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

Chapter 51
After Li Yu came back from Xiyuan this time, Cixi gave him a task to teach Si Gege to use a telescope. It seems that Lafayette really wanted to see the lunar eclipse.

Si Gege's time out of the palace will definitely not be too long, and the time is tight and the tasks are heavy. Fortunately, she is not a lady, otherwise it would be really inconvenient for Li Yu to teach.

There is not much technical difficulty in using the telescope itself. After all, it is impossible for Cixi to use it to find extragalactic galaxies. It is nothing more than a fresh picture.It only took Li Yu more than two hours to fully explain to Si Gege how to use it, and also let her observe Jupiter and Venus.

In fact, such a simple matter can be done in an hour, but it has been too long since a man has talked so close to him, and there is a seemingly invisible gap in Si Gege's heart. He has to keep his distance and listen to his lectures. .It made my heart flutter, and I felt weird, and I was not so serious in listening to the lectures, and I was distracted from time to time.

But Li Yu really just wanted to explain the instructions to her clearly, because even if Si Gege could be called a beautiful woman, he absolutely didn't want to have anything to do with court women.

But on the contrary, distance produces beauty, and Li Yu's distance makes Si Gege feel that Li Yu is a tall, stalwart and upright gentleman.

After the telescope finished speaking, Li Yu and Zai Zhen put the large bag of Watsons cosmetics and perfume in front of her, and Zai Zhen smiled and said, "Sister, tell the queen when you go back, you can pour it into the tub when you take a bath." Take a bottle, it will be more fragrant than any minister's wife!"

"Use so much at once? The effect should be very good." Si Gege is also a person who doesn't care about money.

"It works, anyway, the queen is already..." Li Yu quickly stopped talking, originally he wanted to say that the queen is hopeless, unless he can return to the Bangzi Kingdom in the 21st century, there is a slight possibility, so he changed it to: "The queen Already with outstanding temperament, this is definitely the icing on the cake.”

Since Li Yu said so, Si Gege has nothing to worry about. There is an extra "Xiangfei" in the palace, and Watson's Beijing branch will also have an additional supply channel in the future...

The next day, Li Yu was about to go out for dinner, but when he opened the door, he saw the old man and his son who had been rescued by Xiaodao Liu.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Li Yu asked.

The old man took out from his bosom the ten taels of silver that Li Yu had given him back then: "Grandfather, why don't you take back the money."

Li Yu didn't understand why, so he thought they wanted to ask for some more money, but he didn't expect to return it to him. What's the reason for this! "Keep it, old man!"

The old man grinned: "Old man, I want to ask my benefactor to do something, but I only have the money you gave me."

Li Yudao: "You just say it's okay, I won't take back the money."

The old man pulled the child next to him and said: "Grandpa, I know you are a scholar and a learned person. I also understand that only by studying can you not be hungry all your life. So I hope this child can go to school, and the money will be enough for you." If it's not enough for the child's tuition, I'll find a way."

Li Yu glanced at it. The money he gave him at the beginning was almost unchanged. It could be seen that the old man had made up his mind.

"Okay, I'll take care of this, you keep the money, because I know there is a place that doesn't need to pay tuition."

The old man asked in surprise, "No need to pay tuition?"

The old man was not impoverished from the beginning, and he knew it in his heart.At that time, ordinary private schools in the Qing Dynasty, although many were supported by the government or local gentry, the tuition fee was about 100 catties of wheat, which was the output of one mu of land.

Land annexation was serious in the late Qing Dynasty. How much land did ordinary peasant households have left, and even a large number of peasants became tenant farmers of landlords. It was basically impossible to spend so much grain as a child's school fees.Because 100 catties of wheat is almost equivalent to half a year's rations for a poor and lower-middle peasant.

For them, this is not a question of whether to learn or not, but a question of whether to live or not.

Li Yu squatted beside the little boy and asked, "Do you want to learn Western learning?"

The little boy was somewhat timid, "What is Western learning? I only know the Four Books and Five Classics."

Li Yu said: "Western learning is why the sky is blue, why birth, old age, sickness and death, why everything exists in the world; and how to build strong ships and cannons, how to build bullet trains, and how to keep us from being bullied. It's almost like this, you Want to learn?"

The little boy was fascinated when he heard it: "Big brother, I want to learn!"

Li Yu patted him on the head: "But you have to know that if you learn Western learning, you won't be able to obtain fame or become a high official."

The little boy hesitated and said firmly, "I don't want to be a high official! I just want to stop starving my father."

Li Yu laughed loudly: "If you learn it well, not only will your father not be hungry, but even more people will not be hungry. But this is not easy, because you still have to learn the Four Books and Five Classics, and you still have to understand etiquette and morality. At the same time, you have to learn all kinds of Western learning, and you must suffer a lot."

The little boy smiled innocently: "Big brother, no matter how hard it is, can it be as hard as Guanyin Tu?"

Li Yu was taken aback for a moment, yes, he had been talking about it for a long time, but to him, compared with the hardships of life, what was the hardship of studying?
It's like being in heaven, isn't it!

"It's not bitter! You remember the words of big brother, be a man first, and then learn!"

The little boy nodded, "I remember."

Li Yu stood up, "Follow me."

Now there are not many western schools in the Qing Dynasty, and most of the only ones are in the concessions or places with many foreigners such as Guangzhou and Shanghai.So it was really not easy to go to a western school in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty, and it was even more difficult to go to a school that started recruiting students from elementary school.

Fortunately, Li Yu happened to know one, and the original headmaster was an old acquaintance—Ding Weiliang.

Weiliang Ting came to Beijing very early. Before he became the chief teacher of Tongwenguan, he founded a church school for out-of-school children - Beijing Chongshi School.This school has also continued to this day, but the name has changed to Beijing No. 21 Middle School.

The three came to the Tongwen Hall and found Ding Weiliang. After Li Yu expressed his interest in coming, Ding Yiliang immediately agreed, and he solemnly said to the little boy: "Are you sure you want to study, and you will not drop out of school, be late, or violate school rules? "

The little boy said: "I want to study, and I will never drop out of school, be late, or violate school rules!"

Martin smiled, "Very well, I hope you can persevere."

Soongsil School is actually not really free, but the fee is relatively low. It only costs 2 yuan a year, which is more than one tael.It's just that Li Yu secretly gave Ding Weiliang a wink, telling him to skip this matter.

Moreover, Weiliang Ding looked at Li Yu's face and said that the school will no longer charge food and living fees.

The old man was so grateful, he was so moved that his nose burst into tears, if Li Yu hadn't supported him, he would really have to kneel down.

(End of this chapter)