Chapter 7 Section VI

After waking up from his afternoon nap, Dinon sat up from the bed.Wu Leting helped him wash his face and wipe his sweat as usual.Di Nong noticed an open book on the coffee table and asked, "What book are you reading?" ""General History of the World", new edition." "Did you buy it after hearing the stories I told?" Wu Leting admitted: "Yes, the topics you talked to me these days have once again aroused my strong interest in history, especially the history of science - I just bought this book last night." Dinon smiled lightly. "It's a pity that this kind of book can only be used for entertainment."

Wu Leting said, "Old Man Di, I didn't buy this book at a street stall, I bought it at a big bookstore—it was published by a formal publishing house." Di Nong smiled and said, "I know. The quality of the book is fine. But I'm afraid many of the contents are not true." "You mean, like the story of Newton being hit by an apple and discovering gravitation, it's a fiction?" "Not exactly." Dinon shook his head and said, "Newton's story is just an artistic processing of historical facts, and has not changed its essence - because gravitation was indeed first summed up by Newton. But some other things in the history of science are not the same. It's that simple - it's a complete distortion and fabrication of the truth, even conspiracy and deceit."

Wu Leting pursed her lips. "You haven't even read this book, so you know it's not true?" "Believe me, the content of these books is the same." After Wu Leting wiped Dinong's body, she went to the bathroom to pour out the water.After she came out, she said, "Old Di, do you want to read this book?" Dinon spread his hands, reminding her that her hands were immobilized. "What do I think?" Wu Leting brought the book in front of him and sat down beside him. "I can read it to you." "Okay, if you want." "This is my job." Wu Leting said with a smile, "Where do you want to start? From the first page?"

"No, just turn a page and read some fragments to me." "Okay." Wu Leting said, "Let's just read the page I was looking at just now—"In the summer and autumn of 1859, Wittwhell Irwin, editor of a well-known British magazine "Quarterly Review", received a bibliographic A sample of a new book by the scholar Charles Darwin. Irwin read the book with great interest and found it to be of some value, but worried that its subject was too narrow to appeal to a broad readership. He asked Darwin wrote a book about pigeons..." "Okay, please stop." Di Nong interrupted Wu Leting's reading.

"What's the matter, old Di?" Wu Leting asked, he found that Di Nong's face looked a little uncomfortable. "Turn over these pages, I don't want to hear this passage." "Just now, you told me to read it casually..." "Yes, sorry. But... I didn't expect you to be reading this part about Darwin." "What happened to this part?" Dinon pondered for a moment. "It brings back some unpleasant memories for me." "Well, if you don't want to mention it..." Wu Leting was about to turn to other pages. "I'm afraid it's too late..." The old man looked up and sighed. "From the time you mentioned the name Charles Darwin, I have had a flood of painful memories."

Wu Leting realized that he always wanted to say something.She sat quietly, waiting. Dinon sighed again and asked, "How much do you know about Darwin?" Wu Leting shrugged her shoulders. "Limited to textbooks - Darwin, the famous biologist, the founder of the theory of evolution." "that's it?" "that's it." "It's common knowledge about Darwin and evolution, isn't it?" "Is it not?" Dinon was silent for a moment. "I am afraid that no one in the world today has a real understanding of Darwin." Wu Leting glanced at the thick book in her hand. "It says that Darwin's living conditions were good since he was a child, but his academic performance was mediocre. He was interested in all kinds of small animals. He usually likes hunting, teasing dogs and catching mice. In addition, he especially likes earthworms."

"That's true—perhaps that's about as much of the truth about Darwin as there is in this book." "What happened next?" "What does it say in your book?" Wu Leting quickly browsed the contents of the book. "It says that Darwin would have been a country priest—because he studied theology at Cambridge University. But at this time, a very tempting opportunity appeared in front of him, the British Navy' Beagle ' Captain Robert Fitzroy invited Darwin to go on a voyage, actually around the world..." "Yes, Darwin's fate changed from this voyage." Dinon said.

"That's what it says in the book." "No, it's completely different. I don't know what your book will say without reading it—"Darwin discovered and collected many very precious ancient animal fossils and discovered some new species through this voyage. These discoveries laid a solid foundation for his later theory of evolution'." "Indeed...almost." Wu Leting stared at the book and said, then looked up at Di Nong. "You mean that's not the case?" "When I said that this voyage changed Darwin's fate, I didn't mean that he discovered these fossils. It was because he met a person during this voyage."

"Who?" "Let me start from the beginning. It seems that Darwin participated in this voyage as a 'naturalist', conducting scientific investigations. But when you think about it, this is really a funny thing. He studied in Cambridge. It's theology!" "Then what is his purpose?" Wu Leting asked. "Quite simply, he just saw the voyage as an adventure and a journey. In fact, Captain Fitzroy decided to ask him to go on the voyage, and he was just looking for a table companion. Because the two of them were about the same age--and There is also an odd reason. The captain picked Darwin because he liked the shape of Darwin's nose—he thought it was a sign of strength of character."

"Ha, that's interesting." "Darwin boarded the 'Beagle' for these reasons. It can be said that at that time, he had no thought of studying the laws of biological evolution at all, and even had no such idea at all-until he was on board. Met the man who changed his life—Dr. Robert McCormick." Wu Leting flipped through the thick book in her hand. "There is no mention of this person in the book." "Yeah, compared to the famous Darwin, this is just a little-known little guy. He's just the doctor on this ship." "Why do you say he changed Darwin's fate?"

"Listen to me and come on slowly. Darwin is on this ship and has the best relationship with two people. One is the captain Fitzroy, and the other is this Dr. Robert McCormick. Darwin is in contact with McCormick In the process of talking, I found that this is a very knowledgeable and very interesting person. He would often talk to Darwin about some weird topics. Some of these topics aroused Darwin's strong interest." "I guess, could it be..." "Exactly. Dr. McCormick told Darwin that all animals in this world - including humans - have gradually evolved from ancient animals, which is the result of natural selection. What particularly shocked Darwin was that, He even said that humans evolved from lower primates." Now it was Wu Leting who was shocked. "You mean it wasn't Darwin who came up with the theory of evolution, but this Dr. Robert McCormick?" "Yes, that's the truth." "But, he's just a doctor, not a biologist. How could he know the law of animal evolution?" "It has nothing to do with his profession. Actually..." Dinon stopped talking. "What's wrong?" Wu Leting asked curiously. "If I told you the truth, you'd think it was pretty crazy." "It's okay, Mr. Di, you can tell." Anyway, I have long been used to your crazy remarks. Dinon was silent for a long time, and said: "The reason why Dr. Robert McCormick knows the mysteries about the origin and evolution of species is because he has personally experienced these things - during tens of thousands of years, he has seen them with his own eyes. Witnessed the evolution and change of species. So, without doing any research, he knew this great fact." Wu Leting stared into Dinong's eyes for half a minute. "Well, what happened after that? What happened after Dr. McCormick told Darwin?" Dinon laughed. "You really won't believe it. But forget it, I didn't intend to make you believe it." His attitude was very open-minded, and he continued. "When Darwin heard Dr. McCormick's strange talk, he didn't believe it at first, but he was very interested. When the ship sailed to some islands in the Pacific Ocean, Darwin found some fossils. The existence of these fossils seemed to be Dr. McCormick's theory could be confirmed. This discovery made him extremely excited. So Darwin searched for fossils of ancient animals all over the world." "During this process, Dr. McCormick gave Darwin a lot of help and support, helped him collect fossils, and helped him analyze, research and explain. Finally, Darwin fully believed in the theory of species evolution and gradually perfected it. Evolutionary ideology. Dr. McCormick did this because he regarded Darwin as his best friend. But he never imagined that this event made Darwin come true, but brought a disaster for himself.” "Ah! Could it be..." "Yeah, when Dr. McCormick was keen to share this great truth with Darwin, he had no idea that Darwin was thinking about a question-now, there are two people in the world who have grasped the gist of this great theory Whoever first announces this theory to the world will win a permanent reputation in the scientific community." "Thus, tragedy happened." Dinon said in a sad tone. "Once, the ship sailed to an isolated island. Darwin asked Dr. McCormick to travel together to investigate a volcano that was still showing signs of eruption. A After an arduous ascent, they stopped in the middle of the cliff to rest. Suddenly, Dr. McCormick felt pushed, and he fell down the steep cliff! However, in a panic, his hand caught a piece of The rock, the body hanging in the air. He shouted to Darwin above for help, but saw a pair of indifferent eyes. Dr. McCormick understood everything, but it was too late. He persisted for about a minute and then fell go down." Wu Leting was completely dumbfounded.She covered her mouth and opened her eyes wide. It took a long time before she said, "Oh my God, it's really terrible. That Dr. McCormick..." "Of course he fell to his death. And Darwin carefully climbed down from the mountain, and then flew to the ship, lying that Dr. McCormick accidentally fell into the boiling lava that was about to erupt when he was exploring the crater. The captain was afraid The volcano erupted, and I didn’t dare to stay any longer, and soon set sail and left—and not long after this incident, the circumnavigation of the world ended.” "After Darwin returned to England, he wrote a book and made this achievement public?" Wu Leting asked. "No, that's not the case. Darwin knew that after Dr. McCormick's death, he was the only person in the world who knew this theory. So he was not in a hurry to make it public, but was extremely cautious about publishing the research results. He knew very well what kind of uproar this theory would cause in the society at that time.However, when he was hesitating, a very strange thing happened. " "whats the matter?" "About this, there should be a record in your book—see, does it mention a man named Alfred Russell Wallace?" Wu Leting buried her head in the book and read this passage: "Yes, it is a young naturalist. Before Darwin published, he published a paper called "The Tendency of the Eternal Separation of Varieties and Original Species". In this article Proposed theories of the origin of species and natural selection that coincide with Darwin's unpublished manuscripts. Some of the sentences are even identical to Darwin's." Wu Leting looked up at Di Nong: "What's going on? How could there be such a coincidence?" Dinon stared at her and said, "Smart girl, do you think it's a coincidence? A mystery that humans haven't uncovered for thousands of years was suddenly known—or discovered by two people. Is it such a coincidence?" "Then what do you think is going on?" Wu Leting really couldn't think of an answer. "According to what you said, only Dr. McCormick and Darwin know this theory. And Dr. McCormick is dead. At that time, Darwin should be the only person in the world who knew this theory—then this How did the scholar named Wallace know about it?" Dinon raised his chin. "Just to remind you—is Dr. McCormick really dead?" Wu Leting said in surprise: "As you said, he fell to his death on the spot." "That's right, he fell to his death." Wu Leting shrugged her shoulders, expressing that she didn't understand. Di Nong stared at Wu Leting mysteriously and said: "You can't figure it out, it's not your fault. Because your imagination is not rich enough to this level. You can't think of it anyway-what a wonderful connection between the dead Dr. McCormick and Wallace .” Wu Leting was stunned for a while, and said, "I really didn't think of it, so please tell me." "I'm afraid that's all I can say. For the rest, please use your imagination." Dinon said. Wu Leting made a dissatisfied expression. "You are like this every time. You don't explain things thoroughly, and you only ask me to guess and imagine—it's a pity that I can't think of anything." Dinon smiled slightly. "I still say the same thing. If we hit it off enough, you will eventually learn the truth of everything. But now, it's not time yet." "...Okay." Wu Leting said helplessly. "Now I want to rest for a while. You don't have to read to me." "Okay." Wu Leting lifted the chair to a place close to the balcony and read a book by herself. At five forty, Mrs. Mai brought dinner.Wu Leting fed Di Nong, and she found that Dinong ate dinner faster than lunch every time—maybe it was because she was about to get off work.Wu Leting was secretly grateful. A little after six, Dinon finished his supper.After Wu Leting wiped the old man's mouth, he offered to leave. It is customary to say hello to the dean before leaving.Wu Leting walked to the office on the fourth floor and lightly knocked on the open door. "Dean Ge, I'm leaving." "Oh, okay." The dean raised his head. "Uh... wait a minute, Wu Leting, let me ask you." "What's the matter, Dean." Wu Leting walked into the office. "Are you used to the job?" "Habit." "That's good. Well... I heard from Dr. Ling Di that Mr. Di really likes you and likes to chat with you—what did he talk to you about?" Wu Leting paused. "It's nothing...he likes to tell me some historical stories, almost all of them are about this topic." "Oh, he—didn't say anything that surprised you?" Wu Leting remembered what Di Nong said he had lived here for thirteen years.But for some reason, her intuition told her not to tell the dean about it.She evaded the important point and said, "The stories he told sometimes made me feel that he was not very mentally normal... However, other than that, there is nothing particularly strange about it." The dean nodded slightly and said, "Actually, you know what——if you don't want to chat with him, just ignore him. You don't have to talk to him so much." Isn't this my job - Wu Leting thought to herself, but didn't ask.She could understand the dean's meaning - she didn't want to communicate too much with Dinon. "Okay, I see, Dean." "Well, there's nothing else to do, you still have to rush home—by the way, you're a foreigner, and you're renting a house now?" "yes." "Is the rented house far from here?" "It's not too far away. It takes more than half an hour to get there by bus." "You live by yourself?" "right." "Where are your parents?" Wu Leting's lips were tightly closed, forming a line.After a long time, he said: "My parents have passed away." The dean opened his mouth. "Ah, I'm sorry..." "It's nothing, Dean. Um... anything else?" "It's okay, you can go back." "Okay, bye." The dean stared at Wu Leting's leaving back, thoughtful.