Go back to the past and be a schoolboy

Chapter 2
The distance between Qianmen Railway Station and the Ministry of Education is not too far. Starting from Zhengyangmen, go west, pass by Xijiaomin Lane, electric light company, French school, etc., until you stop at Xuanwumen. Ideally, you can walk for about half an hour It will be there in an hour.

But at this time, Xuanwumen still retains the Wengcheng, and there is a moat next to it, so it is not very convenient to get in and out. If there are many people, even if there are not many cars in Beiping City, it will have to be blocked for a while.

Moreover, there is not much decent infrastructure in Beiping City, and roads in the true sense were not built until the beginning of the 20th century.It is just the opposite of the design of the car dealerships in the later generations and the pedestrians on both sides. At that time, the road was paved with stones and cement for pedestrians and light vehicles, and the two sides of the road were heavy lanes.

At first glance, it seems very unscientific, but in fact, combined with the background of the times at that time, it makes some sense.

According to the definition of the Industrial Inspection Bureau of the Manchu Qing government (referring to the later Transportation Bureau), pedestrians refer to walking and sitting in sedan chairs, and light vehicles refer to a small number of cars and rickshaws. These are high-ranking officials and officials, and walking on both sides is too wrong. identity.

The so-called heavy vehicles refer to the carriages, which generally move slowly, so they should walk on both sides as a matter of course.

It’s just that it has just snowed, and the quality of the roads is hard to describe. The “scavengers” who specialize in cleaning the streets have just started work, and the whole road has turned into a quagmire, making it difficult to walk.

He kicked here and there, and Cheng Nuo's cotton shoes were almost wet after a while, and it was hard to tell that they were the same shoe shape.

It's not easy to walk in the middle of the road, so go along the base of the city wall.

Of course he couldn't, after walking a few steps, Cheng Nuo understood the enthusiasm of Beiping City for him, and stepped on something filthy in two steps.

He was so angry that he went straight to the quintessence of the country on the spot: "$%##@#, at the foot of the imperial city, are they all so unhygienic? Where is the public morality?"

Take a look from the side, okay, he's the only one walking along the wall, the others stay far away, he would rather have one foot deep and one foot shallow than be like Cheng Nuo.

Yep, learned another lesson.

At this time, Beiping City was similar to Brother Ah San in his previous life. There were almost no sound underground sewage pipes, and there were few public toilets on the streets, and even if there were, there was a charge.

But what if a person is in a sudden emergency while walking on the street, he can only find a hidden place to solve it.

At that time, there was such a joke in the society: It was said that a businessman suffered from being defecated on the wall of the shop, and decided to write a slogan to warn passers-by that "passers-by should not defecate here."

But before the paint had dried, some passers-by saw the slogan and immediately explained it on the spot.

The businessman was furious and asked him why he clearly wrote "passers-by, etc., are not allowed to defecate here".

Passers-by, however, had plausible words, and it was clearly written that "passers-by, can't wait, defecate here."

It turned out that the punctuation marks were not popularized, the misunderstanding of the sentence breaks, the difference between the commas, and the meaning of the sentence was very different.

However, ordinary people rarely have huts, and they use buckets to solve personal problems, and finally the dung man collects them regularly.

What to do if it is too late to recycle, the street is a good home.

So when it rains and snows, the road is not for people to walk at all.

"Ugh."

Cheng Nuo sighed, this road can't continue down, there may be some surprises hidden in front of it, it's better to take a rickshaw.

The so-called rickshaws are rickshaws, which are called rickshaws or rubber carts in the north, and rickshaws or Dongyang cars in the south.

Fortunately, it is not far from Qianmen Station, so it is not too difficult to greet the rickshaw driver.

Seeing Cheng Nuo calling out to him, a strong man pulled the car and trotted over first, and the other colleagues gave up when they saw that someone was running ahead.

The man clasped his hands together and said enthusiastically, "Sir, do you want to take a car? Where are you going? Mr. Li is famous for his smooth and fast sports car."

"Yes, how much does it cost to go to the Ministry of Education by car?"

"Hey, at Handkerchief Alley, I charge [-] cents according to the rules, do you think so?"

"Can it be cheaper?" Cheng Nuo asked tentatively, wondering if the price was worth it.

Li Laosan smiled wryly, shook his head and said, "Sir, you can see that he is a learned person, and he went to the Ministry of Education. He probably teaches children to read. If he dares to coax you, the family members will not let me go if they find out."

After a pause, Li Laosan said again: "The price of the 'chekouer' at the front door is fixed on the wall. Going to Xuanwu, Chongwen and Yongding are all corners, and the transfer to the Ministry of Education is almost to West Chang'an Street, so I'll charge you five cents, and whoever is the price."

It was all hard money earned, and besides, a dime was really not much, and the bargaining was only to prevent being ripped off, so Cheng Nuo stopped arguing.

Ask Li Laosan to put down the car and prepare to ride.

But think about it, his feet are really not clean now, and he stepped on a surprise again. If the car is dirty, it will affect the next business.

I took out a few useless pieces of paper from the package to wrap my feet before boarding the car.

Li Laosan also observed this, and his nose felt a little sour.

Instructed: "You sit down, let's set off."

Afterwards, Li Laosan pulled the cart with great strength.

It was really as he said, fast and steady.

Even without the anti-shock springs, Cheng Nuo still couldn't feel any bumps in the car.

The two chatted along the way.

"Today is not bad. When I meet a noble person like you, sir, it is enough to give enough money, and the rest is earned."

"Why, someone is riding in a Bawang car?"

"Hey, the sea in Dongjiaomin Lane has gone. Sometimes, if you don't give money, you can kick it a few more times. The officials can't control it, so they can only do it for nothing."

Speaking of which, Mr. Li may have recalled something bad, and the car visibly shook.

Quickly stabilized the car, and said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, you, I suddenly remembered my brother, alas, poor man."

"What happened to your brother?" Cheng Nuo was full of doubts, leaned forward and asked, "Did he get hurt?"

"Hey, I took a job with a drunken Japanese devil. He was fine at the time, but I took him to their embassy and told him to withdraw the money with one yuan. It turned out to be fine, and I never saw my brother again."

With a bad guess in mind, Cheng Nuo tentatively asked, "Have you reported it to the authorities?"

"Report to the official, hehe." Li Laosan laughed at himself: "As soon as the official heard this, he was kicked out by us immediately. Even if we report to the presidential palace, we can't control it."

"I think you are capable, sir. If you become a high-ranking official in the future, you must express your anger for us!"

The sky was so pitch black that I couldn't even see a single star.

"It will happen, it will happen." Cheng Nuo was sad. The country is poor and weak, and there will be more such things in the future.

Before I knew it, the burden on my body became heavier.

After a while, Li Laosan dragged Cheng Nuo to the entrance of the education department.

After paying the money, Li Laosan refused to leave, stubbornly waiting for Cheng Nuo to come out to see him off.

Cheng Nuo had no choice but to give him more money or let him go.

When he saw that the Ministry of Education hadn't opened the door, he didn't get out of the car, and asked the driver to find the nearest shoe store nearby to change a pair of shoes.

Otherwise, it would be indecent to go directly to the Ministry of Education.

"Master, look where there is a shoe seller nearby. I'm going to buy a new pair." Feeling the chill from his feet, Cheng Nuo asked, "It doesn't need to be so expensive, the more comfortable the better."

Li Laosan was pulling the cart, not in a hurry to leave, and asked instead: "Sir, do you want cloth shoes or foreign shoes?"

Cheng Nuo thought about it for a moment, then instinctively replied: "Cloth, I'm used to it, but foreign shoes still don't fit my feet."

"Hey, what you said is that the shoes made by foreigners are not as comfortable as our own sewing." Li Laosan agreed: "Sir, please sit down, we will find you a time-honored brand."

There are quite a lot of shops doing business in the surrounding area, especially the woolen alley on the opposite side.

It didn't take much effort, Li Laosan took him directly to an old shop, but there was a little accident when he was about to enter the door.

Because Cheng Nuo sat for a long time and his shoes didn't keep warm, his feet were numb.

Without taking two steps, he staggered a few times and almost hit the middle-aged man who had just left the house.

Fortunately, the man had sharp eyesight and quick hands, and he helped him up, so he didn't make a fool of himself.

"Don't panic when you walk, sir, it's better to be safe."

"Thank you, thank you." Cheng Nuo hurriedly replied.

However, due to the sudden fall, Cheng Nuo squeezed away the waste paper that wrapped the shoes, revealing a dirty look, which made him very embarrassed.

The middle-aged man smiled slightly, patted Cheng Nuo on the shoulder to indicate that it was no big deal, and left.

The shopkeeper who came out to welcome the guests said politely to the middle-aged man: "Mr. Cai, the custom-made shoes can be ready on Sunday, do you still have to send them to the Ministry of Education?"

The middle-aged man waved his hand: "I'm not in the Ministry of Education anymore, send me to Peking University, just write my name and hand it to the guard."

"Come on, just look at it."

Peking University?Could it be some big boss this is again, but if you look closely, it seems to be Cai Yuanpei.

But following the greeting from the shopkeeper of the shoe store, Cheng Nuo didn't think too deeply.

If the matter is urgent, there is no need to measure and customize the feet, and the shopkeeper directly asks the shopkeeper to bring out a pair of shoes that are almost the same size and have already been made.

Li Laosan was also very interesting, directly cutting off the original price of [-] cents for the shoes to [-] cents, and finally the shopkeeper was so angry that he had to close the door and bombard him to finish the job.

I washed it with a basin of hot water, and put it on directly after paying.

"Sir, please fit your feet. When I was still wearing crotch pants, my mother took me to buy them in his store."

Li Laosan took out the bong and buckled it upside down, knocked out the ash, twisted some shredded tobacco into the smoking pot, lit it up and took a puff: "It's more comfortable than the shoes made by my family."

"It's really much warmer." Cheng Nuo put on new shoes and found a clean space to hop around.

"The new cotton that was bombed this season is soft."

While the two were chatting, the Ministry of Education finally opened the door.

(End of this chapter)