After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the temperature gradually dropped. It rained a few days ago, and then it became clear. The refreshing wind seems to have brought a little vitality to this closed city for nearly January. The sky is clear in the daytime. , After nightfall, the starlight is also clear and clear, and the cotton clouds float in the sky, one by one.
For the past month or so, the situation of the hungry people inside and outside the city has also been pushed to the limit. Of course, it is said that there are more embarrassing situations in previous years than this year. The strings have been tightened, but it is still difficult to say where the limit is. The government occasionally releases grain, and some big households also help to cook porridge and rice, and they are taken care of both inside and outside the city. Whenever this kind of charity relief, the officers and soldiers also help to maintain order, and there is no major disorder.
However, some gangs and gangs have formed among the victims, and there are often fights and grabs for food. After the government and the big households have finished putting out the food and making the porridge and rice, this kind of trouble often occurs, and it is not easy to manage. After the closure of the city, some people died, but a few people died of starvation. Most of them died because of fighting, looting, or were gradually dragged to death due to lack of money to seek medical treatment. But in general, it is said that there is still a decrease from previous years.
Living in this era, how in the past years, I have heard it many times, and most people have compassion, but the situation is good now, and life still has to be lived. The business continued to talk about entertainment, but the atmosphere of the whole city became a little quieter. The autumn rains a few days ago made the feeling of silence and stagnation even more serious.
The Mid-Autumn Festival Poetry Festival is open as usual, and it is still as lively as in the past, but the content of the poems is a little different from that of previous years. It has changed from the type of flowers and splendours describing various grand scenes or feeling the wind and moon to the reunion night lamenting those things that are not reunion, describing the city today. The scene of the disaster victims outside the city is mainly. Li Pin, Cao Guan, Liu Qingdi and others have new works, and some famous poets and lyricists have made breakthroughs this time. Of course, the author of the song "The Head of the Song of Water", which made a lot of noise last year, did not participate. He was deeply involved in family business affairs and had no time to worry about it. Some people talked about his clumsiness in business affairs, or laughed at him. Or sigh, but it also reduces the mystery behind the name "Ning Liheng" a lot.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, life returned to its original trajectory. People waited day by day for the impact of the flood to pass, and many merchants and shops in the city were operating as usual in this atmosphere. The refreshing morning breeze blew through this morning. It was about 12:00 in the morning. In a small room next to Su's cloth warehouse in Jiangning City, a few people were busy with something. This warehouse room is also connected to the store next to it, but in the current situation, the business is not very good, and the maid named Juan'er occasionally runs in to take a look.
Ning Yi, Zhou Pei, and Zhou Junwu were busy in the room. The sisters and brothers were dressed in Tsing Yi and small hats, but their skin was white and tender. At first glance, they knew that they were children with some background. The two of them also followed inexplicably. After Ning Yi for a month, some of the Su family had adapted to their existence, thinking they were the children of the master family or Ning Yi's disciple, so they took him around. Sometimes Ning Yi asked them to bring tea and water, and sometimes he even asked them to help carry some cargo - of course not heavy.
For this pair of siblings, this kind of life is quite novel. The day before yesterday, Ning Yi even gave them a salary for the first month, one or two dollars per person, the standard for child labor this month, and then compared Looking at the prices outside, it is probably not much use for the sister and brother to hold one or two coins, but the next time, it is quite novel.
Of course, treating them as child labor is only occasionally boring. Most of the time, Ning Yi still does his duty as a teacher. When he is free, he gives lectures to the two of them, and also teaches Zhou Pei modern arithmetic courses, in a relatively casual way. The course of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and the calculation method of this matter are verified one by one. At first, Zhou Pei didn't care about the code name of the Arabic numerals, but at this time, he has often asked these questions.
The reason why the three of them tossed about what happened today was because they were followed all the way when they went to the laboratory a few days ago, so they also gave them a tour and talked about the concept of physics. Ning Yi mainly found a few pieces of colored glass that could be used as convex lenses, and was going to get a telescope to play with. He showed the two of them the principle of focusing and magnification. Zhou Pei disagreed, saying that it was very important. Simple, everyone knows it. Since the telescope was still being built, Ning Yi was going to do something very simple but not everyone knew about it.
Just now, I asked someone to help me get a wooden box. At this time, I used some black cloth to make a shading tent to surround it. The three people hid inside and lighted a candle. Then Ning Yi covered the side of the candle. , Since the box was only half-covered and the light was still showing, Ning Yi took a piece of thick rice paper that had been dug out and pasted with a bamboo frame, and put it down to do a simple small hole imaging experiment.
Juan'er stood at the door and looked at the black cloth tent here, a little puzzled. After a while, I heard someone say, "Look, the light here is upside down."
"Uh… "
"Ah, teacher, how could this be!"
"It must be a trick."
"The tricks also make sense."
There was chattering for a while, and when Juaner leaned over, Ning Yi had come out of the black cloth and smiled at her: "Go in and have a look, it's not very interesting, but I probably haven't seen it before..."
Juan'er went in suspiciously, and then saw the upside-down candle flames appearing on the side of the wooden box.
For the past month, Ning Yi has held a morning meeting every morning like a worker, walked around the fixed route, and then played freely. It seemed that he was diligent, but he didn't do much. Most of the time, Chan'er followed him, and sometimes Juan'er. Several maids and Zhou Pei and Zhou Junwu had already known each other. The polite Junwu often called them Sister Chan'er and Sister Juan'er. Zhou Pei is more reserved, but he already has an acquaintance's attitude towards them and Ning Yi.
"Some people will say it's a clever trick, so for the time being, don't take it too seriously, but some things will be very interesting. For example, these two lenses, they are placed so far apart, so they can Made things bigger... Well, I've got Carpenter Chen to help chisel good cylinders and then figure out a way to fix them..."
Ning Yi always likes to give lectures in small talk. This morning, the long bamboo tube was placed on the table by the window sill. Xiaopei, Junwu, and Juaner who came in took turns to look inside, then stunned. The lens could not be fixed for the time being. Ning Yi just found the approximate focal length. He wrapped the lens with circles of rice paper and put it in a bamboo tube to have a look. The lens was not fixed and could easily fall over. Therefore, this small telescope could not be helped. Movement, at least in terms of effect, is actually quite astonishing.
"The reflection of light through a small hole actually means that the light travels in a straight line. But in some cases, such as putting a chopstick in water, it will bend, and here, the light will turn. You have to say see What can you do when you get to a reflection, that's hard, because this telescope is a combination of a lot of different things and principles, once people can study to this extent, and everything is clear, then there's no need to take it slow like me. Try your luck, you will know directly what kind of lens you need to use to make a telescope, and what this concave and convex surface should look like... When you know more principles, you will also know how to accurately create those concave and convex surfaces, How to control it precisely."
"However, you don't have to think about how to make these, what I want you to know is... a way of thinking about things, the combination of because and so, don't know why, don't know why, many craftsmen have used the old method for many years. , but I don't know why the old method has such and such effects. If you know the principle, you can build a more transparent lens, a telescope that can see farther and more clearly. The efficiency will be increased tenfold or a hundredfold. Everything is the same…”
"Zhou Pei, the calculation you like is also the same. It is more clear. Since one family equals two, and two plus two equals four, it can be continuously extended. We are the world of people, and it is a world of numbers. In fact, it is necessary to calculate how light is Refraction, how to magnify, how much to magnify, all need the assistance of numbers. The world of numbers is purely because of clear logical relationships... I don't want you to become craftsmen in the future, but I hope you can understand this logical relationship. This should be useful."
"Of course, there are some more extreme examples in the planning, which are very interesting to think about, such as..."
After finishing the experiment, he probably extended out to talk about some messy things. Jun Wu looked at the small hole imaging device over there, and occasionally fiddled with the telescope. Zhou Pei was also surprised by the experiment just now, but at this time he was more serious. Listening to the words, Juaner listened for a while and went out to see the situation in the store, and sighed in a place where no one was: "Young master is so amazing..."
After a while, Xi Junyu passed by and chatted with Ning Yi for a while. Jun Wu and Xiao Pei went over to pour tea and move seats. This was also a tacit understanding between the two children and Ning Yi. In fact, in addition to listening to the class, they have been wondering why Ning Yi didn't do anything for the past month.
Xi Junyu was passing by here today, because the cloth line party will be held in three days, and the chips of each household will be officially put out, so let's take a look at Ning Yi's situation at this time. In fact, all the shopkeepers are busy running around. Xi Junyu just met with the owner of a shop this morning, and is now ready to go to another entertainment.
"Although this month has passed, it seems that my Su family has the highest voice, but the shopping malls are intriguing, and all kinds of things have to be guarded against. Although Mr. Han supports us now, and Mr. Dong also likes my Su family, it is hard to say whether there will be any What happened. The Xue family and the Su family also have a solid network in the officialdom, so it’s hard to say whether they will make a comeback on the spot. If there is anything later, it has to be arranged as soon as possible.”
Xi Junyu belongs to the young strong faction in the Su family. He is determined to forge ahead, but he is also sober. After listening to him, Ning Yi nodded: "The old lady has done her best for the official affairs. Manager Xi, I am not very Knowing the doorway, can there be similar things in the past?"
"In the past few years, Buxing has never fought too hard. Of course, no one can tell the hidden calculations... Oh, maybe I'm overthinking it, the three families of Su, Xue, and Wu are all There is a background. Since it has reached this level this time, there will probably not be too many changes. If they can make a comeback at this time and cover the sky with one hand, then in the past, I am afraid they would have swallowed my Su family long ago. ."
"Probably impossible." Ning Yi laughed, "Opening the door to do business, after so many years, when we put things out, even if they do something in private, it's impossible to open our eyes and talk nonsense about our things. No, it's fine if we are small merchants... Oh, in fact, this time, we were forced to do nothing. One assassinated, another framed, and then we took over the royal merchant. I still don't know who it is. If not, this month Probably there is no need to be so high-profile. In short, if you can pass it, you will have a future. If you can’t pass it, there is nothing to talk about. The 150,000 taels that were scraped out a little bit are now being spread all at once to improve the loom. Waiting for the royal merchants, retreating or something, then there is really no..."
Xi Junyu nodded, sighed, and then raised his head and smiled: "It's only three days, so there shouldn't be any problems, don't worry, in addition, the troublesome uncle also told the second lady, in any case, this time, it has been done. best."
"Do your best, and obey the destiny." Ning Yi nodded, "Manager Xi has been working hard recently, and he is working hard."
"It's my share." After a few words of greetings, Xi Junyu invited him to meet an official of the Weaving Bureau at an entertainment over there. Ning Yi then shook his head and pushed it away. It didn't make much sense for him to go. After Xi Junyu left, Zhou Pei and Zhou Junwu frowned and spoke.
"Why don't you go?"
"Maybe I can convince that person..."
Ning Yi packed up his things and said with a smile, "I have so many things to do, why do I have to worry about it."
"But you're all right." Zhou Pei pouted.
"Who said I'm fine, I'm going to have dinner later, and I'm going to go shopping in the street in the afternoon. By the way, I'm going to Chen Carpenter's place to get the casing of the telescope, and by the way, I'll study how to fix it better. Uh, I'm also going to paint a layer of paint on the outside, Stop by the East Market to see if there is anything new to sell. Nothing is more important than socializing…”
"If the entertainment is not good, teachers will have problems at home."
"But aren't they socializing? It's useless for me to go. The preparations for taking the royal merchants are already done. You two know it. We don't need to do any little tricks. It’s enough to speak with conscience, and we don’t need the adults of the weaving bureau to show favoritism toward us. We have also sent money and things like this, and we don’t make it difficult for them. As long as they don’t speak out against their conscience, we can be sure to take it. arrive."
"Wouldn't it be better if they spoke out of conscience for the Su family? That would make it even more certain."
"Of course, that's not bad either..."
"Anyway, I think you didn't do your best, teacher..."
Jun Wu was a little unhappy, but Ning Yi smiled: "Don't worry, don't worry, I have already done what I should do, it was originally a trivial matter, I don't know why you are so anxious. It's getting late, let's go, take me with you. you go to lunch..."
When he was about to leave, Zhou Pei suddenly came over to stop him, and said with a smile, "Uh, wait, it's only three days, can we take a look at that cloth too?"
Ning Yi thought for a while, then tilted his head: "Oh, okay." He took out a key and opened the cabinet next to him, then took out a brocade box to open it and showed it to the two children, Xiaopei and Jun Wu moved around a few times.
"Wow, it's really prettier than what I see at home..."
"I've never seen cloth of this color before."
"The secret recipe." Ning Yi smiled, and then made three chapters, "But let's talk about one thing first, you two guys are not allowed to go home and talk nonsense, you are not allowed to help find someone, and you are not allowed to find a way to hint at the adults in the weaving bureau or something... Of course you don't have that influence now, but I want to be fair."
"Smelly, we won't help." Zhou Pei smiled and rolled his eyes.
Xiao Junwu nodded at the side: "If you can't get the royal merchant, it must be that Dong Decheng who has collected money, and has collected a lot of money."
"Hehe, let's go, let's eat... Juan'er, let's go together!"
At noon, a group of four walked out of the cloth shop, and then the guards of the palace, who also dressed as cloth shop buddies or passers-by, followed from all around.
"Does this mean that a good fighter has no great achievements... But you really did nothing, teacher... Sister Juan'er, right?"
"Uh... Uncle has done a lot of things... "
"Of course you speak for your uncle, but my sister and I didn't see anything... But that's right, I didn't have to do too much, I thought it was a big crisis, but step by step it got to this point. This is called Go ahead, sister."
"do not know… "
"Why?"
"Those people did one thing, and then there was no conspiracy, isn't it weird."
"Yes, yes, teacher, sister is right, don't you think it's strange?"
"Yang conspiracy, not afraid of conspiracy."
"Yes, yes, sister... ah..."
"… so noisy."
There were still three days before the meeting of the Weaving Bureau. After the calm noon, it was a calm afternoon. Ning Yi went to the street to get the telescope casing, and then bought some small tools to better frame the lenses. It was evening and night, and when it was late at night, there were crowds scattered at the gates of the brothels and restaurants. Xi Junyu said goodbye to several shopkeepers at the intersection, and also refused the invitation to take a shopkeeper's carriage home. , The weather is fine today, and he decided to go for a walk alone.
Going all the way along the Qinhuai River, he came to a relatively secluded river bay. He looked around, and then walked to the small pier next to him. After a while, the sound of punting water sounded, and the boatman supported the boat toward the depths of the water waves. Row away, Xi Junyu stood on the boat, looking at a hazy circle of light in the distance, his eyes were quiet.
It was a small painting boat that did not seem to be very lively. When the two boats approached, Xi Junyu stepped up. In the hall in the center of the painting boat, it seemed that a banquet was over soon, the lights were dim, and the tables were full of Some leftovers feel cold. Directly in front, a man was sitting on the master seat, holding a bowl of rice, lowered his head to fill his stomach, heard footsteps, he ate a meatball, still lowered his head, while using chopsticks to put vegetables in the bowl talking.
"I was just thinking about whether I sent people away too early. Maybe leaving a beautiful woman with me will make this meal more delicious. Fortunately, Brother Xi came early, so this is the same."
Xi Junyu stepped aside and picked up a bowl, "I'm not a beauty."
"Hehe, but... Brother Xi always brings me good news."
The man smiled and raised his head. In the light, the man in front of him was the eldest young master of the Wu family, Wu Qilong.
************
Recommend a book: ISBN: 2080918
Introduction to "Sword Ancestor": Swordsman, sharp edge! Sword Immortals, ascend to Qingming, descend to Jiuyou, control the sword for thousands of miles, and the sword breaks the sky!