Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven

It was a sunny day when Bray Farah went to the Recht homestead, but a gust of wind kept blowing the leaves away, so although the sun was strong and the air was fresh, there was still a faint sense of uneasiness that the wind and rain were coming. "The sun is too strong!" Bitui sat at the window and looked out, thinking to herself: "It's better not to rain at night." This is an example that Bitui often uses to warn children who play too much, "extreme joy begets sorrow".But at least Bert could come home in bright sunshine. She had already planned the scene of his return in her heart.Considering all aspects, it is best not to be too extravagant.

Someone had to pick him up at the train station, and the family would have lunch with him.The question was: who was going to fetch him? The twins thought the whole family should go, but of course that was impossible.If it disturbs the staff at the station and the passengers passing by, it will cause gossip instead.If she goes, it will inevitably make people think that she is protecting him-this situation is best avoided.She didn't forget what Simon said intentionally or unintentionally-she had "bought that person's account".Even the most suitable man to fetch him—Simon—was unlikely to go; in fact, since hearing the news that Bert was coming back, he had been away almost all day, and had not participated in any family activities except when he came back to sleep. activity.Until Monday night, Beatrice tried to find an opportunity to talk to him in his room, but to no avail.

So when Elaine offered to drive the four miles to pick up Bert at the train station, her burden was relieved. Now, another burden on her mind is: how to arrange lunch when Bert comes back.If Simon didn't show up, how should it be explained? If he was present, what would the lunch look like? The cook is here—the maid, Lina, is the daughter of a family in the village, and she's only here to help because her boyfriend works in the stables. She would sweep and dust, but she would never serve them meals. Beati also told her honestly: As long as she is alive, she will not be allowed to touch their dishes.

But this girl was also very able to justify herself. Her argument was: In fact, the Yashubie family didn't need anyone to serve and eat, they always did everything by themselves. Lina is looking for trouble again.This time her problem was: "The vacuum cleaner spits things out instead of swallowing them." Little things like this have become commonplace.But this incident brought Bitui back to reality from layers of thoughts. She saw Eileen preparing to start her two-seater car. "Don't you drive?" she asked Eileen.The "car" in their family's population refers to the big car, and the car Ailian is driving at the moment is called "Little Golden Turtle".

Beatrice noticed that Eileen didn't even change her clothes, but set out on the road in the same clothes she had trained the horses in the morning. "Take me! Take me!" Ruth was coquettish beside the car, but she was careful not to let the dust of the car get on her blue dress. "No," Eileen flatly refused. "I'm sure he'd love me to pick him up." "No. If you don't want to stain your pretty clothes, you'd better stand away." "I don't think Eileen is selfish." Ruth said, watching the car go farther and farther along the path lined with linden trees, dusting her hands and saying, "She just wants to be alone and enjoy seeing Bert's excitement."

Beati had to deal with her: "Don't think too much, that's how they arranged, you and Jenny just want to stay at home and wait for Bert to come back. By the way, where is Jenny?" "Probably in the stables. I don't think she's interested in Bert." "Hope she'll be back in time for lunch." "She will. She may not be interested in Bert, but in eating. Will Simon be back for lunch?" "Hopefully." "What do you think he'll say to Bert?" If Reichett's peace and happiness could not last any longer after that, the twins had better go away to school--and they would be away in a year or two, anyway.If the house is going to be full of tension and hatred starting today, they might as well leave now.Bitui thought in a daze.

"Do you think Bert will have a good show when he comes back?" Ruth asked expectantly. "Of course not, and you'd better not dramatize things." She really hoped nothing would happen.Aileen on the road also hopes that things will go on peacefully and smoothly.She was a little nervous about seeing this long-lost brother, but she was inexplicable about her own nervousness. She's wearing a house dress as a cover for her excitement - pretending it's nothing out of the ordinary. Gus Railway Station is located in the middle of three villages. Although there are a lot of cargo unloading, there are not many passengers.So when Bo came to get off the train, not many people noticed him.Except for a village woman, a porter, a ticket collector and Eileen.

"Hi," Eileen greeted, "You and Simon look alike." Then shook hands with him.He noticed that she wasn't wearing make-up, and that she had a faint layer of freckles down the middle and sides of her nose. "Eileen," he called her when he recognized her. "Yes, do you have a lot of luggage? My car is not big, but it can hold it." "That's all." He raised the things in his hand. "Are the others coming later?" "No, that's all I have." "Really?" She smiled slightly: "I haven't saved anything." He started to like her.

"The car is parked outside the station, let's go from here." "Going out? Mr. Asybe?" the ticket collector greeted him while collecting his ticket stub. "Yeah, I've been out for a while." As soon as the words fell, the ticket collector looked up at him in surprise. "He thought you were Simon," Elaine told him, with a fitting smile, as they got into the car.Her two front teeth overlapped a bit, giving her face a childish look.But when she got serious, she had a calm and determined face: "The timing of your coming home is too suitable—"

She is to Bo. "Home," he chewed on the word.Eileen's hair was the color of corn--a pastel shade that is ripe and white, and very thin, pulled back and tied in a bun, as if she didn't want to work on it at all. "The flowers are blooming one by one, and the first ponies in the family are all born," Eileen continued.The knees under the frayed breeches looked like a boy's, but the arms protruding from the coat that fell over the shoulders were quite delicate and round. "'Honey' gave birth to a very lively pony. It will be a big thing in the future. You can go back and see. Of course, you don't know Honey yet. She came after you left. Her real name is 'Greek Honey.' She was born to 'Hemid' and her daddy was called 'Jam Money.' Hope you like these horses."

"That's for sure," he said. "Aunt Beatrice said you're still interested in them--I mean right." "But I don't have much experience in horse breeding. I just take care of the horses so that they can work." As they talked, they arrived at their village. This is Carlisle.This is the village represented by the small square on that map.This is the Huaihai Bar, that is the Bell Bar, and a little further behind, on the top of the hill stands the church with the stone tablets of the Asybe family. "The village looks good, doesn't it?" Elaine said. "It doesn't seem to have changed at all in my memory. It seems to have been like this since Noah's Ark. The nameplates hanging in front of the houses seem to have been there for centuries. That's right. Well, of course you know that I treat you as a guest." He knew that beyond the village was Carlisle's house.With curious anticipation, he wanted to know what Lodin's homeland looked like.When I arrived, I saw that there were wavy iron railings in front of it, and two huge pillars, each with a lion sitting on it.A little boy clad in crocodile skin climbed on the post a little farther away. "You see, be safe," said Eileen. "It's very comforting." "Did you know that Carlisle's house is now a school?" He almost said that he knew, but suddenly remembered that this was only information provided by Lodin, and he should not have known. "which school? " "A school for deserters." "A deserter?" "Yeah. It's for kids who don't want to go to school and whose parents have money. No one here will force them to go to school. They don't even have to memorize the nine-nine multiplication table. Their theory is that one day when you find it important, you will naturally Will go back. Of course, that's not the case at all. " "no? " "Of course not. No one who knows how to recite the multiplication of ninety-nine does so voluntarily." "If they don't do their homework, what are they doing all day?" "It's about using their natural talents. It's actually drawing pictures, making things, or painting houses, or pretending to be various characters, like Tony just saw. I taught some of them to ride horses. They I like it, I mean, I like riding horses. I think they think everything is too easy here, and if there are some harder things for them to do, they will not be too bored. Of course, these harder things have to be done. It’s unusual. If it’s something that everyone has to overcome, they’re not interested. They’ll feel like they’re just like everyone else, and that doesn’t make them special.” "interesting." "Anyway, it's very helpful to Reichett's economy, why not do it. Hey, Reichett is here." Bolai's heart almost jumped to his throat.Eileen slowly drove the car up the driveway lined with linden trees.Before long, a huge blue butterfly rushed over from behind the tree and danced in front of the car—fortunately, the car was not going fast. "Hah! Hah!" Blue Butterfly yelled, dancing towards Bolai's car seat. "Fool!" Eileen yelled, "Damn you! Don't you know that the driver is driving in the sun and can't see clearly?" "Hah! Hah! Bert! It's me! Ruth. How are you? I've come specifically to ride with you. Ride home. May I sit on your lap? Eileen's car is too small, I don't want to squeeze my clothes. I hope you like my clothes, which are specially made for you to wear when you come home. You look good, don't you? Am I who you think I am?" She waited for Bo Lai to answer, but Bo Lai could only hesitate and say that he hadn't thought about it yet. "Oh," Ruth was quite disappointed: "We've been thinking about you, and everyone has been talking about you these days." There was a trace of resentment in her tone. "Really?" Bo said, "If you have been away from home for several years, of course people will talk about you like that." "I wouldn't even dream of doing something so lawless," said Ruth reproachfully. "Where did you learn that word?" Eileen asked. "It's an idiom, Reverend Peck taught me." Bo came to think that maybe he should take this opportunity to ask casually: "By the way, how are the Peck family?" But at this time he was not in such a mood—he was focused on waiting to see Recht at the end of the road . That's when he'll come face to face with his "twin brother." "Simon hasn't come back yet," he heard Ruth say, and caught a glimpse of her squinting at Eileen—a look that was worse than her words, and made his heart skip a beat. That said, Simon wasn't waiting for him at the door — Simon was still "out there," and his family was upset about the whole thing.Lodin had told him not to expect a long line of relatives waiting to greet him at Lychte, nor to expect a line of waiters and maids to wait on him.Lodin also told him that Rechter had never used a servant to serve meals.And he also knew that there were not many relatives in this family.The fathers of these children were the only sons in the family, with only one younger sister, Aunt Beetui.Their mother was an only child and had two brothers, but both of these brothers were killed by the Germans before they were twenty years old.Uncle Charlie is the only next of kin in the Assybie family. According to Lodin, he now lives in the Singapore area. Even so, he didn't expect that anyone from the Asybe family would not be waiting for him here-someone must be unhappy with him.The joy when seeing Ailian just now turned out to be just an illusion.Now he is riding a tiger. The car came to the spacious vestibule through the narrow path.The Reichett house stood in the too-bright sun, so quiet, so friendly, so sure of itself.The original architectural format has been transformed by successive dynasties of the Asybe family, making it more contemporary.The house sits in front of a green lawn and does not need a lively garden to adorn it at all. Ailian slid the car to the front of the house, and Bolai saw Beicui walking out of the door, and he felt a sudden nervousness.He had an urge to tell everything frankly before his two feet set foot on the doorstep, and to get away from it.The future is so difficult, he doesn't know how to continue acting.It was Ruth who relieved him at that moment.Before the car came to a complete stop, she couldn't wait to jump out of the car, proudly announcing to the world that she regarded Bo's coming home as a great achievement for her. ''Aunt Beatrice, I see him at last! I see him! I come up with them from the gate. You don't hate me, do you? I just walk up to the gate, I walk up there, I see their car coming, I walk through it, and they let me in, and that's it, I finally see him!" She slipped her arm into Beau's and dragged him out of the car like he was her hunted animal.Under such circumstances, Bolai and Bitui met in Carlisle.At that moment, because they felt this childish interest, their hearts were brought closer.After this interesting situation passed, so did the awkwardness of the initial meeting. At this moment, another incident came in.Jenny rode past the house on a four-poster and was on her way to the stables.She saw a crowd in front of the house, and glanced involuntarily at the rein in her hand, which proved that she did not want to be among them.But it was too late to back off now.As soon as the four pillars saw something they were interested in, they had to look forward to see what happened.In this way, the curious pony led the hesitant Jenny to the group. When the horse stopped, Jenny slid down politely, a little defensively.When Beicui introduced her, she put her small and soft hand in Bolai's, and then withdrew it all at once. "What's your pony's name?" Beau asked, feeling a bit of her hostility too. "It's called a four-post," Ruth helped her. "The vicar called it a 'horse-like cart.'" Bolai held out his hand to the pony, who took a step back and looked down at its Roman nose to show that it didn't appreciate it. "He's a star." Bo said, Bitui smiled. "He doesn't like people," said Jenny, partly belittling herself and partly defending her friend.But Bolai continued to stretch out his hand, and at this moment Sizhuzi's curiosity overcame its defenses, and its head lowered, touching Bolai's waiting hand.Bolai played with it for a while. "Look," said Ruth, "it's never been so nice to anybody!" Bolai looked at Sizhuzi's small face. "I think it's just as good for Jenny when there's no one else around." "Jenny, it's time to wash your hands and face and get ready to eat." Beati said, leading the way to the house.Bolai followed her and walked across the threshold.