The hero is a portrait

After eating, Levitan and Lashitia walked under the street lamp.

He never had a chance to kiss her, never had.When she was no longer the reserved and pure shepherdess on stage, her appeal to him became much weaker.Her soul is also bitter, but compared with the mellow and long-lasting bitterness of the Duke, this bitterness is too fragile.

Still, now that he had decided to hunt her love, he was determined to get it.

"You should give me an answer."

He stopped, and the cold wind of early winter swept his thin clothes.Lashidia looked up at his still young and beautiful face, sincerely envious of the unscrupulous and carefree expression inadvertently revealed in his expression.This pure look, as if she had never been hurt, deeply attracted her, but it was also this look that made her feel uneasy.

Faced with the sudden emotion, despite months of struggle, she was still hesitant.She decides to give her life to the opera—

"Have you seen The Nightingale and the Rose?"

"..." Mr. Devil, who didn't read much, used an elegant smile to encourage the other party to continue talking.

"A young man wanted to use a rose to invite his beloved girl to dance, but he couldn't find a red rose. Hearing the young man's sad cry, the nightingale decided to find a red rose for the young man. However, the severe winter had destroyed the rose tree. , he can no longer grow red roses..."

"Then what will Nightingale do?" Levidan yawned when Lashidia didn't pay attention, but then returned to a serious and gentle expression.

"There is only one way - to water a red rose with moonlight, music and blood from the breast."

"what……"

"The nightingale put her chest against the thorn of the rose tree, and sang under the moonlight all night, and when her blood was drained, the red rose bloomed."

Lashitia exhaled a breath of white mist, and raised her head in surprise.In the shadow of the oil lamp, there was actually light snow falling...but the air was not that cold.Winter in Spain is largely snowless, especially in the southern regions closer to the Mediterranean.Although Aragon is located in northern Spain, there is not much snow in winter.On the other hand, the Andorra area is covered with snow in winter, which is a good place for skiing.

"I wish you would send me a red rose."

Lashitia looked at the ethereal young man who was like an ice elf in the sparse snow, showing a desperate expression, "... Tomorrow night, tomorrow night."

"So... will you love me?"

Levidan hid the confusion in his heart very well, and asked softly.

"……Yes."

After a long silence, Lashidia replied softly.

Li Weidan failed to figure out the relationship between human love and roses.

"Why did she not know whether to love me until after I sent the rose?"

He asked the duke, but the duke didn't answer, and he said to himself in confusion, "But there is no reason why love will come from giving roses..."

Little did he realize that even in Spain, where the climate was pleasant, the roses would have withered long ago in such a cold winter.If you send people to search in southern Spain, you may be able to pick up the blooming roses, but it is difficult even for the Duke to travel back and forth with Aragon and Andalusia in one day.

The flowering period of roses is too short, far inferior to that of Marguerite, which can bloom from autumn to late spring and early summer.

His Majesty lovingly placed the pot of margaritas on the window sill. As the night fell, the blooming flowers closed their petals as if they were going to sleep.Before going to bed, he asked the Duke:

"Will you help me find the rose?"

"Yeah." The Duke kissed his forehead, "Go to sleep."

At first the Duke wanted to look in the valley outside the city to see if there were any late blooming roses left.However, from the starry night to the early morning of the rising sun, there was no trace of roses.But because the snowy mountain road was more slippery, the horse almost stumbled and fell off the cliff.The duke had to go back to the castle—it wasn't that he didn't want to look for it anymore, it was just that time was running out...

The butler followed the prince grimly, and followed him to the chilly cellar.The snow that fell last night, all the clean ones are collected, waiting to be used again in the coming year.The Duke looked at the ice cubes stored in the cellar, thought for a while, and then made a decision.

How can a person endure staying in the ice cave for a long time?

However, the Duke ignored the housekeeper's advice, and just blindly studied the tools in his hand, and asked the servants to go to the nearby craftsman's shop non-stop to find other tools according to the drawings.The butler had no choice but to find the Duchess, whom he disliked very much, and ask him to persuade the Duke.However, before the butler finished speaking, the man began to say:

"And what about my rose?"

As if the Duke was wasting his time in the cellar looking for roses for him.The housekeeper had an old blood in his heart, but he could only retreat respectfully.The Duke did not want the ice to be warmed, so he forbade the steward to bring the stove.He also felt that it was inconvenient to move when wearing too many clothes, so he just put on a thicker coat over the outside.

……

The roses were not delivered for a long time, and Li Weidan was not in a hurry, he was just a little bored, so he sat by the fireplace and brushed himself.Tonight is the performance of Lasitia's new opera "The Nightingale and the Rose". Lasitia plays the nightingale who sings on the thorns.

"When the time comes, you will put this rose in your mouth, and then throw it on the stage."

The theater manager handed it to Lashidia with something wrapped in a red cloth, but she didn't pick it up and just combed her hair quietly with her head down.The manager put the fake rose on the dressing table and went out instead.A moment later, a footman hurried into the dugout and knocked on Lashidia's lounge door.

It was Li Weidan who came, he was wearing a silver fox fur coat, he looked very energetic, and he was holding a box made of mahogany.Lashitia looked at him in a daze for a while before taking the box.When she opened the lock of the box, she was a little puzzled at first, but when she saw the contents of the box, her eyes widened in surprise, and then two full teardrops gushed out of her beautiful eyes.

Inside the wooden box is a silk-covered cotton pad, in the center of which is a rose carved from ice that is still emitting a chill.

The rose was carved so lifelike that every petal, every thorn on the flower path, and even the veins on the petals could be clearly seen.But the most special thing is that this rose is actually bright red!

"God..."

Rashitia cried, "I'm so stupid."

She burst into laughter again, then stood on tiptoe and kissed Li Weidan's face: "I shouldn't doubt whether you love me or not, you love me so much!"

"...What about you? Do you love me?" Levi asked.

"I always thought you had no heart, so I set up this test with considerations of gains and losses. Please don't be angry with me," Lashidia looked at him tenderly and said, "I shouldn't doubt your sincerity. This kind of thing will happen again, I feel your love, then my heart will be cleared from now on!"

Levidan felt incredible, and his brows began to cluster:

"Too stupid..."

Lashitia looked at Li Weidan suspiciously: "What's wrong with you?"

"my love--!"

He suddenly cried out coldly: "How on earth do you see my love from this thing?!"

Feeling cheated, he angrily threw the rose to the ground, and all the fragile ice shattered.

"Levitan?" Before Lashidya could understand, Levitan had already run away.

Although he originally wanted to deceive the girl's emotions and use it as an object of research on human love, the result was not different from his previous observations - there is no love in this world!Some are just deceit, hypocrisy and fantasy—she thinks she is loved, but "being loved" is just her fantasy, so how can her love be real?

But if not love, what was it that pierced his soul?

Levidan clutched his chest, although the body was intact, there was an irreparable hole in the demon's soul.His portrait is already full of cracks, if he fails this time...

Usually, the duke packed his luggage for him. Before he left this evening, because the duke was very indifferent and didn't help him tidy up his clothes, he was annoyed before he went out.The duke's hands were tucked into the hanging cuffs, but within a day they were covered with chilblains, swollen and ugly.The Duke still sat on the edge of the bed with a calm face, but coughed heart-piercingly from time to time.

The butler brought him a cup of hot tea, and he stretched out his hand—that hand trembled unnaturally because of the coldness—exposing the wrist that had been cut by the dagger... The butler bowed his head in silence, My heart is extremely sad.

How can someone be so stupid, holding an ice cube to carve is not enough, and using blood to water a rose that is destined not to bloom?

"...If you really want to win Madam's favor, you shouldn't give your heart so easily." The steward remonstrated, "Only when 'she' works hard to win your love, 'she' will I will truly know how to cherish your emotions."

"...But I want him to know," the Duke said softly, looking at the silent Bai Xue, "Even if he doesn't do anything, he can still get my love."

In the evening, the Duke became even more ill, and his cheeks were flushed abnormally.He coughed worse and more frequently, but he was unwilling to rest on the bed, but stubbornly waited in front of the window, and did not close the window until he saw Levidan return to the Castle of Este.

After a while, the door of the Duke's room was opened, and Levi Dan walked in.

"are you sick?"

he asks.

"Yes," he replied softly, "you stand farther away, it will be contagious."

Li Weidan was two meters away from him, sitting on a horse chair specially made for him.When the Duke coughed, he turned his head and turned his back to him.Seeing the rare confusion in his expression, he felt a sting in his heart.

"What's wrong?" He asked as if afraid of waking him up.

Levi Dan came back to his senses: "Do you know "The Nightingale and the Rose"?"

"Nice opera," replied the duke.

"I once asked you what love is, and you told me it was life. But I didn't feel such a thing surging in my life. Am I dead?" He murmured again, " People say that "The Nightingale and the Rose" is a love story, but what does it represent love? Is it music, moonlight, nightingales or roses?"

"It is the rose that pierces through the heart and still sings," the duke explained tenderly.

Li Weidan looked at him, and asked after a while: "Why is Nightingale so stupid, doesn't it feel pain?"

"It probably hurts."

"Then why does it do this, what's the point?"

"Because... the roses are blooming."

The rose you want is blooming.