Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 471 - 469: Little Science Experiment

Since there is no male master in Lin Wanwan’s family, whenever she hosts a banquet, she always has her cousins help with entertaining the guests, and today was no exception.

Lin Mengbo, Mengjin, and Lin Mengli, among others, who came to help, arrived at the Lin Mansion yesterday and stayed overnight in the guest courtyard.

Lin Wanwan instructed that the gentlemen be led into the flower hall to be entertained by Lin Mengbo and the others, while the ladies and children were brought to her main courtyard.

With the arrival of the ladies from the Wang Family, the hall immediately became lively, with dazzling silk ribbons and the sweet fragrance of willows. The maids served a variety of cakes and fruits, and Lin Wanwan invited everyone to sit on the floor seats.

Since Lin Wanwan had no elders at home, and today was a birthday banquet, the attendees were mostly ladies of similar age to her, making it easy for the younger generation to socialize without the presence of elders.

For a while, the hall was filled with beauty and joyous laughter.

Lin Wanwan mingled with the ladies, while the task of recording gifts was entrusted to Heng Wu and her promising student, Lin Daniu.

Soon, people from the Zhang Family, Shi Family, Fan Family, and Fang Family also arrived one after the other, bringing gifts. Lin Wanwan led everyone in the courtyard to play games involving grass and flower arrangements, character guessing, and dice throwing, creating a bustling atmosphere.

The Wang Family, being neighbors with the Lin Mansion, and the Zhang Family, having marital ties with the Wang Family, were closer to Lin Wanwan than others, especially since little Qingyu attended the private school of the Wang Family.

In particular, the eldest grandson’s wife of the Zhang Family, Lady Wang, was on very friendly terms with Lin Wanwan and often protected her during conversations, shielding Lin Wanwan from many envious remarks.

Lin Wanwan gave Lady Wang a sweet smile, expressing her gratitude, to which the latter knowingly responded with a smile.

Regarding Le’an Village Lady of the Lin Family, who suddenly rose to prominence, many openly praised her for her Fifth Rank status and immense wealth, but they still secretly talked about her, unable to avoid some emotional comments when joking.

After all, in terms of foundation, the Lin Family, having no children of their own, was quite lacking. Yet Lin Wanwan had become the center of their circle, which naturally led to some dissatisfaction.

Little Qingyu led a group of children to the side room where she housed a kitten, and everyone took turns feeding and petting it, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Great Tang nobility were fond of keeping pets, but they mostly kept fierce ones like leopards and lynxes, which were taken care of by adults, with children not allowed to touch them.

But little Qingyu was different. Not only did she have pets, but she had assembled an animal troop, with each animal cleverly trained to follow commands, earning the admiration of many children.

This time, during her stay in the small town of Xiaoxi, although little Qingyu didn’t bring her entire animal troop, just having the proud lynx and the magnificent gyrfalcon was enough to create a breeze. Additionally, the presence of two adorable and agreeable kittens satisfied the children’s desires for gentle affection, making them linger fondly.

In the group of children, little Qingyu wasn’t the oldest, but she was used to being surrounded by them at Lin Family Manor, becoming the leader of children, and it was the same now.

All the children, regardless of age, gathered around her, for she was the wealthiest there, with the most variety of amusements!

After looking at the kittens, little Qingyu took out her glass Chinese checkers and started playing with others.

The children touched the crystal-clear glass marbles with envy and said, "Little Qingyu, your mother actually lets you play with such treasures."

Using glass marbles as game pieces seemed no different from using gold and silver jewels, a kind of exclusive pampering that was beyond the comprehension of those with several siblings at home.

In the children’s households, strict fathers and kind mothers were common, along with numerous elders imposing many rules and sparing allowances, unlike the unrivaled affection showered upon little Qingyu.

Look at the toys she brought out: a finely crafted small villa for the kitten, complete with all furniture, a perfect playhouse companion; and her playthings were precious glass marbles, which she treated as nothing special.

Also, the glass sand timer with camphor base and magical bubble solution were anything but ordinary.

After playing Chinese checkers on the desk for quite some time, when several children waiting by the side became bored, little Qingyu had an idea and suggested, "I have a magical magnifying glass that can use sunlight to start a fire. Let’s go play with it?"

Wang Xinyue, the nine-year-old daughter of the Wang Family, hesitated and said, "Little Qingyu, my mother said water and fire are ruthless, and children shouldn’t play with them."

Little Qingyu, with a bold wave of her hand, said, "We’re not really playing with fire; it’s a scientific experiment!"

"A scientific experiment? What’s that?"

"What is science?"

The children, talked eagerly around little Qingyu, who proudly shared a couple of science experiments she had learned from Lin Wanwan.

Like pouring water into a cup, only to stop the water from flowing out with just a sheet of paper; or applying colors to both ends of paper, watering from the top, and a magical rainbow bridge would appear; or cutting three square radish blocks, inserting three thin wooden sticks (toothpicks) forming a human-shape, then aligning the middle radish block’s stick with the base, and the block would rotate steadily.

The children exclaimed in amazement but also with skepticism and anticipation.

Just then, Rongrong, tasked with fetching the magnifying glass, returned. Little Qingyu took the magnifying glass, waved her hand, pulled a sheet of white paper from the side of the bookshelf, and said, "Let’s go, I’ll show you how to use the sun to burn paper."

A group of children excitedly pushed and jostled out of the side room into the courtyard in front of the corridor, where little Qingyu chose a spot with the most sunlight. She laid the white paper on the ground, then held the magnifying glass under the sun, constantly adjusting the lens to make the light spot on the paper as small as possible.

"My mother said the smaller the light spot, the faster it ignites." Little Qingyu explained to the surrounding children.

Sure enough, as soon as she finished speaking, the light spot on the white paper caught fire, and the children shouted in amazement.

"It’s burning! It’s really burning!"

"So glass can be used to start a fire!"

"Then you won’t need fire tongs at home anymore."

The children chattered enthusiastically, and little Qingyu had already stepped on the ember to extinguish it, basking in the center of the group, explaining to everyone with pride.

"Little Qingyu, can I try lighting a fire too?"

"I want to try as well."

"Me too, me too!"

Such an exciting and novel thing was irresistible to the curious children, and not playing with it personally would make their meals unappetizing today.

Little Qingyu naturally agreed without hesitation, and she assigned them one by one, saying, "Don’t rush, take turns, Xinyue, you go first."

Wang Xinyue, who was bookish and often helped little Qingyu with her studies, was older than the other children and most favored by little Qingyu.

Though Wang Xinyue had just mentioned not playing with water and fire, seeing the magical phenomenon of lighting a white paper with a glass piece, she could no longer hold back, as she was after all just a nine-year-old child.

While the children were having fun, the servants surrounding them were anxious. Burning white paper and playing with fire were not proper games and could cause trouble.