My father stayed at General Garcia's house for 1 week. It was here that he felt for the first time how different the life of a mountain aristocrat was from the north. They were very little to pay attention to, and General Garcia and his visiting guests would never discuss a trivial matter of etiquette for a long time, nor would they lash out at a servant for his negligence. Intentionally or unintentionally, the father asked General Garcia why he did not restrain such important details, and Garcia asked blankly, "Why should I pay attention to such a thing?" I see, you grew up in the north, it's a hotbed of tradition and ****, here, we don't even need a king to get by, why would you whip a servant? Time is so precious here that it is not enough to create wealth, so why should you talk about the etiquette that has been talked about countless times? ”

My father had a neutral and even approving attitude towards this habit of the South, but Wright was unequivocally opposed: "The sufferings of our line of work are all from the commoners, and if there is no strong means to set a code of conduct for them, one day all the nobles will be knocked to the ground by the commoners." Father knew that Wright had suffered a lot along the way, and vaguely knew that Wright's childhood was spent in a down-and-out aristocratic family, so his father did not refute Wright's prejudice against commoners.

One morning, in the cool morning breeze and listening to the birds chirping in the trees, my father woke up at about six o'clock in the morning and heard faint laughter. He got dressed, walked to the window, and saw the red sun pulling the morning glow as faint as the wings of a cicada rising from the side of the mountain. Following the source of the laughter, he saw a group of maids sitting on the ground, and saw Adeline among them.

The father washed his face and pretended to pass by the group of girls casually. He heard the excited laughter and slapstick of the little maids of 14 and 5 years old when he arrived, and saw Adeline with her ears slightly in his direction, a slight smile on the corner of her mouth.

Last night, General Garcia chatted late with his father, talking about the story of his grandfather after returning to China, General Garcia was very interested in the story of how his grandfather revitalized the family business step by step, "Your father is indeed a talent, but unfortunately he insists on staying in the north, if he returns to the mountains, he will definitely be able to mix better, haha, but in that case, there will be no you kid."

After learning about the story of the White Dove Valley, Garcia also briefly introduced the things in the south over the years, and his father knew that the southerners had amended the constitution and almost divided two-thirds of the king's rights; The father knew that the power of the burghers in the south had now become very large, and that as long as there was a spokesman, the power of these people would be unleashed, and they would become the absolute dominance of Rhodok; My father knew about the bloody battle of Garmici that made General Garcia famous, although he lost the Garmic Plain in the end, but the war of blood and tears has trained the war elite, which is the kind of "essence through layers of selection" described by the Taizu of the Northern Kingdom; Of course, the most surprising thing for the father was that Garcia told her: "My daughter can't see".

Father was standing under a big locust tree at this time, looking at these girls in white clothes in a daze, Adeline was dressed the same as them, but faintly different, if this was a pile of feathers, then Adeline was the most elegant of them. Around it lay several large brown wooden barrels, filled with round golden oranges, so many that they almost overflowed. Adeline and the little maids threw the oranges into a basin to wash the mud off them, ripped off the remaining branches, and put them in another new bucket. It seems that they have been busy for a while, and almost a third of the oranges have been processed. When his father saw Adeline's hands red from the cold water of early autumn, he felt a little unbearable, but he was ashamed to comfort him, so he immediately rolled up his sleeves and joined the ranks of cleaning the oranges.

The oranges had just come up from General Garcia's farmhouse, and the general's lord of the manor had picked out the first batch of the best oranges and sent them to the house overnight for the general's family to try. Father sniffed the rich aroma of freshly harvested oranges and sat next to Adeline to help her out, a clumsy gesture of intimacy that made the little girls around him giggle. Father suddenly hungry, scratching his head and asking Adeline if he could eat one himself, Adeline fumbled for a long time, grabbed one of the fullest oranges and handed it to her father, the father happily expressed his gratitude, and then went to peel the orange peel, and the orange peel juice shot into his father's eyes at once, making his eyes slam shut, sour and unbearable. At this time, suddenly a clear spring poured down, washing his father's eyes.

Many years later, my father has not forgotten how Adeline felt when he bowed a small handful of water to wash his eyes. Adeline poured the water slowly, her father closed his eyes, obediently letting the water flow down his cheeks, and there was a boiling cry of joy around her, but it had nothing to do with her father, and it had nothing to do with Adeline. After his father's eyes were no longer sore, he pretended to continue to close his eyes: "Miss, it still hurts, let's rush again." ”

"Don't mess around, you can see it after washing your eyes once... I..."

Her father immediately sensed Adeline's inner turmoil, which made her father not know what to say. He could only silently rub the orange on the side, as carefully as if he were wiping a glass ball. Adeline suddenly sneered, "Why did you wipe oranges with your shirt?" ”

"Ahh

At that time, the stamens of the locust trees in the yard fell all over the ground, as if there was a faint fragrance pouring in from all directions, and most of the wooden houses in the south were hollowed out in order to escape the heat, as if they were pavilions hidden in the trees. The father looked at his wet hem in embarrassment between the green trees and white clothes.

In embarrassment, the butler walked over, "Master Arcadio, it's time to eat." You, the young lady, go to dinner. ”

The father wrung his shirt and tried to wring it out, but he couldn't do anything but follow the butler.

"Your oranges."

The father looked back and saw Adeline holding a freshly peeled orange and handing it to him.

On the way to the restaurant, my father asked the steward, "Won't the young lady come to eat with us?" ”

"Well, I think you already know about Miss's health, her meals are specially prepared, not with us."

Father walked all the way, and saw that the people all the way were stunned to look at their clothes, and finally, the housekeeper who was walking in front couldn't help the eyes of others, glanced back at his father, and saw a large piece of wetness on the shirt, "Young master?" What is this water? ”

General Garcia was waiting for my father at the door, and when he saw my father's silly smile and shirt swaying in the wind, he exclaimed in surprise: "Boy! Are you wetting the bed? ”

This sentence shook the house, there were 12 servants in the house at that time, in fact, even if there was only one servant, this sentence could be spread throughout the General's Mansion in the afternoon, let alone 12 people. Let's assume that each servant has 2 bosom friends, and they will have this dialogue: "Actually, I wasn't going to say it, but do you know that the young master from General Garcia's mansion wets the bed every day, don't tell anyone else?" These 12 people are 12 fires, and once it is passed on to 24 people, then 48 people, oh my God, as long as it is long enough, it is estimated that one day it will be spread throughout the continent. The messages that were passed on increased exponentially, and soon almost everyone who had something to do with the General's Mansion knew about my father's congenital deficiencies.

It wasn't until a few years later, on the battlefield, that a Rodok, who admired his father very much, told him a joke about a Swadian who had to pee his pants every morning. The Rhodok laughed, and his father looked at him speechlessly, as serious as a stone. That look was very similar to the way a group of little maids looked at him when his father was stupidly wiping oranges with his shirt.

At breakfast, General Garcia told his father that his grandfather's actions were entirely voluntary and honorable, and that the people of Rhodok now encouraged such heroic acts, so they had prepared a total of 20,000 dinars for such volunteers, and that with the prestige of General Garcia, 5,000 dinars of them had been assigned to his grandfather, and it was obvious that his father should enjoy this treatment in Rhodoc.

His father thanked him, but he said that he didn't know how to manage money, and he didn't know how to spend the money in his hands, so he let Uncle Garcia manage it on his behalf.

Garcia is glad that the young man is not blinded by money, and he says he plans to use the money to help the Arcadio family open a preserves factory in Viruga to make delicious orange and pear preserves. The proceeds of this money will be mailed directly to Djerkhara's father's university to support his study expenses. My father said he thought it was a good arrangement.

General Garcia said, "You don't have to worry about what you told me last night about missing the start of school. I wrote to the principal there and told him that you should go and take any class and go to it. But remember, that's all I can help you with, no one in the school knows that you are my caretaker except the headmaster, and if you come here in my name, I think I'll clean you up in your father's name. ”

"Uh, Uncle Garcia, I know", my father said, "I'm not going to mess around".

"Well, your generation is 17 or 8 years old, that's fast. I still remember when I was your age. Time is too fast, the age of youth is coming", Garcia said, looking at my father fixedly: "Believe me, the age of youth is coming." You have to be prepared. I don't know if you really like the philosophy and history courses that your father recommended to you, but I suggest you go to Djerkhara and study the science department. I know some guys from the Strategic Staff, and I don't like anything else about this group, but there is one thing they think the same as I do: the days of praying for God to bring victory to us are over, and now is a new era, the dawn is coming, young man, you should really be ready. ”

A crushing defeat on the battlefield a few years later made my father have to admire the general's foresight. It was just dawn and a group of Salanders was found, about a hundred men, most of them infantrymen, a few with strangely long spears, and the rest with strange weapons, which were very short and cylindrical, and looked like a guard of honor for the king. Father watched as a Rhodok officer led more than a hundred hussars, kissed their sabers, and then lazily charged at the men, as if the peasants were going to harvest the full ears of wheat together. My father saw the Salanders standing in a disc, and several Salander officers on horseback roared and commanded. The spears of the Salanders stretched out like hedgehogs, as if from a moment of smoke suddenly enveloped the small group of Salanders. In the next ten minutes of groundbreaking roar, the cavalry formation was completely finished, the battlefield was filled with the terrible smell of gunsmoke, and the remaining dozens of cavalry fled the battlefield in panic.

At that time, my father suddenly remembered the words of General Garcia: "A new era is coming, you must be prepared." ”

There were several days of travel between Viruga and Djerkhala, and after a few days of rest, my father was ready to leave for Djerkhala. General Garcia prepared a dozen new Rhodok shirts for his father, and now the Rhodok costume is in vogue from decades ago, General Garcia said: "This style of linen shirt is rare now, it was worn by me when I was young, you must think it is very strange."

The father looked at the dry and comfortable shirt on his body, and suddenly remembered an old woman, "Except for the lack of H.A., in fact, I am no stranger at all." ”

Garcia told his father that when he went to Viruga and crossed the Ziza Pass, it was all mountainous, and that he could not ride a horse behind, but he could ride a mule. The father remembered the disgusting kiss and resolutely rejected Garcia's kindness. He spent his last days wandering around Viruga and listening to the talks, where he also discovered the Kugit who, like in Suno, were also shopping for all sorts of things. My father wondered if Kugit had discovered gold in the country, or if he had developed the magic of turning stones into gold, otherwise why there would be such a big shopping frenzy. Garcia told his father that the Kugit people were particularly fond of high-quality iron ingots in the mountains, and they always bought them in large quantities and did not know what they were used for.

"Unusual in short," Garcia said.

As her father walked, he rode through the courtyard and walked through the sunflower fields, and Adeline stood on the side, barefoot and listening to her father's direction with quiet eyes. She slowly raised her right hand to say goodbye to her father, the wind stirring Adeline's hair and her clothes, and under the sea of golden flowers was Adeline's beige serene face. Her father smiled at her, turned and rode away.

Then I saw my father's notebook, which contained a poem,

"In the wind by the sea of flowers, your rolled skirt."