A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Li Yufa was also shocked immediately: "This, this...Master official, there are many people who do this, and my uncle is also a seventh-rank official."

Li Yu said: "Since we are both officials, let alone break the law knowingly."

Li Yufa quickly said, "Yes, yes."

Li Yu said: "I don't want to pursue this matter too much, but the pawn wife is not important. As for the money owed, I still have to pay back what should be paid."

Li Yufa was overjoyed: "The master is right!"

Li Yu continued to look at Mrs. Chen: "You don't owe the money, you can help him pay half of it, 75 taels, it's not bad, from now on the two have nothing to do, how about it?"

Mrs. Chen knelt down: "Master, you are really Master Qingtian! I listen to you!"

Li Yu then sternly said to her wimpy husband Wang Chengjian: "You have three days to write the divorce letter without delay."

Wang Chengjian's face was ashen: "Master, it should be at least 100 taels."

Li Yu has black lines all over his head, is this what a person said?He was about to kick him, but Chen agreed: "100 taels is 100 taels."

Chen picked up a pair of scissors from the table, cut off a large bunch of hair and threw it in front of her husband.

Lu Bicheng was very happy, and pulled Chen Shi up: "Well done!"

Li Yu said: "The wife's deed has been torn up, and a new IOU must be written."

The pawnshop owner hurriedly picked up the pen and paper and asked them to sign again.

The wimpy husband Wang Chengjian lost the pressure of 100 taels, and immediately asked Li Yufa: "Master, can I return it after three years?"

Li Yufa was ruined by a good thing today, and he was in a bad mood: "Fuck you, it's up to three months, if you haven't paid back the money for three months, I'll see what you can do!"

Li Yufa picked up the IOU and left cursing.

Li Yu didn't want to bother him, so he hurriedly dragged Lu Bicheng and Chen Shi home.

Thanks to Li Yu's guidance for this woman, otherwise it would be difficult for a woman to take this step with the thinking of a woman now.

But the most important thing is that Li Yu gave her the possibility of financial independence, otherwise the feudal dross would still be impossible to get rid of, even human blood steamed buns would not work.

But after such an incident, it is estimated that Chen is unlikely to remarry in the future.

Li Yu didn't know if he was doing the right thing, so he had to do it first.

Lu Bicheng had already asked her about her details on the way. Before that, the Chen family was indeed born into a small official family, but the family was hit hard during the Gengzi national disaster. His father died in the war, and later he had to commit himself to marrying.

Then I don't know what happened, my husband owed so much money, and came up with the bad idea of ​​pawning his wife.

Chen asked: "Master, madam, what can I do to earn 30 taels of silver a year?"

Li Yu said: "There are many things that can be done, and there are many vacancies in my factory."

Mrs. Chen hurriedly said: "I have read books for several years, and I know the characters well."

Li Yu said, "That's pretty good."

With the illiteracy rate at this time, literacy is considered a good education.

After all, as mentioned earlier, reading in ancient times was a very expensive thing.

After returning home, Li Yu directly assigned her to Jinwei Zhaoxue: "This is a new employee, you can train her."

Jinwei Zhaoxue already knew about Li Yu and Lu Bicheng, but without instructions from his superiors, he didn't know what to do next, so he could only continue to lurk, so he agreed, "Girl, please follow me to register."

She acted remarkably calm.

After returning to the study, Li Yu whispered to Lu Bicheng, "Be careful in the future, she is a Japanese spy."

Lu Bicheng asked in surprise, "Miss Zhaoxue?"

Li Yu said: "Yes, I have already obtained tangible evidence."

Li Yu told Lu Bicheng that she had secretly released the letter before.

Lu Bicheng opened his mouth wide: "Miss Zhaoxue is such a person! What should I do now?"

Li Yu said: "Don't startle the enemy for the time being. It is easy to deal with spies who know the details. If you send another one who doesn't know the details, it will be bad."

Lu Bicheng said, "Then what do we usually do?"

Li Yu said, "Just do what you want, and pretend you don't know."

Lu Bicheng nodded: "I understand."

-

A few days later, the enamel production line from Austria also arrived, but it still takes about a year to prepare for plant construction, equipment debugging, and establishment of a raw material supply chain.

Fortunately, there were a few Jews who came here, all of whom were skilled workers. The people Li Yu brought from several universities in Shanghai knew English, and he could learn from them.

Zhu Guozhen is very energetic. He wakes up early and sleeps late every day, gets up early to recite vocabulary, reads Li Yu's Western lectures in the morning, studies machinery in the afternoon, and continues to recite vocabulary in the evening.

Seeing his attitude of preparing for the imperial examination, Li Yu knew that he would succeed in his studies soon.

Li Yu was busy with the factory for a while, and then prepared to go south.

Before going to Dunhuang, you must make some preparations.

Seeing Li Yu packing up his things, Lu Bicheng asked, "Where are you going?"

Li Yu said: "Shanghai, take care of some small things, and then go back to the capital, and go west out of Yangguan with you."

Lu Bicheng said, "I also want to go to Shanghai with you."

Li Yu just wanted to say that going to Shanghai was just to do some preliminary preparations, but seeing Lu Bicheng's expectant eyes, he couldn't bear to refuse: "Okay, let's go together!"

Lu Bicheng said happily, "I'm going to pack my luggage too!"

The only way to get to Shanghai is by sea.

On the sea, Li Yu took out a handful of melon seeds and watched the seagulls while nibbling on the deck.

With Lu Bicheng beside him, Li Yu handed her a handful of melon seeds to eat with her.

But Lu Bicheng is much more civilized, and he puts the shaved melon seeds in the palm of his hand.

Li Yu laughed and said, "You're so boring, so just spit it into the sea."

Lu Bicheng said: "Too unladylike."

Li Yu laughed loudly: "On the sea, be free! Be like me."

Li Yu knocked a melon seed, then spit the skin of the melon seed directly into the sea, "You try it too."

Under his urging, Lu Bicheng also tried to follow suit, and he was in a very happy mood.

Li Yule said: "I'll just say it!"

Lu Bicheng smiled and said, "It's really free."

Li Yu said, "Jack taught Rose this."

"Jack?" Lu Bicheng asked.

Li Yu said, "Uh, this is...a love story about the sea from the foreigners."

Lu Bicheng likes to listen to stories about love now, so if he pesters Li Yu, he will continue to tell them.

Li Yu could only change the timeline and told her the story of the Titanic.

After hearing this, Lu Bicheng began to wipe away tears again: "Why is it a tragedy? If something happens to us, I will never live alone."

Li Yu patted her head: "Stop saying such unlucky things."

-

After arriving in Shanghai, it was Li Shutong who came to pick up the ship.

Li Yu clasped his fists and said, "I heard that Shutong had a son a few months ago. I'm very happy to congratulate you."

Li Shutong said: "Brother Shucai won the Nobel Prize, and he should be congratulated."

Several people first went to a restaurant to eat and rest.

Li Yu took out a red envelope: "Small care, it's not a respect."

Li Shutong said: "This can't be done!"

Li Yu said with a smile: "Sometimes come and go, courtesy is reciprocated."

Li Shutong looked at Lu Bicheng who was next to Li Yu, and understood: "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders."

Li Yu found another folding fan that he bought a long time ago: "Also, please ask Shutong to help carry a fan."

Uncle Li said happily, "Reciprocity so soon? My words are not worth much."

Li Yu laughed: "If it becomes valuable in the future, I might not be able to ask for it."

Li Shutong is a straightforward person, so he quickly wrote several large characters: "Freedom and freedom".

Li Yu said: "These four are not easy to do."

Li Shutong said: "The heart is peaceful, and the nature is at ease."

Li Yu made an inch of it: "The painting on the other side of the fan, Shutong also painted it. I heard that you are a master of both calligraphy and painting."

Li Shutong said: "What Brother Shucai asks, I will naturally do it."

Li Shutong put away the fan, and then asked: "By the way, why did brother Shucai come to Shanghai this time?"

Li Yu said: "First, let's take a look at the progress of the school, and second, I need you to help me find someone."

Li Shutong asked: "Looking for someone, who is it?"

Li Yu said: "Zhang Yuanxu, the celestial master of Longhu Mountain, I heard that he just succeeded to the position of celestial master last year, and he went to the capital again. He should be still in Shanghai at this time."

Li Shutong pondered for a moment and said, "It turned out to be Tianshi Zhang. He is indeed still in the Temple of the City God. I heard that it was very lively there a while ago, and many Taoist priests welcomed Zhang Tianshi together. What do you ask him for? Is it impossible for the emperor to teach Taoism?"

Li Yu said: "That's not true, I just want to ask for a letter from Zhang Tianshi."

"Screen?" Li Shutong asked.

Li Yu said: "I know a Taoist priest who wants to ask the gods to prove the way, but there is no way, so I will help him find the most righteous way."

Li Shutong said with a smile: "Brother Shucai actually does preaching work."

They drank a few glasses of wine, and after dinner, Li Shutong called a rickshaw and went to the Town God's Temple together.

For thousands of years, Chenghuang Temple has been the largest Taoist temple in Shanghai, and it is not far from the Bund, only about one kilometer away.

However, the Town God's Temple was greatly damaged by the British army during the two Opium Wars, but it has been repaired at this time.

When passing by the Yu Garden next to the Town God's Temple, Li Yu found that this famous garden in later generations was very dilapidated, so he asked, "Who owns the Yu Garden now?"

Li Shutong said: "No man's land."

Li Yu felt very sorry: "If the offer is made, how much will it cost?"

Li Shutong said: "The land itself doesn't have much money, but if you want to rebuild the interior of the garden, it will cost more than thousands of taels of silver."

Compared with those places in the concession, this land is already quite cheap.

Li Yu asked, "Do you like it?"

"You and me?" Lu Bicheng asked in surprise, "Yu Garden?"

Li Yu nodded: "If you like it, I will buy it for you. Anyway, we will often live in Shanghai in the future."

Lu Bicheng was a little surprised: "This is also okay?"

Li Yu said: "Of course, the gardens in the south of the Yangtze River are full of artistic conception."

Lu Bicheng said: "It sounds really good."

Li Yu asked Li Shutong, "If you want to buy the land in Yu Garden, do you need to find the magistrate of Shanghai?"

Li Shutong said: "That's right, brother Shucai will pick places."

Li Yu said with a smile: "With the same money, if it is in a good place in the concession, it probably won't be able to buy a big house. It's not as good as the whole garden."

Yu Garden, like Town God's Temple, was extensively destroyed by British troops during the two Opium Wars.At that time, the British army was stationed here. How could they understand the beauty of Jiangnan gardens?