[Count of Monte Cristo] Love and hatred

chapter133

The Count of Monte Cristo stood up from the already cold water.

The water droplets flowed over his uneven muscles, making him look very imposing.His body is full of strength and beauty, with elegant shoulders, a solid chest, and powerful arms, just like the David created by the famous sculptor Michelangelo, it is astonishingly beautiful.

Although many European aristocrats still had an ambiguous attitude towards bathing during this period, the Earl, who had lived in the East for many years, had long been accustomed to the customs there, not to mention that he was a sailor, and he was born to like water and liked to be close to it.While it would be impossible to build a steaming hammam into the mansion, it is quite possible to install a beautiful cast-iron bathtub.

The count gently shook the water from his hair, then stepped out of the bathtub, took the towel from the rack, and carefully wiped the dark red water stains on his body.He heard that the nobles prefer to add milk or champagne to the water, but the color of the water in this tank looks like blood, so it is obviously not either of the two that will be added.

In fact, this particular color comes from a carefully formulated potion whose secret recipe also comes from the far east.If the friends of the Count of Monte Cristo in Paris saw this scene, they would definitely believe more firmly that he was the incarnation of the vampire Lord Rothwain described by Byron.

Then, he drew back the heavy curtains, and gently pushed open the topmost window, letting the chill of the night pour into the bathroom.At that moment, the moonlight illuminated his side face, the straight bridge of the nose cast a deep shadow on his stern face, and his eyes were as blue as the bay under the blurred night of Marseilles.

The Count of Monte Cristo stands naked by the window like an ancient Greek marble statue. The only decoration on his body is an iron ring hanging on his chest with a chain.

He lightly stroked the iron ring, looking alone into the deep night sky.After he came to Paris, he never showed his ring to others, because it didn't fit the count's status.But in this moment of tranquility, he can hold it in the palm of his hand, gaze at it, and at the same time examine his true self.

More than 20 years ago, he was a happy sailor on the sea of ​​Marseilles.Three despicable people framed him and imprisoned him. When he was desperate, Maisette broke through the dangers of the Château d'If and exchanged the ring with the sea waves for his ring with the flames. The ring, let him rekindle the hope of life.

He can't forget, never forget!

Now the pattern of the waves has been smoothed away, and the ring is no longer what it was before, but he still clearly remembers the oath he made to it, about love, about revenge...

Edmund sighed softly.After putting on a gorgeous silk robe and covering the iron ring on his chest, he turned back into a noble earl.He paced along the corridor to the door of the bedroom, but didn't go in.After hesitating for a few seconds, he opened the door diagonally opposite the bedroom.

It was originally a servant's room, with a small living room connected by a wall.But the count did not allow anyone else to come to this floor except Ali, the nigger, and the servants' room could not be used, so he broke through the wall and transformed this room into a side room for washing hands, and the small room behind the wall The living room is arranged as a small training room.

In fact, as a training room, the space in the small living room is slightly insufficient, and the Earl prefers to reserve the training room in the Gosser shooting room on Fuvis Lane.But it was late at night, and the Gosser Shooting Room was closed long ago.So he walked into the training room alone, submerging himself in the suffocating darkness.

The darkness did not bring him fear. On the contrary, in the eyes of the Count of Monte Cristo, the darkness was an all-too-familiar friend who accompanied him through the longest eight years in Chateau d'If.Probably because he is a person who crawled out of the grave, he even felt that he could draw strength only in the dark.

He walked slowly to where the weapon was kept.This time he did not choose the pair of commonly used ivory cross spears, but drew a sword under the eyes of dozens of pairs of oil paintings around him, and then returned to the center of the hall with a solemn and solemn expression, as if it was the weapon of the judge. sword.

There was a sound of piercing in the darkness, and the count swung his sword, slashing at the endless void, as if his three enemies, Fernand, Danglars and Villefort, were right in front of him.

He knew that after three nights, Morcerf, the shameless betrayer, would be ruined.He had already arranged everything in secret, just waiting for the good show to happen.

He also knew that Danglars would soon declare bankruptcy.Jacob's Nemesis had succeeded in sinking Danglars' cargo, and the cowardly speculator would soon be ruined by the coup de grace.And the Duke of Buckingham, a cargo ship of the East India Company, holds a majority of the shares. It can be said that this is also his official declaration of war on the Duke.

Now all the pieces on the chess game are moving according to the path he arranged, with only one exception, the uncontrollable piece is Madame de Villefort.All the earl did was to drop a seed. Unexpectedly, after it fell into the dark soil, a flower of evil bloomed quickly.

Madame de Villefort acted much faster than the count expected, and now the Villefort family had three victims.But the three were not innocent.According to the earl's information, the Saint-Meran couple persecuted the old Earl Salvio's family, while the servant Barros helped Villefort kill his fiancée.He therefore attributed their deaths to providence.

But Bussoni's news gave the count a tinge of doubt.Who will be the next victim?Old Noirtier or young Valentine?Of these two people, one is upright and the other is pure, and neither has committed any crimes.

No, no, he shouldn't have hesitated.

It was Villefort who killed his fiancée with his own hands, and it was this incident that led to the death of his father.The merciless executioner took away the two most important people in his life, leaving a permanent void and a forever bloody wound.At that time, who would have sympathized with him?

So why should he not let prosecutors taste the same pain?He wants revenge, he wants to take away the people around Villefort one by one, just like Villefort did to him back then.

The count continued to attack his imaginary enemy with concentration.

However, he was keenly aware of the slight movement in the air, turned his head and hurried to meet him, and took the sword before the deadly arc hurt him. "Bang!" Sparks splashed from the brief transfer, and the violent collision made him feel the tremor of the sword.

an assassin?

The earl didn't have time to think about it, and immediately launched a counterattack, drawing a swift flower of death with the sharp sword in his hand.The blow clearly hit the opponent in the shadows, but it was barely enough to injure him.However, the earl's eyes that could penetrate the darkness gave him an absolute advantage. Under the stormy attack, the attacker was forced to retreat again and again.

However, at this time, the earl stopped because he felt that the other party didn't really want to hurt him, and the way of drawing the sword made him feel very familiar.

"Mel?"

"Why did Jacob and the others get involved?" the other party questioned.

It was indeed Mel's voice, but she didn't stop attacking.The count blocked her sword again, "Did you see that message?"

"Yes, I didn't get the news from Beauchamp until tonight. The Nemesis was sunk by the Duke of Buckingham's fleet in the Indian Ocean, and again..." Mei Tess's amber eyes flickered and said, "I know that's your ship. I also know Jacob, the crew on the Nemesis, who..."

The count immediately understood the purpose of Mei Tess, and quickly explained, "Mel, don't worry. Jacob will be fine, and neither will the crew. The sinking of the Nemesis is part of the plan, I'm sure they Abandoned ship before the fleet arrived."

That plan had been in the Earl's mind for a long time.Not long after arriving in Paris, he established contacts at the dispatch station in Monteretta.On the night Danglars sent the urgent message to India, the correspondent went to the villa of Auteuil to give him the recorded signal according to his instructions.

The earl gave the correspondent a sum of money as promised, as a token of gratitude, and asked the steward to send him back.In fact, the correspondent had no idea what those signals meant, nor had he ever attempted to do so.But the count knew it. He narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the set of signals, with a stern smile on his lips.

As he expected, Danglars had already taken the bait.After almost all the goods in the domestic market were purchased, Danglars spent all he had and bought a large amount of cotton and dyes from the East India Company.The name of the cargo ship and other information are clearly expressed in the signal, so the route is not difficult to check.

Early the next morning the Count himself went to the dispatch station and sent out another set of signals.After receiving the notice, Jacob and the others will immediately drive the New Nemesis to the Indian Ocean, intercept and sink that ship.

However, there is a fleet cruising on the route of the East India Company, which is the "Invincible Fleet" formed by the Duke of Buckingham.The Earl knew the strength of that fleet. The Nemesis was no match for Buckingham back then, and now the Duke has used the technology of the Industrial Revolution to transform and upgrade the fleet.Once a ship of the East India Company sends a distress signal, they will quickly rush to the scene.

Because of this, the Earl would never confront them head-on. He told Jacob and the crew to leave immediately after sinking the cargo ship, and then raise their sails and abandon the ship to escape.

The earl made such a choice not because of lack of courage.In fact, he deliberately designed the new Nemesis to look exactly like the original one, just to prepare for this day.

He could fully imagine how surprised the people of the Duke of Buckingham would be when they saw the pirate ship sunk in the Mediterranean reappeared in the vast sea, with its sails fully hoisted but no one there.They would think it was a ghost, a vengeful ghost.

And the Duke of Buckingham will definitely not let it go.He will use Danglars as a clue to find Paris and find himself.Maybe he is the overlord at sea, but on land, it's time for them to show off.

After listening to the earl's explanation, Mei Tess' expression softened a little.The count walked over, trying to hug her gently as before, but she avoided him.

"Do you still remember how the little monkey died?" Mei Tess's voice was filled with sorrow, "When you were fighting against the pirates, you ordered him to stay on the Maiden Amelie to ensure that he safety, but in the end, he still..."

The Earl felt his heart suddenly seized by something. The death of the little monkey was his heart knot, and he never stopped blaming himself.He still remembers the day the little monkey died, he walked to the waterfall of Monte Cristo in a daze, the water washed away the blood on his body, but the pain in his heart could not be taken away, it was Mel who comforted him.

"Mel, we both know it was an accident."

"That's right, but this time you can also ensure that there will be no accidents?" Mei Tess asked.

The count was silent.Yes, he can't.Maybe Mel was right, he shouldn't have gotten those pals involved, it was his vengeance, not theirs.

"Tell me, what else are you hiding from me?" Maisette asked again. "Has the misfortune of the Villefort family have anything to do with you at all?"

This time the count did not deny, "I did not do it, but it did have something to do with me. One of the Villeforts got a prescription from me, it can save people, but it can also hurt people. But obviously, she didn't take it It's used in the right way."

He paused and continued, "Suppose that when Prometheus brought fire to the world, he found that the people there were all Atlas people who were punished by God and killed each other. They chose to use fire to bring death instead of light. , do you want to say that this is the fault of that Titan God?"

"In any case, what we are dealing with is Villefort himself, and his family should not be implicated." Maisette shook her head, "You have no reason to do so."

No, he has the most legitimate reason, and that is revenge!Yet he couldn't speak.Mei Tess's question finally made him a little annoyed.

"But what does that matter to you?" asked the count. "The few people who died now are not innocent, perhaps this is God's will. Since the gods have condemned them, they must bear their punishment!"

"No, no..." Plum Tess cried out in pain.

It was in that family that the Count of Monte Cristo called Heaven's Punishment that there was a person she was destined to protect.She had promised Renee that no matter what happened, she would protect Valentine and love her as her own daughter.If one day Valentine was hurt by the person she loved the most, she dared not think about it...

"You've changed..." said Plum Tess in an almost trembling tone.She didn't know when the earl became so cold, so cold that it made her feel strange.

She threw away the sword in her hand in disappointment, and turned to leave.

The count wanted to give chase, but Maisette's last warning stopped him.

"Some things are irreversible once done. Earl, have you ever thought that maybe one day you will regret it..."

No, I will not!

The Count returned to the room annoyed, and his sharp eyes made him notice that there was a small round thing lying beside the sword that Meltess had thrown away.He knelt down and picked it up. It was a button, but it wasn't his. It should have been shot down in the fight just now.

What he didn't know was that, as Mei Tess walked out of the door, the gilt ring that had belonged to the earl that had been hidden on her breast was exposed from where the button had fallen.

Under the starlight, the flame pattern on the ring shines brightly, like ancient Egyptian runes containing magic, responding to the call of the goddess Hathor.

The author has something to say: Thank you for the cave king's grenade, it cost a lot, okay~

Thank you Xiaoweijiang and Yunkong for the landmines, it’s a waste of money, okay~

Thank you Xiaoweijiang, Chaldea Laughing King, Cave King, Cangshan Jianhan, and wufu365 for the nutrient solution, okay~