Chapter 191: Restart

Pan Yun silently put down the clothes and said, "First wash the garments—I'll think it over tonight."

This time, they barely managed to complete the mission.

Zhang Guanshi wasn't a fool—he already knew they were up to something behind his back.

She came herself to watch them hang the clothes, turning over sleeves and hemlines to inspect them, then focusing closely on the knee areas of the pants.

She glanced at the three of them rushing to hang the clothes, let out a soft hum, and said to the trio who were about to run off after finishing, "Pan Yun, Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He will finish their punishment in just a few days—I advise you to stop stirring up trouble, lest you drag others down with you."

Pan Yun paused briefly, then nodded. "Your advice is right—I've taken it to heart."

Zhang Guanshi was slightly surprised by her compliance; she'd seen plenty of troublemakers before.

The common trait among troublemakers was that the more you advised them, the more they resisted—good intentions only made them dig in their heels.

Pan Yun's obedience made Zhang Guanshi suspect either that she was pretending to comply, to lull her into false security, or that she was biding her time for something big.

Pan Yun wasn't pretending—she truly listened to advice.

Zhang Guanshi was right: Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He's punishment period would end in just a few days; causing trouble now wasn't worth it.

Besides, she needed to calm down and think carefully about how to build this magical-device washing machine.

Pan Xiaohei's suggestion might be good—she needed to go through the data inside it.

She might not be able to make an electric motor, but at least she needed to understand every technology involved in a washing machine, then replace them with talismans, arrays, and spells.

She also had to figure out how to let ordinary people activate arrays and talismans without using spells, inner power, or Qi.

Actually, this wasn't hard for Pan Yun at all.

Because in the twenty-sixth century, although most people could cultivate and even had their own talents, some still spent their entire lives as ordinary civilians.

The national government, to reduce this distinction, heavily researched talismans, array converters, and other tools usable by ordinary people, and ensured ordinary citizens' rights in every way.

After all, under the new society's technology, most cultivators and ordinary people had the same lifespan, population was scarce, and even ordinary people could easily find suitable work and live well in this world—no worse off than cultivators.

Pan Yun knew how to build converters so ordinary people could use talismans and arrays—she just wasn't ready to do it yet.

First, the technology for the first washing machine had to mature.

After school, Pan Yun collected the large wooden tub and stored it in the Spirit Realm space, then brought it back to Fengqi Courtyard.

When Xue Hua and the others returned from school, they saw a huge wooden tub standing in the courtyard; before they could even react in surprise, they saw Pan Yun frowning over the stone table, scribbling and sketching.

The three exchanged a silent glance, then quietly returned to their rooms and shut the doors.

Pan Yun redesigned the washing tub's structure, and for this, she specifically searched the Spirit Realm space.

The space did contain descriptions of washing machines and some simple blueprints, but everything else was explanations of the technologies involved, followed by lists of reference books. In other words, there were no concrete, mature technical demonstrations—only broad overviews of the technologies and row after row of book titles.

Pan Yun stared blankly, then asked Pan Xiaohei, "Do you remember who compiled and uploaded this data?"

"Tell me—I'll curse them to never have detergent or laundry liquid when they wash clothes."

Pan Xiaohei silently mocked her: "They've already listed all the application technology books for you—what more do you want? You're not incapable of learning, are you?"

"It's not embarrassing if I can't learn," Pan Yun said. "Do you know how many people in every school study building rockets, spaceships, and space capsules? Do all of them know how to build them?"

"If he'd been serious when uploading the data and had included the full washing machine technology in the Spirit Realm, it would've been like feeding me a meal right at my mouth—I'd have thanked him."

"But now he's only given me a handful of seeds and a hoe, pointing at a field choked with weeds and saying, 'Go, child—see what you can grow.' Which is easier?"

Pan Xiaohei rested its head on its paws. "I can't argue with you—I won't debate you. But I don't know who uploaded this data—I wasn't awake yet. You can curse everyone equally, including yourself and your teachers. After all, you can't possibly have read every book you uploaded. Maybe you did this yourself and just forgot."

Pan Yun tilted her head, thinking. She recalled that only eight people in the entire research institute had authority to upload data, and each upload required at least one other person present as supervisor.

They feared someone might deliberately upload false or misleading data to corrupt future generations.

!.

Textbooks were vital—if humanity and Earth ever faced disaster, the data in the Spirit Realm might be the last brilliant remnant of this civilization, so it had to be comprehensive and truthful.

They were cultivating successors who could inherit this civilization.

Pan Yun quickly adjusted herself. "Forget it. Actually, thinking carefully, starting from the basics isn't bad. After all, only a few in this world can cultivate—most people are still struggling to survive. It's impossible to ask them to abandon farming and retreat to the mountains to cultivate. So using an electric motor to drive a washing machine is indeed simpler than talismans and arrays. Fine—I'll learn. If I can master the Zhouyi and Bagua, can't I learn a few basic mechanical textbooks?"

Pan Xiaohei snorted. "Isn't this just self-PUA?"

Pan Yun: "No. I'm fully aware. You're just not used to the work life of this era."

Pan Xiaohei sneered. It understood this world no less than Pan Yun—after all, for the past eight years, it had been in the shadows while she was in the light; it knew everything she did.

Pan Yun glanced at it, wondering what it was smug about, then assigned it a task: "List every book related to washing machines. If any have data, give them to me."

Pan Xiaohei shifted its thoughts, and the Spirit Realm instantly pulled up several gigabytes of data. It asked Pan Yun, "Shall I directly transmit it into your dantian?"

Pan Yun: "So I turn into a big fool?"

Pan Xiaohei: "With your cultivation and spiritual awareness, you probably won't become a big fool—maybe just a little one."

Pan Yun: "Thanks, but I'm not interested in becoming a fool. Store the data in your own space for now—I'll go through it slowly."

Pan Yun applied her research attitude—not just reading, but taking notes.

Fortunately, she was a cultivator, good at metaphysics and math—many concepts were interconnected—so she grasped the first few basic texts quickly.

Didn't catch up today? Try harder tomorrow.

(End of chapter)