The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

To Zhou Hexuan's regret, Montague Norman flatly rejected the prince's invitation to the ball on the grounds that he didn't like too much excitement. Prince Albert is still unable to express his dissatisfaction. Let alone him, even if the old king of England is rejected by Norman, he can only laugh it off.

From the late 1920s to the early 1940s, Montagu Norman held unimaginable power and prestige. He is recognized as the most influential central banker in the world. The New York Times called him the "Monarch of the Invisible Empire" and economic publications described him as the "King of Finance."

Montague Norman was not born into a traditional British aristocracy, but his father, uncle, grandfather, and grandfather... were all bankers. Not only did he inherit the family bank in the UK, his grandparents had invested in the US banking industry decades ago and maintained inextricable ties with large US conglomerates such as Morgan.

The myth of the Rothschild family only remains in fantasy works, and Montagu Norman is the money bag of Britain at this time.

The world economic crisis of 1929 is also inseparable from Montague Norman. This man held an extremely conservative attitude in the economic field and was crazy about gold. He returned Britain to the gold standard in 1926 (during World War I, the British pound had been decoupled from gold), which led to lower interest rates in the United Kingdom and further fueled the irrational prosperity of Wall Street.

The plan to invite Norman through Prince Albert failed, so Zhou Hexuan could only submit his invitation directly. Unexpectedly, he got an invitation from Norman.

Of course, the only invitee was Zhou Hexuan, and Song Ziwen was blocked from the door.

This famous financier is 64 years old, but he still remains single (his marriage broke down), and his residence seriously does not match his identity. It was just an ordinary two-story cement house next to "Holland Park". Norman and his seven servants lived in the house.

The housekeeper was very old, he looked to be at least in his 70s. He had folds on his face that could trap mosquitoes, and he also had some terrible age spots. He bent slightly to salute and said with a serious smile: "Mr. Zhou, please follow me."

"Thank you." Zhou Hexuan smiled.

The old housekeeper, still expressionless, led Zhou Hexuan straight to the door of the house, and then led him to a living room.

This shabby cement house didn't even have wall tiles, and there weren't any exotic flowers or plants in the garden, just some ordinary plants. It wasn't until he entered the cement house that Zhou Hexuan discovered that there was something special inside - the decoration inside the house was extremely weird, or rather non-mainstream, and there was even an oil painting about hell hanging on the wall of the living room.

Montague Norman appeared on crutches. Seeing Zhou Hexuan staring at the oil painting, he smiled and explained: "That is a scene from Dante's "Divine Comedy"."

"Very interesting." Zhou Hexuan could only comment like this.

Montagu Norman personally poured a cup of black tea for Zhou Hexuan, and suddenly asked without warning: "I've heard of you, the mysterious 'Far Eastern Wizard', are you really good at divination?"

Watfak?

Zhou Hexuan looked confused. He had never expected that the controller of the central bank of the British Empire would ask such a strange question when they met.

Montague Norman smiled and said: "I have studied the divination of the Gypsies and am also very interested in the mysterious witchcraft of the East. Can you introduce some secrets about Eastern witchcraft? In return, I can lead you Visit the mummies.”

"Mummy?" Zhou Hexuan was a little dizzy.

Montagu Norman said proudly: "They are real mummies, dug out from the Egyptian pyramids. I have three mummies in my collection, two of which belong to pharaohs, and the owner of one is a cat."

Zhou Hexuan only has "my grass" in his heart. No wonder some people say that Norman is neurotic. How can he not be neurotic if he studies this kind of thing all day long?

"Mr. Norman, actually, I don't know much about Eastern witchcraft." Zhou Hexuan said.

"No need to be modest," Montagu Norman suddenly took out an English version of "The Goddess" and said with a smile, "Mr. Zhou, I am a loyal fan of your book. This "The Goddess" is so well written, Dragon King , river gods, land, city gods, mandrills, fox fairies... Oriental mysticism that makes people obsessed. After reading this book, I want to go to China in person, and it would be even better if I could see the Dragon King."

Nima than!

I call this realistic magicism. Is it good to use magic to insinuate reality? You actually regard it as a popular reading book on mystical science.

Zhou Hexuan felt that this old guy really had some mental problems, so he could only say: "Then you missed a good opportunity. Last year, a dragon fell to death in Northeast China. There were thousands of witnesses. Now the dragon's body is in a collection. In a school showroom.”

"Really? A living dragon?" Montague Norman became excited.

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Of course it is true. Many newspapers in China have reported it. People call it the 'Yingkou Dragon Falling Incident'. The place where the dragon fell to death is called Yingkou."

Zhou Hexuan is really not talking nonsense. "Yingkou Falling Dragon" has always been an unsolved mystery.

Decades later, CCTV's "Discovery" column even ran a special feature that forced a scientific explanation of the incident and believed that the giant dragon was a beached whale. As a result, people across the country were furious. Some eyewitnesses from that year wrote to CCTV, demanding that the "Discovery" column give an explanation.

CCTV finally gave in. When it produced a related program for the second time, it did not dare to draw conclusions easily. It could only say: "Since there is no real object, it has become a historical mystery."

The "Yingkou Falling Dragon Incident" happened two months before Xiao Lingjun entered school. The dragon appeared twice in total.

The first time was in early July, when someone found a live dragon lying on the bank dying. People used straw mats to build a pavilion for it, carried water to water the dragon's body, and asked monks to pray for it every day. It rained heavily for several days. After the rain stopped, the dragon disappeared.

The second time was in early August, when a giant dragon descended from the sky, capsized three boats, damaged factory buildings, and overturned a train, killing nine people. A few days after the accidental dragon disappeared, it was found again in Yingkou, but it was already dead and in a semi-rotted state.

Many newspapers, including "Shengjing Daily" and "Northern Morning News", have relevant reports, and also published a photo of the skeleton of a giant dragon, with two huge dragon horns faintly visible in the photo (the dragon's body is about 10 meters long, and the horns are About 1 meter long). Rumor has it that the dragon is now kept in a normal school in Liaoning for teachers and students to dissect and study.

If Yingkou hadn't been occupied by the Japanese, Zhou Hexuan would have really wanted to take a look. After all, this thing is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Montagu Norman was very interested in this and kept asking Zhou Hexuan for details. This guy is already excited and is even considering spending money to buy the dragon bones back to London for collection. He is indeed extremely obsessed with this mysterious phenomenon.

There are even legends that Montague Norman was proficient in witchcraft and could become invisible through walls at will...

Well, if this guy wasn't a banker, he could be a competent wizard - manual comedy.