First, Observe This World

"Finished? Already?"

Anna glanced at the time. It had only been... a few minutes?

Li Mo set the exam paper on the table. "Yep. Check whether I got the answers right. I have something to do upstairs. Oh, right, if there's no problem, Dad, please let the school know I'll be back in class on Monday."

With that, he went upstairs.

His father was silent for a moment, then turned to Anna. "Did you really just give him this paper?"

"I certainly did, sir." Anna looked a little bewildered.

Li En simply took the paper and looked at it himself.

There was an answer in every blank.

Whether the answers were correct was another matter, but every blank had indeed been filled...

Li En said, "He didn't just fill it with nonsense to get us off his back, did he?"

"I remember all the answers. I'll check them now."

No sooner had Anna spoken than she shook her head gently and sighed.

"Even if the young master did find time to study the basic courses in private while he was in the capital, he couldn't possibly have finished the calculations in such a short time. This paper requires a great deal of calculation. He didn't dare stay here and made an excuse to go upstairs, probably because he felt embarrassed about handing in a hastily completed paper to our faces."

Li En nodded. "Once we've checked the paper, we'd better think about how to go upstairs and comfort him. Whatever we do, we mustn't mention the exam again, or we might hurt him."

"I understand, sir."

In the bedroom on the second floor.

Li Mo pulled open the sheer curtains by the window.

A cool early-autumn breeze blew into the room. The weather was lovely today.

Down below, a black-canopied carriage was passing the street corner. By the roadside, a boy wearing an apron pushed a two-wheeled flatbed cart laden with freshly baked bread. He was a little shy and didn't dare call out his wares.

In the neighboring yard, Mr. Green was sitting at a round wrought-iron table, drinking afternoon tea.

When he saw Li Mo open the window, Mr. Green raised his porcelain cup in greeting from afar.

Li Mo returned a smile.

The smell of bread and the sight of the tea made him feel hungry, but he was in exceptionally good spirits.

Standing at the window, Li Mo was genuinely curious about this world where he had lived for sixteen years.

Ever since awakening the memories of his previous life, he had been looking at everything from a completely new perspective.

If he could, he would have loved to write down special relativity, the classical electromagnetic field equations, thermodynamic cycle theory, and the like, and send them straight to the Royal Academy of Sciences in the capital.

Unfortunately, the fundamental logic of the two worlds might not be the same.

There were the two bright moons hanging high in the night sky, for instance, and the mysticism everyone believed in...

Practice was the sole criterion for testing truth.

He had to start with the simplest experiments and make empirical observations.

Li Mo looked around the room and quickly found two items for his experiments.

One was a solid, heavy copper block used as a paperweight, weighing about a pound.

The other was a wooden, round-handled soft stopper used to wipe pen nibs, weighing only a dozen or so grams.

The two were similar in size, but their masses differed by more than several dozen times.

Holding the two objects, he returned to the window, leaned halfway out, and called down to the yard.

"Mr. Green, watch out! I'm going to drop something!"

Green: "?"

Before the old gentleman could react, Li Mo opened both hands.

The copper block and wooden stopper left his fingertips and fell vertically at the same time under the force of gravity.

The acceleration of free fall did not depend on mass.

Both balls hit the ground at the same time.

Very good. Gravity behaves much the same way.

Li Mo couldn't help smiling as he turned and pulled himself back inside.

In the yard, Mr. Green fell silent for a long time.

Finally, he picked up his tea and took a great gulp, shaking his head to himself.

That poor Li boy. It looks like his condition has gotten even worse since he left school in the capital.

I used to think about setting him up with my daughter. Now that I think about it... it's a good thing I let it go back then, let it go.

Inside, Li Mo quickly began the next test.

He took the silver-plated pocket watch from his vest pocket and pulled its chain straight.

The watch served as the pendulum bob and the chain as the pendulum line, forming a simple pendulum.

He secured the end of the chain to the edge of a bookshelf and let go.

He recorded the time taken for thirty consecutive complete oscillations.

Using the simple pendulum period formula: T=2π√(L/g)

His calculations showed that the result was the same as on Earth, with the error falling within the tolerance for manual measurement.

Next came optics and fluid mechanics.

Li Mo found a square glass tank, filled it with water, and placed it at the edge of the windowsill.

Light entered the water, and he used a protractor to compare the angles of incidence and refraction. The sine ratio remained around 1.33, in accordance with Snell's law of refraction.

He then drew the curtains tight, leaving a gap to let sunlight through as the initial light source.

Next, he used a paper knife to cut two thin parallel slits in black waxed paper and held it in front of the beam.

Because the hand-cut slits were too wide, the patch of light on the wall was somewhat blurry.

But on close inspection, he could still just make out faint fringes with colored halos along their edges.

It wasn't very rigorous, but it was enough.

At the very least, it proved that light in this world still possessed classical wave properties.

Although the tests were relatively simple and not very rigorous, so far it was all good news!

The results were basically similar to those on Earth.

There was no situation where billiard balls went flying around wildly on a billiard table...

This meant that Earth's scientific theories and cutting-edge technologies could potentially be reproduced and put into practice in this era.

Li Mo crouched on the floor and chuckled softly.

"Heh heh, very good... very good..."

As he laughed, Li En and Anna hurried into the room.

The moment they entered, they saw Li Mo huddled in a dim corner, his arms wrapped around his knees as he laughed in a particularly eerie way...

Li En and Anna instantly broke out in goosebumps.

Remembering the mysterious exam paper from earlier, a terrible thought sprang into both their minds.

Could the young master have been possessed by some old evil spirit?!

Noticing their arrival, Li Mo stood up.

"Finished checking the paper? How did I do?"

"Everything was right!" Anna spoke, forcing down her fear. "Young master, you... got everything right... There wasn't a single mistake."

She pursed her lips, but in the end couldn't give up without asking, "Young master, in such a short time... how exactly did you get everything right?"

Li Mo said casually, "The questions were too easy. I didn't need to think about them; I could just write down the answers, so it was fairly quick."

Anna closed her eyes. She felt she really deserved to die. Really, she shouldn't have asked.

Li Mo said, "Anna, I'm a little hungry. Could you get me something to eat? Thank you."

"All right... I'll go prepare something in the kitchen." Relieved, Anna immediately curtsied and left the room.

After Anna left, Li Mo said to his father, "Dad, I'd like you to get something for me."

"What is it?"

"The most basic mysticism item in the family collection."

"Well..."

Li En hesitated.

A month ago, he had locked everything related to mysticism in the mansion away in the basement.

He had done it because he feared the sight of those things would stir up his son's feelings and worsen his condition.

Seeing his father's hesitation, Li Mo said, "Dad, don't worry, it's not that I can't accept it... I'm just curious now. After losing my perception of mysticism, if I look at it from a different angle and perspective, what will it look like?"

Li En was struck speechless.

From where he stood, his son was by the window, his face still weak, but in his black eyes... a brilliant light burned.

Li En stood rooted to the spot.

He had seen that look in someone else's eyes before...

Many years ago, at the Truth Laboratory in London, whenever his late wife worked through an alchemical formula, her eyes had shone with the same utterly pure excitement.

A full five seconds passed.

Only then did Li En speak. "...Wait here."

A few minutes later, he returned to the study.

He now held a black velvet hardwood box.

He opened the box, revealing a dark cyan, diamond-shaped crystal about the size of a thumb.

It was the lowest-grade mystic tinderstone, often used by mediums in place of matches.

As soon as it came into contact with air, the crystal's surface would spontaneously give off a faint, unceasing fluorescent white cold light.

Li En put the box on the table and took half a step back. "Put it back in the box as soon as you're done looking."

"All right, Father."

Li Mo stepped forward and looked down at the crystal.

It glows on contact with air? First possibility: white phosphorus oxidation...

No, there's no smell of garlic (the characteristic odor of white phosphorus oxidation), and I can't detect any heat being released either. It doesn't match common chemiluminescent phenomena.

Let's concentrate and observe it.

Inhale, exhale.

Inhale, exhale.

Inhale, exhale...

He interlaced the fingers of both hands and rested them naturally before his lips.

He closed his eyes, took one last long, deep breath, and said in his heart, Quiet.

In an instant, the world fell quiet for him.

Li Mo opened his eyes again.

Just then.

His expression suddenly froze.

Wait...

What... is going on now?