183.1 – Four Guard Forts and Gong Tianqing

“He-he.”

Xue Qilin crooked her lips into an mischievous smile, moved forward, and beckoned Li Wanting. Li Wanting leaned forward, confused.

“I’ll speak in a low voice. This is just a rhetorical question, by the way. But if she learns that I ate them by myself without telling her, won’t she make a big fuss over it?”

Li Wanting was speechless momentarily. After straightening her body, she blinked her eyes and stared at Xue Qilin.

“It’s like that?”

“He-he, I call this ‘act first and report later’! She can’t eat it anyway, so she could only watch. But she fell asleep unexpectedly. Heh, it really saved me a lot of trouble, like having her nag while I’m eating.”

Li Wanting first assumed an expression of “can’t stand it”, and then chuckled and flicked Xue Qilin on the forehead.

“Young Ancestor, you’re really rotten. If I tell Little Sister Temple Master, she’ll definitely give you a scolding again.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Xue Qilin said as she stroked her chin, “Little Ting, you have a rather small mouth.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just saying that you don’t have a big mouth, that you can keep a secret.” After waving her hand, Xue Qilin puckered, “You’re not like Little Xue.”

“Hey, are you talking about Junior Disciple Sister Xia?”

“Who else if not her?”

Li Wanting showed a helplessness expression and sighed softly.

“I can’t deny it. With Junior Disciple Sister Xia’s personality, you never know if she won’t let it slip one day.”

Xue Qilin is unconvinced by Li Wanting’s statement.

“Let it slip? Humph humph, she wouldn’t. There is no such word as ‘careless’ in her lexicon, there is only ‘deliberate’! That gal is shrewd!”

“She still has a sense of propriety when it come to major matters.”

Then, Li Wanting stroke her chin and added, “Of course, the same may not be the case when it comes to minor matters.”

It turns out that keeping me away from harm’s way is a minor matter! Xue Qilin rolled her eyes dissatisfiedly, and then took a sip from her tea cup. The tea is already cold and doesn’t taste that good.

Upon seeing Xue Qilin raise her brows, Li Wanting coughed awkwardly.

“What’s wrong?”

“Should I make another pot?” Li Wanting smiled wryly and pointed at the tea cup that Xue Qilin placed in front of her own mouth, “I was too focused on reading just now that I didn’t pay attention to the water’s temperature. Was it hard to rink?”

“It’s good that you’re aware. Anyhow, I am a guest here, yet you treated me so perfunctorily.” Xue Qilin imitated Li Wanting’s tone and said in a steady voice, “If Little Seven learns of this, she may give you a scolding.”

“Ha-ha, that would be awful.”

Li Wanting is candid, and her laughter, unlike that of the other girls, is not tactful. In the Hua Dynasty, this laughter may appear rather uneducated. But Xue Qilin feels particularly comfortable with it.

Laugh when it’s time to laugh, laugh heartily when it’s time to laugh heartily, what is there to suppress and hide? This is what Xue Qilin believes.

“There’s no need to make more tea. If it’s drinkable, then it’s fine. I have no demands.” Xue Qilin’s gaze fell on the book next to Li Wanting, “Is this book about mechanics really that interesting?”

“Yes, it’s very interesting.” Li Wanting said excitedly, “There were some things that I couldn’t comprehend, but this book gave me a sudden flash of insight.”

“Oh, I see…”

After listening to Li Wanting, Xue Qilin suddenly felt a little curious.

“Can I see it?”

“Huh?” Li Wanting looked Xue Qilin up and down, both surprised and suspicious, “Young Ancestor, do you have an understanding of mechanics?

“No, I don’t. I’m a layman, there’s no way I have an understanding of mechanics. I’m just curious.” Xue Qilin showed a nonchalant appearance, “If it’s inconvenient, then let it be.”

“It’s not that it’s inconvenient, it’s just a little unexpected.”

With that, Li Wanting let out a laugh, picked up the book placed in the corner of the table, and handed it to Xue Qilin. Xue Qilin looked back and forth between the book and Li Wanting.

“Really, I can?”

“Hey, it’s fine.”

Xue Qilin nodded with an “oh”, took the book, and then opened it after a moment of hesitation.

As a result, what entered her eyes are densely packed line segments and annotations.

It is a diagram.

Xue Qilin opened her eyes wide as if she saw something incredible.

This diagram is drawn in 3D, and it looks rather well drawn. The most unbelievable thing is that there are things similar to modern scales in the annotations next to the knots. It’s really hard to imagine that such auxiliary annotations would appear in this era.

Naturally, the numbers of the scales are not Arabic numerals, nor is the representation the standard modern representation. However, this does in no way hinder understanding. Even Xue Qilin can understand it with a little effort.

It seems that I underestimated the wisdom of the Hua Dynasty’s people? Until now, Xue Qilin believed that compared to the modern times, these ancient times are lagging behind in many places. But now she realized that the ingenuity of the ancient people is not inferior to that of modern people. They only lack some experience, that’s all.

“Ah?”

Xue Qilin suddenly discovered something odd.

In this diagram, there are some complex and regular line segments. These line segments are obviously not ordinary structure lines, but a kind of structure in and of themselves. To put it bluntly, it’s like the bird’s-eye view of a city’s complex network of alleys and streets, or the qi passageways that go back and forth in the human body.

The annotations of the relevant line segments are written in classical Chinese, which slightly differs from the general grammar of the Hua Dynasty. Xue Qilin doesn’t understand the grammar of the Hua Dynasty too well, let alone that of ancient Chinese.

But since the characters are the same, Xue Qilin still has a rough idea.

From what she understands, these line segments are tiny true qi channels. When true qi flows through these channels, it can power some mechanical structures.

So are these power channels? Xue Qilin explained the line segments with a conventional concept.

Only–

Although this is baseless speculation, but once she looked at the line segments as a whole pattern, Xue Qilin felt that the pattern assembled from the line segments resembles a spell model very much.

However, in the next moment, Xue Qilin felt that this thought is a bit ridiculous.

“How can this be…”

The lass murmured.

If the line segments really depict a spell model, then wouldn’t mechanical weapons become magic weapons? Xue Qilin can’t imagine that similar technology would appear in the Hua Dynasty, a place backward in terms of magic theory. Of course, it is uncertain whether mechanical arts are the prototype of similar technology or not.

–it may be that it just looks alike, just like the cross section of a tree looks similar to a spell model!

In any case, feeling that she is overthinking it, Xue Qilin abandoned this thought.

Coincidentally, at this time–

“Right…”

Li Wanting’s hesitant voice pulled Xue Qilin out of her thoughts. Xue Qilin looked up from the book, aimed her gaze at Li Wanting, and found that the other party is frowning slightly.

“Hmm?”

Xue Qilin voiced her doubt.

Li Wanting started with the words, “I heard that–” and then continued, “The Great General of the North has returned to the imperial capital?”

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