She looked up, her face streaked with tears, her eyes red and swollen, her gaze unfocused and filled with terror. Her lips trembled, her voice thin and shaky, choked with sobs: "Father... Father... sob... before he died... he... he said something... just a little bit..."
Zhao Kui's eyes lit up instantly: "What did you say?! Tell me quickly!"
“He…he said…the secret recipe…in the secret recipe…before firing the kiln…in the raw materials…you have to…you have to add a kind of ‘starter’…” Jiang Chan’s voice was broken and filled with uncertainty and fear. “But…but what is that…how do you add it…Dad…Dad didn’t finish speaking…and then…and then…” She couldn’t continue. She covered her face with her hands, her shoulders trembled violently, and she let out a suppressed sob.
"The trigger?! What trigger?!" Zhao Kui asked urgently, his obese body almost pressing down.
Jiang Chan just shook her head, crying even harder: "Waaah... I don't know... Father... Father only said the word 'introduction'... I really don't know anything else... Manager, spare me! Spare me!"
She suddenly slid off the kang (a heated brick bed) and knelt down on the cold mud at Zhao Kui's feet. She clung tightly to one of Zhao Kui's thick legs with both hands, her face covered in snot and tears, crying her heart out. Her body trembled like a leaf in a storm.
"I really don't know! Manager, please have mercy! Give me some time! Let me think! Let me try! I will definitely... I will definitely remember! Please!" She looked up at Zhao Kui with tears in her eyes, her gaze filled with pleading and helplessness, like a drowning child grasping at the last straw.
Zhao Kui looked down at the girl sobbing at his feet, feeling the violent trembling of her small body and the damp warmth of her tears and snot staining his silk trousers. He wore a false expression of pity, but his mind was racing.
A starter? Added to the green foliage? I've never heard of that before! The Su family's secret recipe is indeed ingenious! This little beast seems genuinely terrified, not faking it.
Enormous greed overwhelmed the last vestige of doubt. The secret formula was right before their eyes! They were just one step away!
"Oh dear, poor thing, stop crying, stop crying." Zhao Kui bent down hypocritically and patted Jiang Chan's head with his fat hand, like he was patting a dog. "I'm soft-hearted, I can't stand seeing people cry. Alright, alright, I'll give you some time to 'think' and 'try' properly!"
He straightened up, his fake smile vanishing instantly, and ordered the burly craftsman beside him, "Wang San! You stay here! In the workshop, properly 'help' the Su family girl 'remember' and 'experiment'! Prepare whatever materials and tools she needs! Keep a close eye on her! If she 'thinks' of anything or 'experiments' and discovers a trick, tell me immediately! Do you hear me?"
"Yes, boss! Don't worry! I'll keep a close eye on her! Not even a fly will get away!" The foreman, Wang San, immediately bowed and patted his chest to guarantee.
Zhao Kui nodded in satisfaction, then glanced warningly at Jiang Chan, who was kneeling on the ground and "sobbing uncontrollably": "Girl, let me tell you, I, the head manager, have limited patience! Three days! I'll give you three days! If there's still no result after three days..." He snorted coldly, leaving the rest of the threatening words unsaid, but his icy killing intent was undisguised.
He kicked away Jiang Chan's hands that were clinging to his leg, disgustedly patted his trouser leg, turned and left with his thugs. The heavy courtyard gate was locked shut with iron chains once again.
Only Jiang Chan and Wang San remained in the workshop.
Jiang Chan was still kneeling on the cold ground, her head down, her shoulders trembling as if she had cried herself to exhaustion.
Wang San stood with his arms crossed, blocking the only entrance to the workshop like a gatekeeper. His murky little eyes, like those of a venomous snake, were fixed on Jiang Chan, filled with surveillance and contempt.
He sneered, "Alright! Stop howling! Get up and get to work! The head manager only gave us three days! If you can't produce anything in three days, hmph, I'll make sure you rot in this lousy workshop just like your deadbeat father!"
Jiang Chan slowly and laboriously got up from the ground. Her head was hanging low, her long, disheveled hair obscuring her face. She dragged her feet to her father's potter's wheel, where the bloodstains were still not completely dry.
Her fingers traced the cold wooden frame, still bearing the imprint of her father's hand and its glaring dark red. Her body seemed to be trembling slightly, as if in fear.
But beneath the shadows of her low-hanging hair, Jiang Chan's lips curled up slightly, a faint, chilling smile. Deep within her eyes, the flame of revenge burned even more fiercely.
The first step was successful.
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