I Can See Your Combat Power

The young man shuddered and quickly turned his head because stealing knowledge from others was a serious offense in any field, and he certainly did not want to face legal consequences.

“Excuse me, young man, where is the steward of your Craftsman Guild?” Cui Dayou asked the flustered lad again.

The stealing-lessons lad’s face turned red, he hurriedly bowed to Master Cui and replied, “The steward is in that small building over there. You just need to walk over, and someone will greet you.”

“Thank you, young man.” Cui Dayou nodded and winked at the lad, “Do you want to become a craftsman?”

The lad who was caught stealing knowledge looked somber and hurriedly waved his hands, “I dare not. I was just observing, only observing.”

“Just asking.” Cui Dayou nodded with a smile, turned around and walked out of the yard, saying to Tang Luo, “Young Master, the representative Cunfu is in the small building in the south, let’s go over.”

Tang Luo looked at Cui Dayou, who had a smile on his face, and asked curiously, “It seems that you have a good impression of this teenager?”

Although the Craftsman Guild was noisy, nothing could escape his keen senses. Even the whispered words of Cui Dayou were heard clearly by him, so naturally, he could see the master’s intentions to guide the lad.

Cui Dayou led Tang Luo into the yard, walking and saying, “Speaking without fear of being laughed at by the head of the house, I was frivolous in my youth and wasted my time, and as a result, I could not join training in martial arts. I was assigned to carry rice in the food department. At that time, what I admired most was the clerk of the food department, who only needed to walk around the rice warehouse and write and draw to earn a gold coin. I wished that I could learn to write and keep accounts, and become a clerk.”

“Please come this way, Head of household.” Cui Dayou led Tang Luo through the bustling courtyard, and then said, “The food department clerk loved to drink. After counting the amount of grain in a warehouse, he liked to find a corner to drink a few bowls and rest. I cleaned a corner of the granary to put in a small stool and table from home, and the clerk got to know me.”

“So he taught you how to keep accounts?” Tang Luo naturally assumed it was such an inspiring story. The clever boy won the favor of the clerk, who then taught him how to keep accounts. Although it was not a great favor, it saved the teenager tens of gold coins in miscellaneous fees. It was an old trick but effective.

“I also wished to be so lucky.” Cui Dayou smiled and said, “For us orphaned children, our craft is the cornerstone of our family, how could we easily teach it? Therefore, I paid my filial piety for a whole year before I learned to keep accounts.”

“So, when you saw that youngster, you thought of yourself at a young age?”

“Exactly.” Cui Dayou laughed and said, “Being able to learn a craft is certainly better than wasting time as a doorman. I have been a bit calculating, which makes the head of the family laugh.”

“I think it’s very good.” Tang Luo glanced at Cui Dayou and nodded.

As the two walked through the courtyard, Cui Dayou sent a secret voice message to the young man, saying, “Prepare some throat-soothing tea every day to show your filial piety to the craftsmen, treat them like the elders of your family.”

Get first, then give back. To a lonely orphan, hoping for a windfall to make people realize that they are a rare crafting genius is undoubtedly a dream. It’s only possible to genuinely make the craftsmen feel compassion that the youth would be taken as a disciple.

After all, in the Craftsman Guild, every craftsman speaks loudly because only by giving it their all can they make their voice heard clearly. For a group of craftsmen, most of whom are artisans from the Mortal Realm, talking in this way almost certainly makes their throats uncomfortable.

If the young man is clever enough to prepare a pot of tea every day to show his filial piety, maybe these craftsmen will indeed teach some basic profits. Even if not, it’s very likely that the craftsmen will turn a blind eye to the young man stealing their knowledge with the excuse of the tea.

Instead of giving them a chicken soup inspirational talk saying something like “do not despise the poor youth”, it’s better to provide them with a method that might work. That’s why Tang Luo thought Cui Dayou did a great job.

“The head of the household is too kind.” Cui Dayou laughed and stopped in front of the small building.

“You stay here and don’t move around. I’ll be back soon.” Tang Luo instructed Cui Dayou and then walked up the steps of the small building. After declaring his name, he was led by a servant into the study of Tang Cunfu.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw the other party with open arms, full of enthusiasm, “Minister Tang, it’s an honor for the Craftsman Guild that you have come to visit us. I failed to greet you properly, please forgive me.”

This courteous attitude was in stark contrast to Tang Luo’s judgment, and he could hardly believe this was the same ruthless man who had incited more than two hundred branch leaders to impeach the clan leader.

“Representative Cunfu is being too courteous. Actually, this time I’ve come to apply to the Craftsman Guild concerning the new base of the department.” Tang Luo had met many people who seemed to be good friends on the surface but were backstabbers behind the scenes, so even though Tang Cunfu was so enthusiastic, he dared not let down his guard, instead he just stated his intention plainly.

If Tang Cunfu was only paying lip service, he would agree eagerly but later argue that the Craftsman Guild’s workers were too busy to spare, promising to build the base for the Marshal Star Pavilion as soon as possible.

Frankly, this would be Tang Luo’s worst fear, because you couldn’t find any fault with Tang Cunfu’s words or actions, but the construction of the Marshal Star Pavilion would be indefinitely delayed, which would be extremely frustrating.

As expected, after hearing the purpose of Tang Luo’s visit, Tang Cunfu seemed to understand and began to complain to Tang Luo deeply, “Please sit first, Minister Tang. Actually, I had known about the establishment of the Marshal Star Pavilion for a long time. But as you know, construction is underway in many places on North Mountain and there are hundreds of first-class projects that have not yet started. Every day at least a dozen owners and wives come to plead, but the Craftsman Guild has only this many workers. Even if I could divide myself into eight parts, I wouldn’t be able to rebuild a mountain city in just a few months!”

Ever since the flood, it had been no more than three months. Apart from the clandestine construction of the kiln-dugout and wooden village in the past two years, the defensive fortifications and the reconstruction of the clan residence and martial paths after the Tang Clan’s relocation were also closely related to the Craftsman Guild. Tang Cunfu, who was in charge of coordination, was greatly acclaimed. Yet, despite all this, a large number of people blamed the Craftsman Guild for the slow construction, which was a fact.

The situation that Tang Luo feared the most eventually came to pass. The person wasn’t saying they were disregarding you, they were just using facts to delay you. In such circumstance, unless you can get your construction queued up at the front, there’s no way to complete the task.

After all, the Marshal Star Pavilion is just a branch of the Martial Hall, and even the base for the nine major training fields hasn’t started construction yet, so it’s reasonable for Tang Cunfu to postpone Tang Luo’s request.

This was very much like the bureaucracy of later generations, where everything could be delayed with a single word, leaving you frustrated and helpless.

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