The Mysterious Items Brought Back
After Lily finished speaking, Cynthia Wu and Mark Hunter stared at her, their faces a picture of puzzlement and intrigue—half understanding, half lost.
Lily wasn’t surprised by their reactions at all. People in this era see themselves as citizens of a glorious empire and look down on anything foreign, let alone giving a second glance to machines invented by 'barbarian' lands.
Once all the goods were inspected, Lily had Edward secretly oversee loading everything onto the carriages. Mark Hunter was put in charge of the spices, transporting them to the shop he’d already set up in the capital under the guise of a herbal medicine store. Soon, the store would stop selling medicine altogether and become the main spice outlet in the city.
As for those strange gadgets and books, they were quietly smuggled into Prince of Qin's Manor in several secret batches.
Mark Hunter and Cynthia Wu parted ways with Lily at the dock, hurrying off to prepare for the spice business, while Lily, accompanied by Edward and the goods, secretly returned to Prince of Qin’s Manor.
Prince of Qin’s Manor covers a vast area, but with only Lily and Alexander Hayes as its masters, most of the courtyards are empty and uninhabited. So, after moving in, Lily had already set aside a section, built walls around it, and used it to store those overseas machines.
All the machines were moved into several large empty rooms, while the books were stored in a special attic Lily had set up as her library.
Edward was sweating buckets by the time he finished, while Lily stood beside the Spinning Jenny, studying the instruction manual that came with it.
The manual was written in French, but Lily had learned French in her previous life, so reading it was a breeze.
The Spinning Jenny was complicated and arrived in pieces. It had to be assembled before use, but thankfully, with the manual, Lily could figure out roughly how to put it together.
But the Spinning Jenny was powered by a motor—so even if she assembled it, she’d need to get the diesel engine running first.
Edward had also brought back a diesel engine, which didn’t require assembly but did need diesel fuel. He’d managed to bring five barrels, enough to last a while. Since the Jin Dynasty couldn’t produce diesel themselves, if they wanted to use it, they’d either have to keep importing or figure out how to make it themselves.
If they wanted to make it themselves, they'd have to build a chemical plant—which was no small feat.
Lily set down the manual and sighed. A modern industrial system isn’t something you can whip up just by thinking about it—it needs a whole country’s support. This made her feel, more than ever, the huge gap between Jin and the advanced nations overseas.
For now, these gadgets were nothing more than rare curiosities, gathering dust in her room, waiting for their moment to shine.
Still, Lily firmly believed that sooner or later, she’d find a use for every single one of them.
“Mistress, everything’s been arranged,” Edward came over to report.
Lily nodded with satisfaction, giving Edward an approving look. Then she gestured for Bella Bell, who was waiting nearby, to step back.
"Keep quiet about everything you saw tonight," Lily whispered, her eyes flashing with warning. "If anyone dares breathe a word, you know what’ll happen."
Cynthia Wu, Mark Hunter, and Bella Bell all nodded in unison, their faces solemn—no one would dare cross Lily Evans.
With no one else around, Lily glanced about to make sure their conversation was private. Only then did she lower her voice to Edward: "Did you bring back that mysterious item I asked for?"