Chapter 343 Young People in Paris
Zhang Xingjiu answered without hesitation, "When I boarded the ship, many elders and friends came to see me off. They told me, 'This trip to the West, I know China's self-strengthening plan, and I have nothing else to ask for; I carry the future of the country and learn all the science of the foreigners; I travel 70,000 miles and say goodbye to my motherland, and I have no regrets!' So at that time, I only hoped to return home as soon as possible after completing my studies and serve my motherland!"
The young men nodded after hearing this, and they felt the same way at the moment.
Zhang Xingjiu asked the young man's name again, pretended to frown and think for a moment, then asked a few more questions, and then he suddenly realized, "No wonder your accent has some traces of Shaoxing dialect, it turns out that you are a descendant of the Shaoxing Zhou family! Speaking of which, we are not strangers! I have an old friend in Shaoxing named Wang Ziyu, and his wife is the daughter of your Zhou family's Diankuigong."
The young man quickly continued, "Mr. Dian Kui is my great-great-grandfather. According to the seniority, Mr. Wang should be my uncle."
His grandfather's generation was ranked with the character "Kui", which was used at the end of the character just like the brothers Li Hongzhang and Li Hanzhang. Wang Ziyu's father-in-law was Zhou Diankui, and his grandfather was called Zhou Qikui. They were indeed cousins with very close blood ties.
"That's it. Since you have a heart to serve your country and you are also my friend and junior, you don't have to be so polite in front of me. When you arrive in Paris, come here if you need help." Zhang Xingjiu also left him the address of the house near the Sorbonne University.
With these enthusiastic young people as travel companions, Zhang Xingjiu had a very fulfilling trip to France. He taught them French on the deck every day, told them about the customs and culture of France, and chatted with them to learn about their origins.
During the chat, Zhang Xingjiu also learned that the young man had previously written a novel called "Heroines" and used Feifei as his pen name, so he began to call him by this name.
Feifei's cabin was in the large cabin on the bottom floor of the cruise ship, so the conditions were naturally very difficult. Zhang Xingjiu had invited him to live in the first-class cabin, but Feifei declined. He said that this trip to France was destined to be hard, so from now on he had to train his ability to endure hardship, so as to avoid taking time to adapt after arriving in France.
Zhang Xingjiu had no choice but to give up and used his first-class cabin as a lounge for young people. Anyone who was not feeling well would go to the first-class cabin to rest for a few days and recuperate. The young people also obeyed the rules and would give their chance to others as long as they felt a little better.
The conditions in the large cabin were very difficult. Most people would become dusty and dirty after living there for a few days. However, Feifei always maintained a good demeanor and had no health problems. After asking, I learned that when he was studying at Nankai Academy, he had learned martial arts from the master Han Muxia.
He smiled and said, "Thanks to this experience, I was able to keep my body in good shape. I was imprisoned in Tianjin for six months this year, but I managed to hold on and didn't damage my health."
Just because of this incident, he was expelled from Nankai, so he left behind the joke "I love Nankai, but Nankai doesn't love me". However, given his personality, he probably didn't say this himself. He was so tolerant and definitely wouldn't be so stingy.
Moreover, his study abroad this time was also thanks to the help of Yan Xiu, the founder of Nankai University. He felt sorry for losing such a talented disciple, so he invested 500 yuan to send Feifei to study abroad, hoping that he would achieve something in the future.
The five hundred yuan was well worth it. Feifei's achievements completely exceeded his imagination. It is no exaggeration to say that she has created one of the greatest alumni in Nankai's history.
He learned very quickly. Not only could he fully understand Professor Zhang Xingjiu's courses every day, he also had enough energy to tutor other students. After class, he could ask Zhang Xingjiu for extra lessons. He felt that learning French was not enough, so he also learned English and German from Zhang Xingjiu.
When Zhang Xingjiu asked the reason, he said that he planned to go to school in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. However, after arriving in the UK and investigating the local workers' movement, Feifei found that tuition and living expenses in the UK were much more expensive than in France, so he returned to France and then went to Germany.
It takes 36 days for the Bordeaux to travel from Shanghai to Marseille. By the time it arrives, it is very close to the Nobel Prize Ceremony. Zhang Xingjiu can only regretfully separate from Feifei and others temporarily, take a fast train from south to north across the European continent, and then board a ship from a German port to Stockholm.
Then Zhang Xingjiu repeated the scene in 1901 and attended the grand ceremony with Wu Lien-teh. He went on stage twice to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry respectively. Wu Lien-teh also received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The total value of the two bonuses is more than 200,000 Swedish kronor. Unfortunately, due to changes in exchange rates over the years, the actual value of the two bonuses combined is not as good as the earliest one.
In the next few decades, the actual value of the Nobel Prize continued to decline, reaching its lowest point in 1945, when it was only one-third of that in 1901 in constant prices. Then it began to rise slowly, and only returned to its original level in 1991; it fell again from 2012 to 2016, and recovered again in 2020.
This time, Zhang Xingjiu did not need to participate in commercial promotion activities. After receiving the award, he and Wu Lien-teh temporarily parted ways. Wu Lien-teh received an invitation from Cambridge and was preparing to return to his alma mater to give a speech. Zhang Xingjiu was preparing to return to Paris. The two agreed to meet in Paris and then return to Shanghai together.
A few days later, Zhang Xingjiu got off the train at the Paris train station. Old acquaintances such as Lang Zhiwan and Madame Curie, as well as many young Chinese students studying in France who had heard the news, came to the train station to greet him.
After a short break, Zhang Xingjiu gave a speech at the Sorbonne University, talking about his academic achievements for which he won the award. His speech was basically the same as the one he gave in 1901. The only difference was that this time there were obviously many more Chinese faces in the audience.
His child Zhang Guoqiang was also among them. He looked darker and thinner, but in very good spirits. This trip to France made him feel like he had been reborn.
After two days of busy work and finishing his exchanges with French academics, Zhang Xingjiu returned to his former residence and gathered with those young people who had studied in France to listen to them talk about their life in France.
Zhang Guoqiang also squeezed into the crowd and talked about his experience after coming to Paris. He worked in Li Shizeng's tofu company for a while, saved some tuition fees, applied to a university, and is now studying while working.
Because he changed his name, no one noticed the relationship between him and Zhang Xingjiu.
Other young Chinese students studying in France also spoke actively. Zhang Xingjiu listened carefully to the stories of these young Chinese in Paris. Although they were all in Paris, their lives were very different.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
