Manhattan, New York

Pike Avenue 49-50th Street.

The world's most famous and luxurious Waldorf Astoria Hotel is majestic and wants to touch the sky.

Inside the Waldorf Astoria Clubhouse, a young man in a white suit walks up to the elevator and meets a middle-aged blond man in a dark suit. The two are none other than Loki and William of House Rohisel, who are among the most likely candidates to become the rulers of the family.

Loki casually raised his eyes to catch a glimpse of William, the corners of his mouth slowly raised, and he smiled mockingly: "It seems that you also miscalculated, Uncle William!"

William, who was a little elegant in front of people, was full of gloom in his eyes at the moment, and he couldn't even maintain his basic disguise! After spending so much thought, in the end, his years of plans and layouts were all in vain!

It was unexpectedly that Eren came back so quickly, and the boy took over most of the family's affairs with great speed, even the affairs of North America in his own hands, and Mr. Ross Hill intended to cultivate him.

There are only three people in the family who have the potential to become the next administrator, but they didn't expect Merlot's son to become the next family administrator.

William's face was ugly, and a cold smile was pulled out from the corner of his mouth, and he walked and look! The elevator went straight into the sky, and the two stepped out of the elevator entrance, and glanced at each other tacitly--who killed the deer is unknown!

Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame Cathedral......

There is a long queue in front of the glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre Museum in France, where the huge glass pyramid and the three smaller glass pyramids around it sparkle in the dazzling sunlight. Two young girls with black hair and black eyes, dressed in casual clothes and carrying travel bags, walked out of the door, they were going to the Musée d'Orsey, but changed to the Louvre halfway through.

Donna was most intrigued and impressed by the three most famous artworks inside: Venus, Mona Lisa, and Goddess of Victory. When the two came out together, Donna looked up at the blue sky outside and said, "There are so many works of art on display in the Louvre, how good it would be to convert so many valuable works of art into money." ”

Su Xiaoqi looked at the Chinese girl in front of her, and smiled lightly at the corner of her lips, "You can really think about it!"

Donna browled her eyebrows and said, "Don't laugh at me for being a money obsesser." ”

When Su Xiaoqi first arrived in France, she met Donna, a Chinese student who resells Louis Vuitton bags, at the subway entrance, and the famous Latin Quarter of Paris is a place where college students from all over the world gather.

I remember the first time the two met at the subway entrance, Donna was wearing a red windbreaker, her face was radiant, her pink chin was still a little baby fat, and her black eyes were very beautiful, she walked over to Su Xiaoqi and said, "I heard that you are preparing to move and are looking for a house, I have a good house to introduce to you." My name is Donna, what about you?"

"My name is Katarina, you can call me Alice. She said as she stood in the aisle.

Donna winked and smiled and asked, "Alice, that brave and noble girl next door?" ”

It's no surprise to meet Chinese students here, and there is a Chinese restaurant every 50 meters outside the door. Later, Donna moved in with her.

After spending three and a half years in Rome and Jerusalem according to the lesson plan, Su Xiaoqi went to France.

When she participated in exhibitions with her father in Italy, she mostly read English materials, and when she entered the University of Rome, she realized that her soul came from another world, and the use of the Italian language always had a sense of strangeness.

Although she can hear and speak Italian but is limited to daily use, with a strong mother tongue and English habits, she is very jerky in the understanding and application of a deeper level of context, and when reading and understanding a large number of materials, she must first overcome the language barrier, she has to familiarize herself with each word in class, sentence by sentence to deepen her memory and understanding, so her learning progress is slow.

Professor Mr. Orini noticed this, and sometimes walked up to Su Xiaoqi, who would stop and help her read smoothly.

Mr. John came to the school, looked at his daughter's miserable grades, and said to the professor, Mr. Orini: "After all, she has been away from Rome for too long to keep up with the course, and I am a little worried about Katarina, who has a lot of problems to overcome when studying here......"

Professor Oraini said, "I don't think you have to worry about her. ”

Mr. John's eyes were a little puzzled: "What do you mean?"

"It's true that Caterina is a slow learner, and she's not that smart," said the gray-haired Mr. Orini, "but I would say that when it comes to achievement, this child will eventually succeed." ”

Mr. John asked, "Mr. Orini, why do you say that?"

Professor O'Neilli held his thumb on the lens and said, "I have a lot of brilliant students in my class, and they can quickly finish all the content in one lesson. All the people are gone, and she is still studying there. But she studied very well and carved everything into her heart. ”

"And my smart students, they go to have fun after they finish their studies, and they forget what they have learned after a year or two...... But Caterina won't, she will remember these things firmly and will never forget what Jì has learned for the rest of her life. ”

Professor Aureni said: "I am very accurate, Mr. John, and I can predict that of all my pupils, Caterina is the best learner, and you should not see that she is not clever and slow learner, but in the end she will be ahead of everyone." ”

Su Xiaoqi didn't know that she had received Mr. Orini's attention, and she was still buried in the battle against the Latin language family, and there were so many things that she needed to master at the beginning that it was suffocating, a lot of boring and complicated materials in the professional classes, and a terrifying amount of knowledge...... After digging deeper, it gradually became less scary.

In the first year or two, Su Xiaoqi could only do not fail the subject, but after two years, she established a deep understanding of the Latin language family, and since Italian and French belong to the Latin language family, it is not difficult to master French.

Now, after a glance, she can memorize the entire text, and even memorize several pieces of material in five minutes, and her learning speed is getting faster and faster, and her ability to induct, use, deduce and calculate the material is getting stronger and stronger.

Su Xiaoqi's change surprised everyone, except for Professor Sorini. Everyone in this school remembers Caterina's clumsy learning style at the beginning, and now it has improved by leaps and bounds.

She remembers a saying that you don't get stronger because you're too comfortable.

Anything that is a little uncomfortable can actually be trained. After all, nothing is easy, learning a new language, mastering a technical ability, exploring unknown territory, etc., requires a lot of effort, a lot of pain, and even a lot of bruises.

Su Xiaoqi studied at the University of Rome for three years and spent half a year at the University of Jerusalem before going to France.

When she first arrived in France, she chose a simple and unpretentious way of life, and the two young girls lived a work-study life together.

On the weekends, the two young girls go together to set up a stall or resell something.

There are many exquisite shops on the streets of Paris, although they are not famous brand stores, but they are mostly some leather shops and ready-to-wear stores full of European style and fashion, which are very popular with Chinese, and some people ask Donna to buy them with her.

In addition to this, they can also find some of the most popular and delicate items in Paris, such as baccarat crystals, gloves, red wines from Bordeaux, porcelain from Conec, Bourgent and Limobes, as well as paintings, antiques and pottery handmade with traditional techniques.

Over the course of a year, the two girls earned a lot of money in addition to their academic gains. Donna managed to earn her tuition for the coming year, so she decided to ask Su Xiaoqi to go shopping in downtown Paris. Although the two of them pick things on the streets of Paris, they basically don't go out to play.

When Su Xiaoqi was studying in France, she often read books on holidays and saw two or three o'clock in the evening, and even accidentally looked up when she was researching a material, and the sky was already dark.

Donna said that her learning method is very similar to Chinese, and Su Xiaoqi smiled, after all, there are really Chinese habits in it.

Saturday was almost here, and they went out of the Louvre and went to the metro station.

Paris is huge, and the way she used to walk on foot in Rome with Monsieur John no longer works. At the subway entrance, whites, yellows, blacks, people from all over the world seem to be coming here, and everywhere is waiting in line.

When they reached the Montmartre plateau, they turned left and climbed a large slope to the top of the slope, where they reached the Basilica of the Sacré-Coeur, one of the major attractions in Paris. In addition to its high terrain overlooking Paris, it is also known for its culture.

Behind the church was a place where literati and painters gathered, and the concentration of ink in the air was almost as dense as that of the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank.

In the afternoon, the two of them sat on the Seine River and watched the Seine cruise ship coming and going, not far away is the most expensive place in Paris and well-known in France.

Donna couldn't help but look across the Seine and exclaimed, "Latourd\"Ar-gent, a veritable silver tower, you have to have the money of a tower to have a meal there." ”

Donna couldn't help but sigh: "I don't think I will ever have the opportunity to have a meal there in my life, not to mention that students like us go to the Avenue Saint-Tenore, even if we go to the Champs-Élysées, we have to resist spending money indiscriminately." ”

By Donna, the Avenue Saint-Tenore refers to the street north of the Champs-Élysées, where the shops are dominated by the most prestigious brands, and that street is the most luxurious shopping place in Paris and frequented by celebrities from all over the world.

In fact, the Latin Quarter where they lived was home to many famous cafés, frequented by the rich and famous of the time, and the ink in the air was as famous as the place of literati and ink behind the Basilica of the Sacré-Coeur on the heights of Montmartre.

Su Xiaoqi shook her head lightly and smiled: "No one can say for sure what will happen in the future, maybe our Miss Donna can do it in the future." ”

It is not difficult for Su Xiaoqi to shop on the Champs-Élysées and the Saint-Tenore, and Mr. John loves his daughter and gives him enough pocket money, but he doesn't know that Caterina lives this way in France.

Being in a comfortable environment for a long time, people are prone to inertia, if you want to become stronger, don't be afraid to endure all kinds of discomfort, she strives to overcome this inertia for the sake of the goal. Su Xiaoqi didn't want to spend the money given by Mr. John, so she took out the money and deposited it on a card.

When Donna first met her roommate Katarina, she lived in a noisy house on the street, and after the two moved in together, they lived a work-study life together, probably thinking that her friend's family was ordinary.

"Yes, you can rely on me as the boss when the time comes! I will invite you to have a meal in the Silver Tower. Donna laughed.

Two young girls unwittingly arrive at a new bridge at the western end of the Île de la Cité. From the Pont Neuf bridge, they can enjoy the view of the Seine, and at this time they can also see the small vendors scattered along the Seine.

Su Xiaoqi smiled slightly, presumably contemporary Monet, Cézanne, and Picasso also came here to find artistic inspiration, right? There have been many painters and troubadours who have come here to experience life.

"Why is it called Shimbashi?" asked Donna why.

Su Xiaoqi explained to her: "It is said that it is a new bridge, but in fact, the French often use it as a metaphor for old antiques - as old as a new bridge. ”

Donna blinked, "I see! I didn't know this allusion before, and I couldn't understand it when I heard the French talk about it." ”

The two girls chatted as they walked along the streets of the Seine, where there were many stalls selling old works, and one of their favorite things to do during their time in Paris was to go to the stalls along the Seine to look at paintings and books.

The booths are full of posters, albums, paintings, coasters, cigarette cases, etc., as well as sketches, drawings, gouache or oil paintings by unknown artists of unknown age and name.

The works of these painters are not necessarily bad, but in a city like Paris, it is easy to find art, but it is too easy to be buried by art......

Su Xiaoqi wandered with her eyes while strolling, and when she saw a painting, her eyes couldn't help but freeze on the drawing paper.

The more she looked at it, the more she felt that it was a pity, because in the eyes of the insider, drawing paper can only be used for drafting, or for those children who are just starting out, but the smooth lines on it outline the beautiful scenery, and the overall feeling is very different.

"How can this painting be sold?" asked Su Xiaoqi, picking up a painting. When she looked down, she also noticed that there were five or six paintings on the stall, all by the same person.

Suddenly, a man's slender hand quickly took the painting from her hand.

She looked up and said, "Wait!"

The young man with pale blond curly hair did not answer her, but said loudly in French: "Boss, these paintings are not for sale!"

As he spoke, he put the paintings away from the stall and turned around and left.

Donna was beside her, feeling that this person was a little inexplicable! She glared at him with a pair of beautiful black eyes: "Are you the boss of this gentleman? Why don't you sell it?"

The young man stopped with the painting and said, "Because I have deposited this painting here, I have the right not to sell it." With that, he left without looking back.

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Donna was puzzled by the young man's behavior, and she came back to her senses and wondered, "Could it be that he... Is it because they see that we are all Chinese and have prejudices against us?"

She suddenly said with a sullen look on her face, "I forgot - you are from Italy. ”

Su Xiaoqi felt that Donna's expression was very cute at this time, and a smile bloomed on her lips: "Well, Miss Donna is right! ”

One sentence made Donna laugh, "Yes, Sister Caterina, you have a Chinese heart, how can you say that you are also half Chinese! Maybe you were Chinese in your last life!"

A smile appeared on Su Xiaoqi's lips: "I am not only in my last life, but also in this life." ”

The shopkeeper came over and said to them apologetically, "Two young ladies, the artist's personality is a bit... Well, it's different, not what I think of you. ”

"That's right. Donna turned to her and said, "Let's go!" and took Su Xiaoqi's arm and left.

When Donna heard that there was a Chinese district in Paris, she took Su Xiaoqi there, and they were shocked by the sight reflected in the street. The streets dirtier than Athens, the pedestrians who looked more dangerous than the drug dealers at the Frankfurt train station, the supermarkets that were messier than Turkish grocery shops, it was clear that this was not the territory of the Chinese, but the territory of all the lower classes who came to Paris. Two young girls got out of the street and got into a car.

As the bus stopped at an opera house, they heard a deafening gunshot not far away, followed by several gunshots, and the people in the bus were so frightened that they immediately left the platform.

Donna was naturally taken aback by the first time she saw this kind of chaos, as a Chinese student who grew up in a peaceful city, she had seen such scenes.

Ordinary citizens walking on the road and encountering a shooting incident, there is no other way but to escape and escape. In fact, for Americans, even if they go out with a gun, they can't prevent this kind of premeditated shooting, robbery or shooting by the other side, which is the most shocking part of the shooting.

Donna said with trepidation: "I didn't expect the security near Grand Paris to be so chaotic. ”

Su Xiaoqi was much calmer because she had lived in a chaotic neighborhood in the United States, and immediately took out her mobile phone from her body to inquire and learned that there was a shootout between the police and the bandits in the neighborhood they passed.

"It's not really China, so we had to go back early today. She said.

Donna nodded and said, "Wait a minute, we'll change cars." ”