Chapter 451 — The Crystallization of Wisdom

As she spoke, she pulled another lever beside the cabinet, and with the dense clatter of machinery that instantly rose within the cabinet, Gao Yang saw the surface of the core device at the center of the press — the arcane transfer cylinder — light up with neat, orderly traces of blue glow.

That was precisely the printing pattern Rebecca had finished editing.

After two seconds of preheating and setting, the pattern on the surface of the transfer cylinder stabilized, and then the other components of the press began to operate. A sheet of smooth, spotless white paper was fed into the center of the press and laid over the black "ink plate," while the transfer cylinder, driven by its mechanical frame, was pressed onto the paper's surface and swept swiftly from left to right.

The printed sheet was quickly carried away by the rollers, and immediately the next sheet followed...

Amid the sound of the press at work, Rebecca explained the subsequent process to Gao Yang: "Each continuous run can print three hundred sheets, then it rests for about a minute so the cylinder can recharge, heat, and set, while the ink plate below is swapped out, and a new round of printing begins. During this process, the ink plate that's been swapped out is sent to the heating table to be thoroughly heated, so that the ink surface is restored to flatness, and once it cools it's put back."

By now Gao Yang's gaze was completely captured by the machine in motion — the sheets that finished printing in a flash, the ceaselessly repeating, highly efficient and orderly mechanical structure, and the sound of gears and connecting rods working from within the machine all irresistibly reminded him of the scene when the first magic-energy engine started up. A surging emotion filled his thoughts, and he could not help but exclaim in admiration: "Good... very good — better than I ever imagined!"

"Actually, I think there's still room for improvement," Rebecca said, her face full of the pride of "Grandpa praised me," though she strained to keep an expression of composure, chin lifted as she spoke. "I think that one-minute rest in the middle is the biggest waste — if we improved the coating formula on the transfer cylinder's surface or the projection crystal inside, it should be able to work continuously for longer. And the ink plate below gets uneven as the ink is used up, so it has to be reheated flat and cooled again before use — I think that needs changing too..."

Gao Yang heard Rebecca's words, but before he could speak, he heard Heddy beside him break the silence: "I can't say much about the first direction for improvement, but I do have an idea for the second — why not make the ink plate into an 'ink ribbon' that cycles beneath the printing bed? Then set up a device on the side of the machine to heat the ribbon and flatten the ink surface, such as a hot roller — that should solve the problem. As for the ribbon's base material, you might try blue-veined moonlight cloth; it's already mass-produced in the factories now, low in cost, sturdy, and not easily deformed."

"Oh, right!" Rebecca clapped her hands at once, eyes shining as she looked at Heddy. "Auntie, you're amazing! It's true what they say — people of a certain age have wisdom..."

Heddy: "..."

Gao Yang: "..."

"A fine day, a fine day," Gao Yang hurriedly reached out to stop his great-great-xN-grandniece before Heddy could lift that staff with its spiked head and steel ridges, then looked to Rebecca. "In any case, improvements are certainly needed — new machinery is bound to have imperfections. Your ideas alone are limited; you can work on it with the team, and in the future you might even go listen to the opinions of the workers who use the press. Mr. Godwin, what do you make of this machine?"

The scholar from the royal capital, now head of the news and publishing department, Godwin Orlando, had had his eyes wide open ever since the new printing press started up, watching this complex, exquisite, almost inconceivable machine in a stupor. Now he finally came to his senses, and at Gao Yang's words the old scholar could not help but exclaim in admiration: "What an unbelievable thing... If only I were a little younger, I would have to get to the bottom of how it works. But now... what I most want to do is write an article, and do everything in my power to introduce this thing to everyone. Even if many people cannot understand the machine's principles, I hope they will know that there is a group of brilliant geniuses in this territory who have created such a great machine!"

"Then go and write it," Gao Yang said with a smile and a nod. "Now that the war news from Boulder Fortress is over, it's time to publish something that lets people relax and stirs the public's curiosity."

(There's a book called *I'm the Hidden Boss*; I don't know if anyone has read it. The opening may seem a bit formulaic and dry, but the ideas are good, and it's worth looking forward to later on — those short on reading material might want to check it out.)