Those Steps We Walked Together

Lachaise Cemetery is located in the [-]th arrondissement of Paris, in Petit Paris.

The Paris region that people usually refer to actually includes several provinces around Paris. For example, the 94 provinces where Cheng Kesong once lived belonged to the category of "Great Paris".But the city of Paris in the true sense refers only to Little Paris.

So Lachaise Cemetery is actually a cemetery located in the city.

From Porte de Versailles, where Cheng Kesong lives now, to Lachaise Cemetery, the distance is not too short.It takes two subway trips to get to the Philip II Station that he agreed with his classmates.

Cheng Kesong was actually looking forward to this trip.

He has visited most of the famous attractions in Paris in the summer when he first arrived in Paris, but he has never been to those famous cemeteries.In his cognition, the cemetery is used to commemorate the dead, and it has nothing to do with the word "tour".But it is said that many celebrities were buried in the Lachaise Cemetery, such as Chopin, Molière...

…Like Oscar Wilde.

"Where are you?"

Suddenly received a message from Hugo on the phone.

"Transferring to Line [-], there are still three stops."

"You are still very punctual." The other party's message was delivered again.

Followed by another: "Julia and Leia will meet first at their shared interchange, Bruno just told me he overslept, Valentine is always late. They let us in first, Meet again at the gate of the cemetery in the afternoon."

The French are so casual. If it is not an important formal meeting, it is always difficult for these children to have the concept of "punctuality".

Cheng Kesong smiled nonchalantly, and replied to the message.

"Okay, see you at the exit."

"no problem."

When Cheng Kesong came out of the subway station, Hugo was stubbing out the cigarette in his hand.

"Good morning!"

He came forward with a smile, kissed Cheng Kesong face to face, and took out a kraft paper folder from his bag.

"Here, the "Phantom of the Opera" I talked about yesterday, and the script book."

Cheng Kesong took the folder, and saw that there was a stack of printed lines in it, neatly bound, and a CD was inserted in the bottom folder, which was the cover of "Phantom of the Opera".

"I thought you would give me an electronic script book." Cheng Kesong said.

Hugo shrugged and didn't take it seriously: "It's more convenient for you to print it out and read it."

Cheng Kesong thanked him with a smile.

Hugo grabbed his shoulder casually: "Let's go, let's go to the cemetery first."

The two walked side by side to the main entrance of the cemetery, Cheng Kesong looked at the straight road leading to the garden, and suddenly froze.

"This place... is very different from what I imagined." He was really shocked.

Hugo was surprised: "What?"

"I thought the cemetery would always be a bit gloomy. There are tombstones everywhere, neatly arranged... but here it is..."

Cheng Kesong searched for adjectives in his mind, but to no avail, he only thought of one: "... so green!"

The green area in Lachaise Cemetery is huge, and you can see green grass and green trees as far as you can see.If it weren't for the tombstones hidden under the greenery, Cheng Kesong would even mistake it for a park.

Hugo smiled.

"Is this your first time in the cemetery?"

Cheng Kesong nodded.

"There are three relatively large cemeteries in Paris, and there is one on the Montparnasse side, but because they are all flat and have no steps, we will choose to come here." Hugo said, "There is another one in Montmartre. Heights, near the Sacred Heart Church where Valentine and Leia went on Monday."

"This is the largest of the three cemeteries in downtown Paris, but the environment of the three cemeteries is not bad."

Hugo led Cheng Kesong to a fork in the road, and climbed up the winding and low steps.

There is a tombstone next to the steps, its position and angle are different from those neatly lined up on the roadside, and it seems to be placed here randomly.The base of the tombstone is a cuboid granite, on which a bronze sculpture of a middle-aged man lying on his back is depicted.The side of the base of the tombstone is engraved with the name and epitaph of the deceased.

"François Philippe Faure?"

Cheng Kesong read according to the name on the tombstone.

"A certain French president."

After Hugo explained, he smiled again: "We have too many presidents, and I don't remember which one he is."

Cheng Kesong also laughed.

"I never thought that the tombstone can be made like this. The tombstone in my impression is always square and very serious."

"Then you have to take a good look around here, each of those celebrity tombstones is very unique."

After Hugo finished speaking, he pretended to be serious and raised his face, and said righteously: "But our theme is steps, you can't just look at the tombstone, you know?"

Cheng Kesong nodded: "The steps here are very good. They connect the world of life and death. We shuttle between the sleepers. They are so quiet, but everyone has a story."

"Actually, the steps here also have a sense of pilgrimage." Hugo said suddenly.

"How to explain?" Cheng Kesong was curious.

Hugo looked down at the route map that he received for free from the entrance of the cemetery, looked up and said with a smile, "Come with me."

He took Cheng Kesong to walk on the tree-lined path for a while, and walked in along the slightly crowded path between the tombstones. Only then did he see a place filled with flowers in the corner between several tombstones. stone platform.

"This is the tomb of Jim Morrison, a very famous American rock singer." Hugo said, "Many American tourists have come here to pay homage to him. It is said that there have been crowds smoking marijuana in front of his tombstone before." 'The Pilgrim', when his tombstone was still covered in graffiti."

The two walked up the steps of the cemetery and came to a low tombstone.

Not only are flowers placed on this tombstone, but many people also left their subway tickets here.

"Mano Thoreau. French singer."

Cheng Kesong looked at the subway tickets that were almost piled up with tombstones, and suddenly felt that these people who were buried here hadn't actually left.They are still communicating with the world until their death, and they affect their admirers in a silent but tacit way.

Of course, this is actually not a big scene.

It wasn't until the two of them came to a tombstone full of lip prints that Cheng Kesong realized why Hugo said that the steps of Lachaise Cemetery carried the meaning of "pilgrimage".

"This is... Oscar Wilde's tomb?" Cheng Kesong's eyes widened.

I saw that the marble tombstone, which should have been clean and flawless, was densely covered with countless lip prints, as well as classic lines from Oscar Wilde's works written with lipstick, and the wishes of the worshipers.

"We are in the ditch, but there are always people looking up at the stars."

Hugo read the most representative sentence of Oscar Wilde in a poetic tone.

"Behind every beautiful thing that ever existed, there was something tragic." (Note)

Cheng Kesong added a sentence in English.

"You also like his story?" Hugo's eyes suddenly burst into surprise light, echoing the drill on his brow.

Cheng Kesong shook his head with a smile, and said ashamedly: "I've only read "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" and learned a little about his life, but I'm far from being an admirer of him."

"Reading a classic is enough." Hugo laughed.

"He always tells tragedies in a very calm tone, which makes people feel very sad but unable to vent. But probably because of this, his stories are so exciting."

After saying such an overly literary remark, Hugo circled around Wilde's tombstone, and his smile became a little teasing.

"These girls were kissing passionately, but Wilde was gay."

Cheng Kesong nodded: "I know. He was imprisoned for this, and that case became the most cited classic case in the gay rights movement..."

Hugo tilted his head slightly, looking at Cheng Kesong very intently, in the shadow of mottled trees covered by the greenery, he looked a little scorching hot.

Cheng Kesong noticed Hugo's gaze, and his heart suddenly trembled.

"In a sense, Wilde has actually become a cultural icon for us... homosexuals."

Hugo raised his head, looked at the wing carved on the tombstone, and said unintentionally.

Cheng Kesong could almost hear his heartbeat suddenly amplified.

For the first time, there was an overly lengthy silence between the two, but it seemed that something stirred up some ripples in this silence, which slowly spread.The ripples lightly touched the bodies of the two, and then returned to more finer ripples, turning back and forth between the two, endlessly.

Cheng Kesong felt that he probably, maybe... Maybe he should say something.

say what?

Said he was gay too?

Could it be too deliberate...

A cell phone ringing interrupted his hesitation.

Hugo took the phone out of his pocket, glanced at it, and said with a smile: "Julia and Leia have arrived, and they happened to meet Valentine, and they were walking towards Alan Carden's tombstone... We are going there too side."

His bright smile suddenly broke the somewhat indescribable atmosphere between the two of them just now, returning to the relaxed and cozy atmosphere they had always had.

Cheng Kesong swallowed the words that just came to his lips.

The two walked side by side on the steps paved with bluestone slabs in the cemetery, crossing several forked roads along the shade of trees.

"Alan Kadian, who is it?" Cheng Kesong asked.

"He is the founder of the theory of psychics." Hugo said, "I can probably guess that Julia must have asked to go to his tombstone. Julia has always been interested in these mysterious things."

Cheng Kesong: "You know a lot, these people... I have never heard of them."

Hugo smiled and said, "Adore me?"

Cheng Kesong looked at the lively expression of the big boy, and couldn't help laughing: "Well, I adore you."

Hugo seemed to be having a good time, smiling all the way.

Alan Kadian's tombstone is very special.

Several rough-cut boulders were built into a small pavilion that looked like a shrine. In the pavilion stood a bust of Alan Kadian. On the stone platform under the bust, his introduction was written in red.

His epitaph is deeply engraved on the outer edge of the boulder at the top of the shrine.

"Birth, death, rebirth, continuous improvement, this is the law."

It's kind of philosophical.

Julia buried her head and took out her sketchbook from her schoolbag, turned to a certain page with excitement, and handed it to Hugo.

"What? Are you going to start telling ghost stories again?" Hugo asked.

Julia denied: "No, I actually liked the story at the Opera House yesterday, but I wanted to add a new idea."

Hugo saw a staircase of contradictory spaces drawn in Julia's notebook, which was Escher's famous "infinite staircase" diagram.

"The opera artist lost his wife and was devastated, so he thought of spiritism." Julia explained her idea, "He came to the tombstone of Alan Cardian, hoping that the spiritist The founders of the world can show a way for themselves."

"Alan Cardian directed the opera artist to find an 'endless staircase' through which he could see his wife again."

"So the opera artist started looking for such a ladder all over the world. Of course, he found nothing, because all ladders must have an end."

Hugo asked: "It is indeed a good idea, but how should it end? All stairs will have an end—"

"Reflection!" Julia slapped Hugo on the shoulder, "This opera artist came to the Seine River on a full moon night, and saw the reflection of the steps under the steps into the water! He came from here, Go over there and follow the reflection back to the day before his wife's accident! Isn't it a good story?"

"But the reflection..."

"I love this story!"

Cheng Kesong said with a smile: "I like this story, death, rebirth, continuous improvement...it is indeed more eye-catching."

Hugo raised his eyebrows and looked at Cheng Kesong.

Cheng Kesong suddenly felt a little guilty: "You...don't like it?"

"No, I like it very much." Hugo looked at Cheng Kesong with softness in his eyes.

Julia cheered, grabbed Leia's arm beside her, and said excitedly: "Look, I said, this story will be popular!"

Leia rolled her eyes helplessly.

"Come on, we need to draw some sketches, not only the steps, but also this Alan Cardian's tombstone, and the image of the opera artist praying at his grave... Valentine, It's your turn to be a model! Kids, let's get to work!"

Hugo hit the nail on the head.

The author has something to say:

Note: From "The Picture of Dorian Gray" BY Oscar Wilde

The Lachaise Cemetery is too big, I really can't remember the positions of the tombstones, let's just assume they are on the way