After taking a month's leave from his work, plus the Spring Festival holiday that followed, Chen Muwu suddenly had plenty of time.
After returning home, he told his elder brother that he was going to give lectures at Bei University. Chen Muqiao was very happy after hearing this.
"I support your decision. Being invited to give lectures at Beizhou University, the best university in China, shows that the academic world has slowly begun to open its doors to you. You must cherish this opportunity and prepare well.
"If you discover during this trip that lecturing is actually a pretty good career, our door at Nanyang University will be open for you at any time and we will always reserve a desk space for you."
It seems that Chen Muqiao still has great thoughts about inviting his third brother to teach in his school.
At the family dinner table in the evening, the old lady of the Chen family learned that her youngest son, who had left his hometown and studied in the north for four years, was now running away again. Her face was immediately full of displeasure.
After Chen Muwu patted his chest and promised that he would only go for half a month, and after repeated persuasion from his elder brother Chen Muqiao, the old lady reluctantly nodded.
The second brother Chen Muping was worthy of being the manager of the bank, and his attention was indeed focused on money. He privately told the third brother to find out clearly and not to be deceived. Where did Beida get such a large sum of money to pay his remuneration? .
Chen Muwu had no choice but to go back to his room and dig out Hu Shi's autographed letter and telegram. Chen Muping looked over it for a long time, still looking suspicious.
The 1920s coincided with a mini-cold wave that lasted several decades, and winters were much colder than they would have been a hundred years later.
Fortunately, Chen Muwu did not throw away the winter clothes he had worn for four years when he went to school in Wuhan. Instead, his sister-in-law packed them into a box in the attic.
He originally planned to wear these clothes and go north, but he was stopped by his elder brother Chen Muqiao again: "You are a teacher who is going to give lectures now. You must not wear the cotton robes and shoes worn by these students. Instead, you should wear a suit." Wear a tie and dress appropriately."
There was no other way, so Chen Muwu could only tearfully accept the complete set of inner and outer clothes, hat, scarf, gloves, leather shoes and other odds and ends that his elder brother bought from Yongan Company with money.
If it weren't for the lack of time, Chen Muqiao would have wanted to take his younger brother to the famous Hongbang tailor in Baitan Beach to have several sets of suits custom-made.
Chen Muwu occasionally fell into a trance a few times. It would be great to be the son of a family like this, so why bother studying physics in a thankless way?
But his thoughts were fleeting every time. His head was filled with knowledge that was a hundred years ahead of the world. If he didn't do anything, it would be like entering a treasure mountain and returning empty-handed, and his life would be in vain. No difference!
After his luggage was almost packed, Chen Muwu returned to the railway bureau again and bought all the northbound train tickets from the internal window.
During the Republic of China, railway capacity was indeed tight and tickets were often not available, but that was only for ordinary people who queued up at the window to buy the cheapest third-class tickets.
As an employee of the Railway Bureau, wouldn't it become a joke if Chen Muwu could no longer buy tickets?
Mrs. Chen felt sorry for her youngest son and specifically asked her boss to get money so that Chen Muwu could buy a first-class ticket and a sleeping car along the way.
Not to mention that everyone wants the landlord's youngest son. His personal experience proved that the landlord's youngest son is really cool.
Chen Muwu thought carefully about it, and it seemed that when the original owner was in college, every time he traveled between home and school, he was always treated with first-class transportation.
The three first-class tickets, together with the one-night sleeper fare on the night of the 16th, totaled nearly sixty yuan.
Compared with Lu Xun's house, these tickets seem very expensive.
But compared with the cost of sending letters abroad, he suddenly felt that it was not that expensive.
Now that the luggage was ready and the tickets were bought, Chen Muwu went to the telegraph office again and took a telegram to Hu Shi, informing him that he would take the special express train north on the morning of the 16th. If he followed the timetable along the way, If it is correct, it will arrive at Beijing Zhengyangmen East Station at 10:6 pm on the 17th.
This is the fastest transfer method on the entire Shanghai-Nanjing, Jinpu, and Beijing-Fenghuang railway lines. Although you have to wait for more than an hour at Pu'er Station, it is still faster than another slow train on the same line. Nearly twelve hours.
After the telegram was sent and during the waiting period before departure, another unexpected person came to visit.
Zhang Naiyan, the third Chinese person besides Chen Muwu and Zhao Junhao who attended the seminar on the theory of relativity in the lecture hall of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce on the evening of New Year's Day, suddenly paid a visit on January 15th.
He first read the "Declaration" and found the Two Railways Administration Bureau. After learning that Chen Muwu had taken a long leave, he also found out the address of Chen's residence from the Administration Bureau.
As mentioned earlier, Bei University often delayed three or four months before half a month's salary was paid last year. Therefore, Zhang Naiyan, a professor of chemistry at Bei University, also imitated the "Thoughts of Water Shield Perch" of his master Zhang Jiying, and came up with a Abandoned his post and returned home.
Zhang Naiyan returned to Baihai for a few months. After some manipulation by his family, he was transformed and became the new president of the Jiangang Provincial Education Association.
"The three things a new official needs to do when he takes office", Zhang Naiyan was worrying about what he had to do to build up his reputation, when he saw another message in the "Declaration": "Mr. Chen Hanchen will go to Bei University to give lectures for two weeks: A few days ago, he suffered a lot from the university Mr. Chen Hanchen, a rising star in science in China who was praised by scientist Dr. Enstein, will go north to give lectures at Bei University for two weeks at the invitation of Professor Hu Shizhi of the Department of Philosophy of Bei University. It is reported that Bei University offered Chen Hanchen a high remuneration of 500 yuan for two weeks. Equivalent to Dr. Enstein.”
Chen Muwu, who doesn't like reading newspapers very much, has no idea about such a thing.
This was actually his second brother, Chen Muping, who took it upon himself to find Zhao Junhao, who had written the report last time, and told him that his younger brother was going to give lectures at Beida University.
Chen Muping did not want to gain a false reputation for his brother, but it was a common practice among people nowadays.
In a wealthy family like theirs, if one of their children is going to study abroad, the family will spend money to publish in the newspaper "news about the students who will go abroad on such and such a day."
If a child lives up to expectations and successfully obtains a doctorate degree after studying abroad for several years, the family will publish a piece of news with a graduation photo in the newspaper to publicize that a foreign doctorate was born in their family.
Regarding this point, I guess Dr. Fang Hongjian in "Fortress Besieged" should have a deep understanding of this.
Zhang Naiyan just read the report in "Shenbao" and thought that since Bei University could invite him to give lectures, then naturally I can too.
Moreover, Chen Muwu is also from Yujiang, and the two have a friendship from the same hometown.
Chen Muwu should not refuse, both emotionally and rationally, when he invited him to give lectures in the name of the president of the Jiang Provincial Education Association.
