[Comprehensive film and television] The formula of perfume

【Jean Grenouille】

Baldini is not often in the workshop. He is busy all day long. He only has time to check the situation at night. When he is in a good mood, he will teach me some knowledge about preserving fragrance.But as time goes by, I feel that he can teach me less and less.

But last night, Baldini was drunk and told me a story when he was having a good time, a legend about perfume in ancient Egypt.

I don’t know why, what Baldini said about this legend is deeply embedded in my mind like magic, so I can’t help recalling and imagining what the perfume that can make people feel like entering heaven will be like?

"Grenouille, what are you doing?"

Someone sneaked a feather out of my back and scratched my nose.

My nose is very sensitive to smells, which may cause it to be invincible to slight harassment. The feather just shook my nostril lightly, and a tingling sensation rushed into my nasal cavity immediately.

"Ahei! Ahei! Ahei!"

I bent down and sneezed three times, almost unable to hold the alcohol bottle in my hand. When I turned my head to look at the instigator, she was holding the goose feather I picked up, with her hands behind her back, facing me. Stick out your tongue: "I didn't mean to do this on purpose, you are too focused on the problem, I have to do something to make you notice me. Well, today is a very good day, everyone should be happy, you say Yes or no?"

Adele again.

This is not the first time she has played with my nose.Since I promised to make her own perfume for her that day, she began to sneak into the workshop to watch me make it. Even if it was not made for her, she still enjoyed it.

I usually start working in the morning, before Baldini wakes up, and during tea time, when nobles often invite him to choose perfume for them, and Adele usually chooses these two times to sneak in through the back door.

I didn't take the initiative to tell her these things. I don't know where she found out about them. Her movements are dexterous and her body is light. Until now, no one has ever discovered her.

"Are you angry? Are you?" Seeing that I didn't speak, she jumped over lightly, blinked at me, and held out the goose feather pitifully: "Sorry, don't be angry, I will definitely not do this next time Now, since today is the anniversary of the king's enthronement, just let me go, okay?"

You say that every time, and it never comes true, so I really hate the smellless child... Seeing that goose feather, I subconsciously took a step back, refusing to take this nasty thing from her hand.

Until she teased me with this thing, I didn't know I hated feathers so much, everything that makes people sneeze!

"Grenouille, what's in your pocket? It looks bulging."

This... I hesitated for a moment, took out the half of the wilted pancake, and handed it to her.

"It's for me again?" Adele was obviously surprised.

I nodded, but quickly pulled my hand back before she touched my pancake.

"Grenouille, are you kidding me?" she said angrily.

I shook my head: "Feather, not in the future." I am not good at choosing words and making sentences, but I think she can understand what I mean.

Adele really smiled: "Oh, so you are using pancakes to negotiate terms with me? Okay, okay, I promise I won't tease you with feathers in the future, I swear." After she finished speaking, she immediately rushed forward and snatched me away. I don’t forget to hug me with one hand and thank me with all my mouth: “Grenouille, you are so kind!”

Just half a pancake, I thought silently.

Although I don't have any money, I still have enough rations to spare.The only thing I can't figure out is why I always leave food for her. Is it just because she came to Baldini secretly for the first time after we made an appointment, and when she watched me work, she was so hungry that she growled?

But she is hungry, why should I care about her, why should I leave food for her?

I didn't think about it until Adele finished eating half of the pancake and wiped my mouth with the veil I used to sniff the perfume in satisfaction.But I always feel that her eating movements are different from everyone else's. Is it because she looks better?I didn't want to understand this either.

It has nothing to do with the smell. If I can't think clearly, I will choose to forget about it, and continue to finish the work in hand to be serious.

When Baldini is away, I will continue to choose to formulate perfumes in my own way, pour a little of this smell, pour a little of that scent, mix and mix, I don’t need to make it, I can imagine how they are mixed together What is the scent like.

When I imagined it, my nose seemed to be able to smell it.

I love the process of formulating, it makes me feel like I have control over all the scents.

Unfortunately, this is only fantasy at present.

"Try it." I pushed the newly made perfume in front of Adele.

She has also been taught Baldini's tricks by taking a quick sniff with a perfumed handkerchief. Although I don't like this way of smelling, I don't want her to face a whole bottle of strong liquid Sniff desperately.

Without exception, she also shook her head this time, and said disappointedly: "It smells very light, does it contain roses..." She answered very uncertainly.

"I think..." I rubbed my hands, trying to organize the words in my head, "I think ordinary perfume can't meet your requirements."

Adele didn't seem surprised at all. She quickly asked me, "What kind of food do you want? Grenouille, can you do it?"

I froze for a moment.

Then shook his head.

I have millions of scents, but not many of them can be shared with her, and many things are in my head, but I can't make them.

Not to mention she has such a bad nose.

"Perhaps, there is one way." I suddenly thought of the legend that Baldini told me yesterday, maybe I haven't forgotten it at all. Although Adele interrupted my train of thought when she came in, my subconscious still Still thinking about it.

"What is it?" Adele asked me.

"Ancient Egyptian, special perfume, when you smell it, you feel like you are in heaven, and I guess if you smell it just a little bit, it will have the same effect."

"Is this what you've been thinking about today? When I came in, you were distracted, thinking about how to make this perfume, right?" Adele blinked, squatted down along the corner of the wall, and patted her side , looked at me with great interest: "Grenouille, come and sit down, and tell me about that magical perfume."

She likes to sit side by side and listen to my speech. My language is not very good, and it is always difficult to describe, but she likes to listen, which makes me very distressed.But it doesn't matter today, I remember Baldini's words, and I can repeat what he said, fluently, without leaking.

——Each perfume usually has three notes, each with four spices, for a total of twelve.But the ancient Egyptians believed that in order to create a truly novel perfume, there must be an additional spice that can stand out and make other spices submit.

Legend has it that an amphora was unearthed in the tomb of the Pharaoh. The perfume in it has been lingering for thousands of years, and the smell is delicate and strong.

People studied this smell and isolated twelve kinds of spices, but what is the No. 13 kind of fragrance, after exhausting all means, they can't find out anyway.

"You want to create this lost fragrance, don't you?" Adele asked me.

I shook my head.

"No, I want to make something better than this."

Better and better, a perfume better than any smell in the world.

I was wandering in my mind, but my heart was vague and I didn't have a clear concept.I've collected a million scents, but I don't know what the most wonderful smell in the world should be.

"I believe you will succeed." Although Adele was small, she patted my shoulder vigorously without hesitation, "You are Grenouille!"

"But I couldn't make the scent you wanted." I shrugged and answered her dryly.Her unreasonable trust strikes me as both surprising and unreliable.

At this time, I smelled the scent of Baldini drifting closer and closer. He must have been outside the Exchange Bridge. In fact, I smelled him as early as a mile away, but I planned to tell Adele later so that she could You can stay a little longer and listen to me finish the legend.

But now I have to tell her: "He's coming back."

"So fast? This old man..." Adele wrinkled her nose, she didn't like Baldini either.

"Okay, I should go, but wait a minute - Grenouille, are you free tonight?" Adele turned to me as she sneaked out the back door.

I shook my head.

"Great," she suddenly became very happy, and pulled my sleeve, "tonight is the anniversary of the king's enthronement, and there will be fireworks at King's Bridge. Let's watch it together, shall we?"

【Adele】

I was delighted that Grenouille agreed to watch the Kings Bridge fireworks with me.Counting it, I have known Grenouille for more than two months. He is always bored in the dark perfume preparation room in Baldini. There are too many fragrances that cannot be exposed to light, so the storage place must be kept without sunlight all year round.

I don't care about the spices, but Grenouille, who often saves my rations for me, I already regard him as another good friend of mine.

Since we are friends, of course I have to care. Like Grenouille, who is bored in a cramped room every day and taciturn and doesn't like to talk, sooner or later he will be bored.

Even a genius is still a human being, so why not relax and have fun?

So I took advantage of the excuse of fireworks on King's Day to forcefully pull Grenouille out. For this reason, I declined the invitation of Corey and several other partners.Cory was also mad at me for choosing Grenouille over him, and it took me a while to coax Cory to make him a little bit happier, but he still pouted when Grenouille was mentioned.

At night, flames flickering like stars are everywhere on the Seine River.

Satisfied, I walked up to the bridge with Grenouille, where there is the best place to watch the fireworks.Because the crowd was too crowded and noisy, I had to grab Grenouille by the corner of his clothes, roll my hands into a tube, and shouted into his ears: "Don't use your nose tonight, but see with your eyes to appreciate The beauty of fireworks, you know?"

Grenouille nodded silently.But I can see that he is absent-minded, and he is always listless where there is no novel smell. I am also very helpless about this. It is too difficult for him to try not to use his nose.

But no matter what, with the loud cheers from the crowd, the grand fireworks ceremony finally began.

Louis XV ascended the throne more than 30 years ago, so the fireworks to celebrate this time are not particularly spectacular, at least I think so.

In my vague memory, I remember seeing bigger and more beautiful ones, but I don’t remember when, with whom, or where.

The memory is so blurred that it seems like it happened in the last lifetime.

Oops, this feeling is coming again.

I was in a trance.

At this time, there was a crowd of people rushing towards me. I was restless and couldn't stand steadily. I was quickly squeezed under the bridge by the excited crowd, and almost fell to the ground.

When I came back to my senses, I found that Grenouille was no longer by my side.

I was startled, did the group of people squeeze him down just now?I hurriedly squeezed onto the bridge to see him again. I am small and nimble, and I can move freely through the crowd, but I searched the area above and below the bridge three times in a row, but there was no sign of Grenouille. , but was pushed twice by a few guys who thought I was sloppy, and almost fell down again.

"Cory, Corey, have you seen Grenouille?" I accidentally found that Corey and a group of friends were huddled by the bridge to watch the fireworks, so I rushed over to grab him and asked.

"Adele?" Corey turned around, a little surprised, but soon frowned in disgust: "That guy, I saw him, he went over there." Corey pointed in a direction, and then grabbed Me: "Leave him alone, watch the fireworks with us, how beautiful, what a rare opportunity!"

"Okay, wait a minute, I'll find him and I'll be right back." I hurriedly dropped this sentence, left Corey and left without looking back.

In fact, I didn't need to be so anxious.Grenouille is older than me and is more familiar with London than I am. He has lived tenaciously alone for so many years. Even if a small firework party is scattered, nothing will happen to him. At most, he feels bored. Keep going back and researching his perfumes.

What concerned me was his leaving without saying goodbye.

I'm sure I wasn't in such a trance that I didn't even hear him say goodbye.

His sudden disappearance made me feel vaguely uneasy.

This is intuition.

Still, I'm not sure I'd have the guts to do it again if I knew what I'd see when I caught up with him.

For the next five years, this scene kept recurring in my mind, almost like a nightmare.