Charles Carter had quite a bit of paper here, but this paper was extremely precious. Not to mention princes—even George Carter rarely used paper, relying much more on bamboo slips. Charles Carter had obtained this paper through his own efforts; he had stolen it from the great scholar who used to teach him.

While Charles Carter was observing the spinning wheel and pondering how to make one himself, Martha Clark had already returned.

No one knew where Martha Clark had gone, but in any case, she didn’t look happy and seemed to be in a bad mood. However, Charles Carter, lost in thought, didn’t notice her. Martha Clark walked straight into the inner hall, changed her clothes, and when she came out and saw Charles Carter still squatting in front of the spinning wheel playing, she didn’t pay him any mind.

It wasn’t until a palace maid reported that Henry Carter had come looking for Charles Carter that Martha Clark became curious.

“Chang, come here.”

Charles Carter snapped out of his daze and cheerfully ran over to Martha Clark.

“Mother～～”

“Heng was here?”

“Yes, Fourth Brother came by this morning.”

“What did he come for?”

“Nothing much, just brought me a gift, hehe…”

Charles Carter grinned, clearly very pleased with the gift.

But Martha Clark frowned. She reached out, pulled Charles Carter into her arms, and said sternly, “If you ask something of others, you must first humble yourself.”

“What does that mean?”

“If you want something from someone, you must first put yourself below them.”

“No one will show you kindness or give you gifts for no reason. If someone does, you need to be careful, because they probably have other motives, maybe even bad intentions.”

Charles Carter was taken aback and said in surprise, “But I don’t think Fourth Brother has any bad intentions toward me…”

“I’m not saying your Fourth Brother is bad, but you must remember what I said, understand?”

Charles Carter nodded, looking thoughtful.

“Go play, the spinning wheel is yours, but don’t hurt yourself.”

Charles Carter was overjoyed and was about to give his mother a peck on the cheek when he suddenly realized something. His expression grew serious and he muttered, “If you ask something of others, you must first humble yourself?”

For the first time, a look of astonishment appeared on Martha Clark’s usually composed face.

She smacked Charles Carter on the back of the head and scolded, “That’s not how you use it!”

With Martha Clark’s permission, Charles Carter could officially start taking apart the spinning wheel. If Martha Clark had known that her favor would open Pandora’s ink box and raise a “palace-dismantling maniac” in the palace, she probably never would have given Charles Carter that spinning wheel…

Charles Carter spent two days drawing a somewhat professional design for a spinning machine.

“Crossbeam for the harness, harness frame drive rope, harness frame, upper rail for the reed, reed, shuttle, harness cords, lower rail for the reed, reed fixing bolt, weft, cloth beam, ratchet support, pinch roller, frame… treadle, rocker arm, warp, warp separator rod, harness pulley…”

That’s right, Charles Carter had already abandoned his original idea. At first, he just wanted to improve the spinning wheel, but after hearing what Henry Carter said, he decided to build the most advanced loom! In the field of wooden materials, the loom he designed was definitely state-of-the-art.

All these components were made of wood, so materials wouldn’t be a problem—there was plenty of wood in the Han dynasty.

But when Charles Carter was about to get started, he realized that just having a saw wasn’t enough. He also needed a ruler, otherwise he couldn’t measure lengths. If he could get a plane, a file, and an axe, that would be even better. But Charles Carter was too embarrassed to ask Henry Carter for more.

Henry Carter could easily go next door to find a craftsman, but Charles Carter couldn’t leave. This was thanks to his predecessor’s terrible personality—probably because they were afraid he’d go out and beat people up…

Charles Carter decided to wait until school started at Tianlu Pavilion, then find a chance to have Henry Carter take him next door to borrow a ruler, a plane, a file, and maybe even a saw. If he could borrow a saw, borrowing a few more tools shouldn’t be hard. Before that, he’d prepare more materials so he could use them right away when the time came.

The spinning wheel was quickly dismantled by Charles Carter. The shuttle, rocker arm, pulley, treadle, and so on inside the spinning wheel could be used directly without much modification. Charles Carter decided to base his new creation on these parts.

But the loom he wanted to make needed to be at least twice as big as the spinning wheel in front of him, so these materials alone weren’t enough.

So, he wandered around the palace all day with a saw, searching everywhere for usable materials… Whenever he brandished the saw in the Jiaofang Hall, the palace maids were scared half to death, afraid he’d saw off the main beam of the hall.

Of course, even if you gave Charles Carter ten times the courage, he wouldn’t dare dismantle his mother’s Jiaofang Hall. George Carter might look fierce, but in reality, he was rather gentle. Charles Carter remembered the time he was playing outside the palace, threw a rock, and hit his uncle on the head, leaving a big bump.

His uncle didn’t mind at all, just held him with a smile and said that he’d never been injured on the battlefield, but ended up getting hurt by a little kid.

But while his uncle didn’t hold him accountable, his mother was furious and beat Charles Carter so badly he couldn’t get out of bed for three days—his butt was swollen.