Su Mu was stunned.
He was so choked up by the words "pretty boy" that he almost passed out.
He had lived for twenty-six years, traveled extensively, and met many people. He had been called a poor scholar, a pauper, but never a pretty boy.
He subconsciously touched his face.
Wasn't his hand full of black ash?
The blast wave just now had plastered all the ash and wood chips from the beam of the east wing room onto his head.
Right now, he was covered in dirt and looked exactly like a charcoal worker who had just come out of the kiln. Where was he white?
He wanted to retort, but the woman opposite him had no time for him.
Jenny Huang squatted in the middle of the yard with her legs wide apart, resting Qiao'er's wooden box on her knees, turning over the mechanism inside.
Muttering to herself.
"Three layers of interlocking rings... one movement turns three mechanisms... Yes, it's the right measure of teeth interlocking!"
She slapped the wooden box fiercely.
"The mechanism in my previous musket, every time it fired, the reaction force went straight back and forth, and it got stuck. Now looking at this mechanism, the force goes through two bends, changes direction, and it becomes smooth!"
"Qiao'er is really ingenious!"
Su Mu's feet seemed to have taken root when he heard the words "firing spring", and he couldn't move.
He was the master of Luoxia Valley, with a seventeenth-generation family background in miscellaneous studies, proficient in astronomy, geography, water conservancy, and iron smelting.
But for the category of firearms, there were only a few incomplete pages in the collection of books in Luoxia Valley.
What was drawn was the sudden fire gun of the previous dynasty, which was completely different from the copper pipe that had just blown up half a room.
Su Mu tucked the dust-covered folding fan into his back waist, habitually adjusted his wrinkled lapels, put on airs, and stepped forward.
"This... miss."
Jenny Huang didn't look up.
Su Mu cleared his throat and changed to a tone he thought was the most elegant.
"I am Su Mu, traveling around, slightly proficient in all kinds of craftsmanship. Just now I saw that the copper pipe in your hand has quite a bit of mystery, I wonder—"
"Get out of the way, I have no time."
Jenny Huang didn't give a single extra word.
The corner of Su Mu's mouth twitched.
He hit a wall with Xu Qinghuan, that was because her shrewdness was unfathomable, he accepted defeat.
But the crazy woman in front of him, covered in black ash like a kitchen god, didn't even look him in the eye?
Su Mu looked at the copper pipe in Jenny Huang's left hand.
That section of copper pipe had blown up into a broken trumpet shape, with uneven cross-sections and copper skin curling outwards at the edges.
The thickness of the pipe wall was uneven, and longitudinal cracks on the inner wall were clearly visible.
Su Mu squatted down.
He didn't speak again, just walked around Jenny Huang for a short half circle, put his head close to the copper pipe, and his nose almost touched the cross-section.
Jenny Huang finally looked up, frowning at him.
"What are you doing?"
Su Mu stretched out his index finger, scraped lightly on the cross-section of the copper pipe, and his finger pulp immediately stained with a layer of grayish-black powder.
He put the powder under his nose and smelled it, then twisted it.
"This pipe, the fire control during forging is not up to standard."
Jenny Huang's movements stopped.
Su Mu stood up and flicked the powder off his fingers.
"The copper material is mixed with tin, looking at this color, the ratio is about seven to three. This ratio is acceptable for making bronze mirrors and copper locks, but to use it for the barrel of a firearm... that's simply playing with your life."
"If too much tin is mixed in, the copper body becomes brittle."
"Your pipe wall didn't undergo annealing and quenching after forging, and the hidden force during forging is all pent up inside."
"Once the gunpowder is lit, the pipe wall can't withstand the explosive impact, and naturally tears open from the weakest point."
Su Mu counted on his fingers, popping out one by one.
"Look again at the texture of this cross-section, the color is dark, indicating that sulfur stone impurities were mixed in during the melting of the copper material."
"If this thing is not removed cleanly, the cast copper parts will be full of fine pores inside, and absolutely can't withstand repeated firing."
...
The yard was quiet.
Jenny Huang stared at Su Mu for a few breaths.
Then she grabbed Su Mu's collar and dragged him to the copper pipe.
"Say it again! How to remove that sulfur stone impurity?"
Su Mu was dragged by her into a stagger, and the collar on his neck strangled him painfully.
"You, you let go first—"
"Say it first!"
"Add charcoal powder to cover the melting surface to isolate the outside air, then use a raw willow stick to stir the copper juice, forcing all the bubbles out."
"This is my ancestral secret method for purifying copper, are you going to let go or not?!"
Jenny Huang let go.
But her mouth was open, and she didn't close it for a long time.
Su Mu rubbed his neck and took two steps back, secretly cursing this crazy woman for being so strong, almost sending him away on the spot.
He was just trying to put on some airs when Jenny Huang turned and ran.
She ran three steps and then came back, grabbing Su Mu's arm and dragging him to the east wing room.
"Come in with me!"
"Wait! You crazy woman! It just blew up inside!"
"So what if it blew up? I've tried it over seventy times and haven't died!"
Su Mu was dragged into the east wing room.
The scene inside made him gasp.
Half of the wall was blackened by smoke, and the ground was covered with broken wood and copper slag.
The long table by the south window was full of large and small copper pipes, iron parts, and various miscellaneous objects whose names couldn't be called.
At the corner of the table lay a stack of straw paper, covered with dense drawings and annotations.
Jenny Huang rummaged out an unexploded copper pipe from the table, and stuffed it into Su Mu's arms along with a stack of drawings.
"Look at this."
Su Mu looked down at the drawings.
The more he looked, the slower he got, and his brows furrowed tighter.
What was drawn on this drawing was actually the inner cross-section of a musket, from the barrel to the powder chamber, and then to the firing mechanism, every part was densely annotated with dimensions and materials.
Although the handwriting was sloppy, and several places were rubbed with charcoal ash, the whole design idea was clear.
Su Mu turned to the third page, his finger tapping on the firing mechanism.
"This is wrong."
Jenny Huang leaned over.
"Where?"
"This firing spring of yours is a one-way dead force, it's useless after one spring, and needs to be re-wound to fire the second shot."
"That's why you set your sights on the interlocking mechanism in Qiao'er's wooden box, but the root cause of your gun's problem is not the mechanism."
Su Mu picked up the charcoal pencil next to him and drew directly on the blank space of the drawing.
"Your powder chamber is too small, the powder charge is not enough, and the impact of the pellet leaving the barrel is weak. Once the impact is weak, it starts to fall after flying thirty paces, how can it be accurate?"
"Of course I know it's not accurate!"
Jenny Huang slapped the table.
"I've tried it over seventy times, and it all deviates after forty paces. I always thought the pipe wall wasn't straight enough!"
"The pipe wall not being straight is one aspect, but it's not the root cause."
Su Mu finished drawing a simple trajectory diagram of the pellet, and used the charcoal pencil to draw an arc after the pellet flew out of the muzzle.
"The pellet doesn't go straight after it leaves the barrel, it will fall down."
"Nonsense, a stone thrown out will also fall to the ground."
"Yes, but have you ever thought about why a stone falls to the ground?"
Jenny Huang froze for a moment.
"Isn't that a matter of course?"
Su Mu put the charcoal pencil on the table and gestured with both hands in the air.
"Lord Xu just discussed a principle with me."
"Saying that all objects with weight in the world will be firmly pulled down by the ground."
"When you throw a stone into the sky, it reaches its highest point, loses its momentum, and gets dragged back down by the ground. The same principle applies to a bullet. The moment it leaves the muzzle, the ground starts pulling it down. The further it flies, the harder it falls."
"Lord Xu calls this—the Earth Dragon Drinking Water."
Su Mu made a downward pulling gesture.
"There's an invisible dragon beneath the ground, constantly inhaling, dragging everything downward."
"I deduce that a light bullet is pulled down quickly, while a heavy cannonball is pulled down more slowly, but in the end, they all have to fall."
"What you need to do isn't stubbornly trying to make the bullet fly perfectly straight, but rather calculating how much it will drop at different distances, and raising the muzzle by the corresponding amount in advance."
"That way, the fired bullet travels in an arc, but its landing point will strike exactly where you aim."
Jenny Huang stood there, her mouth opening and closing, unable to make a sound for a long time.
Then, she snatched the charcoal pencil from Su Mu's hand and scribbled a string of numbers on the blueprint.
"If it drops three inches at forty paces, how much does it drop at sixty paces?"
"That requires calculation. The weight of the bullet, the speed at which it leaves the barrel, the wind direction—all of it must be factored in, one by one."
"Then calculate it for me!"
"Me? How am I supposed to calculate that?"
"Weren't you just boasting about having a slight grasp of the hundred crafts? Calculate it! Calculate it for me right now!"
Su Mu's mouth twitched into a smirk.
"This isn't something that can be fabricated out of thin air just by having a 'slight grasp'."
"Cut the crap!"
Without another word, Jenny Huang pulled out a handful of counting rods from beneath the desk and slammed them down in front of Su Mu with a loud smack.
Su Mu stared at the pile of counting rods, then looked up at Jenny Huang.
The black soot covering her face couldn't hide the fanaticism in her eyes, and the hands that fiddled with the counting rods were covered in a crisscross of old and new burn scars.
This madwoman was truly risking her life playing with this pile of scrap metal, refusing to give up even after it had exploded over seventy times.
Su Mu sighed, lifted the hem of his robe, and sat down. He neatly arranged the counting rods one by one, his fingertips flying as he began his deductions.
Jenny Huang pulled up a stool and sat opposite him, resting one elbow on the desk, sitting boldly and unceremoniously.
"That copper purification method you mentioned earlier—what is the highest purity you can refine the copper to?"
"Ninety-five percent."
"Not enough. I need over ninety-eight percent."
"Ninety-eight percent? Do you think refining copper is like boiling porridge, where you just need the right heat? That requires a specially made crucible and repeated smelting at least three times, and every single time, one must keep a dead stare on the heat and timing."
"Then smelt it three times!"
"Do you know how much premium charcoal will be burned away smelting it three times? How much labor will be thrown into it?"
"I don't care about any of that. I just want my gun barrels to stop exploding!"
Su Mu looked at her deeply, then slammed the counting rod in his hand heavily onto the desk.
"Fine, I'll take this job. But I have one condition."
"Speak."
"When you modify the firing mechanism of this musket using Qiao'er's three-tier interlocking system, you have to count me in."
"On what grounds?"
"On the grounds that I am the only person in this Great Qian empire who can refine copper to ninety-eight percent."
Jenny Huang stared at him.
Su Mu did not yield either.
The two of them sat across the broken desk, engaging in a staring contest.
Outside in the courtyard, Li Sheng walked over carrying two bowls of tea. Just as he reached the door, he heard a deafening argument erupting inside.
"The meshing alignment of these gear teeth is wrong! It's off by at least two millimeters!"
"Bullshit! I've been making mechanisms for twenty years. I could feel the meshing alignment with my eyes closed and it wouldn't be off!"
"Then tell me, why does the third-tier mechanism jam when it engages?"
"That's because the rebound force of the spring inside is uneven! What does that have to do with the gear meshing!"
"The force is uneven exactly because your meshing is off! Once the transmission path of this hidden force goes awry, the spring naturally receives the wrong tension."
"Do you even understand firearms?"
"I may not understand firearms, but I understand the principles of physics!"
"Physics? What the hell is physics?"
"It's the principle of the Earth Dragon Drinking Water that Lord Xu talked about!"
Li Sheng stood at the door, holding the two bowls of tea, caught in a dilemma of whether to advance or retreat.
He peeked into the room.
Su Mu's treasured folding fan had fallen to the ground at some point and was now covered in dust.
Both of his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and he was jabbing at the blueprint with a charcoal pencil. He didn't look the least bit like an elegant Valley Master anymore.
Jenny Huang was even fiercer. She had completely dismantled Qiao'er's wooden box, spreading its twelve components all over the table.
She gestured with a broken copper pipe in one hand while slamming the desk thunderously with the other.
Their voices grew louder and louder, neither willing to yield an inch.
Seeing this scene, Li Sheng silently backed away.
Carrying the two bowls of tea that had now gone completely cold, he walked to the door of the main hall.
Xu Qinghuan was sitting in the hall, flipping through the roster of the Bureau of Hundred Crafts.
"What's wrong?"
Li Sheng set the tea down.
"Su Mu and Miss Huang... got into an argument."
"An argument?"
Xu Qinghuan's hand paused on the roster.
"They didn't get physical, just a shouting match. Over some gear meshing alignment, the two of them nearly smashed the broken desk in the east wing to pieces."
Xu Qinghuan lowered his head, just about to continue flipping through the roster.
When another loud bang echoed from the east wing.
Immediately followed by Su Mu yelling.
"Can't you just quietly listen to me finish!"
Jenny Huang's voice was even louder.
"Then say something useful for once!"
