“Sir, what treasure is this? How can it see so far, so clearly?”
Qing Mulan moved the tube away from her eye and asked in excitement.
“I call it a telescope. As the name suggests, it lets people see much farther,” Jin Feng explained with a smile.
Once the glass workshop had begun producing, Jin Feng had been trying to make both microscopes and telescopes.
Time was short and he lacked even basic tools, so he could only grind the lenses by hand. Progress had been painfully slow.
By the time they set out, he had managed to complete just one single-tube telescope.
The very one Qing Mulan now held.
Hand-ground without professional instruments to measure curvature, its performance was mediocre.
It could not compare with the military telescopes of his previous life, nor even with high-end civilian models.
It simply allowed one to see a little farther.
When Jin Feng had joked about seeing Danzhu’s expression clearly, he had been teasing.
At this distance, recognising which figure was Danzhu would already be impressive. Facial expressions were almost impossible to discern.
Yet for the Ninth Princess and Qing Mulan, who had never seen such things, it was astonishing enough.
Even the usually proud princess now behaved like a little girl with a fascinating new toy. The moment Qing Mulan lowered the telescope, she snatched it back and aimed down the hill.
“Eh? Why is everything blurry now?” the Ninth Princess asked, puzzled. “It was perfectly clear a moment ago.”
“Blurry?”
Jin Feng took the telescope, pointed it at the Tubo camp below, and indeed saw only a haze.
“Probably because Mulan twisted it just now. I will readjust it.”
He put the telescope to his eye and refocused.
The Ninth Princess and Qing Mulan watched him nervously, afraid the precious object might break.
Fortunately, Jin Feng worked quickly. He handed it back to the princess. “Try again.”
This time she took it very carefully. “Yes, it is clear now!”
Then she swung it toward Xichuan City behind the Tubo camp. “Sir, can the telescope only reach the Tubo camp? Can it see Xichuan City?”
“The weather is fine today. We should be able to see the city clearly, but the focus needs adjusting again,” Jin Feng said.
The air in Dakang was exceptionally clean, and Xichuan City was huge. It was visible to the naked eye, let alone through a telescope.
“Adjust the focus? How?” The Ninth Princess tilted her head.
“I will show you.” Jin Feng stepped forward, his left hand holding the base of the telescope, his right arm reaching around the princess to grasp the front. He slowly turned the outer barrel.
Down on the slope, Meng Tianhai was patrolling the camp with Zhang Liang. He glanced casually up the hill and nearly fell flat on his backside.
From his angle, Jin Feng and the Ninth Princess looked as though they were embracing, whispering intimately to each other.
As one of Qing Xinyao’s most trusted generals, Meng Tianhai knew perfectly well why Tubo had rejected the marriage alliance.
Until now he had firmly believed those were nothing but Tubo rumours.
Suddenly he was not so certain.
Zhang Liang noticed Meng Tianhai’s strange expression and his own face turned equally odd.
At the summit, Qin’er, standing to one side, had long since raised her eyebrows in fury. Her first instinct was to march over and hurl Jin Feng down the mountainside.
Yet the princess had warned her repeatedly that, in situations like this, she must not strike Jin Feng.
Having served the princess for years, Qin’er could see that recently Her Highness had been deliberately drawing closer to him.
Several times when handing something over, she had let her fingers brush his, quite intentionally.
Such small intimate gestures would never have happened before.
Moreover, Qin’er herself wanted a turn with the telescope, so she forced herself to turn away and pretend she had seen nothing.
The Ninth Princess did indeed harbour a few careful thoughts, but as an unmarried young lady she could not help feeling nervous when Jin Feng suddenly put his arms around her.
Jin Feng noticed her breathing quicken. He turned his head and found her cheeks flushed scarlet, tiny beads of sweat on the tip of her nose.
They were already standing close. When he turned, their noses almost touched.
Their eyes met. Even the ever-composed princess closed hers in shy embarrassment.
The first thought that flashed through Jin Feng’s mind was: the weather has turned cool, yet the princess’s nose is still sweating. How extraordinary!
Only then did he realise how improper their posture was. He hastily released her and stepped back.
“Your Highness, forgive me. I was impolite!”
His own palms were damp with nervous sweat.
The lady before him was not one of the bold girls from Iron Jar Mountain, who would laugh off teasing and perhaps secretly hope to warm his bed that night.
This was the emperor’s most favoured princess.
She might smile sweetly and appear as gentle as a kitten, but Jin Feng knew she was a tiger.
When angered, she devoured people.
This time he truly had not meant it. Probably because he was used to teaching Guan Xiaorou archery in the same way, some wire in his brain had misfired and he had acted on instinct.
Fortunately, he had only put his arms around her briefly and had not treated the princess exactly like Guan Xiaorou.
Otherwise, Qin’er would probably have thrown him straight into the Tubo camp by now.
The Ninth Princess, true to her rigorous palace training, quickly regained her composure. Her face returned to normal as if nothing had happened. She smiled and asked, “Sir, is it adjusted now?”
“Y-yes… it is ready…”
Jin Feng answered rather incoherently.
Qing Mulan stood to the side, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.
She was slightly disappointed that Qin’er had not flung Jin Feng away after all.
However, she still owed him a beating recorded in his little notebook, so she dared not provoke him further.
Seeing that the princess did not seem angry, Jin Feng relaxed.
Down on the slope, the scene had been witnessed not only by Meng Tianhai and Zhang Liang but by many ordinary soldiers as well.
From that day onward, rumours about Jin Feng and the Ninth Princess began circulating throughout the Weisheng Army.
…
Inside the Tubo camp.
After returning to his tent, Danzhu feared Jin Feng might play more tricks. He kept his armour on the entire afternoon.
Jin Feng spent the whole afternoon teaching the Ninth Princess, Qing Mulan, and Qin’er how to use the telescope. He had no attention to spare for the Tubo army.
Thus Danzhu wore his armour the whole day for nothing.
Danzhu held high rank among the Tubo, so his armour was naturally excellent. Though not full plate like European suits, it still included greaves and vambraces.
The complete set weighed dozens of jin.
No matter how strong Danzhu was, moving about in several dozen jin of armour all afternoon left him exhausted.
When night fell and Great Python Slope remained quiet, scouts reported that most campfires on the Dakang side had been extinguished and the soldiers had retired to their tents.
Only then did Danzhu let his personal guards remove his armour.
At the same time he ordered the Tubo camp to put out fires and rest.
The day had utterly worn him out. That night he did not even call for a woman. He simply rubbed his aching shoulders, collapsed onto his camp bed, and felt no worldly desires whatsoever.
Yet just as he closed his eyes to sleep, his guard burst in again.
“General! The Dakang troops have come down from Great Python Slope again!”
