Chapter 29 Part Three: There is a Love Encounter

In Cambridge, encounters with various people, such as academic leaders and political dignitaries, are inevitable. Many students will have such an experience when they first come here. On the way, they run into a certain academic or political celebrity, and then return to the dormitory and ask everyone excitedly: Guess who I met today?Students who have read the book for a few years will smile when they see it strangely.Cambridge, this is a place full of legends.Last month, a classmate from Peking University met Li Yining, a famous economist who came to give a lecture on the road; a few days ago, Ping told me that she was invited to attend a dinner at Trinity College. Sen, the winner of the Bell Prize in Economics, is actually the dean of Trinity College. Sen is an Indian who graduated from Cambridge University in 1959. He is the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.It is also interesting to say that Sen was originally a professor at Harvard University, and most of his research work was carried out at Harvard, but it was only when he was hired as the dean of Cambridge that he won the title of Nobel Prize winner. It was included in the account of Cambridge. Coincidentally, he just became the thirty-first scholar of Trinity College to win the Nobel Prize.

Not long after, I had one such encounter myself.Jin from the School of International Relations came to Cambridge with his wife and daughter, and often invited us a group of Chinese students to his home to improve the food.His family lives in the south of Cambridge, and I live in the northwest corner of Cambridge, and it takes almost the entire urban area to go there.It sounds scary, and it took only forty minutes to walk.While on Trumpting Street.I suddenly saw four old men walking towards me from the opposite street.They have extraordinary demeanor, one of them is an old lady with silver hair, but wearing a bright red windbreaker, which is particularly eye-catching in the howling wind.I couldn't hold back my admiring eyes until I almost collided with them.My pace is relatively fast, and I haven't come to stop.The four of them actually stopped first, and one of the gentlemen politely made a "please" gesture and let me pass first.Compared with the civilized people in Cambridge, I am really a bit of a savage.On the streets here, vehicles often let pedestrians pass first, men let women pass first, and they accidentally brush themselves, and they keep hearing the other party say "sorry".I can't help but admire the old women who still maintain their unique elegance.When they walked away, Yang Guang asked me with a smile: "Do you know who the person who gave way to you just now is?" "Who?" I was naturally puzzled. "His name is Wei Yixin." Looking at my confused look, he gave the answer: "He was the Governor of Hong Kong before Patten, and now he is the dean of Churchill College. This Governor, I used to be in Hong Kong because of work. I have seen it before. I am such a confused person. When I first arrived at Cambridge, I was really childlike in some aspects. Get to the bottom of it. Sitting in Trinity’s cafeteria for dinner, I saw a portrait of a handsome old man, majestic and upright, pretending to be serious, and thought it was fun. Later, I found out that the old man was Henry VIII, the stubborn man who left the Holy See in order to marry a beautiful woman The Sovereign, that eccentric tyrant who killed several wives, and of course the founder of the famous Trinity College. I didn't like him, and my appetite has been affected ever since.

Another time, I was dragged by my friends to a tavern called "Eagle Bar" (Eagle Bar) on Bent Street for a drink.The house is very old, with thick logs forming the frame, divided into upper and lower floors, low and narrow.The exterior wall is white and black, and the black extension wood is exposed, which is a typical old country house.The gate is also unpainted and undecorated, and there is a courtyard where a few tables and stools are randomly placed, just like the furnishings of a wine shop in a Chinese martial arts novel.I don't think much of it here, it's just a run-down tavern.The friends who were traveling with him had a look of admiration: "This is a place of great historical significance. It was here that Crick and Watson were inspired to discover the double helix structure model of DNA. This discovery can It is a major event in the history of science that is comparable to Darwin’s theory of evolution and Mendel’s law of inheritance! These two people also won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.” Later, I read Dr. Watson’s writing in the Cambridge library "The Double Helix-A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA" (The Double Helix-A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA), mentioned countless times the scene where they ate and talked at the Eagle Bar:

The tense hours of that day prevented us from continuing to work.Crick and I simply headed to Eagle Bar.As soon as dinner was served there, we sat down and did it for Pauling’s failure a few cups.I also, uncharacteristically, didn't order the sherry and asked Crick to order a whiskey for me.Although we have little hope of success, Pauling has not won a Nobel Prize after all. ... The discovery of this structure is of such great importance that it must not be undertaken hastily.So I felt a little uncomfortable when Crick sprinted into the Eagle Bar and announced in a voice audible to all those present at lunch that we had discovered the mystery of life.

After reading this book, I realized that this humble tavern has such a close relationship with the discovery of DNA.I am curious, Cambridge has given me too many surprises.I have lived here for a long time, and I know the allusions to the plants and trees around me.For example, the mulberry trees in Jesus College (Jesus College) were picked and planted by the famous British poet Milton, the author of (The Lost Paradise), when he was studying.There is also the apple tree in front of the gate of Trinity College. It is short, but it has a strong background. It is called "Newton's Apple Tree".This tree has been withered and replanted many times. Although it is not the one that Newton realized the law of gravitation when he watched an apple fall to the ground, it is indeed transplanted from Newton's hometown thousands of miles away.In fact, the fact that Newton watched the apple fall to the ground is also non-existent, but it is just a romantic exaggeration written by literati.His old man just gave an example of an apple falling to the ground in a paper, and said why the apple didn't fly up.The result of his painstaking research is that all objects in the universe are attracted by other objects in the universe.And deduced the formula of the law of universal gravitation, which created the calculus and laid the foundation of mechanics.It took him only one and a half years to achieve all these achievements. No wonder he was hailed as "the greatest genius in history". He was only 26 years old and won the seat of Cambridge professor.

Cambridge's free academic atmosphere and rigorous academic tradition have created a large number of outstanding talents.Studying and living in such an environment, I really feel that I am ordinary and ordinary.An authoritative survey agency has selected ten masters who have influenced the entire world in the past 1,000 years, and three of them are from Cambridge. They are natural scientist Charles Darwin, mathematician Isaac Newton, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.Only in 1901, Cambridge has produced more than 60 Nobel Prize winners, which is unmatched by any other university in the world.It is said that at a banquet held by Trinity College, a French ambassador praised France's advanced and perfect education system eloquently. Lord Deborah, who once served as the British Foreign Secretary, came up to clink glasses with him with a smile on his face.At the moment when the wine glasses collided, the Lord said humorously: "Dear Ambassador, do you know that the Nobel Prize winners produced in such a small college are more than your entire country? There are even more people!" The French ambassador was speechless.In addition to Nobel Prize winners, Cambridge has also produced many famous politicians, such as Lee Kuan Yew, Bhutto, Nehru, Rahman Gandhi, Rahman and so on.There are also poets and writers such as Spencer, Milton, Wordsworth, Byron, etc., as well as philosopher master Russell and economist Keynes. They are like brilliant stars, filling the academic sky of Cambridge.

However, what really interests me is not the academic research or political ups and downs of these great figures, but the ordinary and trivial anecdotes of their lives.What I admire is not their prominent reputation, but their peaceful and natural attitude towards life.In my opinion, a person's living conditions can reflect his essence as a living individual more than his great achievements.When three Frenchmen won the Nobel Prize in the same year, the French government declared a holiday, giving schoolchildren across the country a day off.And when Alan Klug received a call in the Molecular Biology Laboratory of Cambridge University and learned that he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, he just waved his arms happily and cheered: "Oh, I bought it." Start a new bicycle!" Newton just said lightly after his brilliant achievements: "If what I see is farther than Descartes, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants. "Sen, a Nobel laureate in economics, has been away from his motherland for many years, but he still maintains his Indian nationality. He still has to go through various cumbersome procedures when going through customs.Afflicted with many diseases, he has been working tirelessly in the field of economics research, but his life is still simple and ordinary.He loves to go to the "Heffers" bookstore opposite Trinity College, and chat with students who buy books, and he can often be seen in the free market in the city center. "Being unassuming" is not just a technical issue, but a basic style, character and personality.Cambridge is a strange place that can make a great man ordinary and an ordinary man great.

Before I came to Cambridge, I still had some childish pride in my bones.When I was young, I was often very happy for no reason, thinking that I was young, and my high heels were knocking on the road, step by step.Youth, even if there is no content, it is enough to be so happy.Besides, when I was young, I lived with so much applause, honor and halo.I was really young at that time, when I was in my teens, I had to deal with overwhelming interviews from the media.Playing badminton with friends in the courtyard, surrounded by children after school to sign, it takes hours to sign.I never thought I could do this.How many letters have you received with such envy and admiration, making you accidentally think that you are the cutest and most extraordinary person in the world.Thinking about it carefully, it was really a big dream when I was young.Fortunately, I woke up early in this dream, and the history of Cambridge, and the people of Cambridge even got rid of my arrogance and gave up my impetuosity.In the past, I only knew to be humble, but now I realize that there is nothing to be proud of.

The other Chinese students in my class at Cambridge are more than one round older than me, so everyone calls me "little girl" and takes good care of me.Coincidentally, Ping turned out to be a colleague of my middle school classmate's father.She always sighed to me: "Your classmates call me Auntie, but you actually became my classmate." She is outstanding, and she was already the director of a city's foreign affairs office in her thirties. "But little girl, you are young!" Does being young really matter?Or do I feel less of an advantage because I own it?In fact, in getting along with many people who are far more mature than me, I really feel that the important thing in life is not how many years you have, but what you have learned and gained during the passage of time.The charm of youth may be glorious, but the charm of maturity is richer and more layered.Just like I used to believe that "well-informed", experience will make people rich.But now I understand that experience can provide material for wisdom, but in addition to experience, wisdom also needs a savvy heart and a mind that keeps thinking.I think that when a person is twenty years old, if he has not been complacent, his life will not be so beautiful.But after the age of twenty, if a person is still carried away by the feeling of being a star, he is a bit stupid.In the case of many outstanding Cambridge people, I took a closer look at the trajectory of life, which is a process from high-spirited to modest and wise.It was Cambridge who taught me how to live without haste, work without stagnation, and be a man without alarm or noise.I envy the state of "letting oneself go to nature" often said in the book, like water, even in the cracks, you can do a job with ease and enjoy the scenery.But I know that it is the penetration and stretching after "investigating things to learn".Being young doesn't please me, it's growing up that really pleases me.

Compared with the seemingly beautiful past, I prefer a very ordinary girl who is sitting here and writing at this moment, a girl who is happy with rouge, lipstick and beautiful clothes, and will swear never to eat ice cream because of the weight gain of one kilogram .The girl's diary copied the words of Grandpa Newton: I don't know what the world thinks of me.I myself, however, only feel like a child playing on the seashore, glad sometimes to pick up a smooth and beautiful shell, but I still have not discovered the ocean of truth.