After Lu Youqing finished telling Qin Ke about her plans, she fell silent for a moment before asking softly, "I saw it that day."
"Hm?" Qin Ke didn't immediately understand what she meant.
"That day—the clothes. They suddenly disappeared from your hands."
It seemed she had hesitated for a long time before asking. After all, what she had witnessed was simply too bizarre. It had happened right before her eyes, and she couldn't ignore it.
"Uh…"
"If it's inconvenient to talk about, then forget it." Lu Youqing tried to keep her tone as calm as usual, suppressing the faint disappointment in her heart.
"It's not that I can't say it. I just don't know how to explain it properly," Qin Ke replied at once. He tried to put it in a way she could accept. "You can think of it as me accidentally obtaining a fortuitous encounter—something like a mustard-seed space."
In Buddhism, there is a saying: 'To contain Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed, to hide the vast ocean within a speck of dust.'
It describes how something immense can be held within something infinitesimal, illustrating that there is no absolute scale between things. Such concepts had existed long ago.
So although Lu Youqing found it difficult to imagine, she could understand what Qin Ke meant.
"However, my space is still very small for now—about the size of our room."
"For now?" Lu Youqing keenly caught the key words in his statement.
"Yes. My space can be expanded through certain means, but the conditions aren't sufficient yet," Qin Ke explained. He had long noticed that there was an option in the system marketplace to upgrade the space, though it required fifteen points.
"Those watermelon seeds too?" As clever as Lu Youqing was, once she knew Qin Ke had obtained such an opportunity, it wasn't hard to guess that his earlier miraculous items came from the same source.
Qin Ke nodded. He wasn't surprised that she figured it out. "The blueprint came from there as well."
Lu Youqing still found it hard to believe that such a miraculous thing could exist in this world. Was the man before her still an ordinary person? Had he been chosen by heaven?
…
Following Qin Ke's instructions, Li Nanqiao brought some gifts to thank the village head for stepping in that day. On her way back, she noticed a dense crowd gathered in the distance.
She was tall, and looking over the heads of the crowd, she saw that familiar yet fear-inducing sight again—only this time, the officials weren't surrounding the Qin family.
After the group escorted someone away in the same manner as before, Li Nanqiao stepped forward to ask around.
"Oh? You're asking what happened? It's about that case from a while back—the one involving Qin Ke. Didn't he get released already? Well, today another group of officers came and said the real murderer was actually Song Yaozu."
"You really can't judge people by appearances. He looks so refined and scholarly, yet he turned out to be a killer. Do you think the authorities got it wrong again this time?"
"But didn't the officers say the evidence was conclusive? I think this time it's real. They even said the verdict announcement would be posted in a couple of days."
"Ah, the Song family's days won't be easy anymore. They spent all their money sending him out to study, and he ended up doing something like this. I heard Song's mother fainted just now."
…
Listening to the chatter, Li Nanqiao pieced together what had happened and immediately took off running back.
Since Qin Ke returned, he had shut himself indoors to recuperate, rarely going out. Even the watermelon and ice business had been handed over to them to manage. As for the mistress of the house, no one knew why, but apart from coming out for meals, she spent every day shut inside the study reading.
Now that the matter was finally resolved and the real culprit apprehended, Li Nanqiao couldn't wait to tell them the news.
Yet Qin Ke's reaction was remarkably calm—he didn't seem surprised at all by the outcome.
"Master, had you already guessed it was him?"
Qin Ke glanced up at her, then lowered his head again to continue writing and drawing on the paper. As he worked, he explained, "There's nothing unusual about it. The one who sneaked into our house that night was him too. The house was unattended for only those two hours—so it had to be someone familiar with our movements. That narrows it down to the village. And the only one who had a grudge against us and organized people to steal watermelons from the field was him."
What Qin Ke hadn't expected was that the Gu family, beyond getting him released, had actually uncovered the truth as well.
Li Nanqiao nodded and sighed. "You really have to wonder why he did it. The imperial examinations were coming up, his future was bright—yet he insisted on doing this. When I saw the elders of the Song family today, they looked like they'd aged several years overnight."
"His heart was never on the proper path. Even if he took the examinations, the result would've been the same as before."
Li Nanqiao could only agree. She truly couldn't understand it. Being able to study, to read, to sit for the imperial examinations—what a rare opportunity that was. Yet he didn't cherish it at all and wasted his days.
Things that came too easily were never valued. Only someone like Li Nanqiao, who could never have such opportunities, truly understood how precious the chance to study was.
"Master, what are you drawing?" Li Nanqiao rested her chin on her hand, watching Qin Ke work nonstop, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Blueprints. You'll know when the time comes."
After Lu Youqing gave the rough sketches—casually drawn by Qin Ke in his spare time based on items from the system marketplace—to the Gu family, Qin Ke used his remaining five points to exchange for the design blueprints of a harvesting machine.
In the next instant, all the information flooded into his mind. The three-dimensional views of every component were clearly imprinted in his memory.
So during these days of recuperation, he drew each component's design one by one, paying particular attention to proportions and dimensions, carefully annotating everything.
He knew he wouldn't be able to personally supervise every step of the production, so the drawings had to be as detailed as possible. Less critical parts could be left to the craftsmen.
As for supplying watermelons to Caiyue Tower, he had already handed that over to Han Qi, who reported the accounts to him daily.
In truth, Qin Ke understood that money was no longer their biggest problem—power was.
"Knock, knock, knock—anyone home?"
There was another knock at the door. Qin Ke had heard this sound often over the past few days. Ever since he was released from prison, visitors had come daily.
Most were villagers. Qin Ke had no desire to entertain them for now, and Lu Youqing also needed a quiet environment to study, so he had Li Nanqiao handle them.
This time, thinking it was just another neighbor, Qin Ke didn't even look up, waving his hand at Li Nanqiao. "Go see who it is. If it's nothing important, just send them away."
But when Li Nanqiao opened the door this time and saw the luxurious carriage outside—and the familiar maid standing beside it—her expression changed. She hurried back to Qin Ke and whispered, "Master, it's the Gu family head."
Qin Ke's mind sharpened. He knew they would come, but he hadn't expected it to be so soon.
"Go call my wife."
He stood up and straightened his clothes. When he had heard Lu Youqing speak of the Gu family head before, he'd already grown curious. She sounded like someone who ran a vast enterprise—like a corporate chairwoman from his former world. He had always held admiration for such career-oriented women.
Lu Youqing came out quickly upon hearing the news, and the two went to the entrance together to receive the guests.
They saw a hand—long, slender, and fair—lift the carriage curtain embroidered with intricate patterns. In the next moment, two figures stepped out, both looking as though they had walked straight out of a painting.
Qin Ke felt the two were almost unnaturally beautiful, like celebrities he'd once seen on television—but with an added, subtle aura of authority that came from those in power.
"You must be the honored guests from afar. I am Qin Ke. Forgive me for not welcoming you sooner," Qin Ke said, cupping his hands in greeting.
"We came unannounced—it is we who have disturbed you."
Busy ushering them into the courtyard, Qin Ke didn't notice the shock that flashed across Lu Youqing's face upon seeing them.
But the man in plain-colored robes raised his affectionate, peach-blossom eyes slightly and gave Lu Youqing a meaningful look.
"Nanqiao, take them outside for now," Lu Youqing suddenly said, gesturing to Li Nanqiao as soon as they entered the courtyard.
Qin Ke didn't quite understand her intention.
Yet the man who had just entered also lifted a hand. The attendants who had followed them withdrew in orderly fashion.
In an instant, only the four of them remained in the spacious courtyard.
After stepping into the reception hall, the man swept aside his robe and sat in the main seat. He narrowed his eyes at Lu Youqing, whose expression was solemn, and asked, "You recognize me?"
---
Currently at chapter 204 for advance chapters
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