Xu Qinghuan circled the dust-covered wooden contraption twice, the light in her eyes burning brighter than the nearby torch.
As a modern soul who had undergone nine years of compulsory education, she knew exactly what this thing represented.
What kind of place was Jiangning Prefecture? It was the Great Qian Dynasty’s purse, the monopoly center for silk and cloth. Every inch of the fine silks and satins sent up the canal to the capital was soaked in the blood, sweat, and tears of weavers who had worked themselves to the bone.
The reason the four great families of Jiangnan could block out the sun with one hand wasn't just because of the land they owned; it was because they controlled the largest weaving workshops in Great Qian and held a set of guild rules that, while primitive, were enough to stifle any outsider.
In this era of hand-cranked spinning wheels and foot-pedal looms, whoever mastered efficiency was a true god.
Was this just a piece of junk wood? No, this was a spark of the Industrial Revolution. It was a nuclear weapon capable of grinding those arrogant aristocratic families into the dust.
"Dad, move aside a bit. Don't block the light."
Xu Qinghuan pushed aside Xu Youde, who was still trying to dive into the pile of gold. She took a deep breath and reached out to grasp the wooden crank.
Theoretically, this machine could drive sixteen spindles simultaneously—an efficiency ten times greater than a traditional spinning wheel. As long as this thing started turning, the Xu family could crash the price of cloth in Jiangning and shatter the rice bowls of those elite families.
"For this County Mistress... move!"
Xu Qinghuan exerted force with her wrist and gave it a sharp crank.
*Creeeeeak—*
A tooth-aching groan echoed through the secret room.
The wooden wheel turned only half a revolution before it seized up completely. Immediately following was a heart-stopping "clack-clack" sound coming from deep within the machinery.
Refusing to believe it, Xu Qinghuan tried a few more times.
It wouldn't budge an inch.
A few fragile connecting rods even let out a dying wail from the uneven pressure, on the verge of snapping.
"Tsk."
Xu Qinghuan let go and brushed the dust off her hands, feeling a sense of defeat.
This thing looked simple, but the internal transmission structure was incredibly complex. Either the gears inside had rotted, it lacked the necessary lubricant, or... it was simply a prototype. Perhaps the great mind from the past hadn't had time to calibrate it before their house was raided and seized.
Although she had a system and the concept of blueprints in her head, she wasn't a mechanical engineer.
She was fine with reading about overbearing CEOs or absurd web novels, but asking her to repair several-hundred-year-old black technology by hand was simply outside her professional scope.
It was like giving a caveman an AK-47 without any bullets; she had a weapon of mass destruction that could only be used as a club.
"What a waste."
Xu Qinghuan sighed, but she didn't dwell on it for long.
A meal is eaten one bite at a time, and a path is walked one step at a time. Since the item was in her hands, she would break through this technological barrier sooner or later.
She straightened up, the fanaticism fading from her face as she reverted to being a shrewd operator.
"Li Sheng."
"Present." Li Sheng, who had been standing guard at the entrance, hurried over, his eyes still unable to resist darting toward the mountain of gold.
"Find a few pieces of the thickest oilcloth and wrap this thing up. Then, dismantle it and mix the pieces into those crates of junk, quilts, and scraps we brought with us."
Xu Qinghuan’s voice was low, but her tone was terrifyingly stern. "Remember, this thing is more important than that pile of gold. If anyone notices even a hint of what it is, or if a single screw goes missing..."
Li Sheng was a smart man. Although he didn't understand what use this wooden hunk had, seeing the Eldest Miss so solemn made a shiver run down his spine. He nodded his head like a woodpecker. "Don't worry, Miss. I'll handle this personally. The secret dies with me."
Having dealt with the future weapon of mass destruction, Xu Qinghuan turned around to look at her dear father. He was currently sprawled over the gold mountain, attempting to bite a gold bar to test its purity.
"Dad, stop gnawing on it. That's gold, not a braised pork hock. Watch out or you'll break a tooth."
Xu Youde gave a silly grin. Not caring about the dirt, he planted a heavy kiss on the gold brick. "Daughter, this is thirty thousand taels! And it's ancient red gold! Our luck... it's like the ancestors’ graves are blowing green smoke!"
"We have to move this money up; we can't leave it here," Xu Qinghuan said, kicking a gold bar at her feet. "The Liu Garden is full of prying eyes. If some bold soul sneaks back in, this will be our death warrant."
"Move it! We must move it!" The moment Xu Youde heard someone might steal his money, he bounced off the ground, his small, bead-like eyes flashing with intensity. "Move it where? I don't think anywhere in this garden is safe, except for... my bedroom!"
Xu Youde waved his hand grandly, pointing upward. "I've checked. There’s a hidden compartment under the bed in the master bedroom, and the walls are hollow. Tonight, the two of us will put in some hard work. Like ants moving house, we’ll stuff it all in!"
"There’s so much, will it fit?" Xu Qinghuan raised an eyebrow.
"Won't fit?" Xu Youde let out a cold snort and patted his chest. "Forget thirty thousand taels—even for three hundred thousand taels, for the sake of money, your old man would dig a hole in the wall and sleep inside it!"
"Fine, we’ll do it your way."
"Hehe, of course! There are other secret spots too, don't you worry, daughter!"
...
That night, the master bedroom of Liu Garden echoed for hours with sounds like mice gnawing on wood.
The Xu father-daughter duo plus their confidant Li Sheng acted like thieves, transporting the heavy gold bricks one by one from the dry well to the bedroom.
By the time the last gold brick was stuffed into the bedframe, the horizon was already showing the pale gray of dawn.
Xu Youde was exhausted like a dead dog, yet he stubbornly refused to go to the guest room. He had a thin quilt spread over the hard wooden bed now packed with gold bricks and lay right down.
"Is it uncomfortable?" Xu Qinghuan asked, looking at her father’s face, which was twisted in a mixture of bliss and pain.
"Uncomfortable?" Xu Youde rolled over, hugging the quilt and letting out a satisfied sigh. "This isn't uncomfortable; this is a massage for your old man. You don't understand—sleeping on money is the only way to feel at peace."
Before three breaths had passed, snores like thunder erupted in the room.
This old man was likely the world’s greatest miser, and also the most reliable human safe.
Xu Qinghuan stepped out of the room quietly, closing the door behind her.
The morning mist in Jiangning had not yet dissipated.
The water pavilion of Liu Garden was shrouded in a hazy blue-gray, the air carrying the scent of damp earth and the lingering fragrance of rouge drifting from the distant Qinhuai River.
Xu Qinghuan stood by the railing, fiddling with a shuttle in her hand.
This had fallen out of the complex flying shuttle slot when she was dismantling the machine earlier. The shuttle was carved from extremely hard datewood, its surface polished as smooth as a mirror—a patina left by countless passes through warp and weft threads.
She held the shuttle up, inspecting it against the rising sun.
Blueprints were useless on their own, and so were machines.
Even if she fixed this Spinning Jenny, if there were no skilled people to operate it, maintain it, or even improve it based on the characteristics of Great Qian’s cotton yarn, it would ultimately remain a mere ornament.
Every profession has its specialists.
She needed people.
She needed the kind of people who weren't just mindless laborers, but those who understood mechanics, had sharp minds, and were perhaps even a bit rebellious—the "tech geeks" of this era.
In an era where all pursuits were deemed lowly and only scholarly learning was held in high esteem, finding someone like that was harder than stumbling upon a gold nugget on the side of the road.
"This is going to be difficult..."
Xu Qinghuan twirled the shuttle between her fingers before tucking it into her sleeve, a meaningful smile playing at the corners of her lips.
Since they couldn't be found in the common market, her only choice was to scavenge through the dens of iniquity or the places others disdained to look.
In a world shackled by the rigid teachings of sages, a madman was often harder to find than a genius.
"Well," she sighed, "slow and steady wins the race. One step at a time."
