Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 362: Who doesn’t understand romance?
At night, set up a tent in a place surrounded by mountains and rivers, light a bonfire, eat barbecue, drink beer, and watch the stars with a beautiful lady. When you are in a good mood, just turn on the portable radio and invite the beautiful lady to dance together... After this series of operations, the planner will most likely be able to fall asleep peacefully with the beautiful lady in his arms, surrounded by the fragrance of trees, flowers and plants.
This is probably the wonderful camping life that many young people dream of. Of course, in reality, you probably won't meet beautiful women, and the environment is not that beautiful. There may be a lot of men around you who have the same purpose as you. It's noisy and noisy, and you will probably encounter garbage all over the floor, dirty sewage in the public toilet, and all kinds of troubles.
The two nights Zhang Shou spent camping in Zanghai Lower Courtyard were not a world of their own, but better than a world of their own. This was because both Zhu Hong and Zhu Yi had tried to avoid being a light bulb, and Ah Liu had a very low sense of presence. In addition, the insect repellent powder successfully drove away those insects that were prone to disrupting the situation, so he really enjoyed the rare tranquility in the city.
However, he had accompanied Zhu Ying to watch the stars in Rongshui Village, quite a few times, and even popularized the so-called astrology with great interest to the young lady, and told her the story of Saint Seiya in a serious manner, so that Zhu Ying was already familiar with the twelve zodiac signs. It can be said that watching the sky full of stars, which is considered romantic by couples in later generations, has long been a different thing for him.
However, in addition to the hard work of traveling all the way I have also heard and witnessed a lot of unexpected things. At this moment, when we hold hands and watch the moon and stars, there are many more things to talk about.
So, the talented and beautiful couple, under the moonlight, did not discuss the topic of vows of love. Perhaps because they had seen the plants brought back from overseas first, or because they had found a Taizu stele while digging the tunnel, Zhu Ying could not help but look at the stars and ask about geography.
"A Shou, if you are sailing on the sea, do you really need to be able to look at the stars? Is the star-gazing technique really that useful?"
Speaking of the star-pulling technique, Zhang Shou immediately laughed. To be honest, he was not familiar with the astronomical techniques of the day, so when he heard that Teacher Ge wanted to take him to the four seas to test and re-determine the calendar, his first reaction was to hide quickly. However, he knew a little about the star-pulling technique, which was one of the precious legacies of his ancestors and had played a great role in navigation.
"Star-pulling was not originally used for navigation. Instead, a table was set up on the ground, and a rope was pulled from the end of the table to aim at the stars in the sky to measure the position and angle of the stars. But later, with the advent of the armillary sphere and the horizon ring, it was gradually used less and less. The star-pulling technique used at sea is actually very different from the star-pulling technique used on the ground. It requires a star-pulling board..."
Zhu Ying's question opened Zhang Shou's mouth.
Although he was not a geography expert like Emperor Taizu who could draw maps at will, he had several hundred years more geographical knowledge than people of his time. What's more, he had the experience of looking down on the world from high altitude, which no one in the world had before. Therefore, he could naturally explain it in a coherent manner. If there were any parts that went beyond the scope, he could even cover them up with the globe he had seen from the Ordnance Bureau.
And because Ah Liu followed Zhang Shou's instructions and deliberately let the water out while looking out, Lao Xianyu and Zang Hai were able to eavesdrop for a long time from behind the high wall of Zang Hai's lower courtyard .
At first, the fat monk was afraid that he would hear the sweet talk of the two little kids. Not only would it be embarrassing, but if he was discovered, he would definitely be hunted to the ends of the earth. But then he found out that Zhang Shou was talking about everything from navigation techniques like star-pulling to astronomy, and then from astronomy to geography.
However, when Zhang Shou made a horizontal comparison between the location of the continent where the Ming Dynasty is now located and the location of the continent in Haidong, and then began to analyze the similarities and differences in terms of climate and geography, he gradually began to feel dizzy.
Even though Zhang Shou did not elaborate too deeply, the sun's angle of incidence, the direct hit of the Tropic of Cancer, etc., he and Lao Xianyu, one of whom practiced martial arts when he was young, and the other only read books of sages when he was young, finally had stars in their eyes, and did not understand at all. The fat monk endured and endured, but finally could not bear it anymore, and glared at Lao Xianyu and turned away.
He had just walked out for a few steps when he felt that unreliable brother chasing after him like a gust of wind. He immediately cursed in a low voice: "It's all your fault. You insisted on eavesdropping on others' conversations... Now you are listening...listening to you! He is a doctor in charge of two halls in the Imperial College. How could you expect the two of us to understand what he said?"
"Ahem, I just thought that when they were together under the moonlight, they might accidentally reveal something." Although Lao Xianyu had already noticed that Ah Liu was going to let him go, he still held on to a glimmer of hope, but he didn't expect the final result to be so tragic. He smiled bitterly and sighed helplessly, "I really didn't expect that the young lady could tolerate such a man..."
In such a nice environment, they are actually talking about astronomy and geography? This is not a lecture in the Imperial College!
However, just when Lao Xianyu was feeling resentful, he heard Zhu Ying's clear voice coming from behind him: "A Shou, you know a lot. By the way, you just said that the climate is different at different latitudes..."
This time, before Zhu Ying finished speaking, Zang Hai dragged Lao Xianyu away without hesitation. Only when they were far away and could no longer hear the strange conversation between the handsome man and the beautiful woman did he breathe a sigh of relief and wipe the sweat from his forehead.
"But I understand why you believe these two... The young lady is not like a young lady. I have never heard of any young lady who is interested in digging tunnels. Not to mention Dr. Zhang, he knows everything about astronomy and geography, and he can even make spinning machines and looms. He doesn't look like a Confucian scholar who becomes an official after reading too much... In short, you are lucky!"
"Well, let's hope. I'm already on the pirate ship and can't escape. Even if it's for that stupid boy Yunhe, I have to bite the bullet and get on with it." The old salted fish touched his already sparse hair head and sighed, "I have always thought I was well-informed, but now I really feel like I've lived a dog's life at my age... Just because he can cook delicious food, I decided to trust him this time!"
This time, Zang Hai did not laugh at Lao Xianyu for the first time, but nodded with a sigh.
"Alas, this is because I have been drifting on the sea for too long and have become greedy. Every time I swear to have delicious food and drinks when I dock... Especially when I was drifting on the so-called American continent, I really didn't know how to make those foreign foods delicious. If there was someone like Dr. Zhang who could make wonderful flavors with all kinds of ingredients that he had never seen before, life would really be like heaven!"
At this point, the fat monk added, "You're right. A foodie who doesn't think about getting promoted or getting rich, but instead thinks about how to cook better food, should indeed be trustworthy. As for that young lady... since she's attracted to such a unique fiancé and is so eccentric, we should just trust her for now!"
Of course Zhang Shou didn't know that because of his and Zhu Ying's "uniqueness", they easily passed the test of trust - of course, even if he knew, he would probably find it ridiculous - how could ordinary people understand the mind of a foodie?
The next morning, when he and Zhu Ying had breakfast and were preparing to set off, he received a rubbing of the stone tablet text that Wanghai Temple had specially asked Zhu Ying's guide Huifa to deliver yesterday.
Of course, the characters on the rubbings were all in reverse order, and even if some of the letters could be spelled out, they were incoherent. So even Zhang Shou, who was proficient in pinyin and English, had a headache when copying it backwards. It took him a long time to finally copy all the characters on paper one by one, thinking that this wasted time.
But the surface work still has to be done... otherwise others will ask, how can you decipher such a mysterious book that no one can decipher?
Zhang Shou stood up and stretched himself. Seeing Zhu Ying put down the ink-stained papers in frustration and Lao Xianyu not even interested in taking a look at them, he said with a smile, "Okay, let's go back to Cangzhou! Whether it's the stone tablet or the tunnel, since we've informed your eldest brother, we don't need to worry about it."
He paused, and then said meaningfully: "In fact, the overseas barbarians harbored by the Canghai Lower House are more important!"
The old salted fish then changed his expression. The only thing he was thankful for was that Huifa, who came to Wanghai Temple to deliver the letter, had already gone back. There was no one else in the room, and Ah Liu was watching outside. He quickly smiled and said, "Dr. Zhang, how can this be considered harboring? Are you going to report directly that there are foreigners staying in Zanghai's lower house? That's a serious crime. Zanghai and I, with our thin arms and legs, can't handle it!"
Zhang Shou glanced at the old man with disdain: "Don't worry, I won't kill you. I will talk about this matter after I return to Beijing."
Seeing that Lao Xianyu was still worried, he let Zhang Shou go pitifully, but looked at himself. Zhu Ying, who was awakened from a sweet dream by the crowing of roosters in the countryside early in the morning, could not help but snort in annoyance.
"As for Zhu Hong and Zhu Yi, I will of course tell them not to tell Big Brother. The mess in Cangzhou is enough to worry him. Well, enough of the small talk. We have been out for two days. It's time to go back to the city. Let's go!"
When she came, she had a sense of leisure and ease, but when she left, Zhu Ying was not in such a good mood. After all, she had been traveling back and forth for the past two days, and she was tired from digging a hole yesterday. She felt happy talking late at night, but she regretted it when she woke up early... If she hadn't been a little scared of long-distance carriage rides, she would have gone directly into the carriage to catch up on her sleep.
Even during the lunch break, she showed little interest in the pheasant shot by Ah Liu, and said listlessly that she would just drink some thirst-quenching drink. Until Lao Xianyu brought the pheasant and said he wanted to pluck the feathers and barbecue it, Zhang Shou saw the lotus leaves in the pond not far away, and called Lao Xianyu to whisper to him for a while, but she still couldn't come back to her senses.
As a result, not long after, Lao Xianyu screamed and complained that the food was hot, but she called Zhu Hong for help. Finally, he brought a fragrant roast chicken on an exquisite plate. The drowsy her was awakened by the fragrance of lotus leaves.
Even though she didn't have much of an appetite, Zhu Ying couldn't help but feel hungry. When Zhang Shou tore two chicken legs and handed them to her, she felt that the taste was light but very delicious. Then she looked at Zhang Shou and her mood suddenly became very good.
Even though she is a rich girl who has been accustomed to countless people observing her words and expressions and flattering her since she was a child, it is always completely different when the person she truly loves can also be considerate to her in every possible way.
A simple version of beggar's chicken was used to bring back the spirit of the young lady, but Zhang Shou himself only ate a few bites casually. After all, his taste was much more picky than Zhu Ying's. In an era when all kinds of food from all over the world could be served on the table and the seasonings were so rich that one could definitely live a more luxurious life than the emperors and nobles of this era as long as one had money. Nowadays, most of the pollution-free foods are good, but the variety is not rich enough.
When they set out again, they saw Zhu Ying curiously asking about the recipe of the roast chicken. Even though she heard Lao Xianyu talking nonsense, she didn't curse. Zhang Shou made sure that Emperor Taizu didn't get ahead of him, so he smiled and told the story of the beggar's chicken. Of course, the beggar is still the beggar, but Qian Qianyi is not Qian Qianyi. He just found a person in the long history to take the place of Qian Qianyi.
There is no doubt that anyone who sees a beggar eating and goes up to ask him how he cooks his food is a foodie. And the celebrity in history who best fits the term "foodie" is naturally Su Dongpo.
Sure enough, Zhu Ying believed it immediately. But even after entering Cangzhou City and arriving outside the Changlu County Government Office, she was still struggling with an incredible question: "Su Dongpo really liked to eat... but Dongpo pork and Dongpo elbow are all very famous, and the lychees he praised are also well known. Why haven't I heard of beggar's chicken?"
Upon hearing that his sister had returned, Zhu Er, who had hurried out to greet her, happened to hear these words. He could not help but look at Zhang Shou. When he noticed that Zhang Shou had a smile on his face, he immediately understood.
It must be this future brother-in-law who seems to be obsessed with mathematics, agriculture, astronomy, geography and other subjects... but is actually very good at pleasing girls, and who let Zhu Ying eat some delicious food that is not available anywhere else.
He knew that even his elder brother could not be compared with Zhang Shou in this regard, so he could only change the subject quickly and said, "You have been in such a hurry for the past three days, you must be tired. The sun is about to set, and the hot water is ready. You all should go back to the room and have a good rest. Later... Hey? Who is this kid? Where did you kidnap this little monk from?"
"What do you mean by kidnapping?" Zhu Ying saw Guan Tao hiding behind Lao Xianyu with a timid face. She was really exhausted and couldn't help yawning again. "Guan Tao hasn't been ordained yet. He is just a little novice monk. He came back with Lao Xianyu this time to help him run errands. Don't look at his young age. He can read and write and farm. He is not a freeloader!"
Zhang Shou couldn't help but sneer when he saw Lao Xianyu nodding with a big smile on his face. When it comes to sailing, Lao Xianyu might be quite good, but when it comes to farming, this poor guy might not be as good as this kid!
Seeing that the topic had gone off track, Zhu Er coughed heavily and then attentively dragged Zhang Shou, who had dismounted first, into the county government office. As for his difficult sister, he felt that it was too difficult to please her and he had completely given up. As he walked along, he reported in a low voice how he had snatched food from Zhang Chen and taken two streets for research. At the end, his voice was extremely low.
"Throughout Cangzhou, the reason why hypocritical good people like the Qi family can still flaunt themselves is because every winter and spring when food is scarce, many people have to rely on them to give out porridge to survive. In the two streets I went to, there were more than a hundred people without land and jobs, and more than three hundred people who had no fixed jobs and could only do odd jobs. With the help of Lao Xi, who is next to my eldest brother, the difference should not be too big."
