This is the second time that Chan has stood in the principal's office at West Point, MacArthur bowed his head to review the papers, the setting sun sprinkled on the teak floor of the room, and through the floor-to-ceiling long windows, you can see the flagpole of the large playground, three soldiers are lowering the flag, and the Star-Spangled Banner glows red in the sunset.

The principal did not speak, but Chan remained upright and did not move, and after ten minutes, the school office staff retrieved Chan's admission file, MacArthur carefully flipped through it, and asked, "If I remember correctly, you came to my office as a foreign student two months ago." ”

"Yes, sir." Chan replied.

"So, how do you explain who you are now?" MacArthur tapped through the file and asked, which showed that Chen Zikun was not an overseas student, but an ordinary American student.

Chen Zikun continued to maintain a posture of holding his head high, and replied loudly: "Sir, I don't think this is a contradiction. ”

"Be specific."

"God closed one door but opened another window for me, and I said I would come back, and that's it." Chen Zikun did not squint, and did not show the slightest fear or weakness, because he knew that any cowardice at such a time would arouse deeper suspicion from the other party.

MacArthur did suspect the identity of Chen Zikun, a Chinese who suddenly became an American student and was recommended by the New York State Senator, which is indeed bizarre, but even more bizarre is that all the documents are legal and impeccable.

Could it be that this Chinese has a deep background and energy, this is impossible, China is only a poor and weak medieval country in the Far East, the Chinese do not have the slightest influence in the United States, and it is definitely not ordinary people who can do this in a short time.

Thinking of this, he felt the need to warn the freshman.

"Chen, the most intolerable thing at West Point is dishonesty, if you are found to have cheated in any way, you will be immediately disqualified from the school and never allowed to appear in my military school, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Chen Zikun saluted and prepared to leave.

"Also, if someone abuses you, you can report it to the duty officer." MacArthur added.

"Sir, no one is abusing me." Chen Zikun replied without hesitation, turned around and left the principal's office.

Back in the dormitory, a room full of people looked at him with sincere fear, for fear that he would be followed by the gendarmerie, George licked his lips nervously, Chen Zikun's words could decide his life and death, if he reported truthfully in front of the principal, then he would be kicked out of school tomorrow morning, if this really happened, he simply didn't know how to face it.

Chen Zikun looked serious, fell asleep, saw a room of people still staring at him, sat up impatiently and said, "Are you going to be late tomorrow?" ”

The roommates suddenly cheered lowly, and Chen Zikun said this to mean that it was okay.

George was grateful, stepped forward and stretched out his right hand to Chen Zikun: "Man, you have earned my respect. ”

Chan smiled faintly and reached out to shake him, then every roommate stepped forward to shake hands with Chan, and finally Bill, the kid from San Francisco was moved to tears, and he almost wanted to regard Chan Zikun as an idol.

In fact, the essence of these young cadets is not bad, and they are under the same roof, it is not a good strategy to tear their faces and make enemies, and it is the right way to subdue them with a little trick, this set is a piece of cake for Chen Zikun, who is familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but MacArthur is not so easy to deal with, as long as he finds out that he has the slightest evidence of fraud, he will face the danger of expulsion.

Expulsion of this kind of thing may be a catastrophe for George, but for Chen Zikun, who is used to hob meat, it is simply not worth mentioning, his head has a scar the size of a bowl, and he was expelled from West Point.

……

MacArthur has always regarded the honor of West Point as his life, and will never allow anyone to cheat on the issue of admission, and the West Point school immediately launched a thorough investigation into the authenticity of Chan's file.

Chen Zikun's birth certificate is flawless, and after more than 20 years, it is basically difficult to find the person who handled it back then, logically speaking, it is also valid to be born in the United States and return to live in China, so it is useless to work hard in this regard.

This was not difficult for MacArthur, and he chose to investigate Chan's identity from another aspect.

At noon that day, Chen Zikun was eating in the student cafeteria, when he was suddenly called to the school reception room, and on the large sofa sat a middle-aged man with a big belly, a three-piece black tweed suit, cigar smoke, an angular face and a very well-trimmed mustache, all showing that this was a gentleman of great social status.

General MacArthur sat next to him, motioned for Chan to enter the door and asked him, "Do you know this gentleman?" ”

Chen Zikun's heart sank, he could guess who the person was coming, it should be his recommender, the unknown senator, but it could also be MacArthur's strategy, the person who came was not a senator at all, and he was not tired of deceit, this possibility is quite large.

He hesitated, but replied without hesitation: "Sir, I don't know this gentleman. ”

MacArthur sneered: "Why don't you even know the person who recommended you for admission?" ”

Chen Zikun was speechless.

MacArthur's face was as calm as water, but his resolute eyes told Chan that he had made a decision.

"Okay, you're good to go." MacArthur waved away Chan.

Chen Zikun's back was cold, knowing that his career at West Point was over, he turned around and prepared to leave.

"Wait." The gentleman spoke, "Actually, I don't know this Mr. Chen, so it's not surprising. ”

MacArthur was puzzled: "Senator Stanley, I beg your pardon, I didn't understand you. ”

"That's right, although I don't know him, but he's his uncle, in other words, he's my brother's son, General MacArthur, and Sean once adopted a son in China, and that's him."

MacArthur suddenly realized, Sean. Stanley was an old friend of his, the colonel's medic who had treated 300 wounded in one night at a front-line ambulance station on the Marne, won many medals, and was a true man. Senator Stanley is Sean's younger brother, and both are members of the historic Stanley family.

Chen Zikun suddenly came back to his senses, fate played a little joke on himself, a godfather who met by chance in Beijing two years ago didn't think it would come in handy today.

John. Stanley continued to talk eloquently, telling the story of Chen Zikun who broke into Longtan alone when he was in Beijing, and rescued the robbed girl at gunpoint under the guns of hundreds of ruffians and patrol police.

What a chivalrous Chinese warrior!

"So, in a legal sense, even if he wasn't born in the United States, he's an American citizen, General, are you satisfied with my answer?" Senator Stanley was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he knew very well why MacArthur had invited him to testify in person.

In fact, this matter is indeed a coincidence, the New York mafia Pacino family and the Stanley consortium have always been in contact, Senator Stanley as Pacino's ally in the officialdom, the two sides have always maintained a good cooperative relationship, this time it was the elder Anthony personally came forward to ask Senator Stanley to do him a favor and recommend a friend from China to go to West Point.

Coincidentally, Senator Stanley's daughter is compiling a memoir for Uncle Sean, which chronicles his experiences in China, including this one by Chen Zikun.

Old John always liked to read his daughter's writings, and he was even more familiar with this passage, and when he saw the information provided by the Pacino family, he almost immediately concluded that it was the same person! Not only because the name on the information is the same as the name in the memoir, but also because of my own feelings.

Of course, he didn't mention it to Pacino because he needed Pacino to owe him a favor.

When he received MacArthur's invitation, Senator Stanley guessed that there was something wrong with Pacino's joint, and if West Point found out that he did not know this student and made a recommendation, it would be a serious damage to the senator's reputation, so he did not hesitate to mention the contents of Sean's memoirs.

At this point, the truth was revealed, and a smile appeared on MacArthur's stereotypical military face.

"Alright, you can go back to your dorm." He waved his hand for Chan to leave, and asked Senator Stanley cordially, "Would you like to try our steak and fries?" ”

……

After the student status problem was successfully resolved, Chen Zikun became a prosperous student in West Point, the senior students admired him, and the principal also knew his name, and he seemed to have become a leading figure among the first-year freshmen.

Jian Bing moved from New York to live in West Point, a town where most of the families of military academy faculty members are located, wooden villas are dotted with green trees, and there are post offices, shops, laundries and a small police station on the streets.

The military academy is all-inclusive and does not charge tuition, so Chen Zikun basically has no place to use money, and the nearly 20,000 yuan of travel expenses brought from China is converted into about 7,000 US dollars, which is enough for Jianbing to live a small life without worrying about food and clothing, she rented a house in the town, bought a second-hand Ford car, and often traveled between New York and West Point, living by doing Chinese-style embroidery, and occasionally exchanged some pocket money.

Time flies, two years have passed, Chen Zikun is already a second-level cadet of West Point, and has been promoted to captain of the cadet corps with proud results, and the free time at his disposal has also greatly increased, and he can spend every weekend with Jianbing, and George, Bill and 306's roommates often come to their small house to party, drink beer and eat barbecue.

On the eve of Easter in 1922, when the semester exams were approaching, Chen Zikun changed into civilian clothes and went home on a weekend afternoon, and walked to a place dozens of meters away from his home, when he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

There was a Chevrolet car with a New York license plate parked in front of the house, and the number segment belonged to the Brooklyn borough.