Li Yu accepted Lord Kelvin's 10 shillings and made a mental note of the isotope matter, but he was in no hurry to discuss this matter because it was still too early, at least until the radioactive theory and atomic model developed more.
The next day, Li Yu was continuing to discuss ray-related topics with Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory. Owen Richardson came over and said: "Your beautiful girlfriend is here."
Lu Bicheng and Lillian were standing outside the house. Lu Bicheng looked a little embarrassed. Lillian said to Li Yu: "Mr. Hardy sent an invitation to the Cultural Salon, and asked Miss Bicheng to go with you."
Li Yu didn't react for a moment, glanced at Lu Bicheng and said, "If Miss Bicheng agrees, I definitely have no objection."
Lillian grabbed Lu Bicheng's hand and said, "Of course she has no objection."
Li Yu smiled and said, "Then let's go!"
Lilian called over a carriage, and Li Yu said, "Isn't it good to drive?"
Lilian said: "It's in Cambridgeshire, very close."
When they arrived at the place, Li Yu realized that he had just understood it wrong.
In his mind, he had always thought it was Hardy, the great Cambridge mathematician. Only when he saw the real person did he realize that it was another Hardy: Thomas Hardy who wrote "Tess of the D'Urbervilles".
Since the UK has produced several outstanding writers in recent years, such as the most famous Dickens, Britain's current status in Western literature is not low.
Of course, the French may not recognize it. The British nobility must also speak French at this time. In terms of cultural self-confidence, the French are still very strong.
Thomas Hardy welcomed them all: "It is a great honor to see again such an excellent female author."
Lu Bicheng squatted down using Eastern etiquette: "I've met Mr. Hardy."
Thomas Hardy said to Li Yu: "We are even more excited to see a writer like you who is familiar with all disciplines of natural philosophy and even has great imagination."
Li Yu shook hands with him: "Thank you sir for the compliment."
Li Yu has read the book "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", and it is in English, to be precise, it is a Chinese-English version.
When he was still in high school, in order to practice his English, Li Yu bought several books in the "Bookworm" series, which are some world famous books produced by Oxford University Press, with green book covers, and compared them in Chinese and English. Only in the UK
, Li Yu read "Tess", "Wuthering Heights", "A Tale of Two Cities", etc.
"Tess" has a high status in the history of British literature. However, after the book was published, it received mixed reviews and praise because the protagonist is a woman and a woman who has lost her virginity, but the reason why she lost her virginity is a problem of the times.
Tess worked as a helper in a wealthy family and was deceived and tainted by the young master. However, in the eyes of the Victorian moralists, it was Tess's behavior that was immoral. If this matter was exposed, people would not blame the young master, but would criticize them harshly.
Tess, blame this young woman for her shamelessness.
Many critics called Tess a "slut", but the author Hardy said that Tess was the purest person.
——This is obviously the opposite.
Hardy is a very critical person of the present.
Hardy introduced another person who participated in the salon to Li Yu: "You should have wanted to know him for a long time. His name is George Wells. He wrote "The Time Machine" nine years ago, which became a sensation, but now he is being ignored.
Star Wars completely stole the show."
Wells is a figure who is the originator of science fiction, and can also be called the founding figure of the "time travel" theme.
Wells smiled and said: "It's normal to steal the limelight. I have carefully read Mr. Li Yu's Star Wars series and many papers. In terms of imagination, I am extremely impressed."
Wells studied science and engineering in college, received a bachelor's degree in science, and was able to read some of Li Yu's papers.
In addition, Bernard Shaw was also invited to participate in this salon, and Li Yu had already met him.
Hardy introduced another young female writer: "Since we have invited the young and beautiful Miss Bicheng, we in the UK cannot be inferior, so I specially invited Miss Woolf."
Woolf is a very representative female writer in the UK since then and a famous figure in the history of British literature. For the convenience of understanding, she can be compared to China's Eileen Chang.
Woolf is very young, only one year older than Lu Bicheng. Although she has just entered the literary world this year, she has become famous very quickly because she has been involved in an elite cultural circle.
Woolf said: "I have always wanted to see this strange oriental woman who is rumored to be both beautiful and talented. When I first saw her, I was amazed. She really has a hazy graceful beauty."
Li Yu smiled and said: "You are only looking at the appearance. Miss Bicheng is good at kung fu."
Lu Bicheng lightly punched Li Yu and whispered: "I have been in England for so long and I already know that people like gentlemen and ladies. How can you say such things?"
Li Yu said: "Don't worry, they may appreciate it more."
Woolf was indeed very surprised: "Kung Fu? Really?!"
Li Yu said: "Of course it is true. An ordinary adult male is definitely no match for her."
Woolf covered her mouth: "That's amazing! Can you show it to me?"
Lu Bicheng rolled her eyes at Li Yu and said, "I'm really sorry. It's not convenient. I'm wearing a skirt today."
Woolf said: "It's so impressive. If Mr. Hardy's Miss Tess was like you, maybe her life would be very different."
After receiving the invitation yesterday, Lu Bicheng had read "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" overnight and knew the outline of the story. She said: "I am just a special case. If I want all women to escape this tragedy, I think I just need to know some martial arts."
It’s not enough.”
"That's very well said! With such insights, you really are a talented man and a beautiful woman!" Wells clapped his hands and then said with a smile, "But I'm afraid Mr. Li Yu will have to be more careful in the future."
Li Yule said: "You don't know this, but I also have a martial arts teacher, and I am the best martial arts master in China today."
Wilson joked: "Then your future life will be really exciting."
Lu Bicheng said quickly: "You guys, what are you talking about!"
Hardy is very interesting to watch. Previously, most of the cultural salons were all men, but now there are a few more women, and it is immediately different.
Hardy invited everyone to sit around. The Hardy house was a very typical British house. It was not spacious, but the wooden furniture was very elegant, and one wall was full of bookshelves.
As the host of the salon, Hardy first said: "Since Li Yu, the best rising scientific star today, has also arrived, I think we will discuss some forward-looking topics. How about customizing the theme of 'Imagining the Future'? After all, this is an era of drastic changes.
."
If Hardy said this, no one would object.
Hardy, Bernard Shaw, Wilson, Woolf and others are all people with relatively advanced views. Now many British people are thinking about current fierce social issues, which is reflected in their works.
Hardy continued: "As an important part of gentleman etiquette in the new era, dy first, ladies first, everyone has no objection, right?"
Several people said: "No objection."
"Very well, we are all excellent gentlemen here," Hardy said, "Then let Miss Bicheng, a beautiful oriental girl from afar, speak first."
After Hardy finished speaking, he took the lead in applauding.
Lu Bicheng did not have stage fright in this kind of situation. She was generous and said in fluent English:
"Thank you all! I have read Mr. Hardy's works and watched Mr. Bernard Shaw's plays, which all reflect respect for the female community. I think this should be the future. I live in poverty and backwardness in your eyes
The Qing Dynasty, but great changes are also taking place there. Women can finally enter schools. They no longer just believe that "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue", no longer just follow the three obedience and four virtues, and are no longer just a tool to support her husband and educate her children. Although only
It’s just the beginning, but it’s the future of my dreams.”
Lu Bicheng's words were neither humble nor arrogant, and Li Yu and others couldn't help but applaud her again.
Hardy applauded and said: "A very wonderful speech. Miss Bicheng is really a woman worthy of everyone's respect. The future you envision is reasonable and reasonable. I can't even wait to see that day come."
Woolf said: "Miss Bicheng, after listening to your speech, I must invite you to participate in the cultural gatherings we often hold in Cambridge in the future, where there are all outstanding young people like you."
The party Woolf refers to is the "Bloomsbury Group". The name is not important, but everyone who attended the party must be familiar with it: the great philosopher Russell, Joyce who wrote "Ulysses", the poet
TS Eliot, economist Keynes, etc.
Anyway, it’s an incredible group, mostly students from Cambridge.
Lu Bicheng accepted her invitation: "Thank you, I will participate."
George Wells said at this time: "As a science graduate, I have thought a lot about the future, as evidenced by the book "The Time Machine" I wrote. 'Imagining the future' is a very good topic, and the development of the times is also
It’s so fast that I’m afraid the world has not changed as much since the time of Jesus Christ as it has in the past thirty years.”
As a time traveler, Li Yu has a deeper understanding than everyone here: "This development momentum is very strong and will last for hundreds of years."
George Wells said: "If it is true as Mr. Li Yu said, then the most fundamental uncertainty will come from human beings' fear of whether they can maintain the current speed of development. Although we are in the so-called most developed country in the world, we have toiled
The division between the lower class and the upper class has become more and more serious, and this kind of antagonism between classes has to make people worry. In fact, I am pessimistic about the future."
Bernard Shaw said: "I also have the same worry. To paraphrase Mr. Dickens, this is the best of times and the worst of times. I often wonder whether the future will be like what Mr. Wells said in his science fiction "The Time Machine"
As described in ", humans eventually evolved into two deformed and opposing races."
In the book "The Time Machine" published in 1895, the protagonist traveled 800,000 years later and discovered that humans have evolved into two races: the Eloys on the ground are all fools; and the Morlocks underground are long-haired
White-haired monster.
The monsters feed the Eloi on the ground and use them as food.
The underground Morlocks are actually workers from the old era. Because they were deprived of sunlight all day long, they evolved into white-haired monsters, strong, cunning and cruel.
The Eloi on the ground were the ruling class in the past. Because they were accustomed to sitting back and enjoying the fruits of their labor without doing any work, their bodies were weak and their intelligence declined.
There is no world-ending disaster like in the later remake of the movie. After all, Wells's era didn't even know what nuclear fission was. It was simply because of the two-level differentiation that changed human beings.
This setting can completely show the author Wells's thinking about the times, which closely follows two major social themes: evolution and class opposition.
Obviously, Wells's book is also soft science fiction, and he focuses on thinking about the social problems that technological progress may bring about.
The story in the book was also narrated by the protagonist when he traveled back 800,000 years and came back to attend a gathering of friends.
This way of writing is completely understandable, because science fiction is very contemporary, and human beings’ thinking about the future is basically based on existing knowledge that they have already understood.
The two versions of "The Time Machine" shot in the 1960s and 2002 are very typical: the version in the 1960s mentioned nuclear war; the 2002 movie added interstellar development and interstellar disasters.
In the 2002 version of the movie, the protagonist first arrived in 2030, saw the slogan "future is now" at first glance, and then saw shared bicycles at the second glance, as a symbol of technological development.
But in fact, in less than twenty years, shared bicycles have blossomed all over China, and even completed an industry reshuffle, and many people have not even returned their deposits...
Therefore, Wells's approach to writing "soft science fiction" works is very clever.
Li Yu said: "Technology was invented by humans, and the human heart, to use our Chinese saying, is that humans are originally good by nature. Technology is indeed a double-edged sword, but its good side is obviously more shining. Technology will not make mistakes.
, it is always humans who make mistakes. History has proven time and time again that the only lesson humans remember is that they fail to remember the lesson.”
Wells said: "Sir is also a philosopher."
Li Yu knew that the topic would be too heavy to talk about anymore, so he said about his work: "Mr. Wells mentioned in the book that in addition to the three-dimensional world, time is the fourth dimension, which is a great physical and philosophical thought."
Wells only used it as an idea for writing, but it was indeed a bit forward-looking.
Li Yu continued: "When it comes to the future, the topic of time cannot be separated. I just thought of a very interesting story. I wonder if you are interested in listening to it?"
Moderator Hardy said: "Of course I am interested. There are no restrictions on cultural salons. If there are attractive stories, it will be the best salon."
Li Yu said: "Okay, I will tell a story about time travel."
Li Yu then talked about the outline of "Journey to the West".
When this work was first released, the box office was very poor, because it was too advanced, the timeline in it was different from that of ordinary movies, and the role of time travel was very obvious.
The whole story revolves around love, and because of the travel of the time treasure box, it becomes a tragic story cloaked in comedy.
The Supreme Treasure loves Bai Jingjing, Bai Jingjing loves the Monkey King, the Monkey King loves Fairy Zixia, and Fairy Zixia loves the Supreme Treasure. They seem to be the same person, but in fact they have been separated for 500 years.
.
The structure of this story is so wonderful that everyone present was immediately fascinated by it.
When Li Yu finished his last sentence: "At dusk, the sunset warrior and the woman in purple on the tower looked at the Monkey King going away and said, look, that man looks like a dog."
The three women, Lu Bicheng, Lillian, and Woolf, were already crying profusely.
"It turns out that girl left a tear in my heart. I can completely feel how sad she was at that time!" Woolf wiped her tears with a handkerchief and repeated this sentence, "The gods in the East are so humane.
, this is the best story I’ve heard this year!”
Hardy could hear some other flavors: "If I don't go to hell, who will? It's such a story with an oriental charm! I really hope that you will write it carefully. I think many people will like it very much."
Li Yu smiled and said: "Everyone just listen to it. The story is fictitious and any similarity is purely coincidental."
Li Yu did not dare to write Westward Journey. The setting was unacceptable in the 1990s, let alone now, unless the elements of Journey to the West were removed. However, if the elements of Journey to the West were removed, the work would be greatly compromised.
Li Yu's speech took a bit long, and today's salon time is over.
Hardy was very satisfied: "In the future, whenever you have time, sir, I will definitely invite you to come again so that you can bring us wonderful stories one after another."
Li Yu shook hands with him and said goodbye: "Thank you for your love."
Although Li Yu's Chinese studies are average, he has watched a lot of movies and has countless classic scenes in his mind. It seems that it is not difficult to participate in this kind of cultural salon and become the center of attention...