Chapter Summaries

After losing his occult perception, Li Mo rejected a dangerous physician’s treatment and told his father he planned to return to ordinary studies. He revealed his plan to build a rocket and reach the moon, while his father and Anna mistook his scientific talk for madness and arranged to keep him studying at home.

• Anna woke Li Mo from his workbench and told him that his father had invited Doctor Morris to examine him.
• Doctor Morris proposed bloodletting, but Li Mo warned that the instruments were not sterilized and persuaded Li En to send him away.
• Li Mo told Li En he would stop pursuing occult treatment and try to return to school for the entrance exam.
• Li Mo showed Li En a rocket design and explained that he intended to build it to reach the moon.
• Li En asked Anna to tutor Li Mo at home and urged him to keep his moon plans secret, while Anna planned to challenge him with advanced mathematics.

Li Mo impressed Anna by solving a difficult algebra problem, then used his strange ability to complete a comprehensive test in minutes. He brought the finished paper downstairs for Anna to mark, while she and Li En still expected it to reveal his academic weaknesses.

• Anna warned Li Mo that the town secondary school's mathematics entrance exams had become harder and gave him a challenging algebra problem.
• Li Mo solved the problem immediately and explained a concise method, leaving Anna astonished.
• Anna brought Li Mo a comprehensive test paper, then went downstairs to tell Li En that his performance had exceeded her expectations.
• Li Mo activated his strange ability, entered a state of intense focus, and completed the entire test in less than five minutes.
• Li En and Anna discussed how Li Mo might have learned the algebra solution before he came downstairs with the completed paper and asked Anna to mark it.

Li Mo tested whether familiar physical laws held in his new world and found that gravity, pendulum motion, refraction, and light’s wave properties matched those on Earth. He then examined a mystic tinderstone, and his focused perception revealed something unexpected.

• Li Mo finished Anna’s exam paper quickly, and Anna and Li En later confirmed that every answer was correct.
• Li Mo dropped a copper block and a wooden stopper together, then tested pendulum motion, refraction, and light interference in his room.
• Li En and Anna found Li Mo laughing in a dim corner, but he asked Anna for food and his father for a basic mysticism item.
• Li En brought Li Mo a glowing mystic tinderstone from the family collection.
• Li Mo concentrated on the tinderstone, quieted his perception, and froze in surprise at what he saw.

Li Mo discovered that he could see faint energy threads around mystical artifacts while in the Focus state, and realized he needed more artifacts to investigate mysticism. After recognizing their cost, he decided to improve his family’s spinning mill to fund his experiments, and asked his father to take him there.

• Li Mo recalled his year of study at Wellington Higher Truth Academy and how little people understood about mysticism.
• While in the Focus state, Li Mo saw faint threads surrounding a firestone and observed that they dimmed as the stone produced flames.
• Li Mo asked his father, Li En, for more mystical artifacts, but Li En explained that they were expensive.
• Li Mo decided to improve the Li family spinning mill’s machinery to increase production and fund his experiments.
• Li Mo asked Li En to take him to the spinning mill that afternoon so he could try out an idea.

Li Mo visited his family’s spinning mill and identified a way to reduce yarn breakage by modifying a machine’s gears and belt tension. He ordered Sarah to fetch tools and parts, while she wondered whether he was serious or merely teasing her.

• Anna served Li Mo a bacon sandwich, and he complimented her outfit before leaving with his father, Li En.
• An old flower seller gave Li Mo chamomile and said she had not heard from her grandson, who was serving at the front; Li En reassured her that the kingdom’s army was winning.
• On the carriage ride, Li Mo recalled that his academy had been developing combat-focused rituals and sending more students into the army, and hoped he was mistaken about the war.
• At the spinning mill, Sarah greeted Li Mo playfully before he examined a machine and diagnosed excessive gear clearance as a cause of frequent yarn breakage.
• Li Mo ordered Sarah to bring a thirty-six-tooth gear, a caliper, a wrench, and shims, and Sarah went to fetch them while wondering what he was up to.

Li Mo improved a spinning machine at the mill, raising its potential output by thirty percent, and gave Sarah a design for a more efficient steam engine. On the ride home, he concentrated on the two moons and became unresponsive, with blood tears running from his eyes and the scarlet moon reflected in his pupils.

• Sarah brought Li Mo the tools he requested, and he adjusted the spinning machine’s drive gear and tension pulley.
• An old worker tested the machine and found it ran more smoothly; he estimated the changes could increase factory output by thirty percent.
• Li Mo persuaded Li En to save half of the extra profit for him as an allowance.
• Li Mo gave Sarah a drawing for a steam-engine component, and she agreed it would take at least a week to make.
• On the carriage ride home, Li Mo concentrated while looking at the moons and stopped responding to Li En.
• Li En found Li Mo rigid and unresponsive, with bloody tears and the scarlet moon reflected in his eyes.

After recovering from his encounter with the red moon, Li Mo hid the symbol he had seen and decided to investigate it more carefully. He began teaching Anna mysticism, and she appeared to awaken her spirituality almost immediately.

• Li Mo remembered seeing a strange triangular symbol on the red moon, drew it, and hid the parchment after sensing it could be dangerous to share.
• Li Mo decided to investigate the moon again only after preparing safeguards or becoming stronger.
• Anna told Li Mo she wanted to study mysticism so she could help him, and he agreed to teach her the basics.
• Li Mo instructed Anna to perform a simple ritual to awaken her spirituality.
• Anna said she could feel the world, and Li Mo saw her hair moving despite the closed window.

Li Mo learned that Anna had taken to the introductory ritual unusually quickly, then heard from Wayne about Professor Bryce’s search for a mathematically capable assistant. He decided to return to school and try for the position despite his father’s and Anna’s concerns, while Wayne mistakenly thought he was doing it to spite Matthew.

• Anna completed the introductory ritual in about a minute, and Li Mo told her to practice it daily for a week.
• Wayne visited Li Mo and told him Matthew had been gloating at school about Li Mo’s expulsion from Wellington Academy.
• Li Mo asked about Professor Bryce and learned Matthew had recently failed the professor’s assistant test.
• Li Mo announced that he would return to school and try to become Professor Bryce’s assistant.
• Li Mo dismissed his father’s and Anna’s concerns and corrected Wayne’s assumption that he was returning to get back at Matthew.

Li Mo walked to school with Anna and Wayne and urged them to take the Royal Academy of Sciences entrance exam with him. Anna and Wayne agreed, though they doubted they could get in, and Li Mo stopped at an apartment marked 1729, preparing to show off his knowledge.

• Anna confronted Li Mo about neglecting his sleep and made him promise to take better care of himself.
• Li Mo, Anna, and Wayne reminisced and bickered as they walked toward school together.
• Li Mo suggested that all three take the entrance exam for the Royal Academy of Sciences so they could keep studying together.
• Anna and Wayne agreed to work toward the exam, though they treated the goal as unlikely.
• Li Mo stopped beside an apartment marked 1729, intending to impress his friends.

Li Mo returned to Mondel General Studies Academy and quietly showed off his mathematical talent while trying to build a reputation as a boy genius. After classmates avoided sitting beside him, Anna moved to his desk to look after him, and the chapter ended as Mr. Harrison called for students to solve another problem.

• Li Mo explained that 1729 was the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways, impressing Anna and Wayne.
• Li Mo, Anna, and Wayne arrived at Mondel General Studies Academy, where students whispered about Li Mo's return and his plan to take the entrance exam again.
• A girl left the seat beside Li Mo, and Anna moved from across the classroom to sit with him and watch over his health.
• Li Mo found Mr. Harrison's calculus solution to a cylinder-volume problem unnecessarily complicated but chose not to challenge him.
• Mr. Harrison asked two students to solve the next problem, and Matthew eagerly raised his hand.

Matthew showed two calculus-based solutions to a cylinder optimization problem, hoping to impress Helen, then challenged Li Mo to follow his work. Li Mo presented a concise AM-GM proof that the optimal dimensions satisfied h = 2r, and asked Matthew if he understood.

• Matthew solved the optimization problem at the board in two ways, ending with h = 2r, while Helen avoided looking at him.
• Matthew offered to explain the derivations to Li Mo and prompted Li Mo to show his own approach.
• Li Mo accepted Mr. Harrison’s invitation to solve the problem, drawing the class’s attention and concern from Anna and Wayne.
• Li Mo erased Matthew’s work and split the cylinder’s surface-area expression into three terms to apply the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality.
• Li Mo showed that equality required 2πr² = πrh, yielding h = 2r, then asked Matthew if he understood.

Li Mo impressed his class by solving a cylinder optimization problem with an elegant inequality, prompting Mr. Harrison to praise his genius. He then set out to ask Professor Blythe to take him on as an assistant, while Matthew followed to keep watch.

• Li Mo explained how the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality showed that a cylinder’s maximum volume occurred when its height was twice its radius.
• Mr. Harrison verified Li Mo’s solution, praised it as a flash of genius, and dismissed the class.
• Matthew felt humiliated, while Helen admired Li Mo, Wayne celebrated his success, and Anna resolved to work harder at the occult to protect him and cure his curse.
• Li Mo told Anna and Wayne he would skip physical education to ask Professor Blythe to take him on as an assistant.
• Matthew warned that Professor Blythe would not accept Li Mo, then followed him to monitor the meeting because of his family’s instructions.

Li Mo visited Professor Blythe’s laboratory to apply for an assistant position so he could use the professor’s telescope to observe the twin moons. After Matthew and the professor’s assistant secretly discussed the exam, Li Mo and his friends entered the lab and found Blythe looking exhausted.

• Li Mo told Anna and Wayne that he wanted to observe the twin moons, while they worried he was still pursuing the occult.
• Matthew learned that the assistant had not revealed the test questions and asked her to recommend him to Professor Blythe after the others failed.
• Li Mo, Anna, and Wayne entered the cluttered laboratory and found Professor Blythe looking exhausted beside his telescope.
• Li Mo introduced himself to Professor Blythe and said he had come to apply for the assistant position.

Li Mo quickly solved Professor Blythe’s differential equation and spent an hour and a half working through the professor’s far more difficult tidal calculation. While focused, he spotted a possible mystical artifact, then presented his solution to a stunned Professor Blythe.

• Li Mo solved Professor Blythe’s differential equation in minutes, and the professor gave him a challenging tidal prediction problem.
• Li Mo entered his focused state and worked through the extensive Fourier-series calculations while Anna studied his earlier solution and Wayne struggled to follow her explanation.
• After finishing the tidal calculation, Li Mo noticed a white thread leading to a bronze globe-like ornament and suspected it was a mystical artifact.
• Li Mo handed his calculations to Professor Blythe, who struggled to believe that Li Mo had solved the problem.

Li Mo’s solution to Professor Blythe’s tide-prediction problem used a complex-exponential method that Blythe had never seen, and Blythe broke down in excitement before deciding to send the result to the Empress. After leaving the laboratory, Li Mo collapsed from exhaustion, and Anna took him home to keep him from studying.

• Professor Blythe read Li Mo’s draft, checked it against Mendel Port’s tide records and reference materials, and demanded an explanation of Li Mo’s method.
• Li Mo explained that he used the imaginary unit to convert trigonometric functions into complex exponentials, perform the calculations algebraically, and extract the real part.
• Professor Blythe praised the method, cried on the floor, and said he needed to send the prediction to the Empress before the Autumn Equinox.
• Li Mo, Anna, and Wayne left the laboratory, and the female assistant hinted that preparing for the professor’s problems in advance might help Li Mo pass.
• Li Mo stumbled from exhaustion, so Anna and Wayne helped him home, and Anna decided to watch him and stop him from studying late.

Li Mo planned to build a hand-cranked DC generator and light a bulb, while his father faced a cotton shortage caused by a wartime blockade. The chapter ended with Li Mo betting Anna that his invention would work, hoping to use his win to make her feel embarrassed.

• Li Mo and Anna stopped at Wayne's family's clock shop, where Li Mo bought unusual materials and Wayne stayed behind to help his father take inventory.
• Li En told Li Mo that the Duchy of Magla had blocked its southern ports and shipping routes, cutting off cotton exports and threatening the spinning mill's production.
• Li Mo questioned why his father had learned about the blockade so late, but Li En said a communication problem had caused the delay and sent Li Mo and Anna to rest.
• Anna insisted on sleeping beside Li Mo to care for him, and Li En made Li Mo thank her despite his protests about being treated like a child.
• Li Mo asked Anna to bring the clock-shop purchases and explained that he planned to assemble a hand-cranked generator and light a bulb.
• Li Mo bet Anna that he could make the glass cover glow without a flame; Anna accepted, and Li Mo planned to use his victory to embarrass her.

Li Mo built a prototype generator and confirmed that electromagnetic induction worked in this world when it briefly lit a bulb. After Anna easily accepted his teasing bet, Li Mo fled in embarrassment, while Anna privately decided to keep teasing him.

• Li Mo finished assembling a generator and explained that its bulb would only flash because he could not create a vacuum inside it.
• Anna turned the crank, and the generator produced a bright flash of light before the filament burned out.
• Li Mo declared that the device proved electricity could be generated and would change the world, while Anna wondered if his occult perception had returned.
• Li Mo jokingly demanded that Anna undress and sleep with him, but she began taking off her clothes and left him flustered.
• Li Mo retreated to take a bath, and Anna smiled to herself as she considered teasing him again.

Li Mo tried to hide his embarrassment around Anna after she teased him by pretending to be undressed, but she pulled him into bed and massaged him to sleep. In the morning, he discovered she had removed his wet shorts and learned she would keep sharing his room to care for him.

• Li Mo returned from his bath and found Anna in bed, apparently undressed, so he stripped down to his shorts and got under the quilt.
• Anna revealed she had only loosened her nightdress to tease him, then stopped him from leaving and held him while giving him a massage until he fell asleep.
• Li Mo dreamed about Anna and woke to find her tidying the room without him beside her.
• Li Mo discovered his shorts were missing, and Anna explained that she had taken them off because they were wet and put fresh clothes by the bed.
• Anna told Li Mo she had asked the master to let her keep sleeping with him while he recovered, and Li Mo agreed after she offered nightly massages.

Li Mo considered how to help his family’s textile mill amid the cotton shortage, then read about a murder and a port lockdown on the way to school. At school, Matthew asked whether Li Mo had been accepted as Professor Blythe’s assistant.

• Li Mo learned that his father had gone to the textile mill because the cotton import crisis had worsened, and he planned to discuss upgrading the mill with his father and Sarah.
• Anna reflected that Li Mo was no longer a child and resolved to keep sleeping in the same room mainly to protect him while maintaining proper boundaries.
• Wayne read a newspaper report about a mill worker murdered in a western-district apartment and an emergency lockdown at Pier No. 3 after an industrial dye leak.
• Li Mo encouraged Wayne to focus on studying and privately planned to use a paper about his self-excited DC generator to gain entry to the Royal Academy of Sciences and bring Wayne and Anna along.
• At school, Li Mo noticed Matthew smiling at Helen, then Matthew asked whether Professor Blythe had accepted Li Mo as an assistant.

Matthew tried to humiliate Li Mo by pressing him about Professor Blythe’s assessment, while also insulting Anna and provoking Wayne. Li Mo frightened Matthew and the class with a staged Mystical Ritual until Matthew apologized, and Professor Blythe’s arrival left the assessment result unresolved.

• Matthew taunted Li Mo about losing his Mysticism Perception, prompting Wayne to confront him before Anna calmed Wayne down.
• Matthew mocked Anna by calling her Li Mo’s personal maid, and Li Mo demanded that he apologize.
• Li Mo performed a staged ritual with a magnet and copper wire, frightening the class until Matthew apologized to Anna.
• Anna accepted Matthew’s apology, and Li Mo put the object away and warned Matthew not to repeat his behavior.
• Matthew again asked whether Li Mo had passed Professor Blythe’s assessment, but Professor Blythe arrived at the classroom before Li Mo answered.