Little Ox's Two Birthdays (Part 2)

As a famous figure in the history of Physics, Little Ox's birthday was somewhat unusual in the 21st Century.

Because if you looked it up, you would find that he had two birthdays:

January 4, 1643, and December 25, 1642.

The reason for this came down to calendar systems. In fact, both birthdays were correct.

However, December 25 used the Julian calendar, while January 4 used the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar was a calendar issued by Julius Caesar, dictator of Ancient Rome, in 46 BC—yes, the guy some bat demon once kicked.

The Julian calendar was a solar calendar, defining one year as the time it took Earth to orbit the Sun once: a tropical year.

But anyone familiar with geography knew that a tropical year was not an integer number of days. It was 365.2422 days.

The Julian calendar set a year at 365 days, slightly shorter than a tropical year. To compensate, every fourth year was made a leap year with 366 days.

This averaged out to 365.25 days per year, 0.0078 days longer than a tropical year.

By simple multiplication, the Julian calendar gained an extra three days every four hundred years. After more than fifteen hundred years, it had accumulated ten extra days.

So in 1582, Pope Gregory issued an order:

That year would lose ten days. The day after October 4, 1582, would not be October 5, but October 15.

At the same time, the rules for leap years were changed. Any year divisible by 4 was a leap year, but for "century years" ending in two zeroes, only those divisible by 400 counted as leap years.

This brought the annual average to 365.2425 days, just 26 seconds longer than a tropical year. It would take roughly three thousand years to accumulate a one-day error.

This new calendar was called the Gregorian calendar, which was the calendar in use today.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, but Britain was not a Catholic country and did not obey the Pope's orders. It delayed adopting the Gregorian calendar until 1752.

In other words, when Little Ox was born, Britain was still using the Julian calendar.

Thus, English-language documents were accustomed to calculating Newton's birthday according to the Julian calendar: December 25, 1642.

Furthermore, many countries adopted the Gregorian calendar even later than Britain. Russia was a particularly typical example, not switching from the Julian calendar until 1919.

For instance, Russia's October Revolution happened on November 7, 1917. So why was it called the October Revolution?

Because Russia was still using the Julian calendar then, and that day was October 25, 1917, in the Julian calendar.

But after other countries switched to the Gregorian calendar, the Eastern Orthodox Church in countries such as Russia continued to insist on using the Julian calendar.

That led to something quite interesting in those countries:

They actually celebrated Christmas on January 7 of the Gregorian calendar. (Interested readers could look it up. The author had once embarrassed himself over this.)

Born on Christmas, bullied in his youth, and always a deeply devout believer.

Thus, during the years Old Master Newton was alive, he firmly believed that he was one of the chosen few selected by God, with the duty and obligation to restore the tampered scriptures to their original form.

Old Master Newton wrote roughly 1.6 to 1.7 million Chinese characters' worth of works in his life, around 84% of which were theological writings. He had originally been a great theologian, and even his study of physics had been intended to better prove God's existence—his lifelong theological journey had later become an independent academic subject, with no low citation index either.

However, Old Master Newton's beliefs differed somewhat from modern doctrine, and Little Ox was currently only a youthful version of himself with no real voice to speak of.

So he had never dared reveal the thoughts in his heart. He could only pretend to be an ordinary student who loved theology and quietly keep his head down.

But unexpectedly, today...

The secret he had concealed in his heart had overlapped with what this foreigner called "This Child"?

This foreign culture's definition of people like him was undoubtedly an extremely effective shot in the arm for Little Ox!

It was like using phosphorus powder to fake ghostly flames. Anyone with scientific knowledge would expose it in minutes, but to someone superstitious about ghosts and gods, it was "mystic arts."

Therefore, for the first time ever, the way Little Ox looked at Xu Yun changed.

He even unusually patted Xu Yun on the shoulder. In his excitement, the wig atop his head nearly shook loose.

If Newton's favorability toward Xu Yun had a progress bar at that moment, it probably would have shot up by 20% with a whoosh.

In high spirits, Newton could not help touching the bronze base again before turning to Xu Yun.

"Fat Fish, let me take you outside for a look."

Naturally, Xu Yun did not refuse.

"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Newton."

With Little Ox leading the way, the two of them left the room for the first time.

Britain in 1665 had yet to undergo the Industrial Revolution. Coal had not yet become a common fuel, and the famous "smog" had not yet appeared.

Thus, the main source of domestic fog was the meeting of the warmer North Atlantic current and the colder waters around the British Isles, along with large amounts of warm air blowing in from the sea and colliding with colder air masses above the islands, creating sea fog and land fog.

Though this natural fog was equally thick, it did not bring a suffocating sense of despair, much less carry blood, tears, and sin.

And since the weather was fairly nice today, the rural atmosphere of the 17th century was still especially vivid at a glance.

Of course, the "atmosphere of daily life" was equally strong—one particular smell was coming from Little Ox himself.

After all, body odor would not voluntarily stay away just because someone happened to be a Physicist.

According to Old Master Newton's manuscripts compiled by Michael White, Newton went to London's public bathhouses for a wash once every month and a half on average during his school days. Aside from that, there was only the baptismal portion of Mass.

Lincolnshire did not have bathing facilities like London's at the moment, so Little Ox's scent was rather distinctive.

Perhaps because Xu Yun's earlier description of "This Child" had suited his tastes, Little Ox was much friendlier than before.

Pointing north of the house, he took the initiative to explain:

"Fat Fish, that direction has Woolsthorpe's only windmill. Every household gets the flour for its bread ground there.

"But if you want to grind flour, you'd better line up early. Otherwise, a group of old ladies will stand around watching you. Those village women can be quite gossipy—especially with your Eastern appearance. You're simply too exotic."

Hearing Newton's words, the previously calm Xu Yun suddenly pictured a group of old ladies pointing and whispering about him:

"Just look at him, Mrs. Lennon. He looks even stranger than Benjamin next door."

"Aunt George, please stop your foolish prairie-dog behavior. It's very rude!"

"Oh, my dear God, you haven't taken a liking to this young man, have you? If Uncle Henry sees this, he'll surely go mad!"

At the thought, a row of cold sweat immediately formed on Xu Yun's forehead.

Good grief, old ladies at the village entrance really were nearly unsolvable creatures in every age and every country.

Little Ox then introduced several other less conspicuous places. Finally, he patted Xu Yun on the shoulder.

"Fat Fish, follow me."

Only then did Xu Yun snap back to his senses. He obediently followed Little Ox for a few steps and arrived outside a low storage shed.

Little Ox then took out an ancient-looking key. It was extremely crude in appearance and even bore traces of decayed rust—modern pin tumbler locks would not be invented by Linus Yale Jr. until 1860, and locks before then could hardly be said to possess any craftsmanship.

Little Ox twisted the lock a few times, pushed open the wooden door, and pulled out two axes.

Seeing Little Ox looking like one of Liangshan's heroes, Xu Yun could not help growing curious.

"Mr. Newton, are we going to...?"

"Chop some wood, then take you to meet my uncle's family. We'll be eating at his place from now on. Don't worry, my cousins are all very cute."

"Oh, your uncle's house."

Xu Yun nodded subconsciously, but the next second, he suddenly realized something. His eyes widened to the size of thirty-one Li Ronghaos.

"Wait, female cousins?"