Afterward, everything progressed normally.
After Richard visited Marquis Vian, the Marquis truly supplied most of the glass produced by the Glass Factory to the Blue Lake Estate, as agreed. Some of the glass, under Richard’s guidance and at considerable expense, underwent special processing to meet some of Richard’s needs.
Once all the materials were ready and Jia Lie had hired enough manpower, they first repaired the damaged wooden building on the estate, and then officially began constructing the Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the location Richard had picked next to the building.
In fact, including Jia Lie, all the workers were unclear about what exactly a Wind Tunnel Laboratory was, but since Richard wanted it built and had provided detailed blueprints, they could only build it to the best of their abilities.
Laying the foundation, building the walls, sealing the roof, reinforcing the structure, waterproofing, installing air ducts, installing glass...
Time flowed, and the various steps of the construction process proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Unexpectedly, two children in their teens were involved throughout the process—Harry and Cathy, the children of Marquis Vian.
As he had said during their meeting, after delivering a hundred Gold Coins each month to the estate, Marquis Vian had the two children frequently visit the estate.
Richard didn’t pay much attention to this and directly assigned them to the Wind Tunnel Laboratory construction project.
Of course, he wasn’t actually going to let them do the work of regular laborers. Not only because of their status, but also because the level of fatigue was not something the children could withstand—not every child was Pandora, nor could every child sleep for several months without waking.
He assigned them lighter tasks: supervising the workers to ensure they were constructing everything exactly according to the blueprints. If something was amiss, they were to point it out directly so that the workers could redo it, avoiding more extensive modifications later on.
To his surprise, the two children didn’t complain at all and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the job, enhancing the quality of the Wind Tunnel Laboratory several percentage points more than he had anticipated.
Out of appreciation, he did take the time to mentor them aside from his work.
Considering he wouldn’t invest much time, and that the Wizard training they needed could be sufficiently provided by teachers at Ash Academy, he taught them non-wizardly, theoretical, and broadly applicable knowledge.
Furthermore, knowing he wouldn’t keep teaching them, he did not introduce them to mathematics like he had with Pandora, but instead introduced them to another field—Philosophy.
He wanted to utilize this knowledge to expand their thinking, enabling them to consider various problems more comprehensively and incisively. As for what achievements they might ultimately reach, that would depend on their own efforts and wisdom.
A hundred Gold Coins per month was not a small tuition fee, but if they really wanted him to teach them fully, it still was far from enough.
After all, knowledge is quite expensive.
In a white daylight of Fallow Month, June.
"Ding, ding, dong," the sound of tools striking continued relentlessly as numerous workers busied themselves at the construction site of the Wind Tunnel Laboratory.
Under the shade of a tree, Richard sat in a chair, resting to alleviate the fatigue from intense work. During his rest, Richard casually spoke some words that were obscure and hard to understand, but Harry and Cathy, the two children standing nearby, were trying hard to digest and comprehend.
"There’s a saying, ’Curiosity killed the cat.’ I don’t know if you’ve heard it," Richard asked.
Harry and Cathy shook their heads honestly.
"You haven’t heard it? Well, that doesn’t matter. I can explain it. The phrase is a warning not to be too curious, lest it brings harm to oneself. But what I want to talk about today is actually the opposite—if you want to achieve something, then you must maintain a certain level of curiosity.
This so-called curiosity is the spirit of exploration towards all kinds of things, seriously pondering the secrets behind each thing.
Let me give you an example. You’ve seen horses running on land, pigeons flying in the sky, and cod swimming in rivers. When you first saw them at a very young age, you were amazed. But as you see them more often, you take it for granted. It seems normal that horses should run on land, pigeons should fly in the sky, and cod should swim in rivers.
What if things were changed, like horses swimming in rivers, cod flying in the sky, and pigeons running on land?
If you actually saw this happen now, you’d be shocked, thinking you saw wrong, finding it unbelievable. However, if the first time you saw them they were , you’d gradually get used to it and not find anything wrong.
It’s only when something contradicts your common sense that you get stirred, which I call numbness.
You might wonder, is there anything wrong with being numb? Most people are . Yes, most people are numb, having gotten used to all sorts of things in the world and taking them for granted. What I’m saying is, numbness, on the surface, seems harmless and can help you adapt faster to an environment. But secretly, it quickly assimilates you, binding you to that environment.
If you think that everything around you is as it should be, then you’ll find it hard to step out of it, hard to view things from a higher perspective, setting a limit on your achievements right from the start."
Hearing this, Harry and Cathy glanced at each other, both looking at each other with a bit of confusion and bewilderment. Harry looked at Cathy and nudged towards Richard with his mouth, clearly conveying his meaning. Cathy was more direct, quietly moving closer to Harry and gently nudging him in the ribs with her elbow, full of menacing implication.
Harry glared and then helplessly looked towards Richard, cautiously probing, "So, teacher, what should we do?"
"What to do?" Richard said, "It’s simple, just maintain your curiosity, the spirit of exploring various things. When you see a horse running on land, you wonder why the horse can’t fly in the sky or swim in water.
Does the horse not have wings or scales? Then could we attach wings to the horse or embed scales on it? How should we go about this and what could be the reasons if it fails? By keeping your curiosity and continuously investigating, you’ll find a whole new world gradually unfolding before you."
Harry and Cathy listened, furrowed their brows, and pondered deeply, trying to understand the meaning of Richard’s words. They could sense that what Richard taught was very important and could greatly benefit them if truly learned. But given their experience and age, it was really very difficult to fully understand.
Richard began to summarize:
"Let me put it this way. The current world is like a rabbit. People are all born at the tips of the rabbit’s fur, so in their childhood, they are curious about everything in the world. But as people grow up, their curiosity fades, and they slide continually toward the underside of the rabbit’s fur, going deeper until they settle at the bottom.
That place is warm and comfortable, with many companions, making people subconsciously stay there, unwilling to return to the tips of the rabbit’s fur. Only a few people discard the warmth and comfort and keep climbing upwards, enduring a long and perilous exploration, eventually climbing back to the tips of the rabbit’s fur,perhaps catching a glimpse of the whole or a part of the rabbit, which is also a part or the whole of the world. These people have a unified name—’philosophers.’
What I’ve told you isn’t necessarily because I want you to become philosophers, as your father, Marquis Vian, expects you to become powerful wizards. What I hope for you is to have some of the qualities of a philosopher, to think and explore more than others. If you can do that, you will certainly be superior to others, believe me."
After finishing, Richard stood up from his chair and walked toward the distant Stone Building.
Back at the spot, Harry and Cathy struggled to remember and think about Richard’s words, feeling they understood some parts but also as if they hadn’t grasped anything at all.