[Count of Monte Cristo] Love and hatred

chapter126

The night was getting darker.

Madame de Villefort proposes to go home and take care of little Edward, and this is exactly what Madame Danglars has long wanted to propose, because everything at the Villa Auteuil disturbs her.

At this time, Danglars seemed to have a lot to say to the newly-acquainted Viscount Cavalcanti, so Villefort invited Madame Danglars to go first in his own carriage so that his wife could take care of her along the way.

However, after the carriage arrived in downtown Paris, he did not send Madame Danglars back directly as promised before, but drove the carriage to Rue Saint-Honor and let his wife get out of the carriage first.Then he directed the carriage to move on, preparing to send Madame Danglars home in person.

"Your Excellency, you must be trying to comfort me." Madame Danglars clenched her handkerchief tightly. "My poor child left this world just after being born. I didn't even kiss him. For him, I bleed." How many tears have been shed! My heart went to the count when he mentioned that he had dug up the remains of my treasure under the flowers."

"Ermine, do you think this is a coincidence?" Villefort raised his eyebrows, "Do you think the Count of Monte Cristo bought this house by chance? He happened to dig this garden? No, no, because there is no There are no dead bodies of children!"

"What do you mean?" Madame Danglars widened her eyes. "Have you been lying to me?"

"I did hide something from you, but I didn't mean to," explained Villefort. "You know, I was assassinated by an enemy that night, and I lay in bed for six months. During this time, I was worried that the matter of burying the child would also be hidden." He saw it and threatened you with it, so after I recovered, I immediately went back to this garden, trying to dig out that box, but found nothing!"

"Maybe you misremembered where the box was buried."

"No, I remember it very clearly, it's right next to the sycamore tree."

"The assassin must have poached it," Ermini screamed uncontrollably. "What is he going to do with it? The poor child deserves to rest in peace."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about," Villefort pondered for a while, concealing the fact that he had tried to strangle the child, "At that time, I thought that he didn't threaten us with the child's body, which meant...maybe I was wrong at the time, the child was not dead."

"Oh!" Ermini screamed, almost fainting again.

"Later, I went to the hospital to investigate. On that night, someone did send a child to the hospital, and left half of the handkerchief and a box as proof of his identity. On the half of the handkerchief, there was half of the baron's coat of arms and A letter h."

"That is the last letter of my name, Hermine," Madame Danglars said excitedly. "My child is still alive, and we must find him."

"No, Hermine, don't you understand?" Villefort grabbed her shoulder and shouted, "I would rather he disappear forever, because what he will bring us will not be joy, but disaster. Think Just think, if that child falls into the hands of our enemies, then he will become a dagger, a gun, kill me, kill you!"

Ermini just wanted to refute, but her voice seemed to be stolen in an instant.It was not until the carriage stopped at her door that she summoned up the courage to ask, "Villefort, what shall we do?"

"Now, I will investigate the Count of Monte Cristo," Villefort folded his hands, "and all you can do is pray that Monte Cristo is really just making up stories."

After returning to his study, Villefort had been in a state of anxiety.The villa that originally belonged to Renee's dowry buried his deepest secret, but the Count of Monte Cristo took this secret as an insignificant after-dinner conversation and easily revealed it.

Considering the Count of Monte Cristo's social connections and his eccentric and lonely status, as well as his incredible wealth, he should have been wary long ago.But it was not too late, and Villefort immediately wrote to Mr. Bowery, Minister of Police, asking him to provide information about the mysterious count.

It wasn't long before he got a note from Mr. Bowery.The other party explained that because the Count of Monte Cristo had been in Paris for less than a month, the police department did not have much information, but there were two people who could provide Villefort with the information he wanted.

One is the earl's friend, Father Busoni, a priest from Italy, who came to Paris a year ago with a letter of recommendation from the archbishop, and is now serving in the Church of St. Sulmos.

The other is the Earl's enemy, Lord Weimar, who Villefort is relatively familiar with.He knew that Lord Weimar had several investments in France, and the other party had visited him when he moved to Rue Saint-Honor, and now it was time for him to pay a return visit.

Villefort first went to St. Sulmos Church, but Father Busoni had been working in the confessional and had no time to receive him until evening, so he had to postpone his visit to Lord Weimar until the next day.

About ten o'clock in the morning Baptistine, the servant, came to announce the arrival of M. de Villefort.

Mei Tess immediately got up and went to the living room downstairs. In fact, Busoni had notified her in advance, and she was ready to meet Villefort.

She walked down the stairs slowly, staring directly at the person who had tried to kill her, without showing any emotion on her face. "Your Excellency, I am honored to have you here."

"Lord Weimar, please forgive me for being busy with official duties during this time, I should have come to visit you long ago," Villefort said.

The two exchanged brief greetings before Villefort explained the purpose of his visit, "I heard that you had some trouble with the Count of Monte Cristo."

"Yes, he is my enemy," Mai Tess's voice carried the unique indifference of the British.

"Could you tell me about it?" Villefort raised his brows with interest.

Plum Tess paused for a moment, and began to talk about the past that they had planned long ago.

"The Count of Monte Cristo, in his youth, served in the army of a small kingdom in India, fighting against the English, and it was there that I met him for the first time and fought. In that war he became a He was taken prisoner and taken to England, where he was placed in a prisoner ship, where he escaped by diving."

"You have been enemies since then."

"No, I didn't pay much attention to him at that time," Mei Tess folded her hands. "Later, we met again in Thessaly, became partners briefly, and bought a mine together. We mined two For many months, but what I dug up were some lead-zinc ores with low purity and value. At that time, I decided that this was a business destined to lose money. It happened that there was an urgent message from the UK and asked me to go back, but because of the mining , I don’t have much property anymore. Perhaps at that time, Monte Cristo had discovered the secret of the mine, so he offered to use the half of the ownership in my name as collateral to lend me a sum of money. After returning, I gradually Forgot about it until two years later, I heard that he discovered a great silver mine and became rich."

No, no, it's not that Lord Weimar has forgotten about that incident, but he simply doesn't want to go back and redeem the mine that is destined to lose money, Villefort thought to himself.

"So I went back there and found that it was the ore that we jointly developed. I asked him to give me half of the proceeds according to the contract. But he said that I had already bought the half of the ownership to him, and I was only willing to give I offered a compensation. To be honest, the compensation was generous, but I knew the value of the mine would only be greater. Then I appealed to the local court...”

"It's a pity that you lost the case in the end, right?" Villefort smiled sternly, "Because you don't have enough evidence."

"It's not just that." Mei Tess shook her head, "I suspect that he bribed the judge. You have been in the judiciary for so long, you should understand the darkness."

"I dare not tell others, but if it were me, I would definitely give you justice." Villefort pondered for a while, "What happened afterwards?"

"After losing the lawsuit, I chose to fight him again, and I also failed. Later, I had to accept the compensation, and started a fortune with it, and owned a lot of wealth. But I never gave up my ownership of the mine. scramble."

"If my guess is correct, the girl from the East next to you is also related to this matter," Villefort said tentatively.

"Yes, her father is the local lord and the one who sold the mine to us." Mei Tess folded her hands, "Later her father was killed by a traitor, and I took her in."

"Because she was the only witness in that public case back then."

Plum Tess didn't deny it.

Villefort nodded with satisfaction, the past sounds reasonable.He had heard about the two competing for the "Hope" blue diamond, but he hadn't paid attention to it before, because old-school nobles like him looked down on those new nobles who made their fortunes from capital.But now it seems that this extremely business-minded Lord Weimar is worth making friends with, after all, the enemy of an enemy is a friend.

"Just to ask," said Villefort with a smile, "if you were the first to discover the secret of the mine, instead of him, what would you have done?"

"Then today, there probably won't be the Count of Monte Cristo." Meltess smiled sternly, "If it were you, would you make the same choice as me?"

The corner of Villefort's mouth curled up, neither denying nor affirming. He could see jealousy, ambition, and hatred in Lord Weimar's eyes.At this moment he almost felt that Lord Weimar was the same kind of person as himself.

"Mr. Villefort, you have come to ask me so many things about Monte Cristo today. Did he commit any crimes in Paris?" Meiser Tess asked curiously.

"I do suspect that he is involved in a crime," explained Villefort. "By the way, do you know why he bought Villa Auteuil?"

"The Count of Monte Cristo is a speculator. He thinks that near the house he bought, there is a hot spring like Baneris. I hear he has dug the whole garden two or three times in an unsuccessful attempt to find the source of the hot springs, and presumably he will soon be buying up the neighboring houses, and he will surely be confused by those utopian experiments in the future. Bankruptcy." Plum Tess looked at him with almost expectant eyes, "Can this information help you?"

"Of course", Villefort's cold tone revealed his insincerity.It wasn't the answer he wanted, but at least Lord Weimar and Father Busoni spoke exactly the same way.

"Is that enough to convict Monte Cristo?" asked Maisette.

"No, it's not enough. But Lord Weimar, maybe I can help you get rid of this enemy." He smiled like a poisonous snake, "as long as you can provide me with some evidence of his crimes in Paris."

"Evidence?" Mei Tess frowned, "But I don't have any evidence against him."

"You don't have to master it to provide it," Villefort blinked. "After all, it's your job to produce evidence, and it's the judge's job to judge the authenticity of criminal evidence. Always on guard."

"I think I understand what you mean, but I need to think about it. After all, as a foreigner, I don't want to get involved too deeply in such a matter." Mei Tess smiled sternly, "Mr. Villefort, You are really a just person. But a person like you must offend many people."

"To tell you the truth, I do have many enemies."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"If I were afraid, I would not be a prosecutor," Villefort said in a tone of justice. "In fact, I have a clear grasp of the situation of each enemy, and I can guarantee that they will not pose a threat to me."

"You can remember so much information," Mei Tess said in a sarcastic tone, "You must be a master of memory."

"No, records are far more reliable than memories."

As if realizing that he had talked too much, Villefort got up to take his leave.

Mei Tess was very curious about the records that Villefort was talking about. She guessed that it was his case file, and it would be very difficult to get those things out.But if Villefort meant...

After watching the carriage leave, Mei Tess instructed Baptistin to drive a carriage that had never been used, and followed closely.Soon Baptistin returned, "My lord, M. Villefort has returned to the court."

Plum Tess immediately sent Vampa out, and found some vagrants to make trouble near the courthouse.As for herself, she disguised herself and went to the waiting room of the Paris court to report the case.

At this moment, Villefort was sitting in his office.Although Father Busoni and Lord Weimar had completely opposite attitudes towards Monte Cristo, the information he received was completely correct.At least he can be sure of one thing, that is, before this, the Count of Monte Cristo had never had any intersection with him.

This conclusion puzzled Villefort.He therefore went back to his office and again from a dark cabinet took out a pamphlet containing records of his enemies in politics, money matters, the courts, and his mysterious love affairs. It has now reached astonishing proportions.

Perhaps in Villefort's view, being imprisoned in Chateau d'If or sold abroad is tantamount to death, or maybe he thinks that people with low status are not enough to pose a threat to him. In short, there is nothing about Edmond and Maize Tess for any info.Even if there were, he could not connect these two people with the current Count of Monte Cristo and Lord Weimar.

But he only had time to read it once before he was annoyed by the people who reported the case. Although there was no major case to be tried today, it was strange that there were a lot of people crowded outside the waiting room.After a little thought, Villefort decided to take the pamphlet home and study it carefully.

As he walked out of the courthouse, he didn't notice a man following him from the waiting room.When going down the steps, the man bumped into him suddenly, then pulled the brim of his hat, said "I'm sorry" and left.When Villefort returned home, he found that the pamphlet had been lost.

He hurried out of the study, but a servant stopped him.He soon found that he had no time to attend to the Count of Monte Cristo, because of the bad news from Aix that his former father-in-law, the Marquis of Saint-Méran, had died on his way to Paris.

The author has something to say: Thank you for Su Su’s shortbread (w), Wen Chen’s nutrient solution, okay~