Chapter 134

Rather than everyone waiting for Ye Tao to conjure up something like a magic trick to win the final victory, it would be more accurate to say that they were realistically waiting for Ye Tao to find a graceful way to step down. The chance of victory was so slim.

However, Ye Tao, the focus of everyone's attention, seemed completely unaware. He didn't spend time and energy explaining how he had tried his best, nor did he contact Shang Bao Tang and Lou Qingxi through anyone to negotiate an "off-field reconciliation" plan.

Ye Tao isolated himself and all the apprentices and workers of the Ye Family Workshop inside the workshop. Except for the Princess's residence delivering food and the various materials Ye Tao requested, no one else was received. Lu Dan was a qualified gatekeeper, and he was in a bad mood. With him guarding the door, all curiosity was blocked outside the high walls. Even Tan Weixin could only judge from the materials and tools Ye Tao requested, that he was probably working on something related to optics. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why he needed so much high-quality crystal and so much quartz sand with excellent purity... Even Tan Weixin was in the dark, let alone others.

Undoubtedly, modern understanding of the various properties of light and cutting-edge research on light has the biggest gap compared to the level of development in Ye Tao's current era. What is light? The distance to achieving such fundamental research results in this space-time is still almost infinitely far. Things like the color of light, the properties of light's refraction and reflection, it would not be an exaggeration to call it ignorance. After all, glass and mirrors, essential equipment for optical research, have not yet been systematically produced on this continent. Those colorful glazed items mixed with too many impurities and bronze mirrors that could barely reflect anything, simply do not have the basic conditions to produce systematic optical results.

As long as something can be produced within the deadline, no matter what it is, it may be explosive and a milestone in this era. The key is the time. Lou Qingxi really wanted to see what Ye Tao could come up with in the end, but he also knew that he couldn't budge on the most critical issue of time. If Ye Tao could really come up with something that could seize the power of heaven and earth within the deadline to suppress the limelight of the *Bi Hai Chao Yin Shu*, then he would have to admit defeat. But if he said anything about extending the deadline, people like Luo Qin and Song Yu might give him trouble in the future. Lou Qingxi, who had deep roots in Chun Nan, was naturally not afraid of two young people, but as someone who controlled a considerable amount of business, he understood the principle of "the less trouble, the better," and he also understood that making enemies with anyone, especially young people with broad development prospects, was not a good idea.

Amidst a situation where most people were not optimistic about Ye Tao, the Ye Family Workshop, Ye Tao, and even the Princess's residence were still carrying out various preparations in an orderly manner. The venue for the final product demonstration was set at the small square in front of the Yi Zhan Building, which was now basically completed. Although the main building of the Yi Zhan Building and the large venue that would be used for large-scale competition commentary in the future had not been completed, both buildings now had faint but majestic shapes. The shops used as Yi Zhan small stores and the auxiliary small buildings used to provide tea and meals for open-air and indoor tea houses had been completed long ago and were about to be put into trial operation. The small square in the middle of the entire building complex had long been paved with bluestone floor tiles, showing a quite tidy appearance. Before the trial operation of the Yi Zhan small shops, being able to conduct the final product display here would undoubtedly be of great benefit and risk to the future business of the Yi Zhan Building in the capital. Correspondingly, holding this launch here was also a full display of Ye Tao, the Ye Family Workshop, and the Princess's residence's ample confidence.

On the afternoon of the sixth day, the guards of the Princess's residence received a mission: to deliver formal invitations for the Ye Family Workshop's demonstration. The guards of the Princess's residence had never received such a mission before. For these agile guards, sending them to deliver invitations was nothing short of a waste. However, the people of the Princess's residence were more aware of Tan Weixin's attitude towards Ye Tao and knew that Princess Zhaohua's support for Ye Tao was only greater and had not diminished at all, even when everyone was not optimistic. The Ye Family Workshop had no choice but to have the guards of the Princess's residence do what they should have done. The workshop had been working day and night these past few days, without resting for even an hour. All the apprentices and workers in the workshop were working in three shifts in order to turn Ye Tao's ideas into reality within the seven-day deadline.

In fact, by noon on the sixth day, the things Ye Tao had drawn on the drawings had been completed, and the cooperation work that Tan Weixin had been secretly carrying out had also come to an end. Many of the apprentices and workers who had finally finished their work were so tired that they even curled up in the corners of the workshop and fell asleep. Ye Tao, who was so tired that his eyes were as red as a rabbit's and seemed as if he might faint at any moment, was stubbornly arranging one thing after another.

Unlike the *Bi Hai Chao Yin Shu*'s performance method of seizing the power of heaven and earth, the demonstration of the Ye Family Workshop's product would largely rely on human performance. Tan Weixin had already taken care of this part of the work, and now, in a very tight time frame, at least two rehearsals had to be conducted.

The small square of the Yi Zhan Building was surrounded by five hundred imperial guardsmen transferred by Tan Weixin from the evening of the sixth day, and the final preparations were carried out inside. This level of security made the nearly two hundred people in Danyang who received invitations feel restless.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, this time Ye Tao not only made something again, but also did not seek a graceful exit. Instead, he grandly invited more people. These nearly two hundred invitations might bring four hundred to five hundred curious viewers, more than double any previous demonstration. What exactly was it that gave Ye Tao such confidence?

On the evening of the seventh day, when the people who arrived in an endless stream entered the small square of the Yi Zhan Building, the first thing they saw was three huge white curtains placed together. Each curtain was two *zhang* wide and about one and a half *zhang* high. The three curtains were placed side by side on a five- or six-*chi* high platform, forming an arc. In front of the stage, rows of hundreds of chairs were placed, which were the seats for the audience to watch today's demonstration.

Behind the audience area was a rather strange wooden structure that looked like a small house. The shape was like a small fortress, with only a window that could be opened on the side facing the high platform, and the other directions were all closed. Behind this small wooden house, several apprentices from the Ye Family Workshop were going in and out, but they all closed the door behind them, preventing curious people from seeing any of the situation inside. However, these apprentices, who were of different ages but all had calm and confident expressions, made everyone realize that there was something interesting happening today!

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...Everyone guessed it was a musical instrument, but it's not planning to use sound against sound, or visual against auditory effects. I don't know what everyone thinks~

You can guess and revise your answers now, you should be able to guess it, right?