Chapter 663: Chater-663

Hearing that, the Prime Minister smiled, his angelic mask perfectly in place despite the sharp amusement prickling beneath it. "My lady, I’m just... well, it looks like I have mistaken you for someone else."

"Yes, maybe, Your Lordship," Lady Lou replied smoothly. With that, she became completely silent, elegantly resting her hands in her lap, her posture the very picture of submissive obedience.

Gu Chen stared at her over the rim of his teacup. He could hardly believe this perfectly poised, utterly docile aristocrat was the exact same fiery woman who had ruthlessly scolded him just days ago. Her defense was absolute. She was a fortress of aristocratic etiquette, completely refusing to give him an inch.

He looked at her and said, "It is a profound pity, then. I was truly hoping to discuss the catastrophic structural flaw in the newly proposed Southern Canal expansion."

Lady Lou’s eyelashes fluttered—just once, barely noticeable—but she kept her gaze respectfully lowered and remained silent.

Gu Chen leaned back, casually swirling his hot tea, his voice smooth and conversational. "Yes, it is quite tragic. The Ministry of Works submitted the final blueprints to my desk yesterday. Whoever drafted them—presumably your esteemed father—made a rather elementary miscalculation in the water pressure distribution at the third river lock. When the monsoon hits next month, the overflow will completely flood the lower peasant farmlands. Thousands will lose their harvest."

He set the teacup down on the wooden table with a soft clink, his eyes locking onto her pale face.

"I suppose I will just have to reject the proposal entirely," Gu Chen sighed, sounding deeply regretful. "It will bring immense shame to the Vice Minister of Works. It will likely force your father’s immediate, disgraced retirement. But since you do not know anything about public works or waterways, Miss Lou, I suppose this administrative tragedy does not concern you."

For three long seconds, the water pavilion was completely silent, save for the gentle rustle of the wind through the lotus leaves.

Slowly, Lady Lou raised her head.

The demure, perfectly polite noblewoman vanished instantly, replaced by an engineer whose absolute life’s work had just been casually insulted.

"The third lock will absolutely not flood," Lady Lou stated, her voice dropping its polite, breathy pitch, now completely laced with icy, undeniable authority. "The hydraulic pressure is naturally diverted by the subterranean spillway designed exactly two miles upriver. If you reject the proposal based on a ’miscalculation,’ Your Lordship, it only proves that the Prime Minister of the Great Dynasty does not know how to read a basic topographic map."

Gu Chen’s angelic smile widened into something sharp, victorious, and genuinely delighted. The trap had snapped shut flawlessly.

"Ah," the Prime Minister murmured softly, leaning forward. "So you do remember me, Miss Lou."

Lady Lou completely froze.

The icy, undeniable authority of the brilliant engineer evaporated the second she realized what she had just done. She stared at the Prime Minister’s perfectly composed, victorious smile, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the silk fabric of her dress.

She had spent years flawlessly hiding behind her father’s name, doing all the complex mathematical and architectural labor for the Ministry of Works in absolute secrecy. She had maintained her perfect, useless aristocratic facade for twenty minutes. And Gu Chen had shattered it in three sentences simply by insulting her math.

"You set a trap," Lady Lou hissed, completely dropping the ’My Lord’ honorific.

"A very simple one, I admit," Gu Chen chuckled, taking a slow sip of his tea. "But highly effective. An artist can endure an insult to their face, but they can never endure an insult to their masterpiece."

Gu Chen set his teacup down and casually reached into the wide sleeve of his pristine white robes. He pulled out a folded architectural blueprint and smoothed it out on the table between them.

"Your father, the Vice Minister, is a political survivor, but he is a mathematical idiot," Gu Chen stated bluntly, trailing a perfectly manicured finger over the complex hydraulic equations on the paper. "For the last two years, the Ministry of Works has been outputting infrastructure designs that are decades ahead of our time. Bridges that don’t collapse in the monsoon. Canals that perfectly distribute sediment. I knew it couldn’t possibly be him."

Lady Lou glared at him, her heart pounding against her ribs. "If you know I am the one doing the official work of the Vice Minister, then you also know it is a severe violation of imperial law. Deceiving the throne carries a death sentence for my entire family."

"It does," Gu Chen nodded sympathetically, though his angelic eyes were completely devoid of warmth. "It would be an absolute tragedy if the Imperial Censors found out that a woman was secretly running the Ministry of Works."

"What do you want, Prime Minister?" Lady Lou asked, her voice dropping into a cold, defensive register. She knew how the political game worked. He wasn’t going to turn her in; he was going to use her.

Gu Chen’s smile faded into something sharp and incredibly dangerous. The stinging, invisible bruises Heena Vanguard had left on his ribs pulsed as a dark reminder of his current political crisis.

"The Vanguard family is currently trying to financially choke my faction," Gu Chen explained, his voice smooth and lethal. "As of this morning, they are aggressively buying up all the major grain distribution centers in the southern district. If they control the grain, they control the capital’s food supply. And if they control the food supply, my civil officials will starve."

Lady Lou frowned, her brilliant mind already visualizing the map of the empire. "The grain has to be transported via the Southern Canal. That is the only logistical route fast enough to feed the capital before winter."

"Exactly," Gu Chen smiled, pleased that she was keeping up. He tapped the blueprint on the table. "I do not just want you to build this canal, Miss Lou. I want you to completely redesign the third and fourth river locks."

Lady Lou’s eyes widened. "Redesign them? To do what?"

"To bottleneck," Gu Chen ordered softly. "I want you to engineer a perfectly legal, structurally sound ’safety inspection’ checkpoint hidden within the canal’s mechanisms. I want the water pressure to forcibly limit the passage to only one ship per hour. And I want it designed so flawlessly that the Vanguard family cannot prove it was done on purpose."

Lady Lou stared at the angelic monster sitting across from her. He wasn’t just asking her to build infrastructure. He was asking her to weaponize a river against the most terrifying military family in the world.

"You want me to sabotage the Vanguard supply lines," Lady Lou whispered, genuine fear bleeding into her voice. "If Seera Vanguard finds out I engineered a blockade against her... she won’t petition the court. She will just come to my house and beat me to death with a shoe."

"She will certainly try," Gu Chen chuckled, the image of the flying footwear still haunting his nightmares. "But that is why you will be working directly under my protection, within the Prime Minister’s estate. You will have unlimited funds, total architectural control, and all the premium tea you can drink."

He pushed the blueprint across the table toward her.

"So, Miss Lou," Gu Chen smiled warmly. "Do we have a partnership, or should I go draft your father’s arrest warrant?"