Rong Zilai (John Riley, founder of N University)
1873 the man who left by boat for western learning is the youngest of the seventh generation descendants of Rong, a famous salt merchant in the south of the Yangtze River. His name is Rongzilai, and he changed his name to John Li Li in the West. Later, people said that the wet saline-alkali flavor inherited by rong family began to peel off from this boy's hand, and it became a clean book with a gentleman's patriotic spirit of saving the country. Of course, this is inseparable from his westward journey. However, the fundamental purpose of Rong's family's recommendation of western learning is not to change the family's taste, but only to give Rong's grandmother another means to prolong life. Grandma was an expert at giving birth to children when she was young. She has added nine men and seven women to Jia Rong for decades, all of whom have grown up and have a successful career, which has made great contributions to Jia Rong's prosperity and laid a solid foundation for her supreme position in Jia Rong. Her life span has been extended again and again because of the support of her children and grandchildren, but it is not easy to live, especially at night, all kinds of complicated dreams often haunt her like a little girl, and in broad daylight, she is still worried. Nightmares tormented her, and her children and grandchildren and piles of glistening silver became the loading and unloading objects in her nightmares, and the fragrant candlelight was often scared by her harsh cries. Every morning, one or two smart people who come to explain their dreams to the elderly are always invited to Jiarong Building. After a long time, the level of each other will be obvious.
Among many dream interpreters, grandma trusts a teenager who has just drifted from the west to Tong Zhen. He can not only correctly interpret all kinds of evidences and hints of old people's dreams, but also foresee and even reset the characters in old people's dreams. It's just that his young appearance seems to determine that his kung fu is also light. In the words of the old people, he has no hair on his mouth and is not firm in doing things. In contrast, the kung fu of dream interpretation is still at the door, but there are many omissions in the technique of easy dream interpretation, which means that exercise is a bit ghostly. Right is right, wrong is wrong. Specifically, I can barely cope with the dreams in the first half of the night, but I can't do anything about the dreams in the second half of the night, including the dreams in my dreams. He himself said that he didn't learn this technology from his old grandfather, but he learned a little intentionally or unintentionally through listening and watching. He learned it as an amateur, and his level was amateur. Grandma opened a fake wall, revealing a wall wrapped in white, and begged him to invite his grandfather. The answer was impossible. Because, on the one hand, his grandfather has enough money and is no longer interested in gold and silver treasures. On the other hand, his grandfather is also a man with a long life. The thought of crossing the ocean may frighten him to death. But westerners still pointed out a feasible way for grandma, that is, to send someone to study specially.
This is almost the only way out for real people to come in person.
The next job is to find an ideal candidate among the vast descendants. This person must meet two conditions: first, he is filial to the elderly and willing to go through fire and water for him; Second, he is smart and studious, and it is possible for him to learn complex dream interpretation and easy-to-dream techniques in a short time at home and use them freely. After repeated screening, the 20-year-old grandson Rongzi came to be somewhat superior. In this way, Rongzi came to her arms with a letter of recommendation written by westerners to her grandfather, shouldering the heavy responsibility of prolonging her grandmother's life, working day and night, and began to cross the ocean and study as a teacher. A month later, on a stormy night, the iron wheel from Eiko was still bumping in the Atlantic Ocean. But in the dream, her grandmother saw that the iron wheel was swallowed into the sea by the hurricane, and her little grandson was buried in the stomach of a fish, which made the old man in the dream sad and really dead, so that the old man never woke up again and saw the horror. The journey is arduous and long. When Rongzilai stood in front of the dream interpretation master and sincerely handed him a letter of recommendation, the master handed him a letter, which reported the bad news of grandma's death. Compared with people, faith always takes shortcuts, and it is reasonable to arrive first.
The octogenarian master looked at the stranger in the distance, his eyes were like two sharp arrows, enough to shoot down the birds. It seems that he is willing to accept this foreigner as an apprentice on the way to the end of his missionary work. But what the latter thinks is that since grandma is dead, it's useless to learn kung fu, so I just appreciate it and prepare to leave another day. But while waiting to leave, he met a fellow villager on the master's campus. The fellow villagers took him to several classes, and his plan to leave was gone, because he found that there were many things worth learning here. He stayed, studying geometry, arithmetic and equations with a Slavic and a Turk during the day, and listening to music at the door of a Bach's alternate disciple at night. Time flies because of his infatuation with learning. When he realized that he should go home, the seven spring and autumn periods had passed like the wind. 1880 In the early autumn, Rongzi came home with dozens of baskets of grapes that had just fallen from trees in other places. When he got home, it was freezing and the grapes had turned into barrels of wine in the cabin.
In Tong Zhenren's words, nothing has changed in Jia Rong in the past seven years. Jia Rong is still Jia Rong, salt merchants are still salt merchants, and people are prosperous or prosperous, and financial resources are rolling in. The only thing that has changed is his youngest son, who has come back from the west-he is not young now. He not only has an inexplicable surname: Li Li, John Li Li, but also has many strange problems, such as the braid on his head falling off, his robe turning into a vest, he likes to drink blood-red wine, and his speech is often mixed with bird-like language, and so on. What's even weirder is that he can't smell salt and alkali. When you arrive at the dock or shop, you will vomit when you smell the pungent saline-alkali smell, and sometimes you will spit yellow water. The descendants of salt merchants can't smell the smell of salt, which is surprisingly strange, as strange as hiding the light. Although I can tell the reason-because he was frustrated and drowned several times in the days of drifting in the Atlantic Ocean and choked to death by salty sea water, the mark of pain has been deeply engraved in his bones, so that he had to put a handful of tea in his mouth after sailing out to sea to barely survive. However, to be clear, whether it is ok or not is another matter. How can you inherit your father's footsteps if you can't smell salt and alkali? You can't always be the boss with a handful of tea in your mouth.
Things have really become difficult.
Fortunately, before he went out to study, grandma said that when he came back from school, the money hidden in the wall was a reward for his filial piety. Later, with this money, he started a business, went to C, the provincial capital, and set up a decent school named Li Li Mathematics Hall.
This is the earliest one of the once famous N Dazhong.