Brother

The next day, before the sun came up, Joseph got up early out of habit. There was no internet, no games, not even electric lights in this era, and normal homes, one couldn't afford to use candles or even oil lamps. At night, it's just pitch black. Joseph, who was used to going to bed after eleven o'clock in his last life, is now in the good habit of going to bed early and getting up early. In fact, that's basically what people do in this era.

Joseph got dressed and walked out of his room and into the churchyard. At this time, the sun had not yet risen, and even the east had not yet revealed its white skies, while half of the waning moon and a few remnants of the stars were still hanging in the black velvety canopy. By this time, it was Nivôse, a winter month in terms of the later Republican calendar. It's not snowing in Paris at this time of year, and it's still not particularly cold, but there is a layer of white frost on the roofs and in the courtyards in the early morning.

A burly figure was swinging an axe in the yard to split wood. Joseph knew that it was for Father Jacques. He works out this way every morning.

"Good morning, Father!" Joseph said as he walked over.

"Ah, Joseph, good morning." The priest tossed the axe aside casually, stood up straight, and smiled at Joseph, "Going out for a run?"

"Yeah, running around the church." Joseph replied, "Twenty laps and you'll be just in time for dinner."

"Ah, where is your brother?" Father Jean-Jacques asked again.

"Up too, washing his face, and he's going out for a run with me in a little while. By the way, Father, we'll take you out for a nice meal at noon, and absolutely nothing will happen this time. I promise!" Joseph said, a little embarrassed.

"Yeah! No problem!" Father Jean-Jacques said.

At that moment, Napoleon also came out from the back, and not being as easy-going as Joseph, he simply nodded with Father Jean-Jacques and followed Joseph out the door.

The two men ran along the road next to the church. Although still short in height, Napoleon had made great strides in physical fitness since entering the military academy. So first, he sped up, trying to shake off Joseph so he could win. 

But Joseph wasn't about to let him have his way.

"You want to run ahead of me with your two little short legs?" Joseph picked up the pace as well. After traversing this era, Joseph knew that the level of medicine in this era was abysmally low. Even a small cold can kill a person at any time. Thus, strengthening the body and boosting the immune system became Joseph's means of preserving his life. Although Louis-le-Grand did not have quite the same requirements for physical education as a military academy, Joseph never gave up on his physical activity. Coupled with his long hands and feet, he was clearly superior to Napoleon in both innate conditions as far as running was concerned. And how could he let Napoleon, whom he had suppressed, run ahead of him?

So Joseph sped up as well, and in just a few steps, he was running in front of Napoleon again. Then Napoleon started speeding up again ...

"Damn ... if you didn't have longer legs ... I'd be ... this time." Napoleon was hunched over, gasping for breath as he broke off, the rising sun turning into a pale red in the white mist that poured from his mouth and nose. 

"Can't run is can't run ... What's the use of making excuses ... but ... but this victory over you... . it's a lot more difficult than before ... than before." Joseph answered with a gasp as well.

Yes, Joseph thought that he must be able to overwhelm Napoleon in as many ways as possible, not out of contention or anything, but in order to be persuasive enough to put the brakes on Napoleon in the future.

"Well, catching your breath, are we?" Joseph said, "Let me tell you something if you've caught your breath."

"I've been fine for a long time." Napoleon stood up straight and walked forward as he did so.

"I just won the grand prize for my thesis." Joseph pretended to be calm, "The prize money is six hundred francs, so today, at noon, we can go out for a big meal to celebrate."

"You won a merit award for your paper?" Napoleon was taken aback and stopped in his tracks.

"Of course, is there any problem that can't be solved when your big brother steps in?" Joseph said rather smugly.

"What did you write?" Napoleon asked, "Why did you win the award and not me?"

"Because I may have disproved one of Sir Isaac Newton's arguments."

"What? How is that possible?!" Napoleon stared at Joseph with wide eyes, trying to see the joking demeanor in Joseph's face. Yet he noticed that Joseph's face had nothing but that disgusting smugness about it.

"I have discovered a phenomenon that can be used to show that the nature of light is closer to Hooker's view - that it is a wave rather than a particle." Joseph replied.

"So it was just this." Napoleon made a disdainful face and said, "I thought you had disproved the Law of Three."

"The Law of Three can't be moved anytime soon." Joseph shook his head.

"Can't move anytime soon?" Napoleon was taken aback again as he shook his head, "You mean you've found a loophole in the Law of Three, you just don't have the evidence to disprove it yet?"

"No." Joseph shook his head, "Where are the obvious holes in Sir Isaac Newton's three laws? I just don't want to believe it out of faith."

"Out of faith? Could it be that the Three Laws don't make room for God?"

"No, it isn't." Joseph shook his head, "I just can't accept total fatalism. That kind of argument would make me feel like life has no meaning at all."

"What does this have to do with fatalism?" Napoleon obviously didn't respond.

"Ah, my foolish brother ah. You really don't have the talent to become a great scholar." Joseph said, "Based on Newton's three laws, we can consider the present state of the universe as its past effect as well as its future cause. If a wise man could know the forces of all natural motions and the positions of all naturally constituted objects at a given moment, and if he could also analyze these data, the motions of the largest objects to the smallest particles in the universe would all be contained in one simple formula. No thing will be ambiguous to this wise man, and the future will only appear to him as the past. Everything is doomed, just as Oedipus, faced with that terrible prophecy, could not resist in any way, for even his resistance was but a part of the destiny. If I really believe in the Law of Three, what's the point of my life?"

This statement was completely unexpected by Napoleon. He frowned for half a second, then shook his head, "For the time being, I haven't found what the problem is with this statement of yours. But there's definitely something wrong with that argument. Otherwise, this conclusion is really hard to ... wait for it! Joseph, aren't you a devout believer? Isn't God the wise one? God is omniscient and omnipotent. Yet you cannot even accept omniscience, you false believer."

When he got to the point, Napoleon laughed harshly, seemingly pleased that he had caught his brother in the act.

"It's two different things." Joseph said, "Besides, I smell a smell of Calvin in your words, you heretic!" Joseph responded with a smile as well.

Calvin was an important leader in Protestantism and a major philosophical and theological proponent of determinism. On the other hand, France is a Catholic country, and Calvin is a heretic in the eyes of the Catholic Church. When Napoleon said that God's omniscience was predestination, Joseph turned against him and called him a Calvinist heretic.

The two made fun of each other for a while and then went back to the church together.

After breakfast, Joseph casually quizzed Napoleon on his studies and brought out his prize-winning thesis for Napoleon to study carefully, then showed him the two experiments involved in it.

"I'm somewhat convinced of your point of view." Napoleon said, "Is there anything wrong with that conclusion?"

"Of course I have." Joseph replied, "Any wave needs a medium for transmission, but there are a lot of questions about what exactly the medium for light transmission is. For example, light travels very fast, and while the exact value has yet to be measured, the fact that it is very fast is not in question. A wave, to travel with such a fast speed, that means its propagation medium should have a very high intensity. But the resistance we feel from the light ether is never felt as we move through such a hard medium. All in all, there are a lot of problems here, but I believe that as the research progresses, this problem can eventually be solved, although the solution may not be in the same way as we think."

"Unfortunately," said Napoleon, "as much as I am interested, I have to admit that for this, at least for the time being, I have no thought at all."

"O my foolish brother, you must realize that everyone's talent is different. Some people may be born stronger in some areas, but not in others. For example, in terms of math as well as other natural sciences, I don't think you'll be able to match me more than likely, but maybe in other areas, you might be able to outperform me. For example, if there's a small hole that you can drill through, I more than likely won't be able to."

Listening to Joseph's serious words in front of him, Napoleon was still a little touched in his heart. Although he was pretentious, Napoleon also thought he had a strong talent in mathematics and natural sciences. Napoleon was not a person who liked to deceive himself and others, although he did not admit it with his mouth, in his heart, he knew that his talent in this area was really not as good as that of his brother, and therefore he did get very a bit frustrated a lot of the time. Those words of Joseph's in front of him were a bit of a heart warmer, yet who knew that later on, he would come up with the one about drilling a hole for a dog, which infuriated Napoleon so much that he wanted to beat him up. 

"Joseph, you're no good." Napoleon said.

"Haha ..." Joseph smiled smugly instead, "Also, considering the difference in our size, you will definitely not be able to beat me when it comes to eating meat at lunch."