Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 21: Maid Scribe, Young Master's First Experience [Please Read]

"What are the three of them doing?" Liu Kuan asked.

"They are cleaning the other rooms in the middle courtyard."

"I saw that the central courtyard had been cleaned?" Liu Kuan was puzzled.

Xia He said, "There are still some places where the dust hasn't been wiped clean. We have nothing to do for the time being, so we decided to clean it again."

Liu Kuan nodded, thinking that Xia He and the others were of good character and were not unwilling to do the rough work of maids just because of their status as maids.

"Go and call them all over."

"Yes."

Because the other three were in the middle courtyard, Xia He quickly brought them to the study in the main house.

Liu Kuan first asked Qiuyue, "Xia He said you can read and punctuate?"

There was no formal punctuation system in the Ming Dynasty, and many articles did not have punctuation marks, so readers had to break the sentences themselves and then judge the meaning of the text.

Therefore, in ancient times, being able to read and being able to understand sentences were two different meanings.

What's more, it was the early Ming Dynasty, which had only been established for a dozen years, and the northeast and southwest had not yet been taken over.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang began to promote official education in the second year of Hongwu, there were still very few girls who could read and write, and even fewer who could understand and punctuate text.

And most of them are inherited from family.

Qiuyue nodded, "I can even punctuate any ordinary article."

Her voice was gentle and soft, but her tone was firm. She was obviously quite confident about it, and even hid a little arrogance.

However, Liu Kuan asked again: "How fast do you write?"

Qiuyue was slightly surprised, but quickly replied, "It's okay."

She didn't know how fast Liu Kuan needed to write, so she could only answer this way.

In her mind, reading and writing, which she learned from her family, were more important than the ability to serve people that she learned in the government office. She always demonstrated it unconsciously and carefully maintained it.

Liu Kuan nodded, then looked at Chunlan and asked, "Xia He said you are good at painting?"

"My lord, I can only paint ordinary flowers, birds, insects and fish." Compared with Qiuyue, Chunlan's words were not so confident.

For one thing, she felt that her painting skills were crude.

Secondly, she really didn't know what Liu Kuan wanted her to draw and was worried about making mistakes.

"Can you paint with fine brushwork?" Liu Kuan asked again.

Chunlan said, "I know a little bit."

Even if he had asked, Liu Kuan didn't know if the two of them could do it, so he said with the mentality of giving it a try: "You two come to the study and help me with something."

Chunlan and Qiuyue looked at each other and followed Liu Kuan into the study.

Dongmei looked curiously and seemed to want to follow in, but was pulled away by Xia He.

When they arrived at the courtyard, Dongmei couldn't help asking, "Sister Lianxiang, what does the young master want them to do?"

"How should I know? Also, the Master has changed our names, so don't call us by the wrong names again."

"Oh." Dongmei nodded, but couldn't help but sneak a peek at the study, but unfortunately she didn't see anything.

Xia He said, "Let's continue dusting and try to finish the job before dark."

"Okay." Dongmei replied a little helplessly.

She actually wanted to take the opportunity to be lazy, but unfortunately she didn't dare.

···
When Chunlan and Qiuyue entered the study, their eyes were immediately drawn to the laptop on the desk.

It was really that this strange object looked too out of place in the study - it clearly did not belong here, did not belong to the Ming Dynasty, and was not even something that could exist in the mortal world.

Liu Kuan sat down on the chair and waved to the two of them, "Come over to me."

Chunlan and Qiuyue were a little nervous for a moment, subconsciously worried that Liu Kuan would do something rude to them, but they also had a little hope - if they really became concubines of the master's family, their chances of escaping slavery would be greater.

Of course, there are also those who are taken advantage of by their owners and get nothing in return.

However, when the two came to Liu Kuan's side, their attention was attracted by the "strange object" again.

Because the strange object was glowing, and there seemed to be words and pictures on it!
Before the two of them could take a closer look, they heard Liu Kuan say, "This is a machine I brought from my hometown. It's called a computer. There's some important information on it that needs to be copied down."

"I'm not very good at calligraphy, nor do I know how to paint with a brush. You will just copy the information above according to my instructions. If you do well, I will reward you."

After hearing this, the two of them came to their senses and quickly responded together, "Yes."

Then he remembered his worries just now, and felt ashamed and blushed.

"Qiuyue sits on the chair, Chunlan move the stool over there and sit on Qiuyue's left." Liu Kuan stood up and pointed at the chair.

Qiuyue hesitated and said, "This is the master's seat. I dare not sit here."

Liu Kuan said with a smile, "If you don't sit here, are you going to copy while standing?"

Qiuyue glanced at the study and saw a stool, so she moved it over, moved the chair aside, and put the stool over there.

She said, "I'll leave the chair to you, and I can sit on the stool."

"also."

Liu Kuan didn't bother with such a small matter and pulled the laptop open a little so that both of them could see the screen.

Then he pointed at the screen and said, "Maybe you can understand the words on this?"

Chunlan and Qiuyue took a closer look and saw that most of the words on the "computer" were simplified fonts with missing limbs, similar to cursive writing.

Then Qiuyue said, "I can barely recognize a small part of it."

Chunlan said, "I know even less."

Liu Kuan said, "It's okay, I'll teach you."

Then, Liu Kuan read the materials while explaining the simple characters that Chunlan and Qiuyue did not understand, and asked Qiuyue to be responsible for copying them.

At first, Qiuyue subconsciously wrote vertically from right to left on the paper according to the habit at that time, but after being "corrected" by Liu Kuan, she endured the discomfort and imitated the format on the "computer".

And all of them are written in small regular script with hairpin flowers.

This way, more text can be placed on a piece of paper.

When they turned to the page with the picture, Liu Kuan said to Chunlan, "You should copy this picture with fine brushwork. The small words on the picture must also be copied without any mistakes." Chunlan was relieved to see that the picture on the screen was strange but not complicated, and began to copy it carefully.

Liu Kuan did not mention anything about size or proportion.

Because the scale of the relevant structural drawings in his information related to the steam engine was not strict, but the dimensional data was marked.

Therefore, when imitating, just follow the data.

Liu Kuan could see that Qiuyue was writing as quickly as possible, but because some simplified characters required him to explain their meanings, her copying speed was still relatively slow.

As for Chunlan copying the drawings, she was even slower because she was worried about making mistakes.

"It seems that having maids copying is not a long-term solution. We need to invent quills, pencils, or pens."

Liu Kuan actually didn't have much confidence in making a fountain pen at this time. He had to try to know whether it would succeed.

After Qiuyue copied more than three pages of text on the computer, Liu Kuan heard Zhao You calling him in the hall.

"Master Liu, your godfather has arrived with the rewards from the Emperor and the Empress. Please come out quickly."

Liu Kuan left the study and said to Zhao Youdao, "I'll be there right away."

Then he returned to the study and said, "Let's stop here today."

After saying that, he turned off the laptop and put it in his bag.

He didn't dare let Chunlan and Qiuyue continue copying here. What if they messed around and broke the computer when he was not around? No one in Daming could help him fix it.

After bringing Chunlan and Qiuyue out of the study and locking the door, he followed Zhao You to the front yard.

It was Zhao Cheng who had the carriages carrying the rewards driven from the west gate to the front yard - there were eight of them!
Zhao Cheng met Liu Kuan and said with a smile, "The Empress knew that Master Liu had just moved into his new house and was in need of everything, so she gifted him with a lot of daily necessities."

Liu Kuan glanced at the things on several large carts and found tables, chairs, bedding, tableware, drinking utensils, etc. Almost everything that the people of the Ming Dynasty needed in their daily lives at that time.

"It turns out that Empress Ma is very considerate. Unlike Zhu, who rewarded me with banknotes and silk and then ignored me."

Coming back to his senses, Liu Kuan said to Zhao Cheng, "Excuse me, Zhongguan Zhao."

"It's my duty, so I can't say I'm bothering you." Zhao Cheng was clearly getting closer to Liu Kuan. "Master Liu, are you ready to receive the order?"

"Um, how should we prepare?" Liu Kuan asked when he didn't understand.

Then, Zhao Cheng instructed Liu Kuan on how to set up the incense table and the process of receiving the emperor's edict and the empress's decree.

With the help of Zhao Cheng and the hard work of the servants, Liu Kuan finally received both reward orders.

Afterwards, Zhao Cheng and Zhao You helped direct the people they brought with them, as well as the servants in Liu Kuan's mansion, to put the rewards on the eight carts into the corresponding warehouses, or directly move them to a certain courtyard or house.

When everything was done, the mansion was basically cleaned.

At this time, the sun was setting, and Zhao Cheng was about to take his men away.

Liu Kuan politely tried to persuade him to stay, but Zhao Cheng said he had to go back to the palace to report, and then he left with a large group of people who came to help clean the mansion.

Liu Kuan returned to the study and checked the materials copied by Qiuyue and the pictures drawn by Chunlan.

Not long after, Xia He came to the study and asked, "The kitchen has prepared dinner. Where would you like to eat, sir?"

Liu Kuan took out his cell phone and checked the time. It was just past five o'clock, so he turned off the phone.

Later generations got used to eating around eight o'clock, because he would not go to bed until after 10 o'clock at the earliest, and sometimes even after 12 o'clock. If he ate dinner too early, he would be too hungry to sleep at night.

It was not his habit to eat after five in the afternoon.

However, he had lunch early today and was busy all afternoon.

Thinking that they were in the Ming Dynasty and should follow local customs, Liu Kuan said, "Send it to the side hall of the main house."

The main house in the central courtyard of this mansion is quite large.

In addition to the master bedroom, study and a slightly smaller flower hall, there is also a fairly large hall, which is composed of a main hall and a side hall.

In Liu Kuan's opinion, the side hall is almost the same as a restaurant.

Xia He replied "yes" and left for a while before coming back and saying, "Sir, it's time for dinner."

Liu Kuan packed up his things, locked the study, and went to the side hall.

There were three dishes and one soup on the mahogany round table - because it was fish soup, it counted as two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes.

The portion was not large, obviously prepared for him alone.

Then there was a bowl of millet porridge and two white flour steamed buns.

Chunlan, Xiahe, Qiuyue and Dongmei stood in a row beside them.

It seemed as if she wanted to watch him eat.

Liu Kuan was not a novice who had no knowledge of ancient customs and etiquette, so he would not be so foolish as to ask the maid to sit down and eat with him.

But he was also not used to being watched by four girls while eating.

So he said, "Xia He can stay, everyone else can leave and go eat."

The three of them glanced at Xia He subconsciously, and seeing that Xia He did not express anything, they bowed to Liu Kuan together and retreated.

"Xia He must have known the three of them for a long time, otherwise she wouldn't know so much, and the three of them seem to be led by Xia He."

'Of course, this is also related to Xia He being the oldest and acting the most mature.'

With this in mind, Liu Kuan started to eat his dinner.

After tasting the three dishes and one soup, Liu Kuan found that although the taste was a little bland, the texture was still good and more delicious than some restaurant dishes he had eaten in later life.

There were not as many condiments in the early Ming Dynasty as in later generations, which shows that the chef was very skilled.

So Liu Kuan thought of the cook among the servants who looked to be about 40 years old.

The cook had an ordinary appearance, a slightly plump figure, and a fair face.

Liu Kuan realized that he had forgotten the cook's name, so he asked, "Xia He, what was the cook's name?"

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　　【Wish readers a happy Chinese Valentine's Day! 】

(End of this chapter)