After sitting back down in the chair until the distant church bells chimed seven times in succession, Zhou Mingrui slowly stood up and walked to the cabinet, taking out his clothes.
A black vest, the same color as the formal attire, slightly tight-fitting trousers, a half-height hat, and a faint scent of books, made Zhou Mingrui look at his reflection in the mirror as if he were watching an English drama about the Victorian era.
"I'm not going for an interview. I'm just buying some groceries to prepare for the ritual of good fortune... " Suddenly, he muttered in a low voice, shaking his head and laughing.
Klein was so preoccupied with the upcoming interview that it had become an instinctual behavior of his. When his concentration was not sufficient, he would habitually put on this only set of decent clothes.
Taking a breath, Zhou Mingrui removed his formal and vest clothes and changed into a brown and yellow, old-fashioned coat. His head was also changed to a matching round-brimmed felt hat.
After tidying himself up, he walked to the bed frame and lifted the top pad, inserting his hand from the inconspicuous hole at the bottom, and groped for a while, finding the compartment.
When his right hand retracted, there was already a roll of money in his hand, approximately seven or eight notes, with a dark greenish-white color.
This was all that Benson had saved up at present, even including the three-day living expenses. Among them, there were only two leers of paper money, and the rest were one-sulers.
In the currency system of the Kingdom of Rhun, the Suller was on the second level, derived from ancient silver coins, one Suller was equal to twelve copper pence, and there were several denominations.
At the top of the currency was the gold pound, also a paper currency, but guaranteed by gold and directly linked, one gold pound was equal to twenty Sullers, with ten of these denominations.
Zhou Mingrui unfolded the money and smelled a very faint and special ink smell.
This was the smell of money.
Perhaps due to the influence of Klein's fragmented memories, or perhaps because he had never changed his craving for money, at this moment, Zhou Mingrui felt that he had fallen in love with these little things.
Look, their patterns are so exquisite, making even the stern and formal George III seem so adorable...
Look, the watermark seen through the sunlight is so attractive, the carefully designed anti-counterfeiting label makes it completely different from the fake and seductive ***!
After admiring for several seconds, Zhou Mingrui took out two one-suller notes, rewound the rest, and stuffed them back into the compartment inside the pad.
Smoothing out the cloth near the hole, Zhou Mingrui neatly folded the two notes and placed them in the left pocket of the brown and yellow coat, separately from the few pennies in his pocket.
After doing all this, he put the key in the right pocket, took the dark brown paper bag, and walked quickly towards the door.
Tap, tap, the footsteps slowed down and finally stopped.
Zhou Mingrui stood at the door, his eyebrows frowning for some reason.
Perhaps due to the many mysteries of Klein's suicide incident, would he encounter some kind of "accident" when leaving?
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Mingrui returned to the desk, opened the drawer, and took out the flickering yellowish-golden luster revolver.
This was the only self-defense weapon he could think of, and it was also a powerful weapon!
Although he had never practiced shooting, just pulling out this gun would surely be able to scare someone!
Rubbing the cold metal cylinder, Zhou Mingrui inserted the gun into the pocket where the money was located, clenched the money in his palm, and tightly pressed the trigger with his fingers, perfectly hidden.
A sense of security arose spontaneously. He suddenly had a concern:
"Could it accidentally fire?"
Thoughts came one after another. Zhou Mingrui quickly found his way, he pulled out the gun, swung the cylinder, turned the empty chamber due to "suicide" to the ready position, and then snapped it shut.
In this way, even if it went off, it would only be an "empty round"!
Reassembling the gun, Zhou Mingrui's left hand was placed in the pocket, no longer taken out.
He touched his hat with his right hand, pulled open the door, and it clanged open.
The corridor during the day remained dim, and the sunlight that could penetrate the end window was quite limited. Zhou Mingrui hurriedly descended the stairs and left the apartment, only then did he feel the brightness and warmth.
Although it was approaching July, which belongs to the hot summer, Tinggen is located in the north of the Rhine Kingdom and has unique climate characteristics. The highest temperature of the year is less than 30 degrees Celsius on Earth, and the morning is even cooler. Some parts of the street were filled with dirty water and debris were carelessly thrown around. In Klein's memory, in the areas where low-income people lived, even if there was a sewer system, similar scenes were not rare because of the large population and life.
"Come on, delicious fried meat and fish!"
"Hot and fresh oyster soup. Drink a bowl in the morning and you'll stay energetic all day long!"
"Fresh fish delivered from the port, only 5 pence per piece!"
"Small pancakes, eel soup with ginger beer!"
"Clams, clams, clams!"
"Vegetables just collected from the farm outside the city, cheap and fresh!"
...
The mobile street vendors selling vegetables, fruits, and cooked food shouted loudly, beckoning the hurried passers-by. Among them, some would stop to carefully compare the items for purchase, while others would impatiently wave their hands, because their work for the day had not yet been settled.
Zhou Mingrui smelled the alternating pungent and fragrant air. With his left hand firmly gripping the gun handle, he clenched the banknotes, and with his right hand, he pressed the round-brimmed felt hat, slightly bending over and lowering his head to walk through this bustling street.
Where there are many people, there are thieves. Especially in this neighborhood, there are many semi-unemployed people doing temporary jobs and hungry children being driven by others.
As he continued walking, when the density of the surrounding crowd returned to normal, Zhou Mingrui straightened his back, raised his head, and looked at the street.
There was a homeless accordion player playing music. The melody was sometimes melodious, sometimes passionate.
Beside him, many children in ragged clothes and pale faces due to malnutrition were gathered.
They listened to the music, moved to the rhythm, twisting their bodies instinctively, dancing their own dance, their faces filled with joy, as if they were little princes or little angels.
A woman with a numb expression passed by, her skirt dirty and her skin dull.
Her eyes were dull and呆滞, only when looking at the group of children did a slight light flash, as if she saw herself thirty years ago.
Zhou Mingrui passed her and turned to another street, stopping in front of "Slin Bakery".
The owner of the bakery was a seventy-year-old grandma named Wendy Slin. Her hair was all gray, and her face always wore a gentle smile. Since Klein had memory, she has been selling bread and pastries here.
Well, her homemade Tingen bread and lemon cake were very delicious... Zhou Mingrui swallowed a mouthful of saliva and smiled:
"Mrs. Slin, 8 pounds of rye bread."
"Oh, little Klein, where is Benson? Hasn't he returned yet?" Wendy asked with a smile.
"There are a few more days." Zhou Mingrui replied vaguely.
Wendy was picking up the rye bread while sighing:
"He is really a hardworking good lad. He will have a good wife."
At this point, her mouth curved up slightly, playfully smiling:
"Now, you have graduated, you are a graduate from the history department of Hoy University~ Well, you will soon be able to earn money. You shouldn't live in this kind of apartment. At least you should have your own bathroom."
"Mrs. Slin, you really look like a young and lively lady today." Zhou Mingrui could only respond with a dry smile.
If Klein could pass the interview smoothly and become a lecturer at Tingen University, the entire family would indeed directly move towards a prosperous life!
In his memory fragments, he even fantasized about renting a single-family house in a suburban area, with one room, two bathrooms, a large balcony, two rooms downstairs, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a basement storage room.
This is not an extravagant wish. Even a lecturer with an internship period at Tingen University can earn 2 gold pounds per week, and after promotion, it is 3 gold pounds and 10 shillings. You know, Klein's brother Benson, after working for many years, only earns 1 pound and 10 shillings per week, factory workers even less than 1 pound or just above, while the rent for such a single-family house ranges from 19 shillings to 1 pound and 18 shillings.
"This is the difference between a monthly income of 3,000 and 10,000... " Zhou Mingrui muttered to himself.
However, all of this is based on passing the interviews at Tingen University or Beckland University.
As for other ways, people without background cannot get recommendations, become public officials, and those studying history have a more narrow employment range. The demand for private advisors to nobles or bankers and industrial tycoons is not very high.
Considering that Klein's knowledge has also become "fragments", incomplete, and many are incomplete, Zhou Mingrui's expectations for Mrs. Slin were full of embarrassment and self-doubt.
"No, I have always been so young." Wendy replied humorously. While speaking, she carefully packed the twelve loaves of rye bread that had been weighed into the dark brown large paper bag that Zhou Mingrui had brought along. She then stretched out her right hand and said:
"Nine pence."
Each loaf of rye bread weighed around 0.5 pounds, and the deviation was inevitable.
"Nine pence. Wasn't it supposed to be eleven pence two days ago?" Zhou Mingrui asked subconsciously.
The price was even higher two months ago, at 15 pence.
"You should thank the abolition of the Grain Act and those *** people," Wendy said with a smile, spreading her hands.
Zhou Mingrui nodded vaguely, and Klein's memory of this was somewhat incomplete. He only remembered that the core of the Grain Act was to protect the prices of domestic agricultural products. Before the prices rose to a certain level, no grain from countries such as Venepot, Masie, and Lonnburg in the south was imported.
Why would anyone *** oppose it?
Without saying more, Zhou Mingrui was afraid of drawing out the revolver, so he could only carefully take out the banknotes and handed one to Mrs. Slin.
After找回ing three copper pence and putting them in his pocket, he carried the paper bag with the bread and headed towards the "Lettuce and Meat" market across the street, striving to fulfill what his sister had asked for - tender pea and lamb stew.
At the intersection of Iron Cross Street and Narcissus Street, there was a municipal square. At this time, many tents had been set up, and strange and funny clowns were distributing leaflets everywhere.
"Tomorrow night, circus performance?" Zhou Mingrui glanced at the leaflets in the hands of others and murmured the general content.
Melissa would surely like it. I wonder how the tickets are charged? A thought flashed through Zhou Mingrui's mind, and he moved closer.
Just as he was about to ask one of the red and yellow-clad clowns, a hoarse female voice suddenly came from beside him:
"Do you want to have a divination?"
Subconsciously turning his head, Zhou Mingrui saw a woman wearing a pointed hat and dressed in a black dress standing in front of a low tent.
Her face was painted with red and yellow makeup, and her eyes were dark blue and deep.
"No," Zhou Mingrui replied with his head shaking. He had no spare money to go for divination.
This woman smiled and said:
"My tarot divination is very accurate."
"Tarot..." Zhou Mingrui was stunned.
This pronunciation is very similar to the Tarot cards on Earth!
And the Tarot cards on Earth belong to a kind of fortune-telling playing cards, only with some "graphic cards" each having their own symbolic symbols.
Wait... He suddenly remembered the origin of this world's tarot divination.
It did not come from the seven orthodox deities, nor was it an ancient legacy. Instead, it was invented by Rosel Gustav, the then governor of the Inthis Republic, over 170 years ago.
This Rosel Mr. invented the steam engine, improved the sailing ships, overthrew the rule of the Inthis Kingdom, and was recognized by the "Craftsmen's God" Church, becoming the first governor of the new republic.
Later, he fought in various campaigns, incorporated Lonnburg and other countries under protection, made the Kingdom of Ruin, Venepot, and the Empire of Fusaak in the northern continent submit one after another, and then changed the republic back to an empire and called himself "Caesar the Great".
It was during Rosel's rule that the "Craftsmen's God" Church received the first publicly disclosed oracle since then, changing the title of "Craftsmen's God" to "God of Steam and Machinery".
Rosel also invented tarot divination and laid the foundation for the current composition and gameplay of the cards, including several types that Zhou Mingrui was familiar with, such as Upgrade, Deal the Game, Texas, and Quent...
Moreover, he sent a fleet to find the passage to the southern continent in storms and currents, initiating the colonial era. However
Unfortunately, when he grew old, he was betrayed and was assassinated by the Eternal Sun Church, the Solon family of the Rithis royal clan, and other nobles in 1198, falling to his death at the White Maple Palace.
This... remembering these facts, Zhou Mingrui suddenly felt a bit of toothache.
Could this be an elder time-traveler?
Thinking of this, Zhou Mingrui had the urge to take a look at what the Tarot cards here looked like, so he nodded to the woman wearing a pointed hat and painted face:
"If not, uh, if the price is reasonable, I'll give it a try."
The woman immediately smiled:
"Sir, you are the first person to come for divination today, so it's free."