Even the usually cautious Xu Dafu had already given his approval. With that final confirmation, the artillery battalion commander no longer hesitated.
He pulled out his tinderbox, struck a spark, and carefully lit the fuse at the base of the cannon barrel. The moment the flame caught, he turned and sprinted away, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the small cannon.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous roar, the cannon fired.
The small grenade was violently spat from the barrel, carving a graceful arc through the air before landing roughly three hundred meters away, right in the middle of the pre-arranged scarecrows.
A brief pause—
Then another deafening sound echoed across the open ground.
"Boom!"
The small grenade detonated. Shrapnel and steel pellets sprayed outward in every direction, tearing through the scarecrows like a storm of blades. In an instant, they were completely shredded, riddled with holes, no longer even recognizable as targets.
For a heartbeat, the entire crowd fell silent.
Then—
Cheers exploded.
"It worked! Hahahaha! It actually worked!"
"We're definitely getting the Dao Xuan Tianzhun Special Prize for Scientific Invention this year!"
"If this works, then we should be able to design large grenades as well—ones that can be fired from bigger cannons!"
"Right! We could even replace the shells used by Hongyi cannons with grenades!"
"And the Frankish cannons mounted on warships—those could fire grenade shells too!"
"The best part is that we don't even need to change the cannon barrels. Just change the ammunition!"
"Let's do it!"
A sea of excited voices surged together as the scientists plunged headfirst into feverish discussion, their minds already racing toward the next wave of explosive-shell research.
Meanwhile…
In Song Yingxing's laboratory at Gao Family Village's Thirty-Two Middle School, the atmosphere was far quieter.
A single graduate student sat at a workbench, carefully tinkering with an electric lamp prototype—the very device Song Yingxing had proposed some time ago.
After the previous incident where a large group of scientists and graduate students had collectively siphoned electricity from the "celestial generator," Song Yingxing's laboratory had devoted itself wholeheartedly to researching electric lamps.
However, progress had been painfully slow.
The reason was simple: Song Yingxing himself was far too busy.
He was a man of boundless curiosity. Any new scientific or technological invention that appeared—no matter what field it belonged to—he wanted to see it, participate in it, and carefully sketch its structure.
As a result, his constant involvement in everything dramatically slowed the focused research on electric lamps.
Fortunately, while Song Yingxing was busy everywhere, not all of his students were.
This particular student, Ji Menghan, was different.
He had no distractions at all.
His only focus was the electric lamp.
He had absolutely no interest in anything else.
Ji Menghan was the son of a lampmaker from Xi'an.
Several years earlier, his father—the lampmaker—had fled Xi'an Prefecture together with the gunpowder artisan Xu Dafu and Xing Honglang, seeking refuge in Gao Family Village.
After arriving, Xu Dafu had been entrusted with major responsibilities. With opportunity after opportunity, he rose rapidly through the ranks, eventually becoming one of the most influential and respected figures in Gao Family Village.
Ji Menghan's father, on the other hand, although skilled in lampmaking and able to contribute to Gao Family Village's commercial prosperity, never truly struck it rich.
He earned money—enough to live comfortably—but never achieved a dramatic leap in status.
Later, the lampmaker returned to Xi'an, brought his wife and children back to Gao Family Village, and enrolled his son in the Gao Family Village School.
There, the boy received a proper education.
His given name had been Ji Dameng, but he felt it sounded overly rustic. With his father's permission, he changed it to something more refined and scholarly:
Ji Menghan.
Over the years, Ji Menghan often heard his father sigh and say,
"Your father and Xu Dafu both came from Xi'an. Yet our lives are worlds apart. Why? Because of technology… because of the gap in technical skill. Son, you must master technology. Only then can you truly make something of yourself in the future."
Those words carved themselves deeply into Ji Menghan's heart.
From that day on, he studied with obsessive dedication.
Although he started later than many others, his progress was astonishing. He graduated from middle school with outstanding results, then began self-studying high school materials while simultaneously entering Song Yingxing's research laboratory, becoming a full-fledged graduate student.
At first, he lacked direction. He didn't know what kind of invention he should pursue.
But the moment he saw the electric lamp Song Yingxing unveiled, everything became clear.
A lampmaker's son should make lamps.
His father's craftsmanship had never made him rich because lampmaking was a skill anyone could learn. Other people's lamps were simply less refined.
That slight difference in workmanship was not core technology.
And without core technology, true wealth and status were impossible.
The electric lamp, however, was different.
It was genuine core technology.
If he could master it—improve it—then he would surely earn Dao Xuan Tianzhun's favor, just like Xu Dafu had.
With that belief, Ji Menghan devoted every waking hour to electric lamp research.
The two carbon rods Song Yingxing had previously displayed could indeed emit light, but the light was blinding, painful to look at directly. Worse still, the rods burned out rapidly, lasting only a few hours at most.
They were completely impractical.
What Ji Menghan wanted was a lamp that could burn steadily for long periods—like the oil lamps his father used to make.
"The filament burns out because of high temperature… combustion…"
He scribbled furiously in his notebook.
"Combustion consumes the filament's lifespan. If there were a way to stop the filament from burning, it could last much longer. But how do I stop it from igniting?"
He was alone in the laboratory.
Every other graduate student had rushed off to watch the grenade-launcher experiments, leaving no one behind to work on electric lamps.
No one to discuss ideas with.
No one to argue with.
No one to share the burden.
Such loneliness.
Perhaps this was the unavoidable price of deep scientific research.
Just as a faint sense of emptiness welled up in his chest, a small metallic skeletal figure climbed onto his desk and sat beside his notebook.
Ji Menghan was startled. He leaned closer.
It was a CC02 reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun, still under construction—which explained why it consisted of little more than a metal framework.
"Encountering difficulties?" the reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun asked.
Ji Menghan immediately bowed deeply.
"Reporting to Dao Xuan Tianzhun, this humble one was merely lamenting the solitude of research."
The reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun chuckled.
"All great achievements come with a price—such as loneliness. If you truly cannot continue, you are free to give up. No one is forcing you to succeed."
Ji Menghan shook his head firmly.
"This is what I want."
"Then there is no problem," the reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun replied. "As long as it is something you truly love, you can give it everything."
He paused, then waved a hand dismissively.
"Alright, enough inspirational talk. I don't particularly enjoy this part. Let's get to the point. What exactly is troubling you?"
Ji Menghan quickly explained the issue of the filament burning out too quickly.
"I see," the reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun said, a faint smile appearing on its metallic face. "Tell me—what is required for combustion?"
"Air," Ji Menghan answered without hesitation.
"Correct," the reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun laughed. "Now think again. If you don't want the filament to burn, what should you do?"
Ji Menghan's eyes widened.
"Deprive it of air!"
"Hahaha! Very good," the reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun laughed loudly. "Work hard. I'll be waiting to present you with the Grand Prize for Scientific Invention."
With that, the reconnaissance Dao Xuan Tianzhun fell still, unmoving.
Ji Menghan, however, felt as if lightning had struck his mind.
Something had shattered open.
Ideas surged wildly, buzzing and colliding inside his head.
A new path lay before him.