After Luo Lie left, he drove back to his residence, but went to Yupu Wharf on the way. He stood alone on the wharf against the river breeze, looking at the dark river water, listening to the sound of waves, but his thoughts suddenly returned to many years ago...

As the sun sets, the sea breeze gradually rises. Tanggu Port Wharf, which has been exposed to the scorching sun for a whole day and has no shade of trees, can finally make people stay there for a while.

A giant ship lying on the dock, and the towering chimneys on the wheel were emitting thick black smoke. The black smoke indicates that the coal in the boiler is not burned sufficiently, and the ship will only inadequately burn if it is ready to set off and the coal will only occur when the boiler is ignited.

Five Chinese characters were written in white paint on the front side of the giant ship, "The Queen of China". These five Chinese characters gave people the illusion that the ownership of this giant ship belonged to the Qing Dynasty. In fact, this giant ship belonged to the American Pacific Shipping Company, and was specially built to transport the materials robbed by the United States of America in the Qing Dynasty back to the other side of the ocean.

After the Reform of 1898, the Qing Dynasty launched the Westernization Movement. The court selected many outstanding young people to send to Europe or the United States to learn advanced knowledge in batches. The upper class no longer stayed in seclusion, and more and more foreign ministers went abroad to see each other. The shipping companies run by foreigners kept pace with the times and added some passenger conditions on the basis of freighters to make them trans-ocean ships that are both passenger and cargo. The "Queen of China" is one of them.

The overly hot weather all day long caused delays in loading the cargo of the "Queen of China". The original plan to set sail at 5:00 p.m. It was time to let tourists board the ship until half past five. Half of the guests boarded the ship were subjects of the Qing Dynasty. Although they still had unique braids, they were mostly dressed in foreign suits, and the women were even dressed in colorful clothes. Even though they were still wearing traditional cheongsams, they had to wear a pair of high-heeled leather shoes bought from foreigners under the cheongsam.

There was a pair of young and old people in the boarding team that were extremely eye-catching. The old man was in his sixties. He actually wore a melon-skin hat on his head, and was still wearing a long gown. On the bridge of his nose, which had a slightly sweat bead, there was a pair of black round glasses framed glasses. The young man was about thirteen or fourteen years old. He had a handsome face with clear eyes and clear eyebrows like jade, and a white short-sleeved shirt and brown Western shorts, which formed a sharp contrast with the old man around him.

The boy seemed a little unhappy, his melancholy eyes floated back and forth between the old man and the giant ship. His thin lips opened and closed several times, and his look of wanting to speak but stopping was very pity.

"When you get on the boat, you have to take good care of yourself. When you get there, the court will arrange for people to wait on the dock. You must be obedient and study hard. When you grow up, be a talent that is useful to the country. Don't follow the old path of grandpa." It was about to board the boat, and the old man handed the suitcase in his hand to the boy. It seemed that the only one who boarded the boat was that young man, and the old man just came to see him off.

The boy seemed very wronged, with tears flashing slightly in his eyes. He took the suitcase handed over by his grandfather. The boy bit his lip and finally spoke: "But grandfather, I still don't want to leave. I want to stay by your side to read and read."

The old man sighed lightly, shook his head slightly, and said nothing.

The old man's surname is Luo, with his name Gongquan and his courtesy name Qingshi. He became a scholar at the age of nineteen and became a scholar three years later. His career was bright, but he had other ambitions and refused the court's invitation to join the government many times. The young man was named Luo Lie, and he was Luo Gongquan's only grandson. Since his daughter-in-law died of illness and his grandson had no parents' care, Luo Gongquan brought the seven-year-old Luo Lie with him. He taught him to read and read on weekdays, which was also considered as a companion for himself.

Luo Lie is very smart and has a great memory. The various words that Luo Gongquan studied throughout his life seemed extremely simple to the young Luo Lie. This made Luo Gongquan very pleased. For a while, he even had the idea of ​​letting Luo Lie inherit his mantle. After all, the talent shown by this child is rare in fifty years. But in the end, Luo Gongquan gave up this idea, first sent Luo Lie to the Chinese and Western Academy jointly opened by foreigners and the court to learn modern knowledge, and then he entrusted some relationship with Luo Lie when he was thirteen years old, and won a place for Luo Lie to study in North America.

Watching his grandson board the ship, Luo Gongquan turned around and left. When he walked out of the dock, his feet were unstable. He almost staggered and fell to the ground, barely stabbing his body. Luo Gongquan subconsciously turned his head and looked back. The ship was crowded with people, and there was no way to see Luo Lie's figure.

After Luo Lie boarded the ship, under the guidance of the crew, he found his own bed.

Luo Gongquan felt sorry for his grandson and bought a first-class boat ticket for Luo Lie. In fact, the conditions were just average. A cabin less than four square meters was covered with upper and lower bunks 60 cm wide on both sides. There was a fixed simple coffee table between the beds on both sides. When Luo Lie walked into the cabin, a pair of men and women had already lived in it, hugging and kissing. The man was a foreigner, but the woman was a Chinese woman. But when the cabin door opened, the woman forced the foreigner away. She originally wanted to smile embarrassedly, but saw that the boy came in, so she omitted the embarrassed smile and continued to hug the foreigner.

Luo Lie threw the suitcase in his hand onto the bed, snatched the man and woman, and cursed in his heart: "It's so shameless!"

The journey is long, and if everything goes well, it will take ten days to reach the other side of the ocean. If you encounter bad climate on the way, the voyage will be extended, fifteen days or even twenty days. There are many entertainment projects on the boat, including singing and dancing performances, a casino that is not too small, and even a swimming pool, but these are not attractive to Luo Lie. He is still a child, and the entertainment that adults are obsessed with is extremely boring to him.

Opening the suitcase, Luo Lie took out the book. The cover of this book was rough, but the four characters called "General History of the West" were written vigorously and powerfully. The fly-headed calligraphy on the pages was a different style, and the agile and elegant character was faintly revealed. This book was made by Luo Gongquan for four months and copied and bound. The purpose was to allow Luo Lie to review the calligraphy left by his ancestors while reading.

Lying on his lower bunk on the right, Wu Chi read seriously with the book, trying his best not to be affected by the men and women.

The hatch door opened again, this time, a cripple came in.

The cripple had a foreign face, but spoke fluent Tianjin dialect. As soon as they entered the cabin, they nodded to ask Luo Lie to change his bed with him.

"Brother, okay, okay? Look at my uncle who is limping one leg, how inconvenient it is to go up and down? You are young, your legs are flexible, and you can climb up and down and down easily, right?"

Although they were all first-class boat tickets, the upper bunk was five yuan cheaper than the lower bunk. Luo Gongquan was worried that Luo Lie would fall off the bed when he was sleeping, so he spent five yuan more and bought a lower bunk ticket for Luo Lie. The cripple asked to change the bunk. This was normal, but the difference between the five yuan bunk, but he never heard the cripple mention it.

The man and woman opposite were quite moral, especially the woman, who spoke Beijing accent and did not leave any affection to eliminate the lame man.

The cripple didn't realize that he was in a disadvantage, but instead made a buzz saying: "Well, if we had that five dollars of free money, wouldn't we just buy the lower bunk?"

"You guy..." The woman was speechless when she was choked, and could only mutter in a low voice: "It's so shameless!"

Although the sound was small, it could still be heard clearly in the narrow cabin. The lame man was not angry when he heard it, but just stared at Luo Lie, with a momentum that he would not give up if you didn't agree.

Luo Lie was not afraid, but he just felt annoyed. He had to spend ten days with these three people. If he was making noise all day long, how difficult it would be for ten days. Put down the book, Luo Lie did not say a word, first moved the suitcase to the upper bunk, and then climbed up with the book. He suffered some losses and was not afraid of his ears.

The lame man lay on the lower bunk with peace of mind, but still couldn't calm down. He raised his legs and kicked the bottom of the upper bunk with his toes twice, and asked, "I said, "My friend, what's your surname? Is it okay for us to make friends!"

Luo Lie didn't bother to pay attention to him, so he just turned over and continued to read his book.

A long whistle sounded and the hull swayed gently, indicating that the voyage had begun.

Luo Lie was sleepy after reading the book, and took a nap. When he woke up, the man, woman and the cripple in the cabin were gone. There was no window in the cabin, and the sky was not visible, and Luo Lie had no pocket watch. He only knew that it should be night, but it was impossible to know when it was night. He felt a little hungry in his belly, thinking that the long night was long, if he waited until breakfast tomorrow, he didn't know how long it would take to end. The luggage in the suitcase prepared by grandpa for himself was only a few clothes for changing clothes, a few books, and a wallet made of calfskin with ten ten dollars and various identity certificates, and there was no dry food snack to cover his belly.

The boat ticket includes three meals a day, but Luo Lie didn't know how long he had slept and had he missed the meal time of the restaurant on the boat. But then he thought, the other three people in the same room went out at the same time, and it was probably the time for dinner at the restaurant. So he took out his purse and kicked him, put the suitcase into the cabinet, locked the cabinet door, jumped out of the bed, left the cabin, and then closed the cabin door, and followed the sign in the corridor to find the restaurant.

Although the signboard is marked in English, it is also equipped with pictures. The pattern of knife and fork intersecting must be the meaning of the restaurant. Luo Lie followed the instructions and first went to the deck, then went up to the third floor along the stairs of the boat, providing passengers and crew with free three meals a day, which was on these three floors.

Turning around and confirming where the restaurant was, Luo Lie couldn't help but feel secretly happy. It seemed that he had not missed the dinner time.

After checking his identity, he walked into the restaurant and imitating others' appearance. As soon as he picked up a plate to prepare for meals, he suddenly heard a noise coming from behind him. Luo Lie subconsciously turned his head to look, but saw two thick black boat policemen picking up a young man of the same age as Luo Lie as if he was carrying a little chicken.
Chapter completed!