The brown-haired boy lay on the table, writing in his diary with a dip pen, his writing hand occasionally stiffening, then putting it down and scratching his head with the ink-stained shaft.

How do you write the word "teach"?

Since crossing into this world ten years ago, Du Shengzhe has had very few opportunities to write in his native language. I haven't written Chinese characters for a long time, and I don't have a mobile phone or dictionary to refer to, so forgetting to write a pen has become commonplace.

[The content of the handover the day before yesterday was history, not to mention the rationality and significance of giving history lessons to ten-year-old children, and regardless of the relationship between history and mechanics...... But once again, I was blown away. 】

The boy paused, dipped the tip of his pen in ink again, and wrote, "I really can't figure out how a Western steampunk-style world can deviate the technology tree like this - whose steampunk world can have the ability to jump in space and start interstellar travel?!] 】

He put down his pen, then sighed and muttered to himself as he looked out the window at the towering spired towers and soot-spewing chimneys.

"The style of painting in this world...... It's not right. ”

Losing the motivation to continue writing a diary because of his painting style, Du Shengzhe sat on a leather-wrapped chair for a moment, then closed the diary with a complicated gear and screw locking structure.

Pulling down the leather-wrapped brass lever in the upper right corner of the desk, layers of gears snap and rotate with each other, and the steel locking structure locks the contents of the desk firmly.

If it weren't for this safe and easy-to-use secret writing desk, he wouldn't have dared to scribble Chinese characters—if they were to spread, he might have been caught as an infidel by some old man in a white robe, and then tied to a wooden pillar and burned alive.

After the table was locked, Du Shengzhe suddenly patted his head.

There is one more important thing that was not written.

It is said that today a very talented female inventor will come to visit, and she will show her mother "the most important invention of our time".

As a college student who came here until his junior year, Du Shengzhe was very interested in this kind of "invention".

"Dussand? It's time for you to change your clothes. Just as Du Shengzhe was hesitating to reopen the desk and re-order the diary, his mother's gentle voice came in from outside the door, "Miss Lorraine has been waiting for you downstairs for a long time, and it is not a gentleman's behavior to keep a lady waiting for a long time. ”

Du Shengzhe, who is now named "Dusander", blinked his eyes and complained in his heart - letting his ten-year-old son go to a twelve-year-old girl, this is not the behavior that a baroness should have, right?

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"Good day, Lord Dussand." After changing into a white shirt and a waistcoat sewn with sapphire blue with gold thread, and a black velvet coat, Dusson met Lorraine in the living room on the first floor, and was stunned.

The figure in a beautifully crafted blue Crenolin ball dress flickered slightly, and twelve-year-old Lorraine stood up, and she nodded lightly towards Dussand.

Her blonde hair was tied up in a bun at the back of her head, and her long, gracefully snow-white neck was obscured by a white lace scarf. From the living room window, the sunlight that spilled into the room fell on her hair, as if gilding her with a layer of gold, and it looked particularly dazzling.

"Good day, Miss Lorraine." Dussaint coughed lightly, to hide the embarrassment he had just been shocked. Such a beautiful little girl, I am afraid that she would have become a big star on the earth in her previous life, right?

Lorraine sat back on the couch and said in a soft tone, "I'm looking forward to today's ball, Lord Dussand, can you be my dance partner today?" ”

Dussand didn't answer the question directly, he glanced at the maid standing in the doorway, and then shook the rattle that was placed next to him.

"Please make Miss Lorraine a cup of tea." With a simple and reasonable excuse, the maid was temporarily disbursed. Then Dusson crept to the door and closed the heavy oak door completely. Then he fell straight into the couch.

"Your parents didn't come?" Dussaint simply crossed his legs on the armrests of the couch. The tight, over-the-top pants were really uncomfortable for him. "The two of them finally gave up on that ...... Ridiculous plan to marry you to me? ”

"You're thinking too much." Lorraine still maintained a perfect ladylike sitting posture and a smiling expression, but the words that came out of her lipstick-coated mouth had nothing to do with appearance. "They're right now under the glass porch of the ballroom, and they're actively spreading rumors that we're going to get engaged soon."

Dussaint rolled his eyes, "You also know that they are spreading rumors, so you are going to let them continue to do such nonsense?" You're only twelve! It's too early to talk about getting engaged, right? ”

"The Imperial Code stipulates that men can marry at the age of twelve, and women at fourteen, with the permission of their guardians. Two years later, you and I are just the right age. Lorraine chuckled, "I don't think Madame Andronie is very resistant to this offer. ”

Dussand's eyes rolled even more violently, and the ghost knew what his gentle and thoughtful mother was thinking.

Lorraine, although pretty, is twelve...... Even if you are fourteen years old in two years, it is still too early to get married, right?

Married to a beautiful girl who was only fourteen years old, Dusand had no doubt that he would appear at some execution range on Earth after his death, and then be shot for half an hour with a righteous 12.7-caliber heavy machine gun. Even when he got married, he was only twelve years old - after all, if you add the inner age, Dussander is already thirty-four years old.

He sighed and asked, "Don't mention their nonsense for now...... You're going to marry me in two years, can you do that? ”

Lorraine was slightly stunned and fell silent. Keeping a somewhat confused smile, it took nearly a quarter of an hour (about seven and a half minutes) for her to raise her head and say slowly, "If it weren't for you, then they would definitely send me to the house of a nobleman in Orin, and then let me go to be a lover for a nobleman in his fifties." I'd rather marry you than that case. ”

After saying this creepy possibility, Lorraine smiled at Dussand, "But I'm sure you're not going to let me end up like that, are you?" ”

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The fastest way to get to Baroness Andronie's estate from Upper Albin Starland in Newsar is by horse-drawn carriage. Take the Boulevard du Dukes of Saarland, turn east at the largest and most glorious Sunset Square in Albin, and walk up the cobbled boulevard for four quarters of an hour.

On the boulevard of Albin there was a steam horse, a steam horse with a dazzling brass glittering top and bottom, slowly walking along the cobblestone road. The harness loops around its body and attaches to a pure white carriage behind it, decorated with a golden iris pattern.

The wind swept the unrecognizable soot and swept across the road with dry fallen leaves. Subsequently, it was directly crushed by a horse's hoof, which also shone with a metallic color.

A powerful steam that spewed from its nostrils. The steam was also mixed with a large amount of soot and the occasional spark, which was still burning. The four hooves of the horses struggled forward, and the shining horses were covered with tiny gaps.

Through the gap, you can vaguely see that the gears are biting and spinning with each other.

"Mr. Coachman, we need to go faster!" In the carriage, a woman shouted at the top of her voice, "The ball is about to begin, and we must hurry to the manor!" ”

Mr. Coachman, who was sitting in the driver's seat, had a pipe in his mouth and looked back at the woman who was shouting. He nodded, then pulled the lever next to his seat, which was also shining with a brass hue. The lever, which had been rubbed to the point of almost white, was torn off with force, and the bronze horse, which was full of power, suddenly accelerated the speed of the horse's hooves.

The steam that had been puffing out of the nostrils was almost in a straight line after the steam horse galloped.

The horse's hooves were getting faster and faster, and some small pieces of coal, which were about to burn out, fell out of the square opening under the horse's belly and rolled directly onto the cobblestones. A small number of them were lucky enough to escape the four wheels of the wagon, and were held in the palms of their hands by a pair of dirty, sot-stained hands stained with soot and snot.

In the eyes of these poor children, who still wear shorts and ill-fitting old leather shoes in late autumn, these small pieces of burning red coal are treasures. Even if the soot on their hands couldn't completely block the heat, they would never let go of these red elves.

These almost burned coals fetch at least seven pence a pound in a corner fuel shop.

This year's Newsar seems to have a particularly difficult winter.

Of course, the hardships are only for the scattered farmers and the average people in the cities. Thermal coal for 35 pence a pound was not something they could afford, and if they needed to heat their homes, they had to buy the coal that had already been burned.

Only those in the middle class who have a stable and decent job will be able to overcome the financial pressure and buy enough thermal coal for a whole week at a time when their weekly salary is in hand.

At the cost of going to clubs that could have been four times a week, they had to be reduced to twice a week.

The people who go to the club to socialize are basically commoners who do not have a noble title. Nobles who had titles and even their own fiefs and estates never bothered to enter clubs - their socialization took place mainly in their own estates or those of other nobles.

And today, the nobility of the entire Newsal region seems to have gathered in the estate of Baroness Andronie. Steam carriages filled almost the entire square of the manor house - mixed with aristocratic carriages drawn by a few real horses. A little further afield, there are even two steam airships tethered to the airship mooring poles.

Above the airship there are two off-white floating air bags with a length of 120 yols (about 150 meters) and a height of 40 yols (about 50 meters). The soft airbag is adorned with a metal pattern on the outside – these are also the attachments that ensure that the airbag is securely attached to the hull.

Six huge brass propellers, powered by three steam engines, were able to propel the big creature to fly at twelve miles per hour while carrying thirty-five people.

It wasn't very fast, but it was very popular with the aristocracy because it allowed it to cut straight through the air and avoided bumps and the smell of sewage from entering the cabin, which could affect the passengers' interest.

It was a luxury that only the true nobles could enjoy.

On the south side of the steam airship mooring pole, the glass corridor of the ballroom is crowded.

"The most important invention of our time?" The aristocrats, dressed in luxurious fur coats, socialized before entering the manor ballroom, and there was no shortage of doubtful discussions: "If there really is such an important invention, why did you choose to be in Madame Andronie's estate?" ”

"That probably means the inventor was a liar." A knight with two mustaches and gear-change zoom glasses on his right eye made his own judgment, "If it is really 'the most important invention of our time,' as the inventor said, any sensible person would have chosen to display it in the Duke's ballroom first." ”

The surrounding nobles let out a knowing and echoing laugh. Of course, no one would think that Baroness Andronie was not wise enough because of this, and she used the opportunity of the exhibition of inventions to prepare for a ball, which was a common social method for the aristocracy. The ballroom built by Baroness Androni is the best place for winter in the whole of Newsar.

During the renovation last year, Baroness Andronie's husband ordered engineers to erect a combustion chamber dedicated to heating about 400 yols (about 500 meters) to the west of the ballroom. And the boilers of the ballroom and the combustion chamber were connected with iron pipes covered with cork.

As long as the fire is lit the night before the dance begins, the hot water conducts heat inside the iron pipes underground. The next morning, the ballroom was ready for dancing.

As long as they can attend the ball here, the nobles don't really care if the invention that is about to be unveiled in front of everyone will be a hilarious and shoddy scam.