Walking on the broad streets, the towering Tower of London and busy St. Katharine Docks came into view. However, the famous Tower Bridge had not yet been built. The Thames waterway was bustling with countless sailing ships and steamboats coming and going, thick smoke pervading the air and shrouding the industrial district across the river in a distinct gray haze.
Xu Jianyin, imitating the English gentlemen on the street, walked to the lady’s right side. When a carriage came speeding across, he wanted to follow others’ example and gallantly protect her, but his hand was so awkward it didn’t seem like his own, making eight different turns but just not daring to touch her waist.
Had he not known her since childhood and understood her character, he wouldn’t dare be so liberal—he would have called a carriage for her, too.
Just as he was struggling with this dilemma, his arm was suddenly pulled forcefully by her, pulling him to the roadside.
“Lord Xu,” Lin Yuchan drawled, “watch out for the carriage.”
Xu Jianyin: “…”
He watched Lin Yuchan walk directly toward that heavily polluted area, his heart beating nervously. He vaguely recalled that scene years ago when he had impulsively followed her on a midnight dash to repair ships, feeling he was still that scholar from Strange Tales who had encountered a female spirit.
“Hey, Miss Lin, do you have a solution…”
He couldn’t bring himself to say “Madam,” and hearing she was still unmarried, could only call her “Miss,” his tongue getting tied, feeling as if he had aged a generation above her for no reason.
Lin Yuchan turned back with a smile: “Did you bring a camera?”
Xu Jianyin nodded. Such a rare opportunity to tour Europe naturally required taking photos at all times.
“Any attendants?”
Xu Jianyin pointed to two Indian men behind him—security guards hired by the embassy who had been waiting outside the restaurant.
Lin Yuchan nodded and casually walked into a tavern by the street, asked a few questions, then grabbed a flower-selling child.
After questioning several people this way, she obtained an address. Then she looked around and found a “Metropolitan Railway” sign standing on the street.
Xu Jianyin watched as half her body disappeared underground, his eyes going wide: “Is this your first time in London? Do you know what’s down there?”
“The subway, of course.” Lin Yuchan descended the steps, smiling with casual ease. “Making a big fuss over nothing.”
Xu Jianyin stood with his mouth agape. He had been to London many times, but never dared go down there!
She effortlessly found the Harrow-Baker St. line and fished out coins to buy tickets. When the rumbling steam locomotive came roaring in and stopped in the wide tunnel, she naturally stepped aboard and grasped the handrail.
Xu Jianyin beckoned to the two Indian bodyguards. Though it was his first time on the subway, he had to act familiar—he couldn’t let a woman show him up.
The subway moved like a winding serpent, chugging along and stopping at two stations before Lin Yuchan disembarked and emerged from the underground tunnel.
Xu Jianyin said helplessly, “We could have just walked there…”
She said willfully, “Just experiencing it.”
When she had fallen in that Guangzhou mass grave years ago, she never could have imagined that in this lifetime she would have the chance to ride a subway…
St. Giles, the most squalid slum in central London, was crowded, stinking, with sewage flowing freely and garbage everywhere. Toothless prostitutes kicked aside rats while soliciting customers on the street, and emaciated children hawked stolen shoes and hats.
In his two years in Europe, Xu Jianyin had seen only bright, clean buildings and polite, elegant gentlemen and ladies. This was his first glimpse of such a wretched side of Western countries. He was so shocked he couldn’t close his mouth, hesitantly looking down at his new leather shoes.
Fortunately, Lin Yuchan didn’t take him deeper inside. Spending a few pence to ask around, she knocked on the door of a dilapidated apartment at the edge of the slum. The mailbox by the door was overflowing with what appeared to be various bills.
“Mr. Lay?” she called inside. “Taking five minutes of your time.”
Several angry roars came from within—the voice of an elderly English man: “Get lost! Stop bothering me!”
Lin Yuchan: “The Great Qing court has sent someone with greetings.”
The cursing stopped. Then the door opened.
Xu Jianyin saw a gray-bearded Englishman. His face was irascible, and his suit hadn’t been changed in at least ten years. His beard was knotted, his shoes gaping open. The furnishings inside were simple, with tea stains on the table congealed into dark brown. Only on the wall hung an old official hat, its faded peacock feather eaten by moths until only a bare stem remained, with insects crawling around the edges.
Former Inspector-General of Imperial Maritime Customs Li Taiguo (Horatio Nelson Lay) stood at his doorstep, looking in amazement at these two unfamiliar Chinese people.
“You… you…”
He hadn’t spoken Chinese in twenty years, rolling his tongue as he blankly searched his mind for scattered words.
Lin Yuchan motioned for Xu Jianyin to come closer and quickly whispered: “After Li Taiguo was dismissed, he eventually returned to England. I heard his investments failed and he’s now penniless, caught up in several lawsuits.”
Come to think of it, her superior-subordinate connection with Hede had begun with plotting to replace this obstinate Li Taiguo. At that time, Li Taiguo was responsible for purchasing the Osborn Flotilla, overreaching himself by insisting on interfering with Qing naval construction, which led to court suspicion and allowed Hede to seize the Inspector-General position.
However, only today did Lin Yuchan see this ancient arch-villain for the first time.
The neighbors all knew him—they all knew about this strange old man who had once been a Chinese official in the Far East but now couldn’t even buy bread on credit. She hadn’t spent much effort finding his address.
She smiled politely, properly greeting Li Taiguo in the customary manner, telling this down-and-out old gentleman that the Qing embassy had sent someone to photograph him for archival purposes. As compensation, he could receive five shillings.
Li Taiguo looked at her sideways, probably not understanding how in just twenty years the Qing embassy had started hiring female officials. After a long while, he said gruffly: “One pound.”
“Ten shillings, no more.”
Li Taiguo nodded, took the money, and adjusted his clothes and hat in front of a broken mirror, arranging his expression.
Click. Xu Jianyin operated the camera, capturing his image.
In the photograph, Li Taiguo looked imposing and official. If one ignored the holes in his clothes and the frayed hat, he was the very image of that former Far East customs chief who could turn his hand to make clouds or rain.
But in London, he was merely an ordinary British citizen buried in debt, forced to live adjacent to the slums.
Those former riches, power, subordinate officials who bowed and scraped before him, the retinue that responded to his every call, the exquisite official residence wreathed in opium smoke…
It was all just a dream.
Bidding farewell to Li Taiguo and walking from the dark, foul-smelling slum back to the shop-lined Tottenham Court Road, Xu Jianyin breathed a sigh of relief, shaking out his long robe to rid it of the strange odors that had clung to it.
“I’ll write a letter to Lord Hede,” Lin Yuchan told him. “I’ll include a recent photograph of Lord Li Taiguo as an attachment. To remind him of what became of the last foreigner who tried to interfere with Chinese naval command authority. If he persists in his course, there will be another Hede eyeing his position.”
Xu Jianyin slowly nodded, suggesting, “Anonymously?”
“Of course.” She smiled. “I still have business to conduct.”
Those who knew the full story of Hede replacing Li Taiguo were now few in official circles. Upon receiving the letter, Hede would be shocked and would certainly speculate that it came from the British embassy. Diplomatic personnel didn’t have such great authority, so he would further guess it was someone more powerful behind them…
As long as he used his imagination, he would have to feel some apprehension.
Xu Jianyin was still not entirely convinced: “What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then that’s your affair. Lodge complaints where complaints should be lodged, impeach where impeachment is due. You’re the expert in this field—if you’re second, no one dares claim first. Why should you let a foreigner who’s never piloted a warship in his life lord it over you? You have no vested interests in this matter, so speaking more forcefully won’t draw anyone’s blame. In the worst case, there’s the Shandong Arsenal, Tianjin Machine Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Arsenal domestically… where wouldn’t they need you? Look behind you—the ambassador only has one bodyguard, but you have two.”
She lowered her voice and added: “Li Hong… Lord Li won’t stand idly by. He’s skilled at wielding power and most wary of others having too strong a desire for power. When Li Taiguo was removed back then, he contributed considerably to that effort.”
Xu Jianyin looked at her confident face, and his own heart suddenly brightened.
Yes. Power. How had he never thought of this breakthrough before?
This was the court’s navy, and also the navy he had personally helped establish. Though he was a scholarly man who avoided worldly contention, he absolutely could not hand over decision-making authority to others.
For the first time, involving himself in these major military and state affairs that didn’t belong to him, he felt somewhat like he was “master of his own house.”
“Thank you.” He said solemnly, bowing to Lin Yuchan with cupped hands. “I know what to do now. By the way, tomorrow the London embassy is having a reception. Originally only foreign merchants were invited, but I can arrange for you…”
Lin Yuchan’s face suddenly changed slightly as she rushed forward and pushed him aside. Xu Jianyin staggered back under a tree as a galloping horse brushed past him, splashing his leg with wet mud.
“Police! Make way! Police!”
London mounted police rode arrogantly toward a crowd at a distant intersection.
Xu Jianyin’s face went pale. Today was truly unlucky—traffic accidents everywhere.
Never again would he visit slums!
At some point, the intersection had been occupied by a group of women in long dresses. They held banners and shouted slogans, striding forward under the curious gazes of passersby.
“Votes for women! Votes for women!”
They chanted.
Police arrived upon hearing the commotion, and with a few horse charges, the women screamed and scattered. Some tripped over their long skirts and fell to the ground.
“Stay away from these witches, foreigners,” a policeman politely warned Xu Jianyin. “They openly defy the law. Don’t get yourselves mixed up in it.”
Lin Yuchan chased after to ask: “What are these women doing?”
The policeman smiled contemptuously, pointing with his boot tip at half a newspaper on the ground.
“Taking to the streets for some lawbreaking madwoman, throwing themselves away too—tsk tsk, and they’re all respectable ladies from good families, aren’t they ashamed—Hey! Where are your husbands? Go home and watch your children, stop making trouble here!”
He shouted as he ran off.
Lin Yuchan lifted her skirt, crouched down, and read several lines of fragmented print.
“Prominent female social activist Mrs. Emma Hardy arrested and imprisoned on charges of property destruction…”
The accompanying photograph showed a woman in a long dress being arrested by several policemen. Her delicate hat had fallen to the ground, her dress torn and deformed. The degree of dishevelment was enough to bring shame to any respectable lady.
Lin Yuchan used her fingers to scrape at the ground, slowly peeling the newspaper from the puddle.
Xu Jianyin: “Hey, that’s filthy…”
Lin Yuchan drew a light breath and thrust the dirty photograph before his eyes.
“Does this look familiar?”