Crowned Consort in Golden Age-Chapter 262 - 261. The Mystery of The Treasure, Confession
261. The Mystery of the Treasure, a Confession
Yes, let nature take its course.
If Ye Li had been reborn into a past historical era she was familiar with, instead of this completely foreign time period, she would have undeniably brought these objects out into the open. Even if it prematurely accelerated the course of history, so what? It couldn’t possibly be worse than the original history.
Actually, Ye Li hadn’t dwelled on it for long. She wasn’t someone who enjoyed mulling over things. Neither the Great Founding Emperor of the previous dynasty nor she herself had much understanding of military engineering. She didn’t know the original status of that Great Founding Emperor, but even if Ye Li knew the performance and structure of all the world’s most advanced weapons intimately, it didn’t mean she could build identical ones. For instance, she couldn’t solve the material science problems alone. Therefore, Ye Li hadn’t considered this place a manufacturing hub for mass-producing lethal battlefield weapons. Instead, she shared fundamental knowledge—concepts the skilled craftsmen of this era could understand—giving them an entirely different perspective from their current one.
Ye Li didn’t need them to immediately create an AK-47 or long-range missiles. They just needed to strive in this direction. Whether it took a hundred years or several hundred, Ye Li believed that with these seeds of innovation, this land would not suffer in this regard as her homeland once had.
"Princess Consort..." A middle-aged man approached, his eyes lighting up with a fervent glow as he rushed towards Ye Li.
Mo Xiuyao, holding Mo Xiaobao, narrowed his eyes in displeasure as he watched the man rushing over. He sidestepped, positioning himself in front of Ye Li. The man skidded to a halt, realizing his earlier behavior had been impolite upon seeing Mo Xiuyao’s grim expression. He stood there awkwardly, at a loss.
Ye Li emerged from behind Mo Xiuyao and said with a faint smile, "Master Li, what is it?"
The middle-aged man quickly replied, "We’ve made what the Princess Consort requested, but there are still some issues we’d like to ask for your guidance on."
Ye Li nodded. "Then let’s go and take a look together."
A pistol lay before Ye Li and Mo Xiuyao. Mo Xiuyao was naturally completely unfamiliar with the object, but a flicker of nostalgia and joy passed through Ye Li’s eyes. She stepped forward and picked up the gun from the table. To be honest, for someone like Ye Li, who had seen all sorts of advanced weaponry in her past life, the gun before her was crude and shoddily made, almost an eyesore. It was far rougher than even the earliest automatic Mauser C96 pistols from her previous world.
But to have made such an item in just five years, bridging centuries of firearm development, Ye Li believed these skilled craftsmen had truly done their best. She picked up the pistol, weighed it in her hand, then turned to Mo Xiaobao and smiled. "Xiaobao, cover your ears."
Mo Xiaobao curiously eyed the object in his mother’s hand but obediently covered his ears with his small hands.
Ye Li twirled the pistol in her hand. Her expression shifted as she raised the gun and fired three shots at a target not far away. BANG! BANG! BANG! After the three loud reports, Ye Li looked at the target, frowning slightly. The first shot hit the bullseye. The second landed in roughly the four-point ring. The third bullet, however, went completely wide. This clearly wasn’t an issue with Ye Li’s marksmanship; it was obviously a problem with the gun itself.
Master Li, following behind, still had that fervent look in his eyes, but this time, he was gazing not at Ye Li, but at the gun in her hand. The object Ye Li found somewhat disdainful was, in his eyes, as precious as a peerless beauty.
Scratching his beard in frustration, Master Li said, "We’ve made two of these. One of them exploded immediately. This one is intact, but it consistently misses the mark, veering further off with each shot. We’ve never had someone hit the bullseye on the first try like the Princess Consort." However, the second and third shots were clearly off, the discrepancy so large he couldn’t help but wonder if the Princess Consort’s first shot had been a fluke.
"It seems to be a materials problem," Ye Li said. "I’ll compile some suggestions for improvement and give them to you later. As for the materials themselves, I’m afraid you’ll have to handle that. I’ll have all the necessary ores delivered, but beyond that, I’m powerless to help." She wasn’t an expert in military engineering, nor in ordnance materials. All she could offer was the general knowledge and theoretical concepts she possessed; they would have to explore the rest step by step. Although Master Li was somewhat disappointed, he knew this couldn’t be forced and nodded in agreement.
Master Li departed with a heavy heart, leaving the gun behind. Although it was their first truly completed prototype, its unsatisfactory performance meant Master Li felt no attachment to it. He silently resolved to go back and create something much better. Ye Li unloaded the remaining bullets from the pistol before tossing it to Mo Xiaobao, who had been watching eagerly. Upon receiving his new toy, Mo Xiaobao immediately became engrossed in studying it, no longer fussing about his father holding him and not letting him down to play.
"So, these are the things left by the Great Founding Emperor of the previous dynasty?" Mo Xiuyao asked, surveying their surroundings.
Ye Li nodded and looked at Mo Xiuyao. "Xiuyao, what do you think of this gun?"
Mo Xiuyao shook his head, glancing at the toy in Mo Xiaobao’s hand. "It has no practical value." Its range is less than that of an arrow from a master archer. Although the first shot did pique my interest for a moment, the subsequent two were a great disappointment. "For now," he reiterated, "it has no practical value."
Ye Li nodded in agreement and led Mo Xiuyao further on. The items prepared by that founding emperor of the previous dynasty were certainly not limited to these. Even the things Ye Li herself knew were not just this little bit; there were indeed items with practical value.
Upon entering a spacious, empty room, they were immediately met with the smell of sulfur. In a corner, wooden boxes were neatly stacked. Ye Li went over and opened the topmost one, revealing black, spherical objects.
Mo Xiuyao pondered for a moment. "Is this... gunpowder?" Gunpowder wasn’t unknown in this era; people had long used it in warfare. However, it required an open flame to ignite, and its destructive power wasn’t very high, so even the Mo Family Army rarely used it. But this didn’t mean Mo Xiuyao was completely ignorant about it.
Ye Li nodded. "Correct, it is gunpowder. However... I prefer to call them bombs."
Mo Xiuyao raised an eyebrow. "How powerful are they?" Since Ah-Li had specifically shown them to him, they naturally wouldn’t be ordinary.
Ye Li casually picked one up and smiled. "Let’s find another place to test one and see." She couldn’t say for other weapons, but Ye Li was quite confident in the power of these bombs. This was because their manufacturing method wasn’t left by the Great Founding Emperor of the previous dynasty but provided by Ye Li herself. Indeed, after tossing one bomb in an empty room within the underground palace, the effect following the massive explosion made even Mo Xiuyao reveal a look of surprise.
Leaving the area where the bombs were stored, Ye Li led Mo Xiuyao into the innermost secret chamber of the underground palace. The chamber was simply furnished, filled only with various scrolls and weapon models. Mo Xiuyao recognized a few of them as designs he had seen in the outer rooms they had passed through.
Ye Li retrieved a thick volume from a hidden compartment and handed it to Mo Xiuyao, smiling. "This is the treasure left by the emperor of the previous dynasty."
Mo Xiuyao took it and flipped through. Page after page showed drawings of various firearms, along with written annotations. However, many annotations seemed to be in a foreign script, which Mo Xiuyao couldn’t fully comprehend. But this didn’t hinder his understanding that it was a book illustrating various types of weapons, and that the ones currently producible here were among the poorest designs. Many depicted in the book looked far superior to the toy Mo Xiaobao was so fondly clutching.
Looking at the illustrated album, Ye Li sighed softly. "If all these things could truly be made and mass-produced as he envisioned, the army possessing them would be genuinely invincible."
Mo Xiuyao frowned slightly, looking at Ye Li. "Ah-Li, do you like these things very much?"
Ye Li paused, startled, then nodded after a long moment. "Yes, I like them very much." How could she not? In her previous life, a brief span of just over twenty years, she had spent two decades in the company of such things. She was as familiar with them, as fond of them, as she was of her own family and comrades-in-arms.
"Then have them all made," Mo Xiuyao said.
Ye Li smiled wryly. "All of them... I’m afraid we won’t see that in our lifetimes. To truly produce all these things... how could it be done without one or two hundred years?" This endeavor involved far more than just military engineering; every related field of science and technology would have to advance simultaneously to realize such forward-thinking weapon concepts.
Mo Xiuyao frowned. "In that case, this Great Founding Emperor of the previous dynasty was truly a heaven-sent genius. It’s a pity he didn’t actually manufacture these items. Or perhaps he intended to but ran out of time?" The reign of the Great Founding Emperor after unifying the land wasn’t very long. Considering the scale of this underground palace, it’s highly probable he passed away before its completion.
Ye Li smiled faintly. "A heaven-sent genius? Perhaps..." These leftover blueprints certainly didn’t qualify as the work of such a genius. In fact, to Ye Li, they weren’t even professional, at best the work of an amateur weapons enthusiast. However, as a transmigrator born in a chaotic era, to unite the world was truly no easy feat. After all, even the Great Ancestor Emperor who founded Great Chu couldn’t be said to have truly unified the lands, considering Xiling and Great Chu were originally one entity.
Ye Li, herself a transmigrator or, one might say, reincarnator, naturally understood that people like them couldn’t truly be called favored by heaven. While they were granted another chance at life, achieving the kind of overwhelming charisma, loyal followers, and bevies of beauties often depicted in novels wasn’t so easy. Her own circumstances were already quite good, yet she had still endured so much. One could only imagine the hardships and efforts that predecessor must have faced to establish an imperial dynasty.
"Ah-Li, are you very familiar with him?" Mo Xiuyao asked, placing Mo Xiaobao on the nearby table and turning to look at Ye Li.
Mo Xiaobao seemed to sense his parents were discussing something important and sat quietly on the table, fiddling with his little toy. Earlier, Ye Li had unloaded the bullets so quickly that the child hadn’t noticed anything was missing from the gun. Thus, he was utterly bewildered as to why he couldn’t shoot impressive things from it like his mother had.
Ye Li smiled faintly, her hand gently stroking the flamboyant, cursive script on the cover of the volume on the table, a touch of nostalgia in her gesture. The creator of the album had rather ostentatiously left an English signature in ornate lettering. People of this era would likely just perceive it as some kind of decorative pattern.
After a moment of contemplation, Ye Li said, "I am somewhat familiar with this Great Founding Emperor of the previous dynasty. Perhaps no one in this world is more familiar with him than I am."
Mo Xiuyao remained silent. Ye Li looked at him with a smile. "Don’t you suspect my relationship with him?"
"Ah-Li is the maternal granddaughter of the Xu Family," Mo Xiuyao stated. "A descendant of the Xu Family couldn’t possibly have any connection to an emperor of the previous dynasty."
Ye Li blinked. "Then, is there nothing you want to ask?"
Mo Xiuyao was silent for a while before finally asking, "Ah-Li... are you from the same place as him?"
Ye Li froze. She truly hadn’t expected Mo Xiuyao to arrive at such a conjecture. So close... no, that was the exact answer.
Mo Xiuyao looked at her tenderly, a faint smile on his lips. "Ah-Li has never truly hidden things from me, has she? You’re clearly from a scholarly family, supposedly never having contact with outsiders, yet you possess such incredible skills. And your familiarity with the battlefield... along with those occasional strange yet novel ideas. Then there’s the script on that treasure map; even members of the previous dynasty’s imperial family couldn’t recognize it, yet you seemed quite familiar with it. Moreover, I feel... that Great Founding Emperor of the previous dynasty is, in some ways, very similar to Ah-Li."
Ye Li gave a helpless laugh. "So, I’ve revealed that many flaws."
Mo Xiuyao gently raised a hand to caress Ye Li’s cheek, smiling. "Ah-Li never truly tried to conceal them."
Ye Li admitted it. Except at the very beginning with Mo Xiuyao, she had never seriously tried to hide anything. It wasn’t just because Mo Xiuyao was too perceptive, and deliberate concealment would likely backfire. More importantly, Mo Xiuyao was the most important person in her current life. If she had to hide things even from him, she might as well have just been a demure, sheltered lady from the start. That would be far too exhausting...
Looking at Mo Xiuyao with curiosity, Ye Li asked, "Xiuyao, what do you think of me?"
Mo Xiuyao replied, "Both Buddhism and Taoism speak of past lives and reincarnation. Was Ah-Li born with memories of a past life?" Ah-Li’s personality hadn’t changed much from childhood, and there were no issues with her memory. She remembered things clearly even from when she was very young, and her bond with the Xu Family members was deep. It naturally wouldn’t be the ’borrowed body for resurrection’ scenarios written about in those tales of spirits and monsters. So, the theory of past lives and reincarnation was the only plausible explanation.
Ye Li nodded, grinning at Mo Xiuyao. "By that count, I’m actually over fifty this year. I’m much older than you, you know."
Mo Xiuyao’s eyes narrowed in displeasure, his gaze a warning at Ye Li’s slightly smug smile. If Mo Xiaobao weren’t sitting on the table, watching them wide-eyed, Mo Xiuyao might not have been so restrained. He shot a disdainful glance at the chubby toddler on the table: Children really are the most troublesome. Seeing Mo Xiuyao remain silent, Ye Li’s eyes darted playfully. "Actually... I was a man in my previous life. Are you sure you don’t mind?"
"A man?" Mo Xiuyao said in a deep voice.
Ye Li nodded, her expression serious. "That’s right. In my previous life, I was a soldier. You could say I died for my country. Why else do you think I’m so convincing when disguised as a man?" In the understanding of people from this era, soldiers were naturally men. She stared at Mo Xiuyao curiously. "Xiuyao, you really don’t mind?" A mischievous urge arose, and Ye Li watched the man before her, whose face was as still as water, with a teasing, crescent-eyed smile. Mo Xiuyao lowered his head, gazed at Ye Li for a long moment, then suddenly grabbed her and fiercely kissed her luscious, crimson lips.
Mmph... Ye Li froze, her eyes flying wide. She inadvertently glanced past Mo Xiuyao and saw a certain chubby toddler behind him, staring at them intently, his dark eyes filled with curiosity.
A rush of heat flooded her face, and Ye Li quickly pushed Mo Xiuyao away. Seeing Mo Xiuyao staring at her lips as if he hadn’t had his fill, Ye Li could only glare at him fiercely. She deeply regretted her impulsive teasing of Mo Xiuyao. In front of her five-year-old son... Ye Li felt she had never been so embarrassed in both her lifetimes combined. She could only hope her little Xiaobao was young enough to forget this incident quickly. Otherwise... she truly wouldn’t be able to face her son.
"Now you know whether I mind or not?" Mo Xiuyao asked in a low voice, looking with amusement at her flushed, annoyed expression.
Ye Li gritted her teeth. "The Prince’s psychological resilience is indeed formidable."
Mo Xiuyao smiled without answering, watching Ye Li stew in her own annoyance. What a silly girl. His Ah-Li, usually so elegant and graceful, whose every move was captivating in his eyes—how could she possibly have been a man in her previous life?
"Father, Mother..." Mo Xiaobao blinked his large, innocent eyes at his parents and asked curiously, "Are Father and Mother playing ’kiss-kiss mouth’? Xiaobao wants to play too! Mother, kiss-kiss..." To show his anticipation, Mo Xiaobao even tapped his plump little hand on his own rosy lips.
Ye Li turned pale with shock. "Chen’er, who told you Mother and... were playing ’kiss-kiss’?" Her son was only five! Did he have to be so precocious? She remembered they had never been overly affectionate in front of Xiaobao. Could it be because she always kissed Xiaobao playfully?
Mo Xiaobao thought seriously for a moment then said, "It was Father! Last time, I saw Father secretly kissing Mother while she was asleep. Father said only people who love each other can play ’kiss-kiss’. Xiaobao loves Mother too, so Xiaobao wants ’kiss-kiss’..."
"Mo Xiuyao!" Ye Li snapped, glaring fiercely at him. "You can sleep in the study this month!" Without waiting for Mo Xiuyao’s explanation, she turned and stormed off with a flick of her sleeve.
Mo Xiuyao, his face dark, glared at Mo Xiaobao on the table. Mo Xiaobao gazed back innocently at his father with his large, pure eyes. "Father, why is Mother angry? Why won’t Mother ’kiss-kiss’ Xiaobao? Doesn’t Mother love Xiaobao anymore?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
"Don’t think acting innocent will get you off the hook! When did I ever secretly kiss your mother?" Even if he had, how could a five-year-old brat possibly have seen it? He, Mo Xiuyao, a formidable figure his entire life, had actually been played by his own son!
Seeing Mo Xiuyao about to extend his "demonic claws," Mo Xiaobao quickly scrambled up, turned his backside to his father, and started wailing theatrically, "WAAAH... Mother doesn’t love Xiaobao anymore! Xiaobao is a child Mother doesn’t love..." Looking at his son on the table, with his little bottom sticking up, crying with such obvious insincerity, Mo Xiuyao finally felt torn between laughter and tears. This brat would definitely be a menace when he grew up!
