The Secret Behind the Assassin

Li Qiwei stayed in Switzerland for a few more days, spending the time discussing academic matters with Einstein and Grossman. At last, amid their reluctant gazes, he resolutely boarded the train for home.

This time, Li Qiwei and his two companions would first take the train to Paris, then make their way back to London and on to Cambridge.

As they passed through Paris, Li Qiwei had initially thought of visiting a few famous figures.

France had quite a few renowned physicists at the time, including the Curie couple, Paul Langevin, Henri Becquerel, and Jean Perrin.

Every one of them would go on to become a great figure awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

But after thinking it over, Li Qiwei decided that the trip had already been exhausting enough. With Hong'er, a young woman, along, visiting people would be inconvenient.

Besides, the identity of the assassin he had encountered in Berlin remained a mystery. For the sake of safety, it was better to keep a low profile.

So he canceled his plans and chose to head straight home.

After several more days of bumpy travel, the three of them finally returned to their home in Cambridgeshire. It was already close to mid-August, with only about ten days left before term began.

Li Qiwei slept soundly for three days straight before he finally felt like himself again.

In an age without airplanes or high-speed rail, traveling far from home was pure torture. A two-month vacation wasn't even long enough to get from London to Shanghai.

Early one morning, Li Qiwei had just gotten up and was working on the Spark Plan's curriculum when Li San suddenly came rushing in.

"Young master, there's a telegram from the family. Hurry and see if there's any news about the assassin."

Li Qiwei was startled. He quickly stood up, took the telegram, and read it carefully.

Back when they were in Switzerland, Li Qiwei had sent a message to his family through a local telegraph company.

He wanted to find out when he had crossed paths with the assassin from Huaxia. He had also asked how the search for people to join the Spark Plan was going.

Finally, he had told his family not to spare any expense, and to reply by telegram as well. He had left them his address in Cambridge.

So ever since returning, Li Qiwei had sent Li San to wait at the post office every day, ready to bring back any telegram as soon as it arrived.

By then, Europe's wired telegraph service was already fairly well developed.

Cambridge University was a world-famous institution, so the British post office had opened a telegraph service there.

While Li San waited anxiously, Li Qiwei finished reading the message and finally understood what had happened.

He pieced together the clues with his own suspicions and explained the whole story to Li San.

It turned out that this year, on June 21 of the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu's reign, the Qing Court's old demon, Empress Dowager Cixi, had declared war on eleven nations at once because of the Boxer Rebellion.

To preserve Huaxia's strength, Li Hongzhang and the other powerful provincial governors had discussed how to maintain stability in several southeastern provinces. Their arrangement became known as the Southeast Mutual Protection.

Li Hongzhang had even sent a direct telegram to the court: "This is a disorderly command. Guangdong will not obey the edict."

That telegram had also emboldened the governors of the southeastern provinces. Zhang Zhidong, the governor-general of Huguang, then proposed the "Li Hongzhang as President" plan: if Beijing fell, they would jointly nominate Li Hongzhang as China's "president" to take charge of the situation.

The move had undoubtedly enraged the Qing Court, and Empress Dowager Cixi most of all.

Many Manchu nobles shouted that the Han Chinese were about to rebel, and that they had to be taught a lesson.

In truth, the Southeast Mutual Protection had effectively undermined the Qing Dynasty's rule. From that point on, the political order that had united the Manchu and Han peoples began to collapse.

The Li Family, to which Li Qiwei belonged, was a prominent Han family in Guangzhou and a staunch supporter of the Southeast Mutual Protection.

Li Qiwei's father had even met Li Hongzhang in person. Naturally, the Li Family had drawn the attention of people with ulterior motives.

The lofty Empress Dowager Cixi and the Manchu princes and ministers might not care about a small family like the Lis, but there was no guarantee their underlings wouldn't.

After all, everyone wanted to climb the ladder.

The Li Family itself was based in Guangzhou, where the Han Chinese held sway, so the hidden hands watching them couldn't find an opportunity.

But one of the family's young masters was studying abroad in Britain.

That gave Luo Fuyu, the Qing envoy to Britain and imperial commissioner on a diplomatic mission, an opening.

Luo Fuyu was a trusted aide of Prince Qing. It was only thanks to the prince's vigorous recommendation that he had secured such a plum post.

There was no need to explain what sort of man Prince Qing was: greedy, lecherous, and ruthless.

At the time, he was a high-ranking minister in the Qing government's Board of Foreign Affairs, with power and influence to spare. He was amassing wealth on a grand scale while suppressing the Han Chinese.

So Luo Fuyu had tried every way he could to curry favor with Prince Qing, whether by giving him money or doing his dirty work. He hoped only to rise even higher.

After all, it was much easier to become an official when you had connections at court.

So when Luo Fuyu learned that Li Qiwei was a young master of the Li Family, he was thrilled.

He immediately sent his subordinate, Feng Jin, to investigate. What they discovered was astonishing: Li Qiwei was a man of extraordinary intelligence.

Luo Fuyu had no idea what Quantum Mechanics was, but he saw how many foreign scholars admired Li Qiwei.

That was enough to tell him that Li Qiwei was no ordinary person. He might even be studying some strange foreign art with the aim of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty.

So Luo Fuyu decided to have him killed. A man like that would sooner or later become a threat to the Qing Dynasty.

However, although he was the envoy to Britain, he had no military authority. All he had were a few personal guards brought from home.

Feng Jin was the leader of those guards.

So Luo Fuyu had ordered Feng Jin to keep Li Qiwei under constant surveillance and seize the chance to kill him with a single strike.

But he must not be discovered, and he absolutely could not let the foreigners follow the trail back to him.

Otherwise, it would cause a tremendous diplomatic incident.

In those days, when Qing subjects encountered foreigners, they immediately felt three points shorter, officials included.

Against this backdrop, Feng Jin had planned the assassination in Berlin with one subordinate.

At this point, Li San finally understood what had happened.

He ground his teeth in fury and even prepared to grab his spear and put a bullet in that bastard right then and there.

But Li Qiwei stopped him.

"Third Brother, there's no need to rush. Now that we know who we're dealing with, there's nothing to fear."

"We're in Britain. Even if Luo Fuyu had ten times the nerve, he wouldn't dare try to assassinate me here."

"Besides, he's far away overseas and has no support. He can't have many men at his disposal. We've got pistols, so we have nothing to fear."

"Heh. The more he wants to kill me, the bigger a fuss I'll make. Let's see what he does then."

Then Li Qiwei called Hong'er over as well and gave them both a few instructions.

Once Hong'er knew the truth, her anxious heart finally settled.

The place they lived was an important academic center in Britain, with excellent security. There was no need to worry about Luo Fuyu and his people.

And with Li San there to hold the fort, they were safer still.

Though Hong'er often bickered with him, she knew full well how capable he was.

Then Li Qiwei sent Li San and Hong'er off to their respective tasks and turned his attention to another matter in the letter.

In his letter, Li Qiwei's father said that he had no idea what kind of reputation his son had made for himself in Britain. A few young men had recently come by to ask about Li Qiwei, the physicist.

His father had fended them off by saying he didn't know yet, and now wanted to ask Li Qiwei what was going on.

After reading this, Li Qiwei smiled. It seemed his reputation had already reached Huaxia.

But anyone who could come looking for him at this point was surely from a wealthy family; otherwise, they wouldn't have access to such information.

That was all the better. For people like them, going abroad wasn't something frightening, which would make it much easier to carry out the Spark Plan.

So Li Qiwei began writing a letter to tell his father what to do next, and to ask him to wait for further instructions.

He planned to send the information by letter rather than telegram. Telegrams were too expensive, and even the illustrious young master of the Li Family couldn't afford to send them all the time.

He needed to save his money for bigger things.

(Author's note: Historically, Luo Fenglu was the envoy to Britain. The author made some changes for the sake of the plot—let's just call it the Butterfly Effect.)