Lin Zhao gave them a cold glance. “If you don’t want your jobs anymore, I’ll have someone else dig it out for you!”

Warned like this, they finally lowered their eyes.

Lin Zhao turned to the big men who greeted her and said, “Lower the basket. I’m going to deliver food to my brother and the others.”

A few big men operated the mechanism, and with a rumbling sound, the steel plate holding the basket was pushed out of the mountainside, forming a platform. Qin Zheng saw this scene and thought it was exactly as she had predicted.

Because she brought four large steamers of food, which took up a lot of space, the big men released three cable cars in total.

The ropes were stretched by a large pulley similar to a well wheel used for drawing water.

Several big men steadied the pulley and slowly let the ropes out, causing the baskets to descend gradually.

After they had moved away from the cave entrance, Lin Zhao said, “Sister Zheng, don’t mind them.

This entrance has always been guarded by people from both the Eastern and Western villages.

The group from the Western village knows that there’s a problem with the bridge and is waiting for my brother to come and plead his case.”

Qin Zheng smiled gently. “It’s nothing.”

However, madness only lasts for a moment, and what happens afterward is hard to predict.

As the basket touched the ground, Qin Zheng climbed out and helped Lin Zhao and her servant carry the food boxes.

She found that this place was a man-made cave with an open top, where you could see the sky above, but there was another layer of rock outside blocking the view.

The stone steps beneath her feet were carved out of the original rock, and walking down the steps and emerging from a vine-covered cave was the shallow beach where the boat had docked that day.

There were many logs and rocks piled on the shallow beach now.

The original sandy ground had large pits dug every few meters, but due to the high tide last night, the collapsed pits looked messy and there was still a lot of water at the bottom.

Lin Yao and a dozen men from the Eastern village were wielding shovels, rolling up their trousers and baring their arms as they dug something.

Their faces were covered in mud.

Lin Zhao placed the food boxes in an open space and shouted loudly, “Take a break, take a break! Let’s eat first!”

As soon as they heard that it was time to eat, the men stopped working.

When they saw that the one delivering the food was a young girl, they quickly put on their clothes soaked with sweat before going to wash the mud off their hands by the river.

Seeing Qin Zheng also coming over, many people’s eyes shifted between her and Lin Yao.

Wang Biao grabbed a steamed bun and a bowl of porridge and squatted in a circle with a few familiar men, eating while glancing at Qin Zheng. “What do you guys think? What’s that little lady doing here?”

The other men were too busy eating and shook their heads unanimously.

Wang Biao nudged the man next to him with his elbow and muttered, “You guys are just a bunch of gluttons.”

Someone glanced at Qin Zheng again and then walked over to Lin Yao, pondering, “Do you think that young lady might have taken a fancy to our big brother?”

One of the men muttered, “Impossible. That young lady’s husband is quite handsome! And his martial arts skills are no worse than our big brother’s!”

Wang Biao gave him a knock on the head and scolded, “What nonsense! Our big brother is the handsome one! That little pretty boy looks sickly and short-lived. How can he compare to our big brother?”

The man rubbed his head where he had been hit. “Young ladies don’t like our big brother’s type…”

Wang Biao made as if to hit him again, and the man quickly picked up his bowl of food and steamed bun and moved to another spot.

Qin Zheng’s appearance here was indeed unexpected for Lin Yao.

After the secret conversation last night, even though the noble young man who called himself Cheng Ji hadn’t revealed his identity to him, just thinking about the strategies he mentioned made Lin Yao feel a bit weak-kneed even now.

He was more convinced that the true identities of this couple were probably extraordinary, so he had specifically instructed the people in the village to treat them with even more respect.

Now that Qin Zheng had come, he was afraid that Lin Zhao had brought her along to cause trouble.

Seeing Qin Zheng, Lin Yao greeted her with clasped hands, “Madam Cheng, why are you here in this dirty place?”

Lin Zhao, quick-witted as always, answered for Qin Zheng, “Sister Zheng wanted to dig up some snake-repelling grass to plant in the courtyard.

She doesn’t recognize the plant, and I remember there’s some nearby, so I suggested she come with me.”

Lin Yao’s face darkened. “Nonsense. When you go back, just bring a few plants with you. There’s no need to make someone else accompany you.”

Worried that Lin Yao was angry because Lin Zhao had shown her the way up the mountain, Qin Zheng hastily said, “Please don’t be angry, Chief Lin. It was my curiosity that led me to come and see for myself.”

Since she had interceded for Lin Zhao, Lin Yao didn’t feel it appropriate to take it out on Lin Zhao anymore.

He simply instructed Lin Zhao to send Qin Zheng back earlier and then went to Wang Biao’s side with his bread and sweet potatoes.

One person was missing from the circle they had formed earlier, and Lin Yao squatted down to fill the gap.

Wang Biao nudged him and lowered his voice, asking, “Big brother, why did that young lady come over here? Did she come to deliver food with you?”

Lin Yao gave him a sidelong glance. “She came to dig up snake-repelling grass.”

Wang Biao let out a disappointed “Oh.”

While they were eating, Qin Zheng took the opportunity to take a closer look at the pit they were digging with Lin Zhao.

Indeed, it was the problem she had anticipated.

This area was close to the river, with moist soil and no slope.

They hadn’t dug any drainage ditches, so the pit would easily collapse as soon as it filled with water.

Moreover, it seemed that the original depth of the pit had been based on the standard depth for dry soil.

The surface soil was moist and loose, so the pit needed to be dug deeper to reach the harder soil layer underneath for the bridge foundation to be stable.

The more Qin Zheng looked, the more furrowed her brow became.

The men eating nearby saw them standing at the edge of the pit and shouted, “Ladies, please don’t step to the side. You’ll cause the pit to collapse again, and we’ve been working hard all morning!”

The other men laughed, but there wasn’t much malice in their laughter.

Qin Zheng nodded imperceptibly to Lin Zhao, who understood that she had finished inspecting the site.

Lin Zhao then raised her voice and declared, “Who cares about watching you dig these miserable pits? Brother, I’m taking Sister Zheng to dig snake-repelling grass!”

With that, she led Qin Zheng toward the thicket of bushes near the shallows, with Magpie trailing behind them.

After walking a distance, Lin Zhao instructed Magpie to keep watch and then asked Qin Zheng, “How was it? Sister Zheng, did you notice any issues?”

Qin Zheng picked up a stick and made a rough sketch on the ground, outlining the pits and drawing a vertical line next to them.

She explained, “Before driving in the piles, the pits need to be dug deeper, at least two feet into the hard soil below.

Additionally, they need to slope the sides. The length of the sloped bottom should be equal to the height of the pit to prevent collapse.”

Listening intently, Lin Zhao’s eyes lit up. “Will that be enough?”

Qin Zheng pointed to the vertical line. “We also need to dig a one-foot-wide drainage ditch.

This ditch won’t be needed after the bridge is built, but it’s crucial before filling the pit with soil.

With this drainage ditch, water won’t accumulate at the bottom of the pit, and if the soil on the pit walls is too moist, it’s less likely to collapse.”

Lin Zhao nodded, seeming to understand but also looked at Qin Zheng with a hint of admiration.

There was one more important issue that Qin Zheng didn’t mention: since the river could rise, they couldn’t build a fixed-height bridge.

If the tide rose and flooded the bridge, their efforts would be wasted.

The main difference between industrial trestle bridges and ordinary bridges lay in their adjustability.

Qin Zheng had seen trestle bridges built with steel frames on construction sites before.

However, since industrial technology wasn’t advanced in ancient times, and they couldn’t acquire so much steel in a short time, they had to use wood.

By using mortise and tenon joints to construct wooden frames, they could easily dismantle and adjust the height of the bridge piers and abutments as needed.

Qin Zheng tried to explain the principle of raising and lowering the trestle bridge to Lin Zhao, but it was clear that it was difficult to understand just by words alone. Qin Zheng had to ask, “Who is responsible for repairing the trestle bridge in the East Village?”

The technical guidance came from the West Village, but the laborers were from the East Village, so there should be a leader among them.

Lin Zhao replied, “It’s Big Brother Wang Biao.”

Qin Zheng then said, “Find an opportunity to relay what I’ve said to him. If he understands the meaning behind it, that’s good. If not, I’ll explain it to you later, and you can relay it to him, but don’t mention that it was my idea.”

Lin Zhao nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed. “I’m just too stupid.”

Qin Zheng patted her on the head. “You’re not stupid. You just haven’t been exposed to these things before.

Besides, everyone has their own strengths. With your martial arts skills, other girls might not learn them even after ten or twenty years of practice.”

Lin Zhao smiled, revealing a pair of small tiger teeth. “Sister Zheng, you’re so kind. My brother always says I’m stupid.”

Qin Zheng chuckled. “As long as you know he’s lying.”

Lin Zhao proudly puffed out her chest, feeling entirely comfortable. “Of course! He’s never spoken the truth in his life!”

These siblings must be related by blood.

Qin Zheng couldn’t help but laugh and cry. “Let’s finish digging up the snake-repelling grass and head back. Your brother and the others should have finished eating by now.”

Her legs were starting to feel numb from squatting for too long, so she stood up from the thicket and glanced at the river.

This area was elevated, and Qin Zheng could see a black-topped boat moored at the bend in the river, with a fisherman wearing a bamboo hat at the stern, apparently fishing.

Knowing that Two Yan Mountain was a bandit stronghold, Qin Zheng found it strange that there would be fishermen here.

She asked Lin Zhao, “Do people often come to fish around here?”

Lin Zhao stood up and followed Qin Zheng’s gaze to the boat. Her expression changed slightly. “My brother robbed the river bandits’ goods, so there’s probably some action from their side. I’ll go tell my brother.