The sound of music is dingdong.

Harder Stiano, a Sequence 6 "craftsman", swallows nervously as he stares at the Hidden Sage's slow-moving fingers on the keys—partly because the other party is the king of angels in the adjacent pathway, and partly because the other party will decide whether his invention is patentable.

By the way, it is said that the term "patent" was also coined by this adult, specifically including invention, utility model and design, and the word "patent" was first officially proposed in the "Intellectual Property Protection Law".

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, all industries were waiting to be developed, and the past and the future were forged ahead. In order to encourage invention and promote the development of the empire's production, the Black Emperor promulgated the "Intellectual Property Protection Law" at the initiative of the hidden sage, which is to protect the rights and interests of inventors and creators, including patent rights, trademark rights, trade secret rights, copyrights, the right to breed new plant varieties, and so on.

Even if he couldn't read the complicated text of the law, Hade Stiano knew that it was a good thing for their craftsmen, because violating this law was tantamount to offending the authority of His Majesty the Emperor, and after several punishments, those who peddled counterfeit and shoddy products under the name of "Sttiano" stopped a lot, and the pockets of the hard-working craftsmen also bulged.

What a good man, no, what a benevolent angel!

Harder has felt this way more than once.

"It's a miracle." Thoth's admiration pulled him out of his inner world, "The timbre is rich in higher harmonics, and the timbre is crisp and bright." And that unique metal sound...... It's hard to imagine a creation of this era. ”

The instrument is named "harpsichord", but it is actually a simplified version of the piano.

When did the old civilization invent the piano? Thoth thought about it, but he didn't know the history of music.

"You've won a prize!"

Harder, dizzy and incoherent by the word "miracle," said, "Well, I had many failures before I built it, and the people said I was whimsical...... Ahem! ”

Harder covered his mouth and coughed heartbreakingly, almost fainting from his own stupidity, how could he choke on his own saliva?!

Thankfully, the adult was not angry at his gaffe, but smiled faintly, like looking at a reckless child, even though Harder was already the father of two.

"You don't have to be modest." After Harder returned to normalcy, Thoth continued, "In fact, not only can this invention be patented, but it will also be eligible to appear in a concert for the Bloodline." ”

Harder gasped, oh my! The sound of the musical instrument he created was so honored to be heard by His Majesty the Emperor, by so many dukes, and even by envoys of different races?! What a privilege!

"Well, it's completely yours in a legal sense."

By the time Harder's brain exploded into fireworks, Thoth had already signed the patent application and stamped his own stamp behind the two stamps, one blue and one green, in purple ink.

"But if you really want to make it appear at the Bloodline Welcome concert, the time will be tight, after all, learning a new instrument is not an easy task, and the movement needs to be adjusted, and the various instruments need to be run in and broken...... Forty-five days remained, and it was challenging. ”

"Of course, the whole process must be inseparable from you as an inventor, and if you find it difficult to do it, don't ...... it."

"Don't worry, I can!"

Harder replied without hesitation.

He has been unknown for so many years, and he finally has a chance to become famous, how can he let it go so easily?!

Meanwhile.

Winter is approaching, and it gets dark early in the north of the Empire.

Eliza Stiano is writing a letter about the light.

"Dear father, Zhan Xinjia."

"In the blink of an eye, I have been in Northern Xinjiang for three years. Three years ago today, when I and dozens of other people came here at the behest of His Majesty the Emperor to contribute to the country's frontier defense, my heart was full of trepidation, because I had always felt that this was a bitter cold place, and that there was a common belief in hidden sages here, and that I was a descendant of a family of craftsmen, and that I was afraid that I would be suppressed and persecuted. ”

"But gradually, I realized I was wrong. First of all, although it is windy and snowy, it has excellent facilities and sufficient resources, so there is no need to worry about survival. ”

"In the second place, the followers of the Hidden Sages, though pious, are not so narrow as to tolerate people, they never neglect our food and clothing, nor do they engage in physical and verbal confrontations—as long as we do not speak blasphemous words and do not do disrespectful things."

"I have to say that the followers of the Hidden Sage are a strange group of people, and for a long time I have not been able to summarize them in a unified description, some of them are good at mathematics, some are fond of medicine, some are good at singing and dancing, some are quite accomplished in linguistics, some like to say something mysterious, some are always straightforward, and some are withdrawn by nature...... Like a soothsayer, like a hunter, like a reader...... But no one is like it. ”

"In the end, I found the answer in the library, yes, I didn't expect there to be a library, but if you think about it, they even got a 'greenhouse' dedicated to growing vegetables, so it's not surprising that there is a library."

"By the way, the last time I went to the greenhouse, the cabbage inside grew very well."

"The books in the library are as diverse as the crops in the greenhouse, there are poems, novels, plays, biographies, fairy tales...... About relationships between men and women, mental illness, dream interpretation, bad jokes...... And the sacred book of the hidden sage is placed next to a fable, and I found it inadvertently, and I was inadvertently attracted to it. ”

"On the one hand, because there are many well-rhymed and well-worded sentences in this book, and on the other hand, because it does not resemble a 'holy book'—I do not mean blasphemy, because I have the impression that the holy book should glorify the power and deeds of God, and not write so much...... The story of ordinary people. ”

"Yes, the protagonists of those stories are not angels or saints."

"I read the story of a doctor who had a good hand that could restore sight to a blind person. But one of the patients he treated felt that his vision was not as clear as he had imagined, so he swung a knife at the doctor, leaving his hands with incurable wounds, and he could no longer use his medical skills - but he did not stop there, but taught his experience of medicine to his students without reservation. ”

"I read the story of a widow who pulled her daughter alone and had a lover to escape her loneliness. One day, while she was working in the fields, her lover tried to assault her young daughter, and the child's helpless cry attracted her, so she slashed the beast's nakedness with a knife. ”

"I read the story of a gay couple who met in turbulent times, who worked hard to expel the invaders from their country, but when peace came and they returned to the country, the villagers thought their feelings were filthy and filthy, and tortured them to death – not at the hands of the enemy, but at the hands of their compatriots."

"These stories were so much more interesting than vulgar romance novels that I was fascinated by them, and I unwittingly learned the teachings of the hidden sage."

"There is a trembling light in human nature, and there is a darkness that is so chaotic that it is difficult to measure, and most people are hovering between the two extremes, sometimes bright and sometimes obscure."

"The sage taught us that it is normal to have dark thoughts, but we must try to keep them from harming innocent people, for the sake of the community. 】”

"That's what the monk told me."

He also said that once you have met this basic requirement, you can explore yourself inward. Because people live for a lifetime, not just for the community. ”

"I asked what it means to explore yourself inward."

"Find out whether you like a man or a woman, whether you prefer to be married or single, whether you like to be lively or withdrawn, whether you want to be famous or live the rest of your life in peace, whether you are good at fiddling with a spindle or wielding a sword, whether you like salted dried fruit or candied fruit."

"At first I wondered if he had made it up, but he opened the holy text and showed it to me, word for word—dried fruits and candied fruits."

"Then I understood why the followers of the Hidden Sage had little in common, and began to ponder the answer to this question."

"As a Stiano, I knew early on that there were only two choices in my life."

"One, take up a hammer and a chisel, and sweat like a man by the stove and bellows; Second, learn the etiquette and dance steps of a lady, marry a husband who is a good person, and then have children until death. ”

"When I saw stretch marks on my mother's belly, I vowed not to choose the second way anyway, but I can't say I really like the first way, I'm a girl, and I go to the prom to find friends of the same age, but I never dare to let them see my calloused hands, and I never dare to let them know that I can't wear a corset, because my job doesn't allow me to go on a diet."

"But here, I don't have to hide myself, and I don't have to feel inferior."

"I've met a lot of girls here, and they're not ladies and wives in the traditional sense of the word, and they're not the huntress of the hunter family destined to abandon the past."

"They like to wear their hair in fine braids and pinned flower-like hairpins, but that doesn't stop them from chopping off the bear's head and mixing the blood dripping from the severed head into the spirits."

"They love to dance in front of everyone, but that doesn't mean they have to look slim, on the contrary, they proudly show off their muscular shoulders and back."

"They love to work on new dishes, but that doesn't mean there's always a man waiting for the meal to be served, just because she's so addicted to the world of spices and ingredients that she can't help herself."

"No one will say that they are freaks, for their god has granted them the choice of marriage or celibacy, spindle or sword, boisterous or withdrawn—though I suspect that the sage would not say anything if the two of them had more than one choice."

"You may not understand, but this kind of life is what I want—it's not in the bustling, drunken imperial capital, but in the icy north, in a border town."

Eliza had finished writing a page, and she pulled another page.

"So I want to tell you that I have decided to believe in the Hidden Sage."

"Partly because I surrendered to His teachings, and partly because they allowed me to take a step forward on the extraordinary path - after all, I've been in Sequence 5 for a long time."

"Since the enactment of the Land Protection Act, our ritual of promotion to demigod has been greatly restricted, extracting the vitality of those fertile lands will anger the emperor, but the vitality of the barren lands is far from enough to support the ritual."

"In comparison, the ritual of being promoted to a demigod through the hermit path is much simpler, but I have already sworn to the hidden sage, so I will not reveal anything to you and your family, I hope you will forgive me."

Eliza inserted the pen back into the inkwell and folded the letterhead, but instead of looking for an envelope, she placed the paper covered with handwriting on an oil lamp and lit it, as if in a secret farewell ceremony.

The "Voyeur Eye" pendant lay quietly on her desk.