On the South Sea.

  This island is not large.

  Two days ago, after their ship dropped anchor here, she felt a sudden burst of curiosity, and using her well-honed qinggong skill, she walked around the entire island to scout out the terrain. It took her roughly two hours in total.

  Right now, the far horizon is a brilliant, blazing tangerine, threaded through with thin streaks of dark indigo, like an embroidered brocade of sunset.

  The year-round tropical sea is dyed crimson by the sunset glow, the soft sandy beach still holds the residual warmth of the sun, and the shimmering fine sand shifts back and forth with the tide. It lingers longer when it comes, and leaves at will when it goes—no need to force persistence, after all, both rising and falling are a matter of fate.

  Above the island, unknown birds circle at varying heights.

  Though this small sea island is not large, it is full of vibrant greenery. Many flowers and trees never seen in the Central Plains grow from the island's center outward, ring overlapping ring, layer wrapping layer, layer upon layer, tangled and dazzling, making people hesitate to venture deep. They fear the scent of the sea will blend into the strange fragrance of flowers and herbs, and if one breathes too much, they will lose all sense of direction.

  "After you scoop out the residue, stir a few more times, then pour it into the wooden buckets later and set it aside to cool down." The woman's voice is naturally soft and charming. Even when giving orders, every syllable is clear and graceful, and it is pleasant to listen to no matter how you hear it.

  A fire has been built on the beach, with an iron cauldron set over it.

  However, cooking out in the open is not for making rice or dishes. Right now, the cauldron is boiling with a full amount of amber-colored juice. The juice is slightly thick, and the white steam it gives off carries almost no scent at all, so one cannot tell what it is just by smelling.

  No sooner had the woman finished speaking than the two young men guarding the cauldron answered and hurried to do as told. One scooped out the floating impurities according to her instructions, while the other held a long ladle and stirred slowly in the cauldron—they were truly very obedient.

  To be honest, there are plenty of these "obedient" men, enough to fill almost an entire ship.

  All these men are from the Western Desert, blooded warriors forged in the vast, rugged wilderness. Every one of them made their name riding horses and camelbacks. Yet who would have thought they had such bad luck: instead of following a good master, they followed a leader who abandoned the position of Wolf Lord, preferring to wander far from home and suffer the harsh wind and frost. He brought all of them from the Western Desert to the soft, rainy Jiangnan, and it was already bad enough that their whole bodies were turning soft and sweet from the mild climate. After the men had finally just about adapted to life in Jiangnan, that unworthy leader held to his obsession that "a man's ambition lies in all four corners of the world" and led them out of the Central Plains again.

  This time, they headed out to sea.

  All of them were thoroughly put through the wringer for a long time.

  After all, life at sea is completely different from what they were used to. Even their always tough and formidable leader tasted bitter hardship for once. After they saw with their own eyes their leader hunched over the ship's railing, vomiting from seasickness until his face turned deadly pale and he could barely stand, the Western Desert men felt a little comforted—they knew heaven was just after all.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Now, four years have passed since they began wandering overseas. The Western Desert men have astonishing perseverance; just as they once made their name on horseback and camelback, as long as they clench their teeth, keep their resilience, and stay strong-willed, roaming the four seas and coming and going freely is not that difficult.

  They are this strong, this tough, and to get them to obey orders and follow instructions, only their leader had that ability—until recently, when another person gained this power. If this person blinks her beautiful eyes, tilts her head, curls her red lips and speaks softly, even if she asks them to climb to heaven to pluck a peach of immortality, these men would willingly give their heads or their lives. They would surely stack ladder after ladder and scramble up like monkeys to get it done.

  This person is truly remarkable.

  This person is also not arrogant. Even if she is proud, she knows well how to hide her satisfaction deep in her heart, letting her beautiful charming face naturally show innocence—that is the way to always win.

  This person is exactly—

  "Building Master... uh, e-elder sister, is this right?" The young man's voice carries obvious shyness.

  "Yes, that's exactly the right amount of force, keep stirring slowly, don't rush. The color we got from this batch came out really well, and the consistency is just right. Once it cools and sets, the texture will be softer and smoother than anything we've had before. It'll probably be more springy than the 'rose jelly' that's the signature dessert of my Langping Waterside Pavilion's chef." Hua Duomei re-tied her slightly loose bun. She is dressed like a shiphand and wears no makeup. After more than a month of sailing under the sun, her skin is no longer the pale white it used to be, but it is rosy, like a perfectly ripe peach.

  She smiles and adds approvingly: "Harmon, Aturi, you two are as big as little mountains, but I never thought you could control your strength so gently. Very good, very good. Remember to use this same gentle touch on a woman's body later on, and she'll be charmed completely. If you make a woman feel good, you'll get your own benefits too!"

  "Uh, that... e-elder sister..." The two young men's tanned faces burn bright red.

  They have followed their fierce leader since they were fifteen years old.

  At seventeen, they followed their leader, who gave up the Wolf Lord position, and left the Western Desert, then went to war in the South China Sea, and are now twenty-four years old when they return to the Central Plains.

  If you think about it, over all these years, they only ever called him "leader" or "boss". Now that their leader has brought his woman out of the Central Plains with them, they have an extra "Building Master Elder Sister". Even though she is two or three years older than more than half of them, she looks like a woman in her early twenties, and for some reason, all these men just aren't used to calling her "elder sister".

  Furthermore, it's like this "Building Master Elder Sister" cast some kind of spell on all of them!

  When a group of rough men get together, coarse jokes and bawdy talk are inevitable. They can handle any dirty, lewd topic or joke, but when they are in front of her, as soon as her bright eyes glance over them, those rude words somehow just won't come out. On the contrary, this delicate "Building Master Elder Sister" has no taboos at all, she dares say anything. When she talks about explicit matters between men and women, she looks as natural as if she's chatting about the weather, she doesn't even blush or breathe harder. And that makes them shamefully red-faced and breathless.

  It is really such a helpless... humiliation!

  Sigh...

  "Elder sister, all five buckets have set into jelly!"

  In the shallows not far away, two other men are standing half-submerged in seawater, checking each of the five large buckets that are being cooled by soaking in the water. The buckets are seven or eight tenths full of solidified jelly. Once the amber-colored liquid cools, this is what it becomes.

  Hua Duomei hears the call and lifts her lashes, her voice crisp: "It setting means we're done! Pull all five buckets up to the big ship!"

  The men cheerfully respond, calling to the men on deck to lower the rope baskets so they can hoist the wooden buckets up.

  Though they don't understand what use these buckets of jelly are, since "Building Master Elder Sister" insisted on making it and is so full of energy about it, it doesn't hurt them to go all out to help her.