Pass?

After visiting the University of Naples, their trip to Italy came to an end. Throughout their travels, Joseph and his companions received a warm welcome in every city and country they visited. Each city and country presented Joseph with various medals representing the highest honors, and even the Papal States, busy with the death of the Pope and the coronation of the Protestantism, presented Joseph with a precious Golden Rose.

The Golden Rose is the highest-ranking gift from the Holy See, specifically for Catholicism royalty. Each Golden Rose is made of pure gold and is usually decorated with precious jewels. More importantly, each Golden Rose is Reliquary containing fragments of the True Cross.

The Holy See often presents such gifts to royal families and nobles who have supported Catholicism, in recognition of their patronage and service to the Church. Now that Napoleon is the Rome and Joseph is the Viceroy of the Roman Empire, it is fitting to bestow such a gift upon him.

In theory, the Golden Rose contains fragments of the True Cross, is limited in number, and carries great significance, so those who receive it should be filled with trepidation. However, in reality, this is not necessarily the case. For example, when King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his Spain princess wife, the Pope refused his request. But to appease Henry VIII, the Pope sent him the Golden Rose. As a result, after receiving the Golden Rose, Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church.

Although Joseph wouldn't create an Anglican Church (frankly, the France Church was far more despicable than the Anglican Church), like Henry VIII, he didn't take the Holy See's so-called highest honor too seriously. He put the Golden Rose and all sorts of other medals into a small box and gave it to little Alice as a toy.

It is said that later, a friend of Joseph's came to visit and found little Alice playing with the Golden Rose of the Holy See as a toy. He asked, "You should know how great an honor it is to receive a Golden Rose from the Holy See. How can you let your child play with it?" Joseph replied nonchalantly, "I want my child to know that honor is like a toy; it's only for playing with. You can't hold onto it forever, or you'll achieve nothing."

Of course, whether this legend is reliable is uncertain. In any case, there is no record of it in Napoleon's memoirs or the memoirs of Joseph's students. However, the story is still widely circulated.

After resting for a few days in Naples, Joseph and his party boarded a France steamship and, escorted by a French Navy steam-powered cruiser, returned to Marseille.

Upon arriving in Marseille, Joseph noticed that little Alice was a bit tired after a long voyage at sea, so they rested for another day in Marseille before boarding the train together to return to Paris.

Napoleon, accompanied by Lucien and other nobles of the Roman Empire, greeted Joseph and his entourage at the train station. Neither Napoleon nor Joseph made any remarks. However, as Joseph approached Napoleon, he whispered, "You and Lucien, come to my place tonight."

Napoleon paused slightly, but he quickly regained his composure—this was part of the plan—and said in a low voice, "Very well."

That evening, Napoleon brought Lucien to Joseph's house.

"Ah, Napoleon, Lucien, and Joseph are in the study," Fanny said to them. Her lower abdomen was noticeably swollen.

"Sister-in-law, my brother..." Lucien quickly inquired.

"Joseph is trying hard to act angry, but he's not actually that angry," Fanny laughed.

Upon hearing this, Napoleon quickly said to Fanny, "Thank you."

Fanny smiled slightly and said, "Alright, go on ahead. Joseph is trying hard to find the feeling of being alive. You should go early, he might not have found it yet."

Fanny knew that Joseph wasn't really angry; he was just pretending to be angry to save face. To be honest, Fanny often found the brotherly affection between the Bonaparte brothers particularly amusing.

Napoleon then fell silent and, with Lucien in tow, walked toward his study with the same determination and momentum that Caesar displayed when crossing the Rubicon River.

Napoleon knocked gently on the door.

"Come in!" came Joseph's voice from inside. The voice was calm, and Napoleon felt a chill: trouble. Joseph was prepared.

At this point, however, there was no other way but to bite the bullet and push forward. So Napoleon reached out and pushed open the door, leading Lucien into the small living room.

Joseph was sitting in a chair behind his desk, with a document on the desk in front of him. Joseph was flipping through the document by the light of the desk lamp.

Hearing the door open, he looked up and glanced at the two brothers, then said, "Sit down."

Napoleon and Lucien then sat down in their respective chairs.

"Napoleon, if you truly wrote this paper, then you certainly deserve a fellowship," Joseph said. "This paper on complex functions truly deserves the praise of 'extreme importance' and 'a few words of generalization'."

Napoleon smiled awkwardly and remained silent. The main part of the paper was completed by Laplace, with Monge and Lagrange also contributing. They had gone to great lengths to ensure Napoleon understood all the ideas and derivations in the paper, in preparation for Joseph's questions. Napoleon had thought that with such thorough preparation, he could confidently assert that he had written the paper. But now, when Joseph directly suspected that he had hired a ghostwriter, he didn't immediately refute it.

"Having a paper like this, it's not entirely impossible to put your name on the list of academicians. However, this paper was probably written by several people with the help of others, and they also considered making it seem like you wrote it yourself. So, while the argumentation itself is sound, some parts of the thought process are not coherent, and the methods used are a bit cumbersome, not concise enough, and lack aesthetic appeal," Joseph continued. "I have some suggestions specifically for this paper. Take a look at them and revise them yourself. Don't bother with those sycophants at the École Normale Supérieure anymore. I've already set up the basic framework for you; you just need to complete the rest. Anyway, there's nothing urgent going on right now. Hmm, is that alright?"

"No problem, no problem," Napoleon quickly replied. Since Joseph was willing to give him this way out, he naturally accepted it. Besides, he had already done a lot of research on this paper. Joseph provided a revised outline, Napoleon felt that with his passable mathematical abilities, he should be able to complete the task.