Songgotu almost blew the disguise the moment Yinreng stepped into the glass workshop. "Crown Prince—" he began, but immediately caught himself as he noticed the bustling laborers. He swallowed the title and forced a smile, waving his hand. "Xiao Er! Come here!"
'Xiao Er? Little Two?' Yinreng mentally noted the absurd alias but understood the necessity. The workshop was filled with commoners; revealing the Crown Prince's presence would cause unnecessary panic and compromise security. He accepted the role of a junior relative of the Hesheri clan without objection.
Walking over, Yinreng saw a craftsman cutting a large pane of glass. It was perfectly transparent, devoid of impurities and bubbles.
"Is this a success?" Yinreng asked, his eyes brightening.
"A complete success! There is more inside," Songgotu ushered him into a private back room and firmly shut the door. He immediately dropped to his knees, his voice lowered. "I greet Your Highness. Please forgive my earlier disrespect; the workshop is too chaotic to reveal your identity."
"Dispense with the formalities, Uncle. I understand," Yinreng waved him off.
Songgotu stood, his face flushed with triumph. "Your Highness, this batch of clear glass was successfully forged just this morning."
Yinreng nodded in satisfaction. To secure this outcome without exposing his modern knowledge, he had deliberately buried the correct glassmaking formula among dozens of fabricated ones. He had orchestrated it so the process looked like a child's blind trial and error.
However, Yinreng had miscalculated one variable: Songgotu's abysmal luck. The Grand Secretary had systematically drawn and tested every single wrong formula before finally stumbling upon the correct one. 'If his luck is this terrible,' Yinreng analyzed coldly, 'it is no wonder historical records show him dying a defeated man in imperial prison.'
Oblivious to Yinreng's internal critique, Songgotu pointed out the window. "I wanted to report to the Emperor immediately, but bringing a plain sheet of glass seemed insufficient. The craftsmen are currently shaping the glass into specific items. If Your Highness has time, you may wait in the front courtyard."
Yinreng agreed. However, instead of sitting idly, he noticed the sprawling agricultural fields nearby and decided to gather intel on the local economy.
***
Walking along the ridges of the fields, Yinreng observed the peasants at work. To them, he was a wealthy, untouchable noble child.
"Is this rice? How is it cultivated? What is that tool in your hand?" Yinreng bombarded them with basic questions.
The farmers exchanged terrified glances, stammering and trying to avoid answering. They feared that one wrong word might offend the aristocrat and bring disaster upon their families.
Yinreng recognized the barrier of fear and immediately implemented an incentive system. He maintained a warm smile and instructed his eunuch, Xiao Zhuzi, to distribute copper coins to anyone who answered a question.
'Action and Reaction': Fear instantly dissolved into greed.
Realizing this boy was a walking treasury, the farmers scrambled to answer. They racked their brains, offering detailed explanations of crop cycles, soil conditions, and village life, hoping to earn more coins. Yinreng gathered a wealth of unfiltered information, highly satisfied with the return on his minimal investment.
***
A short distance away, in a dilapidated farmhouse, a man named Hu Laosan sat smoking cheap, choking tobacco. Inside, his wife wept over their son, Changsheng, who lay immobilized on the bed.
"I will go to the human traffickers tomorrow," Hu Laosan rasped, putting down his pipe. "I will sell myself into servitude to pay for the boy's medicine."
"Who would buy us at our age?" his wife sobbed.
Before he could answer, a neighbor burst through the door. "Hu Laosan! Hurry! There is a young noble scattering money in the fields just for answering questions! He looks wealthy and kind. Go beg him! Perhaps he will grant you the silver your son needs!"
Driven by sheer desperation, Hu Laosan bolted toward the fields.
***
Yinreng was conversing with the farmers when a disheveled man suddenly sprinted toward him.
Instantly, the imperial guards moved, drawing their blades and shielding the Crown Prince. The surrounding farmers shrieked and fell back. Hu Laosan's legs gave out. He collapsed to his knees before the steel blades, kowtowing frantically. "Mercy, my lord! Spare my life!"
'Internal Analysis': The man is malnourished, his hands are calloused from farming, and he carries no weapon. His eyes show desperation, not malice. Not an assassin.
"Stand down. Do not be overly tense," Yinreng ordered the guards. He looked at the trembling man. "Speak. What do you want?"
Overcoming his terror, Hu Laosan cried out, "Please, young master, save my son! He fell in the mountains, broke his leg, and cracked his head. The doctor says he needs strong medicine. It will cost at least ten taels of silver!"
Ten taels of silver was the equivalent of six months' living expenses for a common family of five. It was an insurmountable fortune for a ruined farmer.
Yinreng processed the request and pointed to his eunuch, Xiao Chizi. "Go verify his story. If he speaks the truth, leave him twenty taels."
"Twenty? Thank you, young master! But ten is enough!" Hu Laosan wept.
"If the doctor asks for ten, the true cost will inevitably be higher, and your son will need nutritional food to recover. Take it," Yinreng stated firmly. Twenty taels meant nothing to the Crown Prince, but giving exactly twenty was a calculated move—enough to guarantee survival, but not so much that it would attract murderous bandits to the peasant's home.
Hu Laosan kowtowed again. "Please, tell me your name. When I have money, I will repay you."
"My master does not need your money," Xiao Chizi sneered. "Just consider yourself lucky and do not cause us any future trouble by trying to find us."
Understanding the dismissal, Hu Laosan expressed his final gratitude and led Xiao Chizi away to verify the boy's condition.
***
With Hu gone, the remaining villagers began to gossip, providing Yinreng with further context.
"Hu Laosan is pitiful," one farmer sighed. "He used to be a literate merchant with land down south. A massive flood wiped out his property and inventory. He fled here as a refugee."
Another chimed in, "Worse, he lost two children to the pox shortly after arriving. Changsheng caught it too, but barely survived using harsh medicine. That is why the boy's body is so weak and frail now."
'The Pox. Smallpox.' Yinreng's eyes narrowed. In his previous life in the 21st century, smallpox had been eradicated. In the Qing Dynasty, it was a constant, terrifying reaper of lives. He himself had survived a bout of it the previous year.
"Speaking of the pox," an older woman added casually, "my family's cow got it once. We thought the beast was dead for sure, but it survived."
'Cowpox.' Yinreng's heart skipped a beat.
Instantly, the dormant System—an anomalous artificial intelligence bound to his consciousness—flared to life.
[Host! Do you know about cowpox? Humans can contract it from cattle. It can be used to synthesize a vaccine to grant immunity to human smallpox! Do you want the extraction schematic? It only costs...]
Yinreng ruthlessly muted the System. He refused to be reliant on an interface that demanded unknown currency for information he could deduce himself.
Maintaining his calm facade, he turned to the older woman. "Cows can catch the pox?"
"Yes! The magistrate even locked down our village to prevent it from spreading."
"Did it spread to the people who touched the cow?" Yinreng pressed.
"It did," the woman patted her chest, shivering at the memory. "My parents, my brother, and I all caught it from the beast. But strangely, our symptoms were very mild. We all recovered quickly and never caught the human pox afterward."
'Confirmation acquired.' The viral transfer from cattle to humans caused only a mild infection while triggering permanent antibodies against lethal smallpox. Yinreng memorized the data. The foundation for a nationwide vaccine program was now in his grasp.
***
Having secured medical intelligence far more valuable than anything he expected today, Yinreng lost interest in the fields and returned to the workshop.
Songgotu was waiting, proudly holding a padded wooden box. "Your Highness, look."
Inside lay three items: a perfectly clear glass cup, an elegant vase, and a hand-sized mirror backed with a smooth layer of mercury.
"Just as Master Nan predicted," Songgotu beamed, lifting the mirror. "A layer of mercury on the back reflects light perfectly. We have replicated Western mirrors! We also have the glass face ready for the mechanical clock. We just need time to assemble it."
"There is no rush for the clock," Yinreng said, his tone brisk and efficient. "These three items are sufficient." He gave a sharp nod to Xiao Zhuzi.
The eunuch stepped forward, swiftly closed the box, and tucked it under his arm.
"I will take these back to the palace to show Imperial Father," Yinreng declared, immediately turning on his heel and walking out the door.
Songgotu stood frozen in the center of the room, his hands empty and his smile cracking.
He stared at the doorway in utter bewilderment. 'Wait. If the Crown Prince takes all the evidence... how am I supposed to prove to the Emperor that I did the work?'