Chapter 793 – Old Acquaintance

Lin Ming spent a delightful night with the dancing girl—the particulars of which, such as drinking kvass in a mandarin duck bath, need not be elaborated. Though young, Li Yongxun understood what business her cousin-in-law was conducting behind closed doors with a Hu girl, and she naturally refrained from disturbing him.

When she saw the lights extinguish in her brother-in-law's room and the sounds that had made her restless finally fell silent, the watchman was already beating the drum outside. She knew it was late, yet sleep wouldn't come—the day's sights and experiences had sufficiently piqued her curiosity to make rest impossible. She could only sit alone in the courtyard watching ants climb the trees, scheming how to persuade her brother-in-law to take her to Lingao.

Li Yongxun possessed the fearlessness of a newborn calf, having traveled alone from Nanjing to Guangzhou. But regarding Lingao, she dared not act rashly—Lin Ming had warned her before, saying the Guangzhou-Foshan area was nothing like the inland; it teemed with merchants trading overseas. If she were tied up and sold to the Eastern or Western Oceans, separated by vast seas in barbarian lands, even the Emperor couldn't save her. This had frightened Li Yongxun into behaving. Though Lingao was technically Ming territory, it now lay in the hands of the overseas barbarian Australians. Rumors about Australians "lacking women" were numerous, so she dared not deliver herself to their doorstep.

"Sigh—" After her tenth sigh, she remembered she hadn't managed to see the "great clip-board ships"—the galleons—she had intended to view that day. She stood up and took a few experimental steps; the pain seemed bearable.

"Tomorrow I absolutely must go see the great clip-board ships!" Li Yongxun vowed silently.

Suddenly, lantern light shone from beyond the courtyard's moon gate. Someone seemed to be walking in the long corridor, muttering something. Then she heard a man's voice, and it instantly triggered a memory.

That strange accent had left a deep impression on her. Hearing it again was like shattering a memory jar in her mind; the events of disguising herself as a songstress in Guangzhou, deceiving men, stealing, and getting caught all came flooding back. The face of the medicine merchant Manager Huang—whom she had drugged and whose luggage contained many strange and valuable things—surfaced immediately. That wretched expression, looking at her with lecherous eyes—even wanting to strip her clothes... Had she not found the Embroidered Uniform Guard badge she'd swiped, making him wary, he might have taken advantage of her then and there. The "humiliation at the inn" had always been a sore point for Li Yongxun.

Could that wretched Manager Huang be here? Li Yongxun's curiosity surged—what was he doing here? Huang Shunlong's establishment didn't sell medicine. Ignoring her injured foot, she shrank into the wall's shadow and crept quietly toward the moon gate.

The person walking with the lantern was indeed the "wretched man" Li Yongxun so resented—Huang Tianyu. Yet Huang Tianyu's presence in Macau had nothing to do with the Foreign Intelligence Bureau's activities. He was on a business trip for the Ministry of Light Industry, tasked with installing three sets of sanitary equipment ordered by the Macau Jesuits and providing maintenance and training for existing users.

The Ministry of Light Industry had exported several sets of sanitary equipment to Macau. These facilities were complex and expensive, representing low efficiency by old time-space standards. Each set required its own small elevated water tower, water heating furnace, and water-lifting equipment. Since steam engines couldn't yet be widely distributed, water lifting relied on tragically inefficient animal-powered treadmills or even more primitive human-powered chain pumps. As for heating, they dared not use boilers, opting instead for water heaters where cold water flowed through a serpentine pipe inside a furnace to be heated.

These devices were designed for robustness, simplicity, and durability, since finding mechanical maintenance personnel in this time-space proved impossible—elders would have to perform such work themselves—not to mention that replacement parts had to be shipped from Lingao. The simpler and more durable the equipment, the less after-sales service required. The mechanical system simply didn't have enough personnel for extensive customer service.

Huang Tianyu had brought several apprentices and a renovation team from the Lingao General Construction Company to Macau, completing the installation in a week. Afterward, he performed maintenance for existing customers, replacing the gears and chain drives of animal and human-powered machines—the quality of old products was concerning. Since the Manufacturing Supervision Department had spontaneously formed a "Product Reliability Office," new products showed much improved durability.

The Ministry of Light Industry hoped to profit handsomely from sanitary equipment, so they placed high value on follow-up service. In an era where they could only provide expensive goods with poor reliability and low efficiency, failing to deliver good after-sales service was commercial suicide.

Because Huang Shunlong had Embroidered Uniform Guard guests staying with him, he feared trouble should they encounter Australians. He had asked Huang Tianyu to come at night. After the watches began, Huang Tianyu quietly arrived at the Huang residence with his apprentices, carrying rattan chests full of tools and parts.

However, the equipment was located in a courtyard adjacent to Lin Ming's. Huang Tianyu never dreamed that someone in that courtyard was still awake—and that this someone recognized him.

Li Yongxun quietly opened the moon gate and crept out along the wall. Not far down the corridor stood a small open door, brightly lit, with banging sounds emanating from within. Curious but cautious, she dared not peek directly through the doorway—the light would reveal her shadow. Instead, she carefully circled to the courtyard wall where a decorative openwork window was set, and leaned in to peer through.

A strange pavilion stood in the courtyard, visible even from their guest quarters. It was tall, with flying eaves and upturned corners and windows on all sides, but she'd never seen them open. Li Yongxun had initially found it mysterious—Lin Ming had speculated it was likely where Huang Shunlong monitored his guests. He had also shared much about Huang Shunlong's "glorious history."

"This man has a sickness of the heart; being cautious everywhere is natural," Lin Ming had warned her. "Don't be a busybody."

Now she discovered that this pavilion was exceedingly odd. The lower half was completely elevated on brick and stone pillars, with no stairs leading up. Instead, a black iron pipe-like object extended vertically from the ground into the bottom of the pavilion.

The iron pipe ran along the ground on brick piers into a bungalow at the courtyard's far end. The building was unremarkable, its doors and windows flung wide open and the interior brightly lit. Several figures busied themselves inside, their hammering and banging unclear in purpose.

Li Yongxun had acquired some skills in stealth, wall-climbing, and tracking, but with her limited mobility, she could only strain her eyes to observe. Fortunately, the doors and windows were large and the lighting bright; she could make out strange machines inside. She recalled that before Governor-General Wang's campaign against the bald ones, when the Violet House in Guangzhou had been raided, several Australian machines had been confiscated. Idle onlookers had flocked to see them. She and her cousin had pestered her brother-in-law to take them as well. These looked similar.

"Hmph, Boss Huang has close dealings with the bald bandits," Li Yongxun thought. Just then, a seven-foot-tall man emerged from the building, his long gown tucked into his waist and covered in oil stains. A young man quickly brought a large mug:

"Master, have some tea."

"Mm." The big man took the mug and gulped it down, then wiped his mouth after setting it aside. The light shone directly on his face—Li Yongxun nearly cried out: Who else could it be but Manager Huang! He hadn't changed much, except for a hair bun atop his head, probably to deceive people.

So this wretched medicine merchant who had looked at her with lecherous eyes and threatened to strip her pants and spank her was actually a bald bandit! A low-class artisan bandit at that! Hmph, now you've walked right into my trap! Li Yongxun smiled smugly: let's see who strips whose pants and spanks whom.

While she fantasized about how this wretched man would howl for mercy and weep under her ancestral court flogging techniques, she suddenly heard someone in the courtyard ask: "The pipes in the heater look fine—maybe we don't need to change them?"

Huang Tianyu had no idea that a girl on the other side of the wall wanted to strip his pants and coveted his buttocks. He returned the cup to his apprentice and strode back inside. Two apprentices were dismantling and inspecting the heater. He examined the serpentine water pipe—bronze was indeed more durable than cast iron, though the supply remained scarce—picked up a wrench, disassembled the pipe, looked inside, and shook his head:

"Still have to change it." He pointed at the thick layer of scale lining the pipe and told the apprentices, "This is scale. Accumulated scale will gradually block the pipe. At best, it causes insufficient hot water supply; if severe, the pipe could burst. This is just a general heater; if it were a boiler, scale could cause an explosion. So always check for scale accumulation during maintenance."

The apprentices listened respectfully. One asked:

"Master, I checked the water here; it's clearly very clear. Where does this scale come from?"

"This involves the difference between 'hard water' and 'soft water.' As we've discussed before: natural water contains various soluble minerals..."

"Liar. How can water be hard?" Li Yongxun thought to herself. "And soft water!"

"Replace the heating pipe. We'll take this one back—it might still be usable after treatment." Huang Tianyu finished his explanation about minerals in water and instructed the apprentices to proceed with their work. Disassembled parts were recycled per regulations—not only for cost savings but also for the Reliability Office to analyze and improve quality.

(End of Chapter)