Chapter 81: Smoke from the Kitchen Part 5
Darkness fell quickly. In the kitchen, soup was simmering. A red charcoal fire on the white clay stove gurgled, as if someone were chanting sutras.
The elevator rumbled up outside, and from time to time, the sound of the doorbell rang. As the door opened, the light flicked on. Zhenzhen came in, and she rushed to the phone at the end of the corridor. In a few words, she called the Xue Mansion and asked someone to pick her up later at Fukaisen Road.
After hanging up the phone, she crossed her arms and looked Chu Wang up and down three times, like interrogating a criminal: "Leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist."
"What do you want to confess?" She flicked on the corridor light. "Where's Mr. Xie?"
"I happened to run into Young Master Lin downstairs and told him I had something important to ask him. The two of them were acting so secretive, leaving me all alone back home," Zhenzhen complained briefly, still not forgetting the main topic. "Tell me, what's going on between you and Young Master Xie?"
She smiled and said, "My aunt entrusted me to him."
"Mrs. Ge is trying to play matchmaker?" Zhenzhen stroked her chin. "I just interrogated Xie Zeyi, and he said you clearly rejected him, so now he's pursuing you unilaterally..."
"You listen to his nonsense. What have I done to deserve this?"
"You? You're a dullard."
"Yes, Miss Xue, please forgive me."
"Miya said that it's rare for Mrs. Ge's matchmaking to fail. You're a blockhead, aren't you? Are you still hoping that the great scholar, full of knowledge and scholarship, will come back to marry you?"
She looked up and thought for a moment, then asked seriously, "Zhenzhen, what do you like about Ye Wenyu?"
"He..." Zhenzhen thought seriously for a long time, "He is very good, I must have him."
"Um."
"Um what?"
"I don't need anyone. I don't expect anyone to be waiting for me, nor do I expect anyone to need me." If she was able to make a living in Shanghai, she wouldn't need to bother Xie Zeyi.
Zhenzhen stared at her for a long moment, then burst out laughing. "You know what I'm laughing at? I saw a tabloid a few days ago that said everyone is born incomplete and is always looking for their other half. You must have been created wrong, and were born whole."
“No one is born complete.”
"So you're forcing yourself to ignore your own imperfections."
"It's not neglect, it's habit."
"Forget it. I don't want to bother with you. Just be happy." After a pause, Zhenzhen asked again, "Is Lin Zitong here to beg for mercy?"
She shook her head. "He said something that made me think deeply."
"Your father has always favored Yun Yan. Even I could see it. Later, when I heard about your marriage, I thought he actually loved you, but his upbringing was just too strict." Zhen Zhen said this, then suddenly said angrily, "He's wronged you this time. How can he treat you like his daughter?"
"My father..." She recalled the brief commentary in the history books, and a sardonic smile played on her lips. Just wait, he'll be in trouble.
"how?"
"It's okay." She blinked. "Stop talking about me and talk about yourself. How was the exam?"
"Miss Xue, I'm incredibly talented, how could I possibly fail to graduate?" Then she added bitterly, "Ye Wenyu keeps failing exams. We agreed to go back to Shanghai together, but now he's canceled a boat ticket. How could this guy not follow my lead at all? I'm so pissed."
She laughed, "You're not his father or mother! Only if he marries her can you say he 'takes after his wife'."
"Don't mention his parents; they're so annoying." Zhenzhen walked out of the corridor and sank heavily into a rattan chair. "His parents urged him to come to Shanghai. They gave him an ultimatum, saying that if he didn't come by the end of the month, they would sign the marriage certificate for him. This is the age of free love. Who still wants to decide their son's marriage based on the will of parents and matchmakers?"
"So arbitrary?"
"I even suspected he failed several of his courses deliberately to avoid his parents, so he could use it as an excuse to stay in Hong Kong."
"Who would use their future as an excuse?"
"That's just the way he is," Zhenzhen pouted angrily, a hint of pride still lingering on her face. "And yet there are still people who like him so much."
"Who is it?" she asked with a smile.
"That Miss Chen. If I hadn't known she'd found out about me, I wouldn't have rushed back to Shanghai." Seeing Chu Wang's expression, she continued, "She also didn't want her family to know he had a girlfriend, otherwise her parents would definitely not agree. So she secretly asked people to find out about me, and she found out about me. She's quite resourceful. She wants me to give up? Who the hell do you think I am, Xue Zhenzhen? No way."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Want to solve it privately? Isn't that perfect?" Zhenzhen raised her eyebrows, as if she was sure of it. Then she smiled again and took Chu Wang's arm with a flattering face. "Xue Zhenzhen would like to ask Miss San for a favor, okay?"
"If you have something to say, just say it. Don't be so coquettish."
Zhenzhen blinked hard, "Even next Saturday morning, Ye Wenyu will come to Shanghai. Before he comes, Miss Shen asked me to end things with her."
"So? After we're done, I'll be the witness at your wedding?"
"Next Friday night, 'Three Rebellious Women' at the Hongkou Cinema."
"You two are just watching a show, why are you looking for me to be a light bulb?"
"She's with a few of her friends, and I'm with my friends. After the show, we're going to the Lujue Ballroom to see who's afraid to go."
Chu Wang chuckled, "Why is it like a gang gathering for a literary duel? First they compete in momentum and lineup, then they chop off their arms and legs, then gouge their own eyes, and finally jump into a wok of oil. Whoever doesn't have the guts to play to the end loses?"
"Have you heard enough stories about old Tianjin? Just tell me whether you want to go or not!"
She yawned. "I'll think about it."
"Are you going or not—"
Zhenzhen came to tickle her, and the two rolled on the sofa and started to quarrel. Coincidentally, the phone rang at the end of the corridor. It turned out that the Xue family's driver came downstairs and rescued her.
"I will definitely come." Zhenzhen said this solemnly, pushed the door open and got on the elevator in three or two steps.
She opened the bedroom window and looked out: all she could see was the Xue family's car, slicing a path of light through the long, narrow alley. Xie Zeyi and Lin Zitong were long gone, and neither of them had returned. An hour later, someone called and told her to eat first. Mr. Xie had something to do, so they told her to lock the doors and windows, go to bed early, and not wait any longer.
——
After Zhenzhen and Lin Zitong arrived that day, Xie Zeyi suddenly became much busier. She didn't see him back the entire weekend, but every time it was mealtime, a Cantonese woman would bring her food.
The Cantonese dishes my mother cooked were all delicious, but to her, every meal was like a prison visit meal.
Fortunately, the situation changed by Monday morning.
The coffee machine wouldn't produce coffee, only water. It also kept making that creepy, cassette-like sound. She seriously suspected she'd broken it. She'd even spilled Devonshire all over the table. She hurriedly drank her Cantonese grandma's ham porridge and took the elevator downstairs. Although she breathed a sigh of relief, her heart still clung to her chest.
The car was a familiar one, but the person in the driver's seat was not Xie Zeyi, but a British lieutenant with brown hair, brown eyes and a small face.
"Hi. Xie is busy with a promotion lately, and asked me to pick up a cute oriental girl for him."
Lately in Shanghai, "foreigners" have been demonized. Suddenly, a foreigner offered to drive her, which felt a bit magical. But the black car and British face also gave her a sense of familiarity, like taking a taxi in London, which was at least a little comforting.
"Linzy," British etiquette doesn't allow for self-introductions, but she tried not to break Chinese etiquette. Unable to resist her curiosity, she asked, "How much did Xie give you?"
The lieutenant's answer sounded like a knockoff of Xie Zeyi. He'd probably gotten so used to hanging around with him that even his English accent had become ingrained in him: "Always willing to serve a lady, especially one as lovely as you. Just call me Bian Jieming."
“…”
"Sounds like a Jewish name, doesn't it?"
“Sounds like an American name.”
"Oh, please don't say that! Their English is so poor, I will be angry if you say that." The little brother started to act coquettishly, and he seemed a little angry for some reason.
"What about the Jews?" She really wanted to see how Europeans viewed the Jews before World War II.
"Greedy businessman," he racked his brains for a long time but couldn't come up with another word. He said dejectedly, "But it doesn't conflict with our interests much. Americans speak English just like us, and they always throw our people around. I hate Americans even more."
"..."Actually, I'm just angry that they won the Civil War and are so petty.
When it came to finding conversation, Captain Bian Jieming was clearly no match for his superior. They forced a few awkward words, feeling awkward and struggling to find more topics. She, on the other hand, just wanted to take a nap in the car, but could only awkwardly but politely force a conversation.
After experiencing the Guangdong mother and Lieutenant Bian Jieming, on the way from the building below the cross-border road construction to the laboratory, she kept feeling that a few people with strange purposes would suddenly jump out, such as lunch deliverymen or energy supply personnel, and say to her: "Xie Zeyi asked me to take care of you. Surprised?"
To some extent, Xie Zeyi can still fight one against five, and he is a rare talent.
She arrived fifteen minutes early. As she entered the lab, she saw the same group of researchers who had mocked Bohr on the stairs that day chatting with a few mathematicians. As she smiled and said good morning to everyone, the group of researchers suddenly turned and looked at her as she entered, their expressions extremely unfriendly, their heads lowered as they whispered to each other.
When she heard a few insulting words about nationality, she immediately walked over and asked bluntly, "Why don't you say it to my face?"
Several people were furious, but they uttered three words without fear: "Your country has nothing but opium, syphilis and defeated troops."
The man who had spoken was an Austrian. She retorted in German: "Then what attracted you? Was it the opium? Syphilis? Or the defeated army?"
The man glared at her and slammed an English Shanghai newspaper on the table in front of her.
She picked it up and saw the words written on it:
Following the British Embassy in China's request on February 3 to establish an independently controlled long-wave receiving and transmitting radio station in Shanghai and to possibly increase the number of British police officers in the concession by 3,000, Japan also applied to establish an independent long-wave radio station in Shanghai and to dispatch a joint fleet in Shanghai.
There is no cause and effect.
After reading the newspaper several times, she suddenly felt confused.
Oppenheimer slammed the soundproof door shut, strode over, snatched the newspaper from her hand, and unceremoniously thrust it into the Austrian's shirt collar. With a jerk, he pulled him up, clothes and all. "You're capable of building a uranium detector yourself, but do you still need to build a high-level long-wave radio station and ask the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry for help? Hmm? Tell me."
The man was so angry that his face turned red. The two people behind him wanted to push Oppenheimer away, but Fermi stopped them with both hands.
The Austrians roared, "Yes! We are incompetent, but at least it's better than this country having no future—"
"If you don't have the ability, then what are you doing here?"
"So what are you capable of? You have the best resources, but what have you accomplished?"
…
The Austrian German spoken in her left ear and the standard German spoken in her right ear gave her a splitting headache.
"Stop arguing." She tried to pull Oppenheimer away, but he pushed her away and slammed her against the desk. Without bothering to rub her wound, she tried to pull his hand that was clutching the Austrian's collar, but was met with a flying punch from nowhere.
The lab was in chaos. She simply climbed onto a test bench, holding a hand-cranked computer in both hands and raised it above her head: "This is my last warning to you. If you make any more noise, I'm going to throw the computer."
She had no intention of actually throwing them. She knew these two computers were hard-earned, and she felt more distressed than anyone else. She also understood better than anyone else: the safety and harmony of everyone present far outweighed these computers.
But the crowd ignored her and started fighting in a chaotic mess. Suddenly, a shoe flew out from nowhere and hit her right on the calf.
She was thrown forward without any defense, fell off the desk, and the computer slipped out of her hands.
At the critical moment when the man and the machine were falling freely together, and she fell before the computer, everyone ran towards the computer without hesitation and finally protected it with a selfless attitude.
Lin Zhi, abandoned by natural selection, undoubtedly fell flat on her face. Before landing, she stared at the computer with wide eyes. When she saw someone reach out and hold it, she breathed a sigh of relief, which finally led to her head hitting the edge of the table hard.
Her forehead immediately broke and turned red. Rubbing her waist and arms, she managed to stand up. The stunned people in the room finally came to their senses and rushed over to ask her questions, such as "Does it hurt?", "Want to go to the hospital?", "Want to get a bandage?"
The entire lab went from the first state of chaos to the second. She clutched her forehead and yelled, barely managing to quiet the lab. Then, grabbing the Austrian's wrist and pulling him closer, she pointed at his quartz watch and asked, "Any complaints? I'll give you three minutes to form your words. Hurry, before Bohr arrives—"
Injured and sick people always have some special privileges.
Team G was already brimming with resentment, with nowhere to vent it. After a brawl between the men, the near loss of precious lab equipment, and the injury of a female colleague, he finally erupted: "Last weekend, someone was conducting a detonation experiment in the playground, and it got out. So we want to find a stable uranium source as soon as possible and build a processing and purification plant nearby. Then we can move our entire lab to a more secluded location!" He looked up at everyone in Team I with red eyes: "Then you can detonate any way you want, without any restrictions—"
After hearing this, everyone in Group i's eyes lit up like a group of hungry wolves seeing their prey right in front of them.
Not long after he finished speaking, someone at the door started clapping.
Looking back, Bohr had opened the door and came in without anyone noticing, and closed the door silently. He was very gentlemanly and did not disturb anyone present. He leaned against the soundproof door and listened quietly.
He stood in the shadows, his expression unremarkable. His voice was incredibly calm: "Your speech was brilliant."
Everyone shuddered.
He looked at Chu Wang again: "Bohr sometimes likes to arrive five minutes early. It seems that your probability theory is not very good."
She covered her head and looked at him, a chill running down to the soles of her feet.
He added, "Oppenheimer and Fermi, for leading a brawl, will have half of their wages docked this month. For the rest of Group I, forty dollars will be docked."
Fermi said nothing. Oppenheimer calculated silently for a moment and said, "My rent is $110 a month. If I deduct half of that, what will I eat next month?"
"Talk back, Team Leader, and I'll deduct another ten yuan. I suggest you move to Zhabei next month. You can save ninety yuan on food and drinks."
Everyone laughed, but Chu Wang felt a tightness in his chest.
"Linzy, you're suspected of damaging valuable experimental equipment and attempting to inquire about the progress of Group G's experiment. Your salary will be docked this month. You may have to move to Zhabei with Oppenheimer, so he can keep you company."
Don't worry, she has a very rich British boyfriend."
She turned and glared at him.
Bohr added, "Group G, for gathering together to provoke Group I, will have fifty dollars deducted from their wages."
The members of Group G complained, "You're not our team leader, so you have no right to interfere with us." Bohr smiled and nodded, "I'll tell your team leader. But I'm very expensive, so I'll deduct another ten yuan from each person for the telling-off fee."
Group G stopped its activities and scattered like birds and beasts.
After everyone in Group G had left, Bohr emerged from a dark corner, staring intently at Fermi. With immense pressure, he approached him, his nose almost touching his, uttering syllable after syllable: "I want you to tell me what you did down there last weekend?"
"Oh, I wanted to report this to you this morning, but unfortunately the Danes don't work on weekends." Fermi also smiled and showed no sign of weakness. "I tried to modify the detonation method of ordinary explosives. I think it's feasible."
"Draw it for me."
He quickly walked to the blackboard and drew a diagram of a normal explosive: the ignition source inside, the explosive body outside. He did a simple force calculation and said, "Normal diagram."
He then came up with an idea: placing the explosive in the middle and drawing a circle of explosives around the outside. Pointing to the middle, he said, "If what we need is an instantaneous increase in density, then detonating the outside first will achieve that."
Chu Wang frowned slightly. If this method were prioritized, it would require a theory: that the sun emits neutrons to the Earth's surface, and that neutrons are ubiquitous on the surface. This would lengthen the time between theory and experiment. She shook her head. "I don't think we should abandon the gun model just yet."
"There must be enough neutrons on the surface to trigger fission." He gritted his teeth.
"Are you 100 percent sure, or is this just a hypothesis?" Bohr asked.
"If we can have a full-scale launch experiment, we will definitely be able to confirm it."
"So you're using all of our futures as your experiment?" Bohr sneered. "Did you succeed? Did you prove it?"
"It will be confirmed soon."
"Did you know that we only have one test explosion opportunity in Shanghai, and it must be conducted after the success of Group G's detection source?"
"I know. But if there hadn't been that first test explosion, how could it have prompted those incompetent and unmotivated G-Team to search faster?"
Bohr's chest heaved with anger: "Enrico Fermi."
He knew he was wrong and stood in step obediently.
"Starting tomorrow, you will temporarily leave the lab and serve as a monitor for two months. I think you need to understand the importance of a confidentiality agreement."
Chu Wang took a step forward and was about to speak when Oppenheimer grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him back.
"You will soon regret not taking my advice." Fermi smiled, turned around, strode open the door, and went downstairs to report to the second floor.
——
Because of the tragic news that Monday morning, the lab was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere for the entire week. She, however, faced another kind of pain: she could confirm the correctness of Fermi's theory and the feasibility of the experiment, but even after it was confirmed that the number of neutrons on Earth's surface was sufficient to trigger a chain reaction, there was still a certain probability that implosion-type atomic and hydrogen bombs would not explode.
So everything had to proceed step by step. She couldn't afford the risk of not exploding.
While everyone in the lab was under immense pressure, both mentally and emotionally, the situation outside was deteriorating. Shanghai newspapers were blaring reports that the Nanjing government was on the verge of approving Japan's request to establish a long-wave radio station and deploy a joint fleet.
Nanjing could never get tough with Japan.
For the entire week, she was worried that the British people who were negotiating with Nanjing would break off relations with Nanjing and simply launch an attack, turning the whole of China into a second Hong Kong.
She was too insignificant, and her possibilities were too limited. In her previous life, her academic career had been smooth sailing, except for when she first went to the United States for graduate school, where her professor scolded her for months while she was writing her first paper. She had never felt so desperate before.
It's a deeper level of despair, a feeling like the sky is falling.
After last weekend's test explosion, many people besides Japan must have been eyeing the institute. They didn't have much time, and her country was still as stubborn as a rock, and it was impossible to imagine that water would wear away the stone.
There must be an opportunity.
It can make people explode and roar; it can make confused officials the target of public criticism and let them know that the opportunity is imminent.
Maybe she's a bit neurotic, but lately, when she walks down the street, she feels like countless eyes are watching her every move. Even when she's sleeping, it feels like there's a hole somewhere in the house, and someone's watching her through that hole, while she's bathing, eating, sleeping...anytime she lets her guard down.
She called the Municipal Council once, and was only told that Xie Zeyi had not returned from his business trip yet.
The one who goes in and out of Fuxing Road every day is still the Guangdong grandmother, and the one who picks her up and drops her off at the road construction site across the border is still the young lieutenant.
Xie Zeyi called her once, on the Thursday afternoon she called the Municipal Council. He was still calmly telling random jokes on the other end of the line. She attributed this to him being a mean-spirited prying about her life and said goodbye to him as quickly as possible.
Before hanging up, Xie Zeyi suddenly remembered to ask, "You called me? What was it about?"
She thought for a moment and said, "I have something to do tomorrow night and I'm going out with some friends."
"Coming home late?"
"Probably not. So I'd like to ask, could that lieutenant come and pick me up later?"
"He should be fine before ten o'clock. If it's any later, I can arrive in Shanghai as early as four in the morning."
"Ten o'clock," she said, clutching the receiver. "You'll definitely be back before ten o'clock."
He chuckled on the other end and said, "Then I'll call and tell him."
"Thank you, goodbye."
"Have fun with friends." (m.)138TXT
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
