Chapter 31

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"Jason, I'm glad you accepted my interview. I heard that you just received an invitation from the French Academy of Sciences, they want you to be an academician, right?" Engels asked with a smile, posing his first question.

"Just a candidate for academician, there are 11 other candidates, it's hard to say if I'll be selected," Zhu Jishi humbly replied.

"Jason, you will definitely be selected as an academician," Mrs. Duren interjected, bringing in two cups of coffee. She placed the coffee cups on a small round table in front of Engels and Zhu Jishi, then pulled a chair and sat behind Zhu Jishi.

"My view is the same as Mrs. Duren's, you will definitely be selected because the French won't miss any chance to show they are smarter than the British," Engels said half-jokingly.

However, what he said was true. Without the trial on January 20th and the conflict between Zhu Jishi and the Royal Medical Society, the French might not have invited this Easterner to become a candidate for the Academy of Sciences so quickly. The problem was that over the past few centuries, the deep-seated resentment between Britain and France had formed a mindset where France would support anything Britain opposed.

Now that the French wanted to highlight their own intelligence by using the "stupidity" of the British, they certainly wouldn't let Zhu Jishi fail to be selected. Moreover, Zhu Jishi's "achievements" in science had long qualified him for the honor of being an academician.

Moreover, he himself was very willing to become an academician. To use an inappropriate analogy, in Europe at present, the status of science is equivalent to Confucianism in China. Becoming an academician of the French Academy of Sciences is like becoming a nationally recognized great Confucian scholar in China, with an even higher status. So, with this halo of protection, even though Zhu Jishi is of the yellow race, he is not someone that any ordinary person in Europe at this time can manipulate. If he had become an academician of the French Academy of Sciences two months earlier, the Royal Medical Society wouldn't have dared to revoke his license, let alone sue him for defamation.

"Jason, let's get back to the topic. What are your thoughts on the hygiene conditions in British hospitals and workers' districts?" Engels sipped his coffee and asked with a smile.

"The hygiene conditions in British hospitals are indeed quite poor, but this is due to the medical community's ignorance of bacteria. I believe it will improve in the future," Zhu Jishi carefully chose his words. The goal of becoming famous had been achieved, and it seemed he had also secured a position as an academician of the French Academy of Sciences. The next goal was to make a fortune, at least to earn back the 7 million pounds that the Qing Dynasty had to pay in the Opium War. Therefore, he didn't want to offend the ruling class of the British Empire anymore.

Hearing Zhu Jishi's answer, a look of disappointment flashed across Engels' face.

"Jason, can you tell us about yourself?" Engels seemed to know that Zhu Jishi and himself were not on the same path, so he quickly changed the topic.

"About myself?"

"Yes, where are you from? Where did you receive your medical education? Where are your family members?" Engels smiled and said, "Jason, you are now a very famous person, so everyone wants to know more about your past."

Hearing this, although Zhu Jishi still had a smile on his face, his expression slowly turned serious. Celebrities have no privacy! He had only been thinking about becoming famous to make money, but he had forgotten about this. In the future, hadn't all celebrities been dug up by tabloid reporters for their past absurdities? If these reporters found out that he had no past, what would they think?

"Yes, Jason, where are you from? I don't think I've ever heard you mention it," the familiar Mrs. Duren asked with big eyes, like a curious child. She and the Isabella she knew had already told Zhu Jishi everything about their past, but Zhu Jishi had never mentioned his own past, which added to his mysterious aura.

Zhu Jishi put down the small coffee cup in his hand and smiled slightly, "Friedrich, I think you can guess some of my past from my appearance, right?"

"Appearance? You are a Tartar, right?" Engels said with a smile. Zhu Jishi had been mistaken for a Tartar by him, Blumstein, Isabella, and others from the beginning, and he had never denied it.

"No, I am not a Tartar, I am Chinese! My Chinese name is Zhu Jishi."

Now that the news of the end of the Opium War had spread throughout Europe, and Zhu Jishi had gained great fame, he was no longer afraid of being labeled as a secret supporter of the Qing Dynasty, so he could openly admit that he was a Chinese.

"Qing? You are a Qing person? Oh my God! You came to Europe from Qing? How did you get here?" Engels stared at Zhu Jishi as if he were an alien. Mrs. Duren even reached out and touched the back of Zhu Jishi's head, "Hey! Why don't you have a braid? Did you cut it off?"

"No! I have never had a braid!" Thinking of that pigtail, Zhu Jishi's face turned somewhat gloomy, and he emphasized, "I am Chinese, not a Qing person!"

Engels and Mrs. Duren stared at Zhu Jishi in a daze, not understanding what he meant.

Zhu Jishi was silent for a moment and explained, "The real China has long been destroyed! The land of China was occupied by the Manchus... the Tartar regime that now rules China, over a hundred years ago. These invaders turned all the Chinese who did not flee into slaves. My ancestors were fortunate enough to leave China in time, so I am not a slave of the Qing Dynasty!"

Saying these words, Zhu Jishi felt somewhat helpless. In the future, he had not been very interested in politics, only wanting to be a good doctor. So, after traveling through time to the 1840s in Europe, he had not planned to seek trouble with the Qing Dynasty and Emperor Daoguang—至少到现在为止没有想过。利用自己掌握的医学和化学知识在这个时空发大财才是他现下的人生理想。至于发财之后要干些什么有意义的事业，也只能到时候再说了。

However, not opposing the Qing Dynasty temporarily did not mean Zhu Jishi loved the Qing Dynasty or was willing to be a loyal subject and slave of the Qing Dynasty with a braid! He was a new generation born in New China and raised under the red flag, naturally loving his country and people. He knew that loving the country meant loving the government, and by this standard, in the 1840s, he should have loved the Qing Dynasty and Emperor Daoguang, or else he would be considered a traitor and a sellout.

So, caught in this contradiction, Zhu Jishi chose to avoid it by directly denying that the Qing Dynasty represented China, instead stating that China was an occupied and enslaved country. There was no reason for the people of an occupied land to love their invaders!

"Then, Jason, I want to know, what are your thoughts on the recently concluded Sino-British trade war?"

Engels' question was indeed sharp, and a look of helplessness appeared on Zhu Jishi's face again. He carefully chose his words and said, "I don't understand why a country with over a million troops like the Qing Dynasty was defeated by just over ten thousand British soldiers? This is really absurd!"

This question, Zhu Jishi had understood before he traveled through time. The corruption of the Qing court, the corruption of the army, and the widespread opium addiction, among other reasons, all explained why the Qing Dynasty was bound to fail. However, after living in Britain for a few months in the 1840s, he found that Britain was also quite corrupt, with officials buying and selling positions, soldiers smoking opium, and the British people suffering just as much.