EES - Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Thus, on the very day An Lin issued the decree, namely the day of the Empress Investiture, Fengxi Palace, which had served as the empress's bedchamber in every dynasty before, was officially renamed the Board of Manufactures.
Satisfied, An Lin checked the minimap via the Empress Simulator and saw that the palace icon there had also changed its name, along with its functional description.
The Board of Manufactures handled manufacturing. Yet across the entire imperial palace, very few people sported the [Manufacturing] buff above their heads, so few it could be counted on one hand.
After a moment's thought, remembering her little inventor, she swiped the map over to the current training grounds of the Shadow Guard. After all the girls had left Resting-Crane Hall, Yang Yu, who had spent some time learning to read alongside a few of them, had since moved her studies elsewhere.
At least the Shadow Guard training grounds had dedicated spaces for literacy instruction. In any case, illiterate spies were not the norm in the Xuan Kingdom. Even covert agents needed proper education; otherwise, they could not even decipher messages from their comrades. They also had to learn several sets of specialized cipher codes. Moreover, An Lin knew of at least a few Shadow Guards who had mastered the languages of neighboring states.
Those who excelled could transition from covert to overt service. Gan Ping, who had earlier gotten Liu Guanglin drunk to extract information, had been reassigned as a personal guard, following the standard path of official promotion. Others with solid combat prowess were posted to military camps to earn merit ratings. To be precise, the place that trained Shadow Guards functioned more like a specialized talent development hub.
Relentless competition, it seemed, was everywhere.
We are very satisfied. [Satisfied.jpg]
"I wonder if Yang Yu is still here at this hour," An Lin muttered, scanning through the swarm of ant-sized Shadow Guard figures clad in black even during lessons. She did not spot her little inventor.
Still, no matter what, Yang Yu would not wander far from this area. An Lin switched the view back to the training ground and stared for a while until she finally spotted a tiny, lighter-colored figure among the sea of black.
At that moment, her little inventor was crouching at the edge of the training ground, face set in concentration as she adjusted something in her hands. Zooming in, An Lin saw that the box in Yang Yu's grip resembled a repeating crossbow. Beside her, the doll-faced Shadow Guard she had previously dispatched to Linfang crouched with keen interest, eyeing the device.
"Something this small can hit a target over four hundred eighty feet away? Won't it lose momentum halfway?"
"Originally, it could only reach three hundred feet. I modified the bolts. The outer casing is thin wood, with a smaller iron bolt inside. When launched, the two travel at different speeds. Once the wooden casing reaches three hundred feet, the speed differential triggers a mechanism that releases the inner iron bolt, allowing it to fly another one hundred eighty feet or so." Yang Yu explained, gently stroking the custom bolt before loading it into the magazine.
When discussing these technical details, her tone and demeanor differed sharply from her usual self. Precise and focused to the point of coldness, or perhaps ruthlessness? Judging by this expression alone, anyone who had met her before would struggle to reconcile this young woman earnestly explaining a device with the helpless, anxious girl she used to be.
"That impressive? Little miss, want me to help you test it out?" The doll-faced guard's eyes lit up, suddenly eager to try.
Yang Yu cautiously glanced up at him, hesitated for a moment, then slowly handed over the repeating crossbow.
"Be careful, alright? Do not break it. I need to show it to Your Majesty."
"Do not worry, do not worry~"
An Lin watched with interest as the guard tested several shots. She found the actual effective range was not strictly capped at 160 meters. Beyond that distance, accuracy dropped, but it could still strike the target.
Her little inventor, Yang Yu, had stayed nearby throughout the testing, adjusting distances and logging data. Soon, the commotion drew the attention of other Shadow Guards undergoing training. Initially, they merely cast shy glances in their direction, but when the doll-faced guard managed to hit the target from over 170 meters away, they could no longer contain themselves.
"Is this repeating crossbow a newly developed weapon? Is there only one prototype?"
"Having one of these for close-quarters combat would indeed be excellent..."
"I want to try it too."
"..."
After observing it all, An Lin fell into thoughtful silence.
She had originally assumed Yang Yu would need a few more years of training and study before officially starting work and becoming the Xuan Kingdom's youngest inventor.
But looking at it now, employing child labor did not seem entirely unreasonable...
An Lin internally chastised herself for a second for reaching out to exploit child labor, then cheerfully summoned Wang Xiuwen.
"Xiuwen, We have another task for you. Since Fengxi Palace has been renamed and vacated, go arrange for craftsmen to enter the palace. Carpenters, blacksmiths, artisans of all kinds, bring them in. Renovate the former palace maid quarters inside the palace to serve as dormitories for the craftsmen, and do not forget to equip them with the necessary tools."
"What level of skill does Your Majesty require in the craftsmen? I can recruit them accordingly." Even upon hearing such an order now, Wang Xiuwen's expression remained completely unmoved.
He had witnessed the freshly invested Empress sitting idly at a desk while his sovereign gave orders, having removed her elaborate hair ornaments to simply tie her hair back, openly reviewing memorials. Not only did she read them, but she also naturally picked up a brush and drafted replies directly onto the documents. Such a scene was unprecedented. Even during his brief tenure serving the previous emperor in his youth, Wang Xiuwen had never seen anything like it. He vaguely remembered those days: the previous emperor's most favored concubine once brought nourishing soup to see him, insistently trying to sit on his lap to watch him review memorials, only to be coldly rebuffed, thrown to the floor, and ordered out by the emperor. Yet, placing that incident under the current sovereign's reign somehow felt less shocking than expected. After the initial surprise wore off, it only made one think, 'Oh, that is exactly the sort of thing His Majesty would do.'
Quickly averting his gaze, Wang Xiuwen listened as his sovereign continued.
"As for requirements, bring in those with outstanding skills and established reputations first. We will inspect them personally and decide whom to keep. Those not retained need not leave in haste; come autumn planting season, the Agricultural Extension Officers will promote irrigation waterwheels and curved-shaft plows across the counties, and there will be plenty of work for craftsmen."
"Yes."
Later, true to her word, An Lin made a brief appearance near the end of the palace banquet, exchanged a few pleasantries with the ministers, and let the hours slip by.
By evening, An Lin piloted both avatars back to the bedchamber to rest. Lying side by side on their backs, staring up at the canopy above, she only then began to feel a slight sense of unfamiliarity.
Well... although both avatars were fundamentally her, prior to this, each had occupied a separate large bed, free to toss and turn as she pleased. Now, lying side by side, it was not exactly cramped, but the physical presence of the other body was undeniably obvious.
The Emperor and Empress, lying in a row, sighed in unison. A moment later, they both burst into slightly amused laughter.
"Forget it, let us do something productive." An Lin had the Emperor avatar, usually glued to the study desk all day, roll over, then used the Empress avatar to knead her stiff shoulders.
Thanks to the acupoints she had learned through martial practice, An Lin was quite familiar with which shoulder and neck points could relieve fatigue. Massaging herself came easily, and soon she comfortably narrowed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
After a while, when the Emperor avatar's shoulders felt better, An Lin shifted positions so the Emperor avatar could massage the sore arm and calf muscles of the Empress avatar from her martial training.
Serving oneself required reciprocity. I really am a master at keeping things balanced (?).
That said, the Empress avatar's physique was genuinely easier to massage than the Emperor's. With tactile feedback shared between both bodies, An Lin could attest to this firsthand. As mentioned earlier, whether due to the simulator or that system, the Empress avatar's muscles never grew particularly prominent despite rigorous training. From the outside, she still carried the appearance of a delicate beauty, with muscle tone leaning toward flexibility rather than bulk. The only clearly visible change was the definition of her abdominal lines, which might well be the sole non-frail trait on Ji Wanshuang's body.
Thinking of her abs, An Lin used the Emperor avatar to pat his own stomach thoughtfully. It was not fat, just soft.
She touched the Empress avatar's abdominal lines again. They were flexible and explosive.
An Lin: Wow!
All things considered, the Emperor avatar should probably exercise occasionally too. Prolonged sitting was not great for health. Originally, she had been too bogged down by state affairs to train, but now that the Empress avatar helped draft replies, she could easily carve out some time for the Emperor avatar to work out while doubling their efficiency. After all, people needed sustainable development too.
An Lin secretly decided to dust off Tai Chi and the Eight Pieces of Brocade, scheduling about half an hour of exercise for the Emperor avatar every afternoon.
After finishing the mutual massage, the Emperor and Empress lay side by side once more. After all that tossing and turning, the Emperor avatar, accustomed to waking early, was already feeling drowsy. His eyes slowly closed, and under An Lin's practiced control, he drifted off to sleep quickly.
The Empress avatar, however, having mastered internal energy cultivation, remained fully energized thanks to its effects, with not a trace of sleepiness.
The moment the Emperor avatar fell asleep, An Lin shifted most of her conscious awareness to the Empress avatar. Staring at the canopy for a long while without a hint of sleep, her mind raced, drifting from agricultural development to fundraising strategies, then to the Universal School, and finally to the three volunteers who had pledged to go to Yunzhou Prefecture...
After all, tomorrow only the Emperor avatar needed to rise early for morning court. The Empress avatar had no such constraints.
So, after lying awake for a while, An Lin decided it was best not to waste time and energy doing nothing.
Using the Empress avatar, she got out of bed on the other side, threw on an outer robe, sat down at the bedchamber's writing desk, lit a candle, and placed a lampshade over it. She pulled out several sheets of paper, ground ink, and began drafting a disposal plan for the Minister of Imperial Hospitality, along with final arrangements for the Court of Imperial Hospitality. Finishing that, she moved on to autumn tax and planting matters, flipping through the memorials she habitually pocketed daily, selecting suitable Agricultural Extension Officers to dispatch to various prefectures and counties based on local conditions.
Oh right, and Liu Guanglin. Most of what needed to be extracted from interrogation was already done. Once Song Ling returned from Guxian County with the salt production results, she would hold a public Authorship Disputation on the grand plaza outside the Imperial Academy as Liu Guanglin's formal sentencing. The topic would be 'A Rational Discussion: Is It Realistic to Assume All These Poems and Essays Were Written by a Single Person?' Non-academy members and commoners alike could attend. Ideally, Liu Guanglin would be forced to publicly admit to plagiarizing poetry and apologize to Qiancai and others whose work had been stolen, restoring justice for them.
Lost in thought, An Lin quickly filled several pages of paper. After letting them dry nearby, she organized them and secured them under a paperweight.
Yet even while writing, she had not forgotten to continue accumulating Martial Strength Rating bit by bit through subtle exercises. If one looked down, they would see that the Empress was not actually sitting on a chair at the desk. Instead, she was holding a horse stance to strengthen her lower body. Besides her right hand holding the brush, her left hand held an overturned stool aloft like a dumbbell, lifting and lowering it repeatedly. What was accumulation of small efforts leading to qualitative change? This was it.
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