Chapter 485: Black Guide

The reason the three young attendants couldn't grasp the situation was because they overlooked one thing: as the saying goes, the madam loves money, the girl loves a handsome face — whether in later generations or the seventeenth century, this is an eternal, unchanging truth.

Mei Fuxi was tall, with a well-proportioned build and a face bearing the hard, chiseled lines of a northern man, a stark contrast to the predominantly Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong features of the locals, so he naturally drew the eye at first glance.

In later generations, before Lu Pangzi turned into a greasy man, every frown and smile of his truly had millions of mature women licking their screens behind the scenes — that was real traffic, not bot-farmed. Later, when he got old and fat and was kicked out of the fresh-meat ranks, didn't his movies flop... You can't hook the mature ladies with photo editing alone once your face is all bloated.

The girls of the seventeenth century were just as much carnivores; when they saw a handsome scholar, they'd throw themselves at him too — otherwise, where would all those tales of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies come from?

The reason the ancients weren't as uninhibited as later generations was mainly due to low social productivity.

Thought must always match the productive forces. In the seventeenth century, the East had feudal ethical codes, and the West likewise had religious doctrines that shackled thought. In the East, a woman who committed adultery would be drowned in a pig cage; in the West, she'd be put on the stake — both were in keeping with the slow rhythm of agricultural society at the time.

The history of human development is, in truth, a history of the liberation of thought. Ever since ancient times when people began nature worship, humanity has been locked in struggle with its own thinking, a process tightly bound to the progression of understanding nature: the burning of Bruno is a classic example.

The fundamental cause of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, which was raging fiercely across the transmigrators' planes, also lies right here. Because thought is tied to reality, and at that time the Theocracy controlled thought, so the clergy were all immensely wealthy, and the churches were all great landlords.

Therefore, if the kings and high Nobility wanted to live the good life, they absolutely had to push forward the Thirty Years' War and strike down the Theocracy's right to collect tithes and interfere in secular affairs.

This was a painful breaking out of the cocoon, a self-evolution. This process, which inevitably emerges alongside the development of productive forces, is a brutal competition between populations — the difference being that some remain forever in the budding stage, while others complete the process.

After freeing itself from the shackles of thought, Europe welcomed the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. All the other ancient populations failed to shatter the thought-shackles upon them and achieve self-evolution, and fell behind in the competition.

In short, the Renaissance of thought is tied directly to the colonial industrial age after the eighteenth century, the critical window of time that laid the foundation for the world order in the long ages to come — the most prime territories on Earth were all seized by the colonizers and their descendants, a dividend they could enjoy for generations.

Whoever breaks out of the shell first reaps the reward, even if they emerge dripping with blood. Those who can't break out either suffocate inside the shell, or have someone else forcibly break it open for them. But that assistance comes at a price — care to learn a bit about the colonies?

In this plane, history has forked. Through several years of time and effort, the Transmigrators have already built an industrial society from their memories on Taiwan.

Though this society is small in scale, and though many things are still lacking, this compact yet refined society already possesses the production factors of the industrial age.

Thought, naturally, is included within that. Countless people who come here, while having their hair forcibly shorn, are also forcibly loaded with the lifestyle and behavioral patterns of an industrial society.

Facts have proven that human adaptability is very fast, especially when quality of life is greatly improved. Under the Transmigrators' rule, there are many old-fashioned characters who can't stand the social atmosphere, but if you told them to go back to a life where they could starve to death at any moment, they'd rather die than go.

In the end, whatever thoughts such people have can only be bottled up inside — no one cares what they think. The ancients had short lifespans; in another twenty or thirty years, the old guard will die off, and they'll pose even less of a threat.

So in present-day Tainan, according to the will of the Transmigrators, there have emerged dense urbanized crowds, young men and women who fit the Transmigrators' sensibilities, and girls of a new era bold enough to stop a handsome guy in the street.

After hearing the cool guy before her ask a silly question like "Are there mountains here?", the girl with the bun hairstyle burst out laughing.

The Kiln District here is all coastal beach wetlands and plains, so naturally there are no mountains. But the matter at hand really had nothing to do with mountains at all.

"No mountains, but there's a lake. You new arrivals look like you want to go to the lake, right?" After the girl finished laughing, she changed tack: "That lake over there was dug by us sisters too. If you want to go have fun, you've got to hire us as guides!"

Mei Fuxi finally caught on by this point, and couldn't help but be both amused and exasperated. But the next moment, when his eyes met the girl's fiery gaze, his IQ vanished again: "How much for a guide?"

The girl replied cheerfully: "Treat us to hotpot!"

The moment the girl finished speaking, a chorus of jeering erupted behind her, her companions all shouting at Mei Fuxi: "Big guy, you've hit the jackpot — do you know how many people want to treat Zhu'er to hotpot?"

Poor Young Master Mei had been intimidated for half the day, and only now learned that this big-eyed girl was called Zhu'er. Then, after Miss Zhu'er, her face flushed red, turned back and spat curses at her group, the Black Guide and the tourist reached an agreement.

The young men and women thus formed a temporary tour group and all went together to Xiehu for an outing.

The Xiehu of the seventeenth century was naturally scenic and beautiful. The string-of-pearls brackish lakes were teeming everywhere with fish, shellfish, crabs, and shrimp. The occasional oyster-dredging Fishing Ship passing by would startle vast flocks of egrets and black-faced Spoonbills. Surrounding the lakes were lush Mangrove Forests. Under the warm afternoon sunlight, the Xiehu District was a seamless blend of sea and sky, breathtakingly beautiful.

The young men quickly grew familiar with the girls. It was only then that Mei Fuxi and the others learned that the girls were all workers from the Textile Factory, also out on their day off to have fun.

Once the fun started, all restraint was cast aside. A group of young men and women roughhoused and joked, laughing and playing — not only strolling by the lakeside, but also hiring a boat to go out onto the lake, and finally buying oysters from the fishermen to grill and eat.

Not to mention the other two attendants who were practically bubbling over with delight, even Young Master Mei had never played with girls like this before, and in no time he was so thoroughly enjoying himself he forgot all about home.

Happy times are fleeting; before they knew it, evening had arrived. Young Master Mei, seeing that it was getting late, had no choice but to make good on his promise and invite the girls to eat hotpot.

Unexpectedly, the young master was once again scammed by the Black Guide — the "hotpot" the girls had in mind was the newly opened, high-end Eight Happiness Ice Cream Hotpot.

The sweet, cloying ice cream represented three achievements: White Sugar, refrigeration, and milk. This was also the reason an ice cream shop could only open a trial location in Chikan this year.

However, this kind of icy, sweet, alternatingly cold and hot dairy product was naturally not to a northerner's palate, so the three gentlemen ate with great difficulty, forming a stark contrast with the girls whose eyebrows were blooming with smiles.

In the end, they had no choice but to go to the brilliantly lit night market and eat a late-night snack before calling it a day.

Finally, Young Master Mei personally walked Zhu'er back to the women's collective dormitory — well, a simp gets everything he deserves... And when the young men rushed back to the barracks and sat dumbly on the hard wooden beds, they suddenly realized that in just this short half an hour, they had, without their parents' orders, fallen in love?