At nine in the morning, Changning Alley, freshly washed by the heavy rain, still carried a faint damp chill.
At the entrance of Guichen Studio, a blue enclosed delivery truck came to a steady stop with the screech of its brakes.
A moment later, the driver pushed three enormous, heavy corrugated cardboard boxes inside and called out while wiping his sweat, “Mr. Su, your shipment! Please sign for it!”
Su Muchen had just seen off the first truck and had barely had time to lift his coffee cup when the second delivery truck once again stopped precisely at the entrance.
Then came the third, fourth, and fifth…
By afternoon, the entire Guichen Studio—which had originally been an elegant, quiet place filled with the atmosphere of antiquity—had been completely packed with enormous cardboard boxes stacked almost to the ceiling. There was barely anywhere left to stand.
Su Ningning rubbed her aching shoulders as she came in through the back door and collapsed into a chair without any regard for appearances.
Unable to hold back, she complained, “Muchen, are you opening an armory or a stationery store? Those military binoculars are ridiculously heavy. I nearly broke my back moving them! The delivery drivers were looking at me strangely just now and kept asking whether we were preparing for war.”
Sitting in front of the computer and frantically checking the inventory list, Su Qianqian joined in without even looking up.
“Exactly. Just to get this entire batch of existing stock within one day, I almost emptied all of the group’s warehouse inventory in the northern region.”
Su Muchen looked at the supplies filling the entire room and smiled helplessly.
These things were strategic supplies that were going directly into the underground cavern beneath Linbei City.
But he had no concept of the total volume of goods, which was why they had ended up in their current situation, where even moving around was difficult.
In the past, Xiao had always been the one helping him control the quantity of incoming supplies.
Well, this was great.
Based on their previous experience, at most they could send four carts of goods through the door in a day. Beyond that, the door would begin to become unstable.
By a rough estimate, if they wanted to transport everything in this pile to the underground cavern, it would take nearly a week.
Linbei City was currently in desperate need of manpower, and Xiao Yuan was so busy every day that his feet barely touched the ground. That was why Su Muchen had taken the initiative to handle the deliveries himself.
Only after going to Linbei City had he truly realized just how busy Xiao Yuan and Xia Lanshi were.
Every day, they had to begin preparing for work before the sky had even fully brightened.
Then they would remain busy until late at night or even the early hours of the morning. Their schedules were packed from beginning to end, and sometimes they did not even have time to sleep.
It was practically the ancient-world version of being an overworked office drone.
Su Muchen piled the goods that needed to be delivered onto a small cart, stacking them as high as possible, right up to the maximum height the doorway would allow.
Seeing this, Su Ningning asked, “Want me to help?”
“No need. I’ll get some exercise while I’m at it. You go rest.”
After finishing the first cart, Su Muchen was already slightly out of breath, but he insisted on doing it himself. He pushed the first cart, piled up like a small mountain, toward the cold-white curtain of light.
After delivering the second cart, fine sweat had already appeared on his forehead, and he was breathing heavily.
By the third cart, Su Ningning finally could not stand watching anymore and simply helped him stack the boxes onto the cart.
“Muchen, you really need to exercise more.”
As she spoke, Su Ningning moved the boxes without even getting out of breath, as easily as though she were moving empty cartons.
Su Muchen secretly thought that although he did indeed have a problem, he could not exactly compare himself with a Gatekeeper who had undergone special training since childhood.
Soon, the third cart was delivered.
When the fourth cart went through as well, Su Muchen noticed something unusual.
“Huh?”
Su Muchen looked at the light of the door. Normally, after four carts had been sent through, it would become dim, but today it remained bright.
Su Qianqian did not even look up.
“That’s normal. The ‘key to the door’ is actually the main delivery person, while the door master is only a guest. Since you’re personally delivering everything, naturally you can send more goods through.”
Su Muchen: “…”
He suddenly felt speechless.
How had nobody told him about something this important?
But then he remembered that he had not been able to open the door before, so Xiao Yuan had still needed to move the goods back himself.
Now that he could send more supplies over, it would undoubtedly be a timely aid. He could not help feeling a little excited.
So he began experimenting.
Next—
The fifth cart went through smoothly.
The sixth cart went through with ease.
The seventh… the eighth…
Su Muchen had originally prepared himself for resistance and rejection. Yet the moment the wheels touched the curtain of light, they actually slid through without the slightest obstruction.
When Su Muchen pushed the eighth handcart through the curtain of light as easily as walking on level ground, he looked at the doorway, which remained as stable as ever. Even the patterns of light seemed to have come alive, slowly flowing along the doorframe.
He became completely excited.
At the same time, he could not help feeling a little regretful.
If he had learned to open this door sooner, the supply defenses of Dayong might have been established long ago.
It was not until he finished pushing the twelfth cart that the light of the door finally began to dim slightly.
“Looks like twelve carts is today’s limit.”
Su Muchen wiped the fine sweat from his forehead.
Although toward the end he had only been responsible for pushing the carts while other people handled the actual loading, he was still satisfied as he looked at the roughly one-quarter of the boxes that remained.
These things really did take up too much space. They would have to wait until tomorrow to continue transporting them.
On the other side of the door, however, inside the underground cavern beneath Linbei City, the scene was completely different—and utterly astonishing.
More than a dozen elite personal guards who had been temporarily reassigned here were now standing in place like wooden statues, staring blankly ahead.
Because directly before them was a small mountain made up of a full eighty-six large boxes, all neatly arranged.
“…It’s still not over?”
The usually composed commander of the personal guards rubbed his somewhat sore eyes. His face was filled with the dazed disbelief of someone questioning his entire existence.
Xia Lanshi now approached with his usual refined bearing and saw the exact same scene.
His pale-red eyes showed a faint trace of shock.
Then he smiled and said, “Could Doctor Su have moved the entire warehouse of Guichen Studio here?”
He had previously heard that the door could only transport four carts of goods a day, but judging from the current situation, it was clearly capable of far more than that.
Xiao Yuan had just finished dealing with the military affairs above ground and hurried toward the underground cavern, still covered in dust from his work.
When he saw the small mountain of cardboard boxes from another world, even his footsteps paused.
“Mu’an, what are these?”
Xiao Yuan strode forward, a trace of confusion in his deep, dark eyes.
“I only found out today. Apparently, the ‘key to the door’ is the main delivery person. After testing it just now, we found that it can transport a total of twelve carts of goods. That’s three times the original amount.”
Su Muchen smiled.
“We can send more supplies over from now on. Whatever you need in the future, just move it over.”
Seeing the unable-to-hide pride in his smile, Xiao Yuan’s gaze softened as well, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly.
It was not because they could obtain more supplies in the future.
It was because seeing Su Muchen happy made him happy as well.
“What Dayong lacks most right now isn’t swords and weapons. It’s intelligence and visibility.”
Su Muchen smiled as he walked over and personally opened one of the black boxes marked with a military-industrial label. He took out a paper box, opened it, and removed a pair of military binoculars painted in camouflage.
He handed them directly to Xiao Yuan.
Xiao Yuan accepted the heavy, cold, strangely textured object and turned it over in confusion.
“Open the cover first, then hold it up to your eyes. Look through these two lenses at something in the distance, and adjust the focus here.”
Su Muchen patiently instructed him from the side.
Xiao Yuan followed his instructions, opened the cover, raised the binoculars to his eyes, and adjusted the focus.
The next second, his entire body froze in place, and his breath suddenly caught.
At that moment, Mo Fei was standing a full three li away from them at the edge of the cavern, keeping watch over the situation and guarding against the surroundings.
But in Xiao Yuan’s field of vision, Mo Fei’s eternally expressionless dead-fish face looked as though he were standing right in front of him. Xiao Yuan could even clearly see Mo Fei’s eyelashes trembling slightly from boredom.
“This…”
He managed to say one word, then could say no more.
A huge storm surged through Xiao Yuan’s heart, and his fingers tightened involuntarily around the binoculars.
This object was far more astonishing than he had imagined.
It could be used not only to transmit intelligence through the light network, but also to directly observe an enemy’s every movement from a distance.
It could even clearly reveal enemy banners, messengers, and troop movements.
Seeing Xiao Yuan’s unusual expression, Xia Lanshi became increasingly curious.
He curiously took the binoculars from Su Muchen and looked into the distance.
After only one glance, he sucked in a breath.
If this thing were used merely for transmitting intelligence through the light network, it would be an outrageous waste of its capabilities.
He immediately said, “Your Highness, I apologize. I underestimated the quantity. We need to increase the order.”
Xiao Yuan replied, “Approved.”
In the distance, Mo Fei vaguely sensed that he was being watched and turned his expressionless face around.
Seeing this, Su Muchen mischievously called out, “Mo Fei, wave.”
Mo Fei was completely bewildered. Although he had no idea why, he obediently faced them and stiffly waved his hand.
On their side of the cavern, Xiao Yuan and Xia Lanshi saw his dead-fish expression in its entirety through the binoculars.
Mo Fei stood in the distance, completely unaware that he had just been “seen through” by his own master. He remained there, puzzled.
“This pair of binoculars, on the battlefield, can allow the commander-in-chief to detect enemy ambushes and troop movements several li away in advance. This is a divine artifact.”
Xiao Yuan took a deep breath and looked at Su Muchen with eyes filled with wordless gratitude.
“Don’t rush. There’s more.”
Su Muchen smiled slightly and pulled another object from the box—a thin mirror only the size of a card, with a precisely designed crosshair hole in the center.
Xia Lanshi curiously leaned over to take a look.
He had previously seen a mirror from another world inside Chi Banyue’s pocket-watch cover. Its smoothness was far superior to the bronze mirrors of Dayong, making reflections much brighter and clearer. Even Chi Banyue’s recent disguise and makeup techniques had improved considerably because of it.
The mirror before them was clearly extraordinary.
“This is a sunlight signaling mirror, specifically used for long-distance communication during the day.”
As Su Muchen explained, he gestured toward Mo Fei in the distance, indicating that he should move farther away.
He waited until Mo Fei’s figure at the boundary between the dim underground cavern and the faint light in the distance had shrunk into a blurry black dot.
Su Muchen raised the metal mirror and precisely locked onto Mo Fei’s direction through the central crosshair.
He turned to Xiao Yuan.
“Help me hold this and simulate sunlight.”
He handed Xiao Yuan a powerful flashlight that he had prepared in advance.
Xiao Yuan understood and pressed the switch. A dazzling white beam shone directly onto the mirror’s surface.
Su Muchen slightly adjusted the angle of the mirror.
In an instant, an intensely concentrated beam of snow-bright light tore through the dim space and struck Mo Fei’s face in the distance with pinpoint accuracy.
Mo Fei was caught off guard by the sudden, blinding light and instinctively raised his hand to shield his eyes.
Su Muchen gently pinched the mirror with two fingers, opening and closing it.
The distant beam of light “flashed, then flashed again,” sending out a signal at a rhythmic frequency.
Xia Lanshi witnessed this scene, and his eyes immediately lit up.
He had previously only heard Su Muchen describe it verbally. Now that he had witnessed an actual demonstration with his own eyes, countless thoughts of immense strategic value instantly exploded in his mind.
“As long as there is sunlight, military intelligence can be transmitted in an instant to the farthest point within one’s line of sight. Even more remarkably, it is so compact that it can be carried extremely easily during daily marches…”
Xia Lanshi’s eyes flickered cleverly, immediately landing on Xiao Yuan.
Before he could even speak, Xiao Yuan had already calmly uttered one word.
“Approved.”
Su Muchen put the mirror away and placed it into Xia Lanshi’s hand with a smile.
“What is truly powerful isn’t the mirror. It’s light. As long as you learn the coding system for light signals, even a hundred li away, the message can arrive in an instant.”
The other several cardboard boxes contained various types of writing pens. Since Su Muchen had already let Xia Lanshi try them earlier, he did not elaborate further.
Afterward, Su Muchen opened another heavy box filled with the “samples” he had specifically selected for Dayong’s military and intelligence operations.
He took out a round metal object with a cover and placed it in Xiao Yuan’s palm.
“This is a liquid-damped compass. Even while marching, riding on horseback, or moving across extremely rough and bumpy terrain, the needle won’t keep shaking. It lets you quickly determine your direction.”
Xiao Yuan opened the metal cover.
As he walked, he rotated the compass in his hand. No matter how he changed its angle, the needle glowing with a faint blue light always pointed unwaveringly due north, without the slightest tremor or drift.
Xiao Yuan’s dark eyes narrowed slightly, and his fingers unconsciously tightened, as though the small needle resting in his palm were not a tiny instrument at all, but the road to survival for an army of thousands.
Xia Lanshi, standing nearby, was equally stunned.
He could not resist taking it and personally spinning it three or four times.
Yet each time, the dark-blue needle stopped with absolute precision, pointing in exactly the same direction.
“…Not off by even the slightest.”
Xia Lanshi murmured.
The magnetic needles and compasses used by Dayong’s military were extremely susceptible to interference from iron objects and the earth’s magnetic field. They were also bulky and inconvenient to carry.
When had they ever seen such a precise, compact, and rock-steady divine instrument for determining north?
With this object, whether crossing deserts and snowy plains or navigating misty mountains, Dayong’s armies would no longer have to worry about losing their way.
“I didn’t bring many samples this time. You can try them out first.”
Su Muchen did not notice the shock and excitement in the eyes of these two northern-border authorities. He simply continued enthusiastically explaining everything.
After all, he did not fully understand the circumstances of Dayong, nor was he certain that these modern tools would perfectly meet their needs.
Of course, the allocation of this batch of supplies had been approved by Su Qianqian.
Now that Xiao was seriously injured and ill and had withdrawn from the operations of Guichen Studio, the responsibility of balancing and controlling the flow of supplies between the two worlds had completely fallen onto the meticulous Su Qianqian.
Xia Lanshi took a deep breath and once again turned an inquiring gaze toward Xiao Yuan.
This time, Xiao Yuan’s expression was solemn.
“Handle it as you see fit.”
“Your subordinate will make sure it is done.”
Xia Lanshi cupped his hands, his expression more solemn than it had ever been before.
Su Muchen tilted his head slightly, not quite understanding the silent exchange between lord and subordinate.
He pointed at the remaining small objects inside the box and said to Xia Lanshi,
“There are also some waterproof notebooks, pens in different sizes, magnifying glasses, and wooden document boards that are convenient for writing outdoors. These stationery supplies will come in handy when you’re organizing intelligence, so take them and use them first. None of these samples will be counted toward the account.”
Xia Lanshi looked at the entire box of practical stationery, his eyes shining with an unprecedented light.
He did his utmost to suppress his excitement, elegantly pushed up his glasses, and said solemnly,
“Thank you, Doctor Su, for giving us so much assistance.”
Xiao Yuan also turned around and looked at Su Muchen with deep and sincere eyes.
“Mu’an, on behalf of the northern border, this prince thanks you. These instruments are an enormous aid to the northern border. What truly determines who rules the realm has never been weapons, but intelligence.”
Su Muchen felt somewhat embarrassed by the thanks. He scratched his head and smiled shyly.
“There’s no need to be so formal. These things were originally bought with your money. At most, I’m just the purchaser and consultant.”
He looked toward the personal guards who were moving the cardboard boxes around them and continued,
“However, this batch of supplies came urgently, and there’s so much of it that Ningning, Qianqian, and I didn’t have time to remove the modern packaging. Later, I’ll need to trouble your personal guards to remove all the cardboard boxes, packaging, and labels and stack them here. I’ll take them back and destroy them, so we don’t leave behind any potential problems.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Su Muchen looked at the towering pile of cardboard boxes, and his heart suddenly clenched.
He suddenly remembered that in the past, whenever Guichen Studio supplied goods to Xiao Yuan, whether it was unpacking or repackaging them, he and Xiao would sit side by side inside Guichen Studio, trading banter while personally unpacking and repackaging everything.
Everything had clearly been gradually moving in a better direction.
Yet now, Xiao alone was missing from his side.
Without him standing beside him, pointing things out and bickering with him, Guichen Studio somehow felt as though an important corner was missing.
Thinking of this, Su Muchen’s lashes lowered slightly, and the smile on his face quietly faded. A lingering trace of loneliness colored his eyes and brows.
A warm palm gently settled on his shoulder.
Xiao Yuan looked down at him, his voice low and firm.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be taken care of. He’ll get better too.”
Su Muchen came back to himself and met Xiao Yuan’s calm, understanding dark eyes. A faint warmth spread through his heart.
He took a deep breath, nodded, and smiled again.
“Mm.”
Afterward, Xiao Yuan withdrew his hand, turned toward Xia Lanshi, and gave a serious order.
“Chief Steward Xia, from now on, you will oversee the procurement of military supplies.”
“This subordinate obeys.”
Xia Lanshi solemnly acknowledged the order.
Just as Xia Lanshi cupped his hands and accepted the command, Su Muchen keenly noticed that when Xia Lanshi’s wide sleeves slipped back, both of his wrists were wrapped in layers of bandages.
When Su Muchen had seen him yesterday, these injuries had definitely not been there.
Su Muchen frowned slightly and pointed at his wrists.
“Xia Lanshi, what happened to your wrists?”
Xia Lanshi’s expression stiffened slightly. He then casually gathered his wide sleeves back up and smiled faintly.
“I was accidentally scratched by the snow owl I was raising this morning. The military physician already applied medicine and bandaged it. It’s nothing.”
Xiao Yuan, standing nearby, heard this. A meaningful glint flashed through his dark eyes, but he merely pressed his lips together and said nothing.
Su Muchen, however, looked somewhat worried and hurriedly reminded him,
“You absolutely can’t be careless after being scratched by a bird of prey like that. Their claws and saliva may contain large amounts of bacteria and viruses… pathogens that are invisible to the naked eye, yet can cause a person to develop a high fever or even die. When we go back later, I’ll give you some anti-inflammatory medicine and povidone-iodine so you can disinfect it again.”
Seeing Su Muchen’s serious and nervous expression, Xia Lanshi’s eyes shifted slightly, and a trace of warmth rose in his heart.
A smile lingered at the corners of his lips as he said softly,
“Doctor Su, there’s no need to worry. Although that bird of prey has a fierce temperament and doesn’t know its own strength, it didn’t damage my muscles or bones. At most, I simply teased him a little too much and incurred his displeasure. I’ll be more careful when dealing with him in the future.”
Seeing how unconcerned Xia Lanshi seemed, Su Muchen could only sigh helplessly and nod.