Gao Yi returned to Yaxian Ju at five o'clock, and at five o'clock a servant from Rida came with a message: next Monday, the day after tomorrow, the principal of McThier School, Ms. Richardson, would have the great honor of inviting Mr. Gao Yi to her office for an interview.

"Thank you, Mahan, and for conveying it to your master on my behalf, saying that I am very grateful for his help."

Gao Yi hadn't come to go upstairs at this time, and was discussing with the proprietress about checking out at the door of the back wing. After Lao Gao Yi passed away, he didn't need to live in a two-bed room anymore, and the money he returned could just be used to pay off his debts.

"Do you need to call my master immediately?" The servant of Indian origin, whose name was the same as that of the author of the Theory of Sea Power, asked back.

"Telegraph?" Gao Yi was surprised.

"Yes, wireless telegraphs, all branches and ships of our company are equipped with Marconi telegraphs, ready to communicate on this line from Shanghai to Tianjin." Mahan replied proudly, puffing out his chest.

The answer is always correct, but it is never what you need, and Gao Yi has already attributed this to an inherent attribute of Indians, and many experiences in later generations have made him lose his temper for a long time.

"Very good Mahan, but can you tell me why I need a telegram?"

"Mr. Rida has left for Tianjin, sir."

Gao Yi raised his eyebrows in surprise. Thinking about it, no matter how luxurious Lida is, it is impossible to use a 1,300-ton cruise ship as a ferry, and the Elizabeth should have been overhauled at Xiangsheng Shipyard a long time ago, and he originally planned to take the ship today and set off directly to Tianjin. Otherwise, with his current status, even if he misses Lao Gaoyi, it is impossible to cross the river to Pudong just because of a simple wall.

"Then I'll thank Mr. Rida myself when he returns." Gao Yi said.

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else I can help me with? ”

"No, thank you for your service, you can go back."

"Yes, sir. Allow me to say that it is a great pleasure to serve you, sir. In addition, I will be here twice a day at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., as instructed by Mr. Rida, and if there is anything necessary, please do as I am told. ”

After Mahan left, Gao Yi made a lot of effort to negotiate with the boss's wife, and the end was naturally a big defeat and loss.

The rent is settled according to the lunar month, Gao Yi originally thought, today is the fourth day of the new year, after checking out, you can get 14 yuan, and after paying off the debt, you can still balance 8 or 9 yuan, saving a little should be enough to live for a month. Who would have thought that the proprietress thought that if he wanted to check out, he should have said in advance that now the New Year is about to go where to find guests, so the money cannot be refunded, but he can be allowed to stay for half a month longer, just to live until the fifteenth day of the first month. He thought about it, such a solution seemed to be good, and he was alone during the New Year, so he was still familiar with this place, so he agreed. But in this way, there is no way to repay the debts he is carrying, so he has to be an old man first, and the bearded captain is not the kind of person who comes to force debts.

*******

There was still a smell of corpse decay in the room, and Gao Yi walked to the window and opened it.

Yaxian Ju is already in the red world, how can the small pavilion stay away from the hustle and bustle. It's clean during the day or late at night, but when the lights come on, it's noisy. Push the window out, opposite is a hall alley, wine green light red, mourning silk bamboo, so that Gao Yi, who was still smoking cigars on a luxury cruise ship just now, came to this place of fireworks in the south of the Yangtze River in a blink of an eye.

The alley was very narrow, and the windows between the pavilions faced the platform of a two-story pavilion, and the two sides could not only talk to each other, but also extend their hands to give and receive things. When the windows were opened here, there were often people on the opposite side who were dodging and peeking, all of them were young girls, fourteen or fifteen to seventeen or eighteen years old, noisy and naughty, and there was no bitterness and hatred at all. They seem to be particularly interested in foreigners, not only Gao Yi, a young man, but also the old Gao Yi is very popular with them.

However, Gao Yi is used to seeing the awl face made in a mold, and then looking at these natural products, it is inevitable that he will not meet the standard. And urban women in this era, I don't know if it's due to lack of exercise, seem to have a little shaved shoulders, which is the most criticized point for Gao. When he was a child, he saw some old objects of the Republic of China painted with pictures of big-headed beauties, which felt very unreal at the time, but when he really came to this era, he found that the phrase that art comes from life is not only a universal truth, but also the same when it is put together.

Gao Yi ignored the girls opposite, he spread all the money on his body on the lid of the camphor wooden box, a total of two oceans, two dimes of small silverquill, sixteen copper dollars, and one he originally thought it was the ocean, but it turned out to be a Xibei goods with a hole in the middle. He picked it up and looked at it, only to see that one side was printed with "One Welfare Bread", and the other side was printed with "HALL & HOLTZL ONE LOAF SHANGHAI", which turned out to be a bread token issued by Welfare Global Department Store, and with this money, you can go to the welfare counter to exchange for a bread.

This time his money is not enough, although the coffin money of Lao Gao Yi is paid by the seafarers, but the money for hiring small workers and grooms has to be paid by himself, and each of the three of them has a big ocean, which is just right, but who expected that there is a fake in his pocket. I just don't know if any of the three are as good at talking as the bearded captain.

It seems that earning living expenses is no longer a priority, but an urgent one.

In fact, Gao Yi is still hesitant about whether to accept Rida's kindness. He spent more than ten years abroad in his later life, and he did not think about becoming a foreigner. You must know that he is fully eligible for immigration in any country, even Switzerland, which is notoriously difficult to naturalize.

So why did he want to be a foreigner after a hundred years of crossing? Is it just for this little difficulty in front of you? Just a few flasks and measuring cups for a middle school laboratory? To be honest, as long as he survives these two months, he will definitely be bright, and he is confident in this.

Gao Yi sat in the rocking chair, found a diary that Gao Yi had not finished, turned to a blank page, and wrote the word "advantageous".

This is his way of thinking, and whenever he wants to choose a way forward, he is used to writing down the advantages and disadvantages of the points, which can help him sort out the problem.

He writes in his favor: It is more comfortable to be with foreigners.

This is no way, his living habits are originally Western-style, if there is a gap of 100 years with the Chinese people of this era, there will be at most 30 years between him and foreigners.

But apart from this one, he couldn't come up with a second one after thinking about it for a long time. What he planned to do, foreigners do, Chinese also do, there is no reason to have to be a foreigner.

"Unfavorable", Gao Yi wrote these two words on the paper, and he finally gave up thinking about the advantageous point and began to move on to the next step.

Disadvantage 1: Inability to participate in domestic political activities.

If Gao Yi had crossed more than ten years earlier, he might still have the ambition to lead the country to prosperity and strength, but he wore it in 2017, and the country has come to the last step of surpassing the United States to complete the rejuvenation, can he still bring the country to be richer and stronger? If not, what politics do you need him to do?

So there doesn't seem to be any disadvantage to this first one.

"Second", after Gao Yi wrote these two words on paper, he was once again unable to put pen to paper for a long time.

It seems that whether or not to become a foreigner is not much different for the path he has planned for himself, becoming a foreigner can take a shortcut, insisting on being a Chinese requires more effort, and that's it.

So he is even more entangled, you must know that between the two can be the most embarrassing, just like when you order food "whatever", how can others help you place an order.

Gao Yi sat in a rocking chair, shook and fell asleep.

*******

Gao Yi was awakened by the cold, the window was open, and the cold wind of the wax moon poured in. He sneezed loudly, spitting and snorting, and the squirting was fine, but the non-squirting fell back to make him look confused. He hurriedly wiped it, but found that the diary was still in his hand, and on the page that was opened, all the favorable and unfavorable points written before falling asleep were gone, and only the four numbers "1921" were left on it.

When he saw these four numbers, a thought descended from the darkness, and he instantly understood that if he was not an Englishman, he would not be able to survive 1921 safely, not even die a dignified death, but would be infinitely frozen in 404 time and space.

Strange to say, when he understood this, the words 1921 disappeared before his eyes, and everything he had just understood and related memories were erased from his mind at the same time, and the only thing he remembered was the conclusion that he had decided to be an Englishman.