Trinity College

Cambridge University, founded in 1209, is one of the oldest universities in England.

Its notable alumni include Newton, Maxwell, and Darwin.

From here, over a hundred Nobel Prize winners have emerged—truly staggering.

Of course, the Nobel Prize is still in preparation. It won't be awarded for the first time until next year, 1901.

Cambridge University is located in Cambridgeshire, a town of a few tens of thousands, with the school scattered casually throughout the town.

The university has over thirty colleges, each highly autonomous and holding its own entrance exams.

This is quite different from later Huaxia, where colleges are divided by academic disciplines.

Li Qiwei is at the famous Trinity College, where Lord Newton once studied.

To this day, the college still has that renowned apple tree of universal gravitation.

It's steeped in divine presence!

Following his memory, Li Qiwei had just reached the college gate when suddenly a crowd poured out from inside, noisy and rowdy.

Leading them was a tall, sturdy young Englishman with shoulder-length hair and an arrogant look in his eyes.

Li Qiwei recognized him—Raymond, said to be from some wealthy British family, a typical rich kid.

Usually, Raymond used his status to mock and bully the original Li Qiwei.

The reason was simply Li Qiwei's identity as a man from the Qing Dynasty.

The original Li Qiwei, to avoid trouble, would dodge him whenever possible and try not to clash.

But now, Li Qiwei just smiled faintly and walked calmly toward the crowd.

"Hey, guys, come look—our Cambridge genius is back!" Raymond's annoying voice rang out.

Many students gathered around, murmuring about Li Qiwei.

When Li Qiwei first arrived, he had drawn some attention.

But because he deliberately kept a low profile, people gradually lost interest in him.

Now, after making such a splash, he was back in the spotlight.

Li Qiwei looked at Raymond. With his maturity, he saw him as just a spoiled little brat.

So he didn't care about the veiled sarcasm and said flatly, "What's up? You need something?"

Raymond grinned, circling Li Qiwei, and taunted:

"Bruce, I heard you want to challenge Lord Kelvin. Where do you get the confidence?"

"That's none of your business," Li Qiwei replied coldly.

Raymond's face soured, surprised that Li Qiwei wasn't angry, and continued:

"Keep pretending. You probably don't even know how to spell 'physics,' huh!"

Li Qiwei couldn't be bothered to argue. Trading barbs with Lord Kelvin elevated his status; wasting time with Raymond was pointless.

So he pushed past him and walked toward the classroom.

Raymond, seeing his arrogance, ground his teeth, plotting how to teach Li Qiwei a lesson.

When Li Qiwei entered the classroom, it was already packed, with about a hundred people or so.

Soon, a young man around thirty with a Mediterranean hairstyle stepped onto the podium.

"Hello everyone, I'm Charles Wilson. You can also call me Dr. Wilson."

"This course, Newton's Classical Physics Introduction, will be a study and discussion between you and me."

Though the audience looked calm, Li Qiwei was thrilled.

The young man's information surfaced in his mind:

"Charles Wilson, born in England in 1869."

"Graduated from Cambridge University in 1892, earned his PhD in physics in 1896."

"Became a physics lecturer at Cambridge University in 1900."

"In 1927, shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Compton for inventing the cloud chamber."

A future luminary—solidly T4-tier!

Wilson began his lecture, clear and engaging.

"As we all know, physics has now formed a complete theoretical system. Newton's absolute space-time dominates the world."

"All mechanical phenomena can be explained by Newtonian mechanics; all electromagnetic phenomena, by Maxwell's Equations; and thermal phenomena, by thermodynamics and statistical mechanics."

"The three pillars of physics are unshakable and magnificent."

"Now," Wilson was about to continue.

Just then, Raymond suddenly interrupted: "No, no, Dr. Wilson, physics isn't complete yet. Ask Bruce if you don't believe me—he said so."

The classroom erupted in laughter.

Everyone looked at Li Qiwei—some with goodwill, some with malice, more with mockery than admiration.

Wilson also turned to look at the "famous" young man.

As someone in the field, he naturally knew what had happened in London the day before.

A newcomer in Eastern physics had openly challenged Lord Kelvin!

But Wilson came from a poor family himself and worked in scientific research, so he took a very detached view of racial issues.

Thus, he held little prejudice against Li Qiwei, and was instead more curious.

Could this young man actually have a genius idea?

So he said with a smile, "I've heard about what happened with Bruce. A very brave young man."

With that, he even gave an encouraging look. Li Qiwei nodded in response, which made Raymond seethe.

Wilson continued, "Since we're here, let me take the chance to explain to everyone what the so-called Cloud Problem really is."

"The first cloud is called the Aether Problem."

"We know that water waves need water as a medium to propagate, and sound waves need air. So what medium does light need to propagate?"

"The mainstream view right now is that light needs 'Aether' as a medium, which fills the entire universe."

"But the latest experimental results show that Aether does not exist, and the speed of light is constant."

"So either we abandon the Aether theory, or we abandon electromagnetic theory and many phenomena of light."

"The second cloud is called the Blackbody Radiation Problem."

"We know that any object absorbs energy and radiates energy outward."

"A blackbody is an ideal object that can absorb all incoming radiation without any reflection or transmission."

"But experiments have found that the energy radiated by a blackbody is actually discontinuous—this result is astonishing."

"Classical physics simply cannot explain this phenomenon."

After he finished, the students below were already staring blankly, as if listening to a foreign language.

Wilson couldn't help but laugh.

"I know many of you here may not understand what these two problems mean, but don't be discouraged."

"Because this is the very frontier of modern physics—probably not even a handful of people in the whole world can fully grasp it."

After hearing Wilson's explanation, everyone finally understood just how vast and incomprehensible physics truly was.

If you don't know, you don't know.

At the same time, they became even more convinced that Li Qiwei could never solve the Cloud Problem.

Raymond, though a playboy, still had a sharp mind. He caught Wilson's implication.

So he looked at Li Qiwei with schadenfreude, hoping to see disappointment on his face.

But unfortunately, the only one disappointed was himself.

Li Qiwei watched Wilson and sighed inwardly.

The man kept saying this topic was too advanced, yet he himself laid it out like an expert, clearly well-versed in it.

It showed he wasn't content with mediocrity and always kept up with the latest developments in physics.

No wonder he would later win the Nobel Prize.

Wilson, seeing Li Qiwei's gaze drift, also gave up on the idea of letting him speak.

Maybe this young man had just acted on impulse.

But then he thought again—maybe the kid actually had the ability.

So Wilson came up with an idea, a way to test him.

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