Granville's estate

Just as some people would confidently declare that "the earth is flat and there is an endless abyss at the end of the horizon", Pierre, a middle school student who was named by Mr. Nadang because he didn't have gloves, was very firm. Swears that he didn't have gloves because he accidentally dropped them into a burning stove while he was warming up, and the flames were so fierce that he had no chance of salvaging even a little bit of the remains of the gloves As for the unexplained bruise on his face, Pierre also insisted that he accidentally bumped it when he was going down the stairs. Even if Mr. Robert from the small class asked him if he had fought with other students, he would He insisted that absolutely not.

Mr. Nathan, who has been a supervisor at the St. Etienne boarding school for more than ten years, only said one word to this student who was so bold as to tell lies in front of the principal.

"lie!"

So Pierre was pulled out, and in front of the principal, suppliers, teachers, and more than 100 students in the school, he showed Louis and others what happens when you destroy a glove and dare to lie: a finger as thick as a finger He raised the leather board high and hit the palm of his hand with all his strength. He was not allowed to cry or dodge, otherwise there would be more beatings.

In this public punishment, Mr. Nathan, the supervisor, gave Pierre thirty palm boards. When the board hit Pierre's hand, it made a very loud sound. It was heard by Louis. It was like thunderclaps in his ears, so terrifying that it would hit his palm in the next second.

Just thinking about the fact that the gloves on his hands were probably snatched by Callisto after fighting Pierre, Louis' face turned pale, "Pierre was punished instead of himself" and "Nathan Mr. is terrible." These two thoughts are intertwined, the former is beyond the scope of his usual moral cognition, and the latter is undergoing a terrible physical punishment in front of him. Callister will suffer without him.

Fortunately, he was not the only child who was frightened by Mr. Nathan's punishment, especially the children in the small class and the smallest class. In order to avoid these punishments and prevent the superintendent from having the opportunity to show his prestige, most of them watched the punishment with an attitude of not having anything to do with themselves; most of the children in the small class and the smallest class have not experienced this terrible experience , even if they have been punished before, the teachers will be more or less merciful when they do it, and it is not at the same level as the punishment of the supervisor.Louis' pale face and frightened expression were mixed among the children in the small class. Fortunately, Mr. Nathan's suspicion was not aroused-he was very satisfied with the deterrent effect of the corporal punishment led by himself on the young children!

Thankfully, as Callister said, Pierre was not locked up in the confinement room in the end, but after the palm of the hand, he got another punishment-beginning when others sat at the long table. During dinner, he and a few other "bad habitual offenders" were only allowed to stand in a corner of the cafeteria and watch everyone eat.

Saint-Etienne's dinner is always the most sumptuous when you are on inspection. There are seemingly inexhaustible bread on the long table, black water chicken with mushrooms, potato stewed lamb, and fried tarman with white sauce. A piece of red bean pie dessert per person - it seems to be a custom in every bureaucratic place to show officials that they are not doing wrong to every child entrusted to them and their discipline. Parents behind the scenes, even on days when there are no patrols, the children's diet is dull and boring, full of potatoes that are about to sprout, rough dry bread and old cheese from who knows what year!

Louis secretly wrapped his portion of red bean pie in a handkerchief and hid it in his bosom, pretending to have eaten it.Sitting next to him was Alred de Granville who entered Saint-Etienne in the same year as him. Alred saw Louis's move and thought he wanted to take the pie back to the dormitory and wait until night As a midnight snack, he kindly broke off half of his pie and gave it to Louis—his piece of pie had already been bitten a few times, and the filling was everywhere, and there was no way to wrap it up again. .

After dinner, Louis sneaked up to Callister and asked about the gloves.

Callister was outspoken about his doubts.

"Yes, I snatched it from Pierre, what's the matter?"

"However, this approach is wrong..."

Louis said this with a little confidence. Intellectually, his education told him that it was wrong to rob others, but emotionally, as long as he thought about it, he would know that if Callisto hadn’t snatched Pierre’s gloves He, the one who was slapped in front of everyone today was himself.

Callister scoffed at the idea of ​​his weakness.

"Anyway, there are only so many gloves. Someone will always be punished. If he loses, he loses. If I lost at that time, I would be the one who was hit on the palm. I would not say a word of complaint. Isn't this a normal thing? ?”

The fight between the older children itself adheres to the principle of the jungle. According to this set of laws of the jungle, those who lose in the fight can only consider themselves unlucky and try to get back in the next fight, but no one can "betray" The person who fights with himself; this is why Pierre, even in the face of the principal, supervisor and teachers, even if he is beaten on the palm, will never say that he has no gloves and the bruises on his face are due to fighting with others .

"But Pierre didn't have to be beaten on the palm..."

"Now that he has been beaten, do you want to tell Mr. Nathan about it, and then give yourself, me, and Pierre another blow?"

Callister simply intimidated this little guy who seemed to him to be a brainless guy, so that he would not really be driven by a ridiculous sense of guilt to confess to Mr. Nathan: "If you say it, it may be worse than slapping the palm of your hand." Worse, all three of us will be locked up in a confinement room—you haven’t been in a confinement room, have you? Let me tell you, you can’t see anything in it at night, and there will be snakes falling from the roof and on your neck, There will be cockroaches and centipedes crawling over your feet..."

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..."

Louis, who was already very guilty, was said by him, and the guilt of hurting others was intertwined with the fear of the confinement room. He sobbed and handed the handkerchief with the pie in Callister's hand. Said, and ran away.

"Hey, I haven't finished yet...forget it."

After Louis ran away, Callister opened the handkerchief and found that it contained a red bean pie which was rarely eaten in Saint-Etienne, considering that the little guy had nothing when it was stuffed to him. Said, he confidently crossed out the option "This is for Pierre" in his mind, then picked up the pie and took a bite.

As for Pierre's lack of supper that night?

—Oh, it's all right, he hid a piece of dry bread for the hapless bastard at supper.

——Although by the time he remembered to hide some food for Pierre, there was only the most unpalatable bread tail left on the dining table.

The so-called friendship between classmates at the boarding school in Saint-Etienne is so wonderful. The children can fight to the death, but after the fight, they still choose to help each other when they need each other; Good friends who give each other their backs, when are they bad partners who are angry with each other, and when are they life-and-death competitors and enemies.

This rule is also true for Louis in the small class, even the piece of pie he gave to Callister can cause a small misunderstanding and anger between him and Alred.

"Where's your hidden pie? Let's eat it."

That night, as he was going to bed, Alrede secretly said this to Louis.

"pie……?"

When Alred asked, Louis was hiding the pair of gloves that caused the disturbance in the box to avoid being taken away by Charlie and the others. He was a little puzzled when he heard this question.

His pie... he gave Callister to Pierre!

And Alred thought he ate the pie secretly by himself.

"I'll give you half of my pie, but you ate it all by yourself, and don't leave me any!"

Alred accused him angrily and aggrievedly.

"I do not have……"

Louis, who was wearing the pajamas issued uniformly by Saint-Etienne, denied softly, but maybe it was because he was hiding the gloves in the box, Alred didn't seem to believe it, he rushed over and threw Louis down in the dormitory on the bed.

"How can you not give it to me! How can you!"

When Alred shouted, his strength was as if he had pressed a big stone on Louis' chest.

"Al, you go away, I can't breathe..."

The dream ends here.

Louis woke up from the dream.

Then he discovered that the feeling of being unable to breathe in the dream turned out not to be an illusion—for some reason, Alred, who was sleeping soundly, hung half of his body on him, and his arms were pressed against his chest .