Even as a science student, Gu Lan said he had no interest.
If it had not been for exams in his previous life, and for the System rewards in this life… he absolutely would never have gotten involved with this kind of agricultural classic!
“Husband, you’re back.” Mu Yuyan came back to her senses from the book, lifted her delicate little face, and looked back at Gu Lan as she murmured, “Today, this humble one was tidying the study for husband and accidentally knocked this book down. Seeing that there were some strange drawings inside, I couldn’t help picking it up and reading it for a while…
Can this humble one read this book?”
Her lively eyes blinked as she asked, her red lips pursed.
It seemed she was afraid the book might touch on Gu Lan’s privacy.
“Of course you can.” Gu Lan lovingly ruffled her black hair and smiled gently. “If it’s written down, it’s meant to be read. Wife can come ask me about anything you don’t understand.”
When it came to classics from my previous life, husband still knew a thing or two, though not much…
“Thank you, husband.”
After thinking for a moment, Mu Yuyan flipped to a page of drawings and softly asked, “Husband, can you explain what this ‘big wheel’ is?”
Gu Lan lowered his head to look.
It turned out to be a waterwheel model he had casually drawn when he had nothing better to do.
Next to it, he had even cited another text as a note: “Where the ground is high, a waterwheel is used to draw water, making irrigation very convenient.”
“This is called a waterwheel, also called a tube wheel. It’s an irrigation tool built on a river.”
Gu Lan explained, “It can use the flow of the water to save on manpower and directly channel river water into the fields.”
“Save on manpower? Is that some kind of immortal art?”
Mu Yuyan asked in confusion.
She did not know what using the flow of the water meant.
But in this world, there really were immortal arts capable of moving mountains and filling seas.
However, once cultivators reached that level, they certainly would not use their immortal arts for trivial things like irrigating farmland.
“It’s not an immortal art. Ordinary people can do it.”
Gu Lan shook his head with a smile and patiently explained.
“The waterwheel is fixed in the river. As the current pushes forward, it drives the wheel to turn, and some wooden tubes are fixed to the wheel. When they reach the low point, they fill with water, carry it up high to spill down again, and let it flow along wooden troughs to the distant fields…”
Gu Lan pointed at the waterwheel on the drawing, sketching and gesturing as he gave a proper lecture.
Mu Yuyan leaned her head over, resting against Gu Lan’s shoulder as she listened carefully, her pretty face full of curiosity, just like the fair-skinned, beautiful campus belle top student from his previous life.
A moment later.
Before Gu Lan even finished explaining the principles of kinetic and potential energy, Mu Yuyan had already come to a sudden realization.
With her intelligence, as long as it was explained once, understanding a simple farm tool was naturally no trouble.
But such a novel tool was something she had never even heard of or seen before!
“Husband, how did you think of such a clever tool?!” Mu Yuyan was amazed, staring at Gu Lan with great interest.
This mysterious and captivating man… always brought surprises.
“This… is clever?”
Gu Lan raised an eyebrow and asked back.
Mu Yuyan: “???”
“To let a mortal cross the divide between immortals and mortals and do things that even ordinary cultivators could not do… isn’t that clever enough?”
Mu Yuyan’s beautiful eyes widened in shock.
In her view, such a tool was simply a marvel of ingenuity; after all, there had never been a mortal object in this world that could replace immortal arts!
But Gu Lan’s utterly placid look even made the Empress feel uncertain about herself!
It seemed that immortal arts in a fantasy world had, to some extent, suppressed the development of technological civilization… Gu Lan felt that the 5,000 years of laboring wisdom from his hometown was only the most primitive of it.
“Come, wife, take a look at these drawings, and you’ll understand that the farm tool from earlier was nothing special.”
Gu Lan chuckled softly and walked to the desk, taking out a stack of drawing paper. On it were things he usually sketched when he had nothing to do, recalling interesting things from his previous life.
“Husband, did you draw… trees, insects, and a fish pond?”
Mu Yuyan pressed a jade finger to her lips, her watery eyes showing confusion.
She did not understand what the point was of putting these three utterly unrelated things together.
At that moment.
Gu Lan picked up a brush and drew three arrows on the paper, forming a closed loop among the three.
“Wife, look: these leaves can feed the insects; the insect droppings or pupae can feed the fish; and the fish mud then turns into fertilizer to nourish the trees. The three depend on and generate one another…”
Gu Lan explained carefully.
In fact, this thing had a very simple name… mulberry-dike fish pond system!
Anyone who had studied junior high school biology would know.
By using a special farming model to maximize efficiency… this was far more advanced than a mere tool.
After hearing the explanation, Mu Yuyan gradually grasped its subtlety!
From the moment Gu Lan drew the arrows, her expression had already shown a hint of understanding, and after hearing those few sentences, her beautiful eyes widened outright, as though such an exquisitely perfect blueprint had appeared before her!
To actually think of letting the three support one another while harvesting them all at the same time… this kind of model really could work… Mu Yuyan unconsciously covered her little mouth.
However, that was not all!
Before Mu Yuyan had even finished digesting the shock she felt, the next few drawings came into view, leaving her even more overwhelmed!
“This is a wooden ox and flowing horse; it can save people from carrying loads on their shoulders and by hand. That one is called a vernier caliper; it can eliminate the errors of the naked eye and measure down to a hair’s breadth…”
“This is a windmill, which is still a bit different from a waterwheel…”
“Ahem, that one… that one’s called a mobile phone, not a chicken… a kind of communication and gaming device. Right now, it would probably be quite hard to make…”
Gu Lan spoke with confidence, as if he knew them all by heart.
Mu Yuyan was completely stunned!
The shock from these never-before-seen creations came wave after wave!
It made her feel as if her more than 20 years of ruling all under heaven had been nothing but sitting in a well and looking at the sky!
This had nothing to do with cultivation.
It was simply the proud, clever Empress feeling thoroughly convinced after being doubly outclassed in intelligence and learning!
After a while.
Once Gu Lan finished speaking, Mu Yuyan quickly handed him a cup of hot tea.
On her stunning little face, shock gave way to full-blown admiration!
“Husband, how did you think of all this…?”
For Mu Yuyan, everything she had heard in this short half a double-hour was far too unbelievable.
She had never imagined that Gu Lan’s tiny bookshop would actually encompass vast knowledge that even the sages of all under heaven had never come close to touching!
Compared with Gu Lan, saying that the officials of the court’s Ministry of Works were empty wine sacks and rice bags was already flattering them!
Faced with his wife’s nearly overflowing admiration,
Gu Lan waved it off lightly and said with a gentle smile, “Looking up, one observes the vastness of the universe; looking down, one observes the abundance of all things. If wife is interested, I will draw them out for you to look over in detail another day.”
Looking at Mu Yuyan’s peach-blossom eyes rippling with affection, Gu Lan felt that life lying low in Langzhou suddenly seemed far less dull and tedious.
Knowledge from his previous life that would have been annoying to talk about in front of girls could now be flaunted effortlessly before wife.
Who could resist that?
Gu Lan was overjoyed, far from as carefree as he looked.
At that moment, the sound of Old Yang and Little Xi calling everyone to dinner came from outside.
The two of them tidied up the books and papers, then walked hand in hand out of the study under the moonlight.
At the same time, a mechanical voice sounded in Gu Lan’s mind.
『You explain 《The Exploitation of the Works of Nature》, 《Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People》, and other ancient classics』
『You explain a biology paper』
『You explain…』
『You obtain rewards』
『Spirit Spring x1』
『cultivation +5000 years』
『Immortal-rank Pill Formula·Nine Revolutions Fire Spirit Pill』
『immortal physique fortune +1000 (current fortune grade: cyan)』
『immortal-grade spiritual object·Vermilion Bird Fire Feather』
『immortal grade…』