Chapter 2 Arrest

  Arrest

  The previous climb had consumed Yao Fang's great energy, and this trek from the outskirts to the city center had exhausted him even more.

  The road is endless, legs are tired and broken. On the way back to the city, weeds grow wildly, some overgrown grasses are taller than people, but the highway can't be found anywhere.

  Yao Fan walked along the road, scolding and complaining, struggling through the thorns and weeds, grumbling that the world was too unfair.

  "I never became a class leader in elementary school! I never got first place in middle school! I didn't even get the campus belle in college! Why do I have to be reborn?! Why do I have to be possessed by a blood soul?! This is unfair!......"

  His jeans were scratched by thorns, his calf was stabbed and aching, and his face was also accidentally scratched by grass leaves with bloodstains. His mouth was already open due to fatigue, and the dry blood on his lips was heart-wrenchingly painful... Yao Fan now truly believed that he had arrived in another time and space.

  Looking at the sun again to confirm that his direction was correct, Yao Fan smiled wryly and continued to walk in a deep and shallow manner towards the direction of the old city of Qingdao.

  Yao Fan walked for about five or six hours. If it weren't for his university volleyball team experience that gave him a good physical foundation, he wouldn't have been able to hold on.

  He passed through several villages that looked very desolate, but he didn't dare to enter. He subconsciously felt that his outfit would not be liked by the Qing dynasty farmers of this era.

  "My skin is too white, my chrysanthemum is too narrow, my sexual orientation is too monotonous, and I absolutely cannot run around recklessly in this dangerous world..." Yao Fangsha solemnly warned himself.

  At last, he saw a fortress far away on the tall grass, and the fortress emerged from the grass. No matter what kind of analysis method was used, the fortress did not look like any style of movie city or theme park at all.

  "Wow! I remember this is the architectural style of the old Qingdao City Wall in the Qingdao Museum! It seems that Xue Hun's words were true, and I actually traveled back to the Qing Dynasty! Wow... what should I do now?"

  "Now that I'm here, I must take a stroll! Otherwise, the round trip would be in vain, and my 200cc of blood would have been wasted."

  Yao Cong stood stupidly in the grass, his mind like a rural temple fair, chaotic and messy.

  He thought back and forth but still couldn't decide what he should do at this moment, go into the city? Not go into the city? This was a problem...

  Should I wear this absolutely strange and exotic outfit for the people at that time to enter the city calmly, or should I find a way to circle around the city to find a suitable unmanned place to climb in and take a look?

  Unfortunately, Yao Fang was so absorbed in thought that he failed to notice his surroundings. Just behind him, not far away, two Qing soldiers wearing rough clothes with the character "yong" (brave) written on their chests were stealthily approaching him.

  As a sturdy jujube wood stick, about the thickness of a small arm, came crashing down on Yao Fan's head, he immediately fell to the ground like an empty sack, losing consciousness. The grand plan for making money that had just risen in his mind was instantly shattered. The last word he heard was "...got him..."

  It was not easy to wait for him to wake up, and when Yao Feng opened his eyes and regained consciousness, he immediately cried out in pain: "Ah, my head hurts so much! Who did this? Who poured a whole face of water on me..."

  "Who is under the hall? Why are you sneaking around outside the city, peeking at me in Jiaozhou Port?" A voice interrupted Yao Feng's muttering.

  Yao Feng heard this absurd and irrelevant question, shrank his head, raised it with a splash of cold water, looked around with a chill, and woke up with a cold sweat.

  Yao Fan saw that it was a semi-open hall, with bluestone pavement facing south and north. In the center of the hall, there were four wooden pillars on each side supporting the roof of the central hall. The pillars were as thick as one's arms and supported the roof of the central hall. As for these pillars, they were so simple that they didn't even have a coat of red paint, just standing in the round stone sockets on the ground, it was unknown whether they would rot quickly because of this.

  The middle hall has a simple roof structure, with the two sides higher than the adjacent halls, allowing sunlight to shine through the gaps between them. On both sides of the ground, there are stone drainage ditches, which are currently dry.

  On both sides of the hall, there were some half-red and half-black sticks hanging on the walls, as well as iron chains, headstocks, and other unnameable objects that looked dark, gloomy, and icy. In the center of the main hall, a plaque was hung with four large characters that read "Two Sleeves Clear Wind", which Yao Fang recognized, but he had an inexplicable subconscious reaction, feeling that this slogan was not quite suitable for the Qing dynasty.

  "Damn it, I've been captured by the Qing soldiers!" Yao Fang reacted.

  "This place is incredibly shabby, where's the luxurious decoration of the Qing dynasty government hall like on TV? Is this a rural police station in the Qing dynasty? ... What should I do now? Jump up and escape? Make a bloody sacrifice to return through time?"

  To others, it seemed like a fleeting moment, but in Yao Fan's mind, he had already turned over more than a dozen ideas for escaping with his life. He calmed himself down and finally made up his mind in an instant.

  "Anyway, it's already happened, even if you want to behead me, at least send me to a proper execution ground? With the time spent on the road, I can still make it back in time."

  Thinking of this, Yao Fan endured the throbbing pain on his head and the foul language that he wanted to spew out from his stomach. He composed himself and spoke calmly to the official with a black braid at the back of his head and a goat-like beard on his chin: "I... my name is Yao Fan, I am from Western Europe. May I ask your honor, why would a proud European-Chinese returnee like myself, who came back with a strong desire to serve the country, be beaten with clubs on the way back to the city and then brought to the yamen for questioning?"

  As he spoke, Yao Fan himself felt that the words and sentences were very awkward, and it seemed as if his university education had all gone to waste.

  Then, after finishing speaking, Yao Fan struggled to get up with a swagger, although he was still afraid in his heart and worried that the yamen runner beside him would suddenly strike him down and break his leg, but he still put on an air of dignity.

  This is what a modern person should look like, he is his own master, a free citizen from the future.

  His hands were tied behind his back and couldn't be pulled out, but the gesture of standing with his hands behind him was like declaring that he didn't belong to this world.

  The old man on the platform had obviously never seen anyone so arrogant, and he wanted to mock Yao Fang for a while before throwing down a judge's pen to severely punish Yao Fang. But after thinking about it, he didn't do that.

  He carefully sized up Yao Fang, thinking to himself "That fair complexion is not something a farmer can have, this appearance is obviously that of a refined and dignified gentleman. The entire set of Western-style clothing, leather shoes, shirt, trousers, and accessories are all meticulously crafted, it's clear that a lot of money was spent on this outfit. In this era, someone who dresses like this rare foreign devil must be at least a second-rate gentleman...hmm, still a respectable family's second-rate gentleman."

  He finally made up his mind: "That's for sure! He must be a devil! In that case, he might not be lying."

  After making such a judgment, this old man naturally began to lose confidence - in the Great Qing Empire, there are no small matters when encountering foreigners.

  The old man's tone became noticeably more gentle: "Young fellow from the hall below... So, you're an overseas Chinese who has returned from the West? How is it that instead of being in Shanghai or Nanjing, you've come to the outer city of Qingdao? According to the soldiers, you were dressed strangely and suspiciously peeking into the city, with a heart full of evil intentions. What do you have to say for yourself?"

  Yao Feng glanced at the soldiers on both sides, only to see that each of their faces was as dark and ugly as a roasted sweet potato skin - black and yellow. They were sizing him up with curious eyes, these short and ugly little men, some with their hands on their hips, others with their hands resting on the hilts of their swords at their waists, as if they could draw their swords at any moment.

  He felt like he had entered a den of barbarians, and Yao Fang's fear grew thicker in his heart. He quickly rummaged through his memories to recall the historical data he had casually read in college, thinking that Qingdao was not yet ceded to Germany in 1875, and at that time, Qingdao was just a small fishing village called Qingdao Kou. Due to the gradual prosperity of port transportation, the Qing government set up a customs sub-station in this fishing village and dispatched more than a thousand troops, known as Jiaozhou Port.

  Yao Wensuo thought to himself: "I still remember that at the time, Qingdao had as many as nine customs offices, branches and checkpoints. In addition, there were also business offices of various foreign companies in this place. On ordinary days, goods transportation was frequent and personnel came and went in large numbers. I may not necessarily be wrong if I talk nonsense, but it's just that the details must be described with great care. I remember a famous person once said that even if the overall direction of a lie is absurd, it doesn't matter, but the details must be real enough to make people feel ashamed."

  Yao Fangqing cleared his throat and carefully began to spin a lie: "I'm reporting back to you, sir. I followed a merchant ship back to the country. This time, I came from Shanghai to Shandong to find my ancestors."

  "Oh, my fellow countrymen! I, a wanderer from China, have been living abroad for many years and haven't seen my homeland in ages. My homesickness is really getting to me! That's why I ran out of the city to take in the view. Standing on the cliff by the sea outside the city, gazing out at Jiaozhou Bay, my emotions are surging, and I feel that more than twenty years of life have passed like a dream. It's really making me feel deeply moved!"

  Yao Feng judged that this lie might not be useful for those ugly and brave soldiers, but it was enough for the official who looked refined and dignified on the platform.

  The official asked in confusion: "Seeking ancestors?"

  "Yes, as the great ancestor said, my ancestors were from Tai'an, Shandong Province. The whole family followed the merchant ships to Nanyang during the early years of Emperor Kangxi's reign and set sail from Qingdao Port, drifting along Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, Africa, and eventually settled in Europe."

  My family, the Yao, were in Europe building railways, running factories, making foreign cars and selling foreign goods, living a very comfortable life. But seeing these foreigners ignoring etiquette and morality, not knowing the height of heaven or the thickness of earth, relying on our great Qing dynasty's unfamiliarity with their cunning and deceitful ways, coming thousands of miles by ship to invade our celestial dynasty, extorting money from our people and government. Seeing this situation in my family, I am filled with righteous indignation!

  All the elders at home ordered me to return to China, first to seek my ancestors and second to see if there is an opportunity to do some practical business, to enrich the country and strengthen the people. If not, I will also engage in some trade, to serve as a bridge between China and foreign countries, so that our great Qing can cheaply purchase good machines from foreigners.

  Yao Fan's nonsense was emotionally rich, at least he moved himself, and the crowd on the platform believed three to five points of his ghost talk.

  Yao Feng took a step forward and flirted with Da Ren: "Sir, if someone in your family is engaged in business or needs something, just look for me."

  He took another step forward, beaming with a smile: "No matter what foreign goods, as long as foreigners have them, I can get them for you! And I can deliver them to your doorstep at a lower price than the foreigners' goods! The landed price is at least 20% cheaper!"

  Yao Fan's words, laced with a hint of concern for the country and its people, had an extremely good effect.

  It was unclear which sentence of Yao Fan's words had moved the official, but as soon as he heard that Yao Fan was a wealthy foreign businessman who had lived abroad for generations and was now returning to his ancestral home, the official suddenly felt a surge of pride and gained momentum.

  He stared at Yao Fang for a moment, lowered his head to think for a while, and then ordered the soldiers to come forward and quickly untie him.

  "Yao Fang, you speak after entering the hall."

  Yao Feng was overjoyed when he heard the words, and watched as the official turned around from the main hall and walked towards the back hall. The blue satin official robe swished behind him like a skirt, and Yao Feng's heart was filled with surprise. He thought to himself that this official's attitude had changed too quickly, wasn't there some trickery involved?

  But he thought better of it and decided that no matter what, as long as he was willing to loosen my restraints, it was a good thing; going to the back hall to talk was better than being interrogated in this main hall.