La Ronde

Silence always melts in honeyed kisses and hot hugs.

Coriando listened so engrossed to the old man's story that he forgot the time.It was completely dark, and at this time only the stars twinkled dutifully and tirelessly, and most of the marchers had dispersed.

"So, did you part ways with Valentino after May?" Coriando grabbed a handful of curly hair that was blown by the night wind, sniffing his nose and asked.

Conrad was silent for a while, as if caught in a certain memory.Coriando looked into the eyes of the old man—it was like a blue-gray velvet-like sky covered by starlight. He couldn't help but have a strange thought in his heart, although the face in front of him was covered with wrinkles and lipofuscin pigments. The plaques on the eyes must be very different from the appearance when they were young, but these eyes probably never changed.

Conrad's voice brought him back to the present scene: "No, not so fast. After the end of May, Valentino and I returned to Germany together."

***

The magnificent summer sky was reflected on the Regnitz River, and Conrad stood on the bridge looking at the gurgling water, still in a daze.

It has been a month since the Grenell agreement was signed, through which workers and the government reached a settlement.The minimum wage for French workers has risen by 35%, and real wages have increased by 10%. Kurt and Marco's life should be much better.De Gaulle also returned to his position without incident.

I heard that after the parade subsided, the street was not paved with new granite, but was directly changed to an asphalt road.When Valentino saw the news, he smiled inexplicably, and only commented: I have to admit that it is a smarter way to deprive people of revolutionary tools beforehand than to suppress them with fear afterwards.

They should have stayed in Paris.However, in several consultations between the labor side and the government, the latter always seemed to be able to learn about the workers’ reserve prices and negotiation strategies first, which greatly reduced the actual benefits that the workers obtained in the negotiations.Gradually, rumors of unknown origin spread. One of them was that Valentino and Conrad leaked key information to the government in advance. Some even said that Conrad was a spy sent by East Berlin. The government has secret deals.Not to mention that they never participated in the caucuses of the so-called workers or intellectuals - Konrad grew up in South Germany and had nothing to do with Berlin, which he was not as familiar with as he was with Paris. .But the rumors intensified, and in the end, Conrad's factory fired him outright.Of course the reason was not that he was an East Berlin spy, although the foreman might have thought so, but the explanation given to Conrad was that he had received reports from other workers that he was sneaky, raped and slippery at work, ignored the rules and often found someone OEM.

France couldn't stay any longer, so he decided to go home for a while.He wanted to leave quietly, leaving only contact information for Kurt and Marco, but Valentino seemed to have expected him to do so, and appeared with two suitcases on the night before he was about to leave At the door of his rental house, his face was tired, but his brown pupils were bright: "You said, you want to show me your garden."

Conrad didn't answer, didn't look at Valentino, he just stood by the door with his head bowed.After what seemed like a century, Valentino's hand lightened, and it was Conrad who lifted his suitcase.

Conrad and Valentino still bickered, doing it in silence.These silences will always be melted in honey kisses and hot hugs, and after the heat of the affair fades, they will fall into even greater silences.They began to adapt to all this, tacitly staggering certain topics.Just like at this moment, they stood side by side in silence on the bridge, with a lot of thoughts in their hearts, but they didn't speak until the blonde woman who came over broke the silence between them with a brisk and powerful voice: "Conrad!"

Conrad turned his head and saw a familiar petite figure standing under the bridge. He couldn't believe it at first.He ran to the bottom of the bridge in three steps at a time. When he saw the person coming, he exclaimed in surprise: "Sister! You cut your hair short! Why are you back? Where's brother-in-law?"

Valentino followed him off the bridge and saw Conrad and the blonde woman hugging each other tightly.The woman's face was similar to Conrad's, only softer.

Lina raised her hand and touched Conrad's head, looked at her younger brother who was already much taller than her, and said with a calm smile: "I divorced him, and I will come back to recuperate for a while. My friend is back." Speaking of which, she glanced at Valentino: "Hello, sir, I don't know how to address you?"

Valentino reported his name and said a few words with Lina.But Conrad has not recovered, he said blankly: "Are you divorced from...?"

Although he doesn't understand complicated laws, he also knows the difficulty of divorce. He can probably count the divorced people in Bamberg with one hand, and his sister may be the only one who got divorced and cut their hair short.These days, a woman needs her husband's permission before opening a bank account or going out to work, let alone a divorce.Could it be that my sister was abandoned?

Lina looked at Conrad's stupidity, and couldn't help showing a bigger smile, not seeing the haze of divorce at all: "Yeah. Why are we standing here stupidly? Let's go back to eat first, we have smoked sausage and smoked beer today What! Monsieur Valentino, you haven't had our Bamberg smoked beer, have you?"

Valentino smiled: "No, Miss Lena, I'm looking forward to it."

The meal lasted until nine o'clock in the evening.Conrad hadn't seen Lena since she married Berlin three years ago, and the siblings seemed to have a lot to say.Lena asked Conrad and Valentino about the situation in May in Paris in detail, and she felt a lot of emotion after listening.They talked about the bloody revolution in the big city in this secluded town.

Initiated by a member of the German Socialist Student Union, Lena also took part in the Berlin march.Duschek was one of the members who chanted "Springer the Murderer" in front of the Springer publishing house the night she was shot by Bachmann on Kudangstrasse.She divorced her husband precisely because his conservative husband disapproved of her participation in marches demanding women's suffrage and refused to grant her requests to open a personal bank account.

Conrad was so angry that he stopped drinking, but he was a little puzzled: "Sister, how could he agree to divorce you? This is a scandal."

While Ms. Hedwig was cutting the smoked sausage and bread, Lina smiled triumphantly and contemptuously: "If he doesn't agree, there will be even bigger scandals waiting for him."

She didn't care that Valentino was also there, and went on quickly: "This idiot thinks I don't know that he has a correspondence with his boss's wife. But I not only know, but also hid one." Having said that, she frowned slightly, and her voice lowered, perhaps because she recalled the contents of the letter.But hearing Hedwig's voice tidying up the table, she continued, "Anyway, if he doesn't divorce me, he'll just wait to be fired by his boss. I just got away with it."

"I really don't see it, but it's a good thing you divorced such a man! When I saw the wedding photo you sent me, I thought he was an honest person." Conrad has completely cast aside his previous concerns, for Lena felt worthless and fortunate, "Then what are you going to do next?"

Lina took a sip of the prosciutto-flavored beer, smiled nonchalantly, and said in a relaxed tone, "I want to rest at home for a while, and spend time with my mother and you. I have saved a little money, and maybe I will apply for a school in the future. It’s just that we have to figure out something about the bank account.”

Valentino, who had been listening politely to the conversation between the two, said, "If you want to open a personal account, I can help, but it's an Italian bank."

At this time, Hedwig also came out with the sliced ​​smoked sausage and bread, and joined them again: "I don't need you to accompany me, just do whatever you want."

Although she said so, it was obvious that her children's return to the town made her a lot happier.Conrad spread some cheese on her bread, and leaned on her left arm and said coquettishly: "Ms. Hedwig, we want you to accompany me! It's too sad not to be able to eat the bacon you made La."

Hedwig and Lena laughed loudly, and Valentino smiled slightly when he saw his innocence.After laughing, Lina said: "Mr. Valentino, are you a bank employee? Doing me a favor will affect your work?"

Conrad hesitated to speak, but Valentino kept paying attention to him all the time, making sure that he didn't intend to speak, and then said, "I'm not, but I know the... staff of the bank. Don't worry, this matter is not troublesome."

Lina happily agreed.Hedwig, who was listening, thought of something else, and she said to Valentino: "You must have helped Conrad in many places in Paris. He was originally a naughty child, spoiled by me and Lena when he was young." I hope he didn't cause you too much trouble... Conrad, stop drinking and pour some wine for Mr. Valentino."

Valentino looked at the cold white hand that was pouring the wine in front of his eyes, and couldn't help but smile wryly: "No, Conrad is a good boy, he didn't cause me any trouble, but I... suffered from him take care of."

Lena said in a deliberately mocking surprised tone: "God, it seems that Conrad has grown up!" Conrad glared at her and grabbed the bacon on her plate, and the two had another fight .

Hedwig gave a few words of dissuasion symbolically, and then turned back to talk to Valentino: "You don't have to say good things for him, I know him well, he still treats himself as a child."

Valentino smiled, but did not answer.What's wrong with being a kid?He wanted him to be a child forever, thinking of this, Valentino's relieved eyes were tinged with sadness, he hadn't seen Conrad like this in a long time.

That night in Bamberg, the kid who laughed in the crowd and sang the out-of-pitch Internationale was back again.