A night of silence.
The next day, Lu Shi got up relatively late because he still felt slightly hungover from drinking yesterday.
He lay on the water faucet to rinse his mouth, and then washed his face, and then found that he was the only one in the room.
On the bed next to Natsume Soseki, the quilt was curled up into a ball. The person had already left, probably to the University of London.
Because there were no windows, it was pitch dark in the room, and I didn’t know exactly what time it was.
Lu Shi lit the gas lamp and began to rummage through his luggage, looking for identity information.
Soon, he found some letters and was able to deduce his identity as an international student. He was born in poverty, his parents died, and he was raised by his uncles.
If we put it in modern times, the opportunity to study abroad at public expense would definitely be overwhelming.
However, the people of the Qing Dynasty at that time still insisted that overseas countries were barbarian lands, and foreigners were uncivilized barbarians who could eat human flesh and drink human blood. As a result, most well-off families were unwilling to let their children study abroad.
Those who were relatively open-minded and had no prejudice against foreigners would only choose the United States to study abroad. This made the opportunity to go to Britain cheaper for Lu Shi.
But even people from a poor family like his were puzzled by studying abroad. His uncles were quite violent in their letters and even cut off their living expenses.
He murmured to himself: "Tsk, no wonder I don't have any money."
Because my family didn't support it, I only had the three melons and two dates provided by the Qing court. What's even more outrageous is that they didn't even arrange for a school. They packed their luggage and left it on the boat.
This is simply sending people over to play a beggar simulator.
Lu Shi stretched, put away the letter, and turned off the light.
"Oh, I have to find a way to make money."
Muttering, he left the residence.
The sunshine is nice.
There were many drunkards gathered on both sides of Bryah Road, half-lying and enjoying the sunbath. From time to time, they patted the wall with their hands, grunted a few times, and then changed to a more comfortable position. Their clothes were stained by the mud and water splashed by the carriage. It doesn't matter.
Lu Shi bypassed these people and walked towards the main street.
After a few steps, someone called him from behind: "Lu, wait for me!"
Lu Shi turned around and found Natsume Soseki walking towards him, followed by two white men with typical British beards.
One of them was about sixty years old, leaning on a cane and looking a little old.
Another person who had just seen a recent photo in "Seaside Magazine" last night was none other than Arthur Conan Doyle.
Natsume Soseki quickly approached and introduced with excitement: "This is my teacher Mr. Smith. He read my article and greatly appreciated your profound insights into English literature; this is the creator of the Sherlock Holmes series - —Dr. Doyle, who is a good friend of Mr. Smith and is also interested in you."
The two British men shook hands with Lu Shi in a friendly manner.
Doyle extended an invitation: "Mr. Lu, I see there is a coffee shop nearby and I would like to treat you to a coffee break."
Being able to sit at the same table with the legendary writer, Lu Shi naturally had no reason to refuse.
The four of them came to the coffee shop and sat by the glass window, bathing in the sunshine.
The antique flavor of the store, the wonderful combination of the beating sunlight and the logs made Lu Shi feel peaceful and felt inexplicably close to the year 1900.
Smith dusted his cane and asked the clerk to serve four cups of coffee. Then he joked: "At this time, you should order a cup of fragrant coffee, then stare at the busy traffic outside and spend the whole afternoon comfortably."
Doyle smiled;
"I thought you could read, but I didn't expect you to be in a daze."
Smith shook his head,
"Reading your novel? It's boring."
Lu Shi vaguely felt that the two of them were singing a double act, so he shook his head at Natsume Soseki who was next to him and watched the two British guys continue their performance.
Sure enough, Doyle started to get to the point: "Noble Mr. Smith, you think detective novels are boring because of your poor taste. You see, these two foreign students from Japan like my works very much, right?"
His face turned slightly to Lu Shi.
The two looked at each other.
Lu Shi replied: "Dr. Doyle is very popular in England and everyone loves him."
Instead of saying "Sherlock Holmes took England by storm," it said "Dr. Doyle took England by storm," which worked for Doyle.
He was extremely disgusted that people only knew Holmes but did not know the current situation of Dr. Er. He even wrote in a letter to his mother: "I am considering killing Holmes...get rid of him and end it all. He takes up too much of my time."
Therefore, Lu Shi's compliment was very appropriate.
The atmosphere suddenly became high.
Doyle fiddled with his beard happily and said: "Mr. Lu's level is very high. You know, there are only a few people who can understand the title of the book "Scarlet Study" as thoroughly as you. In my impression, it seems that only Mr. Wilde.”
Natsume Soseki was surprised,
"That Mr. Wilde? Oscar Wilde?"
Doyle nodded,
"That's right. Mr. Stoddart, the editor of Lippincott's Monthly, once hosted a banquet for Oscar and me and asked us to write manuscripts. That dinner eventually gave birth to two books, one of which was my "Four Signatures" and the other two books. The second is Oscar-winning The Picture of Dorian Gray.”
Pride was written on his face.
Natsume Soseki was a little confused and didn't understand what this had to do with the previous topic.
Smith on the side shook his head and explained: "During that meeting, Oscar once commented that "Scarlet Study" is an 'artistic title', which coincides with Mr. Lu."
Doyle was slightly unhappy at being robbed of the conversation and drank coffee to cover it up.
Smith complained: "Okay, you've said that one hundred and seventy-five times, I can memorize the entire dinner menu."
After speaking, he turned to Lu Shi,
"To be honest, if Mr. Oscar were not in Paris, he would definitely want to meet you."
Lu Shi said nothing.
He knew that Wilde died of meningitis in Paris in November 1900, so he didn't have much time left.
Doyle coughed slightly and inserted the topic: "However, Mr. Lu seems to have many questions about my works."
His eyes suddenly became sharp, like two sharp swords, piercing Lu Shi's body tightly.
Natsume Soseki twisted uneasily.
This incident happened because of him, no wonder he was embarrassed.
Lu Shi replied nonchalantly: "It's not Dr. Doyle's fault."
This statement is quite arrogant, and the implication is that there is indeed a problem with the Sherlock Holmes series.
Doyle frowned.
"Can you tell me more about it?"
Lu Shi continued: "Take the "Spotted Belt Case" as an example. The murderer used a poisonous snake as a weapon to commit the crime, but it is actually very unreasonable. First of all, the poisonous snake will suffocate to death in the safe; secondly, the poisonous snake is a reptile, so it is impossible Feed on milk; again, it is unreasonable to use whistles to summon snakes. Snakes have no external ears and cannot hear the sound of whistles at all..."
Doyle's face was as black as ink;
You know, "The Spotted Belt" is the most bizarre and dramatic short story in the entire series, and it is naturally one of the most popular short stories.
Unexpectedly, the Japanese man in front of me could point out three loopholes casually.
Doyle couldn't help but argue: "How do you know snakes don't drink milk?"
Lu Shi thought this question was a bit silly.
He said: "Human infants can suck milk because their mothers secrete milk, so only mammals can suck milk. This is the simplest reason."
Doyle's face grew darker.
Natsume Soseki swallowed hard and smoothed things over: "Dr. Doyle's writing style is scientific and professional. The 'science' here doesn't mean... um... 'science' means... ah, yes. Well, deduction! Dr. Doyle is good at using rigorous causal reasoning to unfold the story."
After saying this, Doyle's face did not look good.
He said: "But, Mr. Natsuki, your article said that Holmes's reasoning is very subjective. Why is this?"
Natsume Soseki's face turned bitter.
Lu Shi looked over, cast a questioning look, and mouthed, "That's not what I said."
Natsume Soseki lowered his voice and said, "I said so."
Lu Shi was confused,
"What? What did you say?"
Natsume Soseki nodded and replied: "In "The Mystery of Reigate", Sherlock Holmes himself said, 'The most important thing in the art of detective is to be able to see from many facts which are the key issues and which are the minor issues. Questions.' But it is clear that Holmes rarely lays out all the clues for readers to discern for themselves which are the 'vital questions.'"
This cannot be blamed on the author. The main reason is that the genre of detective literature is immature and does not even have the concept of "character". It is normal to have some minor problems in the creation.
But Doyle didn't care about that;
When he looked at Lu Shi, he clenched his two fists and the veins on his forehead jumped.
The blame will obviously fall on Lu Shi.
Literary men look down upon each other;
There is no difference between ancient and modern China and foreign countries.
