Sun Xu was lucky. When he arrived at the car rental agency in the evening, although there were not many carriages in the car rental agency, there were still a few, one of which was a single-horse two-wheeled carriage that met his requirements.
As for the coachmen, there are definitely no more coachmen. The few coachmen who are willing to work on New Year's Eve have already accepted employment from some wealthy families, but it doesn't matter... Sun Xu originally didn't plan to hire coachmen in order to save money.
When he was in his hometown, he often drove his master's carriage to pick him up and down... As an apprentice, if you want to learn some skills sincerely and let the master teach you sincerely, you will naturally need to put in more effort.
So Sun Xu can drive a carriage, and his skills are pretty good.
After finalizing the car rental procedures, Sun Xu immediately got on the carriage and gently urged the horses forward.
This is a very typical new two-wheeled one-horse carriage. The body is relatively small and can only seat two people. The frame is made of high-strength steel as the main material. The body has a balsa wood carriage and is painted It is painted black and has a transparent glass window on each side of the car body.
The front of the cabin is wide open for easy driving!
Generally speaking, private carriages generally drive from the front, which is different from those taxi drivers on the main road who drive from the rear... After all, private carriages do not need to collect fares, let alone worry about passengers jumping off the car midway. Evading fares does not require the driver to supervise from behind.
As for the carriages in the car rental agency, they are naturally in the style of ordinary private carriages. After all, they charge based on time and pay in advance... Their operating model is very different from that of rental carriages.
The cabin is wrapped in leather and has spring seats with springs inside, and other interior decoration designs are also relatively good.
The two wheels are not the early wooden wheels, but steel wheels covered with a layer of rubber.
In addition, there are more things that cannot be seen...such as bearings made of high-strength steel and more importantly, load-bearing springs.
This carriage may be common in the Great Chu Empire, and its price is only about twenty or thirty Chu yuan... But don't look simple, in fact, the technical content is not low at all, and at the same time, this thing is an industrial product.
At present, except for the Dachu Empire, no other country can produce this new type of carriage.
The horse-drawn carriage industry can be regarded as the predecessor of the automobile industry to a certain extent... How did the automobiles of later generations come about?
In fact, it is very simple, just install an engine on the four-wheeled carriage... and use the internal combustion engine to replace the horses as power.
Many early automobile manufacturers were originally horse-drawn carriage factories.
This is why the modern primitive cars in the original time and space are so similar to horse-drawn carriages.
Sun Xu drove the car leisurely for a while, and then gradually increased the speed. However, Sun Xu only increased the speed slightly, which was about ten kilometers per hour, and did not let the speed continue to increase.
In fact, with the cement-hardened road we are running on now, coupled with the new lightweight two-wheeled carriage with high enough technology, and the fact that the carriage is pulled by a very good Fengzhou horse, his carriage can easily run up to the second mile. It is more than ten kilometers, and the burden on the horses is not too great.
It can be done even faster...but it rarely happens.
Those with hardened pavement are generally main roads in cities, and these urban roads are generally busy. Accidents can easily occur if a horse-drawn carriage runs too fast.
Of course, the more important thing is to preserve the physical fitness of the horses... If you let the horses pull the cart and run wildly, the speed will increase in a short period of time, but it won't take long for the horses to fall down from fatigue.
Therefore, except for special circumstances, it is rare to see horse-drawn carriages racing wildly on the streets. They usually move at a speed of more than ten kilometers per hour... This is still considered smooth. In fact, in a place like Songjiang City, the average speed of horse-drawn carriages can reach A distance of about ten kilometers is good... because the traffic jam is so severe that you can run fast but there is no place for you to run!
Sun Xu drove back to the downstairs of the apartment at a leisurely speed. There was no horse stall in this apartment... Sun Xu could only tie the horse to the pillar at the door, and he sincerely invited the people who lived on the first floor. A family will help keep an eye on it. If any accident occurs, please ask yourself to come down and deal with it.
Then Sun Xu went upstairs. He first entered his apartment, took off his long coat and hat and put them away. Then he turned to the door. When he arrived at Miss Meng's door, he tapped twice and said at the same time: "Miss Meng!"
After a while, the door of the room was opened, revealing Miss Meng's pretty face. She said with a faint smile: "Master Sun is back, have you rented a car?"
Sun Xu said: "Fortunately, I managed to live up to my fate and rented one. It's parked downstairs now."
Miss Meng said: "That's good... just wait a little longer and the meal will be ready soon!"
At this point, Miss Meng paused, looked up at Sun Xu, then lowered her head, and then said: "How about... come in and wait."
Sun Xu looked at Miss Meng, whose ears were already a little red, but there was no expression on her face such as a smile, let alone any witty remarks. Instead, she nodded seriously: "Then I'm sorry!"
After following Miss Meng in, Sun Xu did not close the door, but left the door ajar... Although he did not wander around after entering, he still looked at the house with his eyes.
The layout of this room is similar to that of the apartment he rented with his co-worker Xiao Sun Dawei. After entering, there is a living room. Although it is not big, it has basically everything it should have. There is also a fabric-covered spring sofa in the middle. Further into the living room There is also a door inside, which should be a horizontal room.
There is a large balcony on the left side of the living room, and there is also a semi-open kitchen outside the balcony... These days, urban residents use briquettes for cooking and boiling water.
For safety reasons, coal stoves are not moved into the house. They are placed in relatively open and ventilated places, such as balconies.
Moreover, many apartments will not even provide you with an in-house kitchen. Instead, they will set up a public kitchen in the corridor and other places outside, just to avoid coal poisoning.
When it comes to coal poisoning, even if the government carries out various propaganda for three days or two, it warns the public that coal stoves must be used in ventilated and open areas, and must not be used in closed rooms, otherwise it is very easy to cause carbon monoxide poisoning.
However, coal-burning poisoning still occurs frequently in the contemporary Chu Empire.
Not to mention the current Great Chu Empire, even in China in the 21st century, the people's cultural level is not low, and information is very popular, but a large number of people still die from gas poisoning every year... often resulting in a whole family. Qi died of poisoning.
Now, after inviting Sun Xu to come in and sit on the sofa, Miss Meng brought him a cup of warm tea.
"Master Sun, please sit down and have a cup of tea first. I'll be ready soon!"
Sun Du said: "Miss Meng, you are busy first, don't worry about me!"
So Miss Meng returned to the kitchen on the balcony and got busy.
Although Sun Xu didn't deliberately look at Miss Meng most of the time, he would always cast his eyes over her after a while.
Today, Miss Meng is not wearing a cloak or coat, gloves or hat, but she has not changed into home clothes. Instead, she is still wearing the stand-up collar embroidered dress, and even her shoes are still the same pair of pointed low heels. Leather shoes are not the cotton slippers that many women wear at home in winter.
But because I had to cook, I wore a very long apron.
In fact, not only Miss Meng is still dressed for socializing, but Sun Xu is also the same. He is still wearing the same professional attire made of fine cashmere, and on his feet are high-quality cowhide shoes made by his father...professional attire There is also a pocket watch hanging in the inner pocket, and a fine jade pendant hanging around the waist.
It's just that there is no coat or hat.
This New Year's Eve dinner... is not a reunion dinner between family members, but a banquet in a social occasion.
Under such an occasion, and the relationship between the two of them was still between strangers and familiarity, the conversation in the afternoon was indeed good, but it was not enough to open up and have a deep conversation.
The reason why we can still have a New Year's Eve dinner together is that we are even planning to go to the riverside to watch the fireworks together!
Probably... just two single dogs working alone in a big city with no family or friends. During the Spring Festival, which seemed lively but actually seemed extremely lonely to them, they were stimulated by the environment and after seeing the other person who was quite suitable in all aspects, they chose to go together.
But in another time, in another environment... this kind of thing would not be possible.
As for changing to someone with unequal conditions...that would be even more impossible.
Loneliness is certainly uncomfortable, but it is even more unacceptable to travel or even have New Year's Eve dinner with people you don't like and whose conditions are not suitable for you.
Looking at Miss Meng who was cooking New Year's Eve dinner, Sun Xu didn't pay attention to her facial features and figure for the first time, but looked at the way she cooked, which gave him an illusion: An illusion of being at home.
In the end, I unconsciously thought of more...
After he thought about it...
It would be great if we could see scenes like this often in the future, right?
Sun Xu was thinking a lot, but soon he stopped sitting on the sofa. Instead, he stood up and went to the balcony and asked, "Is there anything I can help with?"
"When I'm at home, I often cook."
When Sun Xu was talking, Miss Meng on the side smiled: "I can't tell. Most men nowadays basically don't know how to cook. I thought you could only cook noodles and dumplings?"
Sun Xu said: "I don't cook very often in the apartment, but I often cook when I am at home."
Sun Xu lives in the apartment. In fact, he just lives there. He rarely cooks or eats in the apartment... He eats breakfast, lunch and dinner in the factory cafeteria... It's cheap and the food is pretty good. There is no need to cook by himself. eat.
But it was different at home. When he worked in his hometown, the factory did not provide room and board. He would go home to eat every day.
Most of the time, if I go home early, I need to help my mother cook!
During the time when his mother was ill, he almost always cooked for the family alone.
Ms. Meng said that most men cannot cook, which is actually true. This is a common contemporary social perception.
Even in those low-income families with little money, many men do not cook... The small amount of money they earn is not enough to support the family, and their wives have to go out to work or farm to make money... Then when they get home, they still have to cook and take care of them. child!
Although Ms. Meng doesn't have any contact with low-class men in her daily life, the situation in the middle-class families she comes into contact with is even more serious.
If there are still some men in lower-income families who do housework for various reasons, then in families in the middle- and high-income groups, the male master almost does not do housework.
Because these men tend to have better jobs, higher incomes, and can support the whole family on their own, they are more inclined to talk about men taking charge of the outside world and women taking charge of the house...
Of course, they can support the entire family, so the hostess doesn't have to go out to work, and she usually doesn't have any objections if she just concentrates on household chores.
This social atmosphere is relatively common and has not been improved due to the economic development of the Chu Empire...
Sun Xu helped his mother with housework at home, and then learned to do housework and cook as a child.
In fact, his cooking skills are pretty good, but he hasn't had much chance to cook since he came to Songjiang.
I saw Miss Meng busy alone today. Even if he is half a guest, it is impossible for him to sit there alone and watch the owner busy...
Seeing Sun Xu's serious expression, Miss Meng immediately curved the corners of her mouth slightly and said in a slightly joking tone: "Then help me wash the dishes?"
Sun Xu said: "No problem!"
Then he bent up his sleeves and was about to wash them when Miss Meng on the side said: "Don't worry, put on an apron, don't make your clothes dirty!"
As he spoke, he handed over a slightly shorter pink apron...
Sun Xu was not polite and took it directly and tied it on.
He was wearing high-quality professional clothes, which were very expensive... If it got dirty, strictly speaking, it didn't matter. After all, it could be washed.
But if it gets dirty now, he won't have a second set of decent clothes to wear when he goes out later.
He only received his salary once, of which five Chu Yuan was sent home. Although he had six or seven Chu Yuan on hand, Sun Xu could not afford to have the luxury of ordering a set of high-quality professional attire in a short period of time.
After putting on the apron, Sun Xu began to wash the vegetables and dishes.
At this moment, Ms. Meng on the side couldn't help but look at him again and again... In the end, she laughed without any ladylike demeanor.
While laughing, he said: "You... look so weird in pink!"
Sun Xu was speechless...this silly woman.
This is clothes again, just an apron. Do you need to play with color matching?
But it’s hard to say it, and you can’t directly engage in verbal confrontation regardless of your demeanor... When I explain, it feels like a duck’s mouth. In the end, I can only keep working with a grimace!
When Miss Meng saw him like this, she couldn't help but laugh.
Cheerful smiles sounded from time to time in the gradually dimming apartment, making this apartment made of steel and blue bricks less cold and more warm!
(End of chapter)
