Chang Lili's expression darkened, but Jiang Yingxue's face lit up with joy. With a girlish shyness on her face, she turned to look at Zhang Ziqing with a surprised look in her eyes.

Seeing Zhang Ziqing's calm and composed profile, yet those words were indeed spoken by him.

Jiang Yingxue's face lit up with joy. She rolled her eyes at Chang Lili, then turned around and obediently walked back to the table, looking quite smug.

Chang Li felt a little upset, but thinking that she had come to see them studying mechanical arts, she could learn something from them, so she didn't need to take these verbal disputes to heart.

She walked to the long table with her hands behind her back, looking at Jiang Yingxue and Zhang Ziqing opposite her. Jiang Yingxue, needless to say, had her crossbow still in her hand as before, without moving an inch. She was truly "unable to extricate herself from her infatuation with beauty"!

Zhang Ziqing, however, seemed to see nothing but those exquisite legs and feet.

Chang Lili, enduring Jiang Yingxue's prickly gaze, leaned closer to take a look. She saw that the mechanical legs in Zhang Ziqing's hands were intricately linked, capturing the essence of mechanical art: "a single move affects the whole body."

Even though this machine is more finely divided than joints, it is still obviously stiff when it moves, just like Zhou Lue's legs under his pants, which can still be seen upon close inspection.

Creating a robot is no easy task; just making its legs is incredibly difficult.

Chang Lili couldn't help but think of Chan'er, whom she had seen in the mechanical array, and the mechanical figures in the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams array. She murmured to herself, "I wonder how the mechanical figures in the mechanical array were made so lifelike. It would be great if I could take one or two out to study them."

As soon as she finished speaking, the atmosphere around her became a little strange, and Zhang Ziqing's hands, which were fiddling with the mechanical legs, stopped.

Before Chang Lili could even look up, she was pulled aside by a strong force. Zhou Lue grabbed Chang Lili in a panic and said in a low voice, "What are you saying, girl!"

Chang Lili noticed that Jiang Yingxue was looking at her with a strange expression, as was Zhang Ziqing. Even the usually drunken uncle, who was sitting on the ground in a drunken stupor, had opened his eyes and looked at Chang Lili with a somewhat clear gaze.

She looked bewildered, unsure of what she had said inappropriately: "What's wrong? I was talking about the organization..."

She was only halfway through her sentence when Zhou Lue covered her mouth. Seeing this, the others all looked away, but still kept glancing at Chang Lili.

“Don’t say that again. I’ve told you about these people before,” Zhou Lue said in a low voice, “they broke through all the formations to get in. They don’t know what you mean by mechanical puppets.”

Chang Lili blinked, somewhat confused by Zhou Lue's words. She slapped his hand away and asked in bewilderment, "What do you mean?"

Zhou Lue waved his hand and said, "It seems we're both half-baked. Tsk tsk, when you were navigating the trap formation, did you encounter one where the walls were traps and the ground was traps? The walls would crush you into a pulp, and stepping on the ground would cause you to fall into a secret chamber?"

“Yes, Chan’er is right there in the secret room!” Chang Lili said.

Zhou Lue slapped his thigh and said, "You saw Chan'er, but they didn't. They didn't fall into the secret room. That formation can be broken. As long as the formation is broken, they won't fall into the secret room and will take the main path. Even if they fall into the secret room, they won't lose their lives; they will just take the secret path."

Chang Lili pondered for a while before saying, "The path you take after breaking the formation is different from the path you take after falling into the secret chamber."

Zhou Lue nodded seriously, quite pleased that Chang Lili understood.

"So this isn't exactly something to be proud of. Sigh, it's my fault for not reminding you not to bring this up casually, or you'll be criticized." As Zhou Lue said this, he glanced in Jiang Yingxue's direction, his meaning crystal clear.

Chang Lili, however, looked indifferent and said confidently, "What's the big deal? I came out through the secret passage, but it was perfectly legitimate. Besides, I think it was worth it to go through the secret passage. Those mechanical manipulators were truly eye-opening."

She spoke loudly. The drunkard sitting on the ground glanced at her indifferently and went back to drinking his wine. Zhang Ziqing, however, looked at Chang Lili a few more times with complicated expressions.

Jiang Yingxue slammed the crossbow in her hand onto the table and muttered, "Shameless!"

At that moment, the sound of horses' hooves and voices came from the woods. A deep, resonant male voice came from the trees. The familiar and pleasant voice made Chang Lili's face light up with joy. She turned around abruptly and looked in the direction from which the voice came.

Zhou Lue clicked his tongue twice and said, "My apprentice used to almost never come to the Light Machinery Department, leaving us to fend for ourselves. But these past two days, he's been coming here quite often!"

He stroked his chin, looking at Chang Lili with interest. She avoided his gaze and said, "He probably had a change of heart and felt he should come and visit more often."

"Well, he's quite quick to realize this. He's been so enlightened ever since you arrived. I think you should have come sooner," Zhou Lue said with a sigh.

As the two were talking haphazardly, Meng Yuxiu arrived on horseback, dressed in a black robe. He was dashing and radiant, like a dazzling sun. His handsome face also exuded a touch of domineering arrogance.

Before he even dismounted, he looked at Chang Lili and smiled contentedly.

"That's not right!" Zhou Lue muttered to himself as he stood next to Chang Lili. "I've never seen my disciple smile before. He always has a straight face. I thought he couldn't smile. Did I see things wrong just now?"

He asked Chang Lili with a serious expression, and even patted his own face, truly unable to believe it.

Chang Lili found it amusing, but ignored him and walked towards Meng Yuxiu.

"Weren't you busy with military affairs and said you'd come to see me in a few days?" she said, her face beaming with undisguised joy, barely containing her excitement.

Looking at Meng Yuxiu, she felt as if the world had brightened up and all the colors had become vibrant. This inexplicable joy almost burst through her chest.

Meng Yuxiu sighed and said, "Indeed, military affairs are very busy. I postponed everything that could be postponed, and only then did I steal half a day of leisure."

Chang Lili was overjoyed, her face flushed, and her eyes and brows were full of happiness: "Then you are really lazy. I will have to tell your subordinates how you exploit them and how you slack off."

Meng Yuxiu unloaded a package from his horse. Hearing this, he sighed and said, "It seems I'll have to give these pastries to someone else. I don't want to give them to someone who has ruined my reputation."

Chang Lili's eyes lit up. Even though Meng Yuxiu didn't say anything, her sensitive nose caught the fragrance, and she snatched the pastry without saying a word.

Inside the package was a new type of pastry the cook had learned to make: jujube paste cake.

"Put them away first. I brought a lot. We'll eat them together later," Meng Yuxiu said gently.

Chang Lili nodded in agreement, but she knew that the drunkard uncle had no interest in eating these things, and Zhang Ziqing and Jiang Yingxue disdained to eat them at all. In the end, only Zhou Lue ate with her.

This time, Meng Yuxiu arrived, but still no one paid him any attention. When Zhou Lue rushed up to call him "disciple" again, Meng Yuxiu simply slapped him away with one palm.