# Chapter 444: Artisan Family
Bai Jiu had been listening for a while and felt the rules weren't very clearly stated.
"Excuse me, why do we have to push this cart?" she asked with some confusion. "Didn't you say we just needed to go back and forth ourselves?"
"Of course not." Di Ma said. "You all don't seem like particularly cultured people. I'm afraid I'm the only one who has thoroughly read the 'Three Kingdoms.'"
"No." Yun Shijiu shook his head. "I'm afraid we've all read it. What are you trying to say?"
Qiao Jiajin consciously stepped back to the side.
Yes, he was probably the only one who hadn't read it.
"Oh?" Di Ma stroked her mane with some disdain. "You've all read it? Well, appearances can be deceiving. Since that's the case, why don't you tell me—how did the 'Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse' come to be?"
Yun Shijiu answered without hesitation: "The Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse should be a transport vehicle invented by Zhuge Liang, the Chancellor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. It consists of the Wooden Ox and the Flowing Horse. Historical records state it was used by Zhuge Liang during his Northern Expeditions from the ninth to the twelfth year of Jianxing."
Bai Jiu smiled slightly and added: "According to legend, the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse had a load capacity of 'one year's grain,' approximately over four hundred jin. Its daily travel distance was 'several dozen li when traveling alone, thirty li when traveling in groups,' and it transported grain for the hundred-thousand-strong army of Shu Han."
Di Ma truly hadn't expected these casually dressed people to be so knowledgeable. She nodded with slight surprise.
At this moment, a tall girl also spoke up: "Even though your game is called 'Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,' the truth is that no one actually knows what the real Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse looked like. Different documents interpret it differently. Some say it was just an ordinary one-wheeled handcart, others say it was a wooden structure shaped like an ox and a horse."
Qiao Jiajin looked at this very tall girl. If he remembered correctly, her name was Feng Shiqi.
"Unexpected." Di Ma turned to look at the group. "You're quite knowledgeable... but what does that matter?"
"What...?"
"These bits of knowledge are just words to you..." Di Ma stroked the wooden cart beside her with some melancholy. "Even if a craftsman painstakingly restores these lost things, you would just say no one in the world has ever seen the originals, so the restorations must be fakes too."
Qiao Jiajin scratched his head blankly: "I... I don't quite understand what you mean... Are the others wrong? Things made by later generations are indeed fakes, aren't they?"
"Of course they're wrong." Di Ma said. "The very purpose of our carpenter families is to restore these lost precision wooden artifacts, often spending our entire lives without anyone understanding us..."
Qiao Jiajin looked again at the wooden boxes placed along both sides of the track. Since this was an "artisan family," had Di Ma made those wooden boxes herself?
"I still don't understand." Qiao Jiajin said. "I know quite a few artisan families too... but aren't you being a bit extreme?"
"Extreme?"
"This ox-horse thingy..." Qiao Jiajin patted the handcart beside him. "Does it mean something special to you?"
"No. As I said... I simply want to replicate these lost things. They are part of the brilliant history that has dissipated in the river of time."
"What's the point?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
"The point?"
"From what you all just said, I gather this thing once helped Zhuge Liang, so it must have been some kind of transportation device, right?"
"Yes." Di Ma nodded. "The Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse is recorded in many ancient texts. It was the cart Zhuge Liang used to transport grain and forage through the mountains."
"Then it must have meant a lot to Zhuge Liang, not to you." Qiao Jiajin said. "You've devoted your whole life to something like this? Did Zhuge Liang agree to that?"
"Ah...?"
"I might be talking too much." Qiao Jiajin smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I just hope you'll spend your time on something more joyful, rather than this."
"You..." Di Ma sighed. She didn't know why she was telling this annoying tattooed man so much. She sighed again and said, "There's no need to flatter me before the game starts. Aside from my work, I have no joy left in life. If you can't win this game, your deaths will be more miserable than anywhere else."
"Is it really that hard?" Qiao Jiajin said. "As long as each of us pushes the cart back and forth once, we can finish the game, right?"
"No..." Di Ma shook her head. "Because the original design concept of the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse was 'transportation'... so you simply walking through the track yourself does nothing."
"Ah?" Qiao Jiajin suddenly felt confused. "Wait a minute... Didn't you just say that as long as each person does a round trip on the track, we win the game?"
"Yes, but that's not the complete rule." Di Ma chuckled. "All seven people must ride the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse for a round trip. Only then is it considered clearing the stage."
"What the hell?!" Qiao Jiajin was stunned. "You pink... Lady Di, what nonsense are you talking? It doesn't count even if we run barefoot on the ground?"
"It doesn't count." Di Ma shook her head. "I will observe the whole process. All seven people must sit on the 'Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse' for a round trip. If anyone cheats, I will impose sanctions."
"This is really tough..." Qiao Jiajin lowered his head and looked back at his teammates, as if waiting for their ideas.
Although Qi Xia wasn't here, Qiao Jiajin was, after all, leading a group of "little brains."
"You all... what do you think?"
"Um... Brother Qiao, come here a moment." Bai Jiu reached out and tugged his clothes.
Qiao Jiajin nodded and retreated to a corner with the others.
"Any ideas?"
"Pretty much..." Bai Jiu nodded. "Although this game is a racing type, it seems like it still requires some cooperation."
Yun Shijiu nodded as well: "That's right. Di Ma only counts those sitting on the 'Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,' but she didn't mention the people on the track..."
"It seems Shijiu and I think alike." Bai Jiu nodded. "We can send everyone out every round."
"Everyone...?"
"We have seven people." Bai Jiu explained. "Each round, only one person needs to sit in the cart, while three people on each side steady the handcart. This will significantly increase the time we take to cross the track."
"Is that so?" Qiao Jiajin frowned and scratched his hair, feeling like something was off. "Have any of you ever walked hand in hand on an icy surface?"
"Uh... no..." Everyone shook their heads.
"Me neither." Qiao Jiajin said. "But I can roughly guess... While it might ensure stability for everyone, it could also cause a chain reaction. If one person falls, the rest will lose their balance, and even the person sitting in the 'Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse' might fall off."
"That... that is indeed possible..." Bai Jiu nodded.
"Has your team ever played that kind of game before?" Qiao Jiajin asked. "The one where everyone moves in sync, same foot, same hand?"
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