The next day.

Arthur Conan Doyle, who was asleep, rolled over, but his right hand did not touch his beloved wife Hawkins, and he woke up leisurely.

The day is already bright,

Sunlight shines through the curtains and into the house, casting mottled silhouettes on the floor and bed.

"Ha~~~~"

Doyle couldn't help but yawn.

Yesterday, he stayed up all night, not because of creating a new series of Sherlock Holmes, "The Return", but because of reading one over and over again-

"The Village Teacher".

The book was first published in Paris,

But because it was bilingual in English and French, some booksellers in London also got the goods.

Doyle had spent a lot of money to buy it.

He rolled over and got out of bed, stretched, then opened the curtains, and his eyes fell on the bedside table again, and his heart couldn't help but itch, like a cat scratching to read it again.

At this moment, there was a noisy sound outside,

And Hawkins' cry: "Arthur! ”

Doyle pushed open the bedroom door,

I saw Hawkins standing at the door, with bags full of various ingredients hanging on both arms,

"Arthur, come and help."

Doyle walked over and helped Hawkins remove the bits and pieces that were hanging from his body.

Hawkins asked, "Did you just wake up?" ”

Doyle nodded,

"Well, I'm getting ready to ......"

His eyes were drawn to a piece of paper, and he didn't finish the rest of the sentence.

Hawkins didn't notice her husband's strange appearance, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said, "You go rinse your mouth first, shave your beard, and then you have to hurry up and write a book." If you don't hurry up, it's hard for Smith to explain. ”

Doyle didn't pick it up,

He squinted, pulled the paper out, and asked, "What is this?" ”

Hawkins glanced at it,

"It's like what it says above, "The 20 Greatest Britons", it seems to be a poll, and a lot of people participated. Next to the ballot box, there was also information about the deeds of the candidate celebrities, but they could only be read on the spot, and I didn't bring them back. ”

The corners of Doyle's mouth hooked,

"There are more than 20 great men in our British Empire."

As he spoke, his gaze slowly swept over the list.

Hawkins also stepped forward, and suddenly with a surprised expression on his face, he walked quickly into her husband's study.

It wasn't long before she returned, still with a pen in her hand.

She muttered, "That's her." ”

A check mark is placed next to a name.

Doyle:???

"What are you doing?"

Hawkins said: "I'm voting. Isn't it to pick the greatest Englishman? ”

Doyle looked at his wife's name with the right mark -

Emmeline Pankhurst.

He didn't even know him,

"Who is this?"

Hawkins sighed deeply and said, "I still like to brag that men care about politics~ This lady has spoken in parliament many times, don't you know? ”

Doyle was even more confused,

"Speak? Women speaking in parliament? Westminster? ”

Hawkins ruffles his hair,

"It's Clough in Manchester."

Doyle fell into deep thought,

After a long time, he showed a sudden realization and said, "Then I know, you are talking about the Independent Labor Party." Anyway, wasn't the spokesman of that party summoned by the police for the crime of disorder? They refused to pay the fines and most of them went to prison. ”

Hawkins nodded,

"So, the big speech fell to Emmeline."

Doyle was shocked,

"You even called her 'Emmeline'? Do you know? ”

He doesn't remember that his wife had friends from the Independent Labour Party,

It's a woman.

Hawkins glared at her husband and said, "I really haven't seen Emmeline. But her spirit can infect me, even every woman! ”

Hearing this, Doyle understood,

It turns out that Emmeline Pankhurst is a feminist leader, and she is also committed to changing the misfortune of poor women and supporting women's parliamentary suffrage.

Doyle scratched his head and rubbed his fingers against the checkpoint,

He complained, "You should have used a pencil, but now you can't change it." ”

Hawkins was dissatisfied,

"Why do you want to change it!?"

Doyle couldn't help but be speechless for a while, and said, "It's better to mix less with this kind of thing." I've heard that some women in Paris have become frightened, using violent means to fight for their rights, vandalism, arson, suicide ......"

Hawkins rolled his eyes,

"I can't just vote for this one, right?"

Doyle sighed,

"I just feel like I should vote for someone greater."

Hawkins complained: "What a 'greater'! You can't recognize all the people on it, so why do you say who is greater than whom? ”

Doyle was not convinced,

"You're underestimating me! I am a treasure trove of great men in Britain. ”

Hearing her husband say this, Hawkins pointed to his hand casually and said, "Okay, then tell me, who is this Edward Jenner?" What are the great achievements? ”

Doyle: "......"

Unexpectedly, he was silenced by his wife on the spot after just one sentence.

Hawkins was slightly smug and "hummed",

"So, it's not about voting for the de facto 'greatest,' but voting for the 'greatest' in the mind."

A word to wake up the dreamer.

Doyle didn't expect his wife to see it better than himself.

He leaned in and kissed his wife,

Hawkins was a little shy, pushed him in disgust, and said, "Let you rinse your mouth first, you ...... That's it, forgive you. ”

Eyes turned to the paper of voting,

"Who are you going to vote for?"

Doyle said: "There must be Shakespeare in the first place, there's no doubt about it, right? He is the greatest writer of the English language, and his plays are the epitome of our English culture, and I can even assert that Shakespeare is equal to England. ”

Hawkins shrugged, noncommittal.

Doyle asked, "What's wrong?" Disagree? ”

The corners of Hawkins' mouth hooked and said, "No opinion." After all, you're a writer, and I'm a writer's wife. We rightly voted for Shakespeare, the great writer. ”

There is a hint of irony in this.

Doyle heard it, but he didn't think it was wrong, and said: "You have just said that this is not voting for the de facto 'greatest', but voting for the 'greatest' in your mind, didn't I follow your train of thought?" ”

Hawkins: "(ˉ▽ ̄~)cut~~"

"Don't dump the pot on me."

Doyle continued to look down, and drew a sign next to Charles Dickens, William Tindale, William Wallace, and Robert I.

Needless to say, Dickens,

The last three,

William Tyndale was an English Bible translator;

William Wallace, a Scottish national hero;

Robert I, King of Scotland, defended Scotland's independence at the Battle of Bannockburn.

Doyle's choice is very much in line with being a Scottish writer.

Hawkins' lack of interest,

"You can make it yourself, I'll scramble an egg and cut a few pieces of bread."

With that, she grabbed the ingredients and prepared to go into the kitchen.

Doyle scratched his head,

"Do you have any other candidates you want to vote for?"

Hawkins thought for a moment and replied, "Why do you have to choose Her Majesty?" ”

……

Palace of Westminster.

Wardhouse's office.

Churchill pinched the cigar with his right index finger and thumb, and took a slow puff with a relaxed expression.

Across from him, Wardhouse looked helpless,

"Can't you stop snatching my cigar?"

Churchill spreads his hands,

"I can't."

He smiled hesitantly, his eyes swept over the paper on the table, the corners of his mouth curled, and said, "The 20 Greatest Britons"? Interesting! It's really fun! ”

Wardhouse was curious, "What? ”

Churchill said: "Do you think that the thing of voting and ranking is objective? ”

Wardhouse groaned, obviously a little hesitant,

After all, even these elected legislators are not really "objective".

Churchill took his cigar and burned a hole next to the name "Robert Gascoyne-Cecil",

This act is like a fire paint seal,

It's very ceremonial.

Wardhouse frowned and asked, "What?" Are you dissatisfied with the current Prime Minister? Or do you think he's one of the greatest Britons? ”

Churchill grinned and grabbed his cigar and replied vaguely, "Whatever you want to understand." ”

Wardhouse looked at Churchill,

He always felt that the other party was not funny when he smiled, and there was a slightly sinister feeling.

Churchill spreads his hands,

"Hey, you say he's not great, right? He is indeed not very great, after all, the Anglo-Boer war has been like this, and he has an unshirkable responsibility. But it is not appropriate to draw such a conclusion. Isn't it great that he was the heir to Disraeli, who was just a minor henchman in Berlin and helped the Conservatives survive when Gladstone was in full swing? ”

Waldhouse's face darkened,

"If you say so, then I ...... too"

Churchill interrupted the other party's boasting and continued: "Speaking of Disraeli, he is also a great prime minister. almost begged all the way to become the prime minister, and he was still a crappy writer, long-sleeved and good at dancing, talking and laughing, doing a lot of big things, and doing no less petty theft. ”

Wardhouse raised an eyebrow,

Faintly, he sensed what Churchill was trying to say.

Churchill chuckled,

"If you want me to say, there is no 'greatest' in this world."

He probably wouldn't have said that if he had known that he would be voted the first of the 100 greatest Britons in a BBC survey in 2002.

The corners of Wardhouse's mouth hooked, and he looked at the list,

"It's a pity that there is no Benjamin Disraeli."

Churchill laughed,

"Hahahahaha! We politicians can't always think about choosing our own people, right? ”

Wardhouse complained: "Just like you, come and grab my cigar every day, the cat is in my office, stay all morning, get full of smoke, and be embarrassed to say that you are with the Conservative Party?" Come on! ”

Churchill waved his hand,

"Don't talk about that."

He picked up the pen and put a check mark next to Queen Victoria,

The Prime Minister of Flowing Water,

The Queen of Iron,

No matter how good the prime ministers are, they can't compare to Galeries Lafayette.

……

Isle of Wight.

Osborne Palace, the Queen's bedchamber.

Her Majesty's children and grandchildren gathered around the sickbed, looking at the old queen,

They all have a hunch,

The old man in front of him, his life is about to die.

Although the queen's eyes were tightly closed, her eyelids were visibly shaking, and she could see that the eyeballs inside seemed to be rolling restlessly, as if dreaming.

At this time, the doctor at the bedside slowly stood up,

He took off his gloves and shook his head imperceptibly at the Prince of Wales.

Silence is better than sound at this point.

The queen felt something, and opened her right eye,

I don't know if the left eye is because of exhaustion or because it is not controlled by the brain, it closes slightly, only squinting a slit.

The queen scanned everyone in this "one-eyed" state,

"What time is it?"

Everyone looked at each other.

Margarita was the first to react and whispered, "It's a quarter past three o'clock in the afternoon." ”

The Queen sighed,

"Today, Fossey came to see me."

Fossey is the abbreviation for Francis,

And Francis is the Queen's husband, that is, the name of Prince Albert.

For a moment, the room fell silent,

“……”

“……”

“……”

Margarita was the first to hold back, and turned sideways, tears streaming down her face.

Kaiser Wilhelm II stretched out his hand and patted Margarita on the shoulder soothingly.

At this moment, the door was gently pushed open,

The female officer walked in, approached the Prince of Wales, whispered for a while, and then handed out the voting paper for "The Greatest 20 Britons."

The Prince of Wales looked incredulous,

He didn't expect that Lu Shi would use this kind of problem-solving idea.

The imagination of this Chinese is also too wild!

The Prince of Wales stepped forward,

"Mom, in my hand, is the voting paper for 'The 20 Greatest Britons.'"

The queen's chaotic brain suddenly became clear,

Land time is moving!

She said, "Read it to me." ”

The Prince of Wales immediately said: "The list seems to be sorted by initial letter, with Edward Jenner, Isaac Newton, ......"

The queen interrupted: "You wait a minute. Who is Edward Jenner? ”

All the royals were stunned,

They hadn't heard of this man.

The queen sighed, "If you don't learn, you can't do it." Which of you is going to find out who this Edward Jenner is? ”

As a result, after she finished asking, the doctor next to her spoke,

"Dr. Jenner was a medical scientist known for his research and promotion of vaccinia vaccine against smallpox, known as the father of immunology, and opened the way for future generations to study, prompting Pasteur and others to seek treatment and immunity for other diseases."

I hadn't heard of Jenner, but I had heard of smallpox.

The queen showed a satisfied expression,

"The British Empire is full of talent."

Subsequently, he asked the Prince of Wales to continue.

The Prince of Wales slowly read out the list, and whenever he came to an unfamiliar name, he sought help from the field.

Luckily, Osborne Palace has its own library and archives, so it's not too difficult.

And just like that, more than an hour passed,

The list is finished.

It was as if the room had just gone through a long period of science and silence.

After a while, the queen said, "I didn't expect that I could be on a par with Charles III, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Henry V, Henry II, and Edward I." ”

The kings and queens she mentions have established immortal exploits during their reigns.

Take Henry V as an example, he defeated the French army in the Hundred Years' War, defeated and severely damaged France, captured almost half of France, and became the heir to the French throne, and even built the idea of an "Anglo-French Empire".

This is simply a script that only a time-traveler can afford.

Margarita said, "Grandmother, you are the greatest king. ”

This sentence is said sincerely, and there is no sycophancy.

But when the queen heard this, she did not say anything, but asked rhetorically: "Which is greater, Jesus or the Prophet Muhammad, in the world?" ”

Margarita was asked,

"This ......"

Then the queen said, "Then I ask you again, is Euclid greater, or Sir Newton greater?" ”

Her words stunned everyone.

No one knew what the Queen was trying to say.

The queen did not explain much, but stretched out her thin hand and said to the Prince of Wales: "Son, hand me that ballot paper." ”

The Prince of Wales' heart beats violently,

I don't know why, he didn't really want to hand over the paper in his hand, as if after handing it over, he would face unspeakable suffering.

However, the queen is unusually determined,

"Give it to me."

The Prince of Wales stepped forward and handed over the ballot paper.

The queen took it and muttered, "The 20 Greatest Britons...... cough cough cough ......"

Her voice was drowned out by a barrage of coughs.

Margarita hurriedly said, "Grandmother, don't look at it yet, you need to rest!" When the illness is cured, there is a chance. ”

As he spoke, he went to draw the voting paper in the Queen's hand.

But the queen held her hand tightly and muttered something that seemed to be the word "Greatest."

The Prince of Wales patted Margarita on the shoulder,

"Let's get out."

(End of chapter)