Sky Curtain: With a vermilion mirror, Jing travels through the modern world, shaking all dynasties.

Jiang Chuan, with his sharp ears, heard the last sentence and his lips twitched.

broker?

I?

Feeling a little uncomfortable under the gazes around her, Zhu Jingjing lowered her head slightly and asked Jiang Chuan in a low voice, "What's wrong? Am I dressed strangely?"

Jiang Chuan smiled and replied, "No, it's because you're too beautiful."

Zhu Jingjing blushed and was about to say something when a childish voice came from the side.

"Sister, you're so pretty!"

The two looked down and saw a little girl of about five or six years old, with two pigtails and a round face, looking up at Zhu Jingjing.

Zhu Jingjing was taken aback.

The little girl tugged at her sleeve: "Can I take a picture with you?"

Zhu Jingjing didn't know what to do and looked at Jiang Chuan.

What is a group photo?

She had no idea.

Jiang Chuan smiled and explained to her, "It's okay, just keep your eyes on the camera in a bit."

Zhu Jingjing nodded and bent down slightly to get closer to the little girl.

The little girl took her phone out of her pocket, turned on the front camera, and held it high.

Two faces, one large and one small, appeared on the screen.

Zhu Jingjing was startled when she saw herself appear inside that small piece of glass.

Is this really me?

How did it get inside?

The little girl made a peace sign with her fingers and smiled sweetly, saying, "Sister, you make one too!"

Zhu Jingjing paused for a moment, then awkwardly imitated her action, extending two fingers.

Click.

The image freezes.

The little girl changed her pose again, and Zhu Jingjing followed suit.

Click, click, click.

After taking several pictures, the little girl finally put her phone away, satisfied.

She looked down at the photo, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons with a smile, "Thank you, beautiful sister!"

Then, the little girl skipped and hopped back to her table.

Zhu Jingjing stared blankly at the little girl's back, then looked at Jiang Chuan.

"She...she just tapped her finger a few times, and my image was saved in that phone?"

Jiang Chuan nodded and said, "Yes, that's called taking a picture."

Zhu Jingjing looked on incredulously. "Taking a picture?"

Jiang Chuan thought for a moment and explained in a way she could understand: "It's that thing on your phone that can save a person's image at a certain moment. To put it in old-fashioned terms, let's call it a 'photo recorder'."

Zhu Jingjing nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

How to preserve the images?

Isn't that just drawing?

But drawing takes a long time, while that thing was done in the blink of an eye?

Beyond the sky.

At the entrance of the Fengtian Hall in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up.

"This stuff is great!"

He slapped his thigh. "If we get the Ministry of Works to make a copy, wouldn't that leave us, the girl, and Biao'er with our images?"

Empress Ma also looked at the sky with curiosity: "This tiny thing can preserve a person's appearance?"

"Of course!"

Zhu Yuanzhang became more and more excited as he spoke, "Look at that little girl just now, she captured the girl's image with just a few taps. This is much better than a portrait! A portrait takes half a day to draw, but this is done in no time!"

Old Zhu turned and shouted outside, "Someone, go and fetch Shan Anren from the Ministry of Works!"

Zhu Biao couldn't help but shake his head with a smile. His father was really impatient; he wanted to imitate anything good he saw.

The Great Song Dynasty, Chuigong Hall.

Zhao Kuangyin, however, had a different idea.

"This stuff is excellent!"

He stood up, hands behind his back, and paced back and forth in the hall. "If I had this, I could have them send me photos of the soldiers' rations and supplies at the front! Then, I'd ask them, who would dare to falsify reports? Who would dare to lie about military intelligence? I could know with just one photo!"

The generals beside him nodded in agreement.

Zhao Kuangyin clapped his hands and ordered, "Someone, go and summon the head of the artisans department immediately!"

The modern world.

The waitress arrived at that moment; she was a girl in a red uniform, with a round face, a ponytail, and a sweet smile.

"What would you two like to order?"

She handed a tablet to Jiang Chuan.

Jiang Chuan took it and began ordering the dishes one by one.

"Two servings of beef, two servings of lamb, one serving of shrimp paste, one serving of tripe..."

He ordered more than a dozen items, then looked up at Zhu Jingjing: "Is there anything you'd like to eat?"

Zhu Jingjing looked at the colorful pictures on the menu and felt a little dazzled.

"I...I don't know."

She whispered, "Can you order for me?"

Jiang Chuan smiled and nodded, saying, "Okay, I'll order a few more dishes."

He added a few more dishes, then looked at the waiter and said, "Let's have a half-and half-half hot pot too."

"OK."

The waiter noted it down: "Would you like a drink?"

"Two glasses of plum juice, please."

"Okay, please wait a moment."

The waiter turned and left.

Watching her retreating figure, Zhu Jingjing suddenly asked Jiang Chuan, "Is this person a maid from modern times?"

Jiang Chuan was stunned for a moment.

Then he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Zhu Jingjing was a little confused by his laughter and asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

Jiang Chuan quickly waved his hand, signaling her to keep her voice down. "Don't let anyone hear you say that. A maid? There's no emperor anymore, so where would you get a maid? This is a waiter."

Zhu Jingjing was still puzzled. "Waitress? In the Ming Dynasty, that's what maids do."

Jiang Chuan looked at the waiter who had already walked away and said, "I guess she's a college student working part-time. I'll ask her for you later."

Zhu Jingjing became even more curious. "College student? What's that?"

Jiang Chuan scratched his head. How should he explain this?

"that is……"

He thought for a moment, "It's similar to the Imperial Academy in your Great Ming Dynasty, the best university, just like the Imperial Academy. Do you understand now?"

Zhu Jingjing nodded and said, "I know about the Imperial Academy, but it's a place for studying and doing research. Why would I want to work as a waiter here?"

Jiang Chuan laughed, "Do you know how many people are in the Imperial Academy of your Great Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Jingjing thought for a moment and replied, "I remember my father saying that at the beginning of the dynasty, the Imperial Academy had about four or five hundred students."

Jiang Chuan nodded slightly and asked, "Those students were either rich or noble, or they donated money to get into the academy. They should be considered the pinnacle of the Ming Dynasty's imperial examinations, right?"

Zhu Jingjing nodded.

"That's right."

Jiang Chuan looked at her and said, "Do you know how many students in our current Dragon Kingdom are from top-tier schools with a status equivalent to the Imperial Academy?"

Zhu Jingjing became even more curious and asked, "How many are there?"

Jiang Chuan held up a few fingers: "There are at least tens of thousands, and that's the number of new cases each year."

"How many?"

Zhu Jingjing's eyes widened. "Over a hundred thousand? My God, that's a lot?"

"That's not all."

Jiang Chuan added, "If we include all universities, there are probably more than ten million university graduates every year."

Zhu Jingjing was completely stunned.

"How many people?"

Her voice stammered, "More than ten million people?"

Jiang Chuan nodded affirmatively.

Zhu Jingjing felt that her understanding had been refreshed once again.

She asked, somewhat skeptically, "So how many people are there in the Dragon Kingdom right now?"

Without hesitation, Jiang Chuan replied, "A little over a billion."

Zhu Jingjing was completely dumbfounded.

Over a billion?

In the Ming Dynasty, there were only tens of millions of people in the entire country.

A billion or more, that's how many times? She can't even calculate it.

On the other side of the sky, the emperors were all dumbfounded.

The Qin Dynasty, Xianyang Palace.

Ying Zheng was completely dumbfounded.

"What the hell?"

He jumped up from the dragon throne. "I haven't even established a single school yet! The entire realm is governed by law and taught by officials. And in this future generation, there are tens of millions of top talents every year? And the population of that future generation is actually over a billion?"

Li Si was also utterly shocked. "Your Majesty, over a billion people! That's many times the size of the Qin Dynasty!"