Chapter 131: The Gathering and Separation of Five Five

At around four o'clock the next day, Suixi came upstairs with an urgent telegram.

She opened it and took a look at it, and was told to go across the border immediately to build a road and count the information. Tonight, the first military plane would take the information to build the first engineering base.

After a quick wash, she went downstairs. Most of her dowry had already been delivered to the bank. Mrs. Ge was still sitting in the office, talking with her lawyer. When she saw her coming down, she simply asked, "When will you be back?"

She shook her head.

He added, "If it's after seven, I'll call the doctor and ask him to come back another day."

She nodded, put on her coat and went out. The Ge family's driver was already waiting outside.

Those who have left the institute one after another will be filled by corresponding scientists from the United States.

Almost all the members of Group i were present, because they all knew that the secrets they held were fatal to all of humanity, and no one dared to act rashly or easily give up the research progress made so far.

There's no need to organize data. Team i has had its own data classification system since its inception, and each person has their own personal safe. If anything goes wrong, it's easy to identify who's responsible.

American soldiers and British soldiers came up the stairs one by one to help everyone carry the documents downstairs. She ran with a small stack of unbound documents.

As she followed behind, someone came forward to get the information for her.

He was a mathematics doctor who had not been friendly to her before. She turned around and gave him a gentlemanly smile.

The man was a little embarrassed and hesitated for a long time before finally finding a topic: "Some people predict that this year's Nobel Prize may be awarded for the wave principle."

She tilted her head and smiled. "That's a shame. It means you still have a mediocre colleague dragging down the entire group's titles."

This person didn't know how to respond.

Auburn strode forward. "He probably just wanted to give you some wedding blessings, didn't he, John?"

She immediately smiled and said, "Thank you," before he could bless her.

Three people stood in a row in the middle of the lawn, watching as boxes of information were handed into the military aircraft on the field.

Chu Wang had a vague idea of ​​why they had been called in at night. Britain and the United States had worked together to relocate the core Japanese forces overnight to avoid any further complications. Therefore, they were transferring the information as quickly as possible to avoid the risk of foreign spies and informants.

Some conspiracy theorists have asked: "Will the Americans keep this information for themselves?"

Auburn put his hands on his hips and smiled narrowly, "Unless they eat all our brains for themselves."

Chu Wang laughed: "Then when will we reconcile with our information?"

"About four months." Bohr's voice came from a B-25. "Fermi and I will go there early so that day can come sooner."

Chu Wang smiled and said, "I hope my wedding will have gone smoothly by then."

Bohr also laughed. "Then we'll have to hold a simple wedding for you at Base E."

"I hope E-Base is completed as soon as possible, ideally next week. Then there'll be only one table at her wedding, and at most a case of light fruit wine. After drinking the wine and setting off two fireworks, we'll be able to send her and her officers to the shack." Orben curled his lips. "Because she didn't invite me to her wedding."

Everyone in Group i laughed together.

"We haven't even finished the wedding invitation yet." Chu Wang was embarrassed by him and touched his coat pocket. "Can I give you a verbal invitation now?"

Fermi leaned over from behind Bohr and tossed her a pen and a piece of paper. "Go copy down everyone's mailing addresses now. There's still time to send the wedding invitations to the mailbox. Hurry."

She bowed hurriedly to express her thanks, and ran around asking acquaintances and team members for mailbox addresses, and was very busy.

During this time, several female operators came to her and asked if they could attend the wedding. She immediately asked them to write down their addresses.

After the inventory was completed and before closing the hatch, Bohr suddenly said, "Fermi and I don't have this honor. Regardless, Base E will celebrate for you once again."

When she nodded in agreement, she suddenly felt particularly honored.

She let out a sigh and thought to herself: When I come back to see this wedding at the end of the century, I wonder how many Nobel Prizes it will have won, and celebrities from all over the world will come to attend the wedding of a useless person like me. I wonder how many children I can brag about it to in my old age.

When she heard the reports that the existence of the neutron would not win the Nobel Prize, she felt so relieved: at least she didn't have to worry about meeting de Broglie somewhere and feeling ashamed for the whole year.

At daybreak, when several military aircraft were taking off, the operator on the second floor tugged at her sleeve and told her that she had received a telegram for her.

When she reached the second floor, the French girl handed her the disassembled telegram and told her to read it before leaving.

She took the telegram pages in surprise.

There was a sentence written on the first page: "At 4:00 a.m. on the 26th, a 4:1 earthquake occurred in Fukui. Japanese scientists discovered that the reactor could not be effectively shut down. They predicted that a larger earthquake would occur within 20 years, causing panic." It was from Taipingshan Long Wave Radio.

She was moved and thought of the Manchurian Railway, which Japan had not given up despite its desperate struggle, and thought to herself, what a retribution.

The second page asked, "How long does it take for a thin rubber bag placed over a sika deer's head to kill it? Yours faithfully, Xu."

After reading it, the operator quickly took the two pages from her. Seeing that she looked strange, he asked, "What's going on?"

She laughed and said, "I was scolded by the teacher."

The French girl caught sight of the second sentence while shredding it with a paper shredder and couldn't help but ask, "Why put a thin plastic bag over the deer's head? How cruel."

"Death by asphyxiation can stop breathing," she said.

She said this lightly, turned around and walked out of the white girl's surprised gaze, closed the door of the long-wave mailroom, and turned to leave.

The massive accumulation of carbon dioxide produced by mammals' respiration leads to their own suffocation and death.

Similarly, the radon released by the decay of radium accumulates in large quantities and absorbs neutrons, stopping the chain reaction.

This is suffocation.

Xu Shaoqian was so amazing, he could always see the big picture from the smallest details. When he received the news at four o'clock, he immediately thought of it within three hours and asked her, "What's the conclusion of your suffocation effect?"

The next thing she could think of was: "You have a knife that can cut through a thin plastic bag, but you still choose to watch it die?"

Is it cruel?

She had harbored this secret for nearly a year, always hoping someone would confront her morally. Even if someone could meticulously list her crimes, it would be better than the tormenting nights she'd endured for the past eight months, questioning herself with a story from a travelogue in England: As a child, she'd attacked someone, and after raising a tiger at home, her owner had shot and killed it before it could attack her. Was that wrong?

This problem is even more difficult to analyze than the grandmother's law.

But when Xu Shaoqian asked her in person, she was even more unable to answer.

——

When she got home at around ten o'clock, Mrs. Ge had already gone to bed. When Suixi saw her come back, she immediately called for a doctor.

She took off her coat and didn't even have time to change into her nightgown before she fell headfirst onto the bed and fell asleep.

From time to time, the doctor came over, and she would lazily stretch out her right hand from under the quilt to feel his pulse. The doctor asked her some common questions, such as how long her menstrual cycle lasted, whether she smoked, how much she weighed, etc., and then said nothing more.

She figured this man, who could understand a few pounds and easily handle the latest medical jargon, was probably a veteran gynecologist who had studied both Chinese medicine and Western medicine abroad. So she didn't bother asking him whether Mrs. Ge had asked him to help her get healthy and conceive, or to prescribe her a short-acting contraceptive pill for daily use. She was completely passive and uninterested throughout the entire process.

Probably the latter. Her experience came from a time when a former white roommate of hers asked Lin Zhi to accompany her to the hospital to get a prescription for short-acting oral contraceptives. The doctor reminded her, among other things, not to smoke, to exercise more, and that she might gain a little weight.

Later, the roommate was curious about why she'd never seen her take short-acting contraceptive pills. "Don't condoms bother you?" she asked Lin Zhi. "No, I don't have a boyfriend." The roommate was surprised to hear this and offered to give her a vibrator as a consolation, but she declined.

The medicine was delivered to her door the next day, and it seemed to make her sleepy; or perhaps because she didn't want to think about Xu Shaoqian's problem, she simply covered her head and went to sleep, lying on the bed, hiding like a turtle, for several days.

Mrs. Ge woke up after a busy period and came to her room with a headscarf wrapped around her.

"You're not in a good mood."

She poked half of her head out and said reluctantly, "I'm just a little sleepy."

Mrs. Ge didn't ask any more questions. She took out her dowry list and asked her to look through it from beginning to end.

"It's good enough if my aunt has seen it."

"You won't even bother with anything about your own wedding?"

"My aunt knows better than me."

Mrs. Ge was helpless. "I'm a daughter-in-law now, and I'll be a housewife in the future. If I don't know how to manage finances and chores, I won't know how to hold my head up no matter how much money I have."

She squinted her eyes and laughed.

After a while, Mrs. Ge said again, "Forget it. As long as I am alive, I believe that no one of those Eight-Nation Alliance will dare to bully you."

Chu Wang laughed out loud: "Are there really eight countries?"

"Originally, we were in need of a Japanese woman. Now that the residents of Hongkou are all returning home by boat, there must be someone willing to stay and enjoy the peace and prosperity of Hong Kong with this experienced lover. He remained silent for the sake of his son."

Chu Wang was quite interested in Sir Xie's romantic history. "He has eight concubines but no wife. Is it because no one gave birth to a son for him?"

Mrs. Ge didn't answer directly, "It's just right that you don't have a wife. If you go to the Xie family, who are you afraid of bullying you?"

Chu Wang smiled and said, "My aunt just said that the Eight-Nation Alliance didn't dare to touch me, and that's because you were here."

Mrs. Ge rolled her eyes at her and said, "Now it's even worse."

She had many doubts about Xie Zeyi today, so she turned over and sat up, "Aunt, why Xie Zeyi?"

"Having met Xie Hong, you know that thirty or fifty years from now, he will be just as handsome and graceful as his father is now. There's no doubt about that."

"Thirty or fifty years from now, I'll have to be very careful with those young girls out there," she joked, then asked, "Aunt, have you ever thought about getting married again?"

Mrs. Ge lowered her eyes and smiled, "Old Ge has been gone for many years. Thousands of men have come and gone, but among those who remain, the only one who is most knowledgeable and understanding is Xie Hong."

Chu Wang cocked his head and said, "Thank you, Sir. You are very interesting."

"Yes, it is very good, especially for women."

"Then why doesn't Auntie marry him? He hasn't had a wife for many years."

"Him?" Mrs. Ge snorted and laughed. "I don't want to be anyone's wife."

"How different is Lady Sir from Lady Ge?"

"The difference lies in whether or not there's a man standing in front of me when others address me," Mrs. Ge looked at her. "A woman who considers being someone else's wife her life's work is the most useless. In the end, she'll realize no man can be relied upon without money. But you're different. You have your own life's work. When you go out, I'm afraid others will have to call you 'Mr. Lin', or even add a title before it. Xie Zeyi will be the only one in the world to call you Mrs. Xie."

"That's great, it's a name that will be reserved for him alone." Chu Wang said with a smile, "Besides, I'm so timid that I'm afraid I won't be able to accomplish anything great."

"Still can't you make it? You've been in the spotlight for the past few months."

Chu Wang was puzzled.

Suixi smiled and handed over a few newspapers.

She opened one and saw the big headline: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics to three Chinese physicists, Tsuil., Leunl., who discovered the existence of the neutron, in recognition of their contributions to the study of the composition of atomic nuclei.

Her hand trembled as she flipped through another newspaper. It was all the same, with the names of her, Xu Lai, and Liang Zhang.

She threw the newspaper away and sank back onto the bed, pulling the quilt over her head. She felt so ashamed that she felt hot. She thought: This is over. How can I face de Broglie and Chadwick?

Mrs. Ge thought she was too excited to control herself, and she giggled with Suixi outside and said, "It's a good thing you didn't have the surname Xie at that time, otherwise the Xie family would have benefited from it."

Chu Wang couldn't even cry. He just wanted to travel back in time to two years ago so that he could use a pen to erase his name from the final draft.

Or perhaps he could have handed over the question that suggested the existence of the neutron to Xu Shaoqian to the twelve-year-old Xu Wenjun, allowing him to use this paper and his current age of fourteen to surpass thousands of Nobel Prize winners in Europe and the United States and let the world see what a Chinese teenager is.

But for a mere mortal like her, she felt no sense of accomplishment, only shame. She didn't even know how to return to Hong Kong and face Xu Shaoqian, who already knew she was a plagiarist.

Mrs. Ge continued, "You marrying in your position is a marriage, not a wedding, and certainly not something you can spill. The Xie residence is only about ten minutes away by car, so you can come back anytime and no one will dare to gossip about you."

She sighed, "But I left after four months." Luckily, I was gone after four months, hiding my identity and working as an engineer. When I came out a few years later, probably no one would have forgotten about me.

Mrs. Ge said, "Sixteen is too young. Her body hasn't fully developed yet. Countless young girls throughout history have failed to survive the ordeal of childbearing at sixteen or seventeen. It would be perfect to come back in a few years to have a child. By then, I'm sure your aunt won't be over fifty yet, and she'll still be able to take care of a kid running around."

It was indeed a short-term contraceptive, and it would also help her maintain her health for a few years. She couldn't help but admire Mrs. Ge for being so trendy and farsighted.

"Xie Hong is crazy about having a grandson. Now that you've become so successful, you're not even afraid of that anymore. You can have a child whenever you want."

Mrs. Ge, perhaps still haunted by the trauma of childbirth, kept nagging at her. She listened, consoling herself: in this era of moral decay and social decline, a woman in the Republic of China needed a bit of fame to earn a man's respect; otherwise, life would be exhausting.

Seeing that her face was no longer so tired, Mrs. Ge struck while the iron was hot: "Are you feeling refreshed? If so, let me read you the dowry first."

There were piles of large items, including cloisonné, David, lacquer carvings, jade bi, jade dragon, bronze wine vessel, dharani, and moon-holding vases; hanging scrolls, painting scrolls, bamboo and bird paintings, thatched cottage paintings... She listened with her eyes wide open and almost dozed off.

Mrs. Ge still didn't let her go. After reading this, she read out a bunch of real estate, most of which were in Shaoxing County.

"...your uncles weren't very capable. They inherited the Su family fortune but weren't good at managing it. Luckily, I was able to buy the remaining 30% of their ancestral assets from them. They own a few banks, four wineries, a tea plantation, a hundred acres of farmland, and four properties... At sixteen, no one is richer than you."

Chu Wang was so sleepy that he nodded his head and asked, "How much are these worth?"

Mrs. Ge quoted her an astronomical figure.

She still didn't understand what purchasing power meant, and asked, bewildered, "Hmm? Is it enough to buy Hong Kong from King George V?"

"It would be easy to buy a dozen avenues. What are you going to do with them?"

"Build a house."

Mrs. Ge was so amused by her that she burst into laughter: "When you are eighty years old, you will be leaning on a cane and collecting rent from the first to the thirtieth of every month without a break?"

Chu Wang also laughed, thinking about his ambition many years ago, which was just to earn enough money to buy a few ordinary apartments in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and become a landlady.

After drifting off to sleep, she had a dream in which she saw Xie Zeyi carrying her on his back as they walked along the country paths of Shaoxing. Buffaloes were plowing the fields, farmers were tilling the land, women were planting rice, and children were chasing and playing in the fields.

She lay on his back, pointing and gesturing, saying proudly: "This piece of land, that piece of land, that piece of land, all, all, all are ours! Are we rich or not?"

When she tilted her head, she suppressed her salivary glands, and in her dream, her saliva dripped onto Xie Zeyi's shirt. When she woke up, the velvet pillow smelled of saliva.