Happy Tycoon

Judging from the skins of these two notebooks, it is obvious that these two notebooks have been with Alfred for a long time, and they are definitely often flipped by Alfred. This can be seen from the edges of the covered cover. I can tell.

　　 Yang Jing didn't understand the meaning of the numbers recorded in the book, and the place names recorded in this time and space are also temporarily unknown because there is no Du Niang and Wikipedia, but Yang Jing does know some of the book titles recorded above.

　　 For example, there is a book title in the notebook that is recorded like this.

　　 "On Sea Power", 1926

　　 Then the number 1926 is followed by a series of other Arabic numerals.

Yang Jing really doesn’t understand what these numbers mean, but Yang Jing knows the famous "On Sea Power". This is the work of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a famous American military theorist at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. .

　　 This book elaborated on the importance of sea dominance at that time, and it was regarded as a classic by the navies of various countries before the First World War.

　　 Just, how can General Mahan’s "On Sea Power" be involved with Alfred? One of them is the navy, and the other is making gunpowder. It can't be said that they can't fight, but if you want to say that they are closely related, Yang Jing himself doesn't believe it anyway.

　　 You have to say that Alfred likes the navy, there is reason for that, so he wrote down the name of the book "On Sea Power" in his notebook. But the question is, what do the following numbers mean?

If it’s just a book of "On Sea Power", it's okay to say, but in addition to "On Sea Power", there are more inexplicable titles in the notebook, such as this "National Geographic", 08/1931, followed by What's the matter with a series of numbers?

　　 What happened to the "Spirit of the Law" by Charlie Louis Montesquieu in 1942?

　　 There is also this "Summary of Civilization" written by Yukichi Fukuzawa, 1938

　　 "A Theory of Human Nature" by British David Hume, 1940

If most of the above books are philosophical books, Yang Jing can still understand. After all, Alfred was kicked out by his cousins. It is very likely that he started to study philosophy because of his frustration. This is also reasonable, but What about the following books about music, history, art, etc.? What surprised Yang Jing most was that in this notebook, Yang Jing also found purely academic books such as "Marc Polo's Travels", Copernicus's "The Movement of Celestial Bodies", and Darwin's "Origin of Species". , Could it be that Alfred, after pondering some philosophy, is ready to switch to studying literature, geography and biology?

What makes Yang Jing most confusing are the names of purely literary books, such as the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Mrs. Stowe, Hemingway's "Who the Bell Rings", and Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" Adventures"

　　 You said that you can understand Yang Jing by looking at those purely literary works. It’s a pastime, but the problem is that Mark Twain’s "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a book of children’s literature.

　　 These books don't match each other at all, and Yang Jing couldn't figure out the connection between these books after thinking about it for a long time.

　　 However, Yang Jing discovered the secret of a number from these books, that is, the number of 19** that followed those books. Yang Jing guessed that this should be the publication date of these books, or the year they were published.

　　 Based on these figures, Yang Jing inferred that the names of the books recorded in these two notebooks were mostly published in the 1930s to the early 1940s.

　　 This discovery also made Yang Jing immediately realize that the secrets hidden in the two notebooks written by Alfred should have a lot to do with these books.

　　 With so many titles of books, where should Yang Jing start at a moment.

After looking at the "National Geographic", 08/1931 and the series of numbers in the notebook, Yang Jing immediately remembered that when he first came to this basement, he had found a set of preserved items in several cardboard boxes. National Geographic magazine for half a century.

　　 So he immediately turned over the set of "National Geographic" magazines that had just been sorted out, and searched it for a long time, only to find out the magazine that was released in August 1931.

　　 found this magazine, which made Yang Jing feel excited. Obviously, the titles of the books recorded in the notebook were obviously all Alfred had read back then, or he would not find this magazine here.

　　 Now that I found this magazine, can I also find the other books recorded in the notebook?

　　 Thinking of this, Yang Jing suddenly remembered that in the large study room on the second floor of the main building, there were quite a few large bookshelves, and most of the books on the bookshelves were old books.

　　 Thinking of this, Yang Jing immediately grabbed the National Geographic magazine that he had just found, got up and left, and soon returned to the large study on the second floor of the main building.

　　 Yang Jing has visited this study twice. It has a large area of ​​more than 200 square meters. In addition to a few large floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, there is also a large oak desk near the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Yang Jing began to look for the first bookshelf. After searching for it, he saw a copy of Copernicus's "On the Movement of the Celestial Body". After pulling it out and turning it to the back, it was published in 1938, and the date of publication. , Which happens to match the number recorded in the notebook.

Finding two books in a row made Yang Jing even more excited. In the next half day, he searched almost all the books on the shelves in this library, and found them in these shelves. There are more than 30 books recorded in the notebook, and the publication date can correspond to the numbers written in the notebook.

　　 These books are the only ones in this study room, and there is no other year published.

　　 By this time, Yang Jing can already be very sure that the number 19** behind the names of the books in the notebook is the year of publication of these books.

　　 It just made Yang Jing somewhat disappointed that even if he found so many qualified books in the study, it was still a short distance from the more than fifty books recorded in the notebook.

Obviously, the names of some of the books recorded in the notebook that year were either read by Alfred from elsewhere and then wrote them down, or after Alfred died, those books were cleaned up by the servants. go out.

　　 But it doesn’t matter, there is a guy who has grown up around Alfred since he was a child.

After asking the butler of Sheldon for inquiries, Sheldon tried to recall: "Sir, after Mr. DuPont passed away, I remember that some of the books were indeed taken away by Mrs. Vanessa, but specifically those books, I really Can't remember."

　　 Yang Jing knew that Vanessa was Alfred’s wife, and there were still large photos of them both in this manor.

　　 Her husband died, she naturally wanted to take away some important relics. It is estimated that Alfred liked to read those books when she was alive, so she was taken away by Mrs. Vanessa as an important relic.

　　 "Alex, I want to ask you to do something in the past few days."

"After thinking about it, Yang Jing knew that the books that were taken away should not be retrieved, but these books are not rare ancient books, they are all books with a large circulation, although most of them were issued 40 or 50 years ago. , But there should still be a lot of them in the world. Therefore, even if those books are not available, they can be found in the market or in the library, so Yang Jing is going to let Xie Dun buy these books for himself.

　　 "Sir, you are too polite, you can just ask for anything."

　　 "Well, it's actually not very difficult. I have a list here. Can you see if you can buy these books for me?"

　　 As he said, Yang Jing pulled a piece of paper, and then relied on his memory to write down the names of the books that were not found in the study. Of course, the focus was still on the year of publication.

"Alex, I need these books to inquire about something, but there is nothing here." Yang Jing pointed to some messy books on the shelf. That was his "credit" for more than a long time. "These are the books I wrote. I’d like to trouble you to buy it for me. But please note that you must buy it according to the publication year I wrote. If it is not published in that year, don’t buy it."

Butler Sheldon’s eyes fell on those slightly messy bookshelves~www.readwn.com~ His brows were slightly frowned, but then he smiled and took a look at the list and said, "Sir, you Most of the books I need were published in the 1930s and 1940s. This kind of books should not be easy to buy in the market now. I need to arrange for people to go to the libraries in some big cities to find these books. Only in those big libraries there are extra collections."

　　 Yang Jing nodded and said: "As long as there is a way to buy these books, I don't care what it costs. Alex, I will trouble you with this matter."

"Don't worry, sir, I will handle this for you. Well, if it goes well, you will be able to see these books tomorrow night, of course, because most of these books are books with a relatively long publication date. If it doesn’t go well If you do, it may be a day later for you to see these books."

　　 Yang Jing smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if you are two days later, but you must buy these books for me."

　　 Sheton butler nodded, and then said: "Sir, an hour and a half later, the restaurant has prepared dinner for you. Today is Mexican cuisine. This is our chef Mr. Carlos’s hometown cuisine. I think you will like it."

　　 Seeing Yang Jing nodded in agreement, the butler Xie Dun nodded slightly and left the study.

Yang Jing returned to the big desk and sat down, picked up a book he had just found and placed it in front of him, then took out the two notebooks from the storage space and spread them out, constantly looking at this one. Move back and forth between the book and the numbers after the book title in the notebook