British writer

Carriage to Fleet Street.

When you open the car curtains, you can see striking workers all around, most of them sitting on the ground.

Silence enveloped,

All of London came to a standstill.

Lu Shi opened the small window at the front of the carriage and asked the coachman: "How are you these days? Is business okay?"

The coachman replied while driving: "The horse-drawn carriage union is also making trouble, so the horse-drawn carriages responsible for transporting citizens... such as shared carriages have all stopped operating. But individual customers like you, Professor Lu, are not affected."

Carpool rides are a bit like modern double-decker buses.

There are open-air roof seats above and interior seats in the compartment, which can accommodate a total of eight people.

The coachman was curious,

"Professor Lu, I heard that the court will issue a verdict today?"

There's nothing to hide,

Lu Shi said: "Yes. There is no doubt that Barry Company will lose the lawsuit."

"Huh~"

The coachman let out a sigh of relief.

Lu Shi asked, "Is there something wrong?"

The coachman said: "There is nothing wrong. I heard that only the Mirror reported the matter. Although other newspapers also mentioned the matter, they never came to a conclusion, so I am a little worried."

Lu Shi said "hmm".

In order to express his position, Balfour gave only exclusive information. Even the Times and the Daily Telegraph were vague.

It’s no wonder that other newspapers reported at length but dared not draw conclusions.

Lu Shi said, "Don't worry."

The driver said happily: "I believe Professor Lu."

The two never communicated again.

The carriage slowly turned onto Fleet Street, and the crowd of strikers gradually thinned out.

The coachman's voice sounded: "Here we are, Professor Lu."

Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki jumped out of the carriage.

As a result, before the two of them entered the newspaper office gate, they were stopped by two soldiers from the Coldstream Guards Regiment.

Stephenson emerged from behind,

"Professor Lu!"

He leaned closer with his big belly and whispered: "You're finally here!"

Lu Shi asked: "What do you mean Sir, why are you here?"

Stephenson looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then said: "Professor Lu, what's going on in today's report? The Mirror said that the Prime Minister will resign?"

Lu Shi was a little confused.

"Don't the king know? According to the procedure..."

Stephenson was also speechless.

"You're talking about process? Yes! There is a process for the resignation of a prime minister! But did Mr. Salisbury go too fast? Generally speaking, the precursor to the resignation of a prime minister is the 'dissuasion' within his party. His Majesty the King simply cannot I haven’t heard of it!”

Lu Shi: "..."

Cecil was doing a good job, how could he be persuaded to quit?

Especially during New Year's Day, Cecil was entangled with the Royal Navy's budget issue. Under that situation, senior Conservative MPs did not hold secret meetings and sneak away, but instead became more united.

Of course they would not force Cecil back.

Lu Shi coughed slightly,

"Um...did His Majesty the King have some misunderstanding? Didn't he let the workers' representatives share the same interview board with himself?"

Stephenson also showed a constipated expression and could only smile awkwardly.

No way, he couldn't orchestrate the king behind his back.

Lu Shi understood a little bit,

"Could it be that His Majesty doesn't know that doing so will trigger a chain reaction?"

Stephenson was embarrassed,

"Nothing."

"hiss……"

Lu Shi covered his cheek, his tooth hurt badly.

Now it is finally clear that "The Emperor's New Clothes" is not a fairy tale, but a fable.

He waved,

"Sir, is there anything else? Let's go in and talk."

After saying that, he took the lead into the newspaper office and went straight into the office.

In the relatively small and private space, Stephenson became obviously more comfortable, and the muscles in his face relaxed.

Natsume Soseki poured him a cup of hot tea.

He drank it slowly, and his big belly looked much softer.

Lu Shi said: "Sir, after all...there is something I don't know whether to say or not. Does His Majesty the King know nothing about politics..."

"Pfft! Cough cough cough..."

Stephenson coughed violently.

He put the cup down, wiped the water stains from the corner of his mouth, and warned: "Professor Lu, when you say, 'I don't know whether to say something or not,' then it must not be said. This is a gentleman's etiquette. Foundation Course."

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"Got it. Got it."

You can’t look back on what happened yesterday.

Anyway, Cecil was about to be forced out of office by Edward VII, so it would be completely redundant to talk about what he had and what he didn't have.

Lu Shi asked, "Is there anything else?"

Stephenson nodded,

"There are also some telegrams from the United States. Mainly about the interview with His Majesty."

Lu Shi was surprised,

"That interview was only published in the newspaper three days ago. How did the Americans know about it?"

Stephenson said helplessly: "Expedited across the ocean. It should be that the content of the interview version was directly sent to the United States through multiple long telegrams, and then universities across the United States used expedited telegrams to photograph it back. Because they all speak English, there is no language interaction. It’s a matter of transfer, so three days is enough.”

Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki looked at each other,

Both of them were a little confused.

Lu Shi asked: "With a land area as large as the United States, how did universities from all over the country respond to that interview?"

Stephenson nodded,

"right."

"屮艸芔茻..."

Lu Shi felt that his back molars were about to hurt.

I had long known that the international ranking of universities would be troublesome, but I didn't expect that the reaction from all parties would be so intense.

He asked again: "Sir, how do you know? Have you read the telegram?"

Stephenson touched his nose and seemed a little embarrassed.

Lu Shi: "..."

Vaguely, there was a bad feeling.

He asked in a low voice: "Are those telegrams sent to Buckingham Palace?"

Stephenson quickly shook his head,

"No, no, no. Those telegrams were sent to the American Consulate in London."

Lu Shi added, "Then I understand. Universities in the United States took pictures to the consulate, and asked the consulate to forward them to His Majesty the King. His Majesty the King put aside the problem and put the matter on me again, right?"

Stephenson was even more embarrassed,

"First of all, how can it be called 'leaving the pick'? Secondly, it is not for the consulate to submit it to the king. The real process is that the consulate first submits it to the parliament, and then the parliament sends a copy to the Privy Council and submits it to Buckingham Palace at the same time, and His Majesty out of concern for you trust……"

Before he finished speaking, Lu Shi interrupted directly: "This is what you call, drop! pick! Zi!"

Stephenson stood up and walked to the window.

"The weather is nice today."

Lu Shi understood,

Nothing changed for Edward VII;

Bastard!

This guy is still the same bastard!

Comrade Bastard felt that he should help the trade union, and then he took it upon himself to do it, but he never thought about the political influence that would be involved later.

Maybe I considered it, but I definitely didn't expect Cecil to resign.

In terms of university education, Edward VII decided to engage in international reforms because of his enthusiasm, and did not consider the backlash from universities in the major powers.

It's better now, the basket came out, and I found that I couldn't hold it, so I had to find a place to cover my head to hide the ostrich. Little did I know that my butt was still exposed, and it was very likely that someone would take off my underwear, and it would be clean and naked. .

The most speechless thing is that in the future, Edward VII may become a "wise king" in history.

Such as:

a trailblazer for the Labor Party;

Promoter of education internationalization and industrialization;

Queen Victoria's successor who was better than her master;

…

Lu Shi had a terrible toothache just thinking about it.

He said: "Sir, you don't come here because you want to... Let me declare first that my ability is limited and I cannot handle the Americans."

Stephenson returned to his seat from the window and said with a smile: "Professor Lu is so humble. You are so humble! Even the arrogant French can handle it, let alone the earthy Americans?"

Lu Shi still shook his head firmly,

"Don't."

He no longer wanted the Order of the British Empire.

Stephenson said: "Professor Lu, do you want to take a look first? I have telegrams from various universities in the United States."

Without giving him a chance to refuse, he directly took out a stack of beliefs.

Princeton University,

Cornell University,

Columbia University,

Harvard University,

…

There are more than a dozen letters, and all the famous ones in later generations are here.

Lu Shi had one head and two heads.

He opened an envelope and read the message inside.

——

Dear Prime Minister:

Slightly ahead.

The original intention of university education is to include categories of various subjects and learning purposes.

In this way, it is impossible to use rankings to explain the problem, let alone rankings that treat non-Commonwealth countries differently.

Based on this educational essence, our school will comprehensively sort out the subject evaluation system based on subject highlight projects, and use this to consider the budget target setting system. Any ranking will never be within the scope of our consideration.

Columbia University,

Provost, Arne Teixeira.

——

All he had to do was point his nose and curse, saying that Britain was not pure-hearted.

Lu Shi said: "No chance."

Stephenson said: "Why did Professor Lu draw conclusions so early? His Majesty the King is very optimistic about you~"

Lu Shi: "!@#*￥%..."

There are just too many flaws.

He calmed down for a while, then suppressed the desire to complain and asked: "Has His Majesty the King read all the contents of these telegrams?"

Stephenson shook his head and said, "I read a few letters."

It seems that the content is quite different, which shocked Edward VII.

It can only be said that he thought things too simply, thinking that he was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Emperor of India, and he could give orders and have everyone follow him.

Lu Shi sighed softly: "The brain is a good thing..."

Stephenson looked away,

"I didn't hear anything."

At certain moments, he also wanted to complain about Edward VII like Lu Shi did.

Unfortunately, his identity does not allow it.

Lu Shi added: "The problem now is that Prime Minister Cecil has resigned, and the Conservative Party has to consider a replacement. Regarding the replies from American schools, the officials are simply unable to come forward, and I don't think they are willing to come forward."

As he spoke, he opened the envelope.

The contents of the telegrams vary widely, some are subtle and some are direct.

It can be summed up in one word:

reject.

Lu Shi said: "Columbia, refuse; Penn, politely refuse; Princeton, fiercely refuse; Harvard..."

The voice paused.

Natsume Soseki on the side asked: "What happened to Harvard University?"

Lu Shi replied in surprise: "Harvard University invited us to come over to exchange information about global university rankings. Moreover, Sir Wodehouse and I were invited by name."

He couldn't understand it, but he was shocked.

Stephenson was also confused. He quickly came up and after reading the telegram, he said: "This is..."

He shook the letter,

"look!"

Following his fingers, Lu Shi saw clearly the signature of the message——

Theodore Roosevelt.

When Lu Shi saw this surname, he first thought of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Yalta Conference, but he instantly realized that the timeline was wrong.

Theodore should be that Roosevelt's uncle.

Natsume Soseki on the side suddenly said: "Sure enough, it's not all rejection~"

Lu Shi:? ? ?

Stephenson:? ? ?

The two looked at Natsume Soseki and said in unison: "Is this the problem?"

Natsume Soseki said "Uh..." and asked in confusion: "Ah? So what's the problem?"

Lu Shi sighed,

"Theodore Roosevelt, now Vice President of the United States."

Unexpectedly, Natsume Soseki was not surprised at all and said: "I know. What about the Vice President? Lu, you are now a guest of Buckingham Palace, and you just relied on the Mirror to unseat a conservative British Prime Minister... "

Lu Shi quickly interrupted: "I don't want to say this!"

Natsume Soseki nodded,

"Okay~ okay~ I won't say it. But I think it's not too unreasonable for the vice president to invite you. Of course, if you think that the other party's invitation is not only related to university education, but also has other purposes, then treat it as I did not say."

Lu Shi pondered,

Perhaps, some things really don’t need to be considered so complicated.

He muttered: "His Majesty the King has entrusted the matter of university rankings to the Mirror and the polling project. How do you think Harvard University knows?"

Stephenson on the side suddenly widened his eyes, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

He probably thought of something.

Natsume Soseki had no opinion on this.

He asked Lu Shi: "Will you go? I feel that Sir Wodehouse will be willing to go."

Lu Shi thought for a while,

"go."

Since Harvard University has invited the vice president to be a "lobbyist", it shows that they are very sincere.

Of course, it is also possible that Theodore saw the interests behind this matter, which in turn affected Harvard's judgment.

No matter what the possibility is, the university ranking thing might really work out.

The only problem is...

Lu Shi said: "The Chinese Exclusion Act."

As a bill, it targets immigrants and workers.

It was implemented because of the disgust of the people of the western United States towards Chinese labor;

But in turn, there is an idiom called "what goes up and what goes down takes effect", and the bill has a reaction on the people, making this disgust gradually intensify.

The two reinforce each other, creating a kind of death spiral.

Therefore, even though Lu Shi, as an exchange scholar, had a high social status and was regarded as a "superior person", he could not help but be viewed through tinted glasses and his actions were not necessarily convenient.

Natsume Soseki asked: "Then what should you do?"

Lu Shi looked at Stephenson.

The latter understood and said: "Professor Lu, don't worry, no matter how bad your majesty is... ahem... I mean, your majesty has entrusted you with a heavy responsibility, so he will naturally give you full protection. He should not mind being summoned. The American consul is having afternoon tea.”

Lu Shi said: "Fortunately, our Majesty is not completely giving up."

Stephenson tried to keep a straight face in order not to laugh.

"In that case, I'll take my leave now."

He opened the door and left.

Natsume Soseki and Riku Toki were the only two people left in the room.

They couldn't help but look at each other.

I didn't expect that things would develop like this.

After a while, Lu Shi said: "I have to get busy quickly. Before going to the United States, the serialization of the novel version must be finalized early, because "The Fellowship of the Ring" is about to end. There are also comics of "Jane Eyre" It’s almost over, we need to discuss it carefully..."

Natsume Soseki said: "I will call the editors of each page to come in."