Chapter 41: The Downpour Arrives as Scheduled, Faith in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau Collapses Completely

Inside the living room.

Xiao Sizi bit her lower lip and stepped back half a pace.

"I don't understand the wind speed or cloud clusters you mentioned."

"This machine is ultimately an inanimate object; I do not believe it can calculate the ultimate secrets of heaven." ttks. tw, your companion for casual reading, is super convenient.

Lin Xuan turned and walked to the dining area, moved a wooden dining chair, and placed it near the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Fine, all talk and no action is boring."

"Sit here; let's make a bet."

Xiao Sizi walked over and plopped down onto the chair.

Her legs dangled in the air, and her arms were crossed over her chest.

"What is the wager?" she lifted her face.

"If it doesn't rain outside in half an hour, and this big sun continues to shine."

"Tomorrow I will take you to buy a full set of Barbie Dolls; you can buy as many boxes as you want."

"If it does rain," Lin Xuan paused, a smile curling his lips, "you will stay obediently in the study this afternoon and copy the Arabic Numerals I taught you yesterday one hundred times, with no slacking allowed."

Xiao Sizi nodded heavily.

"It's a deal, Princess of Great Tang; once a move is made, there is no taking it back."

One big, one small; one sitting, one leaning.

The two of them simply stared at the blue sky outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Ten minutes later.

The sunlight outside the window remained blinding.

Waves of heat rose from the asphalt road.

Summer cicadas on the distant treetops screamed with all their might, making people feel restless and irritable.

Xiao Sizi sat on the wooden dining chair, swinging her legs back and forth.

She lifted her chin, looking at Lin Xuan who was leaning casually against the sofa, her expression radiating the unique smugness of a child.

"Lin Xuan, the heavens are not in the mood to oblige."

"Not a single cloud in sight; please prepare that Barbie Doll toy you mentioned!"

Lin Xuan turned a page of the magazine in his hand, his gaze never leaving the paper.

"What's the rush? Let the bullet fly for a while."

Xiao Sizi did not understand what a bullet was.

But she could hear the certainty in Lin Xuan's words.

She turned her head and continued to stare at the blue sky outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Great Tang.

The plaza of Taiji Palace.

Officials from the Tai Shi Bureau set up three Armillary Spheres.

Eight white-bearded elders gathered around the bronze rings, constantly calculating directions.

The Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and looked up at the cloudless dome of Great Tang.

He turned around and bowed deeply to Li Shimin, who stood on the white jade steps.

"Your Majesty, we have repeatedly verified the sundial and wind direction."

"Today the lesser yang shines in the sky, and the wind is calm."

"For the next two hours, there will absolutely be no sign of clouds or rain."

"That youth from a later era in the Sky Screen has been too arrogant."

Li Shimin clasped his hands behind his back, his eyelids slightly lowered.

He ignored the Director's conclusion, his gaze still locked on the hanging clock in the Sky Screen's image.

"Wait." The emperor spoke only one word.

Twenty-five minutes passed.

The sound of cicadas outside the window stopped without warning.

An extremely oppressive low-pressure sensation spread along the ground.

The light began to turn white, as if a layer of color had been filtered out from the originally blinding golden sunlight.

Xiao Sizi stopped swinging her legs.

She grabbed the back of the chair, stretched her neck, and pressed close to the Glass.

At the far end of the distant horizon, a heavy layer of leaden gray had been painted.

A violent wind swept through.

The wind rushed through the concrete canyons of the city, emitting a sharp howl.

The street trees lining the road below were pulled by immense force; their crowns swayed wildly, and their leaves flipped over to reveal their pale undersides.

That layer of leaden gray curtain was dragged by the wind, covering the sky above the city in an extremely violent manner.

In an instant, day turned to dusk.

The light in the living room plummeted, resembling evening.

Lin Xuan closed the magazine and placed it on the coffee table.

He stood up and walked slowly and deliberately to the floor-to-ceiling window, standing side by side with Xiao Sizi.

"Look at the horizon." Lin Xuan pointed at that churning mass of dark clouds.

Xiao Sizi opened her mouth wide and stood up from the chair.

Her small hand pressed against the glass, feeling the faint vibration transmitted by the wind battering the building.

Several twisted streaks of lightning flashed within the cloud mass.

A dull rumble of thunder rolled in.

Crack.

The first water droplet smashed against the glass and shattered.

Immediately, a curtain of rain poured down.

Billions of raindrops, the size of soybeans, crashed toward the ground under gravity.

The entire city was instantly swallowed by a white mist of water.

The view outside the window was blocked within ten meters; the water gathered into a waterfall, cascading down the outer side of the glass.

Inside the living room, only the dense sound of rain striking could be heard.

Xiao Sizi stepped back two paces.

She ran to the coffee table, grabbed the Mobile Phone whose screen was still lit.

She looked down.

On the radar map on the screen, the dark red center representing the thunderstorm perfectly covered the blue dot marked "Current Location."

Xiao Sizi put down the Mobile Phone, her voice very soft: "Lin Xuan, you won.

"This object can truly calculate all of Heaven's secrets."

"When the Thunder Duke and Lightning Mother will bring rain, none of it escapes the eye of this glowing box."

She smoothed her skirt, turned, and walked toward the study deep in the corridor.

"I will go copy the numbers, one hundred times."

Admitting defeat in a bet.

The princess's pride would not allow her to deny it.

Lin Xuan watched her small figure, a smile rising at the corner of his mouth.

He reached out, grasped the curtain pull cord, and gave it a hard yank.

The heavy blackout curtains closed, blocking out the wind and rain outside.

He pressed the switch by the wall; the warm ceiling light in the living room turned on, dispelling the gloom indoors.

"No need to write so fast, write slowly. I'll go to the kitchen to boil water and make tea," Lin Xuan called out, then turned and walked toward the kitchen area.

Great Tang, Taiji Palace Square.

Silence reigned.

The wind blew over the white marble railings, carrying away a few fallen leaves.

Great Tang, Taiji Palace Square.

Silence reigned.

The wind blew over the white marble railings, carrying away a few fallen leaves.

The sky of the Great Tang remained clear, but the atmosphere in the square was colder than a ten-thousand-foot abyss.

The Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau's knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the bluestone slabs.

The black gauze cap on his head rolled off, his white hair disheveled.

He did not reach to pick it up; his hands supported him on the ground.

Three Armillary Spheres stood silently in the sunlight, now appearing like scrap iron piled by children.

"Calculated correctly... not a moment off..."

He had studied star charts his whole life and written calendars his whole life.

He believed Heaven's will was unpredictable, that thunder and rain were all the Emperor's grace, all Heaven's punishment.

But the facts in the Sky Screen smashed to pieces the standard he had held up for half his life.

Mortals of later generations, holding a Glazed Ware plate the size of a square inch, had tightly grasped the exact hour when Heaven would unleash its anger and rain.

This was not divination; this was the absolute vision possessed only by gods.

"The Heavenly Dao... has been penetrated by mortals..."

The Director raised his head, tears streaming down his face, letting out a despairing wail.

Among the hundred officials, the Confucian scholars who believed in the correspondence between Heaven and man lowered their heads one by one, their faces pale.

Li Shimin walked alone to the very edge of the steps.

He raised his head, gazing directly at the scorching sun of the Great Tang's early summer.

The sunlight stung his eyes, yet he did not shift his gaze.

In the past, when looking at the sky,

he felt awe.

He feared the descent of locust plagues or droughts, punishments from Heaven for an Emperor's lack of virtue.

He had written countless edicts of self-condemnation, bowing his head in Taimiao to beg the gods to calm their anger.

But at this moment, Li Shimin looked at this sky, and the awe in his eyes was replaced by a trace of extremely cold contempt.

"Heaven?"

"Is nothing more than this."

He turned around, looking down upon the ministers.

The emperor's aura underwent a qualitative transformation in that instant.

Stripping away the cloak of divine right, it revealed pure iron will and reason.

"Convey my imperial decree!"

"Abolish the elaborate rituals of the Heaven-Sacrifice; the Imperial Observatory shall no longer divine fortune or misfortune, but shall specialize solely in observing wind direction and rainfall."

"Heavenly disasters are not due to the emperor's lack of virtue, but are changes in water vapor, wind, and thunder."

"From this day forth, when the Great Tang encounters drought or flood, no edict of self-condemnation shall be issued, and no altars shall be opened to perform rituals for rain."

"In drought, dig canals to divert water for me."

"In flood, reinforce the dikes for me."

"Future generations can calculate the heavens fully; human effort can overcome heaven."

"The Great Tang, from now on, shall trust only the sword in hand, trust only the grain in the fields! Trust no ghosts or gods!"