John went to Lindbergh, accompanied by Victor. I haven't seen www.biquge.info two or three years, and Lindbergh is much thinner than before. The eyes that were originally as sharp as eagles are now cloudy and dim, and the whole person looks a little gloomy.

John spent an afternoon trying to persuade Lindbergh to renounce his Nazi offering, but to no avail. The unusually stubborn Lindbergh simply did not heed John's advice, insisting that virtue should be friendly with each other, and that refusing to bestow the medal was an "unnecessary insult" to the Nazi leader.

Seeing Lindbergh thinking so much about the Nazis, John could only lament in his heart: My brother, what if you insult Goering's dead fat man. You're just a pawn being used by them, how can you think about their feelings?

How could a person who was so level-headed and strong-willed fall into the pit dug for him by the Nazis and not be able to climb out. The brainwashing skills of these Germans are simply comparable to those of later MLM organizations.

On the one hand, John was very disappointed that he could not change Lindbergh's mind, and on the other hand, he was secretly glad that if he didn't know the historical trend, he might have been fooled by those Germans like Lindbergh's big brother.

Coming out of Lindbergh, Victor invited John to his lodgings for two drinks. When he was on board the Normandy, John promised to come to Berlin to be a guest at his place, and Adele had a gift for John to pass on to Madame Roda.

Victor lives in a grey stone house on the banks of the River Spree, just a 10-minute walk from the embassy. In front of the house is a large flat meadow that extends directly to the river. There is a hard tennis court at the back of the house and a large garden. There is also a marble pool in the garden with lots of fat red fish.

The interior of the room is also luxuriously decorated, with a Middle Eastern carpet in the hall on the first floor, large antique paintings framed in gold frames, a walnut dining table and sixteen soft chairs with blue silk cushions. Upstairs there are five bedrooms with French furniture and three marble bathrooms.

"Drink something? Rhoda accompanied the ambassador's wife to Hamburg for a cultural event, and will not return until the day after tomorrow. "Victor pushed over a cart on wheels filled with all kinds of liquor and mixology tools.

"Are you guys stationed abroad so extravagant?" John was very surprised by the luxury of the house, "There are only two of you living in such a big house?" ”

"yes, $100 for one month." Victor mixes a martini for John.

"How is that possible!" John thought Victor was joking, isn't this the same price as giving it for free?

"What are you lying to, but I was also shocked." Victor told John that the Nazis had recently issued a new ordinance that restricted Jewish ownership of real estate.

"The house was originally owned by a kosher food merchant, and according to the new regulations, it should be entrusted by the government. But if a tenant like me, who enjoys diplomatic immunity, borrows it, the Jew can keep ownership of the house. ”

"I don't understand why these Jews didn't leave Germany. Now they are restricted in what they do, and even the park benches are plastered with JudenVerBboten (German, Jews are not allowed to sit). John sighed.

"Maybe it's because he can't bear his food processing plant." Victor dealt with John's doubts vaguely.

Sometimes the real world is so strange that he, like John, was disgusted by Germany's anti-Jewish policies, but they both became beneficiaries of these policies to varying degrees. This made it difficult for him to legitimately accuse the Nazis.

And as a diplomat, he was well aware that neither Europe nor the United States had plans to receive German Jewish immigrants on a large scale. The majority of German Jews had nowhere to go but to silently endure increasingly severe exploitations.

"Don't talk about this, what does your embassy think about Lindbergh this time?" It is likely that the dissuasion of Lindbergh by the Army attaché was only an indication of the War Office's attitude to the matter, and John wanted to know the general opinion within the diplomatic system.

"There is a lot of disagreement within the embassy. In fact, on all Nazi-related issues, the opinion was the same, with some strongly opposing and others strongly approving it. ”

Victor pondered the wording, "The opposition group believes that Hitler will be the greatest threat to the United States in the future. One day he has enough strength to launch an attack on the United States. The other faction saw the Nazis as the only bastion in Europe. They believed that those democracies were no longer able to cope with the development of the Bolsheviks. Hitler would be an important firepower against totalitarianism. ”

"I received an invitation to attend a banquet at Goering tomorrow evening, do you think it is necessary to decline?" John wasn't actually asking for Victor's opinion, he was just "filing a case" with the embassy for the sake of safety.

"You're not an active-duty officer like Lindbergh, you can go if you want." Victor didn't see John's "careful thinking" and replied without thinking.

But soon, he reacted and patted John on the shoulder with a smile: "I see what you mean." Tomorrow night's banquet at Villa Kailin, right? The embassy has also received an invitation, and I'll go with you tomorrow, okay. ”

It couldn't be better. When the time comes, with an American diplomat by his side, the Nazis will no longer be able to put the label of "supporter of fascism" on John's head.

The next afternoon, John went to the embassy to meet Victor, and then they went to Villa Kailin.

Villa Kailin may not be far from the Villa of Stoller, but it is a different world from the idyllic Villa of Storler. John's car passed through a bulky electrically controlled gate, through a reinforced concrete wall, and finally through two rows of air-force sentries armed with machine guns standing facing each other before arriving at the grand gate of Villa Kailin.

John: They arrived early, and Stoller showed them around first. Villa Kailin is very large and the corridors and rooms inside seem endless. A dozen glass cabinets in the ballroom display precious stones, all of which are from Goering's looted collection.

There was no one in the reception room, but it was as large and gorgeous as the ballroom, with wooden walls hung with felt and flags, and statues and jeweled armor on display.

But John always felt like a Hollywood set made of cardboard and canvas. No matter how grand the structure of the villa, how spacious the rooms, how elaborate the decorations, and how precious the works of art, John always felt that these were just a flash in the pan.

He was well aware that what he saw were genuine treasures, and that most of them were "stolen goods" that Stoltigorin had stolen from the Jews. But even without moral considerations, John was disappointed by the vulgarity of the décor and design of Villa Kailin's own. Goering is said to be from a famous family, and his taste is similar to that of an upstart.

The banquet was a grand one, attended by hundreds of dignitaries from all walks of life in Germany, as well as "international friends" like Johann.

Both the Goerings greeted their guests in their magnificent dresses and jewels, and Goering's clothes were even more ornate than his wife's.

Goebbels and Ribbentrop also attended the banquet. These two men looked similar to what John had seen in historical photographs in his previous life, but they were much smaller than he had imagined. According to Victor, the two men were currently vying for control of the German diplomatic front, and Goering was the main object of their rivalry.

John also saw Lindbergh, who was chatting with several Luftwaffe officers. Lindbergh saw him too, but neither of them had any intention of continuing the conversation. Yesterday they should have said enough and not what they should have said.

Towards the end of the banquet, Adolf Hitler appeared. The Nazi leader wore a very ordinary gray-green military shirt and black trousers, which contrasted sharply with Goering's "stage attire".

As rumored, Hitler was a vegetarian. He simply ate a vegetarian pie and vegetable soup, and then began to tease Goering's little daughter with a sugar-coated butter biscuit.

A string orchestra plays Mozart's music softly in a corner of the hall, and thick wood crackles in the fireplace. Everyone watched intently as the Führer interacted with the little girl, and Goering and his wife stood next to Hitler with the proud smile of being parents.

Suddenly, Goering's youngest daughter kissed Hitler's big pale nose. Hitler burst out laughing and gave her the biscuits, and the audience burst into applause and cheers.

John was very interested in what was happening in front of him. In the past, Hitler had in his mind the image of a fist-waving, somewhat hysterical war maniac.

But now, can you imagine! The demon of history, who had brutally ordered the slaughter of millions of Jews, smiled slightly shy as he thanked him for the applause.

John secretly reminded himself that the Nazi leader was not the carpet-biting, nerve-wracking Chaplin-esque politician portrayed in later works of art. He and his leadership to the Nazi Party were by no means a bunch of irrational thugs, in that any contempt and negligence in their dealings could have disastrous consequences.