Rimbaud's girl

"I can understand a little bit." Vitaly said realistically.

Arthur slouched on the head of her bed, "Mom won't understand what I want and what I want to do. I want others to know me, but I don't need them to understand me."

"Then what exactly do you want? If it's easy for my mother to understand, do you want 'fame' like other poets, or most practically, money?"

He seemed a bit confused about how to answer, thought for a moment, and said, "I don't know. I want money, but writing poetry—" He knew clearly that writing poetry would not support him.

"Writing poetry certainly doesn't make a lot of money in the short term, unless you're a poet like Byron."

"Money" is vulgar, but Arthur is not ashamed to talk about "money". "Yeah, I know that. But you know, there are always things that are worth much more than 'money'."

Vitaly nodded.She had been thinking about this question before she went to Dijon, and she considered how to say it: "I can give you an annuity, one year—300 francs, this is my gift to you, and you don't need to pay me back."

Arthur was surprised, "You have so much money?"

"You never knew how much money I had." She took a purse from the drawer of the bedside table, the hundred francs Arthur had given her last time.

"Here is 100 francs, you take it first. Frederick has 450 francs in his hand now, you can ask him for 50 francs. You take the money and don't waste it. Use it when you need it. Oh, and , you can use the money to eat well, don’t always skip breakfast.”

Arthur took the purse with a smile, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, "My dear sister."

"Remember to take everything you wrote home and don't throw it away. If you become a famous poet in the future, maybe I can make a lot of money by selling your manuscripts."

Arthur hugged her and laughed.

Arthur was a very industrious man, and he never forgot to write by hand wherever he went, sometimes poetry, sometimes short prose, and more often letters.He wrote to Vitaly, to Mrs. Rimbaud, and to his friends. He would write to tell others about where he went, who he met, and what happened.His letter is very detailed, with simple and beautiful words and sentences. Vitaly noticed keenly that he only said that he had arrived in Paris and joined a "troop" of wandering soldiers, but he almost only talked about the things in the troop. No words.

She wondered if something "bad" happened to Arthur in the army?He is not tall, and looks slender, like a girl, will he——

Can't think can't think.

Arthur took her to visit the homes of several learned teachers, including those of Charleville.They all expressed regret that Arthur would not go back to school, and they all mentioned that Arthur should take the graduation exam first, get a pass certificate, and then wait for the situation in Paris to stabilize before going to the university in Paris.They agreed that Arthur should go to college.

Arthur is very arrogant, thinking that the university can't teach him anything. As a poet, he has already learned the knowledge he should have, and he doesn't need anything else.

Vitaly objected to his attitude, "You are wrong, what the university gives you is your life experience, and other knowledge that you can't learn at Charleville College."

"for example?"

"Politics, history."

"I can read, and reading is enough."

"That's not right either. You should discuss and debate with others, so that you can broaden your horizons."

"You have a grain of truth in what you say. But Paris is still a mess, and I don't want to think about it just yet."

"You always have to take the graduation exam first, right?"

He said reluctantly: "I will take the exam." The graduation exam is still very important, no matter whether you are looking for a job or going to university in the future, you need to pass the exam.

It is easy to find a teacher to teach a 13-year-old girl. Arthur quickly found a suitable teacher for Vitaly. The learning time is 5 days a week, class at 8 am, lunch at the teacher's house at noon, and 4 pm Click get out of class.The tuition fee includes a lunch, 150 francs a month, 9 months of classes a year, 1350 francs a year.

Mrs. Rimbaud was very distressed by the tuition fee, but Uncle Felix promised to give half of the tuition fee, and she only needed to pay the other half of 675 francs, so she happily agreed to Vitaly to go to school.

After arranging for his younger sister's studies, Arthur went out again.His good friend Ernest Draai originally lived in the neighboring city of Mezières. During the war, Draai's house was bombed, and the family hurried to the countryside on the Charleville side.So the two little friends often walked from one village to another, returning to Draai's house until dark, and occasionally went to Luoshi Village to stay for a few days.

Uncle Felix doesn't like Arthur very much, but it's also compared to Vitaly, but he doesn't like him very much, and doesn't hate him-->>

, In fact, it can be said that it is still very good for him.He lived happily in his uncle's house, and Felix didn't care about him. He also learned to secretly get some wine from his uncle's stash and drink with his friends.

Oh, and also, he heard that little Charles had beaten Vitaly last time, so he, together with Draeel, beat Charles very hard.

Charles ran away when he got into trouble last time, and he didn't dare to go home for a week until his uncle and Vitaly went to Charleville and then to Dijon.

Felix had been away for nearly a month, and Charles was the king of the mountains without tigers and monkeys, so he felt refreshed for a while. When Felix came home, he ran away again, and often came back only once a week.But it was just so unfortunate that they happened to meet Arthur and Draai staying in Luoshi Village for a while, and they still didn't escape the beating in the end.

After the beating, Arthur forced him to swear to God that he would not touch Vitaly's finger from now on, or he would chop off his hands.

June 6th is Vitaly's 15th birthday.

The family simply ate a bigger dinner than usual, even if it was her birthday.Vitaly doesn't care about birthdays, what birthdays mean to her is that she is one year older.Children are always eager to grow up.

After her birthday, she officially started to take classes at Mr. Pierre's house.

Mr. Pierre has 5 students, plus her, 6 students.The students are of the same age, and the progress is different, but most of the courses are taught together, mainly literature and history, geography, mathematics, biology and chemistry. These subjects have very little textbook content in this era, and some schools simply do not have biology and chemistry. class, Mr. Pierre does not teach biology and chemistry.

On the first day of class, she was annoyed by a 14-year-old boy named Jules who kept pulling at her braids.After class that day, Frederick came to pick her up and passed the barber shop on the way. Vitaly went in and had her hair cut into a boy's bob.

After returning home, Mrs. Rimbaud was surprised that she had cut her hair so short, but after listening to her explanation, she also felt that it would be easier to cut her hair short.

A few days later, Frederick took the opportunity to block Jules and scare him.

After 4 weeks of class, Mr. Pierre gave the students a two-month vacation and will not return to class until mid-September.

During this time, Mrs. Rimbaud was considering moving to a surrounding town or Luoshi Village where the cost of living was lower.

Rimbaud's family lived in Charleville at first because Captain Rimbaud did not want to live in the village of Roche during his limited vacation; later because the two boys had to go to school.Now the boys were out of school, Isabel went to the convent girls' school, and Vitaly was the only one in the family who went to school in Charleville.

Mrs. Rimbaud inherited the legacy of the old husband. Among them was a house in Saint-Laurent, a small town near Meziers, which was now rented to a family. She wanted to take the house back and move to Frederick. Saint Laurent resides.But the problem is that Vitaly has to find a boarding house, or rush from Saint Laurent to Charleville early in the morning, and then go home after class in the afternoon, so they need to buy a carriage.

After all the calculations, Mrs. Rimbaud still felt that it would be more appropriate to live in Charleville during at least the three years when Vitaly was in school.Three years later, when Vitaly was 16 and Isabel was 14, they would both be free from school, and then they would think about moving.

Vitaly was on vacation, so Mrs. Rimbaud took her eldest son Frederick and eldest daughter Vitaly back to Roche Village.

Little Charles was afraid that Frederick would beat him up again because he beat Vitaly last time, so he didn't dare to go home for half a month, and spent all day fooling around with those "bad bastards" outside.Mrs. Rimbaud wanted to control Charles, but he didn't go home, and she couldn't block him all over the world, so she let him go.

It was the summer harvest season at this time, and most of the fields of Jufu's family were leased to farmers for farming, and the family also reserved some land for hiring people to cultivate.In the past, during the summer harvest season, Mrs. Rimbaud would always return to Luoshi Village to help harvest the wheat.

Both Frederick and Arthur can do some farm work. Arthur doesn't like to do farm work. Because Frederick is the eldest son, he knows that he can't escape the family affairs, and he has to do it.

Vitaly also doesn't like doing farm work, and every time she goes back to Luoshi Village with her mother, she gets "sick".

Mrs. Rimbaud was at home, and Uncle Felix didn't dare to drink too much, so he obediently followed him to work in the fields.

Arthur came home occasionally for a couple of days, and he was always with Drayer at this time.Ernest Drae was Frederick's deskmate, because Frederick always boasted "If you say my brother, he is really great", so Drae pestered him to get to know his brother, The two became good friends.

Drael is good friends with the Rimbaud brothers, and he is also very familiar with the Rimbaud girls. He is still studying at Charleville College and will graduate next summer.Draer was neither particularly intelligent nor gifted in poetry or literature, and Vitaly wondered how they became friends who talked about everything.