The thirteenth year of the Republic of China, November 5, 1924, seven o'clock in the morning.

The city of Beijing is bathed in the morning sun, and the corner tower of the Forbidden City is glittering, like a polished tomb beast.

According to the agreed time, eighteen-year-old Pu Yi came to Yanxi Palace to see the restored Swiss watch robot.

Qin Beiyang instantly remembered what Ah Hai said - at dawn, the "emperor" was going to see this baby's performance. They quickly retreated into the three-story attic, leaving only the Blue Wolf Town Tomb Beast sitting on the roof.

Ah You, Lao Jin, Zhongshan, Xiaojun Wang, Ye Kenan, and the town's tomb beast Nine Colors, all hidden in the attic. Ye Kenan suffered a knife wound in the shoulder, and Ah You bandaged him personally. As for the bodies of the old eunuch and several men in black coats, they were all thrown into the deep underground well.

By the time Qin Beiyang ran back to the secret room on the second floor, the blind old bell was dying, and the sleepless repair work had made the old man run out of oil and the lamp was dry, and he couldn't say anything.

The eunuchs have stepped into the Yanxi Palace, escorted the "emperor" into the second floor, passed through the secret door in the picture of the twelve beauties, and came to the Swiss watch robot that Emperor Qianlong loved.

Compared with the eunuchs who wore Qing Dynasty robes and dragged braids behind their heads, their "emperors" wore Western-style haircuts, suits and leather shoes, and glasses, just like foreign students who had eaten foreign ink and returned home. And beside Pu Yi, there is also a Westerner about fifty years old, he is China's first Western "imperial teacher", the English teacher of the little emperor, the Scotsman Johnston.

When Qin Beiyang saw the young Pu Yi, he didn't kneel, but just bowed ninety degrees and said, "Craftsman Qin Beiyang greets Your Majesty." ”

"Presumptuous! What kind of person, dressed like a flower child, how many days has not been washed in hair? The animals are cleaner than you, and when you see the current emperor, the true dragon and the emperor, you still don't kneel and kowtow? ”

The eunuch next to him was about to slap him and force Qin Beiyang to kneel, but Pu Yi stopped him and said, "Stop, this little master is a guest invited by me, and he is rude." ”

"Zha! Damn the minions! ”

Pu Yi said in disgust: "Get out of ......"

When the eunuch heard the emperor's order, he really rolled down the stairs with a grunt.

Johnston, a Scotsman, underestimated in English on the side: "Sure enough, it's a minion." ”

"Where's Mr. Ahai?"

Pu Yi actually asked about Ah Hai...... Qin Beiyang pretended to be calm and said: "Your Majesty, Mr. Ah Hai took me to the palace last night, and he said that there is something important to deal with, and he has retired first." ”

He called Pu Yi "Your Majesty" instead of "Emperor", because according to the Republic of China's preferential treatment of the Qing Dynasty, the abdicated emperor was treated with the courtesy of a foreign monarch, and it was in line with official etiquette to address His Majesty as if he were facing the King of England.

"What does that coffin out there mean?" Pu Yi took out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose, thinking that he couldn't stand the smell of Qin Beiyang's body, "How unlucky?" I almost didn't dare to come in. ”

Qin Beiyang casually recited a reason, "Mr. Ah Hai has many quirks, he likes to put all the maintenance tools in the coffin, saying that it can absorb the essence of the ancients and help restore antiques." ”

"It's a new reason."

"Your Majesty, the Swiss watch robot of Emperor Qianlong that you want to restore has been completed under the guidance of Master Zhong."

"Really? Great, perform for me! Pu Yi sat on a dragon chair brought by the eunuchs, crossed Erlang's legs, and said leisurely, "Since I was eight years old, I saw this baby's performance, and I have never forgotten it, and I have been waiting for ten years...... Mr. Zhuang, would you also sit down and take a look? ”

The eunuch gave Johnston another chair, and Mr. Yang and his students of the emperor sat side by side in the secret room on the second floor of the Yanxi Palace, and began to admire the clock robot made by Pierre Jaquet-Droz.

This baby has already been wound up, and Qin Beiyang has carefully checked it again, so as not to produce any more baskets.

Take a deep breath, a night of tossing and turning, and finally turn into a colorful performance for these few minutes.

The first to start is the third level of the clock robot, a symphony orchestra in which many Western figures each hold their own instruments, some play the violin, some beat the triangle, and some play the harp......

The entire three-story building of Yanxi Palace seems to have been turned into a concert hall, and Bach's "Mass in B minor" is spread all over the place. It was a solemn religious music, which in the eighteenth century did not have gramophones, and all relied on these mechanical figures to operate the instruments, creating a symphony orchestra to the marvelous effect, much to the surprise of Johnston, the Scotsman, who soon fell into a state of intoxication.

Then the two writing figures on the ground floor, the Western girl, wiped the dust off the small table, poured water into the inkstone, and then carefully sharpened the ink. And the bearded man, picking up the miniature wolf quill, dipped in black ink, began to put pen to paper on the rice paper. Only Qin Beiyang, who repaired it by himself, knew that the mechanical parts that controlled the writing were three discs, with uneven grooves of varying length and distance on the edges, which were specially made according to each stroke and pen stroke, respectively, to control horizontal and vertical strokes and move up and down. The European bearded gentleman holds the case in one hand and the pen in the other, calm and relaxed, full of workmanship, as if the European Rococo version of Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, and Liu Gongquan wrote eight Chinese characters on the paper with a clear eye.

"Eight directions, nine earths to the king!"

Accompanied by Bach's symphonic music, the last emperor of China softly recited these eight words, as if the Qing Empire had risen from the ruins and returned to the prosperous era of Kangxi and Qianlong.

Of course, this is just a must-have dream created by the Swiss watch robot for the little emperor of the eighteen-year-old......

Don't look at the symphony orchestra and writing of this Western villain, but Qin Beiyang's heartstrings are tight. Antique clocks are extremely fragile and expensive, and if there is any delay, I am afraid that an extra speck of dust will make the steel wire deviate and write the eight Chinese characters ugly.

In the last level, the two Western villains on the top floor, they spun in circles like a Turkish whirling dance, and a scroll banner was unfolded between the two, writing "Long Life Without Borders" in Manchu and Chinese respectively - after all, it was a congratulatory gift to Emperor Qianlong on his 80th birthday.

"Good!"

Eighteen-year-old Pu Yi immediately applauded, and Johnston, an English teacher, praised a "Perfect".

At the end of the performance, Qin Beiyang finally knelt down, but instead of kneeling to the emperor, he kowtowed to the craftsman Old Man Zhong.

The old man is dead.

He must have listened to Bach's symphony and heard the little emperor's "good" before he swallowed his last breath.

The spring silkworm is dead to the end, and the wax torch turns to ash and tears begin to dry.

Qin Beiyang remembered that last night, in the process of repairing the Swiss watch robot, the blind old man Zhong kept saying a sentence: "Choose one thing, for the rest of your life...... As craftsmen, we are not guarding the Qing Dynasty or the Great Emperor, but the craftsmanship and treasures that have been passed down from generation to generation. ”