Just now, I was encouraged by them, and I really felt a little bit...
I went back to bed and replayed the past month's events in my mind like a movie, and I couldn't sleep even more.
I took out my cell phone from under my pillow and checked the time.
Then he couldn't help but open the text message and typed three words: "Teacher Mu." But he was stumped about what to send next.
I thought about it and deleted the three words "Teacher Mu" and replaced them with "you".
What should be written after "you"
I deleted it again.
"Thank you for treating me to dinner."
I typed these seven words and read them again and again.
Finally, I changed "you" to "you", and after making sure the sentence was neither ambiguous nor abrupt, I sent it out. It was exactly one o'clock in the morning.
Surprisingly, he replied to me just a minute or two later.
Three concise words: "You're welcome."
It turned out that he didn't sleep either.
I wrote again: "I also want you to buy me a vodka."
This time he responded even faster than before: "No problem."
I wanted to continue this topic, but I was afraid that he was working, or he was going to take a break, or... or I should stop.
So I turned off my phone, closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
I anxiously awaited my Russian class on Monday night.
Before class, I folded the scarf neatly, put it in a paper bag, and took it to the classroom.
He walked in on time, with a dark grey scarf around his neck.
This class was about the text. Before translating, Mu Chenghe read the text as an example.
He read as he slowly walked down the platform holding the book.
When he reads Russian, his voice is slightly lower than his usual speaking tone, very gentle, not the kind of ups and downs of recitation. The trills and curled tongue sounds are very smooth and pleasant to listen to, no wonder he had such high expectations of me before.
I've heard people say before that Russian and German are very similar, and neither is as soft and pleasant as French.
However, now I think these two languages are very suitable for men to speak. When the guttural sounds rub, people feel a mellow and steady feeling.
I closed my eyes, almost immersed in this foreign language.
In the first class, he said he had been in Russia for about seven or eight years. But does studying abroad take that long
He held the textbook in his left hand, his right hand in his trouser pocket, his thin lips slightly opened and closed, reading the text, and pacing slowly. When he came to my desk, he stretched out his right hand, curled his five fingers, and gently tapped my desk to remind me, and then continued to walk to the back.
Only then did I notice that Bai Lin and the others had already turned the page, but I was still staring at the front. My face turned embarrassed and I quickly turned the page.
We have no classes on Tuesday afternoon.
It happened that Bai Lin's senior brother Li was having a birthday, so he invited us to a famous hot pot restaurant near the school entrance to eat hot pot. The senior brother was nice to Bai Lin, but Bai Lin was like a string bean, and he wouldn't eat anything.
If I hadn't come today, Bai Lin would definitely not have come. This shows that although I am a light bulb, I am a good light bulb that shines and illuminates other people's lives.
The hot pot restaurant is very lively, especially on such snowy days, eating hot pot is the most pleasant thing to do.
After finishing their hearty meal, with their stomachs full, the three of them prepared to take a stroll back to the headquarters campus in the night, facing the cold wind that cut like a knife.
When I arrived at the school gate, I learned that our school also had a program for the Russian Aviation Month. At the entrance of the most prosperous East Gate, there was a huge red sign: "Warmly welcome aviation experts to visit our school for academic guidance." Then it was translated into English and Russian.
There is a bulletin board at the east gate, where you can often see various academic news.
At this moment, there is a huge lecture notice inside the glass column:
"Aerospace Month Academic Exchange - On the Aeroelastic Optimization Design of T-Tail"
Then below, there was a line of words.
"Teacher: Mu Chenghe"
"Mu Chenghe?" We looked at each other and exclaimed in unison, then leaned against the glass door of the window together, trying to see something.
"You also know Teacher Mu?" Senior Brother Li, who studies physics, interrupted and asked.
"This is also the name of our substitute Russian teacher." Bai Lin regained consciousness earlier than me and said to Senior Brother Li.
"Oh. That's a coincidence, exactly?"
"Yeah." I nodded.
I remember he wrote his name on the blackboard when he introduced himself, and I couldn't remember it wrong.
"Are there two teachers with the same name and surname in our school?" Senior Brother Li adjusted the thick lenses of his high-power glasses.
"He's about this tall," Bai Lin gestured, "He looks..."
When describing the appearance, Bai Lin frowned and got stuck. I wonder if she was looking for the idiom I mentioned in her dictionary to describe a beautiful smile.
"What does he look like?" Senior Brother Li asked curiously.
Bai Lin said impatiently: "Anyway, I'm taller than you, more handsome than you, and better looking than you."
Senior Brother Li's heart was probably blocked, and he was also injured and bleeding.
I said, "Our teacher said he spent many years in Russia."
Senior Brother Li immediately said, "Yes, Professor Mu studied abroad at Moscow University."
I asked again unwillingly, "Does he have double eyes? Does he have fair skin? Does he smile with his mouth corners curled up? Does he drive a white car?"
Senior Brother Li said categorically: "We are describing the same person. He is a professor at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of our school."
I was a little petrified when I heard this conclusion.
It really is Mu Chenghe.
How can it be?!
"No way?" Bai Lin wailed with his eyes shining.
Then, Senior Brother Li described to us the extraordinary half-life of Teacher Mu Chenghe.
"You don't know that he's quite normal. It is said that many newspapers have reported on him in the past, but he has kept a low profile in recent years, so fewer people know him."
"I read a report before that said he had a very high IQ. He finished high school at the age of 14. Probably because of the restrictions of the domestic education system, he went to Moscow University to study fluid mechanics. At the age of 21, he published a paper on supersonics and won the Zhukovsky Prize, which is a very successful physics award in Russia. He got a doctorate in physics at the age of 23. Later he came to our school, and after two years he returned to Russia for a while. It seems that the Tupolev Institute invited him to join."
Wait, I remember the word Tupolev, so I asked, "Is it the Russian research institute that designs aircraft?"
"Yes," said Senior Brother Li, "the world's top transport aircraft research institute."
"What's the relationship between fluid mechanics and airplanes?" Bai Lin asked with blinking eyes.
"Aerodynamics is an important branch of fluid mechanics. Humans first sent airplanes into space by studying aerodynamics. This is Professor Mu's specialty." Senior Brother Li said with admiration, "The T-tail he will talk about tomorrow is an important problem in aviation design."
"And then?" I asked.
"He came back last year and was promoted to professor."
"Could he be the legendary... scientist?" I asked cautiously, my heart trembling.
"Yes." Senior Brother Li nodded.
So, I kept digesting what Senior Brother Li said and connecting things together, only then did I realize how careless I had been.
The first time Mu Chenghe called me to his office to ask about the class situation, he said, "I have never taught undergraduates." At that time, I directly understood this sentence as, "He has never been a teacher."
The second time, Mu Chenghe came to the police station to pick up Bai Lin and me. The policeman said to Mu Chenghe, I've seen you in the newspaper.
Even though he was so good at mental arithmetic, I never doubted anything. Then, he told me and Peng Yu about those things, and the curator of the science and technology museum also knew him.
I overlooked so many details. I was so careless.
When Bai Lin and I took the bus back to the West District, the campus bus carrying us turned around at the entrance and circled halfway to the notice board. Under the orange street lights, I saw his name in the glass window from a distance, and it was very conspicuous.
It turns out that he is such an outstanding person that one almost feels like there is a faint halo behind him.
The next day, I skipped half a day of class for the first time and took a bus to the auditorium of the headquarters to watch Mu Chenghe's lecture. When I arrived, I realized that I couldn't just go in if I wanted to.
Bai Lin happened to call me.
"how is it going?"
“I can’t get in.”
"Oh no."
"Give me Brother Li's phone number. Didn't he say yesterday that he would come to listen to something? And I also saw that they were in the department."
"Okay." Bai Lin said.
After a while, I finally found Senior Brother Li. Fortunately, one of their female classmates had originally taken a place, but something happened at home, so there was an empty place for me to go in.
The time had not yet arrived, but the atmosphere in the meeting place was already very serious.
Several cameras had been set up in the back, and the staff on the stage were testing the microphones.
In the first few rows, the names of the seat owners were marked on the tables in front of each seat. Our student seats were at the end, and the seats of the relevant departments were all marked in designated locations and areas. The diagram was clearly marked, and there was also a hostess to lead the way. It turned out that one more person would not work.
People came in one after another.
Except for that year when I went on stage to accept the award on behalf of my father, I have never been to such a formal occasion, even with so many foreign guests.
There was a booklet in front of each seat, with Mu Chenghe's speech printed in Chinese, English and Russian.
When Mu Chenghe appeared on the stage on time, everyone stood up and applauded. He was wearing a dark blue suit, and unlike his usual casual manner, he took a few cautious steps, stood straight, bowed to the audience, and then walked to the podium.
This is an article about wing sensitivity. Except for the Chinese he spoke, I can understand that the whole article is completely incomprehensible.
However, I was unusually not sleepy. I don’t know if it was because the atmosphere here was really unsuitable or because of the cameras at the back.
I saw Mu Chenghe from afar, standing there, putting down the manuscript, smiling calmly, waiting for the host to announce the question-and-answer session.
There were many people asking questions, including students and reporters. Without exception, he answered them all in Chinese.
When a senior from the Physics Department who was sitting in the row in front of me took the microphone and asked a question excitedly, Mu Chenghe's eyes turned to us. Then he saw me and glanced at me lightly without deliberately lingering.
The next week when I went to Russian class, I brought the bag with his scarf again.
Last time, Bai Lin told me not to rush to give it to him. She said, "You can't just give it back so casually, or you'll have an excuse to get close to him when the time comes."
Unexpectedly, she was right.
After school, I deliberately lingered in the classroom to kill time, and then I went to the stairs to wait for him to come down after most people in the classroom had left.
He came down and when he turned the corner he saw me standing there stupidly.
"Teacher Mu." I took the initiative to call him, "Your scarf, thank you."
He took it, and then thought of something and asked me, "Don't you have classes that day? You went to attend the lecture."
"ah?"
"Wednesday, skipped class?" he reminded me.
"Well, I want to go and see you. Bai Lin and the others wanted to go, but I thought it would be bad if so many people skipped classes, so I took the initiative to apply to go on their behalf."
He burst out laughing.
He and I walked out of the Four Religions side by side.
"Teacher Mu, are you really the kind of person they say you are?"
"who?"
"genius."
He smiled and didn't answer immediately. After a long while, he said, "I am an ordinary person."
"Why did you come to the West End to give us this kind of lesson?"
"Your teacher Chen said he left and there was no one to substitute for you, so he asked me if I was willing. He usually does party and league work, and there are only two classes a week, which is not much. I also thought it was interesting, and your department head said he had no objection, so I came."
Of course, our department head made a fortune by hiring a professor to teach a second foreign language.
"Are you and Teacher Chen getting along well?" I don't know if Teacher Chen said anything to him about me.
"Yes. We met at the Moscow Student Association. He was studying at the Pushkin Language Institute and I was at Moscow State University. We were not far from each other. We later returned to China together and got along quite well."
Before we knew it, we had reached the fork below the Sixth Religion Church.
"Why do you want to study aviation? And go to Moscow State University?"
"Because of Zhukovsky."
"Zhukovsky?"
"He is the founder of modern fluid mechanics and the father of Russian aviation. He graduated from Moscow State University and taught there until his death, so I also have a yearning for it."
"Oh." I nodded.
He said: "When I was a child, I read a book written by Zhukovsky. There was a sentence in it that was particularly profound and immediately fascinated me. I thought at the time that I also wanted to be such a person."
"What?" I looked at him.
"He said: Humans are born without wings, and in proportion to their weight and muscle mass, birds are seventy-two times stronger than humans."
Mu Chenghe paused, then continued, "However, I believe that humans will soar into the sky relying on their wisdom rather than their muscles."
After that, I was silent.
But he smiled mischievously at me.
I turned my head to look at his face, and felt a sense of distance coming from nowhere.
When he said the words "will definitely soar into the sky", his expression was as calm as water, but his light-colored eyes looked especially clear and bright on such a night.
Mu Chenghe's hair and eye colors are not dark, not pure jet black, so his skin looks particularly white.
It is said that geniuses tend to be loners, but just like his name, he is an exceptionally kind and lovely person.
Bai Lin often rented some unreliable romance novels from the bookstore in the school's commercial street and read them in the dormitory. After being influenced by them for a long time, I also felt that a man who was deeply in love, who was loyal to love until death and was willing to give up everything was very attractive.
But when I heard what Mu Chenghe said that night, I felt that when a man has a firm belief and fights for it all his life, he will also exude a kind of bewitching charm.