Perspective Drawing Method

Inside the Old Li Family's blacksmith shop, a middle-aged man with slightly rough skin was staring at the blueprints in his hands, his eyes shining and a smile on his face. Every so often, he nodded, as if he'd spotted something interesting.

After a while, the middle-aged man finally asked, "Mingyuan? You really designed these?"

His expression was doubtful. He didn't quite believe it.

In his eyes, Lu Mingyuan was just an ordinary student at the academy. He might have been clever enough to teach children to read, but he wasn't a professional craftsman, much less a Mohist disciple. How could he have designed such precise blueprints?

It wasn't the plowshares shown in the drawings that surprised him. He was taken aback by the drafting skill on display. These weren't the sort of drawings a young man who wasn't even twenty could produce.

Even though the boy was his nephew, whom he'd watched grow up, he still couldn't believe it.

As far as the middle-aged man knew, even in Changfeng City, there were only around fifty blacksmiths who could use this kind of perspective drawing to sketch the structure of a workpiece. And those who could draw with such precision were rarer still.

So his expression was full of doubt.

"Uncle Li, I really drew them. How could I lie to you? You're my own uncle, after all."

Lu Mingyuan hadn't expected the first thing his uncle would find astonishing about the blueprints to be the drafting method.

What was so remarkable about it? Wasn't it common? The Nongshu and Tiangong Kaiwu both used this method.

Hey, shouldn't the important part be the workpiece shown in the drawings?

Lu Mingyuan felt his uncle had gotten his priorities mixed up.

Still, he had to explain. "Uncle Li, I specifically studied perspective drawing with Teacher Li Hongyuan at Qingshan Academy to prepare these blueprints, so..."

"Teacher Li Hongyuan? Oh, that explains it."

At the mention of Teacher Li Hongyuan, Uncle Li finally understood. He knew that Li Hongyuan was a Mohist scholar at Qingshan Academy, so it made sense that he'd know this drafting method.

But as far as he knew, perspective drawing wasn't part of the curriculum at lower-level academies.

If an academy student wanted to learn it, they had to ask sincerely and obtain permission from one of the teachers first.

But not many students wanted to learn it, and few teachers wanted to teach it. His nephew Lu Mingyuan must have been one lucky boy.

Having thought it through, Uncle Li—Li Fuhong—couldn't help sighing. Back in his day, he'd needed plenty of military merit to learn perspective drawing. He hadn't expected Lu Mingyuan to master it so skillfully at such a young age.

What a pity the boy would never come learn blacksmithing from him. Otherwise, Li Fuhong might really have been able to train a master blacksmith.

Compared to his nephew Lu Mingyuan, his own boy was miles behind. He'd taught him for years, and he still hadn't learned to draw.

Sigh!

Li Fuhong glanced at his foolish son standing off to the side and felt inexplicably annoyed. The boy never did anything to make him proud. He was as stupid as a pig.

If the fellow didn't look exactly like Li Fuhong, he'd have wondered if the boy was even his.

How could Li Fuhong's son be so stupid?

Li Tiezhu, who had been standing around doing nothing, suddenly sensed something was off. He looked up and saw his father's angry expression. Scratching the back of his head, he felt baffled. He had no idea what he'd done to anger the old man this time.

Why had he suddenly blown up?

Uncle Li's surprise didn't bother Lu Mingyuan. He didn't think there was anything remarkable about knowing perspective drawing.

He remembered that at university in his previous life, he'd taken a course called Engineering Drawing, also known as CAD Drafting. It covered the drawing of engineering plans, using all sorts of methods: projection, multiview orthographic projection, projection transformations, intersection and penetration curves, unfolded views, and more.

The perspective drawing of this life was just another kind of projection method. The only real difference was how the measurements were marked; everything else was much the same.

So Lu Mingyuan had picked it up quickly, as if he were just reviewing familiar material.

He remembered that when he studied the method with Teacher Li Hongyuan, he'd even had to hold back his pace so the other man wouldn't mistake him for some kind of prodigy.

Sigh, being Lu Mingyuan wasn't easy!

Just then, Li Fuhong shot his son Li Tiezhu a sidelong glance.

"Your Brother Tiezhu's been learning from me for three years, and all he's managed to learn is how to read a drawing. As for drawing one... sigh!"

As he spoke, he shook his head, seemingly having no confidence at all that his son would ever learn to draw.

Lu Mingyuan was surprised. From the look of Uncle Li, this method must have been difficult to learn.

But that didn't seem right!

Engineering Drawing should have been easy. Lu Mingyuan remembered reading the textbook a few times and understanding it inside and out. The course had barely posed a challenge.

How could someone study it for years and still not learn?

Could it be...

Lu Mingyuan looked doubtfully at Brother Tiezhu, who was still standing there. His brain was normal, wasn't it?

At that moment, Li Tiezhu suddenly felt the atmosphere in the room turn strange. He grew uncomfortable, glancing from his father to his childhood friend. Of the three of them, he was the only one who couldn't do this kind of drawing. Could there really be something wrong with him?

At that thought, Li Tiezhu began to doubt his own intelligence.

All at once, Li Tiezhu shuddered and quickly banished the thought.

He, Li Tiezhu, was perfectly normal. What was this nonsense about having an intelligence problem?

He couldn't go imagining things about himself.

Meanwhile, Lu Mingyuan had no idea what Brother Tiezhu was thinking. He was still wondering what caused the difference between them.

Then, in a flash of inspiration, Lu Mingyuan suddenly understood why he'd learned Engineering Drawing so easily.

It must have been the solid foundation he'd built before taking the course. He'd had six years of geometry in middle and high school, along with the scientific thinking and comprehension skills he'd developed through years of study. That was why Engineering Drawing had seemed easy.

Without those things, he'd probably have been just like Brother Tiezhu.

Struggling for years, even decades, hoping to grasp it all in a single moment of enlightenment. Each time, he would leave with a heart full of hope, only to return disappointed.

While Lu Mingyuan and Li Tiezhu were lost in their own thoughts, the owner and master smith of the Old Li Family's blacksmith shop, Li Fuhong, was carefully studying the blueprints in his hands, trying to figure out whether he could craft the workpieces perfectly.

His nephew had come to him because he trusted him. He couldn't let the boy down.

A moment later, Boss Li set down the blueprints, looking a little disappointed.

He'd assumed that anything worthy of perspective drawing would at least be some sort of valuable object. But after studying it from every angle, he realized it really was just an ordinary plowshare.

Though it did differ from a regular plowshare in a few ways.

First, the angles on its surface were different from the usual ones. He couldn't tell why it had been designed that way.

Then there were all the little holes at the back, with loops like pull rings. He had no idea what they were for.

There were a few other minor differences, too. The parts of the plow had slightly unusual shapes, and the drawing showed a pair of plowshares, each facing a different direction...

Li Fuhong couldn't see why any of these changes were necessary. But since Lu Mingyuan had already said he was modifying farm tools, he didn't think it was appropriate to ask more.

That was the rule of the trade, and he didn't want to break it.

No matter how close the two families were, he couldn't ask. Otherwise, it might sour their relationship.

Still, he could take the job.

"Mingyuan, I can make them here. Come back the day after tomorrow to pick them up."

Hearing Uncle Li's confirmation, Lu Mingyuan breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been worried the man might find it troublesome and refuse the work.

In this age of handicrafts, making something exactly according to a blueprint was a real hassle, especially when it came to ironwork. The smith had to keep reheating and reworking the metal. And even after finishing the job, he couldn't charge a high price, so few people were willing to take it on.

That was why Lu Mingyuan hadn't gone to some unfamiliar blacksmith shop. Instead, he'd come straight to Uncle Li, a good friend of his late father.

All he had to do was be sweet-tongued and call him Uncle a few times, and he'd be set.

If that didn't work, he'd have to drag Jing Zhi along to charm Auntie.

Fortunately, whether out of regard for family friends and neighbors or for some other reason, Li Fuhong had agreed outright. Lu Mingyuan didn't have to resort to anything else.

"Uncle Li, then... how much?"

Li Fuhong hesitated for a moment. "Ten taels of silver will do."

Hearing this, Li Tiezhu was just about to pipe up when Uncle Li glared at him, forcing him to swallow his words.

Seeing that, Lu Mingyuan knew Uncle Li had quoted him far too low a price.

He'd already looked into the going rate. Ten taels wouldn't even cover the materials and labor. Maybe Uncle Li had waived his own labor costs, leaving just enough to pay an apprentice and cover the iron ore.

Now that Lu Mingyuan knew, he couldn't let Uncle Li take a loss.

He'd already put the man to trouble. How could he also let him lose money? That went against his principles.

"Uncle Li, just charge me the going rate. Otherwise, I'll feel too embarrassed to come see you."

Li Fuhong knew his nephew had been running a small private school for the past few years and probably wasn't short on money. But when he thought of his old friend Lu Xin and Cui Ying, who'd both died and left their child behind all these years ago, his heart ached.

Ever since he'd moved away from Guihua Lane, the two families had barely kept in touch. He'd always wanted to...

After a round of back-and-forth, Lu Mingyuan left behind a banknote worth thirty taels of silver, then strode out of the blacksmith shop.

The father and son of the Li family were left standing in silence.

A moment later, Li Fuhong sighed. "Tiezhu, you two grew up together. How come there's such a big difference between you?"

Li Tiezhu didn't say anything. He simply turned and headed for the back courtyard.

Every so often, his old man compared him to other people. He was used to taking the blows by now. The only thing different this time was that Lu Mingyuan was the one he was being compared to.

After leaving the blacksmith shop, Lu Mingyuan headed for his next destination. Today, he was going to hand out all the plans for the new plow parts he'd designed. A few days later, he'd put them together and test them all at once.

As for the thirty taels he'd paid Uncle Li, that wasn't expensive. It was about the market price.

In this life, one tael of silver was worth one hundred wen, with purchasing power roughly equivalent to a hundred yuan. In other words, one wen was worth about one yuan, enough to buy a big meat bun.

Thirty taels to make a new pair of plowshares came to about three thousand yuan.

That was already very cheap.

They were being handmade, and the smith had to follow the plans exactly. In his previous life, with requirements like these, you'd probably have to pay eight or ten thousand yuan just to get anyone to take the job.

Lu Mingyuan guessed that it was so cheap in this life because everything was handmade, which meant labor cost less. In his previous life, there were few blacksmiths, so their work was naturally worth more.

If Lu Mingyuan had bought ordinary plowshares, one would have cost about five taels, or roughly five hundred yuan.

Even if you counted the manual labor, that was still pretty cheap.

But this time, he was ordering custom-made parts, so the price was naturally higher.

With the most important part, the plowshares, taken care of, Lu Mingyuan took the blueprints to a carpenter's shop and got the remaining parts—the plow point, the beam, the handles, the adjustment wedge, and so on—made in one go.

He hadn't changed these parts much, so there was no need to order them from several different carpenters to keep the design secret. One shop was enough.

Actually, if he hadn't needed to make it look like he was genuinely doing research, he wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble. He could've worked it all out in his head, then designed the divine ability and made any changes afterward.

Once he'd finished his errands, Lu Mingyuan was about to head home when something stirred in his heart. His feet carried him toward the Jing Family Restaurant.