() Summer rì is like a furnace, and the heat is unbearable.

The busy people on the earth wiped their sweat, looked up at the sun angrily, cursed secretly, and lowered their heads and hurriedly went about their own business. A small river passes through the ancient city, slowly flows forward, and is content, and a willow grows on the bank, and the cicadas on the tree are afraid that others will ignore its insignificance, and cry brilliantly.

Under the tree, an 18- or 9-year-old boy was staring at the river in a daze, quietly in a daze, out of place with the crowd flowing around him. Half a salary, a middle-aged man dressed as a housekeeper looked around and walked over, and when he saw the figure of the young man, he breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat that flowed to his neck, and shouted to the young man while shaking his cuffs and fanning the wind: '; Young master, young master, Madame told you to go back and pull'; The young man turned around, saw that it was this man, smiled, and replied: '; Just go back, Fauber, do you know what my mother is looking for me?';.

Fauber gasped and replied: '; There is a guest at home, who was sent by the old lady, and said that he would take you to see the old lady. Alas, you boy is too naughty, and the old lady has been worried for days.';

The boy stuck out his tongue, smiled embarrassedly, and then gently helped Fauber towards home. Walked through 2 street corners to the front of a large family, but saw that the 2 big stone lions at the door were not majestic, and a plaque was hung on the two black doors nailed with copper nails'; Zhang'; , at a glance, you can know the richness of this family. As soon as you enter the door, a floating dragon screen is blocked in front of the courtyard, turn around and look, the courtyard is presented in front of you, the open space is full of famous flowers and trees, and a faint fragrance goes straight to the nose of the visitor.

When he entered the house, he saw a white-faced scholar in a long robe sitting in front of a chair, about 30 years old, and he was looking at him with a smile when he came in, and his smile was kind and gentle, which made the young man feel good. At this time, the father who was sitting in front of the hall spoke: "Hou Kun, come, I've seen Mr. Yang Rui, don't look at people who are only in their 30s, I already thought that I was your grandfather's chief staff, and my talent is extraordinary, you have to learn more from others." ”

Zhang Houkun let out an "oh" with a slight surprise, and responded with a smile: "Really? That little nephew really wants to learn more from Mr. ”。

Yang Rui didn't dare to say yes, and said the intention of this time: "Lord Zhongtang heard that you fell off your horse when you went outside to play, but he was startled, and then he was relieved to hear that you were safe and sound, but he also wanted you to be tight, so he sent me to pick you up and go to Changsha to live for a few days and accompany him to the old man's house." After a pause, he asked with concern: "It's really thrilling for you to fall off your horse, how are you now?" Is it better? ”。

Zhang Houkun nodded to him with emotion and replied with a smile: "It's all right now, thank you Mr. for your concern." ”

Obviously, before Zhang Houkun came back, Yang Rui had already explained his intention to his parents, so he didn't show surprise when they spoke, just smiled and listened, and now he saw that they were almost done, so he interjected: "Mr. Yang Rui must have come from afar because he is tired, let's eat first, and after eating, I will invite Mr. to the guest room for a night of rest, and we will leave tomorrow." "Nothing was said all night.

The second morning, Zhang Houkun came to the front hall after exercising, his parents and Yang Rui were already waiting there, and asked his parents and Mr. Yang Rui to eat together after it was too early. After the meal, the tea rested for a while, and then set off.

Zhang Houkun had already gone to study abroad at the age of 14, so everyone was not very sad about this parting. The road from Taiyuan, Shanxi to Changsha, Hunan is long, you need to transfer to Zhengzhou and then Wuhan, and finally reach Changsha.

At this time, a convoy came to the majestic city gate of Changsha, and several people who were riding horses at the head looked at each other happily when they finally arrived at their destination, and a leader of the horses came to a vermilion carriage driving in the middle and knocked on the window and reported: "Young master, Lord Yang, we have arrived in Changsha.'".

A gentle voice came from the car: 'Well, let the brothers fight the god jīng, and enter the city, I will report to Lord Zhongshu to give the brothers a reward.' When the soldiers outside heard the cheers in unison, they all responded: 'Thank you, Lord Zhongshu, thank you Lord Yang.'

Huaixian Street, the most prosperous street in Changsha City, is named after a century-old locust tree next to the street. Zhang Houkun is wandering on the street at this time, he has been in Changsha for 2 weeks, except for a few days when he first came because he was excited because he had just arrived in the big city, and then he had nothing to do every day, so he sent an eagle and a dog to follow a few evil servants out to tease the people and disturb the people.

Suddenly, Zhang Houkun was shocked, it turned out that there was a group of people in front of him for some reason, and it was so noisy and noisy. It took a long time to finally squeeze to the front, and it turned out to be a foreigner, that is, a foreigner from the West. I saw this man take an almost transparent crystal cup and shout to everyone proudly: 'Let's take a look, take a look!' The royal crystal products are on sale, and each one is only sold for 100 taels of silver.'

Unfortunately, no one was willing to buy it, despite their eagerness or suspicion. Nonsense, who would dare to buy the royal special little people? I don't want to pull it alive, this is going to punish the nine clans. The foreigner gradually became disappointed, and at this time, he saw Zhang Houkun squeezing in with great effort, and he was wearing all the ordinary products on his body, and he couldn't help but be overjoyed and pulled Zhang Houkun like grabbing a life-saving straw and didn't let go: "This little brother, come and buy one. But it's a royal crystal product. If you buy it back, you can use it as an heirloom for future generations.'

Zhang Houkun picked up the crystal cup and looked at it carefully without speaking, and the foreigners saw that there was a door, and they were busy selling harder. After a long time, Zhang Houkun raised his head and glanced at the foreigner with a smile: "You are a crystal product for the royal family?"

The foreigner was very proud: 'That's of course' at the end of the sentence added: 'I'm a child who is not bullied.',

Zhang Houkun suddenly turned his face and shouted angrily at the foreigners: "Bold! You are a barbarian, you know that royal products cannot be traded privately, and those who violate them will be connected to the nine clans. You dare to openly sell here, you simply don't take my royal dignity into account. Walk! Come with me to the Yamen to see the officials.'

The foreigner was frightened and frightened to death, and firmly grabbed Zhang Houkun's sleeve: "Don't catch me!" Don't catch me! Your government is going to eat people.'

Zhang Houkun was originally to scare this foreigner, because this crystal cup is a crystal cup, just made of refined pure glass, Zhang Houkun secretly hated this foreign coaxing people who had never seen glass, so he wanted to scare him, listening to this foreigner say this, it was strange, did this foreigner still have any hidden secrets, so he took advantage of the situation to let him take the stall and find a nearby teahouse with him to sit down.

It turned out that this foreigner's name was Otto Jones, a down-and-out chemist in the United States, because he claimed to have mastered the technology of making the latest internal combustion engine, but his friends did not believe that he wanted to come up with the finished product, but to make an internal combustion engine required too much money, which Otto could not come up with.

Frustrated, he heard that China is full of gold and backward science and technology, and he only needs to take some fashionable things from Europe to China and buy some spices, tea, silk and other high-quality goods to make a fortune.

In order to get the attention of the country for his painstaking technology, and for the vain brother Otto to be admired by the world, he resolutely came to China.

It's a pity that China's backwardness is still beyond his imagination, first greedy on a ship, the boatman claimed that he wanted to go back to Shanghai can be pulled to Shanghai by the way, but when he got off the boat and asked, it turned out to be Changsha, and he wanted the boatman to return his money or send him to Shanghai, when he arrived at the boatman in his nest, he was directly driven out with an old fist.

He inquired around and finally found the office of China's zhèngfǔ, but unfortunately the official master was busy with the three concubines who were holding mahjong, how could he have time to pay attention to him, and directly sentenced him to be a fool of nonsense and vexatiousness, if he hadn't stuffed his private money to the official messenger and let the official messenger release him. Maybe I won't be able to eat for long.

At the end of the road, Otto had no choice but to take out some glasses he bought in the United States, falsely claiming to be crystal products, wanting to blackmail the Chinese once, so that he could make up enough money for the journey, and never come to China again.

By the end of the day, Otto was crying like a child.

After listening to this, Zhang Houkun couldn't smile bitterly, and at the same time secretly rejoiced in his heart, as early as when he went to study in Rìben, he had heard of the new term internal combustion engine,

And the most important thing is that after he returned from studying abroad, he once rode out of the city on horseback, but for some reason, the horse suddenly ran forward frantically, and finally Zhang Houkun was thrown off the horse and fell unconscious.

When I woke up, I had the memory of a man named Ruble in my head. In those memories, the ruble came from a dynasty called the 21st century, and it happened that he was also a native of China, and he died in an accident.

As for how the memory of this person named Lubu came to his head, Zhang Houkun is not very clear.

As soon as he heard that this Otto in front of him actually had the detailed technology of the new internal combustion engine, he was overjoyed and immediately decided that he must hold this person firmly by his side, because the memory of the ruble told him what kind of role the internal combustion engine played in the future world technology.

At that moment, his half-sympathetic, half-seductive words made Otto thank him and go home with him.