As he walked out, Chen Muwu asked the visitor: "Did you just say that you came to see me?"
"It's Sir Conan Doyle, Dr. Chen."
Having been in the UK for more than two years, Chen Muwu feels that the respectable people around him basically started out as knights, and there may be lords after that.
Older upper-class British people would be embarrassed to say hello to others if they didn't have the title of Sir in front of their surname.
Right, Eddington, Professor?
Of course, Eddington later became a knight, but now he is still in the seniority stage and will have to wait a few more years before he can be canonized by the royal family.
That is to say, the Republic of China, which emphasizes equality for everyone, does not promote this.
Otherwise, if the medal of honor he was awarded now had been in the former Qing Dynasty, Chen Muwu himself would have been a duke.
Compare this to Zeng Shatou, whom Baldhead admires very much. He made great achievements in wiping out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but in the end he was just a marquis.
And his student, Li Zhongtang, one of the ten philosophers of the Net Temple, did not even get a marquis while he was alive. He was just an earl and was posthumously named a marquis after his death.
Think about it this way, if the Beiyang government hadn't issued medals indiscriminately, causing serious title inflation, Chen Muwu's status would have been very high.
The second British prince who allocates 10,000 pounds to the Cavendish Laboratory every year is just a duke! (dog head)
There are always exceptions. Chen Muwu's withdrawn former roommate Dirac actively refused to be canonized by the royal family because he felt that his last name Dirac suddenly had a prefix in front of it, which always sounded a bit strange and made him uncomfortable. .
Not only did Dirac reject the royal canonization, he almost didn't even want the Nobel Prize.
The reason he told his teacher Rutherford was that he didn't want to be famous.
But Rutherford told him that if you don't go to Sweden to receive the award, you will be more famous.
After being tricked by Rutherford, Dirac finally decided to go to Sweden to receive the award.
Rutherford also had his own thoughts in mind at that time. After all, Cambridge University had not awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for a long time. Dirac must not just refuse it.
Chen Muwu, a mystery enthusiast, was of course very happy to hear Doyle's visit.
After all, he created one of the most famous detectives in the world.
But Chen Muwu didn't know the specific reason why Doyle came to him.
Could it be that he already knows that he is Chandler York, the author of the George Chen series?
In a certain room in Trinity College, Chen Muwu saw Doyle who was already waiting here.
"Hello Sir Doyle, this is the first time we meet. I am Chen Muwu."
Doyle is an old man who is almost seventy years old. He has basically lived in the mid-to-late Victorian era and the Edwardian era, which was the period when the British Empire was at its peak.
Although the sun never sets, the empire's powerful ships and cannons knock on the door of the closed-door Qing Dynasty again and again.
But Doyle has no prejudice against China in the far east. The Chinese elements that appear in the Sherlock Holmes series are all neutral, such as tattoos and ceramics.
Of course, as the predecessor of detectives, the Sherlock Holmes series does not need to be bound by Knox's Ten Commandments that have not yet appeared.
Now because of the existence of the George Chen series, it is estimated that the controversial fifth rule will no longer appear in the Knox Ten Commandments in this world.
Someone once defended this rule, saying that Knox proposed that "Chinese people must not appear in reasoning", and that Chinese people were used to represent mysterious phenomena.
But in Chen Muwu's view, the religious person named Ronald Knox who wrote this article is simply a kind of racial discrimination. After all, the term "Chinaman" is never a good word.
"Hello, Dr. Chen. Nice to meet you too."
Seeing a Chinese come in, Doyle thought this must be Chen Muwu.
He also took out the gift he had brought with him: "I read the newspaper article about your debate with Dr. Einstein at the Royal Society, and saw that you mentioned Holmes and his policeman friend Lestrade. I think you should also be one of my readers, so I took it upon myself to give you a small gift.
"This is the first volume in the Sherlock Holmes series, the first edition of A Study in Scarlet, and I signed it."
Chen Muwu took the book very excitedly and very carefully. He opened the cover, and there was indeed cursive English calligraphy written on the title page: "To Dr. Chen Muwu of Cambridge University, Arthur Conan Doyle. February 1925." "
The first edition of "A Study of Letters in Scarlet" was published nearly forty years ago in 1887, making it older than Chen Muwu himself.
And the key thing is that it has the author's autograph on it. If this book can be passed down to the future, I will probably make a lot of money from him.
"Thank you Sir, this gift is really precious. I wonder if you have any business with me when you come to Cambridge University this time?"
Chen Muwu felt that Doyle must have read newspaper reports about parallel universes.
It's just that this theory and him, a person who writes detectives, should be in harmony with each other.
Could it be that Doyle had an epiphany after reading the news in the newspaper and wanted to continue to shine in writing and switch to science fiction?
Doyle's answer made him dumbfounded: "Dr. Chen, what are your views on spiritualism in spirituality?"
Well, this question was asked to Einstein once by Chen Muwu when he saw Zhang Jingjiang's nephew Zhang Junmou in the lecture hall of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in the Sihai Public Settlement two years ago.
At that time, Einstein readily gave the answer to this question after answering various scientific questions about total solar eclipses and general relativity.
In a word, nonsense.
Chen Muwu did not expect that today, two years later, he would be asked this question, and the person who asked this question had a high status.
Chen Muwu remembered that Doyle was also a loyal believer in spiritualism and spiritualism, so he could not speak too harshly. After all, he had just accepted a very expensive gift.
"Sir, although I don't believe that ghosts really exist in this world, I respect this view. After all, in rural China, the theory of ghosts has a lot of mass base.
"It's just that the countryside is not like the cities, let alone the United States and the United Kingdom. There are no high-end gadgets like cameras that can record the soul.
"But they also came up with an unorthodox method, which was to react paper soaked in turmeric water with alkaline water, and then claimed that the red color produced in this chemical reaction was the blood splashed when ghosts were killed by swords. .”
Chen Muwu expressed his opinion very cryptically, that is, this is just a chemical reaction and not evidence of the existence of ghosts.
Psychics, which are now very popular among the British upper class, cannot prove the existence of ghosts.
Whether ghosts or psychics, these things are not produced in the UK, but are imported products that came to Great Britain across the ocean.
Its real birthplace is the United States in the last century.
A group of American scammers are operating a scam on the American continent across the Atlantic. They claim that their cameras are psychic and can take photos of people with their deceased relatives.
Mary Todd, wife of US President Lincoln, and Samuel Morse, who invented the Morse code, are all loyal believers in soul photography.
It's just a simple double exposure trick, but with the endorsement of these wrongdoers, psychic photography has become very popular in the United States.
As these scammers made a lot of money on the American continent, doubts gradually emerged in the United States.
Based on the principle of one shot and another place, they set their sights on Britain, which was the richest country in the world at the time, and opened up the second battlefield of the scam.
Just in time for the First World War and the Spanish Flu, young adults in Europe suffered heavy casualties, so the fathers of these young adults became loyal believers in spiritualism.
The same was true for Doyle in front of Chen Muwu, and the same was true for Zhang Junmou's teacher, Oliver Lodge, the principal of the University of Birmingham.
It’s just that because of the gradual development of photography technology, soul photography is not so easy to deceive. So after these scammers came to the UK, they changed to a new method, which is to continue to promote psychics. Not only can they see their loved ones in the photos, but they can also communicate with them. Have simple conversations with loved ones.
Isn't this the master of Western dancing?
I wonder if they sang something like "The sun declined westward and the sky was dark, Every house has closed doors (The sun declined westward and the sky was dark, Every house has closed doors) before inviting the gods..."
After spiritism flourished in Britain, it was brought back to the United States. Both Doyle and Lodge were often invited to give lecture tours in the United States to promote the existence of this miracle.
Doyle was also very excited after hearing what Chen Muwu said: "Yes, Dr. Chen, as you said, there are no ghosts in this world at all!"
Um? This is wrong!
This is not consistent with Chen Muwu's impression. Doyle should be a staunch supporter of occultism. Doyle was one of the powerful promoters behind the fairy photo incident that shocked the whole UK not long ago.
Was it because of his few words that he changed his opinion?
While Chen Muwu was puzzled, Doyle continued: "And what we use the medium of spiritualism to attract is not the ghosts of the deceased, but their true selves in another parallel universe!"
Yes, it seems that I didn't convince him. In the final analysis, Doyle came to him because of his parallel universe.
Chen Muwu did not want to refute the statement made by Doyle. He was even willing to believe that what Doyle said was true and that people could really communicate with other people living in another parallel universe.
If this is the case, wouldn’t we be able to find real evidence for the existence of parallel universes?
"Maybe it can be explained this way? But Sir Doyle, this theory is just a guess of mine. It is only in the conjecture stage so far. There is no experiment to confirm it, and no one has ever observed the existence of parallel worlds."
"Then quickly do experiments and try your best to observe! Dr. Chen, I am not flattering you. If this theory is confirmed, it will definitely be the greatest theory in the twentieth century, oh no, in the entire history of mankind. The discovery!”
"Sir Doyle, of course I want to do experiments to confirm it, but right now I don't have any ideas or good methods."
Nonsense, no one can do this experiment even decades later. This Doyle really thinks too highly of himself.
"Is it because of money? If the funds for the experiment are not enough, then I think our Ghost Club can provide some financial support."
Ghost Club?
What kind of strange organization is this?
Seeing the puzzled expression on Chen Muwu's face, Doyle continued to introduce him: "Speaking of which, the Ghost Club has quite a connection with Trinity College of Cambridge University, where Dr. Chen is located.
“In 1855, it was several fellows of Trinity College who began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena in this magnificent building.
"As these fellows graduated and left Cambridge University, in 1862, the Ghost Club moved to London and was eventually founded. The most famous writer at the time, Charles Dickens, was one of the founding members of the club, and he was also The backbone of the club.
"It was at Dickens's suggestion that the club established the eternal membership system, that is, whether a person lives or dies, he will always be a member of our ghost club."
"Although the club went through a period of decline in the 1970s, it revived in the 1980s and continues to this day.
“The members of the club are all interested in occultism and spirituality, especially the study of ghosts, so they came together like-minded.”
After being explained by Doyle, Chen Muwu finally understood what this club was about.
Another group of upper-class people with money and leisure. They had nothing to do after they had enough to eat, so they set up a club like this to pass the time.
No wonder Doyle said that they can provide financial support for parallel universe projects.
I just don’t know how much funding they can spend?
If he doesn’t earn this money, he will probably be pocketed by scammers in the end.
However, after thinking about it for a while, Chen Muwu finally gave a negative answer.
Newton turned to theological studies in his later years and was ridiculed by the world.
He, Chen Muwu, would definitely not be able to achieve the status of Newton, so it would be better if he had less to do with these gods and ghosts.
"Well, Sir Doyle, I think it's better to forget it.
"On the one hand, it's because my current main research direction is not in this area. On the other hand, my own level is insufficient. I'm afraid I won't be able to make any progress, and I can only waste money in vain."
Chen Muwu refused very politely. If it weren't for the fact that Doyle was a writer he liked, he would have told him to get out long ago.
Although Doyle also heard Chen Muwu's eviction order, he was still a little unwilling to give up.
If his new theory wants to be carried forward, he must have Chen Muwu, the proposer of the parallel universe, to give him a platform.
"Dr. Chen, can I invite you to give a private lecture at the London Ghost Club? The content will not talk about ghosts or channeling, just about parallel universes.
"Please rest assured that the remuneration is definitely reasonable. I remember that you just received the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society, and you received a bonus of one thousand pounds, right?
"As long as you can go to the Ghost Club to give a lecture, the appearance fee we will give you will never be less than this amount."
Today I heard about several books that are not as good as mine and not as up-to-date as mine, but they are constantly recommended. It is another day of emotional explosion.
I really don’t know the reason why Qidian has not recommended these operations, alas.
I guess it's the subject matter? But since all these themes can be put on the shelves, it should be no problem.
Thank you all for your monthly votes and rewards during the last few days of the month. Thank you.
(End of chapter)
