Duncan felt like he was going crazy. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Chinese is a complex, esoteric, elusive language that cannot be easily mastered - when Qin Lang told him that he was going to start learning Chinese, Duncan thought he was fully aware of how difficult it was, but when learning really began, he found that he still underestimated its difficulty.

He was completely unable to grasp the correct pronunciation of those words, which seemed strange to him at least, whether he could listen to or speak, whether it was the northern official dialect or the Cantonese dialect. After wasting a whole week, he could understand twenty words in Mandarin and eleven in Cantonese, and at the same time could say "hello" and "I'm an American" in odd pronunciations - but basically no one could understand them except Qin Lang.

There is no doubt that the progress is simply too slow.

Therefore, although Duncan's learning speed was still very good compared to ordinary Westerners, Qin Lang still asked him to put more time and energy into studying.

"I don't have much to ask for, Duncan." "Not being able to read and write, that's not a problem, but when you go to China two months later and start your work, even if you still can't speak fluently, you have to be able to barely understand what my compatriots are saying." ”

That's right, compared to the other few times, this time he really didn't ask for much, but Duncan still thought that Qin Lang had prepared him with an impossible task.

Two months, time is too tight!

Duncan walked irritably back and forth in his office. Suddenly he stopped and began to scratch his hair desperately, hoping to find a solution, anything, to the problem at hand. And as he did, there was an untimely knock on the door.

Duncan froze for a moment, then decided to warn the people outside not to disturb him, but then remembered that it was still working time, so he had to sit back in his chair, comb his hair neatly, and straighten his crumpled coat. Finally, after being convinced that there was nothing wrong with his appearance, he responded. "Come in."

The door opened, and his secretary walked in. "Mr. Sandy, there are several Chinese who have asked to see you."

Chinese? Why the Chinese? Duncan blinked. It's a coincidence, although he has always been interested in everything in China, but now he is worried about learning Chinese, so he doesn't even want to touch anything that touches China, whatever it is.

And, a couple of Chinese, "Do they have appointments?" At least he didn't remember that arrangement at all.

"Nope."

"Then let them make an appointment first, schedule a time and wait until then to bother me."

"But they said there was something extremely important to meet with the head of the company." "And one of the old men claimed to be China's minister to the United States." ”

"Minister?" Duncan bounced out of his chair like a cat with its tail stepped on, "He said he was China's minister to the United States?" ”

"Yes, sir." The secretary nodded, then thought for a while, "By the way, one of those Chinese seems to have been to the company before." She recalled more carefully, "Yes, he came." I remember he was the Acting Vice Consul of China in the United States, called—"

"Ask them to wait in the conference room." Now is not the time to search for memories. Duncan knew of Qin Lang's plans, that he had offered the Chinese government to send military advisers to help it train its troops, and now the Chinese minister made a surprise visit to the company, apparently indicating that the request had been unequivocally answered—and most likely approved.

This was the news that Qin Lang had been waiting for, and Duncan did not intend to delay any time. "Send someone to the laboratory immediately to inform Mr. Qin." He commanded loudly.

"Yes, Mr. Sandy."

The secretary was about to turn away, but Duncan stopped her again. "And Mr. O'Connor, send someone to the training camp to find him."

In the chemistry laboratory, Qin Lang was testing with Elizabeth the chemical reaction he "proposed" for the synthesis of ammonia - in fact, the "Haber process". Haber and Carl. Bosch invented the method in 1909 and patented in 1910 – only now, the two chemists will never get their own credit.

However, even though he was just repeating what others were about to achieve, Qin Lang could not completely guarantee that his experiment would be successful, and Elizabeth looked even more nervous.

"Qin, can we definitely succeed?" She asked repeatedly, and repeatedly emphasized: "I'm not sure at all." ”

"Patience, Elizabeth, you know that even if all the conditions and parameters are right, the reaction may not always be successful." Thinking about it, he was sure that every condition and data he recalled was accurate, so the only thing to do was to pin his hopes on luck.

But Elizabeth was still nervous. "You know we're creating a new approach that hasn't been done before, and there's definitely someone else doing this work, so we have to hurry."

Then she began to whine in a whisper. "If my father hadn't wasted so much of my time, we would have gotten accurate results a long time ago."

"Relax, Elizabeth." Qin Lang had to continue to comfort her, "I guarantee that we are many years ahead of the others, and there is still plenty of time." ”

"You don't know the level of chemistry in Europe." "Especially the level of chemistry in Germany. ”

"No, in fact I know as much as you about European chemistry as well as Germany, and perhaps even better than you. Within ten years...... Haber "suddenly realized that he was talking too much. Just as Qin Lang began to look for a way to make up for the omission, a staff member suddenly walked up to him.

Clearing his throat, he announced in a formal tone: "Mr. Sandy has sent someone to inform you that the Chinese minister is at the company's headquarters, boss. ”

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth, but I had to leave." Qin Lang immediately said to Elizabeth, blocking all opportunities for her to speak before she asked who "Haber" was. As for the future...... In a few hours, she would have forgotten the unfamiliar name completely.

Qin Lang was very sure of this.

Laughing pleasantly, he apologized again to Elizabeth, who was extremely reluctant and eager to ask who his name was, and then turned and strode out of the lab.

Just outside the building, a carriage was waiting for him. As soon as Qin Lang got into the carriage, the door slid and closed, and the carriage was on the road. After what looked like a long couple of hours but was actually nothing more than a short dozen minutes, the door reopened, and he walked out and into the company.

His secretary, Miss Rose, had been waiting by the gate since ten minutes earlier, and now she met him at once. "Mr. Sandy, Mr. O'Connor, and Lieutenant Colonel Harrington were already in the room, and the Chinese representatives included Mr. Minister and Acting Vice Consul de Vers. de Brown, as well as staff and interpreters."

Qin Lang nodded. "How long has the meeting started?"

"It's not officially started yet." Miss Ross replied, "The Minister insisted that the meeting should not begin until you arrived. ”

"So what are they talking about?"

"Nothing, everyone just sat and didn't say a word."

Qin Lang walked into the conference room and saw the scene described by Miss Ross, which was even more exaggerated: including Duncan, all nine people inside were sitting like puppets, motionless and not speaking, and there was no trace of the coffee placed in front of everyone, which had never happened before.

The atmosphere was dreary. Qin Lang commented. Perhaps this is because Yang Ru is here, this old-fashioned minister probably doesn't like to chat with a few foreigners, nor does he like his entourage to chat with foreigners, and in order to maintain his image, he probably won't whisper to his entourage in front of foreigners...... However, this may not be the case, because Yang Ru may still be secretly annoyed by the matter of the military adviser, so he will not give it a good look.

Or maybe he just just hates foreigners.

Either way, the moment he entered the room, things changed. Qin Lang saw that everyone had been relieved of the puppet state they had been maintaining and became active—except for the minister, of course. He still sat motionless, not even lifting his eyelids.

Qin Lang shrugged his shoulders secretly, sat down in his place, and gave Duncan a look. He nodded, then stood up. "Gentlemen, now that everyone is here, our talks can begin."

It was only at this time that Yang Ru finally showed signs of activity - he slowly raised his head and set his eyes on Qin Lang. "So, you're the boss here?"

"Yes." Qin Lang replied calmly.

"It's your idea to send military advisers to my Great Qing, isn't it?" Yang Ru then asked.

"That's true."

"You're bold." This was both a comment and an accusation, but it was not a reprimand-Yang Ru didn't seem to have the courage to reprimand Qin Lang yet, and he didn't even say anything more, but changed the subject. "I don't know where Qin Gongzi's ancestral home is, and when he came to the United States."

"In fact, I've been living in the U.S., and I haven't been to China until now." Qin Lang replied casually, "As for the ancestral hometown, although it is Chongqing, it doesn't mean anything. I don't have any relatives in China. ”

"I see." Yang Ru nodded, of course, at this moment, no one else may have seen it, but Qin Lang did notice the taunt that flashed in his eyes, obviously, his answer made this minister Mr. find a little superiority.

So the talks officially began. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )