A Simple Sketch

Inside the room.

After explaining the various arrangements, Little Ox casually clapped his hands.

"Alright, I've said everything that needed saying. Get out of bed and walk around. I'll show you the layout of the estate."

Xu Yun had already been thinking the same thing, so he readily went along with it.

"Then I'll trouble you."

Little Ox nodded, walked over to the cabinet beside the bed, and bent down to rummage around for a moment.

When he straightened up, he gave his right hand a light flick.

With a smack, a pair of shoes and long socks landed in front of Xu Yun.

The shoes were somewhat old. Their side panels and heel counters were sewn from coarse gray linen, spotted with a few dark stains.

The toe vamp was made of leather, its surface showing obvious wear.

Given the era, the leather was probably deerskin.

Little Ox then pointed at the shoes and said,

"These are the Brogues I wore in secondary school. They should be about your size.

Remember, don't wear these shoes outside the estate. If you need to go out, tell me beforehand. I'll get you another pair."

Xu Yun continued nodding cooperatively—not because he had already been successfully brainwashed, but because he knew perfectly well that Newton was not trying to restrict his freedom.

Young Newton had only one reason for making him change shoes before going out:

Britain—or rather, Europe—was absolutely covered in piss and shit wherever you went these days.

Britain would not truly begin paying attention to public sanitation until after this plague ended. It would take until around 1690 for such measures to become widespread even at the county and town levels.

At present, all of Europe's understanding of infectious diseases like the plague remained stuck at isolation—Britain was even among the leading countries in this regard. Europe's first recorded case of someone being arrested for fleeing an infected area had occurred in Britain.

That unlucky yet fortunate man was named Henry Rose. It had happened in St Bartholomew's Parish in 1604, sixty years ago.

Strictly speaking, it was simply a process of filling gaps in knowledge. There was nothing much to criticize or look down on.

The peak of Europe's shit-and-piss culture had been around the twelfth century, when all manner of ridiculous practices emerged.

For example, the famous High heels had been invented to keep people from stepping in shit.

Of course.

Filling gaps in knowledge was one thing, but the fact remained that Britain's public areas were still full of piss and shit.

Especially in places like Lincolnshire, where there were so many cattle and sheep. The smell outside was truly something else.

That was why Newton had initially thought Xu Yun was extravagant—if he had owned boots made from such material, he would not even have been willing to leave the house in them. Yet Xu Yun had worn them outside and wandered around for half the day.

If not for the prospect of future earnings, Young Newton would have been unable to stop himself from calling him a "profligate" again.

Xu Yun had no idea that Young Newton had already labeled him a wasteful rich bastard. He was currently climbing down from the bed and picking up one of the long socks—thank heavens, after ten whole chapters, their protagonist had finally gotten out of bed. Tears of joy!

Xu Yun awkwardly pulled on the sock, glanced at the big toe sticking out through a hole, silently rolled his eyes, and picked up the Brogues from the floor.

Brogues, also called Baroque shoes, originated as work shoes worn by Scots and Irish people working in the Highlands during the sixteenth century. They were practical and durable.

These shoes were relatively common among ordinary people in the seventeenth century. Their status was lower than Oxfords and Derbies, though they were considered standard student footwear in some secondary schools.

But by the twentieth century, the Duke of Windsor would rediscover Brogues in the countryside, and they would gradually become a symbol of gentlemen.

Newton's pair of Brogues was relatively well preserved. Combined with Newton's long socks, which had several holes in them, they were not especially uncomfortable to wear.

Of course, appearance was out of the question.

Britain's fashion sense as a whole was rather gaudy in those days. Men in the Victorian era had to wear skirts, and their clothes were absurdly oversized, making them look utterly bizarre.

From a 21st Century perspective, it was roughly the sort of intimidating guardian-god outfit you could hang over a doorway to ward off evil or above a bed for contraception.

Fortunately, no acquaintances could see his current outfit. Once he had put on the shoes, Xu Yun calmly followed Newton out of the bedroom.

Just as Newton had said earlier.

Perhaps because the house had originally been a Garden house, its overall interior space was not large. It could even be described as cramped.

Outside the bedroom was a small room of roughly twenty square meters. Taking the bedroom door as the point of reference, there was a small window on the left side of the room, with a desk set in front of it.

Beside the desk stood an old-fashioned little bookcase, crammed full of books.

On the right side of the room was a relatively thick door, with an old, somewhat blackened rug laid at its entrance.

Clearly, this was the exit to the entire house.

Not counting the land occupied by the outer fence, the house's Construction area was only a little over sixty square meters. That was a fairly rare size in Europe, whether in the seventeenth century or the 21st Century.

In terms of housing back home, it was about like a family of four living in a twenty-five-square-meter room in Shanghai—so crowded that it would be uninhabitable without a home-renovation show stepping in. Of course, if a certain designer surnamed Tao got his hands on it, it would probably still be uninhabitable after the renovation, and he would charge you 1.3 million for the work.

Little Ox then led Xu Yun to the window and pointed outside.

"Fat Fish, as you can see, all the fruit trees in the estate outside belong to my family.

About a thousand feet west from the fence is Woolsthorpe's village road. Further north is a well, and near it you can see a windmill built more than sixty years ago.

As for the direction of Lincolnshire, I don't need to explain that, do I? That's where you fled from."

Xu Yun silently nodded at this.

Though he was an "apple" that had fallen from the sky and had no idea where Lincolnshire actually was, he had neither the intention nor the need to go there right now. There was no reason to stir up unnecessary trouble.

Newton then withdrew his gaze from the window and pointed to the desk and bookcase.

"As for this place... this is where I study and work. Without my permission, you are not allowed to touch a single sheet of paper—not even if spilled ink stains the pages."

Compared with the casual way he had introduced the landmarks outside, Newton was much more serious when discussing the desk.

His tone reminded Xu Yun of one of his anime-obsessed friends. Whenever Xu Yun visited his home, that friend treated his rows of figurines with exactly the same attitude.

But Xu Yun's attention soon shifted to the desk.

Or, more precisely, to several manuscripts on the desk.

One manuscript contained two pages of simple sketches, plain and rough.

On the left side of the first page stood a tree, with a stick figure beneath it.

The second page depicted almost the same scene, except that another stick figure was falling from the tree.

The falling stick figure had been heavily circled, and beside the circle were a pair of arrows pointing up and down, as well as—

A question mark.

At the sight, Xu Yun's eyes immediately lit up.