Rui Zheng thought in his mind: This Li Yu had become "sir" as soon as he came to the house, and he could also give lectures to Prince Qing. Wouldn't his status be immediately higher than his own?
As the translator of Prince Qing, I am also a bannerman. How can I think that when I see him in the future, a Han man will be a head shorter! It is really unreasonable!
He sat on the chair, held up the teacup and hid his face, thinking in his mind how to make Li Yu's status lower than his own.
Li Yu, however, had no time to consider his mental activities at all, he just got up and walked around the hall casually.
This chandelier is indeed very beautiful when seen up close, and it looks even more majestic in the small main hall. The teacup from which I just drank water looks smooth and clean, and must be made of famous kiln porcelain; even the chair on which I sit is inlaid with tall mother-of-pearl.
The craftsmanship is very valuable.
Yi Kuang was worthy of being the top greedy man in the late Qing Dynasty, and his wealth was evident in every aspect of his life. Coincidentally, he also lived in Heshen's old house at the beginning, so he really had the inheritance of greed.
Li Yu moved to the wooden box containing the chandelier and saw a few pieces of paper thrown randomly on the ground, which seemed to be some kind of documents.
He picked it up and saw that it was a tax declaration form from the customs. It clearly said "LANDED PRICE 1688 TAEL", that is, the landed price was 1688 taels.
Li Yu accidentally discovered a little secret.
The actual price of this chandelier imported from Italy is 1,688 taels. When the young prince Zai Zhen chatted with Rui Zheng, he said it was 3,000 taels. I don’t know if Rui Zheng was deceived or deliberately lied.
Li Yu guessed that Rui Zheng had been tricked, otherwise why would such a document be randomly thrown here?
Rui Zheng may not understand the meaning of "landed price". During their time, the Qing Dynasty's import and export trade was still very small. In Li Yu's era, China had long become the world's largest import and export trade country, which was completely unavailable.
Comparable.
However, the number 1688 is really interesting and meaningful.
Li Yu didn't intend to expose him just like that, so he folded the tax return and put it in his pocket.
Rui Zheng didn't see Li Yu's movements. He finally worked out a way to say it in his mind: "I heard that you are coming to the palace to be your husband?"
This question was a bit confusing, and Li Yu replied: "I can't talk about sir, I just want to be a student assistant to help the prince understand the knowledge of Western learning."
Rui Zheng snorted: "If you want to be a gentleman in the palace, you must at least have a good reputation, and at least be a Jinshi. Do you have it?"
Li Yu heard the thorn in Rui Zheng's words and replied: "I have already said that I am just a student assistant for Western studies, not a teacher."
"That means there is no fame." Rui Zheng felt proud that he had caught Li Yu's hand.
But Li Yu continued to speak lightly: "So what? Do you have any fame?"
Rui Zheng said angrily: "Of course! I was born in Juren, and I was a graduate of Tongwen Hall in the 24th year of Guangxu's reign."
"Oh, that's really awesome." Li Yu complimented with a fake smile.
Ruizheng continued: "I don't give a damn about those things learned from the West. They are all weird techniques. Learning those things won't bury your ancestors!"
Li Yu didn't expect that he, a graduate of the Tongwen School, would be so conservative in his thinking, and said, "Then you have to keep the things belonging to your ancestors, otherwise you will be in trouble if they are snatched away by those strange and obscene skills."
"you!"
Of course Rui Zheng knew the importance of Western learning, but he didn't learn much about it in Tongwen Hall. He could only try his best to belittle Western learning and then highlight himself.
"The imperial court has said that Chinese learning should be the body and Western learning should be used. This is the direction of the great government!" Rui Zheng said unconvinced.
Li Yu was well versed in the essence of Internet debates and immediately replied: "Okay, okay, everything you said is right!"
When Rui Zheng heard this, he was really stunned. This was the first time he had seen someone arguing like this! He had a lot of nonsense in his mind, and he could immediately retaliate as long as Li Yu dared to refute, but he didn't expect him to say such a thing directly!
As a result, one's own ammunition directly misfired, and all the words organized in the stomach were invalidated.
What was even more uncomfortable was that although Li Yu verbally "agreed" with him, Rui Zheng always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't explain it.
Although Li Yu didn't want to argue with him, Rui Zheng didn't want to let it go. He thought for a while and said: "In short, without fame, I can only be a book boy in the palace!"
This sentence is what he really meant - Li Yu must be ranked below him.
Li Yu felt really speechless, but he couldn't let him provoke him anymore, so he said: "Since we are talking about fame, I wonder what you are best at?"
Rui Zheng said: "Reciting poems and composing poems can naturally do anything."
"There's no point in reciting poetry. Speaking of rivalry, why don't I give you a rivalry? You have a reputation, so you won't be afraid of a rivalry from a person like me who has no reputation, right?"
"Do you want to test me?" Rui Zheng was really aggressive.
"How dare you, how dare you, just study it together." Li Yu looked at Rui Zheng jokingly.
"Then you can come up with the first couplet!"
Rui Zheng felt that there was no way he could lose to a man like Li Yu who was not even a scholar.
Li Yu also didn't expect that the other party would get in after he had tricked him a little bit, so he had to say: "Then I will go crazy!"
Rui Zheng pricked up his ears: "What are you saying? Come out quickly!"
Li Yu said: "Listen up! This is just a bit of self-deprecation. The first couplet is: In the picture, the dragon does not roar, the tiger does not roar, the little book boy is ridiculous!"
"Eh!" Rui Zheng was shocked. He had never heard of Li Yu's pairing. The guy in front of him, who was not even a scholar, could blurt out such a high-level couplet!
After all, he had just ridiculed the other party for being a scholar, so Li Yu immediately took the opportunity to write the first couplet, which was very "appropriate for the occasion". It was really difficult for him to write the second couplet for a while.
Li Yu saw sweat pouring from Rui Zheng's forehead, and he was extremely happy: Just think hard, if it's right, at least you must be Tang Bohu.
Rui Zheng felt a little unable to get off the stage. Fortunately, at this time, the voice of Prince Qing Yikuang came from the inner hall:
"Mr. Ding, I have been waiting for a long time. This Russian envoy is really a bit long-winded."
Yikuang was quite polite to Ding Tailiang because he happened to be an American. Yikuang always felt that Americans were easier to deal with than the Japanese and Russians.
He continued: "What I can't stand the most is the envoys from Russia and Japan. They can't discuss anything for most of the day. The Russian envoy is really a bit aggressive and unpleasant; the Japanese envoy has a lot of demands and documents.
One after another.”
Yikuang knows that the United States has always been neutral, and as an educator, Ding Haoliang will not get involved in politics, so he is not afraid to speak out.
In fact, the attitudes of the two countries were well known even at the time.
Moreover, during the Republic of China, various countries began to stop or even return the Boxer Indemnity. Calculating the "Xinchou Treaty", we paid more than half of the compensation in total, which is more than 500 million taels of silver.
But there is only one country that has not exempted or refunded a penny, and that is Japan!