Chapter 2: A Study in Scarlet

Lu Shi followed Natsume Soseki to the house they rented on Buryat Road.

The house had a bedroom and a living room, with quite old-fashioned furnishings. Two bricked-up windows on the east wall of the living room caught the eye, tightly sealed and causing poor air circulation inside.

Natsume Soseki grumbled, "Don't be surprised; there are many like this in London."

Lu Shi nodded. "Hmm, the aftermath of window tax."

Natsume Soseki looked at him with surprise and curiosity. "What's window tax?"

Lu Shi didn't rush to answer. Instead, he walked to the window and fumbled around the wedge-shaped bricks until he finally found a latch. With a hard pull,

Click! The lower right corner of the stone-bricked window opened a small hole.

Natsume Soseki was baffled: "What are you doing?! We... Shh... You've damaged the landlord's window."

Lu Shi waved his hand, gesturing for him not to panic, and explained, "Didn't we just talk about the window tax? Before 1851, British law stipulated that houses with fewer than 10 windows were taxed 2 shillings; those with 10 to 20 windows were taxed 6 shillings; and those with more than 20 windows were taxed 10 shillings. Since this tax was based solely on the number of windows and disregarded the size and value of the house, as well as the taxpayer's ability to pay, it was unfairly burdensome and unreasonable. To evade taxation, many taxpayers converted their clear windows into opaque ones, like this."

He leaned over the small hole, observing left and right, and said, "This thing can barely let some air in, forget about providing light. Phew~ Let me sober up first."

Natsume Soseki breathed a sigh of relief. He had nearly been frightened to death just now.

Unexpectedly, Lu Shi said again, "Continuing to live like this isn't a solution. One day we might just smash the window frames."

Natsume Soseki felt frustrated, wondering why he had invited such a troublemaker to be his roommate.

After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't resist asking, "Lu, why do you share a place with others?"

Lu Shi was speechless. "What else could it be? No money."

Natsume Soseki was somewhat surprised. "Chinese students also run out of money? I traveled by boat to London, stopping in Shanghai, Fuzhou, and other places along the way. The ports were bustling, filled with magnificent buildings. My hometown can't compare at all. I remember when I was in Shanghai, I visited Rihaku Masatoshi at the customs office and even got lost once because of those Western-style buildings."

Lu Shi clicked his tongue. "You mentioned Western-style buildings. It's the concessions."

Natsume Soseki fell silent.

Before the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce, foreigners had the right to reside freely in certain treaty ports in Japan and enjoyed extraterritoriality. On these two points, the Tokugawa shogunate was similar to the Qing dynasty.

The atmosphere became somewhat eerie.

Lu Shi moved a few boxes and travel bags to his bed and unpacked his belongings, arranging them.

Natsume Soseki, on the other hand, turned on the light and began reading and writing.

After a while, Lu Shi walked up behind him, glanced at the desk, and found various literary books, including several issues of "Strand Magazine" (actually "Strand Magazine") from before 1893, with a detective smoking a pipe vividly depicted on the cover.

"Holmes?"

Lu Shi picked up one of the books and flipped through it casually.

Natsume Soseki, still writing, didn't look up and said, "You like this? Then take it and read it. It's useless for my studies."

He chose Chinese literature at the University of London as his major, studying under the renowned scholar William Alexander Smith, while delving into literature, philosophy, and sociology.

Lu Shi asked, "You're on a scholarship. What are the academic requirements for you?"

Natsume Soseki smiled bitterly and replied, "Researching English. But I've only been here a few days and already found that what they call English literature is vastly different from what I knew before. Proficiency in English is not enough to strengthen the nation."

With that, he pointed to what he was writing and continued, "But anyway, I still have to finish the assignments the teacher gave me."

Lu Shi leaned in and asked, "What assignments?"

Natsume Soseki answered, "I've just arrived, and the teacher wants to assess my understanding and grasp of English literature. Since it's English literature, popular reads like 'Strand Magazine' don't matter much."

This incident happened to fall within Lu Shi's area of expertise.

He said, "Not necessarily. Just like..."

As he spoke, he rummaged through the stack of books and finally found the first case of Holmes, asking, "Looking at this title, how would you translate it?"

Natsume Soseki sighed helplessly. "You don't understand Japanese, so it's pointless for me to tell you."

Lu Shi urged, "Just tell me."

Natsume Soseki rubbed his chin and pondered before replying, " 'A Study in Scarlet.' It should be translated as 'The Study of Blood' or 'The Scarlet Study,' right? What's so difficult about it? It's quite literal."

Lu Shi shook his head. "Wrong."

This was the first time Natsume Soseki had been criticized in his field, and he felt somewhat aggrieved. "Then what do you think it should be?"

Lu Shi chuckled and said in Japanese, "It should be 'A Study in Scarlet.'"

Upon hearing this translation, Natsume Soseki immediately felt that Lu Shi's proficiency was lacking and lost interest. Lazily, he said, "'Translation is a tough task: faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance. To seek faithfulness is already difficult! Pursuing faithfulness but lacking expressiveness, even if translated, it is still not translated; then, what about expressiveness?'" Faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance were proposed by Mr. Yan Fu of your country. But you, you ignore them for the sake of form..."

As he spoke, he finally noticed something and widened his eyes. "You speak Japanese!?"

Lu Shi didn't respond directly but circled back to the topic and pointed to the magazine, saying, "How does the original text of this passage go? 'Let's call it "A Study in Scarlet." What do you think? Using a bit of artistic language won't hurt.'"

Here it explicitly stated that "A Study in Scarlet" used artistic language. In the field of art, what did "study" mean?

Natsume Soseki's mind was drawn back to the topic.

After a long while, he gave an answer, "When it comes to painting, it means a sketch, a trial, or a tryout; in music, it's an exercise piece."

Lu Shi nodded. "Moreover, the Holmes series is written from the perspective of Dr. Watson, and the author, Conan Doyle, is also a doctor. Considering this is the first piece in the series, it's most appropriate to call it a study."

Even just finding evidence from the original text was convincing enough.

Natsume Soseki showed a look of genuine satisfaction. "Lu-kun, you really..."

Lu Shi interrupted, "Let's try to speak English as much as possible."

Natsume Soseki cleared his throat, stood up, took a step forward, placed his legs on the ground, buttocks on the heels, straightened his upper body, and placed his hands neatly on his knees.

Then,

Thud—

He suddenly bent down.

"本当にごめんなさい."（"I'm really sorry."）

Lu Shi: "???"

He really didn't want Natsume Soseki to actually bow to him, quickly dodging his gaze and saying, "Hey... Bro, don't mess with me."

Natsume Soseki seemed to think that enough time had been spent on apologizing, so he stood up.

"Lu, I was wrong. I underestimated you in my mind just now."

His gaze returned to "Strand Magazine," and he continued from where he left off, "I also underestimated the hidden literary and artistic qualities in popular literature. As a compensation, I've decided to treat studying the Holmes series as my assignment, thoroughly understanding and dissecting it."

Lu Shi was overwhelmed.

"You don't have to do this. There are still many unscientific aspects to Holmes."

Natsume Soseki looked puzzled, curious. "But isn't it said that Doctor Doyle's writing style is very professional? I read it and found strong plot coherence and very rigorous reasoning."

Lu Shi shook his head.

"There are indeed many unscientific aspects. For example, in 'The Speckled Band,' a snake would suffocate to death in an airtight safe; in 'The Adventure of the Yellow Face,' it's quite far-fetched for a child to be born darker than their black father; and in 'Silver Blaze,' there are many descriptions that don't conform to official horse racing rules..."

Natsume Soseki swallowed his saliva, picked up his pen, and silently recorded.

He was very sure that he could hand in the assignment tomorrow.