Shen Zhiwei reached the storeroom as darkness settled over the sky.
Two lanterns hung at the courtyard entrance.
When the wind blew, the flames inside swayed from side to side, making the stone steps before the door flicker between light and shadow.
She stood beneath the covered corridor, watching those two faint glows.
She said nothing.
Qinghe could not help whispering, “Miss, Second Miss’s people are inside.”
“Mm.”
“They’ve already moved several things.”
Shen Zhiwei’s gaze darkened slightly.
“I know.”
She pushed open the door.
The storeroom was a complete mess.
Several maids were carrying boxes outside.
Shen Ruolan stood at the very back, a white jade hairpin in her hand.
When she saw Shen Zhiwei, she not only failed to put it down but smiled and came forward to greet her.
“Elder Sister.”
Shen Zhiwei swept her gaze across the room.
“Who told you that you could touch my things?”
Shen Ruolan’s expression froze.
“Elder Sister, these things were just sitting unused in the storeroom. Mother said you’re in poor health and normally have no use for them, so she told me to pick out a few.”
“Mother?”
“Yes.”
“You do whatever she says?”
Shen Ruolan smiled.
“Elder Sister, we’re family.”
Shen Zhiwei looked at her.
“Family?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you ask me before taking anything?”
The smile on Shen Ruolan’s face faded slightly.
“Elder Sister, why be so petty?”
“I’m not being petty.”
Shen Zhiwei held out her hand.
“Give me the hairpin.”
“What?”
“The one in your hand.”
Shen Ruolan instinctively tightened her grip.
“Mother told me to take it.”
“I said”—Shen Zhiwei’s tone remained calm—“give it back.”
The room suddenly fell silent.
Shen Ruolan stared at her.
The Shen Zhiwei in her memories had never looked at anyone like this.
There was no anger in that gaze, yet it made people feel inexplicably guilty.
As if no lie could be hidden from her.
“Elder Sister,” Shen Ruolan said slowly. “Don’t forget, I’m a Shen family Miss too.”
“So?”
“So what’s wrong with my taking a few of these things?”
Shen Zhiwei smiled.
“Nothing.”
“If you like them, take them.”
Shen Ruolan froze.
“Really?”
“Really.”
Shen Zhiwei turned around.
“Just remember this.”
“Before anything leaves this room, have the steward register every item.”
Shen Ruolan frowned.
“Why?”
“Because these are the dowry goods left by my birth mother.”
She paused before continuing.
“All of these things”—Shen Zhiwei pointed toward several boxes in the storeroom—“were brought with her when she married into the marquis’s residence.”
“According to Dayong law, dowry goods left by the primary wife should be inherited by her legitimate daughter.”
“If you want to take them, you can.”
“But they must be recorded.”
Shen Ruolan’s hand, still clutching the white jade hairpin, went rigid in midair.
She had no idea these things were Shen Zhiwei’s birth mother’s dowry goods.
When Madam Liu had sent her to choose some items, she had only said that there was no use for the sickly girl now that she had woken up, and that leaving all those things in the courtyard would be a waste.
“Impossible,” Shen Ruolan blurted out.
Shen Zhiwei raised a brow.
“What’s impossible?”
“Mother said these things all belong to the marquis’s residence.”
“Then call her here.”
“I’d like to ask her myself.”
“Just how does she intend to handle my mother’s dowry goods?”
Shen Ruolan’s face went pale.
She suddenly realized that she seemed to have walked straight into a trap.
Shen Zhiwei did not press her further.
She merely turned to Qinghe and said, “Write down everything that was moved today.”
“Yes.”
“And one more thing.”
She looked toward the maids.
“Put everything back.”
The several maids exchanged glances.
“Eldest Miss…”
“What?” Shen Zhiwei said flatly. “Do I need to teach you personally?”
“We wouldn’t dare!”
The maids hurriedly set the boxes down.
Shen Ruolan stood where she was, her face ugly with anger.
It was the first time she had realized that this elder sister seemed to have truly changed.
It was not simply that she had grown bolder.
Rather—
She had begun to understand how to protect herself with rules.
“Elder Sister.” Shen Ruolan bit her lip. “I only took one hairpin.”
Shen Zhiwei looked at her.
“So I only asked you to put it back.”
“There’s nothing more to it.”
Shen Ruolan clenched her fingers.
In the end, she could only return the white jade hairpin to its box.
Then she turned and left.
Once she stepped outside the storeroom, the gentleness vanished completely from her face.
“Let’s go.”
The maids followed behind her.
One of them could not help asking, “Second Miss, that hairpin…”
“Don’t mention it,” Shen Ruolan said coldly. “Go tell Mother.”
“Elder Sister is awake.”
“And—”
She stopped walking.
“She’s much harder to deal with than before.”
The storeroom grew quiet again.
Qinghe looked at the closed door and could not help letting out a breath of relief.
“Miss, you were amazing just now.”
Shen Zhiwei, however, showed little expression.
“That was nothing.”
“Then what would count?”
“Scientific research.”
Qinghe: “…”
She had already begun getting used to Miss saying things she could not understand at all.
Shen Zhiwei did not continue explaining.
She walked out of the storeroom.
Then she looked up at the sky.
Night had fully descended.
The entire marquis’s residence was shrouded in darkness.
Only a few lanterns hanging in the courtyard swayed in the wind.
Shen Zhiwei suddenly asked, “What time is it?”
“About the Xu hour.”
“How long has it been dark?”
Qinghe thought for a moment.
“Almost two shichen.”
Shen Zhiwei nodded.
She looked toward the lanterns.
“How long can one oil lamp stay lit?”
“That depends on how much lamp oil there is.”
“How much does one need for a whole night?”
“Um… this servant has never calculated it.”
“How much does the residence use every day?”
Qinghe was even more bewildered.
“Miss, why are you asking about this?”
Shen Zhiwei did not answer.
She reached up and took down a small oil lamp beside the lantern.
She placed it in her palm.
The wick burned.
The flame was weak.
But it produced a great deal of smoke.
She stared at the flame for a long time.
Then she suddenly said, “There is no electricity in this era.”
Qinghe froze.
“Electricity?”
“Yes.”
“What is electricity?”
Shen Zhiwei looked at her.
“It’s a kind of force that can illuminate the night, make machines run, and carry messages across thousands of miles.”
Qinghe’s eyes widened.
“There’s really such a thing?”
“There is.”
“Where?”
“In nature.”
“Then why has no one seen it?”
Shen Zhiwei smiled faintly.
“Because seeing and understanding are two different things.”
Everyone had seen lightning.
But not many people truly understood electricity.
She suddenly realized that the greatest gap in this world’s development was not merely the lack of trains.
It was—
The lack of an understanding of energy.
She had never imagined that one day she would have to answer such basic questions again.
What was energy?
What was force?
What was heat?
What was light?
What was electricity?
Knowledge whose answers could all be found in modern middle-school textbooks might take hundreds of years to develop naturally in this era.
And now,
she could shorten that road directly.
But she could not reach the heavens in a single step.
Shen Zhiwei lowered her head and looked at the oil lamp.
She knew that the first thing she truly needed to do was not produce electricity.
It was to establish a system of measurement.
Without accurate measurement, there could be no true scientific research.
Without standards, there could be no industry.
She turned around.
“Qinghe.”
“Miss.”
“Tomorrow, help me find ten wooden sticks of exactly the same length.”
“And three ceramic jars of roughly the same size.”
“Then find some thin rope, gravel, and iron blocks.”
Qinghe took out paper and a writing brush.
“This servant will write it down.”
“And one more thing.”
Shen Zhiwei thought for a moment.
“Find a craftsman who truly understands ironwork.”
“A blacksmith?”
“Yes.”
“What do you need him to do?”
“Make something very simple.”
“What?”
Shen Zhiwei picked up the brush.
On the paper, she drew a simple design.
“A balance scale.”
The next day,
Qinghe indeed brought a blacksmith.
The man was in his forties.
His skin was dark, and his hands were covered in thick calluses.
He stood before Shen Zhiwei, looking extremely nervous.
“This humble one is Gu Changfeng. Greetings, Eldest Miss.”
Shen Zhiwei looked up.
“You can make precision ironware?”
“I know a little.”
“What does ‘a little’ mean?”
Gu Changfeng thought for a moment.
“As long as the blueprint is clear, this humble one can basically make whatever is on it.”
Shen Zhiwei glanced at him.
She liked that answer.
“Then take a look at this.”
She pushed the blueprint over.
Gu Changfeng lowered his head.
A moment later, his eyes gradually brightened.
“This is… a scale?”
“A balance.”
“What’s the difference?”
“It isn’t used to weigh how much something is worth.”
“It’s used to compare whether the weights on both sides are equal.”
Gu Changfeng studied the blueprint.
“This can be made.”
“How long?”
“Three days.”
“Two.”
Gu Changfeng froze.
“Eldest Miss, this…”
“Can you do it?”
Gu Changfeng was silent for a moment.
“I can.”
“Then two days.”
“Yes.”
Gu Changfeng left with the blueprint.
Qinghe stood to the side.
“Miss, why did you suddenly decide to make a balance?”
Shen Zhiwei looked at the tabletop.
“Because I need to know exactly how much everything in this world weighs.”
“What use is that?”
“A great deal.”
She picked up a piece of iron.
“For example, this piece of iron.”
“It looks ordinary.”
“But if I want to make machines, I have to know its density.”
Qinghe blinked.
“Density?”
Shen Zhiwei nodded.
“Wood, iron, and stone of the same size weigh different amounts.”
“That difference is a law of nature.”
“And scientific research is the process of uncovering those laws.”
Qinghe seemed to understand, but not quite.
Shen Zhiwei had already begun writing a new plan.
She needed to establish:
A standard of length.
A standard of weight.
A standard of time.
A standard of temperature.
A standard of volume.
Only then could all future experimental data be reproduced.
She had even begun considering how to establish the earliest concept of a metric system.
This world had no electricity.
No modern physics.
No complete chemistry.
No engineering.
It did not even have a standardized industry in the true sense of the word.
But that was not a problem.
She could start from the very foundation.
Three days later,
Gu Changfeng delivered the balance.
Shen Zhiwei inspected it personally.
A wooden beam.
An iron fulcrum.
Two copper pans.
The structure was simple,
but already sufficient for use.
She placed two pieces of iron on it.
The balance swayed from side to side.
At last, it slowly came to a stop.
Shen Zhiwei’s eyes lit up.
“Very good.”
Gu Changfeng stood nearby and could not help asking, “Eldest Miss, is this thing really useful?”
“Extremely useful.”
“How much can it sell for?”
Shen Zhiwei looked up.
“I’m not selling it.”
Gu Changfeng froze.
“Not selling it?”
“I want you to make ten more.”
“Ten?”
“With different dimensions.”
“And different levels of precision.”
Gu Changfeng frowned.
“Precision?”
Shen Zhiwei smiled.
“You’ll learn.”
She looked at the blacksmith before her.
A thought suddenly occurred to her.
This era was not lacking in talent.
It was only that its talented people were all trapped within the identity of “craftsman.”
Craftsmen knew how to make things.
Scientific researchers had to understand why those things could be made.
What she needed to do was combine the craftsmen’s experience with scientific theory.
Turn “masters” into “engineers.”
Turn “craftsmanship” into “technology.”
Turn “experience” into “theory.”
That was the scientific civilization she truly intended to build.
“Gu Changfeng.”
“This humble one is here.”
“Would you be willing to follow me and make things?”
Gu Changfeng froze.
“Make what?”
“A lot of things.”
“They may be strange.”
“They may fail.”
“They may even explode.”
Gu Changfeng: “…”
“But if they succeed”—Shen Zhiwei pointed toward the courtyard outside—“they will change many people’s lives.”
Gu Changfeng fell silent for a long time.
At last, he cupped his fists.
“This humble one is willing.”
Shen Zhiwei nodded.
“Then starting today, you are no longer my blacksmith.”
“You are my first engineering assistant.”
Gu Changfeng did not know exactly what an “engineering assistant” was.
But he saw the seriousness in Shen Zhiwei’s eyes.
At that moment, he suddenly felt as if he were standing before a door he had never seen before.
That night,
Shen Zhiwei once again sat by the window.
The balance sat on the table.
Beside it were paper, iron blocks, shards of glass, and an oil lamp.
She picked up her brush.
On the paper, she wrote:
“Dayong Scientific Research: Phase One Plan”
First.
Establish a standardized measurement system.
Second.
Improve papermaking.
Third.
Manufacture transparent glass.
Fourth.
Manufacture soap.
Fifth.
Establish a basic chemistry laboratory.
Sixth.
Study steam.
Seventh.
Study electricity.
When she reached the final item, the tip of her brush paused.
Electricity.
It was what she had once known best.
It was also the reason she had transmigrated here.
She looked up.
A flash of lightning suddenly crossed the window.
BOOM—!
Thunder shook heaven and earth.
Shen Zhiwei rose to her feet.
She walked to the window.
A huge bolt of lightning tore across the night sky.
For that instant, the entire marquis’s residence was illuminated.
She gazed at the sky.
For the first time, genuine excitement appeared in her eyes.
“Did you see that?”
Qinghe poked her head out from behind her.
“See what?”
“Electricity.”
“That was lightning.”
“Yes.”
Shen Zhiwei smiled.
“Lightning is electricity.”
Qinghe’s eyes widened.
“Then… can we capture it?”
Shen Zhiwei was silent for a moment.
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t have enough materials yet.”
“We don’t have suitable equipment, either.”
“And we certainly don’t have enough theory.”
She sat down again.
“But one day, we will.”
“I’ll make sure electricity no longer appears only in the sky.”
“It will appear in every room.”
Qinghe looked at her.
At that moment, she suddenly felt that Miss was describing something unimaginably distant.
But Shen Zhiwei knew better.
It was not far away.
As long as she moved forward one step at a time,
she would eventually arrive.
She lowered her head and wrote another sentence beneath “Study electricity”:
“Start with fire.”
Because she knew that every leap in civilization began somewhere.
Fire allowed humanity to leave darkness behind.
Steam gave machines power.
Electricity truly connected the world.
And now,
the first thing she needed to do was teach the people of this era:
How to observe fire.
How to control fire.
How to harness heat.
How to turn heat into power.
She set down her brush.
Then she blew out the oil lamp.
The room fell into darkness once more.
But this time,
Shen Zhiwei did not find the darkness frightening.
Because she knew that electricity had not appeared yet.
That was all right.
She would be the one to make it appear.
And somewhere beyond her sight,
at the other end of the capital,
inside a prince’s residence blazing with lamplight,
a man in a dark-black robe stood before a window.
He held a confidential report in his hand.
“The Yongning Marquis’s Residence’s legitimate eldest daughter, Shen Zhiwei?”
The guard behind him lowered his head.
“Yes.”
“She fell into the water three days ago and woke after being unconscious for several days.”
“After waking, her temperament changed completely.”
“She began investigating the marquis’s residence’s accounts and even found a blacksmith from outside.”
The man’s gaze darkened.
“What is she trying to do?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Continue investigating.”
“Yes.”
The guard withdrew.
The man turned his attention back to the window.
Thunder rolled across the night sky.
A bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens.
His features were cold and severe.
Yet he did not know that—
at that very moment,
Shen Zhiwei was also studying the same thing at the other end of the capital.
Electricity.
And these two people, who originally had no connection whatsoever, would truly meet for the first time because of an upcoming scientific research experiment.
Only at that time, Xiao Chengyuan would not yet know
that he would one day entrust the most important state secrets in all of Dayong to her.
Nor would he know
that this seemingly frail legitimate eldest daughter of the marquis’s residence would let him witness an entirely new era with his own eyes.
He knew even less that years later, he would travel with her along thousands of miles of railways, see the first electric light, and stand atop the first scientific research institute, gazing at all of Dayong glowing like stars.
But now,
everything had only just begun.
The night was deep.
The oil lamp was faint.
Shen Zhiwei sat before the desk and opened a fresh sheet of white paper.
On the first line,
she wrote:
“The first step of civilization is not knowing the answer.”
On the second line:
“It is daring to ask a question.”
Thunder sounded outside once more.
She lifted her head toward the night sky.
There was light in her eyes.
“Then—”
“The first question.”
“How far can this era truly go?”
No one answered her.
But she was already prepared.
She would find the answer herself.