I was a god in the 18th century

Chapter 536: Abandoned Infant in the Golden Age
On August 26, the British delegation left behind a group of people to assemble the gifts, while the rest boarded carriages and moved to the prepared residence in the capital.

In the past few days in the Old Summer Palace, Macartney and Zheng Rui and other Qing officials had another disagreement. First it was a dispute over etiquette, and now there was a dispute over gifts.

Macartney insisted that the translator translate the things they brought from Britain as gifts, but Zheng Rui and others believed that all things given to the emperor by foreign countries were called tributes, so how could they be "gifts"?
It is obvious that one side believes that its country is equal to the Qing Dynasty, while the Qing Dynasty, from top to bottom, believes that the other side has come to pay tribute to the Celestial Empire.

The two sides argued over these details every day, and neither side could convince the other.

Owen found such arguments boring and would rather spend more time strolling around the gardens of the Old Summer Palace than get involved in any meaningless disputes.

As the Old Summer Palace was heavily guarded, Owen was limited in what he could do without permission. But he had the "goddess" Xia Qingdai, so if he couldn't go to a place, he could just fly there!
The world is so big that as long as you have wings, there is no place you cannot go.

Many times, Xia Qingdai would carry Owen, who was dressed in black, out of the Old Summer Palace in the dead of night and fly freely.

In order to avoid attracting attention, even the noisy drones were not used. Xia Qingdai was the one who held him up and acted as the aircraft. Owen would also put on a hooded black robe to cover his blond hair. In the dark, no one would notice him and he never made a mistake.

The only regret is that Xia Qingdai is a bit directionally challenged. Even if she takes Owen out of the Old Summer Palace, they will eventually get lost in the wilderness.

Looking down from the air, east, south, west and north are all the same. If Owen hadn't carried a compass in her pocket, she would have gotten the direction back to the Old Summer Palace wrong.

On the day Owen moved to Beijing, Xia Qingdai was taken on a business trip by her master to serve as a human CT for the old cadres in the cadre sanatorium, and she failed to return in time.

When she finished her modern affairs and returned to her room to see Lilliput, Owen and his friends had already been in the capital for several days.

But without Xia Qingdai, Owen had no freedom.

Macartney did express his wish to the officials of the Qing Dynasty to visit the Forbidden City, tour the Qing Dynasty palaces, and visit the various scenic spots and historical sites in the city during his free time.

However, this request was rejected by Zhengrui. According to established practice, even if envoys from various countries arrived in the capital, they could only visit other places after they had met the emperor.

That is to say, before the British delegation went to Rehe to meet Emperor Qianlong, they could not go anywhere except near the embassy. If they wanted to visit, they had to wait until they came back from the meeting with the emperor in Rehe.

Macartney still had some things to do. He had to exchange wits with Qing officials and missionaries all day long, and discuss all matters related to the audience with Emperor Qianlong.

A hands-off deputy envoy like Owen really had nothing to do. Unable to go out, and impatient with etiquette disputes, he could only write travel notes and paint in the embassy to kill time.

If Xia Qingdai was there, the guards at the embassy gate would naturally not be able to stop Owen.

In the 18th century, the whole world had no awareness of air defense. As long as Xia Qingdai was willing, she could take Owen to fly freely. After the altitude was raised to a thousand meters, even if the people below looked up, they could only see a black dot, so there was no worry of being exposed.

Early that morning, Xia Qingdai returned home and just as she lay down on the edge of the glass jar, Owen walked to the window and looked up at the sky as if he had telepathy, and his eyes met Xia Qingdai's.

"Good morning, Owen." Xia Qingdai smiled with her eyebrows curved, "I'm back. Is the capital city fun?"

Owen saluted Xia Qingdai, then smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I haven't been able to go out and see the world yet."

"Ah, you're not allowed to go out again?" Xia Qingdai expressed a little sympathy to Owen. This diplomatic mission was like being in prison. Not only were there guards following every step, but people were not allowed to walk around freely. It was indeed quite restrictive. But it didn't matter. Now that she was back, she could fly wherever she wanted to go!

Xia Qingdai smiled and stretched her hand to the window: "Come on, Owen, let's go explore this city. I'm also very curious about it."

"it is good."

Owen took off his shoes without saying a word, put on a pair of perfumed silk socks, then climbed onto Xia Qingdai's palm and sat cross-legged.

He also held a telescope in his hand, which allowed him to overlook the earth from a high altitude.

At this time, the sky in the capital was just getting light and there were very few people on the streets. Only people from the Infantry Commander's Office were driving around patrolling the streets.

Xia Qingdai took Owen flying for a while, and just when she looked down, she saw them picking up a package from under a roof and putting it in the car. It was probably some treasure. It couldn't be that the person in this official uniform was doing the job of picking up garbage, right?

What was even more strange was that there were a few foreign missionaries following the car. I didn't know what they were doing, but they would take the small packages from the government officials from time to time to look at them. Then some of them would put them back, and some would just take them away.

"What are they doing?" Xia Qingdai asked curiously, lowering her head into the glass jar and widening her eyes to see clearly.

Owen, who had a telescope on his eyes, frowned slightly: "Don't look at it, it's not a treasure, there's nothing to see."

Xia Qingdai tilted her head to look at Owen in her palm and asked doubtfully, "Did you see it clearly?"

"Well, we've seen something like this before. Those towers, do you remember?"

Owen only said this, and the bad memories in Xia Qingdai's mind suddenly came to her mind.

"Damn! This is the capital city, and there are abandoned babies right under the feet of the emperor!" Xia Qingdai couldn't help but swear.

My disgust for feudal society deepened. Why could people in this era abandon babies so casually? They simply abandoned them like old shoes without any psychological burden.

She really couldn't understand why the court had the nerve to brag about the Kangxi and Qianlong prosperous times, given the living conditions of the common people, who were already trying their best to survive.

Xia Qingdai was very angry and the consequences were serious.

She pondered for a moment, stretched out her hand, and took a medical book from the bedside table. Whenever she saw an abandoned baby at the door, she would give them a "bang" on the roof to scare them.

Although her reason told her that this was not entirely the fault of ordinary people who had difficulty in living, it was the fault of the times. After all, there were no contraceptive measures in the 18th century, and ordinary couples could only passively keep having children. If they couldn't afford to raise the children, what else could they do except throw them away?
But she was just angry! She was merciful not to flatten their roof.

Xia Qingdai's sudden move not only frightened the families of those who abandoned their babies, but also scared the people from the Infantry Commander's Office who were driving the carriage.

At first everyone thought it was a normal landmine, but after a few times, everyone realized that this landmine was actually targeting the home for abandoned babies!

It's a divine punishment!