Chapter 12 Gu Hongming Bet ()

When Chen Zikun followed the old man into the classroom, the students who had been waiting for a long time immediately burst into laughter. Peking University has always been the cradle of progressive culture. It is naturally a ridiculous thing that a professor with a long robe and a braided pigtail appeared on the podium.

The classroom was crowded with people, and even the aisle was full of people, and there were a lot of people standing behind. Peking University students were quite gentlemanly and gave the best position in the front row to the female students. Lin Wenjing and Wang Yueqi were also among them. Seeing their coachman coming in with the professor, Lin Wenjing was full of surprise. Chen Zikun squeezed his eyes at her and felt very proud.

The old man instructed Chen Zikun to sit in the front row and walked up to the podium by himself. He said slowly: "Foreigners say that you can not see the three halls when you come to Beijing, but you must look at Gu Hongming. I believe that I am also a strange old man who was born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married in the East, served in Beiyang, lived in the Republic of China but still had braids, right?"

There was another knowing laughter from the audience. Gu Hongming took off his melon-skin hat, turned around in place, put on the hat and said leisurely: "The braids on my head are tangible, but the braids in your heart are invisible."

The laughter came to an abrupt end. The students of Peking University were all the best. Professor Gu's words woke them up and they had to re-examine this legendary weird old man.

Gu Hongming said: "For President Cai, he hired Gu to teach Latin to Peking University. He must learn Latin when learning Western learning, just as he must learn classical Chinese when learning Chinese."

Suddenly, someone stood up from the audience and shouted: "Professor Gu, I don't agree with you."

Everyone's eyes focused on the handsome young man, and Wang Yueqi lay in Lin Wenjing's ear and said, "Director Xu is so brave that he dares to debate with Professor Gu. I really admire him."

"Well, senior is very brave." Lin Wenjing also looked at Xu Tingge with admiration. Chen Zikun saw it and felt a bottle of jealousy in his heart.

Almost all the students in the classroom focused on Xu Tingge. He was greatly encouraged and said with hilarious words: "The world today is the world of the great powers. Among the great powers, Britain, France, and the virtues of Britain, France and the people are the first. If we Chinese students want to apply what we have learned and enrich the country and the people, we must abandon some outdated and backward things, such as classical Chinese, such as Latin and obscure languages. After the European War, everything is in trouble. My Chinese students should catch up. How can we have time to learn these European aristocrats use to be artful and elegant? I think that the school should abolish Latin and classical Chinese courses. Chinese promotes vernacular Chinese, and foreign languages ​​promotes English and French. I remember Mr. Hu Shi said a sentence..."

"Hu Shizhi's English is vulgar, is it worthy of writing?" Gu Hongming's goatee's beard stuck out and disdainfully interrupted Xu Tingge's speech, "I think you have something new. It turns out that it is Hu Shizhi's thing."

Xu Tingge also wanted to argue that Gu Hongming didn't give him a chance at all. "What's the reason for drinking mellow wine without drinking it, but instead drinking mixed bad wine? Learning classical Chinese is the same as learning Latin, and foreigners even know how to learn Latin, but Hu Shizhi and others are going to carry out a writing revolution. Abandoning classical Chinese will actually cause a disaster that has been a hundred years."

Xu Tingge shouted loudly: "Professor Gu, please let me say something. Mr. Hu Shizhi advocated vernacular Chinese for the sake of 400 million compatriots. Classical Chinese is obscure and difficult to understand, which is very disadvantageous to improving people's wisdom. Similarly, Latin is the same. The German poet Heine once lamented because he could not memorize it, "If the Romans had to learn Latin well first, they probably wouldn't have much time left to conquer the world. What I want to say is that if the purpose of studying culture is not to be the purpose of studying English and French, the university should still take learning English and French as an important course."

There was a lot of applause from the audience, and the students looked at Xu Tingge even more eagerly, and even Lin Wenjing nodded. I guess she also had a deep pain for classical Chinese.

Gu Hongming had already expected this answer, and he said contemptuously: "Heine is just a corrupt scholar. How can it be used as an example? Classical Chinese is the foundation of Chinese studies. After learning it well, vernacular Chinese is naturally no problem. Just as Latin is the originator and prototype of Germanic languages, learning Latin, English, French and Spanish is no problem. There are no courses that cannot be learned in the world, only students who do not work hard. This classmate, I dare to make a bet with you that as long as you are willing to learn, even a coolie with no education can learn Latin."

As he said that, he pointed at Chen Zikun: "Boy, come up."

Chen Zikun walked onto the podium and bowed to everyone.

There was an uproar in the audience, and I don’t know what Gu Hongming sold in the gourd.

"This person is the coachman I was looking for at the door. I didn't know him before and it was about to be on the winter vacation. I plan to use the New Year period to teach him how to learn Latin, at least to the level that is no less than you. Who dares to bet with me?"

There was a buzzing sound in the classroom. Today is the last class before the winter vacation. Those who came to listen to Gu Hongming's lectures include Peking University preparatory and undergraduate students, as well as attendees and trial students, men and women gathered together, and young people were impulsive. How could there be a reason to retreat in such occasions? Xu Tingge said proudly: "I bet a hundred yuan, bet he can't learn it?"

Gu Hongming twisted his goatee and smiled: "Are you still following me? I'll buy it and leave."

Raise one arm,

"I'll bet ten yuan!"

"I'll bet two!"

"Fifty cents!"

The classroom became a casino, and the students and teachers were happy. Gu Hongming also found someone to record the names and bets of all bettors.

"Haha, all of them are lost." Gu Hongming held the list and kept twitching, and suddenly shouted as if he had discovered a new continent: "Oh, there is actually a girl who is winning, Lin Wenjing, two cents, this classmate, please stand up."

Lin Wenjing stood up in response, lowered her head shyly, and pinched the corner of her clothes with her hands.

"Student Lin, can you tell me why you believe that I can win?" Gu Hongming asked with a smile.

Lin Wenjing blushed and her voice was as low as a mosquito. Wang Yueqi said to her: "She said she didn't believe that Professor Gu, you can win, but because that was their coachman, she bet on you."

There was a burst of laughter, and Gu Hongming laughed loudly: "The little girl is really a kind of person, haha, why do you only bet two cents?"

"Because she only has two cents of her monthly pocket money!" Wang Yueqi explained loudly.

Chen Zikun, who had never spoken, was moved and tears were filled with tears. He thought to himself that his wife had your support, let alone Latin, I had to learn even the Book of Heaven.

Gu Hongming said: "The total number of bets is 213 yuan, and the bets are 2.00 yuan. The odds are really great. If you lose, you will lose all the money. If you win, you will not keep all the money and give it to the coachman, brother. What's your name?"

"My name is Chen Zikun, and my courtesy name is Kunwu."

This is the first time that Chen Zikun's name has been remembered by Peking University.

This class is really lively. Teachers and students debate, bets and gambling, and the students have fun. After class, Gu Hongming took out his business card and gave it to Chen Zikun: "If you want to make money, come to Chunshu Hutong, Donghuamen to find me."

"Sir, don't worry, I will definitely make this money." Chen Zikun swore.

"Haha, I'm sure I'm willing to worry about the talents I like." Gu Hongming left casually.

Someone outside shouted: "Mr. Chen Duxiu gave a speech on campus and criticized the current situation, everyone will listen!"

The students immediately rushed out, and in an instant, the classroom was clean, leaving Lin Wenjing alone.

"That... Uncle, I bet two cents. That's all my belongings. You must win." Lin Wenjing said seriously with her round eyes.

Chen Zikun nodded vigorously: "I will definitely live up to your high hopes for Miss." He said that, stretched out his little finger, "Let's pull the hook."

Lin Wenjing tilted her head and looked at Chen Zikun. She thought this big boss was quite cute, so she also stretched out her little finger and hooked him: "Hook and hang it, and it will not be changed for a hundred years."

"It will not change for a hundred years." Chen Zikun's low baritone was full of emotions, youth campus, vows, how romantic this scene is.

Lin Wenjing was not as complicated as Chen Zikun thought. The voices of speech outside were getting louder and louder. She couldn't help but take out a red celluloid pen and said, "Let's start now. I'll write a few words. You can just copy them as you want. Don't be lazy."

As he said that, he tore off a piece of paper from his homework book, wrote a few lines of words, and his face turned a little red after writing, "Actually, I don't understand Latin, I can only teach you some of the most basic cultures. Okay, please write as you like, and give you a pen. Do you know how to hold a pen? It's different from holding a brush. I'll demonstrate it for you. By the way, this is how you hold a pen."

Chen Zikun looked closely and wrote a few lines of simple Chinese characters on the paper: upper, middle, lower, population hand, one, two, three, four, five.

An excited speech came from a distance: "Shameless! The authorities are extremely shameless, and they are ashamed of 40 million compatriots!" Then there was a burst of thunderous cheers.

Lin Wenjing walked quickly to the window, opened it, and looked at the inspiring scene in a corner of the campus. She couldn't help but clenched her fists and said, "The responsibility for revitalizing China is on our shoulders. I want to support Mr. Chen. You write well here, and I will check my homework when you look back." After that, she ran away, and only the invincible sound of youthful footsteps came from the corridor.

Although he wanted to go to campus to shout slogans with his classmates, Chen Zikun still stayed in the classroom to do his homework. He first put the red pen under his nose and sniffed it. There was a faint fragrance, containing the girl's body fragrance. Chen Zikun couldn't help but feel shocked and started writing quickly.

A cold wind blew out of the window. Chen Zikun got up and closed the window. But he knew that the wind blew the paper on the table and floated out of the other window.

"My homework!" Chen Zikun tried hard to grab it, and the paper had already flew away like a butterfly.

On campus, the crowd was excited, Lin Wenjing stood with a group of girls, and Wang Yueqi asked: "Lin Wenjing, why did Professor Gu make this bet?"

Lin Wenjing sighed and said, "Professor Gu is so busy, how can he have time to teach a coachman to learn Latin? Actually, I know that he is using the method of inciting to force his classmates to learn Latin on his own initiative. We cannot let down the teacher's efforts."

In a corner of the campus, two professors wearing long gowns and glasses walked side by side. One of them picked up the paper of words from the ground and couldn't help but smile: "I didn't expect that my Peking University student also acted as a child. This is clearly the content of kindergarten calligraphy, but it was written by a man and a woman. It's so interesting. Uncle Shen might as well watch it."

Another ill-faced gentleman took the paper and looked at it and said, "The handwriting of a woman is beautiful and graceful. I guess it was learned from a private school with extremely strict tutoring. The characters below are gold hooks and iron, and they are powerful and have a strong character. They must be a strange man in the world."
Chapter completed!