Build a Rocket and Go See What's Up with the Moon

In 1861, a legend circulated throughout a kingdom shrouded in fog all year round-

The first person to set foot on the moon could make a wish to the goddess, and it would surely come true.

Li Mo had never believed it...

"Young master. Young Master Li Mo."

Through the haze, he seemed to feel someone patting his shoulder.

Li Mo slowly opened his eyes and instinctively covered his forehead. Once he came to his senses, he realized that he had fallen asleep over his cluttered workbench at some point.

Several books lay scattered across the desk.

He had just finished reading A History of the Kingdom Era, while he had only read a few pages of Principles of Steam and Gears before putting it down.

He reached for the book he had left unfinished last night, but accidentally knocked another book beside it to the floor.

My body... is still a little weak...

His memories of his previous life had awakened a month ago.

Born and raised in Mondel Town, the young man had been bedridden by the flood of memories that poured into his mind in such a short time. Even now, he remained weak.

With nothing else to do, he could only lie in bed and read voraciously, sorting through and comparing the common knowledge of the two worlds.

This world's level of technology was roughly comparable to that of Victorian-era Earth.

Steam trains thundered past, and enormous iron chimneys belched black smoke into the sky, turning every place in this world reached by railway into a city of fog. Fortunately, the air was a little better in small towns like Mondel. Occasionally, one could still see blue sky in the morning, and horse-drawn carriages, relics of the "last century," still traveled the roads.

But once night fell, the most interesting thing about this world became apparent:

Two bright moons hung high in the night sky, one red and one white.

Last night, Li Mo had stayed up poring over Maritime Tide Records.

Based on what he remembered learning on Earth, the gravitational pull of two satellites should have caused irregular tides.

In reality, however, the cycle of the tides in this world matched that of Earth, with its single moon, exactly.

What was the reason? Was something wrong with the gravitational constant? Or did this world operate by different rules from Earth?

Or perhaps...

There was a simpler, more straightforward deduction: was one of the two moons an illusion? A mirage?

Caught up in his brainstorm, Li Mo had been too excited to sleep all night. He had no idea what time it was when he finally drifted off...

Explore the unknown, discover its patterns, and seek its essence.

An instinct from his memories drove him to keep seeking these things.

Seeing that Li Mo was awake but not fully alert,

The maid Anna could not help sighing.

The girl, who had just turned eighteen, had worried herself sick these past few days.

Ever since the young master had withdrawn from school because of that incident, his troubles had weighed more heavily on him with each passing day. All he did was read, and seeing it made her anxious.

To lift his spirits, she had taken special care with her appearance that morning, changing into a brand-new dark dress in the hope that the sight of her might cheer him up a little.

She curtsied slightly and asked softly, "Young master, did you stay up reading again last night?"

Li Mo smiled. "Yes. Reading is interesting."

Anna pressed her lips together, privately saddened.

What could possibly be interesting about those books? The young master is clearly distressed and can't sleep, so he's only finding something to pass the time...

After calming herself, she said gently, "Young master, the master has spent a great deal of money to invite a highly respected physician. He is waiting for you in the hall downstairs."

"Do I have to go too?"

"The physician came primarily to examine your condition..."

"Oh, right."

Li Mo had no objection to seeing a doctor, but if this kept happening, it would be a bit of a waste of time.

So he folded a drawing on the desk, slipped it into his pocket, and decided to go downstairs and level with his father.

Come to think of it, his old father had gone to great lengths to find treatment for him...

He had once been the town's acknowledged genius in the occult.

The Wellington Higher Truth Academy in the capital had made an exception to admit him early. For a time, he had been the talk of Mondel Town and showered with praise.

But ever since his memories had awakened a month ago, his occult perception had inexplicably begun to fade, until it vanished completely.

As a direct result, he had lost the ability to continue his studies at Wellington Academy. In the end, he had reluctantly withdrawn and returned in low spirits to an ordinary school in town.

Rumors had spread throughout the town. People lamented that heaven was jealous of genius and that he had fallen victim to a vicious curse.

So his father, Li En, had sought out every medium and diviner in town.

Whether genuine or not, anyone with even a scrap of renown had been paid handsomely to examine him.

Great sums of gold pounds had gone down the drain without producing any results.

The old man was growing so desperate that he would try just about anything...

As soon as he reached the hall on the first floor,

Li Mo saw a man in a black robe standing there.

Upon seeing Li Mo,

The man removed his top hat and bowed slightly:

"Young Master Li Mo, I am Doctor Morris. Master Li En has explained the situation to me. I know you have already consulted far too many mediums and diviners. Rest assured, I am not like those occultists who rely on supernatural hocus-pocus. I am a medical expert."

As he spoke, Morris confidently opened his medical case and took out a set of blades and a jar of leeches.

"Young master, please lie down on the table. I believe you lost your occult perception because your bodily fluids are out of balance. Stagnant black blood has accumulated and is pressing on your nerves. We need only open a blood vessel with a scalpel and drain the contaminated black blood, and your body will naturally recover..."

Li Mo's expression was blank.

He did not know whether draining all his blood would cure him, but he certainly would not run the risk of surviving it.

Besides, the doctor had not even washed his hands, and he had taken the blades straight out of the case to use them.

In his previous life on Earth, Li Mo had known a highly skilled lead surgeon. If that doctor saw instruments going into surgery without any sterilization, he would definitely tear someone a new one...

"I refuse," Li Mo said.

Morris frowned and looked at Li En. "Master, your child's curse has already reached his marrow. If you delay any longer, I fear even the gods will abandon him."

His father opened his mouth and swallowed.

The old man is actually hesitating...

Li Mo sighed helplessly and decided to speak plainly. "Doctor Morris, while I've been recuperating at home recently, I happened to read a book called Frontiers of Medicine in the Kingdom. It placed particular emphasis on preoperative sterilization. Your scalpel hasn't been sterilized by boiling it at a high temperature. If it comes into direct contact with a blood vessel, my wound could fester and I could develop a high fever. Don't you even know something so basic?"

Li Mo sounded so convincing that Morris was momentarily stunned. "Huh?"

He had indeed heard of Frontiers of Medicine in the Kingdom. It was a highly regarded cutting-edge article in academic circles.

So it contained something like that too...

He spoke hesitantly. "All right... in that case, perhaps I could boil some water now... er, to sterilize the instruments for you?"

Li Mo could not be bothered to respond. He turned to his father. "Dad, if you insist on letting him bleed me, I'd rather go to the top floor of the town church right now and test how hard the stone pavement is with my skull. At least I'd die faster that way."

Li En reacted quickly.

He snapped the black-robed man's case shut. "I'm sorry, Mr. Morris, but I think my son has a point. Please leave."

Morris froze, and in the end he could only close his case awkwardly and leave.

As he passed through the front door, he sighed in frustration.

Being a doctor was no easy business these days. Bloodletting and leeches clearly were not enough to fool young people anymore. Once he got back, he would have to visit a bookstore and pick up some cutting-edge academic vocabulary, so a patient's technical terms would not make him look like an idiot the next time he practiced medicine!

After their visitor had gone,

Li En sank dejectedly into a seat beside his son:

"I'm sorry. In the end, your father still couldn't find you a suitable physician... whether in that damned occultism or in medicine..."

Li Mo comforted him gently. "Dad, you've even stopped going on dates with the ladies in town to save money lately. I'm already very grateful."

Li En: "?"

Since his wife had passed away, he had occasionally gone out for afternoon tea with the single ladies in town during his spare time.

He had always thought his son did not know...

The old father blushed. "Don't get the wrong idea. We were only discussing literature and the weather."

Li Mo nodded understandingly. "Dad, don't waste any more money on treatment. It would be better to spend it on your social life... Besides, I think losing my talent for the occult might not be such a bad thing."

Li En was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I'm planning to return to school, study normally, and take the entrance exam."

As the saying went, master mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and you could go anywhere without fear.

Besides, in the future, he could use scientific methods to study the occult. There was no need to rush.

But Li En felt even guiltier after hearing this. He thought his son had painfully decided to give up on regaining the talent he had once been proud of, all to comfort him.

Li Mo knew what he was imagining. He clicked his tongue and pulled the drawing out of his pocket. "Dad, look. This is what I've been working on these past few days."

Li En stared at the complex cylindrical object with a pointed tip on the drawing, his face full of confusion.

"This is called a rocket," Li Mo explained. "If we build it, we can go to the moon."

The... moon?

The corner of Li En's mouth twitched.

Anna, who had just approached with some tea, stumbled, nearly overturning the porcelain cups.

Li Mo did not notice their expressions. He murmured softly, "Given our world's current level of technology, there are a lot of technical problems to overcome. The shell needs a high-temperature alloy that can withstand extreme heat, and current steelmaking techniques can't meet the standard. The propellant needs to be liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, both of which are very difficult to extract and store, so we'll need entirely new cryogenic engineering technology. Of course, the biggest problem is calculating orbital transfers... Without a computer, we'll have to calculate the Hohmann transfer orbit by hand first..."

Neither of them could make out what he was saying. It all sounded like gibberish to them.

Then they watched as Li Mo crouched down on the floor and began drawing numbers they could not understand.

Li En and Anna exchanged a glance. There was a hint of despair in both their eyes.

He's even talking about going to the moon...

It looks like the shock was too much for the young master, and he's going completely mad.

Li En cautiously interrupted Li Mo. "Son, the entrance exam is in a month. There's no way you can prepare in time now. Why don't you wait until next year and just rest at home for the time being..."

"It's all right," Li Mo said casually. "I should at least give it a try."

Li En fell silent again.

The old man had his own worries...

If his son returned to school this year, he would inevitably see his old classmates.

Could his son really bear such a reversal?

What if someone made snide remarks about what had happened to him?

In case the shock drove his son to do something drastic, it would be safer to let him study at home for now.

Li En turned to the maid. "Anna, sorry for the trouble, but please take extra care these next few days and tutor the young master in his basic courses."

Anna lifted her skirt and curtsied in agreement. She understood what the master meant. "Please rest assured, Master. I understand what to do."

"Mm. Oh, and son," Li En said, turning back to him and speaking earnestly, "this turkey of yours, er... rocket, and the matter of going to the moon-whatever you do, don't tell anyone about them when you go out, all right?"

What the old man actually wanted to say was: People will think you're insane and have you taken away to an asylum.

Li Mo shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Of course, he had no intention of telling everyone about it.

Still, he was somewhat confident about it.

His memories of his previous life included the experience of joining a national-level lunar mission.

And as his memories awakened, it seemed his [strange ability] from his previous life had come along with them...

He felt there was some chance he could drive a revolution of the era, build a rocket with his own hands, and go up to see what was really going on with the moon.

When Li Mo did not answer, Li En raised his voice and stressed the point again. "Did you hear me? Your father would never harm you."

Li Mo's tendency to give perfunctory answers kicked in. He nodded. "True."

He folded the drawing as it had been, tucked it back into his pocket, and looked at Anna. "Anna, let's go start our lesson now."

"Yes, young master..." Anna nodded obediently. "Please rest assured, I'll start by helping you review the basics."

Though she called them the basics, Anna had already made up her mind.

Once they entered the study, she would have to find a reason to start with advanced mathematics!

Only by making the young master give up in the face of difficulty could she get him to settle down obediently and rest at the manor.