La Ronde

If the rein is too tight, even the tame horse will resist.

When Conrad arrived at the door of the Du Cap Hotel, he was both excited and a little apprehensive.He looked at the gorgeous palace-style building and thought, so this is Europe for the rich?

Valentino didn't keep him waiting, and soon came down and took him in.Wealth is the antidote to chaos. The atmosphere of Hotel du Cap is peaceful and peaceful. The waiters are all wearing spotless white shirts and suit vests, smiling and greeting the guests coming and going, as if the weather is calm outside, and Paris is still as high-profile and elegant as ever.

Conrad was wearing his only dark blue wool jumper, light-colored jeans, and, of course, his brown fedora.His cool white complexion and golden hair set off each other, and his blue-gray eyes turned nimbly, looking at the surrounding environment, with a somewhat naive curiosity in his expression, which made people feel good.When the waiter greeted him for the first time, he froze for a moment before timidly going back.In such places, his voice is lower than usual.

When he got to Valentino's room, the first thing he saw was Kronenberg beer and tequila on the marble table in front of the velvet sofa.Valentino took off his heavy coat at the door, and he asked Conrad to sit on the sofa first.

Conrad complied obediently, and before he even walked to the sofa, he noticed a beautifully framed painting on the wall.It was a brightly colored portrait of a woman. In the painting, the brown-haired woman turned her face sideways, with the corners of her lips slightly raised, and she was parting a daisy in her hair. The background was entangled flower branches and vines.Fascinated, he reached out to touch it, but the moment he touched it, he remembered that it was the property of the hotel, and he couldn't cause trouble for this new Italian friend.

At this time, Valentino also came over, and he seemed to know what Conrad was thinking: "It's okay, that's a painting I asked someone to nail. You can look at it as you like."

Conrad didn't reach out to touch it, but still stared at the painting: "I've never seen such a beautiful painting. Its lines are like... as if they are alive. I was never interested in paintings before." , that’s something rich people would watch.”

Valentino smiled: "This is an Art Nouveau painting, which is indeed different from those traditional oil paintings. You can touch it, and it has been framed anyway."

Conrad turned his head to look at him, and shrugged his shoulders a little: "I don't dare to touch it, this frame doesn't look cheap either."

"No, that's just an ordinary wooden frame." The finest Naples cherry wood shone reluctantly under the lamp.

They sat down for a couple of drinks and chatted about their respective situations.It was only then that Conrad knew that Valentino was a descendant of an Italian aristocrat with "Di" in his name*1.After receiving his degree in Italy, he traveled around to study. He studied law and philosophy in Munich and Heidelberg before, and now he is studying art history at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.Conrad was dazed, it was a world he didn't understand.The best educated person around him is his elder sister, but her elder sister only went to liberal arts high school*2 and failed the graduation exam.As for the French girls he flirted with, they only claimed to be from the Sorbonne.

Conrad took a few sips of wine and became more courageous. He asked inexplicably, "So, why do you still go to the streets? You are different from us, as a worker, you always feel that you earn too little. You Unlike those college students who have a fever, I mean, you have nothing to do with the expansion of enrollment and teaching posts..."

Valentino put down his wine glass, and touched his forehead with a cold hand: "No, this is related to each of us."

Of course, Valentino can talk a lot. He has written many articles and given many reports. Even if it is just such a topic as the unconsciousness of modernity in daily life, he can talk about tens of thousands of words.

But he didn't do that. He thought for a while and said to Conrad: "For example, painting. You told me when you came in that painting is something rich people study. But it shouldn't be like this."

Conrad was even more puzzled: "What does this mean?"

"Paintings were just ordinary objects, but now they become a metaphor for social relations. I own paintings, so I am the upper class in the consumer society. You don't have paintings, so you think you are lower. .But why are people’s thoughts subject to the domination of these dead things? We seem to be actively consuming commodities, but now, commodities contain us. And what I am against is such a society.” Valentino finished speaking and drank A bite of tequila.His face was still calm, but there was something surging in his eyes.

Conrad thought hard, and he put down his drink.

Seeing this, Valentino continued: "For another example, when I returned your hat, you stared at my cufflinks for a long time. Do you want that cufflink?"

Conrad didn't know why he suddenly mentioned this matter, although he was a little embarrassed, he still admitted shyly: "Yes, those cufflinks are really beautiful... Old Henry in our factory had his birthday the year before last, and he His wife gave him an enamel cufflink, which he shows off every day. But I think his cufflinks are far less beautiful than yours."

Looking at his innocent childlike expression, Valentino couldn't help but smiled softly, his brown eyes became deeper under the warm yellow light: "But you don't really need cufflinks, do you? I mean , you usually work in factories, so you don’t have a chance to wear a shirt. Even if you wear a shirt, it’s inconvenient for you to wear cuff buttons, isn’t it?”

Conrad thought for a while, and felt that he couldn't refute, so he nodded: "But I like pretty things. Besides, cufflinks are like paintings..." He didn't know how to better organize the sentence to let Valentino understand him.

But Valentino understood immediately: "You are right, cufflinks are like paintings, and they also symbolize social class, so old Henry will show them off. But there is a difference here, maybe you You don’t want cufflinks, but the consumer society makes you want to have one.”

Conrad understood better this time.Indeed, he had looked at Valentino's cufflinks that day and thought to himself: If he could afford them himself, he would be able to outshine old Henry.As to how much he liked the cufflinks himself, that was impossible to say.

Valentino's eyes fell far away, and he continued: "So, in this society, people are not even free to consume, and people's desires are false. You ask me why I go to the street, My answer is: because I want to live in the truth."

Now Conrad seems to understand again.He shook his head, as if to make Valentino's words clearer.They didn't continue the conversation afterward, just drank glass after glass.After the parade outside, Conrad intends to leave the utopian Hotel du Cap.

Before leaving, Valentino insisted on giving him the exquisitely crafted crystal cufflink, but he dared not accept it: "Didn't you say that this is wrong? I, I don't need cufflinks... "

Valentino smiled and put his hat on carefully: "You say these cufflinks look good, but it's just for pure aesthetic appreciation. Besides, who stipulates that cufflinks must be worn? If you like it, just put it away, occasionally Take it out and have a look and have fun."

"But these cufflinks are too expensive..." He still didn't reach out.

"Did you forget? You gave me a string of Mexican beads, so take that as my return gift."

Conrad was going to refuse again, the Mexican beads were not his, and today's wine was also invited by Valentino.But seeing the other party's stern expression, he didn't dare to refuse anymore, so he carefully held the cufflink in his hand and left the hotel.

***

He woke up the next day with a slight headache, probably from the mix of two drinks the night before.Just as he was about to go back to sleep again, he heard a noise outside the rental house, which seemed to be the cry of women and children.

He hurriedly put on his clothes and opened the door.The woman with disheveled hair and haggard face, with two children, was none other than Kurt's wife, Barbara.He was taken aback, and asked people to enter the room and sit down first. Because the place was too small, the two children could only sit on his bed.

Conrad suppressed his ominous premonition. He asked, "Barbara, what happened? Where's Kurt?"

Under the intermittent and even upside-down narration of the woman, Conrad roughly understood what happened.Kurt and Marco went to the parade last night. Some workers ate batons, and Kurt rushed forward to help them, but they were beaten together.After that, there was chaos. When Kurt was a child, he often fought with people, and he used his fists to teach the policeman with some skill, but bare hands were no match for batons and tear gas.Although Marco was also beaten black and blue, he managed to escape and was recuperating at home, while Kurt and another poor worker were dragged away by the police.

Barbara couldn't get into the factory. She knew that Kurt had a good relationship with him, so she came to beg him to find a solution to the union.

Conrad broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this. It's not that he hasn't heard the terrible rumors: the students who were taken away by the police never came back.The young man who was just over 20 years old tried his best to calm down, and comforted the woman in front of him, asking her to stay here with the child for two days, and he went to think of a way.

He told himself that as long as he found the person in charge of the trade union, everything would be resolved.Maybe as soon as he opened his eyes tomorrow morning, Kurt would come back by himself.But two days later in the afternoon, when he finally went through the procedures to meet the head of the union, doubts were ignited in his heart.

After listening to his report, the head of the trade union with a pipe in his mouth waved his arms: "It's all de Gaulle! Ten years, we've had enough of him! This stupid Ubi King*3, an extreme terrorist, is him Let the police do such horrible things to our workers!"

Conrad didn't agree with him, he was more concerned about other things: "So, will the union have a way to let Kurt go home?"

"Well," the head of the trade union took down his pipe, he seemed to be sitting uncomfortably, and moved his buttocks, "Recently we are negotiating with the French Communist Party, and there will be results in a few days, and all workers will be fine by then! "

Conrad closed his eyes.He could tell that the union had no intention of doing anything for Kurt.He didn't sleep for almost two nights, his lips were pale, and he walked out sweating.He didn't know how to explain to Barbara, maybe he should come a few more times, maybe the union would be impressed, but how long could Kurt wait?It's been two full days.

Conrad returned to the rental house on the barren land without paving stones. He opened the door anxiously, wanting to tell Barbara that he would go to the union again tomorrow, but he didn't find her.The two children were sleeping peacefully on the bed.At this moment, almost all the shops outside are closed, only a few bookstores are still open.But at this time of year, does Barbara have time to buy books?

His heart tightened, he woke up the two children, and asked them if they knew where their mother had gone.The two children shook their heads in confusion, saying that their mother sang a lullaby to lull them to sleep. Later, they didn't know whether it was because they were woken up or realized that their mother was missing. The children began to cry.

Conrad pressed the two small heads against his chest, and touched their heads as gently as possible, so as not to let them see his trembling facial muscles, but the unstable voice still revealed his emotions: " Mom... Mom just went to buy fairy tale books for you, and your father will come back soon..." Hearing the slogan from a distance, he was in a state of disorientation.He didn't have many friends in this city, one was injured and couldn't move, and the whereabouts of the other was unknown, so he didn't know who to turn to for help.

Slogans...Police...Resist...

Conrad was quick to figure out where Barbara would go.He comforted the two children, promised that he would be back soon, and rushed out of the house again.

He ran frantically toward the Latin Quarter, leaving all sights behind him.Barbara must have gone to the place where Kurt and Marco participated in the parade a few days ago, she couldn't wait any longer, she wanted to find the policeman!

Conrad had no time to think about other things, such as how to find Barbara in the crowd after arriving in the Latin Quarter.He concentrated all his energy on the idea of ​​Barbara in the Latin Quarter, as if grasping at the last straw, not daring to think further.

As it turned out, he didn't have to struggle at all to find Barbara in the crowd.When he arrived at the destination, he immediately saw the crooked sign held by several people in front of the parade in the Latin Quarter: "Give back those students and workers to us!" Several names were marked below, and Kurt was impressed. in column.

Barbara, her long hair up, was glaring at the guards.A middle-aged guard, perhaps seeing her as a slender woman, took advantage of her holding a sign in both hands, and lifted the skirt between her legs with a baton.She immediately let go of the hand holding the sign, took a paving stone from the young student beside her, and slammed it hard at the guard.The guard dodged and opened and closed his mouth wide, knowing that he was saying some nasty words.Some young students and workers surrounded Barbara and protected her.

The crowd is so turbulent.Conrad couldn't squeeze through, he could only watch all this happen helplessly, subconsciously made a prayer gesture in the crowd, his blond hair was sticky to the side of his face with sweat, he was so weak that he almost passed out.

He thought of his mother and sister, whom he hadn't contacted for a while, and heard that a similar campaign was also going on in Germany.Will they be treated like this if they go out on the street?In a daze, he remembered the beard and pipe of the union leader, and what Valentino said after being drunk that night...

Valentino... something flashed through his mind, and he felt in his pocket and pulled out the hard little square nail.That small piece of crystal was shining with a star in this hopeless night. He stared at the dancing weak light, and suddenly shed tears.

Even the tame horse will rebel if the rein is too tight.This child, who had always been loved by those around him, grew up overnight, crying so hard in the unbearable growing pains of ordinary people.

＊1 Italian nobles usually have di or de in their names, which is similar to von in German, which means "from...".But not everyone with di or de is noble.

＊2 Gymnasium in the German school system is the easiest way to pass the high school graduation exam (Abitur), and then you can directly enter all types of higher education universities.

*3 French avant-garde five-act play "Uburoi" (Uburoi), author Alfred Jarry (Alfred Jarry), the protagonist Uburoi can be called a modern version of Macbeth, greedy, cruel, ignorant and cowardly.