Xu Xiaomeng appeared rather exhausted, her body slightly leaning toward the rosewood table, while her pupils showed fatigue. Still, her expression never changed, still appearing as if it had been frozen in time.

Within her delicate hand holds a rather simple brush, containing no decorations, nor made of any precious materials, while the paper she was using was the same as those used by scholars in their public lectures.

Compared to everyone else that had stayed within this room, which had housed countless emperors, she seemed almost comically poor. Furthermore, her hair was tied in a simple bun, appearing vastly different to the ornaments that even maids would wear.

The clothes she was wearing could be considered even more pathetic, appear not unlike rags, it appeared to be patched countless times, while the colour had faded from extensive washing.

Of course, the land Xu Xiaomeng was ruling was not poor, nor was she a maid. Instead, she ruled one of three states of the former Sui Dynasty, which had been infinitely prosperous. While she rules the weakest of the three states, it still consists of the Northern Region, which contains a total population of four million, and the former heartland of the Zui people, Huxi province, which contains a total population of twenty million.

Furthermore, due to her radical agrarian reforms, the land under her rule is experiencing a massive boom in population along with rapid urbanisation, which allowed wealth to both, and increases quickly.

The only reason she had rejected any form of luxury was because of a single sentence Li Ming had told her.

“A ruler must live among the people, not above them,” Li Ming once said in a casual manner when she had been discussing the late Emperor.

Perhaps Li Ming had wished for Xu Xiaomeng to gain some insight into her thinking, though she would have never expected Xu Xiaomeng to take it to such a degree, copying the clothing the peasants she had seen, while she had even once attempted to relocate her residence outside the palace, into a rather small building originally built for rural migrants.

Though her proposal was instantly rejected by Xiao Xi without hesitation, she actions naturally conveyed a rather important detail, that she has a great deal of respect and admiration toward the former head of state, perhaps to a near-fanatical extreme.

After a brief period, she proceeds to straighten her back, before placing the piece of paper in front of her onto a thick stack located to her right.

Grinding in a gentle manner, Xu Xiaomeng began to gather another puddle of ink within a rather damaged inkstone. If one observed closer, it was the exact same inkstone Li Ming had used on the night of her assassination. Perhaps this could be considered the only precious item Xu Xiaomeng possessed, alongside with the wooden box, containing the still-beating heart.

After dipping her brush within the puddle, she retrieves a piece of paper from her left and once more began to write. While her style is similar to that of Li Ming, appearing stylish and elegant, the speed was certainly far slower.

After a long time passed, she placed the paper onto her right stack, before repeating the cycle.

After some time had passed, it had passed into midnight.

Xu Xiaomeng looked toward the moon, noticing it appeared to have aligned with the tallest peak of Tianshan mountain, while simultaneously placing down her brush, preparing to return to her residence.

As she arrived within the residence, she took off a piece of stone from the floor tiles, revealing a wooden chest. Xu Xiaomeng proceeded to inspect the inside of the wooden chest under the tile, before once more covering it up with the stone tile. Afterwards, she proceeded to speak in a rather soft manner as she advances to lay on top of her bed.

“The first model of the bolt action rifle had been completed, though I do not see the use of the weapon, I believe that sir has his reasons for the constant praise sir gives toward the rifle.”

“Originally, I had planned to name it Ming rifle, though I recalled that sir had previously disliked this sort of naming, thus I had decided for it to be named as the Type 1 rifle,” Xu Xiaomeng said, before covering her slender body with a thin blanket, before continuing to speak.

“As sir had instructed me to satisfy the demands of all people, I had begun to send practitioners to rural areas as barefoot doctors. Though we have less medical equipment compared to those of the Far East, the doctors will live among their patients, so that they may be able to prevent any illnesses before they began. Considering that they will be neighbours, the doctor should know their living conditions and habits quite well, while diagnosing the patients often, even if they were mistaken, they could always improve.”

“Furthermore they will be similarly doing farmwork with the peasants, so that these doctors may be integrated within the village community, hopefully garnering trust with their patients.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“The doctors had been taught primarily on immunisation, birth delivery and improving sanitation in the span of half a year, while their wages would be paid by the collective, and the herbs are grown by themselves, reducing state, expenditures,” Xu Xiaomeng said in a low whisper, before closing her eyes.

If Li Ming were here, she would undoubtedly be quite proud, as the method Xu Xiaomeng had used was greatly approved by the UN in her previous world.

(sources for barefoot doctors, and inoculation in ancient China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_doctor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation)

While Xu Xiaomeng has no need for sleep, as evident by Li Ming’s behaviour, she still adopted this habit, perhaps to differentiate herself from Li Ming’s extreme workaholism.

After the moon had flown closer to the Wu Ocean, a light snore could be heard.

Xu Xiaomeng however, appeared not to be the cause, as her small mouth did not move. Instead, the body of Xiao Xi could be seen in the room attached to Xu Xiaomengs’, her face appearing even more exhausted than the one Xu Xiaomeng had shown within the study.

It appeared that Xiao Xi had been closely guarding Xu Xiaomeng, and had only fallen asleep, long after Xu Xiaomeng had.

If one looked closer, a hint of the scabbard of a sword could be seen under Xiao Xi’s body.

After the sun had barely risen over Tianshan, Xu Xiaomeng opened her eyes and left the bedroom, proceeding to rinse her mouth with a cup of leftover tea.

Xiao Xi meanwhile, used a toothbrush made with hog bristle, without similarly rinsing her mouth using the leftover tea from the same pot that Xu Xiaomeng had poured from.

It was truly a peculiar scene, as Xiao Xi, the civil worker appeared to be receiving a much more luxurious treatment compared Xu Xiaomeng, the head of state.

Naturally, it was due to Xu Xiaomeng’s unchanging body, which experiences decay, thus requiring no true need for any tend to herself.

Still, Xu Xiaomeng took a cold bath, before changing into a far more extravagant looking robe, before leaving for court.

It was a truly annoying matter, causing Xu Xiaomeng’s iceberg like face to possess a hint of a frown.

The matter regarding finances had long been solved through the recruitment of more capital finance managers along with the reduction of salary for many high officials, thus this meeting was targeted towards another matter.

Naturally, it was regarding the massive assault made by Nitsa at Chuhe. While Li Ming had long expected this and had thoroughly prepared, it was still rather annoying, and certainly is worthy of a session of the court.

When Xu Xiaomeng had arrived, the room was still rather empty. Thus, Xu Xiaomeng walked in a leisurely manner toward the set of chairs and desk located at the centre of the room.

Naturally, this was the seat for the president, while further back, the throne could still be seen, though it had been covered in a piece of white cloth, similar in colour as Xu Xiaomeng’s silver hair.

Xu Xiaomeng did not wait long before the vast majority of the room was filled with officials.

“The session on the attack by Nitsa, with attendants number of two hundred forty-five, twenty-five not present, will begin under the monitor of Lady Li,” Liu One said in a rather calm manner, appearing to be quite used to this process.

“Fellow bureaucrats, today we have a few agenda, primarily focused on increasing production of the new Type 1 rifle, to this, I ask Ma Wen to read the proposal,” Liu One said, before sitting down.

“Sir Hu Caochang had written, while our manpower and supplies are numerous after reaffirming conscription, the enemy has the superiority in technology, their rifles are greater than those that we produce domestically, while their artillery possess greater firepower and reach through their breech-loading technology,” Ma Wen said as he held the slightly wrinkled paper in front of him.

“Thus, he urges the state to quickly adopt the Type 1 Rifle, while increasing funding so that the artillery we have scavenged would be similarly adopted,” Ma Wen finished as he once more sat down.

“The proposal is sound, and the number of funds gained from the revenue of the nationalisation of many assets should be able to fund such expansion, yet how will we be able to possess the capacity to produce such a great number of weapons with our meagre population,” Ling Ping asked.

“I propose to reduce wages so that the workers will have to increase their working hours to meet their needs, along with the introduction of shock work, where the workers would be required to work past regular hours,” Chen Ju proposed, her idea rather similar to those of mercantilism.

Chen Ju opened her mouth to continue speaking, yet was blocked by a tap done by Xu Xiaomeng’s fingers, indicating the proposal was rejected.

Chen Ju was quite shocked, as her proposal was certainly a sound idea that any nation embroiled in war should adopt.

“We have yet to reach a point where such an action is necessary, doing such things would increase the probability of protests and strikes,” Xu Xiaomeng said within her heart that Li Ming would also likely not wish for such labour violations.

Chen Ju remained silent for some time, before nodding to indicate her understanding.

“Then should we instead encourage migration toward the urban areas through the expansion of our housing policies and food aid, so that our productive forces may increase,” Chen Ju then proposed.

Xu Xiaomeng though for some time, and nodded in agreement, before mentioning.

“Allow women to also work within the factories, grand them the same privileges that their male counterpart would experience, such as equal pay and holiday leave, along with three months of maternity leave, fully paid by the state,” Xu Xiaomeng then said.

“Things such as petty housework crushes degrades the woman, chains her to the kitchen and to the nursery, and wastes her labour on the unproductive and petty matters. Women needed to be economically independent of their male counterparts through their participation in the workforce,” Xu Xiaomeng recalled a sentence Li Ming had once quoted and stated it in front of the court.

“Therefore, I will personally set up an organisation to promote such actions,” Xu Xiaomeng stated, before leaving the room.

As Xu Xiaomeng left, the court session continued for some time, before Ling Ping dismissed the officials.

Upon her return to, Xu Xiaomeng took off the robes, before once more changing back into her rural clothing. The clothing, now much more visible under the light of day, appeared rather large for her slender form.

Xu Xiaomeng checked the wooden box once more, before preparing to leave for the study.

Unexpectedly, she was suddenly stopped by Xiao Xi, who proceeded to hand her a piece of stone. The stone was quite usual, as it gives off a faint shine of silver.

It was the stone that the soldier Hu Qingyuan had rescued was holding.

Xu Xiaomeng remembers Li Ming had once mentioned radiation, and swiftly took it off the hands of Xiao Xi, before placing it under the stone floorboards.

Surprisingly, the stone, upon being placed down, somehow managed to merge into the wooden box, appearing as if it had sunk into the contents within.

Xu Xiaomeng’s expression turned grave, in a manner never seen before, she swiftly opened the wooden chest.

She discovered that the heart appeared even more silver than before, with the blood turning completely white, while the flesh turned into a faint pink, different from its formerly red colour.

Xu Xiaomeng, still maintaining her grave expression, suddenly fell, though no sounds were created, as her body was rather light.