Yan Funing looked at the church-like side building, and deeply felt that only Gothic architecture can show what is called a sense of ceremony in such a gorgeous way, the light beige yellow sandstone bricks form a huge wall, which is inlaid with narrow domed windows, like the shape of a tombstone, and you can see the minarets with light gray roofs when you look up, and those barbed minarets are like sharp pine nuts erected

Feng Zhenzhen walked on the stone-paved walkway with Yan Funing in her arms, with a towering wall on her side, without any doors for entry, only in the center of the wall there was a Gothic domed tower gate building, like a pope triple crown tower, and below the tower was a tall hollow black iron gate, and above the iron gate there was a golden iris relief, shining in the setting sun, like a pile of jewels.

At this moment, on the side of the black iron door stood a tall man in a black Oxford uniform and a black cape, and a blonde woman in a blue dress with a red rose headdress.

Feng Zhenzhen looked at the pair of men and women who were shining in the sunset and whispered: " That's them, that girl is my classmate Gwen Seymour, she is the daughter of the Duke of Somerset, but the Seymour family has no power now, and they all live by collecting land rent and renting out the Duke's House as a museum, but her boyfriend's family is very powerful, and he is the heir of the Cavendish family, called William Perry Cavendis, he himself is now the Earl of Burlington, and will inherit his father's title of Duke of Devon in the futureThe Cavendish family is rich in politicians and scientists, and William Perry Cavendish is not only social, but also very accomplished in academics, like you, published papers in the four major journals of mathematics, when his grandmother Deborah Cavendish died in 14, it also caused a sensation in the UK, if you have seen "Pride and Prejudice", "The Duchess", and the new version of "Jane Eyre", you will definitely remember the huge manor inside, that is called Chatsworth Manor, which is the filming location of these movies, is his home"

In fact, the Cavendish family once struggled to make ends meet in his grandmother's generation, but thanks to her grandmother's proper management, the Cavendish family was restored to glory, and her grandmother's biography mentioned her association with Queen Elizabeth, former Prime Minister Macmillan, former President Kennedy, former Republic of China xxxx, and even Hitler, to this day, the media say that she 'can still easily facilitate the representatives of the Arab world and Israel to sit in the banquet hall of her estate' 'Secret talks', and can also invite the American ambassador and the Chinese ambassador to their home for afternoon tea."

Yan Funing nodded and said in a low voice: "Zhenzhen, I really don't know what to say, I just put forward an idea at random, and you used such a large resource."

Feng Zhenzhen didn't wait for Yan Funing to finish speaking, she immediately interrupted Yan Funing's words, and pretended to be disapprehensive and replied: "It's nothing! It's rare for you to take the initiative to come to Oxford to find me, I can't even satisfy your wish to smile, and I've been in Oxford for three years in vain."

In fact, her tone was full of happiness, Yan Funing turned her head to look at Feng Zhenzhen, and said very sincerely: "Thank you." ”

Maybe all he can do is say "thank you".

"Don't keep saying thank you to me, as long as you come to me often and call me often," Feng Zhenzhen didn't know what Yan Funing was thinking, and said in a low voice.

At this moment, the two had walked not far from Gwen Seymour and William Andrew Cavendis, the setting sun was slanting on the wall, and a pair of very British nobles were standing in front of the black hollow iron door, Feng Zhenzhen waved her hand to Gwen Seymour, slightly increased the volume and said in a pure London accent: "Gwen! I'm sorry to keep you waiting!"

After speaking, Feng Zhenzhen let go of the hand holding Yan Funing, walked to Gwen Seymour, leaned over and hugged Gwen Seymour warmly, which was a hug between acquaintances.

"William and I have just arrived at the academy gate. Gwen Seymour replied with a smile as she stroked Feng Zhenzhen's back.

Then Feng Zhenzhen and William Perry Cavendish shook hands and greeted each other, because Feng Zhenzhen was not married, and William Perry Cavendish did not kiss the hand.

After letting go, Feng Zhenzhen stretched out her hand sideways and introduced to the two: "This is my friend Yan Funing, I told you that the double master's degree in mathematics and physics from Imperial College London has published papers in the "Annals of Mathematics", "New Advances in Mathematics", "Journal of the Chinese Mathematical Society" and "Acta Mathematica Sinica"

This kind of introduction belongs to the Oxford-style way of pretending, and the two sides are not competing for more money, but looking at who has a higher degree and more papers.

After a pause, Feng Zhenzhen Zhang half-turned her head and introduced to Yan Funing: "This is Gwen Seymour, my classmate. ”

Yan Funing lowered his right hand and straightened his body, looked into Gwen Seymour's eyes, bent his body fifteen degrees, made a standard bow, and said: "Good evening, beautiful lady, it is a great honor to meet you for the first time." ”

Gwen Seymour nodded slightly, and politely replied, "I'm glad to meet you, too." ”

Yan Funing straightened his body and turned his head to look at William Perry Cavendish, at this time the two of them were looking at each other, Feng Zhenzhen said: "This is the Earl of Burlington, William Perry Cavendish, who is now studying for a doctorate at All Souls College, the holiest college in Oxford, and has also published papers in the "Annals of Mathematics" and "New Advances in Mathematics". ”

Before William Perry Cavendish could speak, he stretched out his hand to Yan Funing first, and said with a smile: "If my guess is correct, you are Chris Hilbert, the author of "Quasi-Isometric and Deformation of Einstein's Manifolds" and "A Method for Solving L2 Expansion Problems with Optimal Estimation and Applications"

Yan Funing also hurriedly stretched out his hand, shook it with William Perry Cavendis, and said with a smile: "It's really me, I didn't expect you to recognize it!"

William Perry Cavendish said: "When Zhenzhen told me in the afternoon, I guessed that it should be you, so I agreed to her request without hesitation!"

"I've also heard of the name of Wanling Academy for a long time, so I really want to come in and have a look, but I really didn't expect to alarm so many people, I'm really sorry," Yan Funing said.

"If you were studying at Oxford, maybe we would be classmates now, and to be honest, your book "Quasi-Isometric and Morphing of Einstein's Manifolds" inspired me a lot."

The two stood at the door complimenting each other, and even began to discuss the paper written by Yan Funing, holding their hands in the air for a long time, Gwen Seymour, who was standing on the side, looked at the hands of the two people and couldn't help but say: "Oh! William, every time you talk about mathematics, you are more excited than when you talk about me, I sometimes always doubt that you like me a little more, or like mathematics a little more, now it seems that my suspicions are very redundant, you see that it is about to be dinner time, you can't be later than the professors, right?"

William Perry Cavendish turned his head to look at Gwen Seymour, only to realize that he was too engaged, he was very sorry to let go of the hand holding Yan Funing, and said apologetically: "I'm really sorry, I forgot that we came to dinner, let's go in first, and talk while walking." ”

"It's okay, to be honest, I usually do research alone, I rarely communicate with others, I just had a very happy chat with you, we all know that when people ask, 'Hey, what have you been up to lately', it's the most embarrassing, because we often can't explain to other people what we're usually doing!"

William Perry Cavendish laughed "haha", and then winked at Yan Funing, "Yes! Yes, especially when his girlfriend asked."

"I heard a strong sense of superiority in your conversation. Gwen Seymour squinted at William Perry Cavendish and sneered.

William Perry Cavendish hurriedly waved his hand, "No, no, I don't mean to look down on women, but mathematics is indeed somewhat insulated from women." Seeing that Gwen Moses was not good-looking, William Perry Cavendish hurriedly said: "Obviously, if I had to choose between mathematics and you, I would definitely choose to throw myself into your warm embrace, that's obvious."

Hearing William Perry Cavendish's words, Feng Zhenzhen and Gwen Seymour were indifferent, only Yan Funing laughed alone, and even turned around a little exaggeratedly, of course, Yan Funing didn't think that this cold joke that only people who study mathematics understood was funny, but he had to pretend to be amused by William Perry Cavendish at the moment.

"What's so funny?" asked Gwen Seymour, a little puzzled.

William Perry Cavendish shrugged his shoulders, "Soy, apparently this is a joke about the mathematicians' definition of 'obvious' that people who don't study math can't understand, so let's go in first, and dinner will start soon." ”

"Can you promise me not to tell jokes about math today?" said Gwen Seymour, holding William Perry Cavendish's hand and smiling at him, a smile full of menace.

William Perry Cavendish hurriedly said respectfully: "Yes, my beautiful sweetheart." After speaking, William Perry Cavendish turned his head to Feng Zhenzhen and Yan Funing behind him and said, "Now let's go in, it's time to show you how delicious the dinner at the Academy of All Souls is! I dare to swear, it is definitely different from the British cuisine you remember."

Yan Funing replied, "I think this will be a very wonderful experience," and followed William Perry, Cavendish, and Gwen Seymour to the inside of the Academy of All Souls.

As he reached the door, William Perry Cavendish showed his house badge to the heavily armed guard standing behind the door, a coat of arms made of three Tudor roses, and then handed him a red invitation with the coat of arms of All Souls College, opened his wrist and glanced at it, accepted the invitation, and opened the door.

William Perry Cavendish turned back to Yan Funing and said: "Don't mind, we in Oxford are a school that pays great attention to the sense of ceremony, not to mention that you must wear formal clothes during the exam, you must also wear a bow tie, wear a black robe, and wear a white carnation in the first exam, and a red carnation in the last exam, and wear a pink carnation in between, so it's good to get used to it."

Yan Funing nodded, and looked around the interior of the Wanling Academy, the entire Wanling Academy is a mouth-shaped building, the square courtyard in the middle is a large green lawn, except for the main entrance, all the openings are inward, the high wall isolates this academy from the outside world, and the twin bell towers, which symbolize the profound knowledge hall, are introspectively, silently, and arrogantly facing the entrance.

In fact, the Academy of All Souls does not look like an academy at all, but like a miniature city that is impregnable, with a small iron door opening in the majestic portico, which is a pinhole to enter the other world.

Anyone who wants to go in must show their own credentials and a certificate from the College Management Committee.

William Perry Cavendish took Yan Funing and Feng Qianqian along the corridor, and he enthusiastically explained to the two of them where the entrance led by, the Pansoul College looked like a single building like the Pentagon, but in fact the aisle was vertical rather than horizontal. This structure is conducive to keeping it quiet and free from external interference.

Yan Funing was very glad to listen to William Perry Cavendish's explanation, because William was completely different from the British aristocracy he imagined, he was not only dignified, very gentlemanly, and spoke very pleasantly, not only humorous but also without the slightest pretentiousness of being an aristocrat.

In fact, Yan Funing did not expect that he would have a chance to achieve his goal on the first day he came to Oxford, he was ready to spend a long time at Oxford University, so he began to say that he would go to Paul Barrett's class at the Natural History Museum.

However, even if he was lucky, Yan Funing didn't think he would be able to see the target person today.

Finally William and Gwen took Yan Funing and Feng Zhenzhen to the Twin Clock Towers, and William introduced them to their library in the middle of the Twin Clock Towers, and a sundial was installed on the window of the library, and the words carved underneath were: Time Flies but Annotfotten.

Standing under the sundial, William Perry Cavendish said proudly: "This is one of my favorite works by Wren, designed in 1659, and we in England are a country of sundials. We at the University of Oxford, in particular, have preserved the ancient art of sundials very well, as if in the shade of the walls of the college not only counted the whereabouts of the sun, but also learned the wisdom of astronomy, and summoned the sun with Latin commandments."

Yan Funing looked up at the sundial that was installed on the pointed window, and thought to himself, no wonder the Academy of All Souls was not allowed to be visited, there were time symbols representing the Ouroboros everywhere, and these great cultural relics could not be destroyed or hidden, they could only be closed.

"In fact, I never praise Oxford as the oldest university in the UK, nor do I say that it has given birth to 4 kings, 46 Nobel laureates and 25 British prime ministers, but I am proud that in its 800-year history, it has witnessed the whole process of the empire from prosperity to decline, witnessed the bumpy road of mankind's pursuit of truth and civilization, and dedicated countless masters to the world. 800 years of culture have made Oxford synonymous with aristocracy and elite symbolism, and will continue to inspire young talents to pursue this path of glory and dreams," said William Perry Cavendish with affection.

At this time, the passers-by also gave him some applause, and William generously bent down to thank him, straightened up, and pointed to the other side of the clock tower, where someone was entering, the not very spacious mahogany door, and said: "Our cafeteria is next to the library, so we can go to eat and go when we usually read!

Four people enter the mahogany door, as if entering the interior of a church, the empty ceiling is horizontally with mahogany beams, one side of the carving is very complicated, the Gothic iron lattice window reveals the last afterglow of the sunset, the wooden wall under the window hangs countless portraits, three mahogany tables run through the whole hall, the table on both sides is long, the table in the middle is short, like a "Chuan" word, a table lamp is neatly placed on the table, all lit, so although there is no chandelier on the top of the hall, it is all very transparent.

At the moment, the cafeteria is not full, especially on the slightly short table in the middle, and no one is seated. There were quite a few people sitting at the tables on either side, but they were not very full, all of them were dressed in formal attire, and most of them were wearing the black robes characteristic of Oxford, and it was obvious that they were all Oxford students, and they were all students with good academic performance.

William took the three of them to sit down in a vacant place at random, and said: "Originally, Harry Potter wanted to shoot in the cafeteria of our college, but our dean refused to take down the portraits of the previous deans, so the Harry Potter crew could only go to Christ Church College."

Yan Funing sat on the table and looked at the portraits that surrounded the entire cafeteria, almost most of them were not famous figures, but he didn't look at these portraits originally, but took the opportunity to see if there were any target figures in the cafeteria, but unfortunately, he didn't see the characters that Li Jiting asked him to look for in the Academy of All Souls.

"Don't look at their fame, in fact, their contributions are very large, but for some reasons, they are not known. William thought that Yan Funing was thinking about why the people on these portraits didn't know each other, and said with a smile.

Yan Funing was about to speak, when some slightly older people in wide black robes came in from the door, and suddenly the entire canteen stood up, and watched these people enter the table in the middle and sit down.

When the group was all seated, a girl dressed in a maid's costume entered the side door of the cafeteria, carrying silver cutlery and porcelain bowls, and began to arrange the dishes for everyone in order.

When he sat down, William explained to Yan Funing in a low voice: "The table in the middle is only for the instructor to sit, and we must stand up when they are seated, and we can't go when they finish eating, we can't go, we can't go until they leave."