The Fox of France

Chapter 414: Triumph

After handing over the matter of the second proof to Gauss, Joseph Bonaparte happily went to spend time with his daughter. When it came to the education of little Alice, Joseph drew insights from his various sisters, especially the lessons learned from Pauline. (Pauline: Am I a guinea pig? Napoleon: Does Pauline even have experience? Lucien: Pauline is more experienced than me in many aspects. Pauline: Cold shivers) Joseph made some adjustments to the way he educated little Alice.

Firstly, Joseph believed that Pauline's education had been quite successful. The most obvious success was that no one could deceive our Saint Helena Maiden with sweet words or similar tricks. In this regard, Pauline's expertise might even surpass that of Lucien. Of course, there were lessons to be learned; Pauline, while immune to emotional fraud, had adopted a strategy of becoming an emotional trickster herself, which was not acceptable.

However, Joseph considered the fundamental success in Pauline's education to be her distinct difference in the underlying thought processes from women of her time. In Pauline's mind, she operated on an operating system tailored for owners and rulers. The core of this system was akin to the famous saying of a Roman figure that Pauline shared a similar attitude toward all men and women: "I came, I saw, I conquered." To put it more plainly, she knew her interests and how to pursue them. This, Joseph emphasized, was crucial.

Yet, Joseph also acknowledged significant flaws in Pauline's education. The main drawback was a lack of appropriate external refinement, despite having a suitable underlying logic. In simpler terms, the disparity with societal norms led to unnecessary troubles and compromised her interests. In other words, Pauline was too straightforward; her deceitfulness was insufficient.

Moreover, Pauline shared a common problem among many women: a tendency toward chaos alignment, which led to a lack of planning and excessive spontaneity. While it was acceptable if she wanted to lead a carefree life, to become a true independent person capable of controlling situations, this chaotic inclination needed to be eliminated.

To cultivate planning, it needed to start early. Joseph spending time playing chess with Alice was part of this effort. Initially, Joseph thought that allowing the undoing of moves should be prohibited to teach the importance of thinking before acting. However, in practice, whenever Alice pouted, Joseph abandoned his principles. So, it was uncertain how Alice would be shaped in the future.

On the day Joseph's group arrived in Milan, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte submitted a high-level mathematical paper to the French Academy of Sciences after handing the second proof matter to Gauss. After review, several members of the Academy, including Laplace and Talleyrand, proposed a motion. In this motion, they suggested that due to Napoleon Bonaparte's outstanding contributions to mathematics, he should be granted the title of Fellow of the French Academy of Sciences and the prestigious title of Roman Scholar.

Normally, becoming a fellow of the French Academy of Sciences and a Roman Scholar required a probationary period. In most cases, probationary fellows, as long as they didn't cause significant issues during the trial period, would smoothly transition to become full fellows. However, Napoleon knew he couldn't afford a probationary period, as Joseph would undoubtedly find a reason to kick him out while still in the trial period. Therefore, he needed to act quickly before Joseph returned, turning the situation in his favor. Once one obtained the fellow's hat, tradition dictated a lifelong position, even if there were no further contributions, maintaining the honor indefinitely. Napoleon believed that considering the interests of the "old scientists," Joseph wouldn't disrupt this tradition.

At this time, Mr. Lavoisier's "illness" had already recovered. As the acting dean, he immediately approved the motion. The subsequent voting process had no suspense; everyone, including Joseph's students who remained in Paris, voted in favor without hesitation—after all, the teacher would understand. Of course, after voting, they would write letters to the teacher, explaining the situation, even though the teacher wasn't home to receive the letters temporarily. But, isn't the teacher's wife still there?

Even if Joseph couldn't receive the students' letters, he would quickly learn about the matter, as the world already had telegrams and newspapers.

Joseph saw the news of Napoleon being unanimously elected as a Fellow of the French Academy of Sciences in the newspaper.

"Damn! Playing this trick of luring the tiger out of the mountain on me!" Connecting the dots, Joseph immediately understood, "This guy... well, he definitely bribed Lavoisier. Lavoisier has earned quite a bit in recent years, so bribing him is harder than it was in the past... damn it, this money must be clawed back from Napoleon!"

Despite the anger, Joseph didn't interrupt his journey to return immediately. Doing so would become a joke throughout the entire European continent. Besides, the little girl was currently having a great time, and interrupting the trip would make her unhappy. Additionally, Napoleon surely had prepared for Joseph's immediate return with various contingency plans. Returning now would be like attacking an enemy's well-prepared position without any preparation—Joseph wouldn't do something so reckless.

"Hehe, Napoleon, you are truly naive. Do you think you can win against me with such methods? The Academy, no matter what, is still my territory," Joseph thought.

So, Joseph suppressed his anger—honestly, the extent of this anger wasn't easy to gauge; otherwise, it wouldn't be so easily suppressed. However, he also firmly believed that the Paris High School gang must be behind this plot. Hmph!