[Count of Monte Cristo] Love and hatred

r069

Edmund leaned against the mast and stood on the deck, rubbing the iron ring on his hand.

Although he finally broke free from the loneliness and despair in the Château d'If, sometimes he just likes to be alone.Speaking of loneliness, where is the loneliness more poetic than driving a sailboat on the boundless sea covered by the sky?

In the hazy night, in the boundless silence, not even a breath of wind.The towing rope was stretched tightly, and the sail was pulled down feebly from the mast, as if the Maiden Amelie and the sailors were sleeping in the arms of the sea.

It reminded Edmund of the night back in Marseilles.

He should have gone back long ago, but his plan was disrupted by the death of the old captain Poldy.He still remembered that the old captain held his hand tightly before he died, and shouted the name that did not belong to him, "Sinbad, from now on, you are the captain of the Maiden Amelie."

Although Edmund was no less surprised than the other sailors, after all he had been on board for less than three months, but he knew very well that the old captain had always been a shrewd person, and he made such a decision after careful consideration.

Immediately afterwards, the old captain reached out and grabbed Edmund's collar with great effort, pulled him closer, and whispered hoarsely into his ear, "I know that Sinbad is not your real name, and I know that your ambition is not here, but now You are the only one on board who is suitable to be my successor. Promise me that you will not abandon my brothers until you find a truly suitable captain."

Edmund nodded solemnly. He couldn't refuse a dying person's request, just like he couldn't refuse Captain Leclere back then.

A satisfied expression appeared on the face of the old captain, and then he passed away peacefully.The sailors put him in a small boat, and when the boat drifted away, Edmund took the flaming arrow Jacob handed him, and drew the bowstring to his ear.

There was only a "whoosh", and the arrow fell precisely on the boat after drawing a trajectory in the sky.

The little boat drifted farther and farther away after being ablaze, like a solitary lamp on the sea.The sailors prayed silently, while Edmund stared at the struggling and shrinking boat in the flames until the flames disappeared completely.

"Let's go back," Jacob said.

Edmund sighed deeply, and when he turned around, he found that the sailors were all looking at him, which made him realize that he was already the captain of the Maiden Amelie, and he was very grateful to all of them. are responsible.

"Raise the sails, let's head back," Edmund ordered.

After that, Edmund kept an eye out among the sailors for a suitable successor.Among them, he found that Jacob was the most honest and reliable man, so he promoted him to be the first mate.

It was several months after that before he had the chance to return to Marseille.After handing over the business, he asked the first mate Jacob to take command instead of him, and he went straight to Mei Lan Lane.

Every time he took a step, a new feeling was added to his heart.In the depths of his memory, first and most indelibly, was this place.

Every tree and every building he passed by aroused his memories of the past.He even felt his knees tremble when he came to the end of Rue Norris and saw Lane Melan.

He had expected his father to be waiting for him at home, and perhaps his Mai Tess, and a part of him feared that they might not recognize him, but when he knocked on the door, it was opened by a strange woman.

He glanced inside the door, but couldn't find any trace of his father, and the wallpaper had been changed to a new pattern.The old furniture that was so familiar to him in his childhood, every table and chair were deeply engraved in his memory, but now they are all gone, even the lush morning glory and sage coiled around the window are gone. Disappeared without a trace.

Edmund suddenly realized that this was not his home!

"I'm sorry, I think I got the wrong door," Edmund said quickly.

The moment the woman closed the door, darkness overwhelmed him.Edmund knew that he did not make a mistake. He stood in front of the door for a long time before leaving along the familiar yet unfamiliar stairs.

The bottom of the pergola made of jasmine wood at the stairway was covered with thick branches and leaves and purple slender flowers, and the fig tree was much taller than when he loaded it down.It reminded him of Plum Tess who used to wait for him here, and they kissed under this flowery arbor...

But now that her father was away, where was Mei Tess?

Edmund was walking on the road in a daze, countless conjectures emerged in his heart, but he didn't dare to confirm it.When he raised his head again, he found that he had come to the hut of Mei Tess in the Catalan village.

The dilapidated wooden door was tightly locked with a rust-covered lock, and it could be seen that no one had lived inside for a long time, but he still knocked on the door unwillingly.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" A little Catalan girl holding a doll ran behind him from nowhere.

"Do you know where the girl in the cabin is?" asked Edmund eagerly.

"I haven't seen her, but I know she has been missing for a long time," said the little girl timidly.

"What? She's missing!" Edmund felt his heart being tightly clenched, "When did that happen?"

"That was before I can remember, so I don't have any impression," the little girl reminded, "Sir, my mother said that this hut is cursed, you'd better leave quickly."

"Cursed?" Edmund frowned and asked puzzledly, "Why do you say that?"

"My mother told me that the girl who lived in the house violated the Catalan tradition and married a foreigner, bringing misfortune to both her and her lover," the little girl explained. She was arrested and put in prison, and she herself disappeared not long after..."

"I won't allow you to speak of her like that!" Edmund interrupted the little girl.His misfortune has never been related to Mei Tess, on the contrary, he made her wait for so long, and he doesn't know how Mei Tess got here all these years, if...she is still alive.

Edmund soon realized, however, that he had been too harsh on the little girl, for tears welled up in her eyes.It wasn't the little girl's fault, she just relayed to him what she had heard somewhere.

So Edmund took out a forty-sou piece and said, "Take it to sugar, boy, and don't tell anyone that anyone has been here."

The little girl obediently left, leaving Edmund alone in solitary silence.