Chapter 83: Mammon’s Breath (Request subscription!)
Chapter 83 – Mammon’s Breath (Request subscription!)
Today, the outside of Gray Sam’s Academy was still full of cars and people.
Today’s main speaker was George Avery, but to Arthur’s disappointment, he was neither a chemistry expert nor a medical man.
He was a professional in astronomy, physics and mathematics.
As a man who at the age of 25 became Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, and at the age of 27 became Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University and Director of the Cambridge Observatory, Mr. George Airy was certainly a gifted scholar.
The only drawback was that the content of his lecture was a bit cloudy for Arthur to listen to – ‘The Trajectories of Planetary Motion on the Example of the Moon’.
What Arthur was more interested in than the blackboard filled with formulas was actually the personal feud between George Airy and Mr. Faraday.
It was rumored that Mr. Airy had been a staunch and forceful attacker of Faraday’s assumption of ‘lines of force’, and that he thought it was simply absurd to deal with electric or magnetic fields in terms of a few imaginary lines.
Incidentally, he has also slammed Arthur, who used the concept of ‘lines of force’ in the latest issue of the Royal Society’s special issue, and even Arthur has received far more flak than Faraday.
Because Faraday’s ‘line of force’ concept at least have iron powder experiment support, while Arthur’s Hastings force is completely in the imagination.
Arthur chose to remain maximally silent in response to George Airy’s diatribe, and it certainly wasn’t because he had no temper.
Rather, it was because Arthur really didn’t have much of a stomach for the matter of firing back at scientists.
Normally, Arthur believed that the basis for two normal people to be able to communicate and argue was founded on the knowledge base of both of them in the same dimension.
But in terms of physics alone, he and George Airy were really at different levels, and more importantly, what if he and Airy were arguing and brought up a whole bunch of new concepts and things?
Ever since messing with that Hastings force thing, Arthur felt more and more that he should be careful what he said in the field of science.
Even if he does have some personal vanity, but like a great man of the East said, Arthur even if he wants to be vain, at least consider the personal efforts and the course of history.
Arguing with a professional astrophysicist was a bit of an Exciting thing to do.
Red Devil squatted on Arthur’s head, staring at George Avery, who stood on the podium and gave an impassioned speech, and suddenly opened his mouth.
“Arthur, you’re just going to let this little thing recklessly denigrate your scientific achievements? In my opinion, his level isn’t that high. Let’s do it this way, you put out a little blood, and I’ll give you a detailed explanation of the cosmic law of Utopian non-conservation.
Professor Agares I’m the number one scholar from hell in the field of astronomy, do you want to know why the distribution of stars in the universe is very irregular?”
Arthur heard this and slightly lowered the brim of his hat to cover his eyes.
“Agareth, you’re getting ahead of yourself. And the law of the non-conservation of Uranium, do you realize that even Neptune hasn’t been discovered yet?”
The Red Devil froze at that, “Neptune? Which planet are you talking about?”
Arthur lowered his voice, “The eighth planet of the solar system, of course, the one whose periphery is always off course.”
Agareth’s jaw dropped to the floor when he heard this.
The Red Devil cursed, “Damn! How did you know about it? I thought it was well hidden, how did you find it? Arthur, for fuck’s sake! I told you, you shouldn’t always look up at the stars when night falls! What if you see something you shouldn’t?”
Arthur shook his head gently, “I don’t want to look up and count the stars either, but you know, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, who live in the room next to mine, when night falls, start a passionate ‘Brown Sport’, the sound of which is, well, just too juvenile. ”
“Well, can’t you change your house!”
The Red Devil rubbed his index finger and thumb, making a gesture of counting money, “Arthur, you’re at least a decent gentleman with half a foot in the middle class now, so it shouldn’t be that hard to change a house that matches your status, right? How much savings do you have in your pants pocket now?”
Arthur fished out the small account book from his jacket pocket, checking it while reading it in pieces, “Counting the previous deposit and the wages paid off in the past few months, I have a total income of 39 pounds and 15 shillings.
Expenses, learning allowance for Tom and Tony £2.11 shillings.
Reimbursement to Darwin for the cost of the teaching day’s meal and the carriage ride £5.8 shillings and 8 pence.
Rent was expended at 1 shilling 10p per week, totaling £1 11s for 17 weeks.
Expenses to Robin’s parents for his comfort £10.
My personal expenses for daily meals, buying wine for you, and other miscellaneous expenses, amounted to £5 18s 3p.
So, my current balance in hand is ……”
Arthur took his pen and scribbled in his book, making a few equations, and he quickly came up with the answer.
“Fourteen pounds six shillings and one penny.”
When the Red Devil heard this, he couldn’t help but hold his head and growl, “Arthur! So you’ve been a police inspector for seventeen weeks and your savings have only gone up by four pounds six shillings?!”
Arthur waved his hand as he sternly corrected, “It’s £4.6 shillings and 1p, Agareth, don’t you dare try to sneak in and swallow my 1p.”
Exasperated, the Red Devil fished a penny out of Arthur’s pocket and threw it hard on the floor, only to hear a clink as the coin rolled down the steps and under the skirt of the lady in the front row.
Now, Arthur’s face went black, “Agareth, what are you doing? You’re out of your mind! Quickly pick up that penny! Do you know what a penny can buy?”
The Red Devil glared, “Buy what? That penny is just enough to buy a portion of fries! Ten pounds of big money you’re out as much as you like, and a penny of small money you keep as much as you like. What’s the matter? Are you a seagull? Is the meaning of your life for a portion of fries?” Arthur stared at the penny that slipped under his skirt with two dead eyes, hesitated but sighed and decided to give up.
It really wasn’t wise to mess with a big girl from nowhere for that kind of money.
For the concept of money, Arthur has always been rather vague, perhaps because in his previous life he was used to the simple and convenient conversion ratio, so after switching to the imperial conversion law, he is still a bit confused until now.
But all in all, Arthur can probably vaguely feel that 1 pound is equivalent to 1500RMB, as for the rest of the small denomination currency, he is a bit confused.
Just as Arthur intended to leave the table to change his mood, he suddenly heard a voice that sounded a little familiar coming from the front row.
He turned his eyes to look, and it was none other than Elder who was pretending to be civilized.
Only to see him bend down and pull out a coin from the bottom of the other party’s skirt, revealing a gentle and unobtrusive smile as he spoke at the lady in the front row, “Ma’am, may I ask if this is your coin?”
Almost at the same moment when Elder finished speaking, a clear and loud slapping sound rang out in the venue.
It was immediately followed by a shout of extreme anger, “Disrespect!”
Countless gentlemen who were eager to show their manhood swarmed up and instantly pressed Elder to the bottom of the pile like an iterative Luohan.
Young Master Elder shouted in panic, “Help!”
Arthur hurriedly got up with the intention of leaving the venue, and he was now incredibly grateful for the plainclothes duty order that Sir Peel had just issued yesterday.
It was fortunate that he wasn’t wearing a police uniform today, otherwise Elder would have recognized him and he would have been dragged by the boy into the Thames again, which he couldn’t even wash.
Anyway, he had not come to the Royal Academy to listen to the lecture, but to see the Duke of Sussex to report the results of the survey of the parish of St. Giles and to revise the new thesis in conjunction with Mr. Faraday.
He kept his hat lowered, then crossed the aisle towards the VIP room on the second floor of the venue that was reserved for the Duke of Sussex.
Just as he reached the door, the valet came forward with a smile, ”Mr. Hastings, we thought that you had gone to Mr. Faraday’s laboratory before, but we didn’t find you there. I didn’t expect that you were actually in the lecture hall.”
Arthur smiled and spoke, “I wanted to come back after the lecture, but today’s content feels a bit boring. By the way, is His Highness the Duke inside?”
The valet smiled and pulled open the door of the VIP room, “His Highness is inside discussing artwork with a friend, he has instructed, just go straight in when you arrive.”
Arthur nodded slightly and walked in along the red carpet of the VIP room.
Just after walking in, he saw Duke Sussex sitting under the landscape oil painting, leaning on the leather sofa, holding a red wine glass and listening to the speech through the window glass.
He was wearing a light red, tailored tuxedo today, and sitting next to him was a young man of Arthur’s age, wearing a black suit with a pleated white shirt.
The young man was pointing at the half-meter long sea turtle specimen on the table while smiling and describing its origin.
“Your Highness, this thing is probably only appreciated by people like you who know about museums and art collections.”
Duke Sussex leaned his body forward slightly and moved in front of that specimen to examine it carefully, “Bright green dorsal armor, light red spots on the head, and a yellow-green line on the belly, this is a South American turtle, isn’t it?”
The young man smiled and immediately complimented, “I knew it was right to give it to you, you really know what you are doing.”
At this time, the attendant gently knocked on the door panel and spoke, “Your Highness the Duke, Mr. Hastings has arrived.”
Duke Sussex looked up and immediately clapped his hands with a happy face, “I’ve seen all the newspapers these days, you’ve saved countless lives, I knew that investigating this kind of thing, there’s definitely no problem finding you!”
Arthur first humbly performed an hajj salute, then spoke, “Your Highness, you flatter me. Investigating cases is my duty, it’s no big deal.”
Before Duke Sussex could reply, the young man standing beside him asked with a smile, “Your Highness, could this be that Great Britain’s finest police officer, Inspector Arthur Hastings?”
Duke Sussex winked at the young man, “Lionel, you are very well informed.”
Hearing this, the young man couldn’t help but smile and nod his head, “Your Highness, as you know, those of us in the financial business, if we are not well-informed we are going to lose a lot of money.”
After speaking, the young man took the initiative to walk forward and extended his hand towards Arthur to show his goodwill, “Hello, Mr. Hastings. I heard about you from the mouth of His Highness the Duke a long time ago, I wonder if I can have the honor to know you?”
Arthur was a bit puzzled by the other party as he asked, “May I ask your name?”
As soon as Arthur’s words left his mouth, the young man realized that he was abrupt, he hurriedly smiled to break the embarrassment, “I almost forgot to introduce myself, my name is Lionel Rothschild.
My occupation is a banker, and my hobby is hunting. If in the future you have a need for stocks, loans, etc., or want to find a hunting playmate, you can always come to London Financial City to find me.”
Hearing this, the Red Devil’s shadow suddenly flashed behind Arthur.
Agares fluttered his long tongue as he licked his parched lips, drool dripping onto Arthur’s shoulder.
“Arthur, guess what I smell? That’s, rich, tantalizing, Mammon’s scent!”
(End of chapter)