Manhattan Reborn 1978

Europe, UK.

Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire.

in the living room.

With a smile on her lips, Deborah lightly tapped David's forehead with her fingertips.

David, who was dazed, subconsciously licked the saliva from the corner of his mouth and muttered: "I am... asleep?"

"..."

"Sorry~"

"I...didn't talk in my sleep?"

"..No~"

"Huh~ Fortunately!"

"If I really tell you all the random thoughts in my head just now... you will definitely teach me a lesson!"

"Hahaha~"

Deborah hammered David's arm with her hand, pushed him up, gently rubbed her sore legs, and asked.

"What the hell are you thinking about?"

"Hey~ what else could it be..."

"Tilda?"

"almost.."

"You figure it out?"

"Not really~"

David rubbed his cheeks hard with his hands a few times, sat back on the sofa, and sighed in frustration and exhaustion.

"Oh?" Deborah leaned on the armrest of the sofa to the other side and asked with a relaxed smile.

"Then you...are you going to tell me?"

"Ok!"

"Hehe~"

"You're not afraid now...have I taught you a lesson?"

"afraid!"

"Then you still want to say it?"

David tilted his head softly, looked at Deborah and smiled bitterly: "Your lessons are visible and tangible. Even if I am very scared... I also understand that these are within my ability to bear~"

"But the things I'm more afraid of are gradually beyond the scope of my abilities and the boundaries of my cognition."

"So, I'm even more afraid of them... one day they will burst out in a concentrated way and I won't be able to deal with them!"

Deborah's eyes flashed with surprise, but she changed the subject and said, "Actually... I told myself during lunch not to ask about things between you young people~"

"Oh..." David responded as if he was not surprised, and continued what she said.

"I understand~ There is nothing right or wrong about feelings, let alone fairness."

"But I don't think Tilda would... accept being one of my girlfriends."

"The combination of family factors + environmental factors + personal psychological needs + realistic factors made Polly and Susan accept my greed..."

"And Cui Yingying's joining should be considered an accident~"

"Tilda is completely different from Polly, Susan, and Cui Yingying!"

"She was born in a noble family + grew up in a very privileged environment + received a very good education + she doesn't have to worry about her livelihood at all."

"Just like the traditional British aristocracy, she has more time, energy and conditions to delve into art, music or literature, etc., to satisfy her spiritual interests or needs~"

"and I?!"

"I grew up in the small town of Morrison. To use a word commonly used in American speech, I am a suburbanite."

"Suburban dwellers are a derogatory term, mostly referring to mediocre people who are conservative, narrow-minded, have poor taste, like to compare, and like to interfere in other people's lives."

"Before I came to London last time, when I came home from New York, my neighbors in the small town greeted me with smiles and joked casually~"

"But when I went home for Thanksgiving last month, it was obvious that my neighbors in the town began to alienate and isolate me and my family."

"And the reason for all this is just that they heard some rumors about me in New York..."

David sat up with his arms supporting his body, refilled the hot tea for Deborah, sighed and said.

"Actually, I can understand why they did this to me and my family."

"But this understanding does not mean that I will approve of their behavior!"

"In 1895, the famous French social psychologist Gustave Le Bon gave a very clear explanation of similar group behavior in his book "The Crowd"."

"If we define the residents of Morrison Town as a specific group~"

"The general characteristics of the group, that is, the changes in the inherent thoughts and emotions of individuals in the group will always be dominated by the unconscious factors of the group~"

"For example: the group is impulsive, changeable, impatient, easily suggestible, gullible, easy to be deceived, easy to breed paranoia, tyranny, etc.~"

"That is to say, when a person is an independent individual, he has very distinct individual characteristics~"

"But when he tries to integrate into a group, all his personality will be overwhelmed by the group, and his thoughts will be immediately replaced by the group's thoughts."

"If you lose the ability to think independently, you will be eroded by group consciousness and become"

David stopped here and stared at the tea cup in his hand, a little lost~

Deborah frowned slightly, looked at an oil painting on the wall opposite David, and waited quietly.

In the living room, it was quiet.

5 minute later.

David took a big sip of tea, put down the cup, looked into Deborah's eyes, and said calmly.

"I have to devote a lot of energy and time to my greed to keep making money~"

"It is inevitable that you will inadvertently ignore the feelings of the people around you..."

"So if nothing else happens, Tilda and I will become passers-by in each other's lives."

"Or if she is willing to accept me as a friend, we will maintain a certain distance + bottom line friendship~"

"..." Deborah sat up straight, put down the cold tea cup, and looked at David calmly without speaking.

David did not keep her waiting too long this time and asked: "You have known Sirold Pierpont Morgan, Wesler G. Morgan, Judith K. Morgan for a long time?"

(These three are old Morgan, Weasler and Julie.)

"Hehe~"

Deborah raised the corners of her mouth and narrowed her eyes slightly, making the crow's feet smile: "Have you tolerated this question for a long time?"

"..No!"

"I just classified it as the default answer and didn't think about it further."

"Oh~!"

Deborah stood up, walked slowly a few steps, stretched her legs, came to several low cabinets, picked up a photo frame, and smiled at David.

"I thought... you would have noticed it a long time ago!"

"..." David smiled bitterly and shook his head, indicating that he had not looked at the photos in these frames carefully at all. .

Deborah's fingers lightly brushed the photo frame, walked slowly to David, put it down, and said.

"At the beginning of 1953, Andrew and I were still living in London - our third child... unfortunately died in infancy!"

(Deborah’s husband, Andrew Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire)

"After hearing the news, Jellal's mother brought 1-year-old Jellal to visit me every week, hoping that I could get over the pain."

"At that time, I was grieving the loss of my son, and I was very grateful that mother and son came to visit me, care about me, and stay with me!"

"But every time I see 1-year-old Jellal, I can't help but think of him who died young..."

"So, I started to deliberately find a lot of excuses to stop seeing their mother and son frequently..."

"Later~"

"Elizabeth's coronation ceremony is scheduled for June 53~"

"Geral's father is planning to hold a large cocktail party in late May and has extended an invitation to Andrew and me."

"I... don't want to attend such a boring drinking party~"

"Andrew advised me: There will be many guests from the United States attending this cocktail party~"

"It can be said that the reception was specially organized by Jellal's father to welcome guests from the United States to attend Elizabeth's coronation ceremony..."

David, who was sitting on the sofa with a photo frame in his hand, rubbed his chin and nodded: "That's right..."

"Jeral was born in 52, is he 5 years older than me?"

Deborah tilted her head slightly and asked with a strange smile: "Are you digressing again?"

"Oh!"

"Feel sorry!"

"It was my fault!!"

David quickly held up the photo frame, walked to Deborah with a smile, held her arm and said.

"You continue~continue..."

Deborah shook her head dumbfounded, took the photo frame from David's hand, pointed at a few of them and said.

"Here's a picture of me with Neria, Panaris, Elder, Cheryl and Grace."

"Don't forget that Cheryl is the youngest in this photo, but she is the naughtiest, the most joking, and the most lovable~"

"In the area not captured in this photo, Julie, Wisler, Seamus, and their families were watching us take photos."

"Andrew, Julie, Seamus, and Wisler all had a great time chatting."

"Because at that time, we were worrying about the cost of renovating Chatsworth House..."

"Although, Jellal's father helped us get a low-interest loan from Westminster Bank..."

"But that money had very little effect in our many renovation and reconstruction plans for the old manor in the first few years after World War II~"

"In addition, we will also have to bear a huge inheritance tax for Chatsworth Manor at that time."

Deborah's fingertips gently touched the edge of the photo frame, and her eyes were filled with memories as she continued.

"Before that party, Andrew and I discussed it many times, but there was no good solution~"

"So at the party, after Andrew and Wisler discussed these difficult problems... we quickly obtained another low-interest mortgage loan with Wisler's help."

"Furthermore, at their suggestion, we established the Chatsworth Manor Maintenance Foundation. We put the newly obtained loans + some of our original deposits + stocks, etc. into the foundation and entrusted it to Weiss. Le and Jellal’s father teamed up to manage and invest on their behalf~”

"Later, I used the name of the maintenance fund to form a management team for the garden to help me operate, maintain and manage some of the rooms and facilities at Chatsworth Manor that are open to tourists, and then we slowly allowed us to go out. The dilemma of being burdened with huge debts~"

"Oh~"

David looked at the photos of the "Chicken Babies" brought to London by Morgan Sr. and Nariya, and couldn't help but ask again.

"and after?"

"Will you see each other often and visit each other?"

"No~"

"After we parted ways in the summer of 53, Nariya and I would often communicate and talk on the phone about each other's families and current affairs."

"But it wasn't until the late autumn of 1962 that I saw Nariya and her children again~"

"That time, I invited them to live at Chatsworth Manor for more than half a month and spent a very happy Thanksgiving there."

"It was also at that time that I met Giles, Pine, Laura and Lilith."

"However, the four of them were still very young at that time, and it was the older Panaris, Elder, Cheryl and Grace who left a deeper memory for me."

"Neriya also quietly asked me if I thought Elder and Grace were a good match~"

"Hehe~"

"After all, they grew up in the United States, not London!"

"So I told her at that time: It's best to let the children make their own choices~"

Deborah shook her head with a sighing smile, placed the photo frame on the low table in front of the two of them, and said with a strange tone in her voice.

"But obviously Neriya didn't agree with my opinion, and she still tried her best to bring Elder and Grace together..."

"The result... A few days ago, before you came to visit me, Nariya called me again and said that Elder and Grace decided to divorce."

"She is very sad, remorseful and confused!"

"She feels that the lifelong happiness of these two children has been ruined by herself..."

"What can i say?!"

"I can only comfort her: the children are still young and can go find their own happiness!"

"..." When Deborah said this, she suddenly stopped talking.

"??" David stared at her with question marks on his face, his eyes widened and he waited. .

Deborah smiled with six teeth, raised her eyebrows amusingly, and asked: "Do you want to ask, did Neria say anything about Laura and Lilith's love?"

"Yes!"

"Haha~ She didn't say anything!"

"Forehead.."

"Why didn't she say anything??"

"This... I want to ask you!"

"I?"

David scratched the "question mark" on his forehead with his hand, thought about it and smiled bitterly: "Is it because...I didn't go to their home to formally explain that I was engaged to Lilith?"

"But I have already..."

"Hush~huh!"

"All right!"

"Indeed, I did not go to Boston earlier to propose the engagement..."

"Maybe it's because of my... being late that she feels dissatisfied?"

Deborah pointed at David's forehead with her hand and "educated": "Since you have decided to help Lilith and the others get rid of..."

"Then why didn't you go to Boston earlier?"

"Wouldn't it be better to meet Nariya more often and talk to her about your inner thoughts and thoughts?"

"Even I know a little about that little girl Laura's character~"

"You came to help! Naeryya won't really do anything to you~"

"I think she can like me..." David pursed his lips speechlessly and muttered softly.

Deborah put away her smile, sighed again, and whispered.

"With Elder and Grace's divorce tragedy in front of us, and Laura and Lilith's affairs... Neriya will definitely not make things difficult for you!"

"When you go back this time, you will find an opportunity to have a good chat with Neriya~ Do you understand?"

"I will also call and help you!"

"Call up?"

David blinked quickly, tilted his head and bared his teeth and smiled: "How about... you also go to Hawaii for vacation? It is the most suitable season for vacation there!"

"Hawaii?"

"That's right! You haven't been there, have you?"

"No.."

“Sunshine + beach + clear sea, it’s simply beautiful~”

"You're going to love it there! I promise!"

Deborah turned her head and looked at David, who kept nodding, and said with a smile: "Just because I can help you speak in front of Neria... Do you want me to fly thousands of kilometers to Hawaii?"

"Of course not!"

"Have you ever heard of migratory birds that keep migrating as the seasons change?"

"You can also be like a migratory bird, staying away from the cold winter and going to the warmer and more comfortable Hawaii!"

Deborah stretched out her hand and pinched David's ears, and asked, somewhat dumbfounded: "You kidnapped Tilda..."

"Are you actually going to kidnap me too?"

"You are really...!"

"Hey hey hey~"

"That little girl Tilda, I really wasn't the one to abduct her!"

"You obviously forced it on me..."

"Shall I give it to you?"

"you.."

"Hahahaha~"

"No no no!"

"You are doing this for my own good! You are doing this for my own good!"

"It's all my fault! My fault!"

"You must not be angry!"

"I want to make you happier tonight!"

Deborah turned her head to the other side pretending to be "displeased", but asked: "At night? What are you going to do again?"

"Hahaha~"

"When I was flying over, I remembered a very good French movie!"

"Have you seen "Escape from the Tiger's Mouth"?"

"..No!"

"Wow~ You really haven't seen it! I guessed it right!"

Deborah glanced sideways at David who was "celebrating", and said with a smile: "I want to discuss with Andrew about going to Hawaii before making a decision."

"Okay~"

"Then let's... go for a walk?!"

"No, it's too cold today!"

"Then let's go upstairs and open the gifts?"

"Gift?!"

"Yes! Let's go and see what gifts Lilith has carefully prepared for you!"

"..."

The "angry" Deborah was lifted up by David's arm and slowly walked out of the living room.

----

new York.

ten o'clock in the morning.

Manhattan, Gold Coin Hotel.

Otis Parker was sitting in the office of hotel manager Winston, looking through several documents in his hand and frowning.

Outside the office.

An old man with almost white hair knocked on the door.

"Come in~"

Odis Parker responded casually, raised his head and gestured to the old man who came in, invited him to sit down, and smiled: "Have you got everything?"

"Yes!"

The old man took out four folded documents from the inner pocket of his coat and placed them in front of Otis Parker.

"Just put it here first."

Mr. Parker stared at the old man with "interest" and asked, "We are clear!"

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

The old man looked directly at Mr. Parker with a dull expression, and said in a low voice: "Identity!"

"Oh~"

Not surprisingly, Mr. Parker made a long note, lowered his head, casually wrote a few names on the paper, put it in front of the old man, and said with a smile.

"I want all the information on the five of them."

"all?!"

"Yes!"

"This is impossible!"

"Haha~ Nothing is impossible in this world~"

“If someone wants to do it, it can be done!”

Mr. Parker sat back a little, took out a few heavy gold coins from the drawer on the right, placed them neatly in front of the old man, and said with a smile.

"These are deposits!"

"Within three days, if you can bring me everything I want..."

"I'll take care of your identity issue!"

The old man glanced at the gold coins on the table, then stared at the names on the paper in front of him and thought for a while. He stood up silently and walked out the door without taking anything away~

Mr. Parker looked at his back with a smile, rubbed his index and middle fingers with his thumb, and said with a smile: "Erebus, I have prepared several suites downstairs~"

"You can come back and rest at any time!"

The white-haired old man, who was not very tall and dressed in black, stood outside the door. He turned his head and glanced at Austin Parker, and silently took it with him. .

"Hehe~"

Mr. Parker was obviously very familiar with the old man's character and abilities.

Erebus (Ancient Greek: ?peβo?/?p?βeu?; English: Erebus) is not a name, but a nickname!

In Greek mythology, after the birth of the first god, Tartarus, the god of the hell and abyss, it was the incarnation and body of darkness, located between the earth and Hades (the abyss), and was the first place the dead would pass through.

And this old man could use Erebus as his nickname, but he didn't choose it himself. .

Because he also has "ears" under his command, known as Aether, Hemera, Hypnos, Thanatos, Moirai, Geras, Charon, etc., who are very famous in the intelligence community!

Aether, Hemera, Geras, Charon, etc. are all the sons of Erebus and Nyx, the goddess of the night in Greek mythology. .

However, last fall.

The god of aging in Greek mythology, the god of age, Ceras, united with the "Ears" code-named Charon (x?pwn), the boatman of the underworld, and betrayed Erebus and others, almost annihilating them. . .

That’s why Erebus, this silent, stubborn, and cold-hearted old man, came to Otis Parker to return the favor and ask for help~

Europe, that rotten quagmire, they can no longer stay in!