She Became A Downfall Noble Lady
Chapter 525 - 523 Explanation

Chapter 525: Chapter 523 Explanation

Zhou Biyao felt a surge of embarrassment upon hearing Shi Yin’s words of praise, hesitatingly ceasing her work as she said, "Uncle Shi, you shouldn’t praise me. I’m not good at anything; it’s all because Sister Qi and Third Brother taught me how to do it. I just follow their lead and do as they do. They are capable of working independently, while I rely entirely on their guidance."

Shi Yin shook his head, "Young girl, don’t be discouraged. Everyone has their own circumstances, and the benefits they reap are naturally different. You are still very young. As long as you earnestly follow Miss Ye and Brother Wong, you will eventually develop your own expertise.

I think what you are doing now is quite good. You are managing work orders and parts for two workshops and many craftsmen without a single error. Even the diagrams you draw are clear and distinct. Not just for a young lady who has been working for less than two years, but even seasoned craftsmen rarely achieve what you have."

Zhou Biyao had initially admired Ye Xinyan and Wong Qiao from the bottom of her heart, thinking she had encountered once-in-a-lifetime talents. Although she had always been praised for her intelligence and cleverness since she was young, it seemed only natural to fall short when compared to such prodigies.

However, as the Mechanical Workshop grew and employed more craftsmen, she increasingly felt that her view could no longer stand. With the arrival of people like Shi Yin, her perceptions completely collapsed. Where was her intelligence and cleverness? She was obviously so dull that anyone could surpass her, wasn’t she?

Zhou Biyao pouted, muttering, "Who is better? I think everyone here is stronger than me."

Ye Xinyan had plenty of things to handle and had no time to indulge in such self-pity, "Enough with the self-pity. Why compare your weaknesses to others’ strengths? To tell you the truth, no one in the entire workshop or the Qi family can do the work you’re doing now better than you. Don’t dwell on these useless thoughts; getting back to work is what’s important."

"Are you sure you’re not just sweet-talking me, Sister Qi?" Zhou Biyao raised an eyebrow, clearly doubtful.

Ye Xinyan handed her a stack of papers, "I don’t have the leisure to flatter you. What good would that do me? Hurry up, the parts and papers returned to the workshop are waiting for you to catalogue them." She herself took a draft of a pedal-operated lathe and handed it to Shi Yin.

The young girl really did excellent work, displaying a great imagination for three-dimensional figures, and her drawings didn’t require any fussing over—that alone was a significant capability. Moreover, she even found time to manage the materials and parts well. She could be considered a prodigy.

It seemed necessary to train a few people in records and materials management, so as not to exhaust this talent; that would truly be a loss for the Mechanical Workshop.

Shi Yin, taking the lathe sketch handed to him by Ye Xinyan, said to Zhou Biyao, "Miss Ye is right; everyone has their strengths, and the work you are doing now is something even I could not undertake. Study hard, and in a few years, you could be in charge of a workshop."

Ye Xinyan smiled, "Master Shi, don’t bother with her. She understands; she’s just frustrated at the moment. Once she vents to us and turns the corner, she’ll be fine."

Was she really so naive? Zhou Biyao glared at Ye Xinyan and, with a flaunt of her face, picked up the papers and headed out. Nanny Zhong and Qian Yue quickly followed; our Second Miss Zhou was capable of doing so many things they could not comprehend, and yet she felt she wasn’t competent enough?

Ye Xinyan smirked, calling out to her retreating figure, "Be quick with your hands and feet; there are things waiting for you to discuss. When you come back, fetch Wong Qiao, Zhang Mian, and Wang Huan along with you."

Having finished instructing Zhou Biyao, Ye Xinyan turned to Shi Yin who, holding the sketch, asked her, "What’s this for? It’s just the common type of workbench craftsmen use, very ordinary and simple in structure. It wouldn’t take much to make a few of these."

Ye Xinyan sat down opposite Shi Yin and replied, "We are going to build a wooden rail track between Clear Water Village and Peach Grove to transport cow’s milk and various kinds of feed supplies."

He knew about this; Old Master Cheung had been busy with it these days. Shi Yin nodded somewhat surprised and asked, "Building a track..." He pointed at the sketch, "You don’t need this for that, do you?"

Ye Xinyan took another piece of paper and sketched a few lines with a charcoal stick, "For the cart to run on the track, the track must be well fixed. Normally, you could just use mortise and tenon joints alongside wedges to secure the track to the railroad ties."

She pointed to the connection between the track and the railroad ties to show Shi Yin, "But this track is tens of miles long. If we use mortise and tenon joints on every tie and track, the workload would be too great."

Shi Yin raised his eyebrows and said, "But besides mortise and tenon joints and wedges, there aren’t any other ways to fix it, right?"

"There is," said Ye Xinyan. "I want to use yin yang screw threads to fix the track. If we can mass-produce custom-sized yin yang screw threads, we could firmly connect the track and the railroad ties."

"Yin yang screw threads?" Shi Yin sat up straight, intrigued by the novelty of the term. Having come to the remote Clear Water Village, he had already seen many novelties. Decades of working and traveling had exposed him to many things, but what he witnessed here gave him the sensation of entering an unknown realm.

Yin yang screw threads were yet another novelty, a fresh concept yet to be realised.

"What are yin yang screw threads? Miss Ye, tell me about them," Shi Yin inquired.

Ye Xinyan pulled out another sheet of paper and began to carefully draw modern bolts and nuts with charcoal, indicating with arrows how the two items would fasten, "Like this, by the continuous engagement of the two yin yang screw threads, the parts between the screw column and nut would be pressed tightly together to achieve a fastened state."

Shi Yin looked at Ye Xinyan with a gaze full of amazement, then picked up the sketch to examine it carefully. Once he understood the principle behind the screw connection, his expression changed to shock, "How did Miss Ye come to know about such a thing?" Such a meticulous and compact structure could not have been casually conceived, could it?

Ye Xinyan had already thought of an explanation before speaking with Shi Yin. She drew a tapered conical seashell, "Master Shi, having traveled far and wide, you must have seen such a thing, right? This kind of spiral is played with by children. Using a twisting motion, it can easily penetrate firm ground. Similarly, to remove it, one must also twist it because pulling it straight out is difficult. Isn’t that so?"

Shi Yin nodded in agreement; children indeed played with them in that manner. But could that really explain how she could effortlessly come up with such an extraordinarily effective method of fastening?

Ye Xinyan turned the paper with the seashell drawn on it around, sketched a simple illustration underneath the shell with two square boards and a frame. It showed the seashell passing through the frame and pressing the two square boards firmly together. It was said that the Greek mathematician Archytas invented this type of screw press device, used for extracting olive oil and grape juice. Of course, the structure Archytas used involved actual screws, much more precise than her casual sketch of a seashell.