Continuation of "Gone with the Wind"

Chapter 42 Late Night Talk

Jack frantically put the photo back into his pocket, and quickly tidied up the table.After making sure that nothing would be discovered, he commanded himself to calm down, took a deep breath, and carefully opened the door.Rhett had already changed out of his soiled suit, but instead of his pajamas, he had put on another clean suit, the starched fabric exuding a breath of fresh air that covered him just fine. The smell of tobacco and whiskey, the two smells that Jack hated most.He looked at him, wondering why he was so neatly dressed when it was time to go to bed, but he didn't show this doubt on his face, but let him in with his usual polite smile, and the door was just like that. open.

"Close the door, I don't want a third person to hear what we're going to say next." Rhett's voice was calm, but with undisguised compulsion.Jack heard this, so he walked to the door quietly, closed the door quietly, and returned to him step by step carefully.His room consisted of a table and a chair, and a bed, and now Rhett was sitting on the chair unceremoniously, so he had to go to the bed and sit down.Rhett's dark eyes did not look in his direction, but kept looking around his room, his alert eyes turned into two well-coordinated hands looking for something.He felt strange, and a feeling of deja vu came to his heart. The scene of Miss Scarlett inspecting the property in her own room appeared before his eyes again that day, which made him very uncomfortable. distrust.

"It's really nice here. I didn't expect a boy to be good at tidying up the room." Rhett said suddenly, but he didn't speak to Jack, but just express his feelings.But it also startled Jack, and all his discomfort just slipped away.He knew that this was not what he was going to say, it was just a side note before getting to the point, but this made him calm down. No one knew more about the subtleties of talking about scenes or polite words than him, so he also said politely. : "You're flattering me. Anyway, I don't have anything to do, and I don't pay rent when I live here, so I should clean it up."

"You don't have to pay any rent, one-third of Tara is yours." He suddenly changed his subject, "As long as you are willing, or if you are smarter, you can ask for more money from the monastery and Scarlett." There are so many things, but you didn’t do that.” His black eyes no longer wandered around, he stared at his same black eyes tightly, and stabbed straight through like a knife that was suddenly unsheathed, he Unable to dodge in time, he was locked on by his gaze, and for a moment he just lowered his head to avoid his aggressive gaze, and forgot that he should say "You can ask Miss Scarlett or Paul", he did not expect his words to be so convincing. frank.He was stunned, but quickly raised his head again, tried hard to dispel the surprise and anxiety in his heart, and looked back at him bravely.He saw the last words he didn't say in his eyes that had become gentle: "Can you tell me why?" He took another deep breath, and his voice was heavy. If you want him to tell the truth, he's good enough. Anyway, those words have been held in his stomach for a long time, and it's useless to ruin his stomach except for mold and rot. It's better to dump them out like garbage. Of the policy.Mr. Rhett is willing to listen to the truth, strict-mouthed, and intelligent, just the best listener.

He told his story with the most serious attitude and the most detailed description, from his birth to how he was forced to come to the north of the United States as a government-sent foreign student, but unexpectedly got a better life.But for more than half a year from the north to the south, he really couldn't remember what happened, and he didn't know how he came to the south.At that time, he concealed this passage from Paul, but Paul did not ask him in detail, and even if he asked him, he would not be able to say anything.Now he tried his best to tell Rhett the fragments he had just recalled, and he didn't expect him to help him, but simply wanted to tell him to make himself feel better.

"You mean, you used to live very well in the north, but the good family who adopted you-I didn't expect that there were good-hearted people in the Yankees besides mercenary, I hope this didn't make you unhappy-all of a sudden Your family is destroyed by a riot or other terrible things, and although you don't remember what it is, you always think it has something to do with you, so you have a bad conscience and keep doing good things to get back Feeling at ease, right?" Rhett's expression became extremely serious, and his brows were almost twisted because of nervous thinking. "No wonder you don't have a lion to kill the monastery and Scarlett." His brows stretched again because of this sudden thought, "This is really hard for you."

"You can never do things absolutely. I've heard people say that since I was a child." Jack knew that his last words were mocking, but he was not unhappy. This meant that their relationship was closer because of his frankness. It took a step, from being polite to being able to speak from the heart.He added: "This principle is applicable at any time and place, and America is the same. Although the abbey is hypocritical-like that Lowood boarding school in Jane Eyre-after all, it saved my life, so I also only stole the account book and a notebook, plus a pen that couldn't write well, and then escaped from there. I don't know how Miss Scarlett knew me, anyway, she found me and wanted me Hand over the account book to her. In fact, this account book is of no use to me. At most, I can find a newspaper to expose it, so that those kind gentlemen and ladies will stop wasting their money. She said she wants to go back to her manor, so I will give She is dead, and of course I also have selfish intentions, because I want to find a place where I can settle down, and I can live enough of that kind of life running around. The two of us take what we need, that's it."

"I've heard it a long time ago that no one is better than the Chinese in terms of wisdom. Now it seems to be true. It's just that your wisdom is used in the wrong place, and you are patronizing your own people. What's the point of punishing people? Use it, even the British cannons can't stop it." The intrigue within his family that Jack described just now made Ritter feel sinister and vicious. With his wisdom, he can naturally see through people's hearts, but he has always said what I never disdained beating people around the bush. If someone did what Jack said, it would be a fire and a knife to him, I guess the current self would be embarrassing.Now it seems that Jack's maturity is not difficult to explain. People who grew up in that environment would not be able to survive if they were not smart. His maturity was forced out.Thinking of this, a little pity flashed in his eyes.He doesn't like children who look like grown-ups, because they lie, cheat, and dirty like grown-ups.But Jack is different. His cleverness is never used to deceive people, but to help people—maybe not all out of good intentions, he is honest about this, but after all, it is much better than doing bad things—such as the brain-struggling right now. The way of helping Scarlett restore her relationship with him was of course clumsy, but it was still cute and did not arouse the disgust he should have.Of course, that doesn't mean he's willing to accept his offer—at least not yet.

"British cannons, French cavalry, and American warships, of course they can't be stopped by lip service alone." Jack was also angry at his own country's failure to live up to expectations, "If that damn old woman is willing to take out her, what the hell will she do?" With one-tenth of the festival money, our army would not have suffered such a miserable defeat, even the capital was occupied by others, and the Old Summer Palace was burned.” The more he talked, the more angry he uttered a series of words that Rhett heard. Things that I have never heard of, such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Minister of Western Affairs—if they can’t leave the country themselves, what else... Well, although hearing about other people’s bad luck always makes him happy, let alone a person he has never been to The ancient empire that has been known for a long time, but these are not important now. When Jack interrupted him, he almost forgot the original purpose of coming here to find him.

"Calm down your patriotic enthusiasm for a while, Jack, and think about these things that bother you later. If your clever little head wants to be stupid in the future and is willing to be like I was when I joined the Confederate army, I will never I won't stop you. But you have to tell me first, what happened when you and Paul encountered that carriage today." He interrupted Jack's whining, and asked what he cared about the most.

When Jack heard him say that, he realized that what he had just said was stupid enough, babbling like a sad widow-no, those people don't care about these things-it's really shameful.Fortunately, although Mr. Rhett said that, he didn't mean to ridicule, but rather to appreciate it.He collected himself and carefully recalled the carriage and those two people. He gave full play to his literary talent and described their appearance, figure, accent, manners, and demeanor clearly, except for his words to the owner of the carriage. The strange sense of familiarity, as well as the strange gaze he gave when he looked at Paul, even a person who doesn't know how to draw at all can draw pretty well on a piece of paper.Rhett looked at him so seriously and was still smiling at first, but then his face changed completely, his whole face was gloomy like a cloudless sky, and Jack, who accidentally saw him like this, was so frightened that he immediately shut up .He didn't know why the description he had put his heart into made him angry, and he was sure his memory was correct.Otherwise, he knew those two people and had some deep hatred with them. Otherwise, how could this happen?Although he was afraid, he was curious about it in his heart. In the end, curiosity overcame the sense of fear, and it was clearly expressed on his face.Seeing his appearance, Rhett immediately restrained his expression and replaced it with a gentle smile.