Truly Miraculous

The female workers obediently began to step back.

Mrs. Zane, still shaken, clung to Aunt Lu's arm. Greta seized the moment to approach, quietly comforting Mrs. Zane: "Zane, are you alright?"

Mrs. Zane nodded, her face still deathly pale.

Greta said, "You need to be more careful from now on. The Female Supervisor said those machines are dangerous. Don't fall again."

Mrs. Zane didn't suspect anything about tripping over the stone. She simply thought she was careless, never realizing Greta had deliberately kicked the stone to her feet.

Mrs. Zane nodded, looking at Greta with gratitude. "I'm fine, thank you, Greta."

"No need to thank me. We're sisters here—looking out for each other is only natural." Greta put on a warm expression, but inside she was disappointed. If Mrs. Zane had really crashed into that machine—broken a limb, or even died—just imagine the scandal!

The factory hadn’t even started work yet, and the machine had nearly killed someone. If word got out—and then a few rumors were stirred up, calling it a 'man-eating machine,' an evil thing—the public outrage would force Princess Jade Hayes to destroy all the machines. Wouldn’t that be perfect?

Aren’t these machines supposed to be precious? Isn’t the Textile Works supposed to be important? If Greta could somehow shut the factory down for good, her achievement would be huge!

Mrs. Zane’s accident didn’t pan out, but Greta wasn’t worried—she worked in the factory now, so there’d be plenty more chances.

The Female Supervisor went over and pulled the power switch; electricity flowed to the machine. Only when the switch was on could it operate.

The Female Supervisor returned and looked at the workers who had stepped back. "Alright, this time it's really on. Everyone, be careful!"

"Yes!" the female workers responded.

The Female Supervisor took a deep breath and flipped the switch. With a loud bang, the machine started running—thousands of iron heads threaded with warp and weft sprang into action, moving at astonishing speed. The shuttle darted nimbly among them, and in the blink of an eye, a piece of cloth more than a palm’s length was woven.

This cloth was very wide—much wider than what ordinary textile machines could produce.

All the female workers were seasoned weavers. Seeing such a massive machine operate so nimbly and quickly, and without needing manual labor, amazed them.

Looking at the woven cloth, its texture was fine and the density was perfectly uniform; the quality was consistently excellent.

Even the most skilled worker among them would need complete concentration to weave cloth of this quality!

"This machine is amazing!" Mrs. Lu’s eyes widened as she grabbed Mrs. Zane and Greta. "Look how fast it weaves! In just a few moments, it's produced so much cloth—and it's so wide! I would need a whole day to weave this much by hand!"

Mrs. Zane was also amazed. "I always thought I was the fastest weaver in our village, but this machine... It's incredible! No wonder Chancellor Evans values it so highly. One machine matches all of our speed combined."

"Isn't it? It's truly magical," Mrs. Lu agreed with a nod.

The female workers were all stunned, whispering in small groups. Some even squatted down, trying to see if someone was hidden under the machine, working a treadle—otherwise, how could such a big machine weave so nimbly?

"Stop looking, there's no one hidden inside the machine," the Female Supervisor said to the squatting workers.

Mrs. Lu was also searching for a hidden person. She looked up and asked the Female Supervisor, "Supervisor, how can this machine move by itself? If no one is working the treadle, how does it run so fast?"