Chapter Twenty-Five: Father Bi Fāng Jì
Yang Bo knew that in every dynasty, there were always such foreigners who came to our celestial empire with a fabricated national title, cheating and deceiving, as long as they could satisfy the vanity of those ignorant officials, and when they left, they would still get a large sum of silver.
Yang Bo felt he had a responsibility to expose these people, of course, most importantly, Yang Bo hoped to find an opportunity to cooperate with foreigners on a big deal and swindle the Qing government's money, which he absolutely had no mental burden.
"Hello?" Yang Bo caught up with the foreigner, who was about to turn into an alleyway to avoid a large crowd of onlookers, and called out.
"Hello?" Yang Bo saw that the foreigner seemed not to have heard and called out again. Tieniu didn't know what Yang Bo was doing, but curiously followed behind him.
The foreigner finally heard Yang Bo's call and turned around, looking at Yang Bo with some confusion.
Yang Bo smiled and slightly bowed: "...HOW－－－ARE－－－YOU?"
“…HI，－－－I－－－HELP－－－YOU？”
“…o－－－meet－－－you？”
“…How－－－do－－－you－－－do？”
“…**－－－u？”
“FUCK!”……
Yang Bo scolded a few sentences in English, but the foreigner had no reaction at all, and just stared at Yang Bo in confusion.
"How are you? I don't know what this gentleman wants from me?" The foreigner listened for a long time and still didn't understand what Yang Bo wanted to do, so he simply bowed his hands to Yang Bo.
"So you can speak Chinese?" Yang Bo's anticipated majestic aura was shaken, and the intimidating scene did not unfold. He scratched his head with some embarrassment: "So you can speak Mandarin!"
"Does the young master think that we, the barbarians, are all uneducated and uncivilized savages who do not understand etiquette?" The old foreigner seemed to be somewhat angry, apparently he had encountered such situations more than once.
"Hmm..." Yang Bo hastily changed the subject: "I wonder where this gentleman is from? England? France? America... no, that's not right, there shouldn't be an America at this time?"
That foreigner's eyes suddenly lit up: "You actually know England and France? Oh, God! This is simply unbelievable..."
The onlookers saw this foreigner chatting with a rich young man and couldn't help but feel curious, this barbarian's hair was too frightening, they only dared to peek from afar, not daring to get too close.
Yang Bo smiled and nodded: "Of course, Mr. Mo thinks that the Great Ming is so isolated and ignorant, with no one able to recognize the Western countries?"
The two of them exchanged a smile, and both had a kind of tacit understanding.
"Why don't... " Yang Bo looked around and said, "Why don't I be the host and find a quiet place to chat? I have many questions to ask Mr."
"I dare not, I dare not... I have a feeling of familiarity with this young master..." The old foreigner looked around at the crowd of people watching the gorillas for free and said: "As you wish, I dare not invite you..."
"What is your name, sir?" Yang Bo made a welcoming gesture, indicating for the foreigner to follow him.
"Francois, oh, sorry, I'm actually called Bi Fangji" It seems like few people actively invite him to chat, this foreigner got excited and blurted out his real name.
As the three of them walked away from the crowd, towards the relatively quiet Drunken Fragrance Pavilion, the onlookers still refused to give up, with over a dozen people trailing behind them to watch the commotion. Yang Bo muttered to himself as he walked: "This foreigner speaks Mandarin more fluently than I do, looks like he's not an easy mark either."
They went up to the third floor private room, Yang Bo carefully ordered some wine and dishes, including braised abalone, smoked beef, sweet and sour pork chops, steamed fish, a few seasonal vegetables, plum soup to drink with wine, high-quality sorghum liquor, and a pot of green snail tea.
The foreigner was quite familiar with the rules of the Great Ming Dynasty. Before the dishes were served, he rarely spoke and simply stood alone by the window to appreciate the scenery.
"What's his name... Bu... Bu...?" Yang Bo suddenly couldn't remember the foreigner's name.
"In the lower reaches of the Bi River, there is a man named Jin Liang..." The foreigner hastily added:
"How embarrassing... I'm afraid I've made a fool of myself in front of you, sir..." Yang Bo bowed slightly and invited Bi Fangji to take a seat.
"The name below is a bit strange, and it's also possible that I couldn't think of it for a while..." Bi Fangji smiled and pushed the excuse aside, looking down at his own seat.
"Hmm, Mr. Bi has come from afar, it's not easy to get here, is it?" Poor Yang Bo had limited knowledge in his belly, and he had been thinking for half a day just to come up with these few polite phrases.
Bi Fangji's face darkened, as if he had thought of something sad: "I dare not deceive Young Master Yang, it is indeed not easy..."
"What's the meaning of this, Mr. Bi?"
"Our great Ming's prosperity is renowned in the Western countries, and a few years ago, hundreds of young missionaries applied to come to our country. After selecting those with both virtue and learning, they were given over 7,000 volumes of scriptures by the Pope, and I, along with twenty-two other Jesuits, set out from Italy... Our purpose in coming to this great Ming is to exchange ideas and spread the Gospel of God..." The old foreigner made a cross and continued: "...Alas, during the voyage, due to the plague spreading in the ship's cabin, storms at sea, and pirate attacks, more than half of these twenty-two missionaries perished. When we arrived in Macau, only five people were left."
"It turned out that Mr. Bi was a missionary? I thought... Yang Bo was somewhat surprised and slightly disappointed, he had thought that missionaries came to China on a large scale during the Qing dynasty, but did not expect such a large-scale group activity in the Ming dynasty. Yang Bo didn't have a good impression of missionaries, he remembered the history he had learned before, missionaries coming to China were all about invasion and aggression, thinking of this, Yang Bo's face began to turn cold."
"I see that Mr. Yang has an extraordinary appearance, and what's even more remarkable is his familiarity with Western countries, which is quite rare; but I don't know where Mr. Yang received his education." Bi Fangji changed the subject when he saw Yang Bo fall silent.
Yang Bo felt somewhat embarrassed: "For now, I'm still a nobody"
This made Bi Fangji somewhat embarrassed, and for a moment, the two of them sat opposite each other in silence.
Bi Fangji went through hardships and difficulties all the way, and after arriving in Macau, he studied Chinese for several years. He then relied on his connections to enter the Ming Dynasty. However, what he faced was ordinary people gawking at him like a giant ape, Buddhist monks with hostile intentions, and arrogant officials who were out of touch with reality. His followers did not increase much, and thinking about it made him feel extremely bitter. Today, he finally met Yang Bo, and he thought that Yang would be different from others, but unexpectedly...
Also heard that Yang Bo is just a white body, it seems that he can't help himself with his career, thinking of this, Bi Fangji's inner fire also cooled down.
Yang Bo came back to his senses, picked up the wine cup and respectfully toasted: "Sir, you risked great danger to come to our Great Ming Dynasty to spread the gospel, your heart is admirable, I toast you a cup, sir!"
As soon as Bi Fangji heard this, he almost shed tears, and for fear that Yang Bo would think him impolite, he hastily returned a toast with a busy and flurried manner, only then did he sit down with reddened eyes. In fact, these pioneers were mostly people of firm will, what they lacked least was courage, the only pain was the loneliness of not being understood by the world, Yang Bo's polite words inadvertently matched his current situation, this gave Bi Fangji a feeling of meeting a kindred spirit in a foreign land...
