tang Yin felt herself sliding down and cried out in alarm.
“You, what are you doing…”
“I’m just telling you, don’t tell me what to do!” Su Mu said fiercely, hands on her hips, “We have a score to settle. You touched my… woman, remember?”
Tang Yin bit her lip, feeling wronged.
‘If anything, I’m sort of Ye Wanqing’s mother. What business is it of Su Mu’s to meddle… wait, has she already gotten engaged to my sister? Then doesn’t that make her my… brother-in-law? Sounds weird…’
“I get it, let me go…”
Hearing Tang Yin’s urgent plea, Su Mu’s eyes curved and she said, “Oh? Really? Then I’ll let go.”
The next moment, Tang Yin was violently shaken on the rocking horse again, like being on a ship tossed by waves, almost passing out from pain.
After about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, Tang Yin slowly came to, and this time she was completely docile.
Su Mu made the horse sway left and right, causing Tang Yin to shriek again.
Tang Yin was silent for a moment, then forced an ugly smile: “Anyway, my sister wants me to atone, to help you gain recognition. She didn’t tell me exactly what to do, just said to listen to you.”
“I can also warm your bed.”
Su Mu’s brows rose and fell, and she unconsciously held the rocking horse while thinking.
Hearing this, she asked softly, “So what can you do now?”
“Does carpentry count?”
“Carpentry: check.”
The rocking horse took off.
“I can build things for you! Anything you want, I can figure it out, as long as you can get me the materials!”
Tang Yin practically screamed this with her last bit of strength, and only then did Su Mu finally let her go.
“So what can you build? Not just this…”
Su Mu narrowed her blue eyes, looking at the pile of wooden junk, and felt a headache coming on.
‘Really, she never changes. Wherever she goes, she loves making these weird things.’
“Legendary divine weapons!” Tang Yin said weakly but firmly, “Weapons that even an ordinary person could use to defeat martial arts masters!”
The thread didn’t vibrate, which at least meant that in Tang Yin’s own view, she wasn’t lying.
“What legendary divine weapon could let a nobody beat a master?” Su Mu muttered softly.
“Guns!”
At that word, Su Mu understood.
‘I almost forgot she’s still a little engineering whiz.’
Only then did Su Mu help Tang Yin off the rocking horse.
The straddling surface was soaked with sweat, and Tang Yin’s jet-black hair was also damp.
Even after being released, she was so weak in her limbs that she could barely walk.
She collapsed into a chair like a dehydrated fish, her vacant black eyes staring at Su Mu as if her soul had been taken.
Seeing her pitiful state, Su Mu found it amusing.
‘Who told her to do so many bad things and imitate Tang Nai? She deserves it.’
‘Oh right, she wasn’t lying when she said she could warm the bed. She really shares Tang Nai’s shamelessness.’
“You think guns you build can threaten masters?” Su Mu couldn’t help asking, “You’re not joking, are you?”
“Yes,” Tang Yin replied curtly, “As long as the materials are good enough.”
“Even if they could, I have no use for guns. I’m already a master among masters.”
Su Mu spread her small hands, looking helpless.
‘Why would I need these? Start an industrial revolution in the Ming Dynasty? Or is this another hint from Tang Nai?’
“Wait, are you willing to hear my suggestion?”
Tang Yin suddenly perked up, sitting straight.
Even she had some motivation to escape this dream world.
‘I can’t keep playing this coin-minting prince under Tang Nai’s arrangement, can I? I don’t even have a stick, how can I play a prince? I’ll be found out sooner or later.’
Speaking of which, Tang Nai’s arrangement for Tang Yin was quite mischievous.
After the original prince in the capital had been playing the fool for a few years, Tang Nai dropped Tang Yin in directly, like a time travel.
Thankfully, she had done some processing on Tang Yin so that those around her wouldn’t question her appearance or name.
(Even the fact that the eldest prince of the Zhu family had the surname Tang didn’t bother anyone—extremely ridiculous.)
But to maintain the character, Tang Yin had to keep hammering these pieces of wood, hammering for years.
At first, she was furious, but now she had been worn down, completely gave up.
Hehe, the rocking horse is fun~
Now it’s not fun!
“Speak.”
Su Mu glanced at Tang Yin, ready to hear what she had to say.
‘She’s at least an evil scientist, she can probably offer something constructive.’
“Sister gave you a bunch of wisdom bags, didn’t she? She must have planned it out. Open another one.”
Hearing Tang Yin’s sincere tone, Su Mu’s mouth twitched slightly.
‘Truly straightforward and crude…’