[Gone with the Wind] Back to the beginning

Butler Sr.'s funeral took place on a sunny day.

There was not much wind on the streets of Charleston that day.The salty and wet smell of the sea water is very light, but more of the fragrance of the dead leaves in autumn after they shatter.Scarlett, wearing mourning clothes hastily made by a tailor, stood quietly at the end of the crowd to see off this very traditional old gentleman.At four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the funeral ceremony was completed.People who came to pay their respects tacitly went up one by one to express condolences to Mrs. Butler or Miss Anita, recalled their contacts with the old man, and praised his conduct.Anita's eyes were red from crying, while Mrs. Butler also pursed her lips, tears dripping down her wrinkled face.

Rhett Butler stood not far from the tomb, with deep disgust hidden in his brows.Whether this disgust is for the people in the tomb, for those mourning people, for those who don't want to remember the past, or for himself-Scarlett has no way of knowing.She could only bite her lower lip tightly, her nails piercing her palm, and stared worriedly at the man who was alone, as if he had been abandoned by the whole world but never bent his spine.From just now to now, no one who attended the funeral went forward to condolences to him. They all avoided him and walked towards his mother and sister.Even when the funeral was held just now, no one wanted to stand by his side.Scarlett could only stand in the last few rows because of her distant relationship. Occasionally, she could hear women secretly denouncing Butler for being unfilial. These feelings all turned into full of distress.

Scarlett had never experienced Rhett's deep loathing—what kind of loathing could last for such a long time, and the death of one party could not relieve the other party?Scarlett was afraid that the person she hated the most in her life was Jonathan Wilkerson, but the past with that traitor was completely past with her shot.Compared with Ritter, she is indeed luckier. At least she grew up in a happy environment, enjoying the care of all relatives, and at most she had a little discord with her younger sister.Has she never suffered the explicit resentment, disappointment, resentment, abandonment, or expulsion from her loved ones?Any one of those things that made her think about Ellen doing this to herself would have made her pass out instantly out of breath!All Scarlett wanted to do at this moment was to step forward, take Rhett Butler's hand, and tell him that he was not alone.

He owns her.

Perhaps her gaze was so obvious that even Aunt Pauline couldn't help but look at her twice, and then whispered a few words of warning, such as "that's not a good thing" and "stay away" out of concern but scarlett Heartfelt words.Scarlett passed vaguely and made up her mind not to start a dispute here.Finally, the crowd slowly and silently dispersed.Scarlett sent her aunt away with two or three words, then hurried to the back of the figure exuding loneliness and loathing, and embraced him from behind without hesitation.

She just hugged him quietly, put her face on his back, and didn't think about anything.He didn't shake when she hugged him, because his body was tense from the beginning to the end, and it seemed that he had been so stiff for hours.Scarlett sighed and buried her face in his back, and after a long while she heard Rhett let out a sigh.

"Scarlett."

"Come out with me to relax." She demanded hoarsely.Then, I felt the man nodded slightly.

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The sound of the wheels rolling over the ground was very monotonous, matching the swaying rhythm of the carriage, there was a sense of loneliness spontaneously.Scarlett and Rhett sat side by side in a light carriage, Rhett holding the reins.None of them spoke.

The salty smell in the air is important, and the sea in Charleston should be very close.The sky is endless, clear and vast, the withered and yellow autumn leaves have rich colors and crisp sounds, and a group of wild geese pass by leisurely in the sky.There was no one on the street.The two people in the carriage remained silent for a long time, and Rhett finally spoke first.He asked nonchalantly, "Is this your sixth day in Charleston?"

"Yeah." Scarlett replied sullenly, "If my mother would write me back, she would have arrived long ago, but now..." She didn't want to mention her troubles at this time, but Rhett brought her up. It comes out naturally.Thinking of this again now, I can't help feeling depressed.

Rhett sighed softly, and turned his face as if intending to say something comforting.However, Scarlett cheered up the next moment, grabbed his arm, and said fiercely: "So after you have attended the funeral, you are sad and sad, so you should go back to Tara with me to find my mother to explain! Did you hear me! It's not because of you, how could I come here and In the past five days, you have been so busy that you have no time to see each other!"

Rhett grinned.

Scarlett seems to be born with the ability to radiate fighting spirit in adversity, and she can easily inspire people around her—at least, after her unrestrained roar, Rhett strangely felt that his mood was much better.He couldn't help feeling warm in his heart.

"Okay, I will accompany you back." Rhett said softly, and Scarlett's eyes widened because of his attitude.

"Are you really Rhett?" she asked suspiciously.

"...Since you have acquiesced that you are my prospective fiancee?" Rhett added the second half of the sentence calmly.

Okay, now I understand, it's true!

"Can I deny it at that time?" Scarlett couldn't tell whether she was angry or furious—in short, she was a little angry and a little happy. She gave Rhett a sideways look, "I didn't promise anything."

"The ceremony will be made up." Rhett said with a smile. Seeing that Scarlett wanted to refute but worried that the words would hurt him who had just experienced his father's death, he couldn't help being happy again.He did feel much better after she made such a fuss.

In the end, Scarlett didn't really hesitate to say anything harmful.A soft snort ended the conversation about the fiancée issue, but there was a tacit understanding that had been established—making both of them feel that the future could be expected.

It was another journey without words, but this time Scarlett clearly felt that something was brewing in Rhett's silence.Sure enough, after a while, Rhett spoke again.The tone of his first sentence was very relaxed, but Scarlett could clearly hear a kind of indifference in it.He said:

"I'm sure he didn't have a hard time dying, any more than I did."

"Rhett!" Scarlett didn't know what to say after calling his name, she held his hand tightly.Rhett smiled at her reassuringly, and continued:

"My father...maybe there's nothing to say. However, it's not shameful to pretend to be uncomfortable, right? I may have remembered some past events just now, and I was not in a good mood. But he was involved in those incidents, and he gave Mine's... all negative. Scarlett, I'm really not sorry for him, he's relieved. I'm sorry for what I've suffered in the past and how I cared—even sharp anger."

Scarlett pursed her lips and listened to him quietly.

"I don't remember a single thing in my life that the old man agreed to...We never had any affection between father and son. I was too much like his father. He was a pirate chief, and he wanted to be a decent man. He hated his father in his heart, but He couldn't fight him. I grew older and more like my grandfather, and his resentment towards me grew into disgust, and there were moments when I thought I was seeing hatred in his eyes. I admit I didn't either What an effort to improve the relationship, because what he hates is the ones in my bones-for as long as I can remember. Not everything can be laughed at before death, and not all relatives can really understand each other Support, and some are just like us, who hate each other and wish it didn't matter at all."

"Uh—" Scarlett wanted to comfort him a little.She wanted to say that if she had started a family with him, it would certainly not be like that, but it seemed too much of an invitation, and Scarlett didn't say it.How could there be such relatives in the world?How can there be no love but only hatred among relatives?But all Rhett's calm words clearly showed the existence of those things.He continued:

"My father, he was one of those respectable old-fashioned fellows, ignorant, stubborn, narrow-minded, who would play by the old rules all his life. It may be a good thing that he died, because he didn't know what to do in this new world. I should be glad he didn't get to drag my mother and sister before, because he probably meant to do that... yes, yes. They started getting poor during the war, and he wouldn't take my money... s Jiali, I can forgive everything, but this is the only thing I can’t bear. He thinks my money is dirty, and when I secretly give it to my sister, he will be furious and return it. My mother will also be scolded by him when she sees me in private. What a day it is!" His eyes were full of painful pity, "The houses in the country burned to the ground, the rice fields turned into swamps, the houses in the city couldn't pay the taxes and couldn't keep them, and the whole family lived in the black slave town. I don't know how they live in the two huts I hate... Of course the speculator's money is not clean. But he treated my mother and sister like that-forced them to starve to death with him! God! Rhett let out a painful gasp, and Scarlett had never seen him express his true feelings so many times in her two lives.She couldn't help but lean closer to his body.

Rhett calmed down and gave her a gentle smile.However, in the blink of an eye, the past events filled his eyes with cold pleasure again.

"He was astonished and furious that I didn't starve to death after being kicked out of the house," he said. He is full of cards, he can't believe that the Butler family can produce such a gambler... He hates me for being his seed. I hate it too. But my mother loves me... She has always wanted to see me, but she can only find ways to lie and get out , in the years when I broke through the blockade through Charleston - back when the old man found out, he would yell at her. He was really disappointed that I didn't die - when I was kicked out by him, the old-fashioned people in Charleston gloated and praised him Well done, praise him for his integrity. He has completely lost my son since he crossed out my name from the family Bible." He took a deep breath and said, "'If your right eye Make you make a mistake, gouge it out and throw it away'. Barbarian-like words, it is in his favorite "New Testament". I am his eldest son, his right eye, and his sin, so he He ruthlessly threw me away."

When he said the last sentence, he seemed too calm, as if overlooking the pain of the past without really putting himself into it.The spirit was pulled away from the memory, and came to a chaotic sky, and the world fell into silence.

Only the scars of the past remain forever.