Rimbaud's girl

Vitaly happily wrote to Gabriel, saying that Marseille is really a nice city, if she has time, she would really like to live there for several months, and she also made a list for him, saying what she saw in the market, she What did you eat again?Limited by transportation time and storage conditions, inland areas are far less abundant than port cities. For a person who has seen that as long as he has money, he can eat far away exotic food within 4 hours, the biggest problem may not be the lack of internet and Electric lights, but the variety of food is not rich enough, after all, "eating" is more important than anything else.

As the young owner of the shipping company, Louis Vermorin-Mundarian has almost endless pocket money. He goes out with Vitaly, eats, drinks, and gives tips for transportation expenses. He pays for it all and gives her a lot. Precious gifts from the Far East, just the clothes are a whole big box, her room is full of all kinds of gadgets and knick-knacks, every morning and evening a bouquet of lavender; talk pleasantly, do things carefully, of course, all just for Vita Korea.

Vincent knew something about the magic of money before, but not deeply enough. Now, he has seen what money can do.Louis is not very old, but he already knows how to spend money, is good at spending money, and can make Vitaly happy every day.

When Vitaly was going to visit the church, he would prepare the carriage, prepare food, water, and drinks on the way, and take her to the church; if Vitaly wanted to eat some rare foreign food, he would send people to search for all the deals Market; Vitaly wanted to take a boat to the island where the Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned, so he borrowed his stepfather's yacht and took her to see;

He called a whole bunch of seamstresses to make new dresses for her, all kinds of lace, pearls, crystals, silver, gold accessories, if she stayed in the hotel, there were always people coming and going in the room, and the tailors measured for her Size, the shoemaker measured her shoe size, the hatter measured her head circumference, the embroiderer asked her what pattern she liked, and brought a large embroidery pattern drawing book;

There were always flowers in the room, an endless supply of fresh fruit, a maid was always on hand to clean, and two quick-witted boys ran errands.

Vincent painfully realized how important money is!Money may not buy a lot of happiness, but without money there will be less happiness.

Louis was with Vitaly from morning to night, and he was a beautiful boy, and she was a beautiful girl, how perfect they were!

Vincent was very sad. Now he clearly knew that if he had no money or fame, it would be impossible for Vitaly to consider him.She will bring him to Marseilles only because she has no suitable adult male company around her at the moment, a lady travels away without the company of older women or men, and Mrs. Reval is only a maid and is not qualified to be her company By.

He originally wanted to use this trip to get closer to her. After all, most of their exchanges were professional conversations. They were the relationship between an intermediary and a client, but how could he be satisfied with such a poor thing? associated.He wanted to move forward, to be closer, at least to be with Vitaly more before she left for London.

He knew that if there were no accidents, Vitaly would marry Oran, and Louis would only be a memory of Marseille during this period, and he might not even be considered a "memory".

In a melancholy mood, he painted some portraits of Vitaly, and Louis appeared in several portraits.

From the perspective of "beauty", both teenagers are very beautiful, not distinctive enough to be suitable as models for painters, but painting young beauties can also make people feel happy.He felt happy and bitter at the same time, and he also hated that he couldn't grasp the figure of the character, and couldn't show the beauty of the girl he loved.

He also knows where his problem lies: he has not received systematic academic training in basic skills.If he had started to learn painting 10 years ago, he would have practiced from the basic lines step by step, but now he is 21 years old, his thinking will not be that of an 11-year-old boy, he only knows how to practice hard , He has his own ideas, but has not yet formed a clear concept.

Compared with Vitaly's proficient basic skills, his paintings are always not so "beautiful", and sometimes they are "ugly", to the point that I even despise them.

And Vitaly is really good, she will comfort him, encourage him, always say that in a few years he will be able to paint very well.well!He has no confidence, but is full of hope, so his mood is always floating back and forth between the two.

They both like to write letters, and they will write letters to their families before going to bed. Vincent has a good relationship with his elder brother Theo. Theo has been his little tail since he was a child, and he follows him everywhere; Tali is 17 months old and started her apprenticeship at Goupil in The Hague last year.Most of his letters were to Theo, about his life in Paris, about his feelings after arriving in Marseilles; he also wrote to his parents, but the number was much smaller.

Vitaly also doesn’t write letters to Mrs. Rimbaud very often, maintaining a precise frequency of one letter a month; most of her letters are written to Gabriel and Arthur, saying that she is happy living in Marseilles , if only they could travel around the Mediterranean countries for several years in the future.

After receiving the letter, Gabriel wondered if something was wrong.

"Who is this Louis Mandarion?" He asked Arthur wonderingly.The advantage of living with my brother-in-law is that you can ask immediately if you don't understand anything.

Arthur Rimbaud was also reading the letter. In the letter, his sister described the scenery of Marseille in detail. It was almost like a foreign country, "not quite French".

"Mundarian?" He frowned, thinking that this surname was too unfamiliar.But he had a good memory, and he quickly remembered that it was Frederick who had told him about the boy he had met in Dijon, who had bullied Vitaly and nearly strangled her. "They met a couple of times years ago and Louie hit Vitaly."

Arthur skipped the bad things about Captain Rimbaud and didn't want to tell Gabriel.

Gabriel didn't expect such an "anterior cause", and was stunned for a while.

"Let me see what she told you." Arthur took the letter in his hand and read it for a long time.It is impossible for Vitaly to write any greasy love in the letter. She just talked about her life in Marseille in a very polite way, saying that she made a lot of new dresses, enough to wear for several years; what she ate, what she played, What did you draw? When you return to Rouen, you must bring a lot of boxes back with you.

Among them, Louis was mentioned pretending not to care.

"I remember he was two years younger than Vitaly, that is, a 14-year-old child." In fact, Frederick remembered Louis' age wrongly.

Now Gabriel is relieved: he is just a poor kid!As for Vincent mentioned in her letter, he didn't care so much now.There is no suitable man around Vitaly to accompany her on a long trip, and Vincent is indeed a good candidate.She and Vincent were in the painting business. He knew about it a long time ago and gave her money to buy paintings. Of course, it didn’t mean that he also thought that the Impressionist painting style had a great future, but because Vitaly thought it could be used as a long-term investment. , he is to support her.

If they were business partners, he would not worry that Vitaly would like the red-haired Dutchman.

Vitaly is a very interesting girl. She comes from a humble background, loves vanity, likes fancy clothes and food, and is committed to improving her personal status. If you have no money or fame, she will not even look at you.This kind of frank and worldliness is quite cute. He didn't realize it at all. It was because she was beautiful, and everything a beauty would be forgiven would not be annoying.

Arthur was better, for he was also vain, and soon adapted himself to better conditions of life, and became fastidious, ordering his servants to do things with a natural manner, so that his friends and schoolmates would not recognize him if they did not know his parentage. His family background; he still has a bit of genius and arrogance, but also because of his good looks, many people tolerate him.

"Would you like to go to Marseilles?" he asked Arthur.

"She said it so well, I really want to see it."

"We can go there during the summer vacation and live in Marseille for nearly two months." The advantage of being rich is that you can go wherever you want, and you don't need to think about money at all.

"Okay, let me ask her how long she plans to live in Marseille. She said she will do business in Marseille, but she didn't say what it will be, and she doesn't know how long it will take."

"What is she going to do?" Gabriel asked casually.

"She didn't say that she might be doing something for Mr. Flaubert."

Gabriel nodded knowingly.

Rimbaud's family is simple. Mrs. Rimbaud's natal relatives are all in the Ardennes, and there is no reason to go to the far southern provinces, so they can only help Flaubert with errands.Flaubert has been in poor health recently, as she mentioned in her last letter, and she also vaguely said that Flaubert's condition is serious and cannot be cured.

They both guessed that Flaubert had syphilis, so Vitaly was shocked and warned them severely.

Gabriel was already happily looking forward to living in Marseille with Vitaly. With Arthur around, Vitaly would not worry about being accused of being "frivolous". He didn't mind that Arthur went out with them. He could take Vincent with her if she wanted.Neither he nor Arthur knew how to paint, and Vitaly would be glad to have a friend who did.

What a wonderful holiday this coming summer will be!

The men Louis sent to Dijon returned five days later.

Said that Captain Rimbaud was still living in the old house, with its mistress, a "not-so-good" young woman, of bad birth; and a "Jean-Nicolas Lucas Rimbaud's little boy, who is almost 5 years old; Captain Rimbaud is very fond of his young son, and often takes him to the clubs he frequents, but he doesn't take the young woman out very much;

In terms of finances, I haven't heard of any debts, but I don't seem to be too rich. I only use two servants, a male servant and a female servant; I don't have my own horses and carriages.

The people sent there knew how to conduct investigations, and recorded Captain Rimbaud’s daily schedule for 3 consecutive days: when did he go out, where did he go, who did he meet, when did he go home; whether the young woman went out, who she was with; A handwritten copy of Cass' birth certificate; whether and what kind of illness Lucas Jr. has had; Captain Rimbaud's physical condition, etc., and give Louis a folder.

Louis didn't read the investigation report, and directly passed it to Vitaly.

When Vitaly heard that "father" still gave her a half-brother, she was very angry!So when he abandoned his wife and children and evaded his father's responsibilities, he still wanted to have a son by his side in his later years?

She was so angry that she didn't know how to scold her.

Louis didn't care, and was even glad that Vitaly went to make a fuss, and his mother couldn't stand being ridiculed and humiliated by her, so she finally left that man.From this point of view, he felt that he needed to thank Vitaly. Without Vitaly, there would be no Mrs. Vermoran, and he would not be the young owner of the shipping company.

My mother used to have an income level of "not short of money but not too rich". She had no other skills and could only get more wealth by marrying, but being with Captain Rimbaud was obviously her "brain". There's water in it"—that was Vitaly's metaphor, and it made him laugh.

He paid attention to Vitaly's expression, saw that her eyes were red with anger, and quickly comforted her: "It's just a child of a few years old, don't need to be angry."

"Am I angry because of Lucas?" she exclaimed angrily. "I am because of him—the man! I would hate to use his last name if possible!" It is easy to add "Flaubert", but if the surname "Rimbaud" is completely abandoned, Mrs. Rimbaud will definitely call her a thief!well!There was no way, she had to endure this anger, but she didn't want to.

"He's an asshole!" Louis followed her lead, "But what do you want? What did you think before?"

"I want him to—" She originally wanted to say let him die, but in fact, in the eyes of many people, Captain Rimbaud is at best a dishonorable man who abandoned his wife and children, not a "crime" .She changed her words sullenly, "I want him to live a less happy life. I want him to sell the house. I want to get the money for selling the house. If he has no money, how can he support his mistress and illegitimate child?"

"That's it...I think about it." Louis frowned and thought carefully for a long time, "The best way is to let him borrow money, or gamble. He has been in the army for 20 years. Even officers love two things: drinking and gambling."

Vitaly couldn't help but look at him with admiration, "I also want him to owe a large amount of gambling debts, and then find someone to come to collect the gambling debts every day, so that he has no time to think about other things. You have someone who can do this ?"

"I'll go back and look for it." Louis nodded.

The shipping company is full of talents, and many of them have criminal records. Mr. Vermoran is actually a very skilled businessman, shrewd, and has a good reputation in the industry. He really knows how to behave.Vitaly inquired a little about Vermoran's reputation, and felt that Mrs. Mandarian was finally not blind this time.Looking at Louis, he knew that Vermorin raised his stepson as an heir. He had an ex-wife who died young and left two daughters, both of whom were married; Mrs. Mandarian gave birth to a boy, Lu Xi'an, now 3 and a half years old.His biological son was still young, but his step-son was about to grow up. Vermorin wanted his step-son to inherit the family business. Lucien was Louis' half-brother, so he would definitely not treat his younger brother badly.

Thinking of Lucien, Vitaly thought of Lucas. Lucas was actually more than one year older than Lucien. So, besides Mrs. Mandarion, Captain Rimbaud had a mistress?

"Does your mother know Lucas?"

"I don't know. We didn't inquire about him afterwards." Louis was a little annoyed at the thought of the age difference between the two children, but soon waved his hand indifferently, "It's just a wild-mongrel. "He used a Maasai slang, which was very unpleasant.

Vitaly smiled, "I can't come forward about this matter, and I don't need to come forward. In short, the purpose is to let him not think about any easy and happy life, as long as he doesn't starve to death." She opened the investigation report, Inside was a photo of little Lucas. The little boy actually looked like Arthur when he was a child, with a round face, short hair, and a well-behaved appearance. He was a cute boy.She knew that she shouldn't get angry with Lucas, but it's really unfair to think about it because their brother and sister failed to get the father's love, but this child could get the father's love they would never get!

She was better because she had no recollection of anything before the age of two, but Frederick was seven and a half and Arthur was five and a half.Arthur would be pissed, and she didn't want to tell him that any fatherless and sensitive boy would brood over the lack of affection in his life.

Louis was quick to do things, found the right candidate two days later, and sent two people to Dijon to handle errands.

Vitaly didn't come forward from the beginning to the end, and didn't meet the people who were in charge of the affairs. She just told Louis what goal to achieve, how to do it, and how to arrange it properly, so that the person involved didn't realize that there was something wrong afterwards.The person in charge thinks that the timeline for the gambling game is too long. If the other party is not fooled, or takes the money and runs away, it is not very easy to operate. They suggest that it is better to arrange a simpler and faster beauty game and hire a prostitute in Marseilles. A young widow with a good family background seduces the victim, and then breaks in to catch the rape while the two are having sex, forcing the victim to write a huge amount of IOUs, and then comes to collect the debt. The victim can only pay for it in order not to lose face.

Vitaly thought about it, isn't this the "fairy dance"?Sure enough, this trick is used by criminals all over the world.It doesn't matter what means are used, as long as the goal is achieved.Originally, she just wanted to have a side-view of Captain Rimbaud's current situation, and then hire someone to do it, but the hidden danger is that you may not be able to find a suitable candidate, and the other party may blackmail you in turn.The current situation of Louis is completely beyond her expectation. She doesn't mind using Louis' manpower at all if she wants money or people. Louis is repaying the interest. He almost strangled her back then, and he will never pay back this debt for the rest of his life.

On the one hand, Louis was very happy to do something for her, on the other hand, of course, it was his own desire for revenge.He didn't tell his mother about it, but he told his stepfather.Vitaly learned that he had a good relationship with his stepfather. Thinking of how awkward the child was, he didn't even like Captain Rimbaud back then, so his stepfather must have been really kind to him.Of course, one is the mother's lover and cannot marry her, and the other is a serious stepfather, the legal relationship is different, and it is normal for Louis to prefer the stepfather.

Vitaly lived in Marseille for half a month, and finally left reluctantly.

When he came here, he didn't bring anything, just a large suitcase for clothes and a luggage bag for personal belongings; Vincent brought even less, just a luggage bag.The return trip can be regarded as bringing a lot: just two large suitcases for all kinds of clothes and skirts, one wooden box for painting materials, one wooden box for various exercises, and a lot of foreign countries sent by Mr. Vermoran. specialty.

On the return trip, she did not stop in Lyondo, but sat in a cafe near the train station for a few hours, waiting for the train to Paris. Vincent drew a sketch of her sitting in the cafe.

After solving an important worry, Vitaly was in a good mood and asked his family for the first time.

Vincent said that his father was a pastor and his mother was a housewife, but he had learned painting and was good at painting; the eldest sister Anna found a job as a French tutor in London, and the eldest brother Theo was in Goupil, The Hague. The company works as an apprentice; there are two younger sisters and a younger brother who are still young and go to school at home; part of the money he earns will be sent back home, hoping that the younger siblings can get a better education.

This is also the first time for Vitaly to know the real situation of Van Gogh's family, thinking that the burden on his family is quite heavy.

Then Vincent mentioned with frustration that his uncle, a wealthy art dealer and a shareholder of Goupil, originally wanted to train him to become a senior manager of Goupil, so that he would inherit Uncle Vincent's property in the future. But now... Uncle is quite disappointed with him, thinking that his resignation is just messing around, but because he is still young, uncle means that when he fails to start a business, he will be asked to return to Goupil Company.

He was a little dazed, "I know that my uncle is doing it for my own good, and the pastor also thinks that I should not resign easily. In the future, I should be a senior manager of Goupil and work as a store manager in The Hague or Paris, earning 1 to 5 yuan a year." 2 francs, to inherit my uncle's property, so that I will be a rich art dealer and allow Cole to go to college... But something in my heart keeps crying, I shouldn't be that boring person, I don't like."

"If so what do you like?"

"I like...for example, the blue of the Mediterranean Sea, the black of the land, the golden yellow of the wheat field, and the darkness of the night sky. In short, it should be full of vitality and changeable. Before that, I wanted to live that kind of life... Uncle and The life the pastor wants me to live, if... If Ursula agreed to my courtship, I should be engaged to her by now." He frowned and looked at her carefully, "I want to get married because of a man Can't help but get married."

Vitaly nodded, "Most people think so."

The author has something to say: *Van Gogh's younger brother Theo was also a syphilis patient. Less than a year after Van Gogh's death, Theo also passed away and almost went crazy before he died.Van Gogh had a mistress who lived with him for about 2 years, and finally left his mistress under the pressure of his family; Theo also had a mistress before he got married. What happened to these two brothers!

* Theo's son is named Vincent, with the same name as his uncle, and Van Gogh is his nephew's godfather.The grandson of Vincent Jr. was Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch film director who shot the short film "Submission" (2004). He was assassinated by religious fanatics because he criticized the violence against women by the unspeakable religion.At that time, a series of retaliatory violence broke out in the Netherlands related to the gods.Another son of Vincent Jr., also named Theo (uncle of director Theo), was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II and was arrested and executed by the Nazis.