Chapter 154: Farewell to Kangqiao

Chapter 153 Farewell to Cambridge
A public carriage rattled down Central Avenue in the Greenwich district.

Inside the carriage, Arthur looked at Elder, who was sitting across from him whistling and reading the tabloids, and couldn’t help but sigh, “Didn’t I tell you to go buy a new dress? It’s hard to believe that you think the clothing stores in Greenwich can be better than the West End of London?”

Elder carelessly flipped the next page of the newspaper, and while he was concentrating on reading the explosive plot above, he returned, “It’s too expensive to buy a new outfit that can attend a high class banquet. Besides, I’m not a socialite, I may not be able to attend a banquet even once a month, so it’s too much of a loss if I buy clothes and don’t wear them much.”

“What then? Although I heard them say that the ladies and gentlemen of the ‘Blue Stocking Society’ don’t really value whether the scientists who give them lectures are dressed appropriately or not, but do you guys understand science you? Let me ask you, what is the left-handed rule, and what is the right-handed spiral theorem again, and really, the least you can do is understand the Hastings force, right?”

Elder took out a delicate little pair of scissors from the pocket of his blouse and followed the edge of the newspaper to carefully cut out what he was satisfied with today and put it away in his pocket.

“Arthur, don’t worry about me. I usually go straight to my uncle’s house to get the dresses I wear to parties, and anyway, he took a boat to the Ionian Islands, where the Mediterranean fleet is based, last month, and we’re about the same size, so what’s the point of borrowing his huge suitcase of clothes for me to wear?”

Arthur sniffed, knowing that this kid must not have any good intentions again, he asked, “You want to take things from your uncle’s house every day, your aunt and cousin can agree?”

“Why don’t they agree?”

With a raised eyebrow, Elder said, “Mrs. Codrington has likewise extended a party invitation to them. Didn’t I tell you that? General Codrington is my uncle’s old superior. Since I’m going as well, they can’t just stand by and watch me disgrace the Carter family at the banquet, can they? By the way, Arthur, I have to make a deal with you, if no one asks my sister to dance at the banquet, you have to relieve her.”

“Relieve her how?” Arthur asked with a frown, “I don’t know how to dance, if I go up and ask her out, I’ll end up losing more than just her face.”

Elder covered his forehead with a headache, “That’s going to be tough. That little ninny pestered me to let her make a spectacle of herself at the party on Sunday after she heard I knew you, one of the guests of honor at the party. Even if you can’t dance, you’ve got to come up with a way for me to show her off.”

Arthur glanced out the car window, “Show her off? That’s fine. Go back and have your sister take your place and help me rub my hands and shake the generator at the banquet.”

Elder heard this and couldn’t help but complain, “Arthur! Can you not always come up with such bad ideas? The reputation of other noble ladies is all about ‘softness’ and ‘beauty’, how come it turns into ‘being able to continuously turn a hand-cranked generator’ when it comes to my sister? Does that make sense? Think again, I’m not willing to have her end my colorful life so soon at the moment.”

Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but sigh helplessly, “Why is it that women are always more concerned with their appearance than trying to make themselves appear smarter?”

Elder couldn’t help but snort coldly when he heard this and lifted his collar, “It’s simple! Because most men are stupid, but only a very small percentage are blind.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow and asked, “So? Which part do you belong to?”

“Hm……,” Elder said, waving his hand carelessly, “Arthur, I’m very self-aware in that regard.”

“Thank goodness.” Arthur took the newspaper, which had been mostly cut out, from his hand, “Our University of London was not set up to give you such an education in the first place.”

Agareth, who was sitting on the car window looking at the scenery, sniffed and whistled with a bad smile, “Wow! It seems that the University of London does have an open teaching philosophy, where stupid men and unintelligent blind men can sit equally in the classroom.”

Arthur glanced at the Red Devil, but before he and Elder could continue their discussion about whether he was considered blind or not, Elder over there had already put the troubles brought on by his sister behind him.

The guy’s head was full of thoughts about what kind of encounter drama he would have at the banquet, “Wow! Arthur, if I get a love at the ball, should I accept it openly? Or should I reject it without mercy?”

Arthur flipped through the paper and spoke, “If this had happened before I went after Fred, I might have advised you to reject it; after all, you’re about to embark on a circumnavigation of the globe, and it’s a five or six year trip, and the time could hurt your relationship with your partner. But after boarding the Beagle, now, my attitude has changed.”

Elder froze, “Why?”

Arthur put down the paper and replied seriously, “Because as your best friend, I would rather see you have a relationship with a human than with a fish. Elder, you need to reflect on yourself, if you keep doing this, you’re going to hell sooner or later!”

“Whoa! Arthur!” Elder was a bit touched, “You finally understand why I always have that urge, it’s not my personal character that’s wrong, but it’s common among sailors who make a living at sea.”

“I fully understand you, and also finally understand why it’s necessary to take an accompanying chaplain on the Beagle.”

Arthur said, “The reason Colonel Fitzroy has Charles following the Beagle is so that he can be asked to forgive you in God’s stead whenever he can. Elder, you listen to me, confess to Charles in time after you make a mistake, and mitigate your sins in time. You must go to heaven when you die, never to hell.”

Elder rejoiced, “Arthur, you are always so considerate of your friends.”

Arthur shook his head, “No, Elder, you think too much of me. I’m not thinking for you, but for myself. I just don’t want to see you in hell even after I die.”

Elder was a little upset at that, “Arthur, fuck you! Where did I offend you? Do you hate me that much? Drinks, theater, when did I not take you?”

Arthur looked a bit helpless, “No no, Elder, there’s nothing wrong with our friendship. I just don’t want to be sneered at by the devils in hell after I die: ‘Look everyone, that guy standing over there, he has a friend who went to hell because of day fish.’

Elder, if you insist on going to hell after you die, I’m going to have to work my way up to heaven.”

Elder rolled his eyes at that, and he gave Arthur a straight punch in the shoulder, “Damn right! I must clarify to you again and again that I didn’t have sex with a fish, I was just trying to explain the sailors’ particular terroir to you that time.” At the end of his sentence, Elder hurriedly changed the subject, “By the way, what were you doing in Greenwich specifically today? Aren’t you currently working at the Greater London Police Department headquarters? Did you specially run over today to reminisce about your poor and humble self in the past?”

Arthur saw that he didn’t want to mention this, so he followed suit, “I’ve come to find a gentleman who owns a musical instrument business in Greenwich, and he’ll be one of the shining stars at the banquet on Sunday.”

Arthur stuck his head out towards the window of the car and spoke at the driver, “Trouble stop here, we’ll just walk the rest of the way by ourselves.”

At that, Arthur pushed open the door of the car and led Elder through the muddy streets and crowds after the rain, and the two of them walked through the apartment that the realtor had introduced to them earlier, and not far away was a three-story red brick house with a brown cedar roof.

A billboard leaned against the red door on the first floor across the street, and it read – Inherited for three generations, good value, master craftsmanship, child’s play.

And the sign on the door marked its big name – Whitestone Musical Instrument House.

And through the store window, one could still see the rows of musical instruments hanging on the clean walls painted in white.

There were violins, pianos, and harps, all of which were courtly instruments, as well as rebecks, reed pipes, and flutes, all of which were used by street performers.

Of course, there were also the trumpets used in the army to give orders and control the speed of the troops, and the drums hung around the necks of the troops while they marched.

Elder squatted by the window and couldn’t help but nod his head, “I never thought that there would be a store like this in Greenwich. The richness of the variety of musical instruments in this store is simply not inferior to the biggest musical instrument stores in London. But is the owner of this store out of his mind, why did he open his store in Greenwich? How many people could have the leisure to buy these things here? He could certainly make a fortune if he opened his store in the West End.”

Arthur spoke as he pushed the door open, “Maybe he just opened his store here specifically so that he wouldn’t have so many customers coming in. Elder, you don’t know, this gentleman is a strange one.”

The duo had just pushed the door open when the doorframe struck the bell that hung on the back of the door.

Only a jingle of bells could be heard, and the only few customers in the cold store couldn’t help but look back at the two of them.

But soon, they returned their attention to the eight-stringed zither hanging on the wall.

“Alfred, this instrument has never been seen before, why don’t we try accompanying the school’s poetry and arts festival this year with this new thing?”

“Uh …… William, should we use it on your poem or mine? Why don’t we just go for stability, the new stuff may not be as reliable as the old. In fact, I actually think it’s fine to simply chant without accompaniment ……”

Elder heard them talking about poetry, and the senior student of the Classics Department of the University of London couldn’t help but come over, “Do I have the honor of joining you two gentlemen in this discussion? I am not a talented person, and I happen to have some unique insights on poetry.”

The two young men gave Elder a wary look, one of them seemed a bit shy, the other had arrogance between his eyebrows.

The men were silent for a while, and finally the shy one spoke up and relieved Elder, “Sir, our poetry won’t be on much of a pedestal, so I won’t bother you.”

But the arrogant young man on the other side was a bit dissatisfied when he heard this, and he corrected, “Alfred, you shouldn’t always be so modest. Your poetry won our Cambridge Gold Medal last year, you should have a little more courage, don’t always be so cowering.”

The shy young man touched the back of his head in embarrassment and spoke, “But …… but …… William, didn’t you write a burlesque scene last year in response to that poem I won? I think that my poem may indeed have flaws in that one as well.”

The haughty young man’s tongue couldn’t help but get a little tongue tied when he heard this, “Alfred, I didn’t …… write that burlesque scene not to target you. I didn’t know you then, and besides, if I thought your stuff was bad, would I have made a second creation specifically based on your work? Alfred, be confident, Cambridge students are supposed to be!”

Elder’s eyelids couldn’t help but jump when he heard the other party repeatedly mention the word ‘Cambridge’, he took a step back and shook his head at Arthur, “God! Did you hear that? Cambridge, it’s a bad day to go out, we’re really unlucky! Listen to what the hell he’s talking about! It’s a travesty that Cambridge even has poetry!”

Elder had thought that he had lowered his voice enough when he spoke, but he had not expected that his words would still fall on the other’s ears.

The arrogant young man took a step forward, frowning as he forced the question, “Sir, what exactly do you mean? Are you looking down on the brilliant art and splendid civilization created in Cambridge?”

Seeing how aggressive he was, Elder couldn’t help but take a step back and returned with a sarcastic smile, “No, of course not. To tell you the truth, I kinda admire the work of your Cambridge students, it’s like that what …… uh ……”

He paused for half a day, but his head could not recall half a thing, in a hurry, he could only grab Arthur’s clothes: “Arthur, do you remember? Just what I told you last time, that what, that’s the who of Cambridge, wrote that what …… kinda thing.”

Arthur originally did not want to intervene in the conflict triggered by Elder, the troublemaker, but since it was already like this, he had to follow along with the memories.

“Ah..! You’re talking about that song. It’s that what’s-his-name, umm ……”

Arthur racked his brain to recall, suddenly his mind flashed, “Right, that’s the one, gently I go, just as I gently come, I gently beckon, bidding farewell to the clouds of the western sky ……”

(End of chapter)