Chapter 2

"Mr. Gaudan, I have provided your son with all the medical assistance I can, as a qualified doctor would. He doesn't need bloodletting, and you shouldn't have any additional complaints," Doctor Trongson responded mechanically to the old man. "In three days, if, by any chance, the condition worsens, send him to Rouen as soon as possible. There are many formally trained doctors from the medical school there. Good morning, Mr. Gaudan, Miss Aile. Farewell."

When the doctor walked down the stairs, Mr. Gaudan leaned out, still furious, and shouted at his back, "Yes, I shouldn't have expected anything from you, because three months ago, you were still a barber in town, and now you're selling potions... Alright, alright, Cato, give him ten sous from the counter, after all, the doctor did shave Felix."

"I used to be a barber for the noble Lord Lafton in Rouen, who paid me sixty livres a year. I never lie; I earn my living by my skills. My potion-making skills are as excellent as my soap water." At the counter on the first floor, Doctor Trongson took the ten sous from the tall Cato, then crossed the hall, stepped over the threshold, and walked onto the uneven stone path, gradually leaving through the narrow alley.

"Aile..." At this moment, Li Hui sat up and called out to the girl.

As he requested, Aile placed a round mirror in his hand, then pulled the curtains, grabbed the cross-shaped window latch, and with a loud bang, raised the window.

This type of window, when lowered, would fall with such force that it was nicknamed a "guillotine."

A gentle breeze blew in from the open window, mixed with the fragrance of the flowers on the railing, fluttering the dark green curtains and making a rustling sound.

Sunlight replaced the candlelight, fully illuminating the bed in the room.

Li Hui held up the round mirror.

In the mirror, it was a completely different person, but this person was indeed himself.

Felix Gaudan, now, was Li Hui.

His face shape and skin color were very similar to Aile's, with broad brows and forehead, but his cheeks and chin were relatively slim, making his face not large, with a well-proportioned appearance. The doctor had shaved him clean, leaving only the sideburns, which connected to his hair that fell to his neck. This face looked to be about twenty years old.

"Felix, Felix..."

"Your consciousness seems very clear, brother." Aile, hearing his muttering by the window, turned around, her face glowing with a gentle and holy light, filled with heartfelt joy.

"What year is it now?"

"It seems you're still a bit confused, brother. It's the eleventh year of King Louis XVI's reign."

About a day and a half later, Li Hui, no, now Felix Gaudan, could already stand on the balcony of the second floor of his house, overlooking the streets of Saint-Denis and the distant scenery.

This three-story building, without a doubt, was the residence of the wealthy Gaudan family, standing proudly on a hill on the eastern side of the town, like a rooster. Behind it, there were no other houses, but a beautiful garden covering twelve arpents (one arpent is about two-thirds of a hectare). The garden was connected to the Gaudan residence by a slope, with a cross-shaped promenade lined with willows and locust trees. Streams wound around the garden, dividing it into beautiful flower beds and ponds (Felix had previously fallen into one of these ponds), eventually flowing into a river bend. A small, naturally decayed boat was tied to the river bend, surrounded by limestone, connecting to the wide Seine River, which shimmered in the sunlight, with Saint-Denis on its left bank.

Looking west, below the Gaudan residence was a steep slope covered with sand and gravel from the riverbed, connecting to the town. The town had about a thousand households, with no wide squares or main streets, but a network of narrow alleys. There were both old wooden houses and new red brick buildings. Two workshops by the stream had waterwheels that hummed all day, which belonged to Felix's father, René Gaudan.

René's father, Felix's grandfather, had Berber blood, but this was not unusual in France at the time. The Gaudan family did not originate from the coastal Seine province but from the south of France, Provence, and was a "Huguenot" (French Protestant). In his youth, he had been shackled and served hard labor on a royal galley. After six years, the old Gaudan could no longer endure and applied to the priest for "conversion," which pleased the government and the king, though the king did not know him. For converted Huguenot nobles, the French king would continue to grant them new noble titles and fiefs, while for commoners, he would pardon their crimes and guarantee their freedom. The old Gaudan belonged to the latter. He learned the craft of fine woodworking and, when the industry in northern Rouen flourished, he moved north like a carp attracted by the scent of breadcrumbs, settling in Saint-Denis, southeast of Rouen.

Rouen, the capital of the coastal Seine province and the tax district of Normandy, was connected to Paris by the Seine River, through which large ships could pass, eventually entering the English Channel at the port of Saint-Denis.

Saint-Denis was the "gate" to the east of Rouen.

At the age of thirty-five, the old Gaudan received recognition from the Rouen carpenters' guild and married the nineteen-year-old daughter of the former guild master. He later succeeded the master and became a typical third-tier property owner in the province: he was not a noble, neither a sword-bearing noble, a robe-wearing noble, a rural noble, nor a court noble; he was not a clergyman, neither a high-ranking bishop nor a village priest. He was just a wealthy master carpenter, and his wife came from a similar background.

When the old Gaudan retired, he owned his own woodworking workshop and a group of apprentices, leaving his son René a fortune of fifty thousand livres and a pension in Saint-Denis, which provided him with an annual income of two thousand livres. He vowed to live longer than any other pensioner, as the pension system stipulated that when a member died, his share would be distributed among the living members, so the longer one lived, the more benefits one received.

In the end, when the old Gaudan died, his pension had reached five thousand livres.

During René Gaudan's generation, he directly recognized John Holk, a major industrialist in Rouen, as his patron and began investing in farmland in Saint-Denis. His assets now amounted to three hundred thousand livres, and no one doubted that the Gaudan family was the wealthiest in the town.

The current heir of the Gaudan family was undoubtedly René's youngest and most beloved son, Felix.

Additionally, Felix's younger sister, known as the "Princess of Abyssinia" due to her brown skin, which she inherited from her grandfather and father, similar to her brother Felix, was the manager of the household affairs and had a dowry of fifty thousand livres.

"Was it really because of epilepsy that Felix had an episode while walking with his sister and fell into the garden pond?" The new Felix, staring at the beautiful sunset and looking at the lines and blood on his living palm, still found it hard to believe:

He had actually come to late 18th-century France!