Chapter 427: Chapter 425: Well, your observation skills are really impressive
"Information input module confirmed."
"Main control module confirmed."
"Output module confirmed."
"Countdown begins, three, two, one... start!"
Le Yu forcefully pulled down the operating lever, and the chassis spewed out scorching steam. The gears and chains filling half the floor immediately began to rumble and turn, with a massive black steel gear driving countless small gears, resembling a monster breathing.
Le Yu urgently tapped back and forth on the small keyboard with only sixteen keys, causing the steam monster to respond instantly, emitting a ’tick-tock’ sound and ejecting a sheet of snow-white paper from its steel belly.
After functioning for merely ten seconds, this steam monster came to a halt. Le Yu went past to take the paper, only to see a line written on it:
"Odd changes remain, look to the quadrant of signs."
"Holy crap!" Le Yu couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
He was currently on the sixth floor of the Platinum Tower. Contrary to what people outside believed the Platinum Tower to be a seven-story library, only the first floor served as Xie Liting’s personal library, and the rest were not for book storage—like the sixth floor, which was considered Cha Huan’s toy room.
Just like how Cha Huan kept a parrot that might or might not have been a human, his toys were naturally extraordinary—the ’toy’ in front of Le Yu was the ’typewriter’ that Cha Huan spent three years building during work hours, capable of typing out five hundred different common characters.
The text from Huiguang was also in block script, and Cha Huan created an input method similar to Wubi, utilizing sixteen different strokes to form various characters.
Even though the concept was incredibly straightforward, the resulting product was unbelievably immense. After all, no CPUs existed in this era, even wireless direct current was just emerging, and Cha Huan chose the most accurate yet cumbersome differential machine route, constructing the entire ’typewriter’ from gears into logic modules. Due to its bulkiness, it even required a Luminous Stone steam engine to power it.
No possibility of mass production, not even practical, because the gear-driven process took at least three to four seconds, slower than a normal person’s writing speed.
Yet, it’s just fun, it’s just awesome, it’s just cool.
Le Yu watched with great envy.
This was a joy that was difficult for Le Yu to obtain.
Even in the days of Jing Zhengwei, with millions at his disposal and never lacking for anything with broken legs, Le Yu couldn’t find such joy. At that time, he had too many concerns and simply had no time for ’pointless entertainment.’ Daily expenditures were just for food, drink, and fun, with the fun part provided free by Qing Lan, or rather, he provided it free to Qing Lan.
This is why working people are classier than capitalists, because working people spend what they earn, leaving very little in reserve; however, capitalists make much money but can’t spend it all, with wealth forcibly becoming a pile of waste paper. In this era, without a financial market, the drawbacks of a capitalist are particularly prominent.
Money not circulating in the market is like a potbelly... or like the lower half of an eunuch, apart from self-pleasure, it has no significance.
Such imaginative adult toys can only be played by Cha Huan—this wealthy, leisurely, technically skilled, and nightlife-free old man.
Oh, Cha Huan recently got some nightlife, no wonder he gave the toy room to me.
Le Yu sat on the bench, looking at this mountainous ’typewriter’, as he continued perfecting his Great Demon King plan in his mind. Although he officially became ’proxy principal’, not to mention the Platinum Tower’s Sea of Consciousness authority, he couldn’t even enter the seventh floor—that’s Cha Huan’s private office. Unless he’s dead, no one else can become the master of the seventh floor.
Moreover, even if Cha Huan died, Xie Liting would follow his instructions and burn the seventh floor to the ground first, akin to modern people destroying hard drives.
At that time, Le Yu even jokingly asked, ’Do you have so much unspeakable stuff,’ but Cha Huan just looked at him and answered:
"It’s not that my works are unspeakable, it’s that people can’t bear to see my works. If my drafts got out, the deaths caused wouldn’t be less than those of the past two years."
Sometimes Le Yu thought, why not just curse Cha Huan as ’you tasteless old bastard’, then get beaten to death by Cha Huan, dying so Cha Huan could live, maybe that way he could live a happy life.
But then he realized that he would be too ungrateful to Qing Lan. After all, switching bodies was already embarrassing enough, as an apology, Le Yu thought he should at least provide Qing Lan with a young and strong body.
More importantly, Le Yu didn’t dare.
After all, the parrot in the birdcage had already spoken the third different sentence to him.
Also, for this reason, the only benefit Le Yu received from being ’proxy principal’ was having the freedom to roam the first to sixth floors of the Platinum Tower and stay here every day.
Besides that, there was nothing else.
Cha Huan isn’t stupid; he’s aware that Le Yu is the sword sheath of Shuiyun Palace, so naturally, he wouldn’t afford him any authority.
Actually, Le Yu did try to test Cha Huan with ’Who do you think is suitable to be the emperor’, only for Cha Huan to reply bluntly, ’It would be damn perfect if I were the emperor,’ Le Yu realized he’d never lean towards him in the fight for the throne—at least not obviously.
Two days later is the time Le Yu is supposed to be assassinated, so he urgently needs to perfect the details of the ’counterstrike plan’. After touring the Platinum Tower, Le Yu suddenly came up with an ingenious idea, but time was tight, and he wasn’t sure if he could prepare in time.
Just as Le Yu was writing frantically, the mechanical ladder suddenly started moving, making chain-sliding sounds.
To be honest, Le Yu found this feeling quite terrifying. The sound of chains, the rumbling of the mechanical ladder ascending, plus Le Yu’s first-person perspective, felt like waiting for a boss to make an entrance.
It’s probably because Cha Huan was yearning for a boss to find him so he could stretch his muscles.
Clunk!
The mechanical ladder clicked into place and stopped smoothly at the level. The gate opened, and a person cautiously walked onto the sixth floor.
"...Wow!"
Li Ying couldn’t help but exclaim in awe at the ’typewriter’ occupying the entire floor, eyes glowing as she entirely disregarded Le Yu and wandered around the typewriter while the others neither shared Li Ying’s aesthetic appreciation nor showed much interest, casually glancing around or looking out the window at the scenery.
"Hello, Teacher Qin."
"Hello, Brother Hongle."
Lin Xue, Qian Yuya, Kui Nianruo, and Ming Shuiyun all greeted in unison, and Qin Yueshi retained her usual ’I’ll reluctantly acknowledge you if you greet me first’ demeanor, which naturally pleased Le Yu, as he deliberately ignored her, closed the notebook in his hand, and asked, "Is there something I can help with?"
"We heard you became the proxy principal and came to congratulate you," Lin Xue said.
Kuin Nianruo followed immediately with, "Teacher Qin, do you need an assistant? I can help you!"
With these words, others instinctively glanced at Kui Nianruo, even Li Ying turned her head from the mechanical aesthetics in curiosity. Kui Nianruo tilted her head at them, puzzled, "What’s the issue? It’s only natural for Teacher Qin to be busy with many things as the proxy principal, so why not offer help?"
"That’s not necessary," Le Yu shook his head, "This position is merely honorary, without any real significance and doesn’t entail any extra work. The only difference is that I can’t hide at home during the day; I must sit here where you find me."
Kuin Nianruo blinked, "Does Teacher Qin not want to see us?"
"...Of course not, your visit and celebration really make me happy, but for the sake of maintaining my solemn teacher image, I can’t show a trace of joy."
"It’s okay, I’ve already seen the joy in your eyes!" Kuin Nianruo giggled.
Le Yu’s eyebrow couldn’t help but twitch, "Oh?! Really?! Well, your observation skills are truly impressive!"