Are You Here to Keep an Eye on Me?

Inside the Soul Space.

Lu Mingyuan was sprawled over a huge rosewood desk carved with dragons and phoenixes, scribbling furiously.

One formula after another, unlike anything this world had ever seen, spilled from his pen. They were filled with all sorts of trigonometric symbols, along with English letters like f, a, and l.

Aside from the sheet beneath Lu Mingyuan's hand, dozens of densely written pages were scattered across the desk. Some were covered in calculations, while others featured all kinds of strange diagrams.

One looked like a plowshare, another showed various connecting rods, and one was nothing but a Cartesian coordinate plane. A few had only several arrows...

Hey, this looked like a force analysis.

That was right. Lu Mingyuan was analyzing the forces acting on a plow.

Only with force analysis and data analysis could he find the optimal solution for the plow under different conditions.

For instance, under what conditions would the plowshare turn the soil more smoothly, or even break it up?

Under what conditions would the plow require the least effort?

What was the ideal depth?

And so on. He had to calculate all of these first, then build a suitable model and make a real plow to test it.

Otherwise, he'd be relying purely on luck. He'd be at it until the end of time. Or perhaps he could pray that he was Heaven's godson and stumble upon the answer after just one or two tries.

Lu Mingyuan didn't dare think that way, nor did he want to pin his hopes on it. He didn't know if the physics he'd learned in his previous life still applied, but he might as well give it a try. Besides, Mathematics wouldn't lie to him.

And thinking through all this would build his Talent Qi, too. Even if it all came to nothing in the end, he wouldn't lose out; he could consider it cultivation. After all, thinking alone increased Talent Qi. With this mountain of analysis, gaining a little Talent Qi was only reasonable.

Suddenly, Lu Mingyuan set down his ballpoint pen, stood up, and stretched.

"Phew, finally done. Now all that's left is to construct the divine ability and run some more tests."

After letting out a sigh, Lu Mingyuan looked at the scratch paper covered with data and formulas, then at the neat rows of plows of every kind beside it. He smiled with satisfaction.

These were the fruits of ten whole days of work.

Cultivation—no, research—knew no passage of time. It had been ten days since Lu Mingyuan began studying plows after his engagement.

Over those ten days, he'd tested every plowshare he'd assembled himself. After that, he'd borrowed a whole bunch of curved-beam plows from the neighbors. He'd even dug out some old straight-beam plows that several families had kept in storage.

After testing them in his own fields, he'd copied each plow into the Soul Space.

That's right. The plows, desk, paper, and pens in the Soul Space were all fakes, conjured up by Lu Mingyuan to make his research easier. He couldn't take them outside, and even their physical properties were fake.

Take the ballpoint pen he'd been writing with. It could write only because Lu Mingyuan believed it could.

He could even write on the scratch paper without a pen. After all, none of this was real. With a thought, the words would appear on the blank page. The ballpoint pen was there only because he'd gotten used to it; writing without one felt uncomfortable.

As for that ostentatious rosewood desk, well, couldn't he enjoy a little luxury in his own space?

Even if it was fake.

There was nothing wrong with indulging his vanity a little.

But why was Lu Mingyuan doing his force and data analysis in the Soul Space instead of outside? He had all the paper and pens he needed out there.

The truth was, he had no choice.

If he didn't work in the Soul Space, he couldn't exactly go outside and write out all those formulas. If someone saw them, he could grow eight more mouths and still never explain himself.

So Lu Mingyuan had no choice but to study alone in the Soul Space, and enjoy a little solitude while he was at it.

As the saying went, "The path of the strong has always been a lonely one."

If Lu Mingyuan kept being lonely, perhaps one day he'd become truly strong.

Now that the data analysis was finished, it was time to put everything into practice.

With a thought, the desk, which had been somewhat messy a moment earlier, became perfectly neat. The papers, ruler, and ballpoint pen all settled into their proper places.

The next moment, a handsome young man lying on a recliner in the courtyard outside slowly opened his eyes.

"Mingyuan, have some tea."

The moment the young man woke, the girl sitting across from him, who had been resting her chin on her hand and staring into space, snapped to attention and hurriedly offered him a cup.

Lu Mingyuan took a sip of the still-warm tea and felt a pleasant warmth spread through his heart.

With a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for?

Over those ten days, while Lu Mingyuan was busy, Jing Zhi had stayed by his side, looking after him with the utmost care. When he was thirsty, there was warm, refreshing tea; when he was hungry, there was delicious food.

As Lu Mingyuan put it, he was this close to living like a noble lord, with food brought to his mouth and clothes slipped onto his back.

"Ah Zhi, you're spoiling me rotten. If you stop treating me like this someday, I won't know what to do. How about we make a deal and do this every day from now on?"

Lu Mingyuan smiled at the young woman before him, clearly hoping she'd agree.

At his words, Jing Zhi rolled her eyes. "Drink your tea and stop dreaming. I want to enjoy being a lord, too. You think you're the only one?"

Lu Mingyuan wasn't surprised by her refusal in the least. No one willingly wanted to be someone else's servant, not even a spouse.

Besides, Lu Mingyuan didn't need that kind of wife. Jing Zhi had a personality of her own, and he liked that.

"Mingyuan, have you finished your calculations?"

That morning, Lu Mingyuan had said he was nearly done. Now it was already the hour of Shen, so Jing Zhi had to ask.

"I've finished. I'm planning to start constructing the divine ability tomorrow. There's not much time left this afternoon, so let's just chat for a while."

"Sure. As long as you have a plan."

In truth, Jing Zhi wanted to have a proper chat with Lu Mingyuan, too. They'd both been busy with their own things these past few days and had barely spoken.

"Ah Zhi, there's something I've been meaning to ask you. Why have you been following me around so closely these past few days, never leaving my side?"

For some reason, Jing Zhi had been showing up early every day, early enough to come wake Lu Mingyuan and bring him breakfast. They ate lunch together, too. In the evenings, they'd go to his mother-in-law's home for dinner together, and only part ways afterward.

That meant the only times they were apart during the day were when they slept or went to the bathroom. Otherwise, they were together.

That was why Lu Mingyuan had started to wonder. Even after getting engaged, surely they didn't need to stick together this much?

They weren't newlyweds. They'd been together for over a decade and were practically an old married couple. There was no need to cling to each other like this.

But when Jing Zhi heard the question, she froze for a moment, then widened her eyes and said, "I've been taking care of you! You've worked so hard these past few days, and as your fiancée, of course I should do everything I can for you. How can you say that about me?"

Her voice was full of innocence, with the aggrieved note of someone who'd been misunderstood.

But Lu Mingyuan wasn't swayed in the least. He studied Jing Zhi for a good while before saying slowly, "Ah Zhi, since when did you start lying without even preparing your story? You just make things up on the spot."

"When did I ever lie?"

Truthfully, Jing Zhi wanted to say, I learned it all from you. You taught me well.

But she couldn't say that, or she'd be admitting she'd lied. So she simply fixed Lu Mingyuan with her big, dewy eyes, her gaze full of innocence, as if to say, You've got me all wrong. I didn't lie to you at all.

If Lu Mingyuan had known what Jing Zhi was thinking, he would've had to say, Could you at least control your eyes when you lie? What's with your eyeballs darting around like that? Are you trying to make sure everyone knows you're up to something?

You haven't learned the trick properly.

And that might work on other people, but you think you can use it on me?

He didn't want to keep arguing over whether she'd lied or not, so he asked her outright, "Are you here to keep an eye on me?"