The distance between Qianmen Railway Station and the Ministry of Education is not very far, starting from Zhengyangmen and walking west, all the way through Xijiaomin Lane, Electric Light Company, French School, etc., until Xuanwumen, ideally about half an hour's walk can be reached.

But at this time, Xuanwumen still retains the urn city, and there is a moat next to it, it is not very convenient to enter and exit something, if there are many people, even if there are not many cars in Beiping City, it will have to be blocked for a while.

Moreover, there is not much decent infrastructure in Beiping City, and the real road was not repaired until the beginning of the 20th century. In contrast to the design of the pedestrian side in later generations, the middle of the road was paved with stone and cement for pedestrians and light vehicles, and the road was flanked by heavy lanes.

At first glance, it seems very unscientific, but in fact, in combination with the background of the times at that time, there is a certain amount of truth.

According to the definition of the Manchu government's Industrial Inspection Bureau (refer to the later Transportation Bureau), pedestrians refer to those who walk and sit in sedan chairs, and light cars refer to a small number of cars and foreign cars.

The so-called heavy carriage refers to the horse-drawn carriage, which generally walks slowly, and it is natural to go on both sides.

It's just that it has just snowed, the quality of the road is indescribable, and the "scavengers" who specialize in cleaning the streets have just gone to work, and the whole road has become a quagmire, and it is difficult to walk.

One foot in the east and one foot in the west, and after a while, Cheng Nuo's cotton shoes were almost wet, and he couldn't tell that it was a shoe sample.

It's hard to walk in the middle of the road, so let's go along the root of the city wall.

Of course not, after walking a few steps, Cheng Nuo understood the enthusiasm of Beiping City for him, and stepped on the filthy thing in two steps.

was so angry that he rushed straight to the quintessence of the country on the spot: "$%##@#, at the foot of the imperial city, are they so unhygienic, where is the public morality?" ”

Take a look at the side, okay, he walks the wall alone, and everyone else is far away, and he would rather have one foot deep and one foot shallow than learn Cheng Nuo like this.

Yes, I learned another lesson.

At this time, Beiping City was similar to the third brother in the previous life, there were almost no sound underground sewage pipes, and there were few public toilets on the street, and even if there were, there was a fee.

But what if a person walks on the street and suddenly has three emergencies, he can only find a hidden place to solve it.

At that time, there was a joke in the society: a merchant was suffering from being drowned on the wall of his shop, and decided to write a slogan to warn passers-by: "Passers-by are not allowed to defecate here." ”

But before the paint dried, some passers-by saw the slogan and directly solved it on the spot.

The merchant was furious and asked him why he was doing this when it was clearly written, "Passers-by, etc., are not allowed to defecate here."

Passers-by were full of words, clearly writing "Passers-by, can't wait, urinate here." ”

It turned out that the punctuation marks were not promoted, the misunderstanding of the broken sentence, the difference between the commas, and the difference in sentence meaning.

However, there are very few ordinary people who have thatched houses, and they use buckets to solve personal problems, and finally they are regularly recycled by dung men.

What if it's too late to recycle, it's a good place to go on the street.

So when it rains and snows, that road is not walked by people at all.

"Ugh."

Cheng Nuo sighed, this road can't continue to go down, maybe there are some surprises hidden in front of him, so let's take a foreign car.

The so-called foreign car is a rickshaw, which is called a foreign car or rubber in the north, and a rickshaw or oriental car in the south.

Fortunately, it is not far from Qianmen Station, so it is not too difficult to greet the rickshaw driver.

A sturdy man saw Cheng Nuo greeting him, pulled the car and trotted over first, and the other peers saw that someone had taken the lead, so they all gave up.

The man waved his hand and said enthusiastically, "Sir, do you want to take a car?" Where to go, Li Laosan's sports car is notoriously stable and fast. ”

"Yes, how much does it cost to get to the Ministry of Education by car?"

"Yo, where the handkerchief alley, I charge a dime and a half cents according to the rules, do you think?"

"Can it be cheaper?" I don't know if there is moisture at this price, Cheng Nuo asked tentatively.

Li Laosan smiled bitterly, shook his head and said: "Sir, you are a learned person at first glance, and you are going to the Ministry of Education, and eighty percent of you are teaching dolls to read, if you dare to coax you, the family will not let me go if they know it." ”

After a pause, Li Laosan said again: "The front door is here at the 'car entrance', and the price is fixed on the wall." Go to Xuanwu, Chongwen and Yongding are all corners, and the Ministry of Education is almost to West Chang'an Street, so charge you five points and find someone at this price. ”

It's all hard-earned money, and it's really not much a dime and a half, and the bargaining is just to prevent being slaughtered, so Cheng Nuo no longer argues.

Let Li Laosan put down the car and prepare to ride.

But think about it, his feet are really unclean now, and he stepped on a surprise, and getting the car dirty will affect people to do the next business.

He took out a few useless pieces of paper from the package and wrapped his feet before getting into the car.

Li Laosan also observed this, and his nose was slightly sour.

He instructed: "You are seated, let's go." ”

Subsequently, Li Laosan took out ten points of strength to pull the car.

It's really as he said, fast and steady.

Even without the shock-absorbing spring, Cheng Nuo still didn't feel any bumps in the car.

On the way, the two chatted all the way.

"It's a good day, when you meet a noble person like you, sir, it's enough to give enough money, and the rest is earned."

"What, someone is in the Overlord car?"

"Oh, the sea in Dongjiaomin Alley has gone, sometimes if you don't give money, you can kick it a few more times, and the officials can't take care of it, so you can only pull it in vain."

Speaking of which, Li Laosan may have recalled something bad, and the car shook significantly.

Quickly stabilized the car, and said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, you, I suddenly remembered my brother, alas, poor man." ”

"What's wrong with your brother?" Cheng Nuo was full of questions, leaned forward and asked, "Was he injured?" ”

"Hey, I took the job of a drunken Oriental devil, and it was fine at the time, but I went to their embassy and said that I asked him to follow him to withdraw money, and it turned out to be good, I never saw my brother again."

With a bad conjecture in his heart, Cheng Nuo asked tentatively, "Have you reported to the official?" ”

"Report to the officer, hehe." Li Laosan laughed at himself: "As soon as the official heard it, he immediately kicked us out, and even if he reported it to the presidential palace, he couldn't control it." ”

"I think you have the ability, sir, if you become a big official in the future, you will definitely vent your anger for us!"

The sky was pitch black, and I couldn't even see a star.

"It will be, it will be." Cheng Nuo is gloomy, the country is poor and the people are weak, and there will be more such things in the future.

Before I knew it, the burden on my body was heavier.

After a while, Li Laosan pulled Cheng Nuo to the door of the Ministry of Education.

After paying the money, Li Laosan refused to leave, stubbornly waiting for Cheng Nuo to come out and continue to send him.

Cheng Nuo was helpless, he couldn't give more money, and he refused to let him go.

When he saw that the Ministry of Education had not yet opened, he did not get out of the car, and asked the driver to find the nearest store that sold shoes in the neighborhood and prepare to change his shoes.

Otherwise, it would be indecent to go directly to the Ministry of Education.

"Master, look at where there are shoes sold nearby, I'm going to buy a new pair." Feeling the chill coming from his feet, Cheng Nuo asked, "It's not so expensive, the more comfortable the better." ”

Li Laosan pulled the car, didn't rush to leave, and asked, "Sir, do you want cloth shoes or foreign shoes?" ”

Cheng Nuo thought for a moment and replied instinctively: "Cloth, I'm used to wearing it, but the foreign shoes still don't fit." ”

"Hehe, what you said is that the shoes made by foreigners are as comfortable as our own needlework." Li Laosan agreed: "Sir, sit down, let's find you a time-honored brand." ”

There are still a lot of shops doing business around, especially the velvet alley opposite, which is really worthy of its name, focusing on cloth, spinning, clothing, children's clothing and other businesses, which is quite large-scale.

It didn't take much effort, Li Laosan took him directly to an old store, but there was a little accident when he was about to enter the door.

Because Cheng Nuo sat for a long time, his shoes were not warm, and his feet were directly numb.

didn't take two steps, stumbled a few times and almost hit the middle-aged man who had just gone out.

Fortunately, the man's eyes were quick and he helped him, so he didn't look foreign.

"Sir, don't panic when you walk, it's better to be safe."

"Thank you, thank you." Cheng Nuo hurriedly thanked him.

However, due to the imminent fall, Cheng Nuo's waste paper wrapped in his shoes was squeezed open, revealing a dirty appearance, which made him very embarrassed.

The middle-aged man smiled slightly, patted Cheng Nuo on the shoulder to signal that it was no big deal, and was about to leave.

The shopkeeper who came out to greet the guests said politely to the middle-aged man: "Mr. Cai, the customized shoes can be made on Sunday, do you still want to send them to the Ministry of Education?" ”

The middle-aged man waved his hand: "I'm not in the Ministry of Education anymore, send me to Peking University, write my name and give it to the doorman." ”

"Well, you'll see."

Peking University? It's not who is this, but if you look closely, it seems that you have indeed seen it somewhere.

However, with the greeting of the shoe store shopkeeper, Cheng Nuo didn't think deeply.

The matter is urgent, so there is no need to customize the feet, and directly ask the shopkeeper to take a pair of shoes that are about the same version and have been made.

Li Laosan was also interesting enough, and directly cut the shoes with the original price of five dimes to two corners, and finally the shopkeeper was so angry that he had to close the door and bombard the finished business.

I washed it with a basin of hot water, and put it on directly after paying.

"Sir, fit the feet, when I was beaten or opened crotch pants, my mother took me to buy them in his store."

Li Laosan took out the dry cigarette gun upside down, knocked out the cigarette ash, twisted out the cigarette shreds into the smoke pot, lit Meimei and took a puff: "It's more comfortable than the shoes made in my house." ”

"It's a lot warmer indeed." Cheng Nuo put on new shoes, found a clean open space and jumped, and his skills were nothing to say.

"The new cotton that is in season is soft."

While the two were chatting, the Ministry of Education finally opened its door.