In 2022—or rather in the first decade and a half of the 21st century, the late October weather in the United Kingdom is surely not warm, but not particularly cold either.
After all, it’s a temperate oceanic climate, with little climate variation.
Take, for example, Newton’s hotown, Woolsop. In late October, dayti temperatures are around 9 degrees, and at night, it averages around 4 degrees Celsius. That’s all there is to it, without the need to wear particularly thick clothing.
But 1665 was different.
This involves a piece of geographical knowledge:
The Little Ice Age.
The Little Ice Age, as the na suggests, refers to a relatively colder period, but warr than the major ice ages that destroyed massive amounts of plant and animal life.
Each historical Little Ice Age led to a significant drop in Earth’s temperatures, which greatly reduced global food production.
This resulted in severe social upheavals and sharp population declines.
The last Little Ice Age occurred from 1350 to approximately 1850, with the Late Ming period being the coldest, reaching a lowest point about 4.5 degrees below current temperatures.
This is one of the important reasons for the Ming Dynasty’s downfall and why many ticulous ti travel writers portray the Late Ming as the hardest period to turn around—fighting the Little Ice Age with one’s own power alone was exceedingly difficult.
The corresponding local ti point for 1665 is the Fourth Year of Kangxi, just over twenty years after the Ming Dynasty’s fall, at the coldest part of the Little Ice Age.
Simultaneously, due to the geographical location of Great Britain, the temperature changes during the Little Ice Age were actually more extre than on the mainland.
Thus, at this ti, Woolsop experienced temperatures about 7.5 degrees lower than contemporaneous posteriors, potentially below freezing even during the day. (Literature reference doi:10.27307/dki.gsjtu.2018.000319)
Yet Xu Yun’s shoes were the latest low-top insulated boots from Anta, with a warmth retention effect countless tis better than Newton’s own shoes.
Therefore, Newton’s bold move is justifiable theoretically, seeing that this founding ancestor’s character indeed had so flaws...
Of course.
Just reiterating:
Before his spat with Hook, Newton was at most a wayward youth and not yet an old stager.
Just like Ah Wei, before eting Brother Jie, was at most a rebellious youth secretly playing gas, while eting Brother Jie marked the beginning of another phase of his life.
Newton’s selfishness at this point resulted inevitably from his upbringing, sowhat like a wild kitten’s guarding of its food, fully salvageable.
Moreover, from Newton alone taking the shoes while leaving the clothes and trousers untouched, one can see that this young man was not a zero-cost buyer without limits but soone with a closed value system:
What outsiders see as wrong, to him, is a matter of course, leading to his outreach, while further actions would exceed his inner definition of ’reason,’ thus he stopped.
In a nutshell.
This is a delinquent with incorrect values but still with a bottom line.
As for educating a wayward youth...
Xu Yun was quite experienced.
In his past life, he had taught over thirty thousand students as a writer, and during his current doctoral studies, he also served as a teaching assistant to a class, having encountered various extraordinary individuals.
Plus, with requisite knowledge reserves, theoretically, there was still a chance to set Mr. Niu on the right path.
Of course.
All these ideas had a prerequisite—to be able to stay by Newton’s side.
While Xu Yun pondered this matter,
Newton, after addressing the ownership of the ’penalty,’ was also assessing the stranger he brought back with him, with his furrowed brows indicating an uncertain state.
Not long ago,
After letting Xu Yun feel the weight of knowledge through the book in his hand, Newton’s mood gradually settled down.
Subsequently, he observed the stranger carefully, discovering that apart from appearance, the texture of the clothing, the fullness of the skin, and the skin tone greatly differed from those of typical vagrants.
Especially the glasses on his nose—made of gold-rimd material—which an average household probably could not afford as an accessory tool.
Given that Newton was still a bachelor’s degree student, his mind was relatively less complex than an adult— the simplicity of a student would often present itself when borrowing money, as an uncountable number of students, yet to enter society, understand ’human treachery’ just from the first sum lent to a roommate.
With all these considerations, Newton decided to take Xu Yun back to his ho, and, after so thought, claid Xu Yun’s shoes for his own.
No helping it.
Newton’s own shoes made by Tang Dynasty techniques had only a bit of deerskin added on the sides, with other parts made of crude cotton-linen, and even a few pieces of old cloth supposedly insulated them, ensuring a chill at tis...
After all, helping soone is one matter; levying a penalty for infringing one’s rights is another.
Even if this went to the Lincolnshire County Court, it would certainly be in Newton’s favor.
Next, looking at Xu Yun’s bare feet, Newton bent down and took a pair of heavily patched slippers out from the bottom of the storage cabinet.
With a flick, he tossed them in front of Xu Yun:
"Shoes were washed last week. Put them on, and by the way, there are a few questions I’d like to ask you."
The late 17th-century United Kingdom, following Cromwell’s death and the Restoration of Charles II, was within the Stuart Dynasty period, causing the ideologies of society to be extrely chaotic, especially evident in the aforentioned spreading process of the ’Buer Ordinance.’
The ’Buer Ordinance’s’ philosophy of ’penalty’ ingrained itself deeply in people’s minds, often resulting in scenes like this:
A respectable person, who inadvertently entered soone else’s estate, might be captured and sotis even beaten, whereby the owner would confiscate a valuable item the person had, inquire about his origins, and eventually, the two of them would beco friends and dine together that night—while still not returning that item.
This phenonon parallels the absurdity of historical foot-binding in China and the ritual suicide notions in Neon but carries significant period characteristics.
This allowed Newton to both take Xu Yun’s shoes and interact with him as if nothing had happened.
Returning to the view inside the house.
Although Xu Yun found it hard to comprehend Newton’s specific logic, he didn’t think too highly of the shoes, considering their cost only 328—especially in front of the Patriarch of all physics. Was this even an issue?
Therefore, his expression was calm, and his speech opened with fluent early modern English:
"Thank you, feel free to ask."
Upon hearing Xu Yun’s flawless English, curiosity finally flickered in Newton’s eyes:
"Allow to introduce myself, I am Isaac Newton; what about you?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Yun opened his mouth and instinctively wanted to say his own na.
However, just as his na was about to co out, he suddenly rembered the task’s hint—despite being a parallel world, so traces might affect posterity.
If this so-called trace were a na coupled with coincidental additional appearance details, it could potentially lead to so trouble....
From a cautious standpoint, giving his real na was obviously inappropriate.
However, with words ready to spill over, Xu Yun didn’t have much ti to contemplate, so he reflexively swapped in a na deeply imprinted in his mind:
"I am..."
"Li Feiyu."
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