With three superpowers at his fingertips, he could dominate the 1970s.

After returning from the desert mission, Jiang Zhiyu found herself being watched even more closely.

Before, Song Yanzhou would accompany her when she went out, at least giving her an excuse. But this time, the higher-ups made a direct decision: wherever she went, she would be followed by two people. Forget about going out to stroll around Kyoto; even if she wanted to go to the market, female bodyguards would follow her every step of the way. She could barely enter her spatial dimension, only sneaking in at night when everyone was asleep to take a bath in the spiritual spring.

Su Wanqing and Jiang Boxun had both gone to work, and Song Yanzhou had also gone to the military region. She was left alone in the courtyard, leaning against the stone bench under the grape trellis, basking in the warm late April sun, so bored she was about to grow mushrooms.

The gate to the courtyard rang.

Jiang Zhiyu looked up and saw Wang Zhaixing and Li Mancang walk in one after the other, both with barely suppressed excitement on their faces. Wang Zhaixing was holding a tattered, gray cloth bag tightly in his arms, as if he were holding his own child. But Jiang Zhiyu's gaze immediately fell on Li Mancang's right hand, which was wrapped in thick gauze from the wrist to the fingertips, with a little dark brown bloodstain seeping through the gauze.

"What brings you two here?" Jiang Zhiyu stood up and took two steps towards the stone table under the grape trellis. "Have a seat."

"Hey, you brat, get me a glass of water!" Wang Zhaixing plopped down on the stone bench, carefully placing the cloth bag on her lap, wiping the sweat from her brow. "You're almost five months pregnant, and you don't even have anyone with you?"

"Don't even mention it, I just got rid of them." Jiang Zhiyu rolled her eyes, turned around and went into the main room to get two enamel mugs. There was still half a mug of warm water left in the thermos. She poured more than half a mug into each of them.

"Every day, they keep staring at me; I have no freedom at all. My parents finally managed to go to work, and then the higher-ups assigned me two female bodyguards. My life is so miserable."

Wang Zhaixing took the jar, gulped down a mouthful of water, smacked her lips, and said, "You brat, you should be grateful. Look at your belly, it's a bit scary, carrying twins."

He patted the cloth bag on his knee and asked in a low voice, "Do you know what I'm carrying?"

Jiang Zhiyu shook her head, somewhat bewildered. Seventeen was already spinning around in the space, her voice filled with excitement: "Host! Host! It's a bronze artifact! I can already feel its energy!"

Jiang Zhiyu understood, but remained outwardly calm, pretending to look at him with curiosity.

Wang Zhaixing then placed the cloth bundle in his arms on the stone table and peeled it off layer by layer. The outermost layer was coarse linen, inside were two layers of old cotton quilts, and then a layer of oiled paper. Only after opening it did he reveal the contents: three bronze rulers neatly stacked together.

The rulers are not large, each about seventy centimeters long. The old, dark bronze surface is covered with colorful rust, with green, blue and gray colors overlapping each other, like layers of paint brushed on by time.

Jiang Zhiyu reached out and touched it; it was icy cold to the touch. Her fingertips traced the inscription, revealing its distinct texture, as if the warmth of the craftsman's hand from thousands of years ago was still hidden within the engravings.

"Why did you go alone? Did it go badly? You even got injured." She withdrew her hand, looked at Li Mancang's bandaged hand, and frowned. "I said we shouldn't rush this. We'll go together after I give birth."

"Hey, you can just stay home and prepare for childbirth." Wang Zhaixing waved his hand, picked up the top ruler and handed it to her. "We've been pretty idle at the bureau lately, so we decided to make a trip there. Here we are, to get it for you."

He ran his fingertips along the patterns on the ruler, explaining to her, "This is a geomancer. Look at these patterns; they mostly depict mountains, valleys, and the veins of the earth. Holding it in your hand, you can feel a subtle sense of weight as it sinks down."

Jiang Zhiyu took it and weighed it in her hand. It was indeed much heavier than ordinary bronze artifacts, as if she were holding a compressed rock, with a downward pulling force.

"Look at this one, it's a sea-dividing ruler." Wang Zhaixing picked up a second one. The rust on the ruler was completely different from the first one, with blue-green water-like patterns, as if a wave had been imprinted on bronze. "The patterns are mostly the appearance of waves and tides. If you touch it, you will feel a damp and cool sensation."

"The last one is the Celestial Ruler." Wang Zhaixing pushed the third ruler over. The engravings on this ruler were the most intricate, densely packed with patterns of the stars and the phases of the moon. Under the sunlight, those fine, hair-like engravings faintly shimmered with a faint glow.

Jiang Zhiyu examined all three rulers carefully, then turned them over and discovered that each ruler had a ring-shaped copper buckle at the end, exquisitely crafted and seamlessly integrated with the ruler body.

"Why do all three rulers have a ring-shaped brass clasp at the end?"

"This must have been used by the ancients to tie together animal-shaped ropes." Wang Zhaixing stacked the three rulers together and compared them. "Normally, they fit perfectly when stacked, the three copper buckles align, and once the animal-shaped rope is threaded through, it's a single unit."

He paused, his expression becoming more serious: "These three bronze measuring rods are buried deep within the rock cavities of the mountain. Each one is firmly embedded in the stone grooves of the entire mountain, interlocked with the earth's veins and rock layers, and has long been sealed shut by fragments of rock and ore over thousands of years."

"When Mancang and I found that cavern, it took us most of the day just to clear the surrounding rocks," Wang Zhaixing said, gesturing towards Li Mancang. "Mancang used brute force, and some loose rocks fell and hit his hand, which is why he's like this."

"It's nothing serious," Li Mancang smiled, waving his uninjured hand. "I was just in a rush and didn't dodge the falling rock."

Jiang Zhiyu stared at the gauze in his hand for a while, then sighed softly, "You can go get it yourselves, but you must ensure your own safety. If you can't get it, wait for me. We'll go together after I give birth."

"Don't worry, are Mancang and I the kind of reckless people?"

"That's right, Comrade Jiang," Li Mancang chimed in, "I'm working very well with Director Wang now, we'll find the rest for you slowly."

Jiang Zhiyu looked at the three rulers, then at Li Mancang's hands, and finally nodded: "Alright, since you've got them, I'll accept them."

She stood up, carefully wrapped the three measuring rods in cloth again, and said to the two of them, "Don't leave later, stay for dinner, there's plenty of seafood."

Wang Zhaixing's eyes lit up, and she slapped her thigh: "Wow, just for this meal, I'll have to find the rest of the items for you properly!"

Jiang Zhiyu smiled as she entered the kitchen. After closing the door, she took out a batch of seafood from her spatial storage: prawns, sea bass, scallops, and abalone piled up on half the cutting board. She then added a few ribs and an old hen. Seafood had to be cooked, but meat dishes were also necessary; she couldn't just let the two of them eat prawns all the time.

After she finished, she called out to the neighbor, "Sister Ma, come here for a second!"

Half an hour later, a table full of dishes was placed on the stone table.

Wang Zhaixing and Li Mancang ate with gusto, their chopsticks never stopping, leaving a small bowl piled high with shrimp shells.

The bowl in front of Jiang Zhiyu, however, remained almost untouched.

This pregnancy with her two babies was quite strange; she lost her appetite for meat and seafood at the mere smell of them, and even the sight of the prawns and braised pork ribs on the table made her stomach churn. Instead, she held a bowl of plain porridge and slowly drank it with a plate of pickled radish strips.

Wang Zhaixing looked up and saw the watery soup in her bowl. She stopped eating and asked, "Why aren't you eating?"

"Since I got pregnant these past few months, I haven't been interested in meat or seafood at all; the smell makes me feel uncomfortable." Jiang Zhiyu stirred the porridge in her bowl with a spoon. "You guys eat, don't worry about me."

...

After seeing the two off and closing the door, Seventeen's voice immediately popped out: "Host, host, hurry up and put them into your space! Those two are really powerful; these three measuring rulers have such strong energy, I feel they're different from the previous ones."

Jiang Zhiyu sat on the edge of the bed, opened the cloth bag, and put the three rulers into her spatial storage.

"Now we have one more place. We have twelve items left, half and half."

Jiang Zhiyu leaned against the headboard, her hand gently resting on her swollen belly. The two little ones inside stirred, as if responding to her.

"Don't worry, I'll go with them after I give birth," she said softly. "I'm always a little uneasy about them going out alone together."