Chapter 159: Triangular Earth
The fact that Xu Wenbin was a "keyboard warrior" had Qin Hao laughing uncontrollably. And not just any keyboard warrior—he was the type who corrected others' flawed arguments with a serious expression and utmost earnestness.
By comparison, Qin Maocai was much more reserved. He would quietly scroll, occasionally stopping by Xu Qing’s place to check things out. Using his finger to scribble on the screen, he’d write: “Post more, post more.”
“What on earth is he up to now?”
Xu Wenbin returned home, still baffled by his phone. He had just figured out how Xu Qing made money off those videos, and now the kid was onto something else—making armor out of steel rings?
While Xu Wenbin was pondering this, a notification from WeChat popped up. It was a message from Xu Qing, recommending a channel called “Handy Geng.”
“Dad, check this out when you’re free.”
“What is it?” Xu Wenbin asked.
“You’ll understand when you watch it.”
Xu Wenbin found the channel and frowned at the slew of invention videos. Picking one at random, titled “DIY Upside-Down Hair Washing Machine,” he clicked on it.Modern torture techniques unfolded unexpectedly before his eyes.
“Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, argued in his book On the Heavens that the Earth is a sphere, not a flat plane. He offered two strong pieces of evidence for this belief.
First, he observed that lunar eclipses occur when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon. The shadow cast by the Earth on the Moon is always round, which can only be true if the Earth itself is spherical. If the Earth were a flat disk, its shadow would elongate into an ellipse unless the Sun was always directly under the disk’s center during an eclipse…”
Lying on the couch, Jiang He was reading a book. Despite knowing that lying down to read was bad for her eyes, she dismissed Xu Qing’s prior corrections, insisting her vision was exceptional. Besides, sitting upright made her neck uncomfortable. If it all caused harm, she figured lying down was the lesser evil.
“What are you laughing at?” she asked halfway through, noticing Xu Qing’s mysterious grin, as if he were up to something mischievous. Jiang He rarely read aloud for him, and now that she was doing so, he wasn’t even paying attention.
“Nothing. Keep reading.” Xu Qing tucked his phone away. He had just shared Handy Geng’s videos with Xu Wenbin, hoping the old man would finally understand what it truly meant to idle around aimlessly—in contrast to Xu Qing’s own creative pursuits, which Xu Wenbin kept pestering him about.
Making clothes? Why not? Not everything needed a reason. Xu Qing was just indulging a personal interest while adding some novelty to an otherwise pointless activity, hoping to attract viewers. Once the armor was complete, he’d walk around the house in it—just to show Xu Wenbin the fruits of his whimsical labor.
“So, are you a philosopher too?” Jiang He asked, her tone thoughtful.
“What makes you ask that?” Xu Qing was curious whether she knew what a philosopher even was.
“They all seem to do meaningless things. Like how that one guy studied whether the Earth is round.”
“Why do you think studying the Earth’s shape is meaningless?”
“Well, isn’t it?” Jiang He asked, genuinely puzzled. “What’s the difference between it being round or flat? It’s not like we’re going to fall off the edge of the world… Even if it were triangular, what difference would it make?”
“Hmm… It clearly matters. Only by understanding the nature of the world can we progress. Someone realized the Earth is round; Copernicus discovered it orbits the Sun; Newton figured out gravity. That’s called science.”
“And what’s science good for?”
“Everything you eat, live in, or use depends on science. See the lightbulb? And the computer?”
“Oh…” Jiang He nodded, deep in thought.
Xu Qing eyed her suspiciously, wondering what strange ideas this elderly woman with no formal education was brewing now.
“Even if you mastered that book and all its science, you’re not going to make a computer back in Kaiyuan or stream videos like me.”
“Really?”
“Stop overthinking.” Xu Qing reached over to ruffle Jiang He’s hair, making it messy. “The point of knowing the Earth’s shape is to understand the kind of world you live in.”
“Don’t mess with my hair,” Jiang He complained, swatting his hand away and resuming her reading.
“If you learned physics, it might even improve your martial arts. You could pull off moves like the Buddhist Palm Strike, harnessing gravitational acceleration and inertia to create more impact—enough to leave a massive crater.”
“I’d just end up dead,” Jiang He said flatly.
“Fair point.”
Expecting Jiang He to single-handedly invent a time machine was unrealistic. Even if she read A Brief History of Time, she’d only understand the parts within her grasp. But that was enough. Knowing more about the Earth and the universe would help her grasp the basics of her world. It was the first step to becoming smarter.
Recognizing the rules behind the mysteries of the world replaced mysticism with rationality. At the very least, she’d stop seeing computers as divine artifacts and instead as remarkable human inventions. If she ever found herself whisked back to her original era, she could brag to Second Madam and the others about Copernicus’ heliocentric theory, Newton’s laws, Watt’s steam engine, and Xu Qing—lazy but kind to her.
That evening, Xu Qing fed Winter Melon the cat while Jiang He stretched on the couch, put down her book, and began preparing dinner.
Dinner was simple yet tedious to prepare. Jiang He worked until nightfall, the sky outside pitch black. Only after the living room lights came on did she bring out a large plate of steamed buns.
The buns came in two fillings: fennel and egg for the vegetarian option, and cabbage and pork for the meat. Jiang He even made them distinguishable—vegetarian ones had a spiral twist at the seal, while the meat ones were flattened slightly.
“I get it now,” Jiang He suddenly said as she bit into a meat bun, leaving Xu Qing confused. What did she figure out? That she couldn’t invent a time machine?
“You have everything you need—food, shelter, whatever you want. That’s why you have so much time to do pointless things. That’s how all this stuff got invented.”
“You’ve been thinking about this?” Xu Qing asked, surprised.
“Yeah, it just hit me.”
“Congratulations! You’ve gone from a silly little seedling to a clever little seedling.”
“Am I wrong?” Jiang He asked.
“You’re partly right. Social progress always starts with improving productivity. Without it, nothing else matters. That’s why you carry potatoes in your bag instead of a computer.”
“But does it even mean anything?”
“The fact that you’re pondering this is meaningful.”
After all, if Newton had been starving back then, he’d have eaten the apple instead of pondering gravity.
The buns were large—Xu Qing felt full after just five. Jiang He couldn’t finish the rest either, planning to fry them in oil the next morning and pair them with congee.
She had long since realized that leftover food often tasted better when fried or stir-fried, whether it was buns, rice, or dumplings.
In the living room, the ginger plant had grown a bit taller, its leaves a vibrant green, standing upright next to the TV.
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