Red Bean

Li Shiming walked along the garden path at an unhurried pace. It was not that he had not considered moving faster, but he did not know whether Escort Chief Wang was watching him from behind. He needed to appear composed to put Escort Chief Wang at ease.

Only after leaving the garden and seeing his own courtyard did most of his worries finally fall away.

He now faced two choices. One was to report the matter to his father. The Original Body's father, Li Wenyuan, was the prefect of Nanling Prefecture. Though only a fourth-rank official, he held the greatest authority in Nanling Prefecture.

With the power in Li Wenyuan's hands, he was fully capable of inviting experts to eliminate Escort Chief Wang.

The other choice was to do as Escort Chief Wang said and brew the medicine according to the prescription.

I'll deal with him for now. If I can't solve this trouble, I'll ask Father to step in! he thought to himself.

In any case, Escort Chief Wang needed him to do something, so he would not do anything to him for the time being. With the Three Days Soul Severing Pill involved, Escort Chief Wang would not be too wary of him.

Lost in thought, he entered the courtyard. When the maid Si Qin saw Li Shiming, she hurriedly hid what she was holding behind her back, then stepped forward with a smile and bowed.

Si Qin was Li Shiming's personal maid. Besides her, there were five rough-serving maids and two old mistresses assigned especially to attend him.

However, he did not like having too many people in his courtyard. Other than Si Qin, the rest of the servants stayed by the servants' quarters and would not come over without being summoned.

"What are you holding?" Li Shiming asked curiously as he looked at Si Qin's shy expression.

"Some little trinkets Old Mistress Wang sent over. I thought they were pretty, so I asked for a few!" Si Qin spread open her hand, revealing several red beans in her palm.

Li Shiming shook his head. No wonder Si Qin had looked so bashful. These were love beans. It seemed Si Qin had grown up and developed a young girl's thoughts.

He was about to send Si Qin off to do something when he examined the love beans again.

One end of these love beans was black. He thought of Rosary Pea. Rosary Pea was also a kind of love bean, but it was highly poisonous. Swallowing two or three by mistake could be fatal.

Of course, few people knew that Rosary Pea was poisonous. It grew in the far south, and not only did few people know it was highly toxic, few even knew the difference between Rosary Pea and love beans.

"Si Qin, go ask Old Mistress Wang how many of these black-tipped love beans there are. Retrieve every one that has been given away as well. Say that I want them. Give me the ones in your hand too!" Li Shiming ordered in a deep voice.

"Yes, Young Master!" Si Qin pouted in displeasure, but she did not dare defy his command. She handed over the love beans in her palm.

"Oh, and have Mo Yan come over as well!" Li Shiming added when he saw Si Qin about to leave.

Li Shiming went into the study. First, he copied out the prescription Escort Chief Wang had given him, recording only the quantities of the medicinal ingredients.

Having fused with the Original Body's memories, his brushwork was fairly good.

This world was both similar to and different from his Previous Life. The country he was in was Xia, and it used Chinese characters. It even had the Four Books and Five Classics. It seemed this place bore enormous similarities to his Previous Life.

Li Shiming knew the Four Books and Five Classics were the same because he had read them in the memories of both lives.

Back in the university library in his Previous Life, he had enjoyed reading ancient texts. Though he had not studied the Four Books and Five Classics in great depth, he was still familiar with them.

In this life, he had studied the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood and had already become a Xiucai.

He had not earned his Xiucai status through Father's Relationship, but through his own learning and by passing the examinations.

Becoming a Xiucai at fifteen was no easy feat for ordinary people, but for him, with his family's scholarly heritage, it had come with exceptional ease.

Though he had not relied on the connections of his father, the prefect, the conditions and resources available for his studies were beyond anything ordinary people could imagine.

As long as one was not dull-witted or unwilling to work hard, with such conditions, passing the Prefectural Examination and becoming a Xiucai was only a matter of time.

The geography of this world also differed from his Previous Life. Take Nanling Prefecture, for example. No such great prefecture had existed in the history of his Previous Life.

Nanling Prefecture lay in the Southern Region of the Xia Kingdom. Together with Central Capital in the middle and Guanhai Prefecture in the north, it was connected by the Immortal Severing Canal. Along with four prefectures in the east and west, they formed the Xia Kingdom's seven Most Important prefectures.

As Li Shiming pondered this, the voices of Si Qin and the servant Mo Yan came from outside the door.

Mo Yan entered laboriously carrying a wooden box, then carefully set it down on the floor before him.

"Youth, everything you asked for has been made according to the blueprints. Take a look and see whether anything needs changing. I'll go handle it right away!" Mo Yan reported, his face full of eagerness to claim credit.

Excitement surged through Li Shiming's heart, but he suppressed it as he opened the wooden box.

Inside lay the parts of a Generator, all made according to the blueprints.

Three days ago, just after he had transmigrated, he had used his former knowledge of electricity and the memories of this life to design the blueprints and hand them to Mo Yan, all so he could charge the Uninterruptible Power Supply. Now Mo Yan had delivered them at just the right time.

Before receiving them, he had already prepared himself. As long as the differences were not too great, he could correct minor errors himself.

But when he truly saw the finished items, he was still deeply astonished.

Leaving aside the wooden components, just looking at the iron gears he needed, one could not tell at a glance that they had been made in an ancient society. Their exquisite craftsmanship made him suspect they had been processed by a Machine Tool.

Those were not the most difficult parts. The two hardest were the magnets and the copper wire.

He picked up a magnet and found that its shape fully met his requirements.

"Young Master, these magnets were made at the Compass Shop. I chose their finest magnets!" Mo Yan explained when he saw him examining them.

A compass was a compass needle, and its needle required magnets to be shaped in a special way. Using the same technique to make the shape Li Shiming required was not particularly difficult.

A smile appeared on Li Shiming's face. He nodded, then picked up the copper wire.

To be honest, the copper wire had worried him the most. It required the greatest skill.

The copper wire in his hand was thin and soft, its surface coated with a layer of lacquer. Even in his Previous Life, it would have counted as excellent copper wire.

"I had the Wu Family's jewelry shop custom-make this copper wire. When they heard it was for you, they had their finest old craftsman make it overnight!" Mo Yan did not miss a single chance to claim credit.

"You handled this well. Si Qin, give Mo Yan two taels of silver!" Li Shiming naturally understood Mo Yan's little thoughts. Satisfied with his work, he smiled and instructed Si Qin.

Si Qin obediently took out the silver and handed it to Mo Yan, whose smile stretched from ear to ear.

"Mo Yan, don't talk too much after you leave. Don't go spreading Young Master's affairs outside," Si Qin reminded him softly.

She did not know what Li Shiming wanted these things for, but with Young Master about to take the Autumn Examination, it would be trouble if Master learned that he was busying himself with things unrelated to his studies.

"Mo Yan, here is a prescription. Buy the medicine according to it and be quick about it. Also, bring me the case files on the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion case!" Li Shiming shifted his gaze away from the wooden box, remembering why he had summoned Mo Yan, and ordered solemnly.

Having received a new task, Mo Yan happily left with the silver.