The Scarlet Moon

Sarah soon returned from the repair room.

She brought all the tools Li Mo had asked for.

A thirty-six-tooth drive gear, a steel caliper, two adjustable wrenches of different sizes, and a small box of brass shims for fine-tuning the gaps.

She said, "Here you go, brat."

Li Mo grunted in acknowledgment and rolled up his sleeves.

No need for talk. He just had to get to work.

The workers around them exchanged glances, unsure what the young master was doing.

When Sarah saw Li Mo about to work on the spinning machine, she frowned, a little worried he would break it.

She looked at the master, but he gestured for her to leave him be.

It was only a spinning machine. If it broke, it broke. His son's happiness was what mattered most.

Sarah was helpless. What could she say when the master had already spoken? All she could do was think, Just keep spoiling him!

Li Mo had already worked out what to do in his head,

so every step was quick and precise.

As he worked, the workers grew increasingly surprised.

So smooth.

The young master doesn't seem like a sixteen-year-old kid. How come he looks like a skilled worker?

For the final step, Li Mo adjusted the angle of the tension pulley to take up the excess slack, ensuring a smooth transfer of power.

He wiped his hands on a rag and stepped back half a pace. "Let's try it."

The old worker beside him was a little confused. "Young master, try what?"

Li Mo said, "Use it. See if the machine works any better."

The old worker scratched his head and glanced at Sarah, the forewoman. After she nodded, he stepped forward and started the spinning machine.

It sounded a little different from before.

But what was different?

The old worker was curious too. He immediately picked up a cotton sliver and fed it in.

The yarn could be seen quickly taking shape on the rapidly spinning spindle.

The machine also ran smoothly, and the shuttle moved without interruption.

The old worker tried feeding the thread in faster.

The yarn pulled taut, but remained stable.

"Huh?"

He was surprised.

After watching for a moment, he stopped, checked the finished yarn, and reached out to feel how much the machine was vibrating.

The old worker turned and gave his assessment. "It's very smooth, young master. It doesn't seem to catch as much as it used to."

Hearing the old worker's assessment, several of the workers watching gathered around as well.

The workers knew machines best. A simple test run was all it took to make the change in the spinning machine obvious.

"It really does work better." Another worker rubbed the cotton fluff between his fingers and praised him. "So the young master is this talented at engineering too..."

"He only made a few small changes to the gears, and the machine is like a brand-new one."

At that,

the workers broke into a chorus of praise.

The master scratched his head. He was the one who felt a little at a loss.

His son had caught him completely off guard with such a big surprise.

Li Mo asked the old worker, "Sir, if all the spinning machines in the factory were modified according to today's plan, how much could output increase?"

The old worker did some calculations in his head. "Young master, with fewer thread breaks and the machines running smoothly, we could open the steam valves a little wider and increase their speed. All told, I'd estimate output could rise by thirty percent."

"Oh, thirty percent."

Li Mo nodded, turned, and walked over to his father, Li En. He said casually,

"Dad, thirty percent. It's thirty percent. Hey, thirty percent! Thirty percent... so it's thirty percent!"

Li En was still surprised at first.

But when his son kept repeating "thirty percent," how could he not understand what he meant?

He couldn't help laughing.

No wonder his son had insisted on coming to the spinning mill today. He had come to ask for money.

Li En said gently, "Son, you created the extra profit. I'll save half of it for you, and the other half can be your allowance. How does that sound?"

"Okay."

Li Mo agreed without hesitation.

He looked at Sarah again.

"Sarah, there's something else I want to discuss with you. I think the efficiency still isn't high enough. Too much power is lost during transmission, and I want to improve the efficiency further. Could you make something according to my drawing?"

Li Mo rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a drawing, and handed it to Sarah.

Sarah took it.

The drawing showed a metal cylinder containing a piston and a guide rod.

In steam engines of the current era, the timing of the valves opening and closing was fixed.

A great deal of steam was wasted, and the thrust was uneven.

The structure Li Mo had drawn could control the timing and amount of steam entering the cylinder by changing the overlapping area of the openings, greatly improving the steam engine's efficiency.

Sarah stared at the drawing for a full minute.

Gradually, she saw the ingenuity of the design.

Now Sarah was genuinely a little surprised.

She looked up at Li Mo and asked, "How did you come up with this?"

Li Mo said, "Don't ask. If you must, I'm a genius."

Sarah laughed at the way he was pretending to be an expert.

She put the drawing away and nodded. "All right, all right, you're the biggest genius."

Li Mo asked, "Sarah, roughly when can you make it?"

Sarah said, "The factory's lathe has limited precision. It'll take a week at least."

"All right, then I'll come back to the spinning mill next weekend."

Just as everything had been arranged, the factory whistle sounded the end of the workday.

The workers began cleaning the machines and preparing for the shift change.

Amid admiration and praise, Li Mo followed his father out of the spinning mill.

On the way back, the sky had already gone completely dark.

Inside the carriage, Li En was in a great mood.

He kept praising his son without stopping.

His father chattered away beside him.

But Li Mo had already turned his head, focusing his attention outside the window.

The night sky was clear, with only thin clouds.

The moons had risen.

One red, one white. Two moons.

So beautiful... I really want to find out why this happens too...

As he thought about it, Li Mo suddenly grew curious.

He now knew that observing a mysterious creation while in a state of concentration allowed him to see something like a spiderweb.

So what if he looked at the moons in the sky while concentrating?

The moons were the most mysterious natural phenomenon in this world.

If he looked at them, what would he see?

As soon as the idea occurred to him, Li Mo's heart beat a little faster.

Explore the unknown and find its essence.

Driven by instinct, he couldn't resist the experiment.

Without hesitation, he closed his eyes.

Breathe in, breathe out.

After three breaths,

he interlocked his fingers and gently placed them in front of his mouth.

He silently said to himself:

Quiet.

In an instant, the world fell silent.

Li Mo opened his eyes and looked up.

The carriage continued onward.

His father, Li En, was talking away, planning what kind of cotton to purchase the following week.

As he talked, he suddenly realized his son hadn't responded to him in a long time.

He hadn't even said his usual "indeed."

Li En stopped talking, looked at Li Mo, who was sitting opposite him, and called out, "Son?"

There was no response.

He repeated himself. "Son?"

Still no response.

Li Mo's head rested against the carriage window, his eyes fixed on the sky outside. He didn't move.

Li En found it a little strange.

He reached out and gently touched his son's shoulder.

He found that...

his son's body was as hard as iron.

"Li Mo!"

Panicking, Li En hurried over and leaned in to look at his son's face.

Only then did he see Li Mo's vacant expression.

Two trails of bloody tears were running from the corners of his eyes.

And in his hollow, unfocused pupils, only a scarlet moon was reflected...