The night had been restless, and it was almost dawn when Wen Ru Ge was sent away.
Lu Qing Wan stood by the door, gazing absently at the full moon outside the window.
"It's been so long, Li Su should have returned by now?"
Li Qing, instead of answering directly, said, "Wang Fei should rest. If nothing unexpected happens, Lady Yue Zhao and Chief Long An should be entering the palace today. Wang Fei wouldn't want to appear disheveled when meeting them, would she?"
The Wu tribe resisted the imperial court's rule, viewing their own tribes as a nation within a nation. Before the Wu tribe issue was completely resolved, Lu Qing Wan and Lady Yue Zhao were adversaries. Lu Qing Wan was determined not to lose face in front of her opponent.
Hearing this, she cast a cool glance at Li Qing, "If you need anything, call me. If you dare to delay things, I'll let Li Yang laugh at you for a lifetime."
It was common knowledge that Li Yang was a frequent visitor to the Dark Hall and a source of amusement for everyone around Si Feng Wu and Lu Qing Wan. The only thing that could make Li Yang laugh at Li Qing for a lifetime was to have Li Qing sent to the Dark Hall.
As expected, everyone brought out by Si Feng Wu was afraid of the Dark Hall. Li Qing servilely said, "Wang Fei, please rest assured, your subordinate will not make any mistakes." Without waiting for Lu Qing Wan to speak, he scurried away.
Lu Qing Wan snorted, turned, and entered the sleeping quarters, drawing the curtains to appear as if she were sleeping soundly on the imperial bed. In the next moment, she had already slipped into the spatial laboratory.
After a long absence, the spatial laboratory had expanded dozens of times its original size. The medicines and equipment in the main control room of the spatial laboratory were already very complete, and there were no significant changes after a few years. The biggest change was outside; as far as the eye could see, the land was planted with crops that had high yields and superior varieties from later generations. Lu Qing Wan had planted these crops here, and once they reached a certain quantity, they could be taken outside to fundamentally solve the food shortage problem of this era.
In the open space outside the laboratory, various advanced industrial and agricultural equipment were fully equipped, from large tractors to seeders, and even excavators and loaders. If it weren't for the need to make these things appear more reasonable, Lu Qing Wan could have solved many problems such as food shortages, slow post-war reconstruction, and inconvenient transportation within a limited time, as long as she was willing.
However, at this moment, Lu Qing Wan looked at the grand scene with no joy, only a sense of unease. She didn't know why, but after they returned to the Qian Dynasty from the Qin Dynasty, the central control system of the spatial laboratory seemed to have malfunctioned. It had been almost two years now, and during this time, both she and Si Feng Wu had encountered poisoned traps, but the spatial laboratory's alarm had never sounded again. And even though she frequently stored and retrieved items from the spatial laboratory, it no longer restricted her from taking things. It was as if the concept of spatial transaction volume never existed, and the earlier rogue behavior of putting things in and being unable to retrieve them was merely her hallucination.
But Lu Qing Wan knew that those things had all been real. The first large machine that appeared, the "Hong Yi Da Pao" (Red-Clothed Cannon), was also a reward from the spatial laboratory after she provided the gunpowder formula. Later, as she and Si Feng Wu were targeted by various factions, they neglected their training to protect themselves, and rarely personally saved people. Although they had done nothing, the items appearing in the spatial laboratory became more and more numerous and valuable. The spatial laboratory offered no explanation for these items that appeared out of nowhere, and Lu Qing Wan was truly starting to fear it.
She wasn't superstitious, but she did believe that a person's luck was finite. So many good things appearing suddenly felt like her luck was being spent in advance. She couldn't help but worry that if she recklessly used these things, heaven would immediately present her with a solved predicament.
Her mood was exceptionally complex, and Lu Qing Wan couldn't help but get lost in thought. When she came back to her senses, something heavy was in her arms, and a large, fluffy white tail brushed past her chin.
"Mama, why don't you ask me if you want to know something? Isn't it tiring to think by yourself?" The cute, childish voice instantly dispelled Lu Qing Wan's worries.
Lu Qing Wan carelessly reached out to grab the tip of the large white cat's exceptionally agile tail. "Then I'll ask you now, can you tell me what's going on?" She gestured to the machines lined up outside the spatial laboratory. "I haven't done anything for the past two years, yet the spatial transaction volume has never been depleted, and the poison alarm has never sounded. And it's given me so many things repeatedly, making me suspect it's the last supper..."
"Meow," Da Bai let out a sound and jumped down from Lu Qing Wan's lap. "Follow me."
Lu Qing Wan raised an eyebrow and followed. As expected, Da Bai led her to the main control console of the spatial laboratory. It was still that book, "Xuanyuan Spatial Laboratory Usage Rules." Da Bai, wagging its tail, pushed the manual over with a paw. Lu Qing Wan picked it up and opened it. It was still an unwritten book, but much more information entered her mind.
She didn't need to understand it bit by bit like a normal person reading a book. Lu Qing Wan's long-standing confusion was answered.
"I followed your father everywhere, fighting battles, and I saved people?" The "Spatial Laboratory Usage Rules" told her that the spatial laboratory was not that it no longer restricted her from taking things out, but rather that she had unknowingly saved many people while following Si Feng Wu on his campaigns over the years. For example, suppressing rebellions in Zhongzhou, preventing the King of Qingzhou's treason, stopping the Turks from entering the three southeastern kingdoms, and the massacre in the northern Wei royal family's territory.
Although this method of "killing to stop killing" did not have an advantage in the spatial laboratory, it still calculated a considerable spatial transaction volume for Lu Qing Wan. And what truly earned Lu Qing Wan those substantial rewards were measures such as her using her own money to assist various regions with post-war reconstruction and distributing seeds to the people in impoverished areas. Those machines were the rewards for saving those people.
The moment she understood all this, Lu Qing Wan was amazed by the spatial laboratory. She realized that she had fallen into a conceptual trap from the beginning. The spatial laboratory allowed her to exchange saved lives for spatial transaction volume, and because she was a healer herself, she naturally assumed that only saving people through medical skills could earn her spatial transaction volume.
At this moment, she realized that as long as she could save people, the spatial laboratory didn't care what method she used. As long as she could save people, the spatial laboratory recognized it.
Lu Qing Wan suddenly recalled that this medical spatial laboratory was actually just a part of a comprehensive war preparedness warehouse. The purpose of this comprehensive war preparedness warehouse was to save more people through non-medical means. As the saying goes, "Superior doctors treat the nation, inferior doctors treat people." Lu Qing Wan only realized today that her perspective was actually inferior to that of a spatial laboratory that had no consciousness.
She shook her head with self-mockery, placed Da Bai on the main control console, and turned to get onto the massage bed.
"Da Bai, I need the design blueprints for all the machines here and their replaceable materials that can be found in the current world. Prepare them for me before dawn tomorrow!" She needed to recuperate and continue her endeavors.