Her job had nothing to do with the Ministry of Works, but since Eunuch Wu brought it up, he probably had his reasons.

Half an hour later, Lord Xue came out.

An Ning quickly stepped forward and said, "You've worked hard, sir."

Lord Xue was a kind man, and waved his hand at An Ning: "It's for His Majesty's sake, so don't suffer."

An Ning continued, "Is Your Excellency returning to the Ministry of Works? I've heard that the Ministry of Works always has some novel things, and I'm very curious. May I go and see them for myself?"

Without a second thought, Lord Xue immediately agreed: "Sure, I was just about to go, come with me."

An Ning smiled and said, "Thank you, sir."

~~

The Ministry of Works was located in the southwest corner of the imperial palace, and its area was the largest among the six ministries.

As soon as Anning entered, she was like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, her mouth agape as she looked around incessantly.

"Wow, this mechanism is so ingeniously designed."

Anning looked at the giant wooden tower with mortise and tenon structure in front of her and wished she could take it back to her room to study it properly. This was something she had only seen in textbooks, and she never expected to see the real thing here.

Lord Xue glanced at the tower and chuckled, "What's so special about this? All the good stuff is inside."

Once Anning entered the Ministry of Works, she couldn't get out. She wanted to examine everything carefully, and her hands couldn't help but want to touch this and that.

Don't touch it.

Suddenly, a booming voice came from ahead.

An Ning abruptly pulled her outstretched hand back.

The man had a white beard and was rushing towards Anning.

"Where are you from? Who gave you permission to move? Get out!"

An Ning stood there, her face full of embarrassment: "I'm sorry, I just thought this thing was exquisite and wanted to study it. I'm really sorry."

The white-bearded old man walked over and stared at An Ning for a long time, finally snorting before looking at Lord Xue: "Sir, from now on, do not bring in any unauthorized persons."

Despite the old man's fury, Lord Xue remained smiling.

“Minister, don’t be so stingy. The Ministry of Works isn’t some secret place. I just saw that this little eunuch seems to know a bit about it. Let him take a look.”

Upon hearing this, the white-bearded old man immediately became interested: "What? You know? I'd like to see how much you know."

An Ning waved her hand. It was true that she studied ancient techniques in college, but she wouldn't dare to show off her limited skills in front of the ancestors.

"Please reassemble this."

As he spoke, the white-bearded old man placed a tattered little wooden horse next to Anning.

An Ning looked down and saw that the rocking horse was completely broken, but she could easily fix it.

The white-bearded old man never considered that this little eunuch knew anything about mortise and tenon joints, and that he was just trying to fool Lord Xue by coming to the Ministry of Works to join in the fun. But when An Ning sat down and started working seriously, the old man became a little uneasy.

"Well done, your movements are quite methodical."

"I never expected this step to be so simple."

"Little eunuch, you're quite skilled, aren't you? You seem to know a lot too?"

The old man stood beside An Ning, increasingly shocked, until finally grabbing An Ning's arm as if he had found a treasure, saying something like, "I want to be your master."

Lord Xue was also taken aback: "I say, Vice Minister, don't you never take on apprentices? So many people outside are desperate to become your apprentices, but you won't budge. Why are you so quick to accept a eunuch with no experience?"