It took Liu Huaiyuan nearly six days to finish writing. The next day happened to be a rest day, so Wei Yu brought the manuscript to Lord Pei’s residence.

At that time, Lord Pei was at home teaching his grandson to read. When Wei Yu arrived, he happened to hear a child’s wailing and complaints from the neighboring courtyard.

“Waaah, I don’t want to study! Grandpa is too mean! Why didn’t Second Brother have to study back then…”

“I want to be like Second Brother too, waaah, Mother…”

“Wah, where’s my candied hawthorn? Who ate it!”

Standing in the adjacent courtyard and listening to the child’s complaints, Wei Yu and Lord Pei exchanged glances.

Wei Yu said, “…Lord Pei, the young one in your family is certainly lively.”

Pei Zhi responded with some embarrassment, “It’s the nature of young children. Your Highness, please don’t laugh.”

Ah, so this was what it was like to have a little rascal at home.

Wei Yu understood the destructive power of little rascals well and didn’t point it out, simply smiling and nodding. “It’s fine. Today, I came to discuss the matter of glass with you. Royal Father is aware of it too and specifically instructed me to inform you before I leave the capital. Why don’t we go inside and talk?”

Following Wei Yu was Fang Sheng, who was carrying a very conspicuous wooden box.

Lord Pei spotted it immediately.

He didn’t know what else there was to say about glass, but hearing that it was a special order from His Majesty, Pei Zhi immediately straightened his expression and welcomed Wei Yu inside.

Once they were seated, Wei Yu signaled Fang Sheng to hand the box to Pei Zhi.

“Please take a look, Lord Pei. This box contains manuscript papers all related to glass. Rather than hearing it secondhand, it’s better to see it with your own eyes, so please take a look for yourself.”

When Pei Zhi received the box and heard it was filled with manuscripts, his first reaction was that the scene felt oddly familiar.

Familiar in what way?

Wasn’t it familiar because every time His Highness made a move, it was with grand gestures and important formulas?

So what rare formula was in this box now?

The old man blinked slowly, but his hands quickly opened the box and pulled out the manuscripts inside…

Being an elderly man, Pei Zhi read word by word and line by line quite slowly and had to spend effort to comprehend them, so the process of him reading the manuscript was rather painstaking.

Wei Yu waited for half an hour, watching as Lord Pei’s face changed from calm, to deeply frowning, and finally to abruptly lighting up.

“Excellent!”

The sudden exclamation startled Wei Yu so much that his hand trembled while drinking tea, causing the cup to clatter and earning a glance from Fang Sheng.

“Your Highness, this thing called concave and convex lenses is wonderful!”

Holding the papers tightly, Pei Zhi was visibly excited, his cheeks even flushing. “Although I don’t fully understand what focusing, reflection, or refraction means, I do know that if Great Wei can use glass to make these things, the telescope Your Highness wrote about could truly become reality!”

Pei Zhi looked up at the sky, his gaze distant, as if envisioning the future once the telescope was built. “If the soldiers in the army had such telescopes, they could observe enemy movements clearly from hundreds of zhang away without even needing to send scouts… It would be revolutionary!”

Typically, telescopes could observe up to about a thousand meters, and a hundred zhang was only about three hundred meters, so the actual observation range would be even greater.

Wei Yu nodded. “Exactly, exactly. Therefore, for the sake of the telescope, Lord Pei must carefully supervise the craftsmen.”

It didn’t matter if they didn’t understand the principles — as long as they followed the examples, eventually, they would succeed in creating a working model.

“Your Highness is right. This must be supervised properly.”

Pei Zhi nodded, treating the manuscripts like treasures, carefully placing them back into the box. “May I take Your Highness’s manuscript to the Ministry of Works for others to review?”

“Feel free. As long as you handle it properly.”

Pei Zhi naturally knew how important it was.

Just the fact that it was a direct order from His Majesty already told him this wasn’t a simple matter, and after reading the contents, Pei Zhi understood even better the military significance of telescopes.

Thus, even if His Highness hadn’t said anything, Pei Zhi already knew what to do.

In short, until the invention was completed, no outsiders must be allowed to know of it, lest the secret leak and other nations covet Great Wei’s treasure!

As for other people’s speculations, Wei Yu never really concerned himself with them.

Right now, his whole mind was filled with the thought of getting paid to vacation in Jiaozhou. Now that he had handed over the manuscripts, his part was pretty much done. He just needed Lord Pei’s agreement to slip away with his men.

As Wei Yu stood up to leave, he suddenly remembered something.

He still needed to find someone proficient in mathematics!

Those two little prodigies were about to be introduced to arithmetic, and they would need a knowledgeable role model to learn systematically from.

Wei Yu turned around with a cheerful smile and asked Pei Zhi, “Lord Pei, the Ministry of Works has many skilled craftsmen. I need someone good at mathematics to come to my residence and teach two children. Could you help find such a person?”

Pei Zhi raised his brows in delight. “If Your Highness needs someone to teach mathematics, there’s no need to search the Ministry. I have an old friend who excels at arithmetic — he would be the perfect recommendation for Your Highness!”

An old friend of Lord Pei’s?

He must be quite the scholarly old man.

Seeing the faintly proud expression on Pei Zhi’s face, Wei Yu understood immediately — this person must have real learning; otherwise, the Minister of Works wouldn’t be showing such an expression.

Wei Yu asked, “May I ask which gentleman Lord Pei is referring to?”

Pei Zhi smiled slightly. “The Headmaster of White Horse Academy, Zhang Qingsheng.”

—

As for White Horse Academy, Wei Yu didn’t have much of an impression.

The only memory he had was from when he first met Liu Huaiyuan, and had run into those three troublemaking students claiming to be from White Horse Academy.

Every school had a few disgraceful scoundrels, so Wei Yu’s impression of White Horse Academy hadn’t been tarnished by those three.

But as he climbed the stone steps of the academy, he couldn’t help cursing a little under his breath.

“Why did they build White Horse Academy on top of a mountain? And why make such a long stone staircase? Couldn’t they have made a gentle S-shaped slope? It’s so unfriendly to people like me who hate exercise.”

Supporting his waist on a small stone step, Wei Yu turned back to look at the long staircase he had just climbed and couldn’t help shaking his head.

In these times, even scholars had to be physically strong, or else they wouldn’t even make it to their studies.

Wei Yu climbed ten steps and rested every time.

By the time he stood in front of White Horse Academy’s main gate, he was still panting.

The academy’s gate was stately and imposing, the plaque’s calligraphy bold and free-spirited — one glance told you the writer must have been someone with a grand and unrestrained character.

After resting, Wei Yu walked forward.

Seeing them approach, the young attendant at the gate asked who they were.

Wei Yu immediately produced the letter of introduction written by Pei Zhi. “We are here to see the Headmaster. This is a letter of introduction from Minister of Works Lord Pei. Please deliver it to the Headmaster.”

The young attendant respectfully accepted it but asked them to wait outside while he went to report to the Headmaster.

Since it was an unannounced visit, it was natural for them to wait.

Wei Yu nodded in understanding.