On Christmas Eve, Pang Xuelin and Wang Muhui accepted the invitation of the Wittens and enjoyed an American-style Christmas dinner at their home.

There was still nearly half a month of Christmas holidays left, and the two discussed it and chose to travel by car.

From Princeton, head south through Philadelphia, Newark, and into the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Delmarva Peninsula Highway, one of the most famous road trips in the United States, is located here.

Located between the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware River, the Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean, the highway is just a few hours' drive from one of the busiest urban corridors in the east, dotted with wetlands and tranquil hydrological landscapes along the way.

Contrary to the hustle and bustle of the city, there are small towns on the piers of the Chesapeake Bay that are home to fishermen.

Life here is long and quiet, as if isolated from the world.

Pang Xuelin and Wang Muhui stopped and stopped all the way, and stayed at a homestay run by a local person at night.

Sometimes I don't want to leave, so I stay in the seaside town for a few days and enjoy the rare world of two.

It wasn't until the evening of January 5 that the two men drove back to Princeton.

In the evening, after the two lingered, Wang Muhui lay in Pang Xuelin's arms, looked at Pang Xuelin with a little confused eyes and said, "Husband, I will go back to class tomorrow, and I won't see you for a long time." ”

A girl who has just fallen in love can't wait to be with her man every day.

For Wang Muhui, the happy time of more than ten days seemed like a quarter of an hour, passing in a flash.

Pang Xuelin kissed her on the forehead and said with a smile: "I drive every weekend to see if you're okay, anyway, Boston is not far from Prince." ”

"Uh-huh!"

Wang Muhui nodded, and thought of one more thing: "Husband, you say, do you want to tell my parents about us?" ”

Pang Xuelin smiled and said: "Yes, it's a pity that we can't go back during the Spring Festival this year, and when I return to China in a few months, I'll go to Lincheng to see Uncle Wang and Aunt Qin, and talk to them about our marriage by the way." ”

"Don't!" Wang Muhui's face suddenly turned red and said, "Husband, can you wait a little longer?" When I go back for the summer vacation, let's go back together and tell them ......"

"Okay, okay...... It's all up to you! ”

……

Early the next morning, Pang Xuelin sent Wang Muhui back to Harvard.

The rest of life at Princeton was simpler and more comfortable.

When he was at Tsinghua University, Pang Xuelin was the deputy dean of the School of Science, and he actually did the work of the dean.

Although there is not much time required for undergraduate students, the Faculty of Science has the departments of mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and various administrative tasks occupy more than half of the daily work.

In Princeton, Pang Xuelin has just joined the company, and there is no need to arrange graduate students for the time being, and the school only arranges one course for Pang Xuelin, that is, to explain Ponzi geometry to undergraduates.

Ponzi geometry is the most cutting-edge theory of modern mathematics, but if the mathematical foundation is a little worse, listening to this course is like listening to a book from heaven.

At Tsinghua University, he also gave a special theoretical course on Ponzi geometry to graduate students.

And when he taught the undergraduates at Princeton, half of them could keep up.

Pang Xuelin had to sigh that Princeton's undergraduate education was awesome.

Time passed day by day, and before I knew it, I had entered February 1994.

This year's Spring Festival is relatively late, and February 10 is Chinese New Year's Eve.

Because it happened to be Thursday, Wang Muhui took two days off from the school, plus the weekend, and made up four days of vacation.

Pang Xuelin drove to Harvard on Wednesday, and when Wang Muhui's morning class was over, he took her to Princeton.

The next day, the two got up early in the morning and went to the supermarket to buy flour, fish, and various fruits and vegetables.

There are no Chinese supermarkets in Princeton, and some Chinese ingredients and seasonings, such as rice wine, chili sauce, soy sauce, five-spice powder, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, bean paste, etc., were bought and brought back by the two of them at an Asian supermarket in Boston.

In addition, Wang Muhui also bought Chinese knots, red paper, ink and so on.

Pang Xuelin wrote couplets, and Wang Muhui cut window flowers.

The two remembered that a year ago, they took advantage of the New Year's to go around to sell New Year's goods, and they couldn't help but smile at each other, and they both felt that things were wrong.

Arrange the festive atmosphere of the small family, and prepare the ingredients for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, Wang Muhui said: "Husband, you will call Professor Witten's family later, and if there are other familiar friends in Princeton, please also call over, please have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner together in the evening, lively and lively." ”

Pang Xuelin thought for a while, nodded and said, "Okay, Xiaohui, then you are busy at home first, and I'll go out." ”

Pang Xuelin first went to find the Witten family across the road, and the Wittens were happy to accept the invitation, and Jenvenie came over to help in advance.

Then, under the leadership of Witten, Pang Xuelin visited Andrew Wiles, Pierre Deligne, and Peter Sanek, and the Wyles and Dreners were happy to accept the invitation, the only regret was that Peter Sanaik was on vacation and had flown to Hawaii with his family a few days earlier.

As for the others, Pang Xuelin is not familiar with them.

In this era, as far as Pang Xuelin knew, among the Chinese, Yao Qizhi and Cui Qi worked at Princeton.

Yao is a 2000 Turing Award winner, a computer expert, who later returned to China to work at Tsinghua University in the real world, and officially transferred his citizenship back to China in 2017.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998 and is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University.

After Pang Xuelin came to Princeton, he had not yet had contact with these two bigwigs, and it was not good to invite them to his house at this time.

In the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Deligne and Mr. and Mrs. Wiles also came to Pang Xuelin's home.

Pang Xuelin accompanied Deligne, Wiles, and Witten to the study to chat, while their wives helped Wang Muhui prepare the ingredients.

Of course, the chef is still Wang Muhui, and the few of them are just starting out.

At six o'clock in the evening, the sumptuous Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was officially baked.

The main dishes are pork dumplings with cabbage and shiitake mushrooms and egg fried rice, and the side dishes are braised pork ribs, tomato sour soup and dragon fish, kung pao chicken, tuna salad, braised prawns, and tamale......

Everyone sat around the oval table, Pang Xuelin raised his goblet, got up and said with a smile: "Professor Deligne, Professor Wiles, Professor Witten, you and your husband are very welcome to come to our house to celebrate the Spring Festival, for us Chinese, the Spring Festival is a special day, it is a festival for relatives, a family festival." We have a saying in China: Eat dumplings on the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and there are no outsiders. It means that people who are busy all year round, people who drift around, generally have to go home during the Spring Festival, two generations of father and son, three generations of grandchildren, and even four generations in the same house, toasting wine, bowing, father and son filial piety, mother and wife, people enjoy the warmth of the world in the sound of firecrackers, in the sound of gongs and drums, and in the sound of laughter. For those of us who are adrift, the Chinese New Year is even more special, and it is your arrival that makes my wife and I feel the warmth of family. I would like to thank you all for this. And I wish you all a happy Spring Festival, happiness and happiness in the new year, and a healthy family! Cheers! ”

"Cheers!"

Everyone raised their glasses and cheered.

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