Chapter 64 0□□ Patient Eight

After all the papers on neutrons were completed, students in Hong Kong also welcomed the spring break. Chu Wang was rarely idle at home. He was so bored that he was often caught by Mrs. Ge to watch her play mahjong.

Over time, Chu Wang discovered that letting his aunt play was secondary, and the main thing was to let her learn this "craft".

"If you knew how to have fun, I wouldn't have to call and ask someone to accompany me, and then owe someone a favor for nothing." Mrs. Ge complained.

Mrs. Ge often said, "Dealing with the Chinese is bound to involve some social etiquette, and no one is immune to it. During the Opium War, the British envoy refused to show favor to the Chinese emperor, and didn't the war break out? Even if you lose the war, doing business on Chinese territory, even if you're 'forced' to do business, still involves dealing with people. In China, social relationships are a world of their own."

Miya deeply agreed with Mrs. Ge's perspective. "Mrs. Shang deals with the wives of officials to save face, so the wives can go back and persuade them to impress the gentlemen. But aren't the gentlemen the ones who truly call the shots? Mrs. Ge, bypassing the wives directly to deal with the gentlemen, is even more difficult. The ladies look down on her behind her back, but when they meet her, don't they all rush to flatter her? Ultimately, they're just afraid of her. Look at Mrs. Qiao, isn't she a prime example?"

Even with their words and deeds, Chu Wang still didn't learn how to play cards. This was because the people who came to Ge Mansion to play cards every day were all different, and each had their own interesting ways to play.

There was a graceful woman with a pale, wrinkled face, over fifty, who only allowed herself to be called "Mrs. Chen." Mrs. Chen loved to laugh while playing cards, and she insisted on making her laugh as clear and melodious as a young girl's silver bell. However, the bell was a little rusty, and her giggles were resounding, more like the chuck of a record player. Her most common remark when she lost at cards was, "Mrs. Ge, why are you inviting so many young ladies? There are no men. Don't invite me next time." But the next time, she would show up uninvited, giggling, holding the young lady's hand and saying, "Rust red is not the fashion this season, but hometown red, ha ha ha."

There was also a young woman, both in appearance and voice, whose speech was remarkably mature. All we knew was that she had married a wealthy Macau businessman named Lou, a half-dead old man, who therefore held a higher generational status than anyone else present. She had been expecting him to die since she married him at fifteen, and now, ten years later, the old man was already ninety years old and still alive, swimming in the sea in the middle of winter. Young Lady Chen, hoping to curry favor with Concubine Lou, specifically sought help from Mrs. Ge, often holding Mrs. Lou's hand and calling her "Aunt" or "Cousin."

I have so much time to watch these people flirting with each other at the card table all day long that I don’t have time to learn how to play cards.

Later, Mrs. Chen became close to Concubine Lou, and fewer people came. The people at the card table changed one after another.

For a while, Chu Wang Lao saw Miya and Mr. Jiang. Mr. Jiang was in his early forties, with a slightly bald spot on each side of his head, but his features were otherwise delicate. Now that he was older and more experienced, he had a certain air of middle-aged handsomeness. The only drawback was that Mr. Jiang was short: when Miya wasn't wearing high heels, Mr. Jiang was only slightly taller than her by the tip of his head. But she loved high heels, so when they were on, Mr. Jiang only reached to the height of her earlobes, making her look even smaller.

But Mr. Jiang wasn't annoyed. He spoke softly and was gentle and refined. Even if there were many attractive women present, his peach blossom eyes, full of affection, would always be fixed on Miya.

Mrs. Ge privately told Chu Wang, "Don't think Mr. Jiang looks weak and vulnerable. When he was younger, he fought in Macau and saw countless blood on his hands. Now that things have turned around, he's retired from the battlefield and is polite and smiling to everyone he meets. But his violent and cruel image in his youth is too deeply rooted in people's minds. No one who knew him can forget it. Not everyone can coax him into opening up to you. Although I helped to arrange this marriage, it was also because Miya was able to control him herself."

Chu Wang nodded, understanding this clearly.

Mi Qiu told her story: once, a young woman insisted on talking to Mr. Jiang for a few more words, while Miya sat in a corner, dipping a slice of bread toasted by Mr. Henry into honey. In the short time they were talking, several young, handsome gentlemen approached Miya. Mr. Jiang's impatience was evident on his face. He ended the conversation with a few words and hurried through the crowd. His eyes looked murderous, and he exuded a murderous aura. No one dared to speak to him. This bloodthirsty Mr. Jiang approached Miya. Just as he was about to speak, Miya smiled, put the honey-soaked bread slice into his mouth, and asked, "Is it delicious?" Then, she licked her honey-soaked fingertips and said, "Very delicious." And just like that, Mr. Jiang's anger vanished in an instant. He simply took out a handkerchief and wiped the honey from the corner of her mouth, saying softly, "Mm, it smells very good."

Mi Qiu said that if she were a man, she would have been firmly in Miya's grasp. Everyone in the entertainment industry has some beauty. Putting beauty aside, the rest of the story is a matter of ability.

Speaking of abilities, Mrs. Ge has also been talking about Zhenzhen a lot recently.

"In my back garden, from "Six Records of a Floating Life" to "The Peony Pavilion", it's not yet your turn to play Chunxiang." Mrs. Ge said this to Miya.

Miya stuck out her tongue: "How would I know that the person surnamed Ye is really Liu Mengmei."

Mrs. Ge was so angry that she rubbed her temples. "If this doesn't work out, they'll always blame me, and you'll just keep causing me trouble! I just hope they can pull off this drama and get married!"

Mrs. Ge was angry with Miya for a while, then turned around and looked at Chu Wang who was curled up on the sofa.

The first remittance from France had recently arrived, and she had chipped in to make up the difference. After handing her the remittance slip, she spent the entire afternoon staring at the long string of numbers, grinning foolishly.

The other two maids who frequented the Ge Mansion each had their own promising future, but the one she most wanted to cultivate seemed to be missing a thread in her brain. Apart from solving equations, she only knew how to stare at money and have fun.

But then Mrs. Ge thought again: no matter how many brains are missing, a brain that can count money is a good brain. Isn't that what the old man taught her?

She was a rather interesting person. She loved money, the exact opposite of Lin Yu. Lin Yu was a rather aloof man, "disregarding money as dirt." Even at one point, when the Lin family was truly in dire straits, he maintained a nonchalant attitude towards money. Consequently, she struck Lin Yu as "vulgar." Ironically, Lin Yu simply couldn't live without her money. This deeply eroded his pride as a scholar and a man: he looked down on her, yet felt compelled to grovel before her. Even later, when the Lin family's fortunes gradually improved, he could no longer hold his head up in the face of his wife—the mere sight of her reminded him of his own eternal destitution and embarrassment.

Thinking of this, Mrs. Ge looked at the silly little man on the sofa and liked him more and more.

——

The acceptance letter for "The Existence of Neutrons" was quickly mailed to Xu Shaoqian.

Along with the offer letter, there were also reporters from two newspapers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

Xu Shaoqian pushed Liang Zhang out to block the reporters' sugar-coated bullets, while he himself was happily discussing the new name of the institute with Chu Wang next door.

After the interview, Liang Zhang came out and turned into the door of the next office. He saw a man and a child arguing about whether the institute should be called the "Space-Time Curvature" Laboratory or the "Atomic Level Laboratory".

"No space-time curvature!" Chu Wang blushed. Those who knew knew that this was the space-time curvature discussed in general relativity, while those who didn't thought it was some supernatural power laboratory. How childish!

"But you should know that in addition to studying extremely small sizes and atomic levels, we also include gravity and the large-scale structure of the universe," Xu Shaoqian said with a smile.

Liang Zhang touched his forehead and coughed twice, successfully attracting the attention of the two people.

Xu Shaoqian continued to smile and asked, "How was the interview?"

Liang Zhang looked annoyed: "How did they know we were hired?!"

Xu Shaoqian said, "I've said it before, all our correspondence is in the hands of others, there's no privacy at all. Do you believe it now?"

"How heartless! Is there anything else they wouldn't dare to do?"

Xu Shaoqian comforted him, "The only thing to be thankful for right now is that the group of people involved don't dabble in the field of nuclear energy, so there's no need to worry about copyright for the time being."

Liang Zhang punched the wall, causing dust to fall from the fan, choking Chu Wang and making him cough twice.

Xu Shaoqian said, "That's good. They'll spread the word and bring us some prestige. Admittedly, this is exactly what we need right now. Let's wait and see how much funding the Governor will apply for for the new laboratory, and what kind of people that funding will attract."

The institute was finally named the most simple: Institute of Nuclear Physics, University of Hong Kong.

Chu Wang thought it was great.

From that day on, she paid close attention to the two newspapers. A week later, a Hong Kong newspaper published a news report about the Sagittarius meteor shower that could be observed from Victoria Peak this weekend. This news was passed on by word of mouth among many young boys and girls who were full of beautiful fantasies about astronomical phenomena.

So one day, Chu Wang was in math class when someone suddenly patted her and passed her a note. It read:

Ms. Chu Wang, may I have the honor of inviting you to watch the Sagittarius meteor shower on Sunday night from the Peak?

Chu Wang took a look, circled the meteor shower, and wrote below with a pen: The astronomical phenomenon of the radiation point where fragments of Sagittarius celestial bodies are projected into the atmosphere at high speed and are destroyed in the atmosphere - this is the final exam point.

Also: Some celestial fragments can impact the Earth's surface, known as meteorites. No meteor shower is immune to the possibility of meteorites not being destroyed in the atmosphere. I'm a bit timid, so I won't be going. Please be careful.

After the note was passed back, every time he saw the boy who passed the note to him that week, his mouth would twitch for a moment, and then he would walk away silently.

Chu Wang silently grumbled inwardly, "Classmate, I'm genuinely doing this for your own good." Putting aside the fact that this might be a topic for the physics exam at the end of the semester, I can't guarantee that while we're watching the falling celestial debris, I won't say something like, "Next year, someone named Edwin Hubble will observe that distant galaxies are rapidly moving away from us—this is the beginning of the theory of cosmic expansion, and this event began about 20 billion years ago, when the universe was a compact object with infinite density. Then came the Big Bang, which gave rise to the concept of time, and 20 billion years later, we came into being."

Or: In Sagittarius, which launches meteor showers, if we go there, we can observe the center of the Milky Way.

Therefore, when Liang Zhang and Xu Shaoqian suggested going to the top of Victoria Peak for the weekend, she agreed without hesitation. This was because while observing celestial bodies, one of them might suddenly remember the existence of neutron stars or dense stars.

She is adding fuel to the fire, so why not?