Chapter seven hundred and ninety seventh thirst for knowledge
"David Wu...why don't you say your name is Octavian!"
Zhang Shou heard this word in a correct accent, and it was obviously different from the original pronunciation, so he definitely didn't hear the wrong surname, so he almost subconsciously complained. When he found that the young man in front of him suddenly widened his eyes, he saw Chen
Yongshou looked puzzled, so he simply joked with a half-smile: "If you are Octavian, then I will be Caesar!"
"You actually know about Caesar and Octavian!" The blond boy was surprised and happy, his eyes were shining, "No wonder they told me that you can translate those books! By the name of Buddha, you are indeed the real one
Bachelor!"
If you let God know that you, a believer, are chanting about the Buddha in the Eastern land, then he will definitely kill you! In other words, this must have been taught to the young man when he was learning Chinese on the boat. Maybe the person who taught him is still
You may think that the God the church believes in is the Western Buddha. This translation is correct, but you don’t know that this is simply a divine operation...
Zhang Shou was angry and funny, and immediately laughed and said: "I am a bachelor, but I don't have the ability to understand the languages of various countries, so don't count on me for translation! I just know who Caesar and Octavian are."
You are young, but your ambitions are quite lofty. Why, do you want to revive the Roman Empire that Augustus once created?"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, speak slower, I didn't understand..."
The blond boy finally showed a bitter look and quickly bowed and asked Zhang Shou to stop. But this time, his pronunciation was not as precise as at the beginning. It was obvious that he had rehearsed some words well in advance, and now he said
These are not available, and it also reveals the shortcomings in Chinese speaking and listening.
However, as a person who learned Chinese while traveling across the ocean, Zhang Shou felt that this kid was already outstanding enough. You must know that as the most difficult language in the world to learn, there is no one, even the most receptive to new things.
It is really not easy for a young person to learn the articulation and pronunciation like this in a short period of time.
Of course, the most important thing is that the person who taught him did not speak Cantonese or other dialects, which is really commendable! If this young man had just opened his mouth and spoke Cantonese or a dialect from somewhere along the coast, then he would definitely have black lines on his head!
Although Chen Yongshou didn't understand the conversation between Zhang Shou and the blond boy at all, he could at least tell that Zhang Shou had a certain understanding of the country or the history of the boy. He knew very well that he
Bringing people here today was entirely a spur-of-the-moment decision, and there is absolutely no way that Zhang Shou has any contact with the people in the fleet. Therefore, this is very shocking.
He thought that the emperor had revealed that Zhang Shou obviously had other unknown gentlemen besides Ge Yong, and these gentlemen should have traveled overseas, so the things he taught Zhang Shou were very novel, so Zhang Shoucai
In Banshan Hall and Jiuzhang Hall, I will occasionally teach some foreign history that no one else knows.
The two names now spoken by Zhang Shouhe, the blond boy, obviously belong to the category of foreign history, which proves what the emperor said.
Therefore, seeing that the blond boy who called himself David Wu was obviously a little flustered because he could not keep up with what he had heard, Zhang Shou stopped talking with a smile, but did not explain anything in particular. Chen Yongshou shouted with a straight face: "Scholar Zhang is a busy man.
, how can I have time to learn how to speak with you! Well, in short, it is your luck that you can set foot on the land of the Ming Dynasty alive, so you can take care of yourself from now on!"
After saying that, Chen Yongshou raised his hands to Zhang Shou and said: "Scholar Zhang, try to use this kid. If it doesn't work, throw him to the mine! He eats, drinks and rides on the boat for free. He is quite big."
Half a year, plus the expenses of several months of traveling from Guangzhou to Beijing, is enough for him to dig mines for a lifetime!"
When Zhang Shou saw Chen Yongshou saying these words, he glared at the blond boy with a straight face, then turned around and left. The boy who looked a little out of touch just now turned pale in an instant, fully showing that he was indeed still a child.
, he couldn't help but smile, and after Chen Yongshou disappeared outside the door, he coughed lightly.
"If you don't want to become a miner, David Wu... Well, I don't want to ask you what your name is. After all, distant Florence or Pisa has nothing to do with me... Should you tell me carefully, what is your name?"
Do you really understand? Don't nod in a hurry. You know, even though I have never been to your hometown, I still know some things."
Zhang Shou deliberately slowed down his speech this time and tried not to use any idioms. Seeing that the blond boy Wu David was listening there and trying to understand what he said, he paused and asked the most important question.
"For example, the writing language used in books is different from your daily writing writing. If I remember correctly, this should be... latino, do you really know it?"
Zhang Shou spoke out such a Latin word in very non-standard Italian, and then the blond boy's eyes suddenly widened, and then he scratched his head as if he felt guilty.
"I haven't learned Latino yet... but I can understand part of it, because the words I usually read and write seem to be related to Latino! Anyway, I definitely know more than those people on the ship and the interpreters!"
Seeing the person staring at him nervously, with an expression of "I can do it, I can definitely do it, buddy, you have to believe I can do it" with a forced and confident expression, Zhang Shou folded his hands and said nothing, and just looked at the other person calmly,
After a while, another irrelevant question suddenly popped up: "You just said you were fifteen years old? I don't think you are that old, right?"
The blond boy was stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly explained: "I am really fifteen, really! Isn't your rule that you will grow one year older during the New Year? It is already December, and the New Year will be coming soon, of course I
You can say I’m fifteen!”
Zhang Shou suddenly burst into laughter. Chinese people's age is indeed often fictitious. Therefore, for children whose birthdays are at the end of the year, after the New Year, the number they report can even be two years older. But even if you do this
After all, he still felt that the young man in front of him might not even be thirteen years old.
However, seeing the person's deliberately sincere and innocent eyes, he was too lazy to continue asking. It is true that Italian originated from Latin, but as far as he knew, whether it was words or grammar,
, in fact, there are many differences. Of course, this difference is much smaller than the difference between English and Latin.
But this does not mean that people who know Italian can easily read Latin books! But now, instead of counting on those interpreters, it is really better to count on this blond boy who got into the Ming Dynasty!
Therefore, Zhang Shou did not waste time, but got up and walked to the bookshelf in the school hall. When Chen Yongshou left for the first time to find someone, he took Lu Sanlang and others and sorted them into the cart of books on the bookshelf.
He picked out one book. Of course, since these books were not parchment books, they were still old books, so he specially put on a pair of thin silk gloves.
It was such a simple action, but the blond boy stared at it for a long time. When the book was finally delivered to him, he stretched out his hands without saying anything. However, he did not take the book.
Instead, his eyes were staring straight at the gloves in Zhang Shou's hands. His eyes were clearly saying, I want them too!
Zhang Shou couldn't help but be amused by this unmistakable request. He smiled suddenly and did not take off the gloves in his hands. Instead, he returned to the desk, pulled out the top drawer of the three-drawer cabinet on the side, and casually
He took out another pair of silk gloves. When he stood up again and came to the blond boy, he handed over the gloves.
This time, the blond boy almost snatched the gloves in his hand quickly and looked at them over and over for a while. As he put them on, he admired and said: "Silk gloves are actually made of silk. We are so rich here! We have no money there.
Women would save money and use silk to make handkerchiefs and show them when they go out, and the richest women would use silk to make skirts and clothes."
"Especially those silks with patterns. Even if you cover them with gold coins, you can't buy them. They have to be piled up."
When he said the word "pile", the blond boy who was trying to put on the pair of silk gloves made an exaggerated gesture, as if he could only say a mountain of gold coins. Regarding this, Zhang
Shou just chuckled, then nuzzled his lips at the person, gesturing for the little guy to open the book and read it.
Seeing that his words obviously did not achieve the purpose of attracting Zhang Shou's attention, the blond boy could only lower his head and flip through the book. However, his eyes seemed to be focused on the beautiful italic text, but in fact, he was doing two things.
Try your best to think of a way out.
For an illegitimate child, and not an illegitimate child of an aristocrat, but an illegitimate child of an ordinary rich man, there is absolutely no tutor who can teach all kinds of knowledge. And it is a great blessing for him to be able to read and write, because
He grew up by his father's side, and his father's real wife also treated him well.
Therefore, although he had already made up his mind to learn something like Latin, it was only in his plan and he had not had time yet! But soon, he found that this book seemed to be the one he had always wanted to read.
Ben! He tried hard to identify each word in the book, tried his best to figure out the meaning, and suddenly forgot that there was Zhang Shou next to him.
After all, even though his father had always regarded him as a formal member of the family, he had not read much of the old books at home that were said to be old. These old treasures were not as old as paper.
The cheaper the books are, the cheaper they have been printed by well-off families over the years, and they are now a substitute for parchment books.
Therefore, the gilded and luxurious cover and the thick and crisp paper were incomparable to the books he had read before. It was not a collection of poetry that was full of nonsense, nor was it some so-called philosophy with empty content, or some story about a third-rate literati, but
is real knowledge.
Even if he couldn't understand, or could only understand a little bit based on the words he figured out, it didn't stop the blond boy from greedily continuing to look down. Until... a hand suddenly blocked his sight, cutting him off.
between the book and his eyes.
The blond boy glared at him angrily, but when he came into contact with the indifferent eyes, he suddenly realized his situation.
This is not at home. If his father catches him peeking at the books he regards as family heirlooms, then at most he will be pushed to the ground and beaten severely. But this is in a foreign country. Ever since he sneaked in out of curiosity
Ship, hoping that after seeing where the so-called Eastern Kingdom is, his life will no longer be in his own hands!
Therefore, the blond boy immediately hid the anger he had just revealed and showed just the right amount of panic. This was also his best weapon to deal with his father. After all, even if he was an illegitimate child, for a father who did not have any other children,
This move often allowed him to escape most blame and even win the mother's sympathy and support.
If Zhang Shou is really only as big as he looks on the outside, then he might have been deceived by this little guy. The problem is that he has lived in two generations and is deeply curious about this blond boy with completely unknown origins, so
Of course, he won't miss the other person's emotional changes in a flash after he made this action.
In other words, he discovered that this boy's true emotion was not anger or fear, but...annoyance? In other words, even if this book did belong to that rich father, this boy had never read it.
, even if you are very interested?
So, he asked leisurely: "Can you tell me what kind of book this is after reading it for so long?"
The blond boy was relieved. He took a breath, then held his head high and said: "This is a very famous work in ancient Greece. It's called Σtoixe??a!" After saying the word very fast,
He glanced down at Zhang Shou's hand that still hadn't moved away, and said in a dull voice, "Many knowledgeable people say that it records the truth of the world."
"It turns out to be Euclid's Σtoixe??a." Zhang Shou spat out a few words calmly. When the young man in front of him showed an obviously stunned expression, he chuckled and said, "In more than a hundred years,
In the previous Yuan Dynasty, we had translators here who translated this book. At that time, many people studied it in order to compile the calendar. If this is the case, this book is not precious."
This time, the blond boy almost stared out of his eyes. Today, the man from the palace, whom others called Eunuch Chen, brought him over and asked him to translate the book. He realized that he had grabbed a life-saving stick.
Straw. If you don’t go to the East, you don’t know how big the country is. This Eastern country is not only as big as dozens or hundreds of Florence, but probably hundreds or even thousands!
He is very interested in everything about other people, but they don't seem to be interested in his country. They even regard him as a spy who sneaked in, and a useless spy at that!
If people didn't need him to translate these books, he wouldn't even have the chance to read them... would he even lose his life?
After thinking about this point clearly, the blond boy suddenly became panicked and shouted hurriedly: "These books are translated from the original text of Euclid, and your books are definitely not... for people who don't understand these things,
In addition, it is easy to make mistakes by only translating from one language to another!”