You know what, she actually found some good stuff!

"Wooden boards, bamboo poles, hemp ropes... well, these should be useful." Shen Qiqi counted and recorded in the notebook. Like a shrewd accountant, she calculated the quantity of each material meticulously.

However, reality is always cruel.

After the inventory was completed, Shen Qiqi discovered that even if all the usable materials were counted, it was still far from enough to repair the entire canal.

Her brows furrowed slightly, but soon relaxed.

"Humph, I just don't believe this!" A cunning glint flashed in Shen Qiqi's eyes, "If there are no conditions, then create them!"

She took out the drawings she had brought back from the Water Conservancy Bureau and studied them carefully.

The dense lines and symbols on the drawing looked like a treasure map to her, hiding the key to solving the problem.

Sometimes she bit the pen in deep thought, and sometimes she gestured on the drawing with her hands, as if she was fighting a silent battle.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up and a smug smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

"Got it!" She picked up the pen excitedly and started writing quickly on the notebook. The pen tip danced on the paper, making a rustling sound, as if she was playing a song of victory.

“Brother Qing, come and take a look…” Shen Qiqi waved mysteriously at Lu Qing.

Lu Qing came over upon hearing the sound, and saw that Shen Qiqi's notebook was filled with all kinds of strange patterns. The lines were crooked, but it could be roughly seen that it was a diagram of the structure of a canal.

She excitedly pointed to a spot on the blueprint, her eyes shining like two little stars. "Brother Qing, look, we can slightly modify the structure of the canal and reinforce it with a mixture of earth and rocks. This way we can save a lot of wood!"

Lu Qing took a closer look. Although he didn't quite understand the principle, he could still feel Shen Qiqi's intelligence.

"She is worthy of being my wife, she is so smart!" He praised her generously, his tone full of pride.

Shen Qiqi felt a little embarrassed by the compliment, but she couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth.

The two of them got together to study it again, one was responsible for coming up with ideas and the other was responsible for filling in the details. They cooperated seamlessly, like a pair of tacit partners.

Shen Qiqi laughed heartily from time to time, while Lu Qing looked at her gently from the side. The air was filled with a sweet smell, so sweet.

Shen Qiqi felt like she was back to normal. She seemed to have seen the day when the canal would be successfully repaired. The excitement she felt was indescribable.

She wanted to rush out immediately, tell the whole village her thoughts, and make those who questioned her shut up.

However, just when she was about to get down to work, someone from the village came to her and told her that Wu Zhuanghan was willing to help repair the canal, but the price was very high!

When Shen Qiqi heard this, her brows immediately furrowed. Wu Zhuanghan was a well-known "local tyrant" in the village. He was sneaky when doing work and asked for exorbitant prices. He was simply a vampire.

This is really true. Just when one difficult problem was solved, another big trouble came up.

"What price did he ask?" Shen Qiqi suppressed the anger in her heart and asked calmly.

The man stammered, "He said... he said... it's calculated on a per-person basis, five dollars per person per day!"

"Hiss——" Shen Qiqi took a breath of cold air. This Wu Zhuanghan really dared to speak!

Five dollars a day, wouldn’t that bankrupt the entire village?

Lu Qing also frowned. He had heard of Wu Zhuanghan, a man with a cruel heart and ruthless hands, and was difficult to deal with.

Shen Qiqi's eyes narrowed, and a dangerous arc appeared at the corner of her mouth. "Let's go and talk to him."