Although the process had several twists and turns, Lin Yijian still managed to have a preliminary exchange with that voice in her mind.

After confirming that what had happened to her was indeed a supernatural event, Lin Yijian, based on their earlier conversation, made some guesses about the other party’s environment. The facts turned out to be not far from what she had imagined. The other party was in a feudal era before the Industrial Revolution, but the dynasty was one she had never heard of, named the “Shun” dynasty.

So it was an alternate history~

Having read countless manga, Lin Yijian accepted this quite well.

However, the situation still made her heart sink a little. It felt like the beginning of some shounen manga.

She was quite satisfied with her current life and did not want to save the world or anything like that at all.

The voice in her mind sounded like a young man, yet he seemed to already be a general leading troops.

Coincidentally, Lin Yijian’s current manga inspiration was a love story—about a songstress from a fallen noble family and a young general.

Encountering such a situation that seemed to overlap with the male lead’s setting, she naturally took the opportunity to ask a lot of details… Speaking of which, could this be her “golden finger”? A manga character attached to the author or something.

Just as she was thinking this, she ran into a wall.

Li Hui (the name the voice gave in self-introduction) did not seem willing to talk much about himself. Lin Yijian did not like forcing others and was highly sensitive to other people’s emotions. Sensing the faint reluctance Li Hui was revealing, even though curiosity clawed at her heart like a cat, she still swallowed question after question.

Even so, Lin Yijian still gained quite a bit of inspiration from her exchanges with him.

With inspiration surging, she heavily revised her background setting.

And once she started revising, she worked until three in the morning.

However, at eight o’clock the next morning, there was a punctual knock on her room door.

Awakened by the sound in her sleep, Lin Yijian frowned in pain.

She turned over, just about to grab her pillow to cover her head, when she suddenly realized something and sat up abruptly.

The very next second after she got up, the room door opened, and Mother Lin came in.

Lin Yijian instantly became awake and seized the initiative to speak first, “Mom! I told you, you have to knock before entering my room.”

Zhang Qi was unconcerned, “Didn’t I knock already?”

Lin Yijian pouted unhappily.

Does your knocking make any difference from not knocking?

Zhang Qi walked forward and pulled open the curtains. The sudden brightness in the room made Lin Yijian squint in discomfort. Just when she thought she had muddled her way through, she heard her mom ask, “What time did you sleep last night? Stayed up late again?”

Lin Yijian: “…”

She stammered, “Not that late, a little after ten… maybe eleven or twelve.”

Her own daughter—once her tail lifts, she knows which way it points. Zhang Qi could tell at a glance that this child was not telling the truth.

She immediately put on a stern expression and was about to say something, but then she remembered that the child had only just returned a few days ago.

She slightly suppressed that emotion, her expression softened, but she still spoke in admonishment, “From now on, you are not allowed to sleep that late.”

Lin Yijian nodded very earnestly with “Mm, mm, mm.”

Next time is next time~

After pulling open the curtains, Zhang Qi naturally began tidying up the clutter on the desk and immediately noticed the digital drawing tablet Lin Yijian had not put away before bed. She furrowed her brows, her tone displeased, “Drawing those useless things again?”

Lin Yijian’s expression stiffened slightly.

She paused for a moment, then whispered in rebuttal, “…They are not useless.”

Zhang Qi did not hear clearly.

While putting the tablet away, she muttered on and on, “If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have sent you to learn these things. It only interferes with studying.”

Lin Yijian pressed her lips tightly together.

She clearly did not.

*

Li Hui came over close to noon, and the moment he arrived, he saw Lin Yijian holding her tablet, writing and drawing.

He first asked the question he cared about: [What are we eating for lunch today?]

The stylus drew an abrupt straight line across the tablet screen. Lin Yijian darkened her face, pressed undo, and thought angrily: All he knows is eating!

Yesterday, the two had figured out the method of communication. Thoughts not specifically directed to the other party would not be heard by them.

But mental communication was really hard to control. Lin Yijian was not sure whether her words just now had been heard or if the other party simply sensed her emotions. She only heard him ask with concern, [Are you in a bad mood?]

Being asked like that, Lin Yijian’s stifled mood instantly dissipated, and at the same time, a slight guilt spread in her heart.

Because letting one’s personal emotions involve an innocent person was truly terrible behavior.

She had just thought this when she heard him continue, [Eating something will make you feel better.]

Lin Yijian: […]

Her movement of propping up the pad with a stand paused. She pressed the power button expressionlessly, turning off the screen—it had been showing the unfinished “One Hundred Thousand Whys (Children’s Edition)” from yesterday.

Concern? Hah.

This person probably only cared about whether he had something to eat.

Li Hui indeed sensed that Lin Yijian was angry, but he truly could not figure out why.

He carefully thought back over what he had said just now, and still did not feel there was any problem, in the end only concluding, “A young girl’s thoughts are really hard to understand.”

Seeing that the “science video” was no longer available to watch, Li Hui did not insist. His gaze naturally shifted to the screen in front of Lin Yijian.

Watching her outline the lines stroke by stroke, he had some guesses in his heart, but still felt it strange, and finally could not help but speak, [What is it that you are drawing?]

To be honest, Lin Yijian did not feel like talking to anyone right now.

But out of courtesy, she still replied stiffly with two words, [Armor.]

Yet unexpectedly—

[…Pfft~!]

[…]

[…?!]

Laughing, right?! This person was definitely laughing at her!!!

From outside came Mother Lin’s voice, “Jianjian, come out and eat!”

Lin Yijian answered instantly with an angry expression, “I’m not hungry!”

In the past ten-plus years, this had been such a common answer that Zhang Qi, as usual, nagged a couple of sentences and did not insist further.

After a round of clattering sounds from setting the table, Father Lin’s voice came from outside, “I’ll go call Jianjian.”

Zhang Qi: “No need, the child is not eating.”

Father Lin: “Not eating again?”

Zhang Qi spoke as if it were normal, “She ate a lot yesterday, probably still full.”

“…”

“…”

The couple’s chatter came through the crack of the door, while in her mind was Li Hui’s incredulous, raised voice, [You’re not eating?!]

Lin Yijian gave a light “hmph.”

She actually felt a little satisfied…

Unlike just now, this time, Li Hui figured out the reason for Lin Yijian’s anger.

Because what she drew had been laughed at.

[There is a problem with this armor of yours!]

He immediately voiced his dissatisfaction, proving the legitimacy of his laughter, [Iron armor is not the same as cloth. If it is stuck tight, there will be no room for movement at all. With your arm defense locked so tightly, how could one even hold a weapon? Do you want him to just stand still there and get hacked at? And the neck! The neck has always been a vital spot. You have exposed it entirely without reservation—no matter how well the rest of the body is protected, what use is it? Isn’t it just openly telling people to hack at this spot…]

Li Hui, upon speaking, listed a pile of problems, and they all seemed to make sense.

At first, Lin Yijian was a little dazed, but she quickly came back to her senses, adopting an attitude of serious listening.

But Li Hui soon stopped talking. While Lin Yijian was still puzzled, she heard the other party lay down a condition, [You go eat first.]

Lin Yijian: …Hah.

She very decisively ignored this proposal.

What a joke! With the way Li Hui ate, if she ate like that for two more days, she would have to be admitted to the hospital to induce vomiting.

Lin Yijian promptly switched to the school’s network, logged into a certain well-known database, and entered keywords to search for papers.

“Study of Domestic Armor,” “History of the Evolution of Armor through the Dynasties,” “Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of Armor Materials through the Dynasties”…

*

The database did indeed have rich information, but after a round of fact-checking, detail searching, and adjustments, Lin Yijian fell into silence as she looked at the new male protagonist image in front of her.

It cannot be said that it had anything to do with being handsome and elegant; it could only be said that he looked like a fool.

She had completely lost the desire to continue drawing. What was going on?!

Li Hui had been silent since just now, but at this moment, he suddenly spoke, [What is that cotton armor about?]

Lin Yijian was stunned for a moment.

When she was searching for information just now, she had come across cotton armor, but regarding the matter of “having the male lead of a romance manga wear a thick cotton-padded jacket and cotton-padded trousers to the battlefield,” Lin Yijian rejected it from the bottom of her heart, so she only glanced at it and did not look any further.

But Li Hui’s tone did not seem to be a simple inquiry.

Thinking of the other party’s identity, Lin Yijian gained some understanding.

While dragging the paper’s progress bar to the corresponding section, she asked, “Do you have cotton where you are?”

Li Hui: […Cotton?]

Lin Yijian thought it might be a difference in terminology between ancient and modern times, so she simply searched for pictures to show him, and also took the opportunity to check the history of cotton’s introduction.

After roughly reading it over, Lin Yijian felt that the situation might not be very optimistic.

Records of plants similar to cotton had existed long before, but true large-scale application came only in the later period of the feudal era. The reason, after all, was that wild cotton had varying traits and needed generations of domestication to become the varieties cultivated today. Li Hui obviously had no intention of becoming that kind of planting master, and Lin Yijian could clearly feel his disappointment.

She hesitated for a moment, but still spoke to comfort him, “It is not necessarily a must to have cotton armor. Does the paper not also say that the defense of cotton armor mainly targeted firearms? For cold weapons like bows and crossbows, iron armor is actually more effective.”

But Li Hui accurately caught the key point, [Firearms?]

Lin Yijian suddenly fell silent.

She heard the probing in the other party’s words, but even someone like her, who had grown up in peaceful stability, knew that every advance in lethal weaponry was forged from countless deaths. Li Hui was obviously not asking out of mere curiosity.

Was she really going to tell him?

While Lin Yijian was silent and hesitant, she heard a sneer in her mind.

The other party seemed to notice her hesitation. After just letting out that sneer, he did not continue to ask.

It was clearly a very annoying personality, yet in some unexpected places, he maintained a strange sense of propriety.

Lin Yijian thought this person was truly strange.

Li Hui indeed seemed to have no intention of pursuing the matter further and smoothly changed the topic.

He stared at the drawing in front of Lin Yijian, his tone subtle, [This hair…]

Before he could finish, Lin Yijian decisively interrupted him, speaking directly, “Not changing it! I will not change it.”

To show her determination, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, made a big X, and said with a serious expression, “A young general with a high ponytail is a matter of faith!”

Li Hui: […Ha?]

What nonsense was that?