Chapter 748 Haha, I Can Read!
The photovoltaic system was successfully installed.
Li Daoxuan was quietly delighted in his heart: now he wouldn't have to constantly take the tablet in and out to charge it.
Next, the issue of concealing the wiring needed to be addressed.
Dragging a wire in from outside the city walls was too risky.
Li Daoxuan adopted methods from his own time, digging trenches in the ground. The section outside the city was easy; he simply dug and buried the wire.
But the section within Puzhou City had to pass through people's courtyards and streets, and even a stretch through the main drill ground of the Puzhou City barracks. This would be considerably more difficult. In his modern world, such a feat would require countless permits and compensation to complete.
Here, however, Li Daoxuan revealed his colossal golden hand.
He heard the little people erupt in cheers: "Wow, the Heavenly Lord has appeared! What is the Heavenly Lord going to do this time?"
"Wow, the Heavenly Lord is digging a trench!"
A trench cut straight through the city, yet no one objected; instead, everyone cheered. Even horse-drawn carts, their paths disrupted by the excavation, didn't curse. Instead, they happily stopped by the trench to watch the spectacle.
The trench even branched off: one path led to the Puzhou Grand Theater, the other to the marketplace square. Puzhou City had two tablets, so both needed power simultaneously.
The Heavenly Lord finished digging the trenches and buried a thick, long, black cable within them. At the branching points, he split the cable into two, then filled in the earth. The roads and people's courtyards were restored to their original state, though the color of the soil where the digging had occurred was noticeably different from the surrounding ground.
Thus, the tablets at the Grand Theater and the square were successfully powered.
Li Daoxuan, having successfully tested it, paused to consider. He then switched his view back to Gao Family Village, and on a hilltop next to the Gao Family Village commercial district, he erected another photovoltaic system.
That evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon.
On the large screen outside Gao Family Fortress, the “Shi Kefa Legal Education” program was playing. A large crowd of workers, off duty and with nothing else to do, sat in neat rows on the plaza in front of the screen, munching on snacks and learning about the law.
On the small hill next to the Gao Family Village commercial district, Song Yingxing, Bai Gongzi, and Wang Zheng, along with a throng of senior technical engineers, graduate students, and middle schoolers, and ‘knowledge pioneers’ who had long since graduated from middle school and begun self-studying high school curricula, stood before the photovoltaic system.
The group all looked up at the immense, unparalleled photovoltaic panels.
To Li Daoxuan, this photovoltaic system was just a few small frames with a couple of small panels. But to the little people, it was an unimaginably colossal engineering marvel, too immense for human hands to move.
Song Yingxing pointed to the photovoltaic panels overhead: "Look, everyone, these panels are the same kind as those on the roofs of our Solar Cars. It’s just that the Heavenly Lord has laid out much larger ones this time, beyond anything we could have imagined.”
Bai Gongzi nodded: "Without a doubt, it converts sunlight into electricity. We’ve learned about electricity in our physics textbooks, but we haven’t had a chance to work with it ourselves.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Through the ‘Physics Heavenly Books’ bestowed by the Heavenly Lord, they had studied middle school physics, and some had even begun delving into high school-level physics.
They had long understood the concept of ‘electricity’ from their physics textbooks. However, Gao Family Village had never possessed the means to actually harness or experiment with it.
Song Yingxing was a little excited: "Everyone! This colossal divine machine can provide us with electricity! From now on, all the knowledge related to electricity that we’ve learned from our physics textbooks but couldn’t put into practice can finally be realized with this device!”
Bai Gongzi was equally excited: "In my third year of middle school physics, I read a chapter titled ‘How to Light a Lightbulb.’ I found it fascinating, but we never had electricity to experiment. Now we can try!”
Wang Zheng, however, spoke up: "Gentlemen, let’s not get too excited too soon! This is a divine artifact bestowed by the Heavenly Lord. If we privately take power from it for our scientific experiments, might it incur the Heavenly Lord’s displeasure?”
Song Yingxing chuckled: "Old Wang, you arrived late; you don’t know the Heavenly Lord’s temperament. The Heavenly Lord is most pleased when we diligently research. He won’t get angry over something like this.”
Bai Gongzi also nodded: "That’s right! The Heavenly Lord only praises us; he never scolds us.”
A group of older students who had lived in Gao Family Village for five or six years also chimed in, "Just do it!”
Wang Zheng: "Amitābha, Immeasurable Good Fortune, Allāh Akbar, Hallelujah, Heavenly Lord bless us! This discussion they’re having has nothing to do with me. I don’t know anything about it, I didn’t hear a thing!”
At this point, Bai Gongzi, the boldest among them, had already begun to act: "To draw electricity from this machine, we need to connect a wire, right? Look at this thick cable. If we make our own wire, as described in the physics textbook, and connect it, we should be able to draw power from it...”
"Then we’ll have to cut through the insulation first.”
"The insulation is thick, but it’s soft. We should be able to cut through it with a sharp knife.”
"Wait, the physics knowledge I’ve studied tells me that if we carelessly cut through the insulation and our knife touches the metal core, we’ll get an electric shock, won’t we?”
"Getting shocked means death!”
Everyone gasped in alarm.
Song Yingxing spoke: "Don’t be afraid! All the divine artifacts provided by the Heavenly Lord share one characteristic: they have a large switch. If we just find the switch and flip it, we can temporarily cut the power.”
The others exclaimed, "Master Song’s words have enlightened us sleepers!”
Everyone immediately crowded around the electrical box, searching.
And sure enough, they found it. A colossal switch appeared before them.
The switch was labeled: "on/off."
Everyone collectively looked bewildered: "Oh no, what does this say? We can’t read it!”
"If we push a switch we don’t understand, something bad might happen, right?”
"Perhaps one side says ‘Ascend to Heaven’ and the other says ‘Vanquish Evil Spirits’.”
Just as they stood there in their collective confusion, Wang Zheng suddenly burst out laughing: "Hahahahaha, I can read this! These are Western characters! ‘On’ means open, and ‘off’ means close, hahahahaha!”
Everyone was overjoyed: "Old Wang, you’ve actually proven useful at this moment!”
"But why are there Western characters on this thing?”
"Indeed, why would the Heavenly Lord use Western characters?”
Wang Zheng explained: "Gentlemen, I’ve told you before: many of the divine artifacts the Heavenly Lord brings are borrowed from other deities. This artifact, with ‘on/off’ written on it, might have been borrowed from Jesus or the Virgin Mary, which is why it has Western characters. At times like these, we should say, ‘Hallelujah, Hallelujah!’”
The others retorted, "Pfft! You’re mad.”
Everyone heartily scorned Old Wang, but the crucial information he provided couldn't be ignored. A graduate student climbed onto the box, picked up a large hammer, and swung it down with a clang against the ‘off’ button.
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