British writer

Lu Shi followed Natsume Soseki to the rented house on Buiya Road.

The house has one bedroom and a living room, which is quite old. On the east wall of the living room, two windows sealed with bricks are very eye-catching, and they are tightly blocked, leading to the inside of the house. The air is very poor.

Natsume Soseki complained: "Don't be disgusted, there are many such in London."

Lu Shi nodded,

"Well, the aftermath of the window tax."

Natsume Soseki looked at him in surprise, and asked curiously, "What is a window tax?"

Lu Shi didn't answer the other party in a hurry, but walked to the window, groped on the wedge-shaped brick for a while, finally found the buckle, and pulled it hard,

Click, a small hole opened in the lower right corner of the stone brick window.

Natsume Soseki was confused:? ? ?

"What are you doing?! We... hiss... broke the landlord's window."

Lu Shi waved his hand to signal the other party not to panic, and explained: "Didn't you just talk about the window tax? Before 1851, the British law stipulated that any house with less than 10 windows would be taxed at 2 shillings; with 10 to 20 windows Those who have more than 20 windows are taxed at 10 shillings. Since this tax is only levied on the number of windows, it does not take into account the area and value of the house, nor the taxpayer's ability to pay taxes. It is extremely unreasonable. In order to avoid paying taxes, many taxpayers have replaced open windows with dark ones, just like this."

He leaned over the small hole and observed left and right, and said: "This thing can at most take a breath, so it's unnecessary to count on it to illuminate. Huh ~ let me sober up first."

Natsume Soseki breathed a sigh of relief.

Just now, he was almost scared to death.

Unexpectedly, Lu Shi said again: "It's not a solution to live like this, and one day the window will be smashed."

Natsume Soseki was depressed, thinking why he invited an ancestor back to share the rent,

He hesitated for a moment, and finally couldn't help asking: "Lu, why did you share the rent with someone?"

Lu Shi was speechless,

"Why else? No money~"

Natsume Soseki was a little surprised, and asked: "Do you Chinese students also have no money? I came to London by boat all the way, and stopped in Shanghai, Fuzhou and other places. The port is prosperous, and there are magnificent buildings everywhere. No. I remember when I was in Shanghai, I went to the customs to visit Masaki Tachibana, and even got lost once because of those Western buildings.”

Lu Shi clicked his tongue,

"You also said that it is a Western building, a concession area."

Natsume Soseki was silent.

Before Japan and Britain signed the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, foreigners had the right to live freely in certain treaty ports in Japan and enjoyed extraterritorial rights.

In terms of external incompetence and humiliation of the country, the Tokugawa shogunate is similar to the Qing court.

The atmosphere is a little weird.

Lu Shi moved a few boxes and travel bags to his bedside, opened the bags, and arranged the furnishings.

Natsume Soseki turned on the light, read and wrote.

After being relatively silent for a while, Lu Shi walked behind the other party, glanced at the desk, and found that it was full of various literary books, and there were even a few copies of "Seaside Magazine" (actually "Strand Magazine") before 1893. ), a picture of a pipe-smoking detective comes to life on the cover.

"Holmes?"

Lu Shi picked up one of them and flipped through it casually.

Natsume Soseki was still writing something, without looking up, he said, "You like this? Then you can take it and read it, and return it to me after reading it. This kind of novel is useless to my studies."

He chose Chinese Literature at the University of London as his major. He studied literature, philosophy, and sociology under the tutelage of the famous scholar William Alexander Smith.

Lu Shi asked: "You are a public servant, what are the requirements for your studies?"

Natsume Soseki smiled wryly, and replied: "Study English. But I found out only a few days after I came here that the so-called English literature is very different from the English I knew before. Proficiency in English is not enough to strengthen the national power."

As he spoke, he pointed to what he was writing, and continued: "But no matter what, the homework assigned by the teacher must be finished."

Lu Shi leaned over and asked, "What homework?"

Natsume Soseki replied: "I just came here not long ago, and the teacher wants to examine how far I understand and grasp English literature. Since it is English literature, then popular books like "Seaside Magazine" naturally don't matter."

This matter happened to be within Lu Shi's professional range,

He said, "Not necessarily. Like..."

While talking, he rummaged through the pile of books and finally found the first case of Sherlock Holmes. He asked, "Looking at the title, how would you translate it?"

Natsume Soseki sighed helplessly.

"You don't understand Japanese, so it's useless for me to tell you."

Lu Shi urged: "Just say it."

Natsume Soseki rubbed the corner of his moustache, pondered and replied: ""A Study in Scarlet", should be "Study in Scarlet" or "Study in Scarlet", what's so difficult about it? It's completely literal. "

Lu Shi shook his head,

"wrong."

This was the first time Natsume Soseki was criticized professionally, and he was somewhat dissatisfied: "Then what are you talking about?"

Lu Shi chuckled, and said in Japanese, "It should be "Scarlet Works"."

After hearing this translation, Natsume Soseki immediately felt that Lu Shi was not good enough and lost interest.

He lazily said: "'There are three difficulties in translation: trustworthiness, expressiveness, and elegance. It is very difficult to ask for trustworthiness! Gu Xinyi, if you don't understand it, even if you translate it, you still don't translate it. Day and Ya were proposed by Mr. Yan Fu in your country, but you are so lucky that you don’t care about the form..."

As he spoke, he finally discovered something, his eyes widened,

"You can speak Japanese!?"

Lu Shi didn't answer, but turned the topic back, pointed to the magazine and said, "Look at the original text of this paragraph, 'How about we call it "A Study in Scarlet"? Use a little artistic terminology." , I don’t think it hurts.’ Here it is clearly stated that "A Study in Scarlet" uses artistic terms, but in the field of art, what does study mean?"

Natsume Soseki's thoughts were brought back again,

After a long time, he gave the answer: "When painting, it refers to exercises, trials, and trial paintings; in music, it refers to etudes."

Lu Shi nodded,

"Moreover, the Sherlock Holmes series is created from the first perspective of Dr. Watson, and the author Conan Doyle is also a doctor. Considering this is the first article in the series, it is most appropriate to say that it is an exercise if the author is substituted into it."

Even if you only find evidence in the original text, it is convincing enough.

Natsume Soseki showed a sincerely convinced expression,

"Lu Jun, what the hell are you..."

Lu Shi interrupted: "Let's try to use English as much as possible."

Natsume Soseki coughed, stood up, took a step forward, his legs touched the ground, his hips rested on his ankles, his upper body was straight, his hands were neatly placed on his knees,

after,

Boom——

He leaned over sharply,

“Sensational Mud Intimate Marseille!”

Lu Shi:? ? ?

He didn't want Natsume Soseki to knock him down, so he quickly avoided the other party's front and said, "Don't... Brother, don't mess with me."

Natsume Soseki seemed to think it was enough time to apologize, stood up,

"Lu, I was wrong. I underestimated you just now."

He glanced at the "Seaside Magazine" again, and continued what he said just now: "I also underestimated the hidden literature and artistry in popular books. To make up for it, I decided to take the study of the Sherlock Holmes series as homework and thoroughly study it." Read it, read it thoroughly."

Lu Shi has one head and two big ones,

"You don't have to do that, Holmes still has a lot of unscientific things."

Natsume Soseki was stunned, and asked curiously, "Isn't Dr. Doyle's writing style very professional? After reading it, I feel that the plot is very responsive and the reasoning is very rigorous."

Lu Shi shook his head,

"There are a lot of unscientific things. For example, in "The Speckled Tape Case", in the airtight safe, the snake will suffocate to death; Children with darker complexion are also outrageous; there are many descriptions in "Silver Horse" that do not conform to the official horse racing rules..."

Natsume Soseki swallowed his saliva, picked up a pen to record silently,

He is very sure that the homework will be handed in tomorrow.