Granville's estate

Louis had no idea that there were other people besides him in this garden. He jumped up in fright and looked around, but he couldn't see where the speaker was when he looked around; , he found another student who was covered by thick branches and leaves on the tree.

"How did you climb up the tree?"

Louis walked under the tree and looked up at Callister: "This is very dangerous. It will be bad if you fall down. Come down quickly."

The little boy whose stature is between that of a child and a teenager still has a little baby fat on his face, his eyes are a pure and flawless maroon color like amber, and when he looks up at people, he doesn't have the slightest malice—even if Ka What Lister did was to climb trees, which was strictly prohibited by Saint-Étienne. He was only worried that the person who climbed the tree would accidentally fall down, and he never thought about learning how to climb a tree. The supervisor called over.

And it was clear that the people in the tree thought his worries were unfounded.

"I won't fall." Callister said, and he even raised his legs leisurely: "Do you think I'm a good baby like you who can't do anything? Don't say I fell, I Guess you can't climb up here."

"But climbing trees is wrong." Louis said, his good intentions were refuted in this way, he pursed his mouth a little unhappy: "Mr. Nathan said that no one is allowed to climb trees, if he finds out , you are about to be slapped in the palm of your hand—you better come down quickly!"

"As long as you don't tell, no one will know." Callister glanced at him, "Or are you going to sue Mr. Nathan? If you want to go, then go." But in Before the little guy brought the supervisor over, he must have slipped away first!

Of course Louis would not do that kind of complaint. He folded the letter sent by his father and put it in his pocket. Then he looked at the tree where Callister was, found a withered branch and stepped on it. go up.

"You can get the letter from outside today from the superintendent," said Louie, holding on to the branch at hand while trying to keep his balance on the dead branch; It turned out that Louis no longer needed to raise his head greatly to talk to the people on the tree. He said to Callister very seriously: "Aren't you going to get the letter sent to you by your family? If you keep letting If it stays with Mr. Nathan, Mr. Nathan will find out that you left early, and he will definitely be angry."

"I don't have any letters to take." Callister said impatiently, he felt that this little guy was a little bit of a pot and couldn't open the pot. For more than half a year, he never received a letter from home again. There was a lot of rumors in Saint-Etienne. Those who envied him that he could get a dozen francs of pocket money every time spread rumors as if he was going to be kicked out of Saint-Etienne tomorrow. Didn't the little guy hear a word?

Obviously, Louis really didn't know about those rumors, he thought Callister just didn't receive the letter this time: "Then even if there is no letter from home this time, you should write a letter to home, Your parents at home must miss you too! But you left early." Climb up the tree before he got here, and must have slipped out of the chapel while everyone was writing letters !

What nonsense—Callister thought, this is the first time he's heard his parents miss him, and honestly, it's worse than saying he's missed by his housekeeper. Parents will miss him to come and fly!

However, when looking at the childish and innocent face of the little guy, Callister suddenly had an idea to play tricks on him.

"I don't have anyone in my family who misses me anymore," said Callister, deliberately obfuscating the existence of his parents: "Only an old housekeeper remembers me, but he's gone—so, never again. Someone will send me anything."

"Uh!"

Louis obviously interpreted his words as "Callister's parents and the old housekeeper are gone", his eyes widened in surprise, and he looked up at Callister above him.

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't know that..."

The little guy stammered, because of shame, embarrassment and anxiety, he couldn't even utter a complete apology, and he was about to cry.

"All right, all right, anyway, you didn't know before." Seeing Louis anxious, Callister not only didn't intend to clear up his misunderstanding, but also let him continue to misunderstand: "As long as you swear to anyone I won’t tell about my family affairs—especially if I don’t tell those old antiques, I will forgive you this time for the time being.”

He emphatically emphasized to Louis not to tell the supervisors, because if the little guy told Mr. Nathan... Tsk, he would probably receive a furious letter from his father the next day!

"I'll keep it a secret for you." Louis replied obediently. The little guy didn't suspect that Callister would lie to him, so much so that he even forgot that all letters received by the students in Saint-Etienne must be addressed first. The school supervisors checked the purpose-in other words, how could the school supervisors not know the real situation in Callister's family?However, Louis, who was immersed in the guilt of saying something wrong, completely ignored this doubt.

"And you can't say anything about me here." Callister tilted his head, he changed his posture comfortably, and glanced at the cloudless sky through the gaps between the branches and leaves above his head: "This I found the place with great difficulty, if you tell others, I will have nowhere to go."

Louis didn't answer him this time. Callister waited for a while, but he didn't get the answer he expected. Instead, he heard the sound of branches and leaves shaking, and he couldn't help turning his head in wonder.

Then he saw Louis climb a little higher on the branch, to a height where he could reach him—this little guy must have never done such a "bad boy thing" like climbing a tree, and his movements were very unskilled , obviously the whole person was shaking, his little face turned pale with fright, and he still held on to the branch and refused to let go.

"this is for you."

Louis clutched the branch used for balance tightly with one hand, and stretched out the other hand in front of Callister. When his clenched hand opened, what he was holding in his palm was exposed. Out came—two of the silver pieces Louis' father had given him, a fifty centimes denomination and a twenty centimes denomination, glistening in the sunlight that filtered through the leaves of the trees.

Callister didn't expect that he climbed up the tree to bring these two silver coins to him. He looked at the two silver coins and at Louis who was trying to keep his balance, and was stunned for a moment.

"Why did you give me this?" he asked.

"My father gave me one franc and fifty centimes," Louis said, looking a bit reluctant: "I can give you half, so we both have pocket money...but I can't give you the rest, I'll buy blue ink and a knife, and promise to buy candy to eat with Al."

As he spoke, he put the two silver coins into Callister's hand.

Callister looked down at the two gleaming silver coins in his hand, pursed his lips, and did not speak, but this seemed to have misunderstood Louis, he thought and thought for a while, and finally took it out of his pocket very reluctantly He took out another twenty centimes silver coin and put it in Callister's hand: "Okay, I can buy a knife next month, and I'll give you this one too...I won't give you the rest Yes!"

After Louis finished speaking, he didn't care about Callister's reaction and started to step down on the branches. This time, his movements were more proficient than when he was climbing up, and he returned to the ground in a few strokes.

"I have to find my friends." Louie said to the people on the tree. Compared with the wobbly branches he stepped on, he felt that the feeling of being down-to-earth reassured him: "Even if Mr. Nathan didn't see it, the violation Regulations are not a good thing, there will be bugs on the tree, you better get down from the top as soon as possible!"

The person lying on the branch ignored him at all, as if he fell asleep suddenly; Louis thought he didn't hear it, and said it again, making sure that Callister had actually heard it but didn't want to pay attention to it before leaving This garden.

It wasn't until Louis' figure was completely out of sight from the tree that Callister, who had been silent all this time, brought the fifty centimes silver coin to his eyes, looked at it, and then snorted.

"What is such a small amount of money, I don't care about it." He said to himself, throwing the silver coin up: "Sooner or later, I will have ten thousand, one hundred thousand, one million francs." Gold coins! Then I can spend whatever I want!"

The brand-new silver coin drew a short silver arc between the emerald green branches and leaves. When it was about to fall and be buried in an unknown flower bush, the person who threw it quickly picked it up. He caught it—and stuffed it, along with its two other companions, into his pocket.