Sir Hermann August Grusen actually left Magdeburg for Berlin on Saturday. So early on a Sunday morning, while Prince Frederick's family was having a lively breakfast, Sir Gruson was brought into the dining room by the servants of the Imperial Palace.

When Crown Prince Frederick saw Sir Grusen suddenly appear in front of him, he could not believe his eyes, pushed away his chair and stood up, and gave his old friend a long warm hug.

Crown Prince Victoria was also very pleasantly surprised by the sudden appearance of her husband and her mutual friend, and hurriedly beckoned the maid to quickly add a pair of clean knives, forks and plates, and then asked the cook to prepare an additional English breakfast of bacon and fried eggs.

The two boys and three girls of the Frederick family stood behind their father and saluted and greeted Sir Gruson one by one. After a lively and brisk warm meeting between relatives, everyone returned to the table.

"Vikki, every time I come here, I can't get enough of your bacon and fried eggs." Sir Grusen said with a smile to the Crown Princess as he ate.

"Stay a few more days, Herman." Princess Victoria also smiled and invited.

"Hermann, I thought you would be in Berlin today, but judging by your appearance, you should have arrived in Berlin yesterday. Don't stay in a hotel in Berlin again, I've already prepared your room, this time I'll have to stay longer, we haven't seen each other for a while, I must have a good chat with you. Crown Prince Frederick also said to Sir Grusen with a serious face.

"Fritz, I wanted to come over yesterday, but I remembered that yesterday was also the time of the monthly salon of the wiki, and you finally got it, you should have gotten the important position you should have gotten a long time ago, I think yesterday will be an important opportunity for you to show yourself for the first time, and I'm not a big name in science, so I think about it or forget it." Sir Grusen shook the fork in his hand and continued to enjoy his breakfast, "You don't blame me, Fritz. ”

"Of course it's to blame, Herman. So you still have a bacon omelette to eat. The crown princess said with a serious face.

"Hahaha, Wiki, I accept this punishment." Sir Grusen put down his knife and fork and raised his hands.

"Uncle Herman, I think you're a great man in botany in the order Cactus!" Joey chimed in.

"Oh, my little Joey calls his Uncle Herman the big guy, Jojo, you know? In Uncle Herman's eyes, he felt that his little Joey was the real big guy. Sir Gruson winked at Joey.

"Herman, you're going to spoil Jojo if you say that." The Crown Princess interrupted Sir Grusen's praise of Joey.

"No, no, no, Vicky, Fritz, don't you know? Yesterday your salon had two great protagonists, one was Fritz and the other was your little Jojo! Sir Grusen looked at the Crown Prince and his wife in astonishment.

Princess Victoria looked at her husband, then at Joey, and asked Sir Gruson with a look of disbelief, "Herman, this joke is not funny, Jojo was helping us to receive our friends from the scientific community at the salon yesterday, and his father said he did a good job, but I don't think it is far from the word great..."

"Ahem, Wiki, yesterday Jojo made some promises of funding to our friends in the scientific community, and I think Joey still has some ideas about these promises. Last night in the study, I also had a careful conversation with Jojo, and I think he has a way of making these promises. The crown prince explained somewhat lightly, "Herman, although I think Joey's idea is okay, but it is definitely not great, and this word is not suitable for Jojo's age." ”

"Oh my God!" Sir Gruson put down his knife and fork, looked at the Crown Princess, who was still a little confused, and then at the Crown Prince, who was breezy and calm, and pointed to Joey with a cramped face and said, "You know my daughter Mary's child, my nine-year-old grandson. If in another two years, he could say half of what Jojo said yesterday. ”

Sir Grusen shook his head gently, put down his knife and fork, put his hands on his forehead, and said softly, "God's choice and salvation for sinners are based on God's own will, and are unknowable to mortals." I feel like Jojo is the one who was chosen by God, and we are all mortal. And there is no knowability about that. ”

The Crown Prince and his wife looked at each other, knowing in their hearts that their old friend was a devout Huguenot, and that the most important sentence of Calvinist doctrine was uttered today to show that Joey's performance yesterday had greatly exceeded their expectations.

Joey's heart is also a little dazed, he was a Protestant in his past life and in this life, and he couldn't be clearer about Calvin's teachings, Uncle Herman's words reminded him of his recent crossing, in fact, he was really a chosen person, and he came to this world to take a new German road again, which should be his fate.

Suddenly, William laughed, "Mom and Dad, Uncle Herman, whatever God chooses Joey to do, he is a member of the Frederick family, and will always be our Joey." Maybe we don't know anything, but we just know that, right? ”

Some of the cold and silent scenes, because of William's words, heated up again.

"Yes, no matter what I choose to do, my home and my family will always come first, no matter how unknowable the world in front of me is, but I know where my original intention is, and I am willing to pray to God for this." Joey swore secretly.

"Wiki, the evaluation of Fritz and Joy's performance yesterday is not actually what I said, but what you scientist friends said. I met several scientists at your salon yesterday at the hotel, and they all had the same opinion of Fritz and Joey, father and son. Sir Grusen looked at William beside him and said, "But after hearing William's words just now, I think that Fritz and Joey are not great anymore. ”

Sir Gruson pointed his finger at Frederick's family in a circle, then stopped his finger in front of Crown Princess Victoria, "I think the greatest person is you, Wiki!" Your husband is the best, your sons are the best, and your daughters are the most beautiful, and it's all because of you! ”

"Bang Bang!" Joey took the lead in applauding her mother! Then William, Ann Maria, Sophie, and Margaret. Crown Prince Frederick held his wife's hand tightly and kissed her passionately.

Crown Princess Victoria has long lost her former cheerfulness, like a young shy girl, and her cheeks have long been stained with intense red.

After breakfast, Crown Prince Frederick and Sir Gruson went into the Crown Prince's study and waited for Joey to show them some drawings.

When Joey knocked on the study door and walked in, Crown Prince Frederick and Sir Grusen were standing in front of the map left by Professor Richthofen last night.

"Fritz, Joey is right, with this map, Germany will have to seize these lands at all costs, you look at these mineral deposits, as long as they are there, German industrialization has the strongest foundation. Fritz, you are about to become Minister of Economy, as your best friend, and as a fairly successful entrepreneur in Germany, I must tell you about the terrible situation that exists in Germany. ”

"The biggest crisis facing German-made products today is that everything we produce has the only value in the world, which is called cheapness!" Sir Gruson looked at the Crown Prince and said with great seriousness.

"Nowadays, no one dares to put this thing on the product that it comes from Germany, and everyone tries to avoid the word "Germany" on the product. Companies that can produce products of decent quality usually refer to their UK-registered companies as British goods, and those cheap companies that directly copy British goods are even more brazen to say that they are British companies. That's not all, the Rhineland often says that they make French products, and the Bavarian region often says that their products are Austrian or Swiss. Even Saxony says that its production is Czech. ”

"In short, now all the companies that produce products seem to be ashamed of Germany and proud of being foreign!" Sir Grusen said bitterly.

"If it goes on like this, you and I, the two of us, will end up being a joke about Germany's industrial dreams. The industries we dreamed of building after the Franco-Prussian War, and the products they produced, were ashamed of Germany. Sir Grusen slammed his fist into the desk in disgust.

"Herman, is it so serious now?" The crown prince asked.

"It's a hundred times more serious than that, because with this brand of copycat cheapness, even if you have the same quality products as the British, the final price can only be sold to 1/3 of the British, or even lower! Fritz, you know how big Britain really is, so our resources are far inferior to the British, we have to buy raw materials from them, and we have to sell the products at prices several times lower than them, and now the profits made by these German companies come from the poor labor of German workers. ”

"That's why the friends of the wiki, every time there is a shout among the German workers, there is a large number of strikes." Sir Gruson whispered to the Crown Prince.

"The workers were actually more tiring than the peasants, and they were often deducted from their wages for various reasons, and the peasants had a slack time, but they had to work seven days a week, not even to go to church. You don't have enough food and clothing, you have no fixed place, and you look at the terrible situation of your wife and children, what will you do if you are a man? Just as the emperor met the November Revolution in 18, now only a spark is needed. ”

"If the workers end up on the streets, would you be willing to take the title of Shotgun Crown Prince Fritz?" Grusen asked his old friend earnestly.

"No, these are all German compatriots, and they have their own reasons to appeal to their claims, and I will not take extreme measures against the workers' strikes, not now, nor in the future!" The crown prince said firmly.

Sir Grusen patted his friend on the shoulder hard, "With your words, there is still hope for Germany." ”

Crown Prince Frederick looked at his old friend and asked, "Herman, you tell me something serious, and I don't believe you don't have an answer." Please tell me. ”

Sir Gruson stared into the Crown Prince's eyes and said after a long time, "What I have just told is only part of the reality, and there are many questions that have not been said. And for these problems, the method I am talking about will be a fierce medicine, which may ruin your present, this hard-won position, and even make you lose some close friends, Fritz, are you still willing to listen? ”

The crown prince looked at his old friend with bright eyes and said: "The people of the Hohenzollerns, everything exists for Germany, this is the legacy of my ancestor Frederick the Great, and it is also my motto." ”