【2】Arson

The previous climb consumed Yao Fan's great energy, and this trek from the far suburbs to the inner city made Yao Fan very tired.

The road is long and the legs are broken, and the leather shoes are about to be worn out. On the way back to the city, weeds are growing, and some crazy-growing grass poles are taller than people, but they can't find the road.

Yao Fan laughed at himself and cursed the streets along the way, struggling hard among the weeds and thorns, complaining that the world was too unfair.

"I never became the captain of the Sandaoba team in elementary school! I never got the first place in middle school! I never got the school beauty in college! Why should I be traveling through time! Why should I be possessed by the blood soul! This is unfair!..."

The trousers were pulled by the thorns, and the calf was so thorny that it was very uncomfortable. The face was accidentally bleeding from the grass leaves. The mouth was already open due to fatigue, and a dry bloody cut on the lips hurt so much... Yao Fan had already believed that he had really come to a different time and space.

Looking at the sun and making sure his direction was right, Yao Fan smiled bitterly and continued to walk towards the direction where Qingdao Old Town was located.

Yao Fan walked for about five or six hours. If it weren't for the experience of the volleyball team in college that gave him good physical fitness, he wouldn't have been able to hold on.

On the way, he passed by several villages that looked very cold but did not dare to enter. He subconsciously felt that his outfit would probably not be loved by the Qing farmers these days.

"My skin is too white, my chrysanthemums are too narrow, and my sexual orientation is too single. I must not run around in such a dangerous world..." Yao Fan solemnly warned himself.

Finally, he saw a city wall from a distance from the tall grass head. The city wall came out of the grass head. No matter what analysis method was used, the city wall looked like it was definitely not the style of a film and television city or theme park.

"Good! I remember this is the architectural style of the old Jiaozhou city wall in Qingdao Museum! It seems that Blood Soul is telling the truth. I actually traveled to the Qing Dynasty! Goo-godly... What should I do?

...Since you have already arrived, you must have a look! Otherwise, my 200CC blood will be gone in vain if you go back and forth."

Yao Fan stood in the grass blankly, and his mind seemed to be holding a rural temple fair, with a mess all over the ground.

After thinking about it, he still couldn't decide what he should do at this moment. Going into the city? Not entering the city? This is a question...

Should I be wearing this outfit calmly for people at this time, it is absolutely strange clothes to enter the city, or should I try to circle the city and find a suitable place to climb into the city and see what it is?

The worst thing is that Yao Fan only thought about it but did not notice the surrounding environment. Not far behind him, two Qing soldiers wearing scribbled chests with the word "Yang" were touching him quietly.

As a jujube wooden stick as thick as a forearm was swung firmly on Yao Fan's head, he immediately fell to the ground like an empty sack and lost consciousness. The money-making plan that had just emerged in his mind was suddenly wiped out. The last word he heard in his ear was "...I caught..."

After finally waiting for him to wake up, Yao Fan, who opened his eyes to recover his consciousness, immediately cried out: "Ahhh, my head hurts so much! Who did this? Who actually poured water on my head and face..."

"Who is in the hall? Why are you sneaking outside the city and peeking at my Jiaozhou Port?" A question interrupted Yao Fan's self-talk.

When Yao Fan heard this question of nonessential question, he shrank his head, raised his head and opened his eyes, looked around with a cold water, and woke up with a cold sweat.

Yao Fan saw that this was a semi-open hall, paving the ground with bluestone facing north and south. There were four wooden pillars supporting the roof on both sides of the hall, and the wooden pillars were thick and thin to support the roof of the central hall. As for this column, it was so simple that it was not even painted with red paint. It just stood in the round stone trough on the ground, and I wonder if it would soon decay.

The roof of this middle hall is ancient and is higher than the roof of the main hall next to it, which brings the skylight down from the gaps between the high and low on both sides. There are drained stone ditches on both sides, which are dry at the moment.

There were some half-red and half-black sticks hanging on the walls on both sides of the hall, some iron chains, head shackles and other things that could not be named. They looked black, gloomy and cold. A plaque hung in the center of the lobby, but it was not written on it as "the mirror was hanging high" commonly found in film and television dramas. Yao Fan recognized that the four big words above were "clear wind with two sleeves". He inexplicably subconsciously reacted, thinking that the slogan was not very reliable in the Qing Dynasty.

"Oh no, I was captured by the Qing soldiers!" Yao Fan reacted.

"This place is so simple, it's not like the gorgeously decorated Qing Dynasty yamen lobbies on TV. Could it be the Qing Dynasty rural police station?...What should I do now? Jump up and run away? Travel back in the blood sacrifice in the hall?"

Others looked like a moment of effort, but Yao Fan had already had more than a dozen escape ideas in his mind. He calmed down and finally made up his mind in an instant.

"Anyway, I've come here. Even if I want to kill my head, I have to send me to a dedicated execution ground, right? If I have to waste my time on the road, it will be enough to travel back."

Thinking of this, Yao Fan held back the pain from the beaten part of his head and the swear words he wanted to spit out. He sorted out his language and said to the official in the hall with a big black braid with a goatee on his chin, who was neither arrogant nor humble, "I... named Yao Fan, here is from Western Europe. I would like to ask, why am I a great overseas Chinese who is a returning European country with a heart full of sincere service to the country, but I will be beaten and slapped on the way back to the city, and I will be tied to the yamen to ask for guilt?"

As he said and thought, he finished talking nonsense, Yao Fan felt that the words and sentences were very awkward, and he felt that he had been studying in college.

So after he finished speaking, Yao Fan shook and tried hard to stand up. Although he was still afraid and worried that he would suddenly break his leg by the yamen runner next to him, he still looked righteous and arrogant.

This is what a modern man should be, he is his own master and a free citizen from the future.

But his hands were tied behind his back and couldn't be pulled out, but his hands stood with his back were like declaring that he did not belong to this world.

The master in the hall obviously had never seen such a rude person who had to go to the hall. He wanted to laugh at Yao Fan, and then threw down a sign to smash Yao Fan's butt. But after thinking about it, he still didn't do this.

He looked at Yao Fan carefully and thought, "That white face is not something that farmers can do. This looks obviously a gentry class who is used to being pampered. The suits, leather shoes, shirts, trousers are all dressed in exquisite workmanship, and obviously they have piled up a lot of money on this outfit. In this era, people who dressed in such a rare foreign devil are at least a second devil... Well, they are still a second devil from a decent family."

He finally made a conclusion: "That's a must! He must be a second-aggressive devil! He might not be a lie if he said so."

After this master made such a judgment, he naturally began to feel unsure - this Qing Dynasty had no trivial matters when it came to foreign countries.

So the master's tone became obviously kind: "The boy in the hall... Then, you are an overseas Chinese who returned from the West? So why don't you be in Shanghai and Nanjing, but you will come outside the city of Qingdao? According to Bingyong, you are wearing strange clothes and peeking into the city, and you must have a bad intention. What kind of defense do you have?"

Yao Fan looked at the soldiers on both sides and saw that the faces were as long as scorched sweet potato skins - black and yellow and ugly. They looked at themselves with curious eyes. Some of these black and yellow dwarfs were on their waists, and some pressed their hands on the handle of the knife around their waists, as if they could pull out their swords at any time.

Feeling that he had entered the barbarian nest, Yao Fan's fear became stronger and stronger. He quickly dug out the historical information he had read in college from his memory, thinking that Qingdao had not been stolen to the Germans in 1875, and now Qingdao is only a small fishing village called Qingdaokou. Because the port transportation is gradually booming, the Qing government set up a customs branch in this fishing village and sent more than a thousand troops to garrison, called Jiaozhou Port.

Yao Fansong said: "I remember that Qingdao had customs division, sub-card, and nine agency offices. In addition, there were offices for foreign banks. On weekdays, goods were frequently transported and there were many people. I might not be wrong if I talk nonsense. I just need to say details in detail. I remember a famous person once said that even if the general direction of lying is outrageous, it is okay, but the details must be so real that they are outrageous."

Yao Fan, who figured out the truth of this section, cleared his throat and began to lie carefully: "Report to the master, I returned to China with the merchant ship. This time I came from Shanghai to find my ancestors in Shandong.

Sir, I am a Chinese wanderer who lives overseas for a long time and has not seen my hometown for many years. I am so homesick! So I ran out of the city to see the scenery. I stood on the cliff outside the city and looked at Jiaozhou Bay. My heart was filled with emotions. I felt that more than twenty years of life seemed like a dream, and I felt really sad!”

Yao Fan judged that this lie might not be useful to those soldiers who described ugly, but it was enough for the official master who seemed pampered in the hall.

Sure enough, the official asked in confusion: "Looking for the ancestor?"

"Yes, when it comes to Master Qingtian, my ancestors were from Tai'an, Shandong. In the early years of Shunzhi, the whole clan went to the southeast to sea with the merchant ships going to the southeast, and wandered all the way to Europe to settle down and live along the southeast, India, Arabia, and Africa.

My Yao family built railways, set up factories, built foreign cars, and sold foreign goods in Europe, and lived a very comfortable life. But seeing that this foreigner disregarded etiquette, righteousness, integrity and shame, and did not know the world. Relying on the fact that the Qing Dynasty was not familiar with their frivolous inside story, I came to the Heavenly Kingdom to invade the people and the court of the Qing Dynasty. When the family saw this feeling and scene, they were so indignant!

All the elders in my family ordered me to come back to China. This is to find my ancestors. Secondly, I want to see if I have the opportunity to run some business and make the country rich and the people stronger. In the worst case, I also do some trade to serve as a bridge and link to communicate between China and abroad, and to buy good machines for foreigners in the Qing Dynasty cheaply."

Yao Fan made up this nonsense, and his feelings were rich, at least he moved himself. Everyone in the hall stood aside and listened, and believed his nonsense.

Yao Fan, who was involved in the play, seduced Shangguan and said, "Sir, if someone in your family is a businessman or needs any goods, just look for me."

He took a step closer and smiled brightly: "No matter what Western goods are, I can get them as long as foreigners have them! I can also transport them to you cheaply! The landing price is at least 20% cheaper than the goods from foreigners!"

Yao Fan's cliché that was tempted for profit and was slightly worried about the country and the people was very effective.

I don’t know which sentence Yao Fan touched the official. When he heard that Yao Fan was a rich foreign businessman who lived abroad for generations and wanted to come back to recognize his ancestors, the official suddenly felt a sense of pride and was filled with enthusiasm.

He stared at Yao Fan in a daze for a moment, lowered his head and thought for a while, and ordered the soldiers to come forward and quickly loosen his ties with him.

"Yao Fan, you speak after you come to the hall."

Yao Fan was overjoyed when he heard this. He watched the adult turn from the hall to the back hall, and swing the green silk official robe behind his feet as if it was like a skirt. He was surprised and thought that the official's attitude had become too fast, right? Is there a fraud?
Chapter completed!