Chapter 54 – If You Traveled to the Past

“Shen, Shen Yu! Pull, pull me a little, I dare not jump ……”

“Why don’t I see you afraid to jump when you’re just coming down.”

When the boat docked, Shen Yu was the first one to get on board, and Asaba Rika looked at the rickety boat with fear, fearing that he would lose face if he could not stand up on the shore and fall into the water.

When she saw that Shen Yu wanted to leave, she was on the verge of tears, so she gritted her teeth and ran up, grabbing the back of Shen Yu’s shirt, afraid that he would run away.

“You let go.”

“You, how dare you leave me!”

Asaba Rika was very aggrieved that Shen Yu was so unkind and wouldn’t even give her a hand, when he had just been so gentle in dusting the leaves for her.

“You’re not running up here on your own now.”

“I’m scared!”

Asaba Rika held on to his shirt until the tension calmed down and his nose twitched before he let go and looked around for the source of the scent.

“It smells so good …… Shen Yu , is it any kind of food?”

Apart from a few shops selling various knick-knacks, the old streets have the most food.

“It’s Wan San Hoof.”

“What a weird name ……”

“Want some?”

“Think!!!”

Usually, most Chinese dishes are named after ingredients combined with their practice, such as the stir-fried shrimps and stir-fried beef with broccoli that we had for lunch today, but there are also allusions to people’s names, such as Dongpo Pork and Wan San Hoof.

Without much explanation, Shen Yu took Rika to the town’s old mansion, Shen Hall, before it was time to eat.

” Shen Yu , are we here to eat Wan San Hoof?”

“Eat later.”

“This is the house where the rich and famous used to live, right?”

Upon entering, Asaba Rika was surprised by the interior, which is obviously much more luxurious than the homes on the street.

“The owner of the house was called Shen Wansan, who was the richest man in Jiang Nan at the beginning of the Ming dynasty.”

“Well ……”

Asaba Rika followed Shen Yu as he walked around the spacious seven-room hall, which was a real eye-opener for Asaba Rika in terms of the architectural style and furnishings inside.

” Shen Yu, where are we going to eat Wan San Hoof?”

Asaba Rika After shopping around, I couldn’t find anywhere to eat this dish in Shen Hall.

Shen Yu is speechless, all she can think about is food.

“According to legend, the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was a guest at Shen Wansan’s house and when he ate a dish made of pig’s feet, Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was delicious and asked Shen Wansan what it was. Shen Wansan had a bright idea and said it was called Wan San Hoof.”

“So that’s it!”

Asaba Rika was so enlightened that he wanted to taste the Wan San Hoof even more.

“It’s too mushy for dinner.”

Shen Yu took her out to continue her stroll.

Asaba Rika feels like a little girl who hasn’t grown up and is curious about all the weird and wonderful things.

One moment she picked up a folding fan and asked Shen Yu to open it for her to see, another moment she picked up a tambourine and shook it. She liked these novelty gadgets, but did not buy them because they were too expensive and there was no point in buying them if they were not intended as gifts.

A final stall selling dolls caught her eye.

” Kawaii!!!”

It’s all about the ceramic unstuck dolls, with kittens, puppies, and pandas.

Asaba Rika holds a giant panda doll looking at it, naive and nibbling on a bamboo.

” Shen Yu, I used to think that every one of you had a giant panda in your house!”

“That’s going to eat up the family?”

Shen Yu also picked up this giant panda doll and looked at it. The workmanship was quite exquisite, but he would never buy such a thing, after all, there was no point in looking at it other than to see it.

“I think pandas are particularly cute! I saw a giant panda once! It was so cute!”

“It wouldn’t be cute if you painted its eye rims white.”

Asaba Rika cocked her head in thought, then hurriedly shook off the thought of ‘pandas with white circles under their eyes’; Shen Yu was too bad, always coming to spoil the good stuff.

[Sweet and sour candy canes].

Asaba Rika has seen this kind of candy cane many times when he was looking for comic material, but he never had the chance to eat one.

The candy cane seller is an old man pushing a bicycle with a straw handle tied to it, on which are tied strings of red and tempting candy canes.

“I’m going to buy candy canes!”

Asaba Rika puts down the panda doll and runs happily to the candy cane vendor.

“……”

Just don’t get lost with all the people coming and going!

Shen Yu picked up that panda doll and looked at it, what’s so funny about this silly and goofy look ……

“How much is it?”

“Thirty.”

“Why don’t you go and grab it?”

Shen Yu puts down the panda doll and prepares to get up and leave.

“Twenty, lad! It’s a loss! Can’t be any less!”

“Fifteen.”

“Okay.”

Shen Yu : “……”

Still hasty!

After paying the money and putting the panda doll in his pocket, Shen Yu went over to Asaba Rika.

This silly girl, who is not tall, road-weary and greedy, chased the candy gourd vendor for a while, but turned around and couldn’t find Shen Yu.

It was only when Shen Yu appeared in front of her that she breathed a long sigh of relief.

“I, I clearly remember just turning from there myself ……”

She bowed her head and bit into a hawthorn, it was tart and sweet, quite delicious, so her low mood immediately brightened up again.

” Shen Yu , it’s yours.” She handed the other string to Shen Yu .

“Only children like to eat these.”

Shen Yu took it and stuffed one into his mouth, “What’s good ……”

After eating the candy cane, Asaba Rika dragged Shen Yu to buy a pie, Shen Yu forgot the name of the pie, he had eaten it when he was a child, it had a lot of fillings in it, it tasted quite good, the two of them shared it in half.

Shen Yu marvelled at Asaba Rika’s appetite. It was clear that he could not even eat a bowl of white rice at lunch, but when he ate these snacks, his soft little tummy looked like a bottomless pit, and his mouth never stopped walking all the way.

Asaba Rika was very excited to see a lot of ladies in Chinese costume on the way.

He even ran over to them and asked for a photo.

” Shen Yu , what would you do if you travelled back in time to a long, long time ago?” Asaba Rika asked curiously as he took a bite of the cake.

“Of course it’s changing the world.” Shen Yu looked at her speechlessly, did she even need to think about such a question.

“How do you change it?” Rika asked again.

Shen Yu fell silent, and if there was such a possibility, he had travelled back a thousand years and seemed to have nothing to offer himself.

The structure of human knowledge is vast and unified, and without the support of related disciplines, individual knowledge cannot be translated into productivity at all, including materials, tools, methods, etc.

Shen Yu knew the principles of electricity generation but could not build a power station, knew the principles of the internal combustion engine but could not build a car, had limited production processes, no drawings, no accurate measuring tools, no database, and could not do anything.

It might be possible to go back and make soap, but the point is that Shen Yu doesn’t know how soap is made, so I thought I’d go and find out how soap is made, just in case I ever crossed over and could use it.

Arts students have a much greater advantage in crossing over science students.

“I’ll copy poems, lyrics, write essays, take examinations, take nine more concubines, give me ninety-one children, I’ll teach them mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, politics, let them build factories and make aeroplanes.”

“Hmph!”

“What are you humming.”

“I thought Shen Yu was so great, but it turns out he wants to go back and marry lots of wives!”

Shen Yu said with a straight face, “Can it be the same? In this case, it’s time to have more children, the population is the most important thing, and only my own children will be able to teach modern knowledge, otherwise I’m sure I’ll be burned as a madman.”

“So you took nine wives just to change the world?”

“It’s nine concubines, wives count separately.”

Asaba Rika is furious that he wants to change the world with his mouth when it is obvious that he just wants to marry many wives.

“So how come Shen Yu is not in a relationship now?”

“Can it be the same, there’s no shortage of people in this day and age, it’s time, I need a lot of time to absorb knowledge, falling in love would be a waste of life.”

Shen Yu nodded his head and said to Asaba Rika, “So what, you have to keep your sanity at all times.”

Asaba Rika, who seemed to understand, also said rationally, “Then if I travel to the past, I will also marry nine husbands.”

“Nonsense, I can, you can’t.”

“You don’t make sense!”

“It just won’t work anyway.”

“You don’t make sense!”

Asaba Rika did not want to talk to him and ate the cake in a sultry voice.

Shen Yu doesn’t want to talk to her either. If she dares to marry nine husbands, Shen Yu will blow her door with the artillery he invented.

……

When night falls, the lights come on, the water reflects the colours, boats are connected to boats, lights are held by lights, far and near, like a dream.

We stayed here until 8pm, when Asaba Rika ate the Wan San Hoof and watched the Kunqu performance under the ancient pagoda.

It was after nine o’clock when I got home, and Asaba Rika was tired after a long day of playing, so it was better to take a hot bath.

She carefully peeled her iPhone in her pyjamas and then gave half to Shen Yu, saying sweetly.

” Shen Yu , good night!”

“Don’t oversleep.”

Shen Yu ate his iPhone, went to his room, closed the door, dug into his pocket and took out the panda doll.

He held it in his palm, rubbing his thumb against the smooth ceramic surface, and looked at it quietly for a moment, pulling open the drawer of his desk and putting it in.

Girls are just trouble.