Beethoven had just returned to Vienna from Heiligenstadt, and in the previous period his hearing problems had become so severe that he could barely hear anything even when he was yelling in his ear.

As a musician, it doesn't get much scarier than that. In the midst of his anxiety, Beethoven had another severe diarrhea and, after consulting a doctor, decided to leave Vienna and recuperate in the suburbs of Heiligenstadt.

In Heiligenstadt, Beethoven's diarrhea problem was solved, but the ear problem was not alleviated and even worsened. Finally, it got to the point where I was almost completely deaf. This made the strong Beethoven extremely desperate, and he once wanted to commit suicide, and even left a famous suicide note for his brother.

But Beethoven finally overcame despair with enough courage to make the whole of humanity proud, and returned to the center of music, the city of Vienna.

In Vienna, Beethoven continued the habit he had developed in Heiligenstadt, leaving his residence early in the morning and going for a walk in a nearby park, accompanied by his student Karl Czerny.

Perhaps because yesterday he managed to write a melody that satisfied him, Beethoven was in a pretty good mood. He strode forward like the legendary beast that could separate the waters. Carl Czerny, who was still a half-grown child, trotted after him with fear, looking from side to side, fearing that his teacher would be struck by a sudden carriage – for his teacher, Mr. Beethoven, could not hear the sound of horses' hooves and bells.

Beethoven walked as he walked and hummed the melody he had written the night before. Beethoven's ears, however, could not hear his own humming, so the tune he hummed was so out of tune that it was so out of tune that he could hear it all in the future—as some later generations would do when they listened to music with headphones and sang along—so that no one could hear what the tune was like except for the Chernier, who followed him and compiled the records for him.

As soon as I arrived at the gate of the park, a huge exclamation came. The sound was so loud that even Beethoven, who was almost completely deaf, could hear it.

Beethoven raised his head in surprise, looked over there, and said, "Karl, what's wrong?" As he spoke, the surprise on his face disappeared—for he didn't hear his own voice.

At this moment, a student-like man with an excited face hurriedly walked towards them with a newspaper in his hand. The student kept muttering something in his mouth, and every now and then he waved his clenched fist twice in the air. Chernier faintly heard the words: "Effort...... Come on...... ...... to Paris Banzai! …… Paris! ”

Chernier quickly stopped the student and asked, "Sir, what's going on?" Is there a war? ”

"War?" The student paused, "Yes, it's a war, the clarion call for a great march into the unknown territory of this world has been sounded, and I can't wait to join this glorious holy war!" ”

"Ah, sir, with whom the hell are you at war?" Cherny didn't understand.

"And the unknown, and the unknown! You can buy a newspaper yourself and look at it! I'm going to the library now, ah...... I've never been so scrappy as I am today! The student said this and ran away.

"Newspapers? That's right, newspapers. Chernier looked around and saw a newsboy coming from there with a stack of freshly printed newspapers, and as he ran, he shouted: "The French Academy of Sciences has set up an amazing prize of one million francs for scholars who have achieved great things in the exploration of unknown worlds!" ”

A crowd gathered around at once, and Cheniere, relying on his small size, slipped through the gap in the crowd, and after a while he got out again with a newspaper and ran to Beethoven, who was smiling and looking at him.

"Carl, your clothes are crumpled." Beethoven said in stumbling language.

Beethoven couldn't hear his own voice anymore, so when he spoke, the pitch and the length of the voice were difficult to control, and it was not easy for others to understand what he was saying, which naturally made Beethoven more withdrawn. Fortunately, Chernier was one of the few people who could understand what Beethoven was saying.

"Look at this paper, sir." "I didn't get the Science Pravda, I only bought the Kommersant, but the news was the same, and it was on the front page." ”

Cheenier knew that Beethoven was not very fond of a newspaper like Kommersant, which had the air of a philistine. However, at that time, there were too many people and too few newspapers, so it was already good to be able to grab such a copy.

Beethoven took the newspaper, and a line of text caught his eye: "The French Academy of Sciences has established the 'Prometheus' Prize, with a prize of up to one million francs!" ”

"One million francs" is in Arabic numerals, and the series of zeros at the end of it almost makes people's eyes glaze a little. The value of the franc is actually much lower than that of the pound, and in gold terms, the gold content of a franc is about 0.29 grams of gold, while the value of a pound is about 7.32 grams of gold. But a million francs, converted into gold, that's a full two hundred and ninety kilograms of gold, so much gold, which is enough to make the vast majority of people who see this news go crazy. Even people like Beethoven, who regarded money like dung, were still shocked.

"The French really value science." Beethoven sighed.

"Isn't it? A million francs, it's unimaginable. You say no. Chernier also sighed.

"Carl, do you regret learning music?" Beethoven didn't actually hear Chenell's exclamation, but the French valued science and actually had a great appetite for Beethoven, because in Beethoven's view, science was also important about talent and effort, not birth. So Beethoven asked this question with a joking flavor and a smile on his face.

"No, I get a headache when I see numbers...... Teacher, I don't think this is something we can do, so let's try to write the prelude to the Olympics first. ”

But in England, when Watt and they saw the news, they were not as calm as Beethoven.

"God, this guy is so generous? A guy is a million francs! With so much money, this is really, a guy has become a millionaire. William, are you intrigued? Watt asked his assistant William Murdoch.

Murdoch laughed, "I remember you mentioned it to me a few months ago. I remember that the award was for basic science, not technology. Except for medicine, basically, anything that can be patented, technical is not within the scope of the award. Well, Mr. Watt, I don't think it's too late for me to change my career to medicine. Even my son, it's too late. Now I can only count on my grandson, who doesn't know where yet. ”

"To say that Dean Bonaparte did mention such a thing to me at that time, he said that the research of basic science is no less difficult than technology - well, I think it is actually more than technology, at least all those damn mathematics, I already have a lot of it that I can't understand - but studying basic science is not like studying technology, you can bring yourself patents, you can't invent a solution to an equation, and then ask everyone who solves the equation in this way to pay you royalties, right?

So he proposed to set up such a bonus to encourage those who devote themselves to basic scientific research, and also to allow them to be compensated with a certain amount of wealth. After all, people who can achieve great things in basic science are very smart people, and if they use their intelligence to do something else, they will probably make more money.

I was very much in agreement with his proposal at the time, and the only thing I didn't expect was that the French would be so generous. At first, I thought that a prize of 10,000 francs would be very generous. Well, by the way, he invited me to be a member of the award committee at that time. As a member of the Jury Committee, I have the right to nominate a candidate and cast one vote in the selection. ”

"And sir, who are you going to recommend?" Although he knew that this matter must not have anything to do with him, he was still full of interest in who would be the lucky one who would have a chance to win the grand prize of one million francs. Yes, as long as he can be shortlisted for this nominee circle, he is the lucky one, because even if he can't get the final prize, he can be shortlisted, which in itself, will bring him great fame.

"Ah, yes, this year we're going to give out prizes in mathematics and medicine. Of the two awards, to be honest, there was no suspense at all in medicine, it was definitely the Irishman named Carol. Well, there must be quite a few people in the UK who don't want to see him win the award because of his political attitude...... However, considering his research on bacteria, it is of great significance in medical epoch-making. I think this award should be undisputed. ”

"So, what about the math?" Murdoch asked.

"Math, there's a lot of competition. I intend to support Mr. Gauss, assistant to Dean Bonaparte. Although Mr. Laplace and Mr. Fourier also have high voices. But I think I'd rather support Mr. Gauss a little bit. Although he probably didn't need me to recommend him. It's a pity that in the two projects this year, we Brits basically only have a part of watching the show. I would love to recommend a British scientist, but in the two fields of mathematics and medicine, it is clear that we are lagging behind the European continent. Well, maybe I should raise this issue at this year's meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences. ”