[Titanic] Ticket

Leicester walked down the stairs to the hall. All the places in the manor where the owner might set foot were covered with expensive and thick carpets, which just encouraged some little-known habits of Leicester. Carl hurriedly followed Go downstairs, stop him in front of the sofa, let him sit down with a face full of disapproval, put wool socks and slippers on him: "You will never learn to take care of yourself, will you? I can't be at the age of 80 Will have the strength to follow your ass later on so you can dry your hair, put on your slippers, or drink your milk."

Lester shook his feet and said with a smile: "Don't underestimate yourself, you can still serve me for at least 40 years, Mr. Hockley."

"...that doesn't sound like good news."

Carl raised his voice and sat down next to him. Mary walked in. The latter immediately showed a face of imminent disaster. His premonition was quite accurate. At the same time, she quickly let go of the maid's hand and stumbled towards them. Rebecca fell halfway, but she didn't cry out, she just got up with her mouth flattened, and approached the sofa with cautious steps. .

Vincent was already very close, "His next move is to hug your leg." Lester shrank his feet and kicked the capitalist's back. He glared at the little boy with a look of "How dare you approach me?" I'll just wait for death" expression, but Vincent obviously hasn't grown up to the age of observing words and expressions, he hugged Carl's right leg happily, and giggled happily, sticking his trousers sticky saliva.

Carl looks like the end of the world is flying over his head, Lester is holding Rebecca, the little girl is plucking his hair with soft fingers-it doesn't hurt, and the latter is almost obsessively trying to put them in his hair. Stuff it in your own mouth.

"...They look like two little idiots." Carl said, picking up the soft cloth wrapped around Vincent's neck in disgust, and wiped his face casually a few times, Vincent was almost caught He pushed it to the ground, and the former was not at all ashamed of this kind of bullying of children, and continued to mutter, "Look, I can't imagine it's still smiling-God, I'm not kidding you Yes, boy!"

"You have also gone through this stage. Now, stop bullying your son, Mr. Hockley." Lester stopped calmly, and took the heartless little boy to sit on the sofa with his sister Son.

Chocolate ran in through the door, Mary wiped its paws so it wouldn't ruin those valuable rugs, adult Alaska jumped on the sofa, and the twins found more interesting toys and jumped on them laughing. Buried in its thick coat.

"When will you be able to treat them better, Carl?" Lester casually picked up the book stuffed in the crack of the sofa, flipped through a few pages to find the place where he had the bookmark, and asked without raising his head, "You should be lucky They can't talk yet, otherwise Charlie would be getting sued 24 hours a day - because their dad still has an IQ of five or under."

"Get them out of my territory, or this matter won't end." Carl put his arms around his waist, his tone didn't seem to care so much, but the wording was hard to ignore, "This is a war."

"...The battle between the Lilliputian and the giant?" Lester stared at him, thinking that his brain might be terminally ill in some other sense.

"It's pretty accurate." Carl said in a serious tone.

……

They received a letter after lunch with two tickets to the Metropolitan Opera in an envelope and a brief message.

"I sincerely look forward to your presence, which will make my performance even more brilliant."

"Alex Mason... I've never heard of this name..." Carl repeated the signature absently, and wanted to throw the letter into the trash can, but Lester snatched it quickly, "You know him? "He caught the point almost instantly.

"Yes, if you still remember <Angel>, he brought me this good luck." Lester nodded and read the letter over and over several times. It was still the same few words, not too many Quite a few, wearing an elegant woody perfume, the cursive font looks polite and full of the energy unique to the upper class.

"I thought it was Dawson." Carl crossed his arms, Lester didn't look back, "I now think what you said every time is true, Mr. Hockley, are you going to keep Jack in your heart forever? ?"

Carl made an instant gesture of surrender, and Lester ended the subject contentedly.

"You don't look very happy." Carl leaned on his shoulder bonelessly, pushed away Lester's fingers, and pulled out the paper - you can find more details at this time, it has been burnt On the edge of the golden thread, there are some hidden dark lines, which seem to be the family crest of an ancient family. Carl frowned, "Griffin... please, Randolph? They have been stealing the limelight recently."

"That's what makes me uneasy," said Lester. "Alex shouldn't be—" He glanced at the letter with a "disagreeing" expression, "is such a particular person. We haven't been in touch for a long time, and I sent him to the theater to study, and something must have happened to change him in this way."

"Then go and have a look." Carl said indifferently. In his opinion, it was just that the poor young man was fascinated by the colorful world, and then he could never go back to the past. What else could it be? Woolen cloth?

……

Lester and Carl arrived at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York at seven o'clock, much earlier than the scheduled opening time. Someone was waiting for them at the door. It was a man of medium height, as thin as a match Stick, black hair, shrewd philistine face.

"Oh, welcome to the theater. I guess the two must be Mr. Hockley and Mr. Rowland." The man greeted him with a smile, "I'm Morgan Mason, Alex's father, he's waiting for you backstage ,Gentlemen."

"Good evening, Mr. Mason." Lester said softly, and looked up. The signboard of the Grand Theater was shining dazzling gold in the neon lights. There was a woman in a dance skirt standing on the second floor, smoking a cigarette. She met his gaze, showing an interested smile, rubbing her thighs to reveal the underside of her skirt, Carl gave the coquettish woman a cold look, pressed Lester's head down, and followed Mr. Mason into the door.

The backstage of the theater is as busy as you can imagine. Before the stage, it seems that everything is messed up and needs to start all over again. Everyone is doing their own things quickly. An ambiguous smile, after all, rich people would choose to come to such an inferior place, just for those dirty reasons that are not easy to say.

Alex has a separate make-up room. In the innermost room, Mr. Mason graciously opened the door for them. The young man was half leaning on the chair, with his blond hair neatly hanging behind his ears, probably because of some not-so-good Things didn't sleep well.

"Hey, wake up, my boy, let's see who's here? You've been looking forward to them for a while, haven't you?" Mr. Mason woke him up, and Carl sneered, obviously disapproving of the cheap flattery. cold.

The young man struggled to wake up from the dream, took the wet towel from Mr. Mason's hand, wiped his face, and politely asked him to go out. The latter seemed to be seriously offended by this move, and tried to yell to argue with him , but Karl's ugly face made him stop this stupid behavior, and walked out of the dressing room disheveledly with his tail between his legs, and repeatedly asked him to warmly entertain the two distinguished guests.

"I'm sorry, I should have gone in person." Alex hugged Lester, poured him a glass of water, and said embarrassingly, "Only this, as you know, I can't touch the other ones."

"...Maybe I shouldn't ask, but I think this may be the point of our conversation as we sit here." Lester looked at him, "Where's Mr. Augustus?"

Alex smiled, his smile shallow, his eyes sad and peaceful.He is not at all like the young man who danced on the street a few years ago, as if some force has smoothed the edges and corners of his body in a bloody way and those fierce and enthusiastic qualities, making him almost like a ghost , wearing that medieval white shirt that was obviously worn for a certain role, could almost be overwhelmed and go back to his script at any moment.

"He's in every possible place, I can't find him, I lost him." Alex said, lowering his head slightly, clenched the cup in his hand, "This is the meaning of my performance. You are very See you soon."

Alex whispered, his expression tense and terrifying, his face extremely pale, his cheeks twitching nervously, convincing everyone present to believe his words, and seemed to believe in this conclusion.

"He's not quite right." Carl closed the door of the dressing room and whispered to Lester, "He looks like he's going to be driven crazy by the world. Are all artists like this?" He showed a disgusted expression.

"Jack is so far away and you are so tireless to let him lie down, Mr. Hockley, again, you two are true love." Lester said, giving another strange look at the poster-covered door, "but you said You're right, Alex does not look normal, maybe we can find someone in the know."

They didn't take a few steps, and the "insider" staggered up to him with a drunken appearance. Usually, the one who looks better and talks between two people is more popular, and this time will not be an exception. The tall girl with thick red hair rushed into Lester's arms, wearing a thin white dress that swept the floor tightly around her good figure, and a golden garland of rice ears and laurel on her head. , with skin as bright as moonlight, looked almost the prettiest girl in the theater—and she was.

"I'm sorry, sir, are you okay?" The girl backed away a few steps, covered her mouth and exclaimed, then giggled, "My name is Claudia, sir, how about you?"

"Roland." Lester said, Carl twisted his arm, and it hurt a bit to be honest, he patted the back of the capitalist's hand, indicating that this was just an exchange of information that didn't involve anything, and he needed the man in front of him who looked A very capable and courageous girl, "Can I buy you a cup of tea, Miss Claudia?"

"Not enough time, Mr. Roland, it will be my turn soon. Normally, this would be an invitation that all the girls in this room dream of." She smiled, her amazingly deep blue eyes flickering slightly, " I noticed that you just came out of Mason's house, he is a celebrity here. So, who is it among you?" She looked around, and her eyes stopped on Carl, who was not very good-looking, and the latter said coldly Staring back, she quickly averted her gaze, showing a heartbreakingly frightened expression.

"Miss Claudia, I hope you will maintain the most basic respect for my friend." Lester said softly, "He has his own lover."

"Yeah, the big guy, he's good looking to be honest. A lot of us bet he fucks Alex to tears every night." A passing woman snapped, Claudia Angrily cursed, the woman sprayed a puff of cigarettes on her face, and said contemptuously, "Don't try to get useful information from this bitch, she doesn't pay attention to the man's dick and wallet at all. anything else."

"Elena." Lester looked at her, and the woman leaned against the wall and lazily reported her name, sneering with hazy eyes, "We just met, your lover doesn't look very friendly. "

Lester smiled: "Miss Alina, would you like to provide us with some information?"

"Everyone takes what they need." The woman stared at his pocket with squinted eyes, and Lester handed her a ten-dollar bill tactfully, and the latter slowly folded it and stuffed it into his chest in a leisurely way. He said emphatically, "Bell Augustus, I guess you know the name. He's got a crepe shop nearby, and it's a nice place, always reminds me of something good. He used to come with Mason to theater rehearsals." Well, he wasn't famous at the time, but they had a good time. Then old Mason, the bastard, came to the door—”

She smiled icily, seeming to feel sorry for Bell: "That's a shameless villain, he treats his son as a cash cow, today is Randolph, tomorrow is Fanning, they make Mason more and more famous-of course that The kid has talent. But you know, it's a disgraceful way, he's gotta pay for the shortcuts he took, Augustus fights him endlessly, he wants Mason out of this damn place, but that Young people are completely dazzled by Vanity Fair fans."

"He wanted to be on the highest and brightest part of that stage, and he wanted the world to know him, so stupid, isn't he? He lost Augustus, and that's just the way it should be." The woman snorted coldly with a cigarette in her mouth, and stretched out a hand. Karl cursed and gave her another ten yuan. She kissed the coin and walked away slowly, her back was thin and sparse.

Karl unconsciously squeezed Lester's hand, and they walked side by side, feeling that the night was surprisingly cold.