Chapter 108 Triple Bitterness Makes Sweetness

At dawn the next day, Jean Valjean was still standing beside Cosette's bed.He stared at her blankly, waiting for her to wake up. He had a new feeling in his heart. Jean Valjean had never loved anything.For twenty-five years in the world he had been alone.He has never been a father, a lover, a husband, or a friend.In the penal cell he was vicious, sullen, ascetic, ignorant, and wild.The heart of the old convict was full of virginal innocence.His sister and her children had left him only a distant and vague impression, which had since almost faded away.He had tried to find them, but had not found them, and had forgotten them.Human nature is like that.If he had had those childhood loves in his youth, they would have been wiped out in the abyss of time.

When he saw Cosette, when he had her, led her, and rescued her, he felt his blood boil.All the enthusiasm and love in his chest came to life and poured into the child.He went to the bed where she was asleep, trembling with joy, as if he had become a mother, so he felt very confused, but he didn't know what it was, because when the heart began to love, it was so great. The peculiar tumult is rather incomprehensible and quite luscious. Pity a brand new old man's heart! However, he was already fifty-five years old, while Cosette was only eight years old, and all the love of his life had been reduced to an indescribable starlight.

This is the second time he has seen the revelation of the light.The bishop had awakened in him the meaning of doing good, and Cosette had awakened in him the meaning of love. The first few days were spent in this kind of self-satisfied state of mind. As for Cosette, she too was a different being on her part, which she did not realize, poor little thing!She was so young when her mother left her, she doesn't remember.Children seem to be the seedlings of the vine, and they cling to whatever they encounter. Like all children, she once wanted to love those around her.But she couldn't.Everyone, the Thenardiers, their children, the other children, pushed her aside.She once loved a dog, but the dog died.Nothing or anyone wanted her after that.How miserable it is to say, we have also pointed out that she was cold-hearted when she was eight years old.It's not her fault, she doesn't lack the instinct to love, all she lacks is the possibility of love.So, from the first day, her whole heart, even in her sleep, loved the old man.She had a feeling she had never had before, a feeling of exhilaration.

In her mind, the old man seemed to be a man who was neither old nor poor.Jean Valjean was as beautiful to her as she was to this poor house. This is the effect of vigor, childhood, youth, and joy.What is new on earth and in life also has an influence in this respect.Although the living room is humble, if it can be illuminated by happy colored lights, it will be an extremely beautiful environment.Each of us has had mirages in our past experiences. The difference of fifty years in age was a natural gulf between Jean Valjean and Cosette, but fate filled it up.Fate, with its irresistible force, suddenly kneaded these two homeless people of different ages and suffering the same.They can indeed complement each other.Cosette is looking for a father by instinct, and Jean Valjean is also looking for a child by instinct.Meeting by chance, they are like ducks in water.Their two hands, having touched for that mysterious instant, clasped together.After the two got to know each other, they both realized that they needed each other, so they bonded closely together.

Interpreted in the most obvious and absolute sense of certain words, we may say that Jean Valjean was a widower, as Cosette was an orphan, for they are both separated from the world by the walls of the grave.In this case, Jean Valjean was born to be Cosette's father. Moreover, once upon a time in the depths of the woods in Sierre, Jean Valjean walked out of the darkness holding Cosette's hand, and the mysterious impression Cosette got at that time was not an illusion, but a reality.The appearance of this man in the destiny of the child was indeed the presence of God. Besides, Jean Valjean had chosen a suitable lodging, where he seemed quite safe.

The one-room room in which he and Cosette lived was the one with the window facing the road.The only window in the whole house faces the street, so no matter from the side or the opposite side, you don't have to worry about the neighbors' peeping. The downstairs of houses No. 50-52 is a dilapidated open shed, where vegetable workers park their vehicles, and it is completely isolated from the upstairs.The upper and lower floors are separated by a wooden board, which seems to be the diaphragm of the house. There are neither hidden ladders nor open ladders.As for the upper floor, we have already said that there were several rooms and store-rooms, only one of which was occupied by an old woman who took care of Jean Valjean.The rest of the houses were completely unoccupied.

The old lady's title is "Second Landlord", but her actual task is to take care of the house. On Christmas Day, this old lady rented this house to him.He had introduced himself to her as a former interest-bearer who had wiped out his fortune with Spanish military debt and was coming to live here with his granddaughter.He paid six months' rent in advance, and commissioned the old woman to furnish the two rooms, the large and the small, as we have seen.This was the grandma who had fired the stove and prepared everything the night they moved in. Several weeks passed.The old and the young live a happy life in this humble and dilapidated house.

As soon as the day came, Cosette talked and laughed and sang non-stop.The children all have tunes they sing in the morning, just like the birds. Sometimes Jean Valjean would take her little hand, red and cracked with cold, and bring it to his lips for kisses.The poor boy, who was so used to being beaten, didn't know what it meant, and slipped away ashamed. Sometimes, she looked at her black clothes solemnly again.What Cosette wore now was no longer rags, but filial piety.She has escaped from suffering and entered into life. Jean Valjean began to teach her to read and write.Sometimes, as he taught the boy to spell, he thought that he had learned culture in the penal cell to do evil.The original motivation has changed, and now he wants to focus on teaching children to read.At this time, the face of the old convict showed a smile full of emotion, just like the solemn and wonderful appearance of an angel.

He felt that there was God's arrangement here, a kind of providence above human beings, and he was immersed in reverie again.Good thoughts are as unfathomable as evil thoughts. Teaching Cosette to read and letting her play is almost the whole life of Jean Valjean.Among other things, he talked to her about her mother and asked her to pray. She called him "Father" and didn't know what to call him. He would spend hours watching her dress and undress her doll, listening to her chatter.He seemed to feel that from now on, life would be full of meaning, and people in the world would be kind and just, and he would no longer need to blame anyone in his mind. Now that the child loves him, he can't find any reason not to ask to live to the end of his life. very old.He felt that Cosette, like a lamp, had illuminated his future days.Even the kindest people are bound to have thoughts for themselves.He sometimes thought with pleasure that she must be ugly in the future.

This is only a little personal opinion, but to illustrate our whole thought, we must say that Jean Valjean had nothing to prove that he did not need this new force to support him in continuing to stand. On the side of doing good.Not long ago, he saw the cruelty of human beings and the meanness of society in different situations (although this is a partial situation, which can only show one side of the truth), he also saw the end of such women represented by Fantine and the The right of the law embodied by Javert, when he returned to the penal cell for a good deed, he tasted new bitterness, he was again dominated by disgust and depression, and even the image of the bishop was inevitably dimmed. Although he was still bright and joyful afterwards, his image finally became more and more blurred.Who can say that Jean Valjean was no longer in danger of disappointment and degradation?He has something to love, and he can be strong again.well!He was not necessarily more stable than Cosette.He protects her, she strengthens him.With him, she can enter life, and with her, he can continue to do good.He is the pillar of the child, and the child is his driving force.The fate of the two must rely on each other to achieve balance. This kind of magical function is God's will, and it is unpredictable!