bookbashuk Chapter 24 Li Zhi's Curiosity
Chapter 24 Li Zhi's Curiosity
The unfamiliar yet gentle female voice emanating from the watch had abruptly stopped, but its lingering resonance seemed to still resonate in the tranquil air of the side hall.
Li Lizhi was the first to recover from her shock. She quickly looked around and saw that although the palace servants standing there also looked surprised, they all lowered their heads and dared not move. She felt a little relieved.
She took a deep breath, calming her pounding heart, and sat back down on the prayer mat. She gently pulled the frightened rhinoceros to her side and softly comforted it:
"Don't be afraid, Sizi, don't be afraid. Listen, the sound has stopped. It's probably...it's probably some kind of extremely ingenious phonograph mechanism."
She tried to explain this incredible phenomenon with a relatively understandable term, even though she knew how weak the explanation was.
Sizi buried her face in Li Lizhi's arms, only one eye peeking out as she timidly glanced at the "watch" on Xiao Qingyi's wrist, which had returned to calm but still shimmered faintly. The voice was gentle and pleasant, not frightening at all, but its appearance was too abrupt and completely contrary to common sense.
Li Zhi's shock was quickly replaced by an even more intense curiosity that almost burst from his chest. He steadied himself, his face gradually regaining color, but his eyes grew even brighter as he stared intently at the watch.
"A recording...mechanism?" He repeated his sister's words, but his gaze showed no sign of agreement.
What kind of mechanism can preserve human voices so clearly and realistically, and yet be activated at any time? This is something beyond human capability!
"Sister Yiyi," Li Zhi's voice was slightly hoarse from trying to control his excitement, "What exactly is the working principle of this thing... the 'telephone watch'? Was that voice just now... your mother?" He asked the most crucial question, while staring intently into Xiao Qingyi's eyes, not missing any subtle changes in her expression.
"Yes, it's my mom's voice!" Xiao Qingyi nodded affirmatively, and even brought the watch to her ear to listen, as if she was expecting her mother to speak again. "Mommy said that when I miss her, I should press it and I can hear her. But, to actually speak, I have to wait until there are some bright lines on it..." She tried to explain the difference between "signal" and "recording playback," but her vocabulary was limited, so she could only gesture with her hands to indicate the difference.
"Wait for the grid to light up? When will it light up?" Li Zhi immediately asked.
"Hmm...sometimes it's bright, sometimes it's not. Here," Xiao Qingyi looked around at the high palace beams, "it seems like it's never bright." She muttered somewhat dejectedly.
Having traversed time and space, where are the signal bars now?
Li Zhi, however, automatically interpreted it differently: this "magical artifact" might be restricted in this place (the imperial palace) and unable to fully exert its power. This, in turn, added a touch of mystery and "common sense"—divine treasures have their own rules and limitations for operation.
"Then... besides displaying the time and recording human voices, what other use does it have?" Li Zhi asked one question after another, like a diligent student.
"You can make phone calls! Even if we're really far away, we can still talk to Mommy and Daddy!" Xiao Qingyi's eyes lit up, but then dimmed again. "But we can't make calls here... We can also set an alarm to wake me up in the morning, but I often turn it off and go back to sleep... And we can take pictures!"
"Take... a photo?" It was another completely unfamiliar word. Li Zhi, Si Zi, and Li Lizhi all looked puzzled.
Xiao Qingyi racked her brains trying to figure out how to explain, when suddenly she pressed the button on her watch again, bringing up the camera function. On the small screen, her own large eyes, close up to the camera, were immediately and clearly reflected, along with the blurry, curious figures of Li Zhi and Si Zi behind her.
"See! That's it!" She turned the screen toward them.
"Ah!" Even Li Lizhi couldn't help but exclaim softly this time. On the smooth "mirror," the images of the three of them were reflected with exquisite detail! A hundred times clearer than the clearest bronze mirror! And it was in color! Si Zi's pale yellow dress, Li Zhi's light blue robe, and her own surprised expression were all clearly visible, as if a piece of the scene before her had been instantly cut out and sealed within this small space.
Li Zhi held his breath completely. Recording sound was already astonishing enough, but this "recording image" technique was simply unheard of! No, it wasn't recording an image, it was instantaneous imaging! He stared intently at his own face on the screen, and could even see his pupils widening slightly in shock.
This goes far beyond the scope of "mechanical ingenuity." It's almost...supernatural.
Seeing their stunned expressions, Xiao Qingyi found it amusing and accidentally touched the virtual "take a picture" button.
"Click!" A simulated shutter sound rang out, and the image on the screen froze.
"Oh dear, it's done!" Xiao Qingyi looked at the "photo" frozen on the screen, showing the three of them with different expressions (she herself was confused, Li Zhi was shocked, and Si Zi was curious and scared), and giggled. "Look, don't they look like us?"
Li Zhi almost trembled as he took the wrist Xiao Qingyi offered him (he dared not remove his watch), and carefully examined the frozen image. It was so real, so incredibly real. Even the light and shadow, the texture of the fabric, were clearly discernible.
If this were a painting, what kind of artist would it require, and how many days would it take? Yet this object was completed in an instant.
Li Zhi wanted to ask more questions, but Xiao Qingyi found herself struggling to keep up...
She tried to explain, but could only say things like "it can make phone calls" and "it can take pictures."
"Child," Li Lizhi's voice came from the side, "Yiyi is still young, and there are many things she may not fully understand. What she has seen today is truly novel, so why don't we first..."
Before she could finish speaking, a series of slightly hurried but orderly footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall, along with a palace eunuch's deliberately raised announcement: "His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived—"