Flowers, Swords and France

After a day and night of repeated illness, Eugénie Grandet finally came to her final moments.

Perhaps because of the reflection, her face was much rosier than when they first met. Albert and Charles stood beside her, quietly accompanying this extremely wealthy but poor old woman to the last moment of her life. The atmosphere was solemn and solemn, as if it was a religious ceremony.

"Charle, look, there is a small ferry ahead. Let's get on the boat together? There must be many beautiful places on the other side of the river..." She held Charles's hand tightly. Although she was weak, her tone was very strong. Briskly, as if in girlhood, "There will definitely be something, there will definitely be..."

At the last moment, the woman had fallen into a state of delirium. Just like yesterday, she regarded Charles as her cousin. Out of some sympathy, Charles remained silent and stood quietly beside her, letting the other party hold his hand.

Gradually, her voice became softer and softer until she was silent, and her eyes slowly closed.

Charles looked at the woman who seemed to be sleeping, and then gently tested her pulse with his hand.

has stopped.

"Albert, she has gone." After a moment of silence, Charles said softly.

"Ah..." Albert let out a long sigh, and then slowly knelt down.

Then, he lay down beside the bed, grabbed the deceased's right hand, and began to cry sadly. The grief had completely driven away all other feelings, and he was just sobbing like a child who had lost his mother.

Such sincere feelings made Charles feel very uncomfortable in his heart, so he stood aside without saying a word and allowed Albert to vent his emotions.

None of us can escape this day. Will anyone on this day mourn my death as much as Albert?

Charlotte and Fran will definitely do it, so I will never let them down. Ciel thought.

Accompanied by Albert's weeping, the priest next to him also respectfully gave the last sacraments to his wife. He touched his lady's lips with the cross. Then the holy water was poured from the silver-mounted kettle, and Albert watched the priest's movements while weeping. Obviously he was not a devout believer originally.

Finally, after crying for a while, Albert gradually stopped crying, and then slowly stood up - although his body was a little swaying. But he still stood up firmly.

Both he and Ciel knew that he had more important things to do than grieve.

He called all the lady's old servants over and asked them to see the lady for the last time. These servants seemed to be very affectionate towards the lady and were crying constantly.

After letting them mourn for a while, Charles and Albert began to arrange the funeral affairs-during Madame's brief period of consciousness, she had indeed entrusted her burial to Albert's care.

The two of them solemnly lifted the lady and the sheets. Then he was slowly put into the coffin that the servants lifted. The priest had been quietly reading the eulogy, while others stood nearby and silently prayed for her journey to heaven.

After the priest finished his eulogy, he began to distribute Holy Communion to the people. Everyone was silently assigned their own small piece of unleavened bread, and red wine was served as the holy blood, and everyone took a sip. Although Ciel was not interested in religion, he had no interest in showing his own uniqueness at this time, so of course he followed suit.

After the brief ceremony was completed, Albert looked at Madam deeply for the last time, and then closed the coffin with emotion. Then they covered the front of the coffin with a velvet cover and lifted it up again.

Four people carried the coffin, while Charles and Albert stood in the front row and led the way. They slowly walked to a quiet grove not far from the mansion. That is the cemetery of the Grandet family, and several of Madame's relatives are buried here.

Since Madam had already chosen the cemetery by herself - next to her mother and far away from her father - Charles and the others did not worry about where to bury her. They gently placed the coffin into the grave, and then listened to the priest read the final eulogy.

"Our beloved Mrs. De-Pengfeng is now resting in the arms of the Lord. Her warm and touching loving heart, as well as her modest, prudent and upright and selfless style made everyone respect her and love her. Now, she has passed away from the end of her life. Jump from this side to the other side of life, from the world of temporary pain to the realm of eternal happiness.

Our merciful Heavenly Father, on earth as in heaven, please forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, Amen! "

After listening to the final eulogy, the two young men began to shovel soil into the grave again.

What made Charles even more gratified was that at this time, Albert was just looking solemnly at the coffin in the tomb, but he did not cry. He just kept shoveling soil into the tomb, as if using this physical movement, To vent the sorrow in my heart.

"Charles, I understand." Suddenly, he whispered to Charles in a confused voice.

"What?" Charles was a little confused.

"I understand what that bastard wants to do!" His voice was low, but murderous.

"What happened?"

"Inheritance is not so easy to steal, especially cash or bonds. They can't snatch these things from banks or trustees." Albert sneered, "Then where else do you think they can start?"

"Land?" Charles replied tentatively after thinking for a while.

"Yes, that's right, they definitely want to make a fortune from here." Albert replied with some excitement, "Old Grandet accumulated a lot of real estate when he was alive. Their manors are everywhere in this town, and some of them are from the past. He bought it from our family...and then my wife inherited it..."

Ciel slowly understood something.

"So there will be some legal dispute?"

"Yes, so there will be legal disputes. Even if there are no legal disputes, they can be created." Albert still sneered. "My father could say that there was a problem with the ownership of certain lands during the transfer, and then he would ask for Apply to have these lands reconfirmed..."

"Then the judge will help him. Let him squeeze a huge sum out of Madam's huge inheritance?"

"Yes, can it be otherwise?" Albert replied coldly.

Although they were communicating, the movements of their hands did not stop, and the soil on the tomb became thicker and thicker. Gradually it will be level with the land next to it.

While shoveling the soil. Charles considered Albert's opinion, and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It is indeed very feasible.

It is completely impossible to completely misappropriate such a huge inheritance. No one has so much energy. Most of it must be confiscated - at least those financial assets will definitely not be able to escape.

but. The land is different. It has been going around for thousands of years and has been entangled in various disputes. In addition, France was very chaotic in the previous decades, and government changes were commonplace. Therefore, there is plenty of room to move up and down, and the risk is not great - after all. Of course, after a person dies, he cannot find a lawyer to litigate.

Therefore, it is easy to understand what Albert's father said to Charles that day - he felt that if he could reach someone like Charles, he might be able to get more benefits from the inheritance, so he was interested in Charles was suddenly so attentive.

actually. If such an opportunity happened for no reason, Charles probably wouldn't mind coming to "help", but now that Albert's wishes were there, of course it would be completely different.

They re-covered the tomb, and then erected a tombstone that had been prepared in front of the tomb, with the lady's birth and death dates and a few brief words engraved on it.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

Then, Albert held on to the tombstone again, choking and sobbing for a moment.

This time he only shed a few tears. In these two short days, he seemed to have shed all his tears in his life.

"If my father really plans this, then he must have a good relationship with the judges, first the rural primary tribunals, and then the provincial courts. However, they cannot let many people handle this matter, I guess. It's just a few people planning to mix things up in private. Anyway, they are bullying people to death." Albert quickly regained his composure. He raised his head and looked into the distance, "So, Charles, if you want to stop it, it's not very difficult. It’s difficult, but it’s quick.”

"Well, yes, I think so too." Ciel nodded, "Then we don't need to talk nonsense and can we act quickly?"

"Okay, let's take action!" Albert clenched his fists, and then patted the tombstone heavily, as if he wanted to convey his determination to the person underground. "Charles, we are going to visit the judge today."

"Okay, I will serve you wholeheartedly." Charles bowed slightly.

Albert was amused by Charles's actions and smiled slightly.

"You are making things difficult for me. You are my boss, and it is only me who serves you."

"This is a reward." Ciel replied seriously.

Then, the two people bowed deeply towards the tomb one last time, then turned around decisively at the same time and walked out of the woods without looking back.

Rather than mourning with meaningless lamentations, it is better to prove sincerity with practical actions. Now that the two of them have made up their minds, they no longer intend to waste time.

They walked to Charles's carriage and then stepped into the carriage. The coachman who had been prepared immediately started the carriage with a whip, and the two of them started bumping along the winding road in the countryside again.

Albert never spoke except for occasionally giving directions, and the two of them walked forward in this silence.

"Albert, I want to ask you a question. I have never been able to figure it out." Charles stopped suddenly, and then looked at Albert. "Can you clarify this for me?"

"Say it," Albert replied calmly.

"Since you hate your father so much and don't want to go home, then why did you drag me back to your home first? You don't worry about having no place to live when you come here." Charles narrated quietly, "Didn't we live here directly after that night? Then... why didn't you come directly here?"

Albert's face twitched, and then he turned his head to look at the woods outside the car window without saying a word.

"Sometimes I really think you are too smart." After a long time, he replied, "But why do you have to be so smart?"

"I'm still not smart enough." Ciel sighed with a smile.

"You brought me home first because you wanted to give your father a last chance to stop him from doing this. You had been trying to show him how capable I was, just to scare him. Until then, you still held on to the last hope that he would give up. But after learning what he had said to me at night, you were completely desperate for him, so you brought me here."

………………Charles held back the above words and didn't say them.

And why was there any need to say them?

So he just smiled and patted Albert on the shoulder.

"My friend, let's finish this as soon as possible and then go back? The air in this place is too gloomy and makes people feel suffocated."