Personality V: I will save everything

"Okay, anyway, I'll leave it to you. I'm leaving now."

After Norton finished speaking, he wanted to leave. After all, his nose really couldn't stand the smell of perfume. With all kinds of scents mixed together, he felt like he was about to sneeze.

"Oh, right." Norton remembered something before leaving. "Some things are not necessarily good for the other person just because you think you are doing good for them. It would be better to explain it in advance... Am I right, Miss Vera?"

After saying that, Norton opened the door and left. When Norton said this, he was staring at "Chloe", or the real Vera, and was very shocked.

Vera was indeed very shocked. She had been dressed as Chloe for some time. She didn't understand why the gentleman recognized her so immediately when it was clearly the first time he saw her.

"Sister, what does he mean?" There was no one in the perfume shop at the moment, so Chloe dared to speak a little louder.

Chloe has been locked in her room at home to develop perfume. She is not as cheerful and generous as her sister, and she is not likable, but her perfume skills are very advanced. Therefore, she has been locked in the room. Her family does not allow her to go out, and she herself does not want to go out.

Today, I followed my sister to the perfume shop on a whim.

But before the guests arrived, Vera seriously warned Chloe that she was "Chloe".

Although she felt it was strange, Chloe didn't think much about it. After all, they had played this game of swapping identities many times when they were children.

They are twins, no one can tell them apart, but everyone can tell them apart.

Because their temperaments are so different, Vera is cheerful and generous, while Chloe is timid and cowardly.

"Chloe..." Vera suddenly hugged Chloe and said, "I will definitely let the world discover your talent."

"elder sister?"

Vera hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to tell the truth. After all, the two of them would always be like this from now on.

"You have to remember, Chloe, from now on, I am Chloe, and you are also Chloe, do you understand?"

Vera narrated the cause and effect of the incident. After she got the perfume formula from Chloe, she did not hesitate to make it public, and signed it under Chloe's name. This action was not out of malice or selfishness, but came from her cherishment of her sister's talent and her disgust with the idea of ​​family interests first.

Vera knows that Chloe should not just exist as a tool for the family to make profits. She firmly believes that her sister's talent should be known to the world and her name should shine in the world.

However, the elders in the family held different views. They had already planned to let Chloe focus on making perfumes, while Vera would be responsible for external release.

But, wouldn't Vera be a thief who stole her sister's achievements? !

Faced with this unfair situation, Vera decided to fight back, knowing that if she followed her family's arrangement, she would be branded as a plagiarist and her sister's talent would be overshadowed.

So she came up with this plan, hoping to protect her sister's reputation by making "Vera" disappear.

In this carefully planned operation, Chloe took full responsibility for the production, formula research and final publication of the perfume. Vera, on the other hand, chose to hide herself and let "Vera" disappear from the world. From now on, there will only be Chloe, and no Vera anymore.

"There is no such person as Vera anymore, Chloe...remember, from now on we are one person, we are both just 'Chloe'." Vera looked at her sister affectionately, with a firm light in her eyes.

"elder sister............"

Chloe's eyes were filled with tears, because she knew that if she did this, her sister would disappear from this world. There would be no "Vera" in this world, only "Chloe".

It is the greatest help Vera can give to Chloe, and it is also her deepest love for Chloe.

............................................

Norton hummed a little tune on his way back. He felt that what he had just said would definitely help the two ladies.

After all, Vera's plan didn't start for very long.

Before her plan began, people still remembered only the cheerful and generous Vera, not Chloe.

When Sangria introduced herself as a perfumer to Norton, she had already told Norton that this person was Vera, not Chloe as she introduced herself.

Norton didn't think too much about it at first. After all, there were quite a lot of twins in the manor, such as Joseph and Frederick.

At that time, Norton thought that this was just another pair of twins. It was not until he paid the final payment just now and saw the twins coming out together that he roughly understood what had happened.

After all, when Sangria introduced them to Norton, she also said that they were from the Nair family, a family that had been making perfumes for generations.

A large family with a long history like this one is never short of all kinds of messy troubles.

Isn't this reflected in Jose Badem? He was urged to get married by all kinds of old-fashioned people in his family, and he could be shot if he walked on the street.

As the saying goes, you may have never eaten pork, but have you seen a pig run?

What's more, Jose Badem hangs around Norton almost every day.

So when he saw the twins appear at the same time, he guessed how things would develop.

However, when Norton saw the sister, the real Chloe, he guessed from her expression and attitude that Vera might not have told her the whole truth.

In this situation, there are usually two possible outcomes: either everyone is happy after the secret is revealed, or the two sides become enemies without even a chance to explain.

Based on Norton's understanding of the people around him, the possibility of "turning against each other" is much higher than "everyone is happy".

Therefore, before leaving, Norton specifically reminded Vera that it would be best to tell Chloe the truth, because if Chloe really loved her sister, she would understand what Vera did.

This not only avoids misunderstandings, but also deepens the relationship between sisters.

Isn't this good? It should be this way. There are many times when hiding something in the name of love is not a good idea.

Norton didn't know what was wrong with him, and he inexplicably thought of his father. When he was a child, his father always told him that he was going to work in the mines and would bring Norton a lot of money. As long as he kept working, the situation at home would definitely get better.

But he never did it, until the last time, when his father told him that he was going to the mine, the family didn't even have money to pay for the mine fee. But his father still left secretly, and the only thing he came back with was his body.

Since then, Norton has been full of resentment and dissatisfaction towards his father. He thinks his father is an irresponsible man and a complete liar.

"Liar." Norton whispered. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his emotions. Over the years, he has tried to forget the pain of the past, but whenever he recalled those days, the pain in his heart still followed him.

He knew that only by letting go of the resentment of the past could he truly walk out of the shadows and embrace a new life. However, every time he wanted to forgive his father, the resentment in his heart would surge up again, making him unable to let go.

He didn't know how to face this complicated emotion, nor did he know if he could really let go of the past.

"I can't forgive you, but I still love you."

.................................................

Norton once again wanted to go to the mining area to see his father's grave again.

Although he had said before that it was the last time he would visit him, this "last time" turned into time and time again.

Jose Badem once asked him if he wanted him to help choose a good cemetery for Norton's father and make him an expensive coffin, but Norton refused.

What’s the point of getting something after you die if you can’t enjoy it when you are alive?

This sentence seems to be talking about Norton's father and Norton himself.

Norton actually felt scared every morning when he woke up. This fear was deeply rooted in his heart. He was afraid that all this was just an illusory dream he had before he died. This dream was too beautiful to be true, but it was also because of this that he doubted and feared it.

He was afraid that after waking up, all the good things would burst like bubbles. He was worried that he still had no real friends, no warm family, and no one would truly respect him. He was afraid that he would still be the oppressed miner living at the bottom of society.

Because everything now really seemed like a dream. The delicious food allowed him to taste delicacies he had never tasted before; the comfortable house provided him with a shelter from the wind and rain; the friends around him gave him care and support like family members; and the seemingly endless money satisfied his desires that he had longed for but could not realize. However, the more real these beautiful things were, the deeper his fear became.

Norton tried to convince himself that everything he saw was real, but the fear in his heart could not be shaken off. He knew that if this was just a dream, then when he woke up, he would return to that dark and painful world again. He was unwilling to lose everything he had now, and even more unwilling to return to the past life of being ignored and despised.

Every morning, when the sun shines through the window onto the bed, Norton always nervously opens his eyes, hoping to see something other than nothingness. His heart is full of contradictions and uneasiness, and he doesn't know how to face such fear.

But fortunately, every day when he opened the door and met everyone who said "good morning" to him, he knew that all this was not a dream.

...................................

Norton came to the mining area, stood in front of his father's grave, and stared at the tombstone quietly. He felt extremely heavy-hearted and had a lot of thoughts in his mind.

"Father, I still can't completely forgive you..." Norton said softly, tears welling up in his eyes.

He recalled every detail of his childhood with his father. Despite the resentment, the father's love was still deeply hidden in his heart.

"Father, do you know? You have worked so hard for your whole life, even sacrificed your life, to find someone. The so-called gold mine is just pyrite, it's fake."

Norton took a deep breath and continued.

"But I found a real gold mine. It's very large and the gold is of very good quality. Don't you think this is just like what you said to me when I was a child? As long as we remain kind, good things will happen to us sooner or later."

Norton simply sat on the ground, not caring at all whether the mud on the ground would dirty his clothes.

"When I bought that piece of land, I never thought about making money. I just wanted to give those Indians a place to settle down. I really didn't expect to find such a big gold mine there..."

When Norton reached this point, his voice gradually became smaller and smaller, and he simply stopped talking because he didn't know how to continue.

My father worked hard all his life, risked his life, but in the end he got nothing. But I, it was just an unintentional act, but I got what my father had always dreamed of.

"You know what? Father, I used to beg for money with all my might, but when I finally got it, I suddenly realized...it didn't seem that important."

Norton inexplicably recalled a fairy tale that the owner of the manor had once told Carl:

It is a very poor town, but the people there are very united and they support each other and live together.

Until one day, a wizard came.

The wizard told the villagers that he was willing to exchange ten times its weight in gold for their hearts.

The villagers were reluctant at first. After all, how could they survive without a heart?

But the wizard told them not to worry, he would use magic to ensure their survival. They only needed to donate their hearts to get ten times the gold and they could continue to live. The only price they had to pay was that they would no longer have a beating heart.

Gradually, the villagers agreed, because the village was so poor that they didn't even have money to eat.

The wizard kept his promise. He took the villagers' hearts, gave them ten times their weight in gold, and guaranteed that they would remain alive.

The villagers were very happy, and the wizard was happy too, so he left because all the villagers had exchanged their gold with him and he had no hearts left.

But the villagers no longer cared. They had money and gold, so based on the gold, the village gradually became wealthy.

But gradually, the villagers discovered something wrong. Without the hearts, although they were still alive, they had lost the warmth that human beings should have.

Their bodies couldn't help but feel cold, and their hearts also turned cold.

The villagers became wealthy, so they built high walls around their homes and stopped communicating with others.

“Is this what we want?”

The villagers no longer knew the answer, because they no longer had hearts and they no longer knew what temperature was.

The only things that can accompany them are empty bodies and cold gold.

................................................

Norton sighed and turned away. He knew that he needed time to slowly accept all this. Maybe one day, he would be able to truly let go of the past and reconcile with himself.