[Count of Monte Cristo] Love and hatred

r068

Once their boat encountered two tax police boats, and the other party tried to attack them from both sides. At a critical moment, Edmund ordered the sailors to drive the boat through the narrow gap between several reefs to escape the pursuit.

Not only Mei Tess, but even the most senior sailors on the ship thought Edmund was crazy, but they still carried out the captain's order.

"Get ready to hoist the sails!" cried Edmund.

Four or five sailors obeyed.

"Straighten the rope!" cried Edmund again.

The sailors obeyed immediately.

"Tie the rope!"

After this order was also carried out, the starboard side of the Maiden Amelie narrowly missed twenty fathoms from the reef, which was nothing short of a miracle!

However, the tax police boat that was following it hit the rocks directly. At that moment, the sawdust from the hull collapsed and even splashed some onto the deck of the Maiden Amelie.

That's what's amazing, because that ship is much narrower than the Maiden Amelie, and now it's just waiting to be rescued by the latter ship.

"Well done!" burst into cheers from the sailors, who were almost worshiping their captain as a god.

But at this time, the captain just stared at the sinking ship, there was no joy or sadness in his eyes, as if he already knew everything.

The first and only one to notice this was Plum Tess.It occurred to her suddenly that the captain's calm determination in the matter was not due to his courage--though he had not lacked courage--but to his wisdom.

He was sure that the Maiden Amelie could pass through the rocks safely under his command, but now, he was just rehearsing the results calculated in his mind.

This also made Plum Tess look at him with a little more admiration.He should have sailed a bigger ship, she thought, instead of being the captain of a smuggler.

The next thing strengthened her idea. She found that the captain could communicate with other ships in all the languages ​​​​of the Mediterranean coast.He negotiated with suppliers in Italian, dealt with smugglers in Provençal, and even inquired with some unknown people in Arabic.

However, while she was looking at him, he was silently watching her.

Once, when the captain was negotiating business with a Malagasy, he turned to Mei Tess and said, "Mel, please come to my cabin and get me two hundred piastres (Egypt, Spain, etc.) currency name)."

It wasn't until she handed the money bag to the captain that Mei Tess suddenly realized that he just spoke Spanish and he was testing her.

However, the captain just nodded at her, and then continued to buy wine from the Malagasy, and did not talk to her afterwards.

This aroused Mei Tess's curiosity instead.

She asks Jacob about the past of the captain, a Corsican sailor who has always been honest and straightforward.

"A year ago, when we were in Provence to sell a shipment, we happened to rescue Sinbad near the Isle of Diblon. His ship was sunk in a storm, and his employer and companions were killed. So he stayed on our ship." Jacob pondered for a while, "But like you said, he didn't want to stay on the Maiden Amelie for a long time. He once said that he would leave in three months. .Our old captain valued him very much, and he always regretted that he didn't have a beautiful daughter, so that he could keep him forever."

Mei Tess frowned, because when Jacob mentioned Diburon Island, she suddenly thought that it was an island near Marseilles.Unfortunately, Jacob's words attracted her attention again.

"But in a scuffle, the old boat was severely injured by the coast guard in order to save Jack. No one expected that he would entrust the girl Amelie and her brothers to Sinbad at the last moment, because Sinbad was on board for the shortest time. At that time the other sailors complained a bit, especially the oldest ones, but soon they all stopped talking."

"Because he proved himself to them," Mei Tess added.

"Yes," Jacob couldn't help smiling, "If you want me to say, the captain finally used his only daughter, Amelie, to keep him."

"Has the captain always been this frosty?" Mei Tess asked curiously.

"No", Jacob shook his head immediately, "The captain is actually a very good person. He taught me to identify the position of the coastline, explained the changes of the compass to me, and taught me to judge our position through the stars. At that time, I asked He, what's the use of you teaching all this to a poor sailor like me? Guess what he says?"

Plum Tess looked inquiringly.

"He said to me, who knows? You may one day become a captain, and your fellow countryman Napoleon is also an emperor," Jacob said with pride.

"What happened afterwards?" Mei Tess asked tentatively.

"Yes," said Jacob, "do you notice the ring on the captain's hand?"

Mei Tess nodded. She had thought that the polished ring was made of silver, but the luster didn't look like it. She never thought that the captain would directly wear an iron ring. Her ring was at least Plated with a layer of gold.

"It was given to him by the captain's lover in Greece," Jacob sighed. "I believe they must be very in love with each other, so the captain has been wearing it. But once, when we were loading in the port of Marseilles I met the tax police and had to abandon the goods and escape. That night, everyone was asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night because of thirst, but I saw him standing alone on the deck. I thought he was blaming himself for the loss of goods. I wanted to comfort him, which is common on smuggling ships, but he suddenly told me that he had received news that his lover had died in the flames of war in Greece..."

Plum Tess's amber eyes flickered. She always believed that the captain had a soft heart under his cold appearance, but she didn't expect such a sad story behind him.

True love is as indestructible as iron, but life is fragile.The iron ring represented the captain's waiting, but his waiting was indeed such a cruel result.

This reminded Mei Tess of herself, and she subconsciously touched the hard protrusion on her chest. The ring was given to her by Edmund, and it represented a promise.

In those years when she became a Dark Star, it kept reminding her not to lose herself, but when she really broke away from that evil organization and returned to Marseille...

"That's a sad story," Mei Tess couldn't help sighing.

"Yes, after that, I never saw him smile, and his heart seemed to be as hard as his iron ring..."