He Lost His Family in the Snow, He Returned to Save Them novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: The Gift Carriage
The gift carriage had come up from the south the day before Ren, and it was the most beautiful thing in the stable yard.
It was black lacquer with gold on the rims and a plum blossom painted on each door.
The Southern King's eldest son had sent it as a present for his brother's journey.
Min-jun stood in front of it with the carriage wright at his elbow and remembered exactly how it had looked at the bottom of a ravine.
"It's a fine piece, Prince," the wright said. "Very light. The axle is oak with an iron pin."
"Show me the pin."
The wright crawled under the frame with a lamp.
Min-jun crouched beside him and watched his thumb move over the iron.
"Nothing wrong with it," the wright said. "New metal. Sound."
"Is it?"
The wright looked closer, and his face changed.
"There's a cut here, Prince. A hair, almost. Someone filed it halfway through and blacked it with soot."
"Would it hold on a flat road?"
"A week, maybe. Not a mountain."
Min-jun let out his breath, slowly.
"Say nothing of this to anyone. Take the pin out and put it in a box. Then build a second carriage from our own timber, wide wheels, northern iron, and have it ready in twenty days."
"Twenty days is not enough, Prince."
"Then work through the night. I will pay for the lamps."
The wright bowed his head.
"May I ask why?"
Min-jun opened his mouth to tell him, and the old seal closed on his throat.
He stood there with his jaw working until the wright looked alarmed.
"Wider wheels carry better in snow," he said at last, and the sound came out easily.
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