Chapter 228: Chapter 139: You’re Not Thinking of Killing Me, Are You?

As it happened, Lu Yuan’s intention was to create both a manual and an automatic corn sheller.

Lu Yuan wasn’t doing it for a promotion.

Lu Yuan’s mind held the memories of a more advanced era.

Seeing how backward the current era was, and how the common people were still using the same old tools, was something he couldn’t ignore.

If Lu Yuan had the ability, he was more than willing to lend a hand.

Coincidentally, the Court was also facing this same predicament.

Water can carry a boat, but it can also sink it.

The difficulties faced by the common people were, in fact, the difficulties faced by the Court.

But Lu Yuan didn’t want to get too involved with the Court or, by extension, the Emperor.

Lu Yuan was worried. What if the Emperor’s temperament were to change drastically in his later years, just as the Grand Ancestor Emperor’s had during the Great Ming Dynasty?

Even if Lu Yuan had nine lives, he’d likely be saddled with ten different charges.

So, his ambitions were modest.

The position of a Seventh Grade County Magistrate would be more than enough to satisfy him.

That office could protect the people of a region, the person he loved, and his friends.

’This would be the greatest peace and happiness, wouldn’t it?’

Since Gu Gaoxu was keen on making such a device, and he happened to be able to do it, he might as well.

So, he would make them.

The manual corn sheller was quite easy to make. As long as you had the concept, it could be assembled quickly.

For the current Lu Yuan, crafting any component from scratch was a simple task.

As for the automatic corn sheller, the main problem was the power source.

With his previous experience from building a radio and a mobile phone, creating a power system for the automatic corn sheller was, by now, familiar territory.

He got right to it.

Lu Yuan shut himself in his room for the entire day. Well, not "shut himself in," exactly—he just didn’t go outside.

He assembled one of each: a manual corn sheller and an automatic one.

Lu Yuan called over a Mansion Guard and had him bring a burlap sack of corn cobs, their kernels plump and full.

Lu Yuan fed the cobs into the machines, both the manual and the automatic one.

The results were excellent. It was far more efficient than shelling the kernels by hand.

Seeing the excellent shelling performance of the machine, Lu Yuan realized just how successful his creation was.

He was overjoyed.

’Time to let Gu Gaoxu see this thing.’ 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

So he immediately sent a Mansion Guard to fetch Gu Gaoxu.

Gu Gaoxu hadn’t expected Lu Yuan to have them built by the very next day.

’Damn, not even the hardest-working mule is that fast!’

Gu Gaoxu came jogging over, grinning from ear to ear.

He didn’t take a horse-drawn carriage; Gu Gaoxu had never liked riding in those things, even as a child.

He didn’t ride a horse, either. If he charged recklessly through the streets of the Imperial Capital on horseback, his father the Emperor would surely find out. That would mean a guaranteed beating; his ass seemed to exist purely for the Emperor’s amusement.

To stay out of trouble, Gu Gaoxu had learned to be more discreet on this visit to the Imperial Capital.

Gu Gaoxu arrived at Lu Yuan’s residence and saw Su Liyan in the inn’s courtyard, hanging clothes to dry.

Gu Gaoxu greeted her politely, "Sister-in-law, keeping busy? You should let the servants handle this. Why are you doing it yourself, especially when you’re so far along?"

Su Liyan smiled. "Crown Prince, these are my husband’s clothes. I wanted to wash them for him myself. I was just idle anyway, so it’s no trouble."

"Haha, Sister-in-law, Brother Lu is truly fortunate to have married you! If Brother Lu knew you were still doing these things, his heart would break. You should really let the servants do it."

"Oh, right! Brother Lu called me over to see a little something he made. I’ll stop bothering you and go find him."

With that, Gu Gaoxu went to find Lu Yuan.

For Gu Gaoxu, this was a rare display of courtesy.

Even toward his own close brothers, the eldest and Lao San, Gu Gaoxu—the second son—had never been so polite.

Even with the Emperor, Gu Gaoxu’s politeness was only lip service. He’d still get beaten for his flippant tongue—a regular serving of "pork stir-fried with leather whip" was unavoidable.

"Brother Lu! Brother Lu..."

Gu Gaoxu shouted at the top of his lungs; that old habit of his hadn’t changed.

"Over here." Lu Yuan was standing at the entrance to the inn’s granary.

"Brother Lu, what are you doing over here instead of in your room?" Gu Gaoxu asked curiously.

"Take a look. What do you think these are?" Lu Yuan pointed to the two devices on the ground before him.

"Ha! These must be the two machines you were talking about."

The devices weren’t large or cumbersome.

The intake chute for the corn cobs at the top was quite large.

Below the device were two outlets: a larger one for the shelled cobs and a smaller one for the kernels.

On the outside, they looked brutally simple. As for what was inside—rollers, chains, or something else—it was all cobbled together by Lu Yuan from whatever ready-made materials he could find, after consulting the book *Alchemy* and doing some brainstorming of his own.

Any materials Lu Yuan could find easily were also relatively inexpensive.

That way, the mass-produced versions of the device could be more affordable.

Only then could the common people afford to buy them.

This time, making money was not the goal.

Lu Yuan then demonstrated for Gu Gaoxu how to use them.

He also brought out enough components to assemble several dozen more machines, which Gu Gaoxu could take to a workshop for assembly and use.

Until others could figure out how to replicate the components, Lu Yuan would continue to supply them.

When Gu Gaoxu saw all this, he was ecstatic.

’This is exactly what I wanted!’

This time, Gu Gaoxu believed he could finally hold his head high in front of the Emperor.

Gu Gaoxu said, "Rest assured, Brother Lu. I guarantee I’ll get it all arranged perfectly!"