When 82-year-old Yang Zhenning married 28-year-old Weng Fan, Yang's old friend was surprised to find that Yang's new wife, Weng Fan, had a striking resemblance to Yang's ex-wife, Du Zhili.

Du Zhili was born in 1927 in Mizhi, Shaanxi. Du Zhili's father was the famous Kuomintang general and Army Lieutenant General Du Yuming.

Du Yuming's three sons and three daughters are named after "propriety, righteousness, integrity, benevolence, courage and strictness" respectively. Du Zhili is Du Yuming's eldest daughter.

Du Zhili received a good education since childhood and was involved in art, dance, music, and sculpture. During the Anti-Japanese War, Du Zhili was admitted to the High School Affiliated to Southwest Associated University. Because of this, he had a relationship with Yang Zhenning, who taught at the Affiliated Middle School.

Yang Zhenning, who has a big forehead, was born with a strong academic ability. He was admitted to Tsinghua University at the age of fourteen. Yang Zhenning’s academically dominant gene comes from his father, Yang Wuzhi, who is a well-known professor in the Department of Mathematics. Disciples, one of whom was named Hua Luogeng. During the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Zhenning followed Tsinghua University and entered the Southwest Associated University. In 1944, 22-year-old Yang Zhenning, a doctor from Tsinghua University, obtained the qualification to study in the United States funded by the Boxer Indemnity.

While going through the procedures to go to the United States, Yang Zhenning worked part-time as a substitute mathematics teacher at the High School Affiliated to Southwest Associated University. This led to a teacher-student relationship between 17-year-old Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning.

In 1945, Yang Zhenning left the Southwest Associated University and came to the United States, starting a legendary life.

After Yang Zhenning came to the United States, he first obtained a doctorate from the University of Chicago and studied under the famous physicist Professor Fermi, the inventor of the nuclear reactor. Later, he went to Princeton University to study under Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Study work.

Yang Zhenning regards theoretical physics as a medieval monastery in the field of science, which means it is monotonous and boring, and it is not easy to produce results. Chen Ning Yang does not plan to stay at Princeton for long.

At the expiration of one year, Yang Zhenning exceeded everyone's expectations and renewed his contract with Oppenheimer. The reason for this decision was a chance encounter with Yang Zhenning in the small town of Princeton.

In this chance encounter, a person walked into Yang Zhenning’s life. She was Du Zhili.

In everyone's life journey, there will be some unexpected encounters.

On Christmas Day 1949, Yang Zhenning and his friends went to a Chinese restaurant in Princeton for dinner, and unexpectedly met Du Zhili, who was also dining there with his friends.

Farewell to Southwest Associated University, Yang Zhenning and Du Zhili have not seen each other for five years. The relationship at school was just an ordinary teacher-student relationship, and both Yang and Du had almost forgotten about each other. Compared with back then, Du Zhili in a restaurant in a foreign town has lost her youthfulness and grown into a tall and graceful girl.

Why did Du Zhili appear in the United States thousands of miles away?

Not long after Yang Zhenning left Southwest Associated University, Du Zhili was admitted to Fu Jen Catholic University and left Kunming. In 1947, Du Zhili planned to come to the United States with his sick father Du Yuming to study and receive medical treatment. However, it was the period of the decisive battle between the Kuomintang and the Japanese armies, and Du Yuming was detained in the country by Chiang Kai-shek. In order to appease Chiang Kai-shek's favorite general, Soong Meiling came forward and arranged for Du Zhili to go to her alma mater when she was studying in the United States, "Wesley College" to study English literature.

Unexpectedly, after the Battle of Huaihai, Du Yuming became a prisoner, and the Du family's source of livelihood suddenly became an issue. In order to relieve the pressure, Du Zhili had no choice but to transfer to the free St. Vincent's Women's College to continue studying.

On this day, Du Zhili went to an inconspicuous street Chinese restaurant in Princeton for dinner with his friends. Unexpectedly, he met Yang Zhenning by chance. The unexpected fate of meeting each other in a small town made both of them feel incredible.

Many years later, when Chen Ning Yang looked back on this encounter, he said something comparable to Zhang Ailing’s words of “not a step too early, not a step too late”:

On that day, Zhen Ning Yang and Du Zhili was chatting happily and put aside his friends. They chatted until the restaurant closed.

In the following time, the relationship between Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning heated up rapidly. Yang Zhenning lost no time in proposing to Du Zhili. On August 26, 1950, Yang Zhenning and Du Zhili got married in Princeton.

Prior to this, Hu Shi, who was working in the United States, made a special trip to find Yang Zhenning and brought him a message from Yang Wuzhi hoping that Yang Zhenning would get married as soon as possible.

Not long after Hu Shi disappeared, Yang Zhenning had already taken the beautiful woman into his arms. His merits were complete and his father's wish was fulfilled.

After Yang Zhenning and Du Zhili got married, they achieved double harvests in their career and life. Yang Zhenning made great achievements step by step on the road of scientific research.

In 1951, Yang Zhenning and Du Zhili’s first child was born. Yang Wuzhi was so delighted that he personally named his grandson "Yang Guangnuo", hoping to win the Nobel Prize.

The 1950s was a period of great explosion of academic achievements in physics. This period is known as "the most exciting era for physicists."

Yang Wuzhi was keenly aware of Yang Zhenning's possible achievements.

In order to support her husband Yang Zhenning's work, Du Zhili, the daughter of the family, took the initiative to take on all the housework. Even when her son was hospitalized due to an accident, Du Zhili chose to hide because he was worried about affecting Yang Zhenning.

Du Zhili’s support for Yang Zhenning is very similar to that of another pair of celebrities from the Republic of China, Yang Jiang, for Qian Zhongshu. Qian Zhongshu is also a novice in life and has poor self-care ability. All housework is handled by Yang Jiang, who is also a talented woman.

While taking care of Chen Ning Yang, Du Zhili suffered a heavy blow: Du Zhili's 22-year-old brother, Du Zhiren, who was studying at Harvard University, committed suicide by taking medicine in his bedroom because he had no hope of raising tuition fees. When Du Zhiren committed suicide, he was only one year away from graduation.

Du Zhili reluctantly buried his younger brother and continued to carefully take care of Yang Zhenning's daily life, trying his best to minimize the impact of his brother's death on Yang Zhenning.

Every time Yang Zhenning recalls Du Zhili during that period, he is full of emotions.

Du Zhili’s hard work finally paid off.

In 1957, Yang Zhenning, who was only 35 years old, and Li Zhengdao, 31, who also came from Southwest Associated University and was the proud disciple of Wu Dayou, a physics professor at Southwest Associated University, discovered that parity is not conserved in weak interactions. , won the Nobel Prize in Physics that year.

This is the first time a Chinese scholar has won the Nobel Prize.

When the news came, Du Zhili was very happy. Du Zhili turned 30 this year.

Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning went to Stockholm, Sweden to attend the award ceremony.

At the party after the Nobel awarding ceremony, Du Zhili became the focus of everyone's attention. Her graceful dancing attracted many eyes and captivated everyone present.

Du Zhili had a good conversation with the King of Sweden. At the party, Du Zhili behaved well and had various manners, conveying the elegance and beauty of oriental women to the whole world.

The careers of Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning have reached their glorious peak, and surprises, big and small, have also come one after another. Du Zhili's life course has been engraved on each time node.

In 1958, Du Zhili’s second son Yang Guangyu was born.

In 1959, Du Zhili’s father, Du Yuming, received an amnesty and was admitted to the CPPCC Cultural and History Museum.

Du Zhili’s mother, Cao Xiuqing, who was wandering overseas, returned to China to reunite with Du Zhili’s father.

In 1961, Du Zhili’s daughter Yang Youli was born.

In 1971, Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning returned to China after an absence of many years and were solemnly received by national leaders.

From 1972 to 1973, Du and Yang returned to China twice, and each time they were solemnly received and entertained by national leaders.

In 1981, Du Zhili returned to China to visit Du Yuming, who was seriously ill. Du Yuming passed away that year.

In 1986, Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning went to Taiwan for the first time to attend the teacher’s birthday celebration and visit their relatives and old classmates. Du Zhili was called “the great woman behind the successful man” by the Taiwanese media. .

In 2003, Du Zhili died of illness surrounded by her husband and children.

Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning met and fell in love by fate. They spent fifty-three years together, visited every corner of Princeton, traveled to many countries around the world, and experienced the most important events in China’s modern history. Changes and vicissitudes of life.

Fourteen months after Du Zhili died of illness, Yang Zhenning got married again to Weng Fan, who was 54 years younger than him.

I just don’t know whether Du Zhili in another world should be happy or sad.