Giant Ship Across the Song Dynasty: My Supplies Come from My Motherland

Chapter 37, How Fresh!

Who cares? Face is the cheapest thing in the world. Do you think you can go without food if you have that little bit of pride? As the saying goes, a gentleman judges by actions, not intentions. Who cares what they originally planned to do? As long as those things get into the stomachs of the people of Nancheng, then this is a great thing.

As for who orchestrated this, Lin Zhou's current power level is insufficient to know, but he knows he will find out sooner or later. When he reaches a point where others can exploit him, they will proactively step forward to make him understand.

No one knows better than these people what it means to act in a high-profile manner. During his time in the Song Dynasty, Lin Zhou gained a rudimentary understanding of the behavioral logic of these scoundrels.

"Get out of here. How come you always have the chance to climb into my bed?"

As soon as Lin Zhou sat down, she realized she was sitting on Ying Ge's hand. She quickly pulled her hand under the covers, leaving only her head sticking out, and said in a gesture of refusing to get off, "Master, it's too cold. I was worried that you would be cold while sleeping, so I came to warm the covers for you."

"You're talking nonsense."

She clearly couldn't get her own bed warm, so she came over to sleep in Lin Zhou's warm bed. Don't underestimate Ying Ge just because she's not very smart; she's the most shrewd when it comes to these kinds of things.

But what could Lin Zhou do? She was only twelve years old...

After tidying himself up a bit, he had no choice but to put on his clothes and get up. Just then, it started snowing heavily, and the cold wind made him shiver.

He glanced at Eagle, who was looking at him pitifully from the bed, and waved his hand, saying, "Go to sleep, go to sleep, oh dear..."

Upon arriving at the shop, Brother Ying thoughtfully prepared soup noodles and pickled vegetables. Whether they tasted good or not, one bite was enough.

Just as Lin Zhou was squatting at the doorway, slurping noodles, he saw the siblings Yang Ti and Hong Liu walking over from afar.

As they passed Lin Zhou, the two of them glanced at the food in his bowl, their actions perfectly synchronized. When they saw that he only had noodles with pickled vegetables, Yang Ti was about to make a sarcastic remark.

"Shut up!"

Miss Hongliu scolded her good-for-nothing brother, then walked into the shop first and strolled around with her hands behind her back.

"Wow, there's more stuff now." After wandering around, Yangti saw the music box he had been longing for again, and next to it were quite a few more crystal-clear glass items: "Where's the glass Buddha statue you promised last time?"

"I brought it, but someone intercepted it." Lin Zhou carried the bowl into the house.

"How dare you!"

Yang Ti's expression changed instantly. These rich young masters were all like dogs, their faces turning on you in an instant. He grabbed Lin Zhou's sleeve and said, "Explain yourself clearly. If you can't give me a straight answer, I'll smash up your lousy shop."

Hongliu stood to the side with a cold face. She guessed that her brother had told her about the surprise he was going to prepare for their mother, but now the surprise was gone. No one would be happy about such a broken promise.

"Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it."

Lin Zhou pulled up a stool and sat down: "I can't outdo them. Besides, they're buying it to give to Princess Rui."

Yangti hadn't quite caught on yet, but the quick-witted girl from Northeast China had clearly. She frowned and said, "Not many people know my mother's birthday."

"That's right, she's one of those few people. Do you think I dare to offend her?"

These words eased some of her anger, but she still felt some resentment. So she continued, "Well, what's wrong with you? You gave away the things you prepared for us. What are we supposed to do now? There are only a few days left until the birthday. How can we possibly have time to prepare them now?"

"Exactly! What are we supposed to do now that you've given those things to someone else?!" Yangti said angrily. "These other odds and ends might be okay to appease my poor little sister, but if we give them to Mother, won't we just become a laughingstock?"

"You mongrel! I'll call you a mongrel!"

Hongliu drew her dagger and stabbed, but Yangti was clearly more skilled in combat than in thinking. She nimbly dodged to the side with a few leaps, muttering, "You'd better think of a way. My birthday is in three days. Don't embarrass me."

Lin Zhou sat there watching the two sulking siblings. His fingers tapped on the table, and his eyes kept darting around. He clearly remembered this matter before, but he had really forgotten about the two of them when he got busy. He was busy bringing things to Cao Wenda and sending rockets, and in his fluster, he didn't seem to have anything worth bringing to the two of them.

However, he is currently in a cooling-off period, and his mother's birthday is just around the corner, which is quite a novel thing.

"Don't worry, I'll think of a plan for you two."

Lin Zhou stood up, and at this moment Yang Ti spoke up, crossing his arms and saying, "You've made such a big mistake, shouldn't you kneel down and kowtow to beg for our forgiveness?"

"What?" Lin Zhou turned around: "Why don't you just kill me instead?"

"Don't embarrass me!" Hongliu nudged her brother with her elbow, then stepped forward to Lin Zhou and said, "Don't pay any attention to this thing, but you definitely have to take care of this matter, otherwise you'll ruin our reputation."

"I'll take care of it... I will..."

Lin Zhou sighed and walked straight into the warehouse, which was filled with all sorts of random things. Although he and Brother Ying had tidied it up, it still felt like walking into the Yiwu Small Commodities Market. Not only were there the things he had brought with him recently, but also the things he had bought on Pinduoduo's self-purchase platform. The variety and quantity of these items made him feel like the place was a huge garbage dump.

After searching around inside, I finally found the wrought iron clock I had brought as a gift earlier. It was an old-fashioned wind-up clock, and it looked quite exquisite and luxurious...

But when he held this thing in his hand, he felt a little sorry for Da Chuan and Yang Ti. After all, back in his day, if a junior gave someone a clock as a birthday gift, the birthday celebration was over, and those two little brats' legs would be broken first...

When he came out with a long face, holding the clock, the siblings saw his expression as one of deep reluctance and heartache...

"What is this?"

At present, the Song Dynasty can basically represent the technological pinnacle of the era. The timekeeping tools here are water clocks, incense clocks, sundials, and roller clocks, with the water clock being the mainstream. The Imperial Observatory relies on this device to determine the time, but it is a huge and cumbersome thing, and requires a special person to guard it. Ordinary people mostly look at sundials and listen to the drum and clapper.

The homes of high-ranking officials and nobles had incense burners.

Based on their knowledge, they could tell that this clock was for telling time, but they didn't quite understand how it was used.

Lin Zhou placed the iron clock on the table and began winding it up: "This works on the same principle as a music box; it's used to tell time. In Southeast Asia, we call it a six-hour sundial."

"A six-hour sundial?"

Hongliu was clearly smarter than Yangti. She quickly grasped the general idea, and having played with those music boxes over and over the past few days, she also understood the principle of the spring mechanism.

"Yes, six hours."

Lin Zhou explained the workings of the device and how to tell time to them step by step. After they adjusted the time, the two wealthy siblings huddled together and watched the second hand tick away.

"It moves! It moves! The middle one really moves! How amazing!" Hongliu finally jumped up excitedly like a girl: "This is good, this is good, this is so great!"

"This clock makes one revolution during the day and one revolution at night. The characters on it are from India, which you should be able to understand," Lin Zhou said, patting the clock. "It winds up every twenty-four hours, which is much more convenient than your incense sticks. The shortest hand moves one revolution, which is half an hour."

Hongliu was clutching the clock like a precious treasure. When her brother tried to touch it, she kicked him away, yelling, "Get out of here! You'll break it!"

"You mutt!" Yangti lost face in front of outsiders and immediately flew into a rage, ready to tear his sister apart.

"This is very delicate, it will break if it falls, so don't play around with it..." Lin Zhou sighed from the side, "If I hadn't failed to keep my promise to you this time, I wouldn't have brought out this treasure."

"It is indeed a treasure. Wanyan Yangti, pay up!" Hongliu glared and scolded, "Don't push and shove me anymore, or I'll kill you if you break it!"