Chapter 61, the South China Sea Railway Chronicle (1)

Lingao new train station

Xu Xiake, whose head was wrapped in gauze, sat in the waiting hall, curiously looking at the furnishings and decorations here, and at the same time reaching out to touch his bare head, feeling very uncomfortable - although the executive committee of the Senate of the Traveler had tried its best to maintain law and order, because of the influx of tens of thousands of outsiders, all kinds of violent conflicts in Lingao County continued to occur frequently. Last month, when the unlucky Xu Xiake was shopping, he accidentally got involved in a large-scale group fight involving hundreds of sailors, and was smashed open by someone with a wine bottle on the top of his head, and immediately bled all over his face and fainted in pain.

Seeing this, the clan brother Xu Zhongzhao was so frightened that he couldn't possess his body, and hurriedly found someone to help carry him into the infirmary for help, but in order to bandage the wound on his head and prevent infection, the "thief doctor" actually shaved off all of Xu Xiake's hair...... As a result, Xu Xiake, who has no intention of "throwing a beard" so far, has become a "wig" in infinitely depressed - at least until the hair grows back, this hat will never be taken off.

And the Confucian scholars around him were full of disdain and disdain, which made Xu Xiake, who was forced to shave his hair, feel deeply traumatized.

“…… Tut, it's really swept away, shameless, looking at his clothes, he seems to be a famous scholar, why was he so confused by the barbarians, and made him look like no one or a ghost? ”

“…… Alas, there is a saying in the "Book of Filial Piety": "The body is skinned, and the parents who receive it dare not destroy it, and the beginning of filial piety is also." , such Shilin scum, in order to win the attention of the nobles of the Australian and Song dynasties, even forgot their ancestors, and even didn't want their hair, they were ashamed to be with him."

“…… Hehe, I'm afraid that he has the heart to join the thief, so the Australian thief is still unwilling to accept it, you see, isn't he still wearing a scholar's straight jacket, and he hasn't changed into the four-pocket 'Yu Ministry suit' of the thief, isn't it? It must be this person who shaved his hair and wanted to join the thief, but let the family eat the closed door......"

The Confucian students who said cool words didn't seem to think about lowering their voices at all, so that Xu Xiake could hear it clearly, and couldn't help frowning. Xu Zhongzhao, who was sitting next to him, watched his brother's face getting darker and darker, so he had to persuade him, "...... Ahem, brother Xian, don't take these cool words to heart, don't worry about these sour people who play tricks. After all, it's a matter of life, so I think Lord Lingtang should be able to understand......"

“…… It's okay, this kind of trivial matter, my mother will definitely not care about it. Otherwise, I won't be allowed to go out and travel the world. Xu Xiake waved his hand and replied, "...... Besides, this place is not less than thousands of miles away from the homeland of Jiangnan, and when he returns home, the little brother's hair should also grow......"

Having said that, listening to a bunch of idlers sneering at themselves around is not a comfortable thing after all. Although he has been ridiculed and ridiculed in Jiangnan Shilin before because of his maverick and unprofessional, he has not been so noisy in his ears after all. Xu Xiake didn't think he had the kind of forbearance that he was comfortable with, but it was inconvenient to quarrel with them, so he finally had to turn his attention to this station.

――Because it is a "toy railway system" built with Doraemon magic props, this new train station is also typical of children's parks: it looks beautiful from a distance, but when you walk in, you find that it is actually quite rough and empty.

On the whole, the whole station is a king-size pergola made of iron sheets, and the waiting hall is directly covered on the platform, with only a few iron pillars supporting the roof on all sides, and there is not even a wall.

The benches and ticket booths in the waiting room are also knocked out of iron sheets, and it is hard and cold to sit on, and it is not very comfortable. However, the shape is very beautiful, for example, the ticket booth has been made into a large orange mushroom, and the tin seat is painted with colorful paint with cartoon patterns of various animals and flowers. Even the trash cans stamped out of iron sheets are made in the shape of small animals such as rabbits and monkeys holding baskets, so that when the local aborigines first enter the waiting room, they do not recognize it as a garbage thing, and think it is a large vase or flower pot...... Therefore, later Yu Crisp at the station really changed these excessively exquisite iron trash cans to flower pots, and put a few rattan baskets as trash cans.

By this time, the waiting room was already crowded with vendors, diligently selling fruits, pastries, cold drinks and sugar cubes, as well as all kinds of souvenirs that could not be named. Blocked by an iron fence, they couldn't get in, so the vendors had to climb the iron bars and shout. Then, from time to time, because he made too much trouble or wanted to squeeze in, he was whipped by the "bearded soldiers" in black uniforms at the entrance of the station......

In short, Xu Xiake looked at the layout of the station like this, took out a pen and paper, and recorded it while waiting for the train.

-- In fact, according to Xu Xiake's travel plan, after seeing the "Australian scenery" on the Lingao side and visiting the scenery of Lizhai in the mountains, he, the "first donkey passenger in the late Ming Dynasty", should end the trip and return to his hometown in the south of the Yangtze River.

How could the plan not catch up with the changes, he and his clan brother just came out of the deep mountain Li District, and caught up with the unprecedented event of the fleets of all countries gathering in the Lingao Alliance, all kinds of unheard of new things, as well as strange and strange people, etc., what Persian dancing girls, African Kunlun slaves, American Hongyi, Tianzhu snake people, and all kinds of overseas beasts, all poured into the Lingao market in one breath, so that Xu Xiake, who was curious by nature, was dazzled for a while, and could no longer move...... After the airship formation appeared in the sky above Lingao, Xu Xiake, who was eye-opening, refused to leave again.

The problem is that the Xu brothers spend money every day when they go out. After such a long time of trekking through mountains and rivers and drifting across the sea, there is not much left of the little entanglement they brought with them when they traveled, and they will not be able to last for a few more days. Although Xu Xiake has lowered his face, set up a stall on the street to write letters for others, and sells his calligraphy and paintings by the way, the business does not seem to be very good, and the money he receives is very limited...... Fortunately, just when he and Xu Zhongzhao were about to pay for the inn, they met a Jiangnan businessman who had met in the past in Lingao, and finally borrowed dozens of taels of silver from him - Xu Xiake's Jiangyin Xu family is also a well-known wealthy family in the local area, and he doesn't have to worry about paying back.

Seeing that he finally had a little more money at hand, Xu Xiake pondered and continued to travel south -- according to the "broadcast" played in the loudspeaker on the street lamp pole on the street side of Lingao Dongmen City, as well as the content published in the "Lingao Daily", "Emperor Taishang of the Song Dynasty" was in the southernmost part of Qiongzhou Mansion and the southernmost part of the Ming Dynasty, and established Sanya New City as a "line in", and convened the Quartet "old Song Dynasty relics" to discuss the plan, and also published several copper engravings of Sanya's "ends of the world" scenery in the newspaper. Immediately attracted Xu Xiake, a donkey guest.

――You must know that as the most famous tourist in the late Ming Dynasty, Xu Xiake often died for the sake of seeing the scenery. He used to look for the mountain lakes on Yandang Mountain, and he could even climb the cliff with his bare hands. Later, in order to enjoy the scenery of Xiangxi, he took the initiative to drill into the battlefield of the official army to suppress bandits, which can be called the limit of death. Now that he knows that there are such beautiful scenery at the southern tip of Qiong Island, and the transportation is also very convenient, how can he not feast his eyes?

As for what is suspected of being involved with the "Australian Song thief...... He hadn't been afraid of this question since he left home......