Li Weiguo helped his mother to lie down and rest, and then followed Pastor Fei Dan to his office, accompanied by another man, the same one who had subdued Shi San in time in the main hall.

In Pastor Fidan's office, after some introductions and conversations, Li Weiguo learned that this good man was named John Jones, a major soldier from the British Royal Navy, who had come to Jiangning to do business and come to the church to worship by the way.

"I have the impression that there is no one in the Qing Kingdom who is proficient in English, and even when we negotiate with your emperor, we have to bring our own translators. I was amazed that you were only twelve years old and could speak English fluently and with a London accent. ”

John is not wrong at all, in the fifties of the nineteenth century, the Qing State was still closed off from the country, thinking that it was a great power of the Celestial Empire, and did not bother to learn from foreign countries at all, especially in Britain, which was thousands of miles away, and even less regarded an island country. Although the Qing Empire suffered a defeat after the first ** war, it still regarded the land reparation as a handout to the British from top to bottom, and it was not until after the second ** war that the Tongwen Museum began to be established to train translators.

Now there are still several years before the Second ** War, and only some people of insight secretly learn foreign languages in China, but if you are fluent and proficient, and even have an accent with a London dialect, it is indeed inferior to Li Weiguo.

"To be honest, I went to England with my father when I was a child, and I was fortunate enough to be baptized at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and stayed for a while to learn English."

Li Weiguo needs help now, so he has to brag, brag fiercely, and he is not afraid of revealing his stuff in the future, as long as he passes the current hurdle first.

"It turned out to be a baptism at St. Paul's Cathedral!" Pastor Fei Dan was shocked, looked at Li Weiguo with admiration, felt that the relationship between the two had reached another level, and asked, "I don't know which pastor presided over for you?" ”

"I don't remember exactly, he was very old, and everyone else only called him pastor, and I followed along, but I didn't know what his name was." Li Weiguo replied cautiously.

"You're only twelve years old now, and you should have been very young at the time of your baptism, and it's normal that you can't remember clearly." Fidan nodded, not suspicious.

However, John was born in the military and was cautious, after all, a young man from the Qing Kingdom could speak fluent English and even went to England and was baptized by the church, and the probability of this kind of thing happening is too low and too low. What's more, the braids of the Qing people are particularly conspicuous, once the baptism will definitely be a sensation, but he has never heard of such a thing, so he had to tentatively say: "I think you must have visited St. Paul's Cathedral, I don't know if you have gone to the basement, where there are many toys that children like." ”

Li Weiguo knew that the basement that could be visited in the future was not allowed at this time, and knew that the other party was tempting, so he smiled and said: "Major John must be mistaken, the priest took me to visit many places, but the basement is not allowed to go, he said that there are heroes hiding there, and he doesn't want to be disturbed." ”

"I haven't been back for many years, it's my mistake!" John smiled and said, most of his suspicions were gone.

Li Weiguo continued: "The pastor also told me that St. Paul's Cathedral is the spiritual pillar of the British people, and is regarded as the place where the phoenix flying in the flames rises again. ”

"That's right! That's right! ”

Hearing Li Weiguo's words, Pastor Fidan and Colonel John no longer had any doubts about Li Weiguo's words, believing that he had been to England and had been baptized at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was very important to them, because they took a fancy to Li Weiguo's English talent and wanted to recruit him for their own use.

"I heard you say that your father was unjustly imprisoned, the family property was also robbed by the clan, and you and your mother are living on the streets, why don't you live in the church first?" Fidan and John looked at each other before speaking.

"Thank you, pastor, then." Li Weiguo was worried that he had no place to eat and live, so he was naturally willing, and immediately nodded in agreement.

John said at this time: "At present, it is very difficult for the government of the British Empire to communicate with the Qing government of your country, the main reason is that the Qing government does not have an English translator, and our translators really do not understand the culture of your country, especially those idioms, poems, etc., many words are often ambiguous in translation, leading to misunderstandings and even misjudgments between us, it just so happens that you have no job now, and it takes a lot of money to raise your mother, I want to ask you to be our translator, what do you think?" ”

John is telling the truth, Chinese broad and profound, Chinese speak and like to be subtle and modest, and there is a huge difference between the culture of Westerners who go straight to the west, especially the civil officials of the Qing Dynasty like to show off their literary talents, and a mouthful of idioms and poetic quatrains make foreigners blind, just like the signing of the Jiangning Treaty, the British think that they defeated the Qing government to get the benefits, but the Qing government thinks that it is the favor of the Celestial Empire to the barbarian island countries, and a big reason is that the Qing government does not have a translator in this regard, The interpreter on the British side did not understand Chinese culture at all, and the two countries' understanding of the war was very different.

Being a translator, this is a good job, for the current Li Weiguo, he is only twelve years old, and he wants to return to his old business to make counterfeit money, but unfortunately he is now penniless and has no capital, and if he wants to rescue his father, he has to face the dark officialdom, and I am afraid that he has to rely on the power of the British.

"I wonder if if I become your country's interpreter in China, will your government be able to rescue my father? In addition, I need a large sum of money, because my wife is trapped in the Qinglou, and I must redeem her immediately. ”

John and Fidan looked at each other and said, "It's not easy for us in the British Empire to take care of your father's affairs, but if you show enough ability, I believe that the Imperial Government will definitely not sit idly by." As for you to redeem your wife, I can guarantee that as our translator, your salary will definitely be enough for you to redeem people, and if it is not enough, I will also use some savings to help you. ”

Speaking of which, it is understandable that Li Weiguo still wants to show his own value, but John is willing to help out of his own pocket, which makes Li Weiguo grateful.

"Okay, that's it!"

The British urgently need translators to China, this is for sure, because the British opened the door to China through the guò** war, but found that the scale of British commodity sales did not increase much, and the British wanted to increase the number of commercial ports, but the negotiations with the Qing government, especially often misunderstood the "meaning" of the Qing officials, resulting in various oolong incidents.

Li Weiguo's appearance made the British seem to have discovered a new continent, he was only 12 years old, proficient in English and a British Catholic, and extremely malleable, which could make him the British spokesman for China.

John quickly sent someone to the British Legation in Shanghai to report the incident, hoping to arrange a post for Li Weiguo and play a great role.

Li Weiguo is also using the British, he is now lonely, his father is in prison again, he guesses that the root of a qiē should come from Fu Shanxiang's mother's family, offended a certain big force in the capital, otherwise with his father's financial resources will definitely be able to settle the Jiangning prefect, now if he wants to rescue his father, relying on the British to put pressure on the Qing officialdom is the wisest choice.

Both sides take what they need and hit it off.

Li Weiguo was concerned about Fu Shanxiang and was worried that she would suffer, so he proposed to go to Tianxiang Pavilion immediately and ask John for help.

John nodded in agreement, he was very happy, just waiting for Li Weiguo to beg him, according to his experience in China over the years, there is a saying called the grace of a drop of water springs in return, he believes that as long as he helps Li Weiguo this great favor today, Li Weiguo will owe him a favor, and sooner or later he will have to return it to him with interest.

Li Weiguo didn't know what John was thinking about, and people were willing to help him, which in itself was a favor, so be grateful.

After a brief wash, he changed into clean clothes, and took John's carriage to Tianxiang Pavilion.

Tianxiang Pavilion is the largest gold cave in Jinling, thousands of beauties gather, set entertainment hotel bathing and accommodation one-stop service, although most of the beauties are closed and rested during the day, but there are still a lot of guests coming and going, the traffic is busy.

There are more than a dozen black-clothed men standing at the entrance of the palatial Tianxiang Pavilion, divided into two rows, and the momentum is violent.

If Li Weiguo came alone, all that awaited him would be the result of being beaten up and thrown out. But with John by his side, the situation was very different.

Although foreigners are still a rarity in China at this time, most people look down on these so-called barbarian and uncivilized people from the bottom of their hearts, but in Jinling on the contrary, the smoke of the first ** war has not yet dissipated, the British fleet blockaded the Yangtze River, bombarded Jinling, and slaughtered the bloody scenes of the people.

After a while, the boss of Tianxiang Pavilion, known as the ** Zi Xueniang of the Central Plains Yizhihua, hurried downstairs and stepped forward to greet him with a smile.

"I don't know what you're doing when Lord Yang arrives? If you come to have fun, the slave family will arrange the most beautiful girl for you to serve, and you will be satisfied. ”

John said very directly: "Boss, as long as you meet the requirements of my friend, I will be satisfied." ”

Xue Niang is only forty years old, she has seen all kinds of characters all year round, she is shrewd and clear, and when she heard John's words, she didn't understand that the young man in front of her was the main master, although she didn't know how this young man hooked up with foreigners, but she didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly smiled: "This little young master is tight, it's the first time to come." We have everything from five or six-year-old girls to thirty or forty-year-old, I don't know which little master is good, Xue Niang will make arrangements for you and keep you satisfied. ”

Even the five or six-year-old little Lori has it, it's really cruel, Li Weiguo grinded his teeth and snorted coldly: "I'm not here to have fun!" ”

After a pause, he continued: "A few days ago, there was a woman named Fu Shanxiang who was bought by Xue Niang in this Tianxiang Pavilion? ”

Xue Niang was stunned for a moment, looked at Li Weiguo's expression changed several times, and then said with a forced smile: "I didn't expect that the news of the little young master is very well-informed, I don't know what this girl named Fu Shanxiang has to do with you?" ”

Sure enough, he is a shrewd **, and he faces the main points in every word.

Li Weiguo saw that Xue Niang was jealous of John, and he was not afraid of the other party's difficulties, so he said: "That's my wife, there was a change in the family a few days ago, she was forced to fall here, today I am here to redeem her, and I hope that Xue Niang will raise her noble hand." ”

"It turned out to be Fu Shanxiang's husband, okay! Very good! Very good! Xue Niang gritted her teeth and said, her face was blue and white for a while, obviously meaning something.

"Xue Niang, don't worry, I am willing to pay back the 1,000 taels of silver you spent, and I will never let you suffer." Li Weiguo saw that Xue Niang's expression was different, and guessed that she didn't want to let go of Fu Shanxiang's cash cow, after all, a woman who was proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and who was as beautiful as the country and the city would earn her a huge fortune.

Xue Niang glanced at Li Weiguo in surprise, she knew that Li Weiguo was fine, how could a down-and-out kid who was kicked out of the house come up with two thousand taels of silver, it should be the foreigners around him who helped.

In fact, Xue Niang didn't intend to let her redeem herself from the moment she bought Fu Shanxiang, counting on Fu Shanxiang to bring her a huge income, and even secretly contacted more than a dozen high-ranking officials who were extremely rich, intending to live in strange goods.

Originally, Li Weiguo's double return of 2,000 taels of silver was not enough in her eyes, but now Xue Niang wants these 2,000 taels of silver, because Fu Shanxiang was rescued last night, and Xue Niang doesn't want to lose all her money and don't want to suffer.

However, when Xue Niang looked at the foreigner next to Li Weiguo, she couldn't help it again, if she accepted Li Weiguo's money, she had to hand over the person, otherwise the foreigner would not be able to settle the matter. At the same time, Xue Niang also had illusions about Fu Shanxiang, she sent people to search around, if she could catch people back and sell them for a high price, it would be the best.

Thinking of this, Xue Niang couldn't help it, and said with a displeased face: "Young Master Li's friendship is really admired by the slave family, how can the slave family not be able to hand over your wife now, because she has been rescued by a mysterious person a few days ago, and the slave family still thinks that it was Young Master Li who did it, and is trying to ask the master to ask for guilt." ”

"What? Shanxiang was rescued? Li Weiguo exclaimed, but his heart was complicated, happy that Fu Shanxiang escaped from the clutches of Xue Niang, but disappointed that the person who saved Fu Shanxiang was not his nominal husband but someone else.

~~~~

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