The words “cultural lessons” landed like three buckets of ice water dumped from above.
The heat that had just risen from the dancing instantly died down.
The Minister of Rites went weak at the knees and collapsed to the ground with a “thud.”
He looked up, his expression even more pained than after running three laps.
“Your Highness… spare this old minister…”
“This old body… my brain… my brain is just a bowl of mush…”
【Host, look at their faces—completely lifeless. So pitiful.】
【Pitiful?】
Feng Zexuan curved her lips.
【This is nothing yet. The real mental feast hasn’t even started.】
Ignoring the groans rising and falling on the ground, she pulled a tablet from her backpack printed with a big orange cat.
“What is this object?”
Lin Zhengyan, still holding his nearly ruined old waist, looked utterly confused.
Feng Zexuan swiped her finger across the black slab.
The square device suddenly lit up, colorful images flickering, accompanied by a crisp tone.
“There’s light inside it!”
A young official pointed at the screen and cried out in shock.
【Tch, a bunch of uncultured old fossils.】
Feng Zexuan thought to herself.
【Wait until you see what an immortal artifact looks like.】
She casually opened a video—it was the very same song they had just danced to wildly: “Little Apple.”
Clear human figures and addictive music poured out from the thin device.
One sharp-eyed official saw himself on the screen and staggered back, horrified.
“We… we’ve been trapped inside it?!”
“No, this is a recorded image! We’ve seen this before…”
“Silence!”
Feng Zexuan tapped the screen; the music and video instantly stopped.
“This object is called a ‘learning device.’”
She raised the glowing slab, her voice not loud but clear to everyone present.
“It contains astronomy, geography, and countless methods of understanding the world. Your coursework is all inside it.”
Liu San and his siblings stepped forward and distributed the tablets one by one.
Feng Zexuan also announced each department’s “major subjects.”
“The Ministry of Revenue will study mathematics. The Ministry of Works will focus on physics and chemistry. The Ministry of Rites will handle music and art…”
“After you finish your respective curricula, select outstanding representatives to teach others.”
Her gaze swept across the crowd and finally landed on Lin Zhengyan.
“For example, Minister Lin, since you are the most learned, you will teach Chinese language.”
“The focus is simplified characters and pinyin.”
Lin Zhengyan held the cold device, stunned.
“I… teach Chinese?”
“Yes,” Feng Zexuan nodded.
“First learn it. Once you master it, teach others.”
She then turned to General Cheng.
“General Cheng, you and the military officers will handle physical training and the mechanics part of physics.”
Cheng scratched his head.
“Your Highness, what is physics?”
“It’s inside the learning device. Figure it out yourselves.”
Her gaze slowly swept over everyone and finally rested on the straw man beside her, patting its pumpkin head with a smile.
“For the final assessment, whoever ranks last in each subject… will have to get a little closer with it.”
Night fell.
Lights burned brightly in every tent across the farm.
Officials gathered in groups of three or five, poking and tapping at the glowing “boards.”
Their expressions transformed from initial shock into near-crazed enthusiasm.
Lin Zhengyan put on the reading glasses Feng Zexuan specially gave him, lips moving as he followed the screen word by word.
“A… o… e…”
He was focused, like a child just beginning to read.
“This phonetic system is more than a hundred times simpler than the old method of fanqie notation! If it can be spread across the land, enlightenment for young scholars in our Great Xia will be effortless!”
The more he thought, the more excited he became. He grabbed a brush and wrote furiously.
In the Ministry of Revenue’s tent, a group of officials chanted the multiplication table in unison.
“One times one is one, one times two is two…”
Chu Heng frowned, repeating along.
“Seven sevens are forty-nine, seven eights are fifty-six…”
At first, he dismissed such childish chants. But then he tried using the new method to calculate an old account.
A calculation that once took half an hour of abacus work was completed in under a quarter of an hour—clear, precise, flawless.
“So fast… too fast!”
Chu Heng’s hand trembled as he held the brush, knuckles turning white.
If the entire Ministry of Revenue mastered this method, national accounting would no longer be an exhausting, years-long nightmare.
Elsewhere, in the Ministry of Works tent, several white-bearded elders nearly fought over a single tablet.
“Let me see first! If this gunpowder formula can be improved, the power of our cannons will multiply several times!”
“Look at the papermaking improvement first! If successful, book costs will drop tenfold, and even commoners can study!”
The Minister of Works snatched the device and held it tightly.
His eyes fell upon the words “steam engine principle,” and his pupils contracted sharply.
His fingers trembled as he scrolled further, breathing growing rapid.
“Steam as power… can pull a thousand jin… can travel a thousand miles in a day…”
He suddenly looked up, grabbing a colleague’s shoulders, eyes red.
“Last year, river silt blocked transport routes, grain shipments from the south couldn’t reach the capital, and grain prices tripled…”
Before he could finish, this iron-faced official, known for his sternness, broke down in tears.
“If such a thing existed… what blockade could there be? What separation of north and south?”
The Ministry of Rites officials, meanwhile, were completely conquered by the music lessons.
On the screen, dozens of never-before-seen instruments played a grand, magnificent symphony.
Layer upon layer of sound waves struck directly at the soul.
“What… what kind of heavenly music is this?” Lu Wenbin murmured.
A voice in the video introduced it:
“This is Beethoven’s Symphony of Destiny.”
He could not understand the name, but he understood the vastness of the world contained in the music.
The Crown Prince, Xiao Mingxuan, sat in his tent, staring blankly at the device.
He had just finished a lesson on “leadership.”
“A ruler must be good at listening…”
“A ruler must recognize the strengths of his ministers…”
“Use their strengths, avoid their weaknesses…”
He thought of his usual avoidance and weakness.
Could someone like him truly be the heir?
Could he truly inherit the throne?
“Maybe…”
He murmured.
“Maybe I really… need to change.”
He reopened the device, his eyes more focused than ever.
Only Xiao Juechen’s tent remained quiet.
He was alone, fingers rapidly swiping across the screen.
He wasn’t focused on any single subject—but on “history.”
Steam roaring, iron dragons howling, towering buildings rising from the ground…
A picture of an era called the “Industrial Revolution” unfolded before his eyes.
“The gap in national power begins here…”
He recalled Feng Zexuan’s words.
She said that to strengthen Great Xia, everything must be transformed.
So this… was her true purpose.
Not punishment. Not chaos.
She was injecting new life into this ancient dynasty using a method beyond their era.
Xiao Juechen closed the video, his gaze landing on the words “education universalization.”
“The strength of a nation lies in its people.”
His fingers tightened around the edge of the device.
A thought exploded in his mind, startling even himself.
Breaking the aristocratic monopoly… letting every commoner have access to education.
This girl… she was reshaping the very foundation of Great Xia.
Before sleeping, Feng Zexuan activated the learning progress leaderboard.
【System, let me check their results.】
The screen refreshed, displaying everyone’s progress.
General Cheng ranked first with an astonishing 98% completion in physics for the day, while Chu Heng’s math progress followed closely behind.
Her gaze moved downward… and finally stopped at the bottom.
【Oh? Interesting.】
There it was:
Prince Xiao Mingrui’s name, followed by a glaring red number.
“Overall progress: 0.1%”
【Looks like tomorrow I’ll have to give him some special tutoring.】
A mischievous curve appeared on Feng Zexuan’s lips.
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