Carving Wood into a Boat

Xu Minghua was the concubine of the Xu family. Her mother died in an "accidental" fire, leaving only a carving knife and half a birch sign. She joined the Ministry of Industry as a craftsman supervisor at the age of fourteen, and she disguised herself as a man and worked as a doctor of carpentry for seven years. On the desks of the nobles in the court, there are the pines and cranes she carved to prolong life and the unicorns to offer good luck; no one knows that the most exquisite thing she carved is the birch boat that she used to hide her mother's soul when she was a child - a line of small words on the bottom of the boat: "I wish to cross the underworld, but not the human world." Yan Haoxiang is the second legitimate son of this emperor. His biological mother died young and he was raised at the Queen's knees. At the age of twenty-three, Prince Feng Su was in charge of the Human Affairs and Criminal Affairs Departments. The first major case he handled was to investigate corruption in the Ministry of Works. Seventy-three people were imprisoned, and he personally interrogated them. His eyes swept over the low-browed little wooden official in the corner, and stopped at the calluses on her lips. "Dr. Xu," he read her official title as if reciting a judgment, "when I was a child, I once got a birch-carved boat. There were words on the bottom of the boat. Can you recognize it?" She lay on the ground, her back as straight as a wet birch tree: "Your Majesty, I don't know this in my humble position. But I know it in my humble position - the person who carved the boat will never ask for it." He smiled and put the small boat that he had treasured for fifteen years on the table, with the four words "Never Cross the World" facing her at the bottom of the boat. "This king demands it." --- Later—— The boat she carved carried his dead men across the river, the seal she carved helped him seize his heir, and the spiritual tablet she carved sent away his political enemies. She thought she was his sword, his boat, and his disposable wooden vessel. He didn't know that she had already carved her life into the bottom of the boat - "I would like to cross Yan Haoxiang, but not myself."