Chapter 34 Part 3: There is a love to meet Prince Charles

One day in early March, I received a beautiful invitation from the British Foreign Office: Dear Miss Li Na: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will be hosting a reception at Trinity College on 15 March and we look forward to your presence. As a Fenzhiling scholar, I came to Cambridge to study on a scholarship from the British Foreign Office, so I was often invited to participate in some government receptions.The name of the Prince of Wales sounds quite impressive, but who is he in the royal family? "What kind of character?" Ping laughed after hearing my question, "You girl, you are really ignorant. Isn't Charles the Prince of Wales?" Queen Elizabeth’s eldest son, the deceased Princess Diana’s husband, the Charles who was the lover of the American woman Camilla. His name is Charles, and he was named Prince of Wales.” “Oh!” I suddenly realized, “It’s the ugly Charles. .”

It turns out that Prince Charles used to be a student of the History Department of Trinity College, Cambridge University, and is now the honorary chairman of the Cambridge Overseas Trust, so this time he returned to his alma mater to care for the students who received scholarships this year.In the UK, Cambridge and Oxford have a close relationship with the royal family.A few years ago, when the youngest son of the Queen of England, Edward, was about to get married, TV and newspapers focused on reports that the little prince graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge University, majoring in history.In the UK, it has become customary for members of the royal family to choose Cambridge University and Oxford University as their study destinations.If they choose an ordinary university, it will be considered counterintuitive and unreasonable.Britain is a relatively conservative country, and the principals of famous universities are generally held by royal nobles.For example, the Chancellor of Cambridge University is the husband of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, who also serves as the Chancellor of Oxford.Of course, the so-called headmaster is only an honorary position. Although he enjoys high honors, he has no real power. He just visits him every year, attends the ceremonies he thinks he should attend, and reflects the dignity of the royal family.The real person in charge in the school is actually the Vice-chancellor.

Dad is the principal of Cambridge, and Charles, as the prince, also enjoys a lot of preferential treatment. In 1967, he was admitted to Jianda University with two A Levels in French and History. Such results became the object of ridicule at that time, because it was impossible to enter an orthodox university like Oxford and Cambridge without three excellent "A" grades. .Dr Marian, Charles' later tutor at Trinity College, said the Prince had performed well in the interviews and had been exceptionally accepted for admission because of "a high level of confidence in his intelligence after the first conversation".Maybe it's my petty heart, I always feel that the foundation of this confidence may not be Charles's wisdom, but the historical relationship between the royal family and Trinity College.

The prominence of Trinity College began with its founder, King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547).The old man was eccentric and arrogant.In order to have a son to carry on the family line, he actually repaired his wife and abandoned the church, disregarding the Roman Catholic rule that forbids divorce, and founded The Church of England by himself, serving as the leader himself.Thomas Moore (Thomas Moore, 1478-1535), who had written about it, was a senior justice at the time. Seeing that the king "acted against the law", he was so anxious that he tried his best to write a letter. But lost his head.In 1546, the domineering emperor determined to become "the greatest founder of the greatest college", so he merged two small colleges with a history of more than 200 years: Michaelhouse (1324) and King's Hall (1337) 1999), through additions, extensions and donations of a large amount of real estate and money, this "sacred and inseparable Trinity College" was built.Trinity refers to the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Since the royal families of all dynasties have shown great favor to this college, there are gifts from time to time, so that the wealth of the college is increasing day by day.It is no wonder that when Xu Zhimo mentioned Trinity College, he used the words "the most noble and arrogant".It is not an exaggeration to say that Trinity College is as rich as a country. Its real estate development industry has participated in the construction of the British and French submarine tunnels. Apart from the British royal family, its total property ranks second in the UK.I don't know the exact number, but I've heard that you can walk all the way from Cambridge to Oxford on Trinity College grounds without picking up a bit of other people's dust.Many properties and industries in Cambridge are also under the name of Trinity College.

Trinity College is a place where politicians come out.Since its founding in 1546, it has produced seven prime ministers (including Indian Prime Minister Nehru) and two British monarchs (Edward VII and George VI).Charles may become the third British monarch it has produced.Although the admission results were not very satisfactory, the prince still "visited" Cambridge with the power of the royal family, which was an extremely grand event back then.It is said that many girls are trying their best to wait for an opportunity to get close to the future monarch.In the first year, Charles chose anthropology, which was even less popular than Oriental Archeology. As a result, the number of female students in this department surged rapidly, and many of them even transferred from other departments voluntarily. In 2001, Charles and Diana's eldest son, Prince William, encountered a similar situation when he entered school.The application rate for the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where William studied, has increased by 40% compared with previous years, and most of the applicants are girls, and some girls who are too eager even quietly prepared their wedding dresses for themselves, just waiting to put on the glass slipper. , dancing with the prince in the resplendent palace.The times have progressed, but the fairy tales of "Prince and Princess" are still full of appeal.This is also easy to understand. Most of the girls in the cardamom age have had Cinderella Complex (Cinderella complex). They used to believe in fairy tales like that, and they were full of endless romantic fantasies about love and life.Just like Zixia in "A Chinese Journey to the West" said affectionately and firmly: "My Ruyi Langjun is a hero of the world. One day he will ride on a cloud of seven colors to marry me." I understand that the prince is actually just an ordinary man, he can come to marry you in a luxurious royal carriage, but the crown on his head is not the guarantee of happiness after marriage.The strong in status or wealth cannot be equated with the strong in love.This point, Diana may be the most profound and has the right to speak, but unfortunately, she has already passed away.

Prince Charles’ university life in Cambridge can be described as rich and colorful. He has participated in the college’s drama performances many times, and in his spare time, he wrote an article such as “Life in Cambridge” for the commemorative issue of the university’s school newspaper.This article with "world copyright" was reprinted by many newspapers early in the morning the next day after it was published, and it really earned a lot of copyright fees for the school newspaper.Charles studied at Cambridge for three years, but did not take many classes.In the third semester of his second year, he went to a university in Wales whose name I couldn’t pronounce to study Welsh, and then he was named Prince of Wales, and visited Canada, New Zealand and Japan. He didn’t return until one month before the big exam. Go to Cambridge to "cramp the Buddha's feet".This "wisdom" prince was really lucky, and he even graduated with a "second class honor".

It is not uncommon for the prince to go back to his alma mater to hold a reception, and he looks really unattractive (it seems to have lost all the shortcomings of the queen and prince).When hesitating whether to go or not, Ping said: "Go, go, I haven't seen you wear the Chinese-style black velvet dress you brought from China. It's just a show off." This reason is good, I The good-for-nothing little girl readily agreed.Students in Cambridge generally have two sets of "outfits" with very different styles: they wear very ordinary clothes on weekdays, and they also wear jeans, cotton T-shirts, and cotton shirts all year round, with thin and thick, long and short, and different colors.When you close your eyes, you can reach out and feel which one to wear, and wear one by one, without having to think about how to match them.But when it comes time to attend a formal dinner and reception, those male and female students who usually wear T-shirts and jeans will wear formal attire. Boys must have a set of Black Tie, and girls will buy evening dresses with suspenders.For people from non-Western countries, it is the most decent to wear national costumes at this time.Indian boys wear straight-collared uniforms similar to our Chinese tunic suits, with a big turban on their heads.The male students from Arab and African countries have wide robes and long sleeves, with a solemn and solemn upper body, but they wear a pair of slippers on their feet.The female students from Pakistan and Bangladesh are wrapped in colorful gauze, graceful and moving like fairies.Most Chinese girls will wear Chinese-style cheongsams or dresses brought from China, and they will have a variety of styles at the banquet—we don’t show our chests and backs, but they are more sexy than bare ones.

On the afternoon of March 15th, some of our Chinese Fenzhiling scholarship scholars gathered at the gate of Trinity College.Above the Trinity Gate is a colorful statue of Prince Charles' ancestor Henry VIII.He looks solemn and solemn, but holds a chair leg in his right hand, which looks a little funny.It is said that what the former king held was originally a gorgeous scepter, but it was replaced by a chair leg by naughty students.Over time, it has become a symbol of the academy.Around three o’clock, everyone arrived in twos and threes. I was wearing a black velvet suit and black velvet satin high heels, which was simple; Ping was wearing a black cheongsam with flowers inlaid, her hair was rolled up in a bun, and she wore a little makeup, which made her look very mature. charm.The boys' attire is roughly the same - dark suit tie black leather shoes.While stepping into the Fangting Square, everyone praised and complimented each other, which was beneficial to physical and mental health.Trinity's unparalleled and magnificent quadrangle is the masterpiece of Thomas Nevile. In 1593, Queen Elizabeth I appointed Neville as dean.At that time, Trinity College was still the same as when the two houses were merged. It was only during the 22 years of Naville's tenure (1593-1615) that the construction began to take shape.Naville has an extraordinary vision for the art of architecture. He moved the oldest bell tower of the college to the side of the church without any damage, and then removed the redundant buildings to reproduce a Gothic style. In the courtyard, a beautiful fountain was built in the middle.If you listen carefully, you can find that the bell tower in the distance knocks twice every hour, one low and one high.In the words of the romantic poet Wordsworth in "Prelude", it is a male and female voice (a male and female voice).On weekdays, Fangting is very quiet, but today it is very lively with people coming and going.Every path in the courtyard has already been guarded by security personnel in black uniforms at the intersection, and there are plain clothes in twos and threes.

Guided by the staff, we arrived at the reception hall, where many students from all over the world waiting to meet the prince have come. As soon as you pick up a drink, someone will come up and chat with you in all directions.Learning to socialize is a compulsory course for Cambridge students, but often you have talked a lot with many people, and in the end you can't remember who he is.While I was talking about the love history of Charles and Camilla with a Singaporean student who studies international relations, I was thinking about all kinds of exquisite desserts on the tables in the lobby: Rospberry Mousse cake and the tempting aroma of macaroons. It makes my heart itch.After finally ending the conversation and planning to start with desserts, an African brother came up to me to discuss the British hierarchy.He said that he did not understand that a representative of a Western democratic society like Britain could allow the existence of a class like the royal family who eats and drinks for nothing.The ordinary people have worked hard all their lives, but they can't keep up with the wealth of the hereditary nobles.I said, haven't you heard the words in the "Bible"-the rich man is in his castle, and the poor are at his gate, and God has made them both high and low, have their own share.Democracies also have grades and grades, and developed countries cannot solve the inherent contradictions of human beings, they just cover them up more skillfully.This country has a relatively complete social welfare security system and a long tradition of religion and education, which has resolved the grievances brought about by class society from both material and spiritual aspects.If you understand this point, you also want to understand why Charles is not as handsome as you, and can still marry the beautiful Diana.A compliment from me made the African brother's dark face burst into a bright smile, and the white teeth that were exposed were really beautiful.While we were talking, we heard a commotion at the door, and everyone rushed to the center of the hall. It turned out that it was Charles!

This is the first time that His Royal Highness the old prince has been looked at so closely.His appearance has really gone from bad to worse, the vicissitudes of the years have clearly carved marks on his body, there are many wrinkles on his face, and the corners of his eyes are a little droopy.Of course, his demeanor is indeed good, peaceful yet dignified. He shook hands with the students one by one, with a smile that made people feel that they were not far or near.On such occasions, it is reasonable to say that photography is absolutely not allowed, but there are still many people who secretly hide their cameras in their dresses and bring them in.The prince was circled in the center of the hall, and everyone rushed to take a photo with him.I pulled the corner of Laping's clothes, pointed to the dining table full of delicacies and snacks, and blinked at her.She understood right away, and we slipped into the corner of the hall with me, and while everyone's attention was on Charles, we could finally eat.

Just as he was fascinated by the rich milky aroma and fluffy texture of the cheese cake, Fan Rong walked over excitedly holding the camera: "Why are you two guys so busy eating? Look, I took a photo with Charles , He also asked me which major I was in!" Ping and I held Fan Rong one by one from left to right, "We don't take a photo with Prince of Wales, we want to take a photo with Prince Charming." "Crack", the two of us took a picture with the newly named "Prince", who is younger and more handsome than Charles.