Chapter 14 Chapter Thirteen

This night, which lasted for more than an hour, Jia Boye was nervous all over his body, his throat was choked, and he paced around in the narrow cell alone.The cell was surrounded by thick stone walls, with only a small wooden door and a narrow ventilation hole for the rats to come and go freely.A fat-burning oil lamp hung from a smelly wooden barrel that had been used as a latrine, and straw mats were stacked against the wall. First, after sharing this filthy dark prison with two carpet merchants from Kadiz, a baker came, and two months ago, he changed to a strange monk, Bartholomew. The friar, despite his young age, was already bald, and his bald head was easily visible in the darkened cell.His eyes are like a misty morning mist, sometimes gray, sometimes light blue.

The middle finger and ring finger on his right hand are deformedly glued together, which seems to be a congenital defect.The same piece of skin twisted two fingers into one, which looked like a strange blessing gesture. The man doesn't talk much.He never complains, and has always been fearless. He was dragged out several times for interrogation, and it was not until one night that the guards had to carry him on their shoulders before returning him to the cell.That night he kept moaning, and the next morning he ignored Jia Boye's questions.Jia Boye didn't even know why he was put in prison, but it seemed that he was sent to the silent prison not on the grounds of confinement, but because of some strange moral problem.

Otherwise he was a good actor, one of those spies the judge put in prison to gather secrets from prisoners.Anyway, as long as a person steps into hell, anything can happen! However, Brother Bartholomew suddenly yelled harshly: "Stop walking around, Mr. Jia Boye! Go to sleep quietly, you will only waste your energy like this." Jia Boye was so frightened that he obediently obeyed.He quickly curled up in the straw mat, not daring to move.Afterwards, he guessed that Brother Bartholomew's clear eyes must still be staring at him, so he couldn't help murmuring: "I'm terrified! Tomorrow, they're going to execute me. I have no choice. I'm really scared to death."

The monk just nodded and didn't answer.Jia Boye was very grateful for his understanding, because no amount of comfort would only irritate him and make him feel ashamed. Damn it, why did he forget to destroy the note written by Mrs. Fang Sijia?Ever since he received that note that day, he felt that something was wrong! Suddenly, even though he didn't trust Bartolomeo, he still had the urge to confide in him.Who cares, even if this monk was arranged to approach him, he just wanted to talk to him anyway.Tell him the truth now, take the opportunity to confide the secret in your heart, and forget about it from now on!After forgetting everything completely, he will have the courage to keep silent tomorrow, when the torture instrument will tear his limbs apart...

"Fr. Bartholomew, listen to me! They're all wrong! They've made up things that don't exist. It's just a bunch of words, you understand? Love, ecstasy, intense zeal, freedom, tenderness, joy , have...some words! It's just some words, but unfortunately they will never believe me." "Actually, never." "But I can explain to them..." "You don't need to explain anything," the monk said flatly, calling Jia Boye "you" for the first time. "Don't say anything! Shout out the pain if you want, but don't say anything!"

Jia Boye trembled all over, and even heard his teeth chattering.He simply sat up, ready to continue talking. "I know that she has been tortured to extract a confession by them, so no matter what they accuse, she probably admits it-opposition to the Pope, betrayal of religion, Lutheran cult! Also admit that I was drinking and carousing with her..." "No, she didn't say anything, otherwise they wouldn't need to press you." "You think so? They want to hear from me that we used to be lovers... How funny!" "Aren't you?" "It's all groundless, I told you already."

"Ah, my friend! To them, rumors that are groundless are enough to be taken seriously..." An ambiguous conflict mingled with a little scary thought quietly surrounded them. "Tomorrow," Jia Boye resumed the topic, "when they crushed my thumb, burned my foot, and pierced my palm..." "Don't forget that there are tortures such as quartering the body by five horses and glueing the wound!" There was a gleam in the monk's eyes, which made Jia Boye grin.For a second, he forgot the fear that was suffocating him.Brother Bartholomew smiled back at him, then put his cold hand on Jia Boye's sweat-soaked wrist and said:

"Stop thinking about it, Mr. Jia Boye. Anyway, every tomorrow is a day that makes people worry about being sent to the execution ground." "You know that very well, don't you?" "I understand." "and also……" Brother Bartholomew removed his hand from Jia Boye's wrist.He looked at the four walls of the prison in a daze, and the blood vessels in his neck were dilated.He rubbed the two deformed fingers mechanically. "You never know what's going to happen until they put torture equipment or burning coals in front of you," he finally said. "Yes, at that moment you will suddenly understand!"

"You mean?" Bartolomeo stopped talking, and a faint smile appeared on his young and wise face.He raised the two connected fingers to Jia Boye and said: "Keep silent, brother. Take a good rest now!" He was dreaming that the door of the cell suddenly became a shutter.But what came through the threshold of the cell was neither freedom nor sunshine, but a swarm of slimy and slippery poisonous snakes, like a swimming river of constrictors, they devoured him, wrapped around his neck, and pulled him feet... He woke up screaming.He was no longer dreaming, and the jailer was indeed unchaining his ankles.

"Hey! It's time to wake up!" said a bald police officer. Jia Boye watched the iron chain being removed, and asked stupidly: "It's time?" "It should be. Let's go, stand up!" "Where are you taking me?" "You don't know?" In the darkness, Bartolomeo looked at him brightly.Unfortunately, before the two parties had time to exchange a gesture or say a word, he was pushed up the stairs and passed through several corridors. A few minutes later, he was inexplicably brought to the guard post of the prison gate.The few guards there didn't care about his life or death at all!One of the guards with black hair and dark skin turned the lock, and the small iron gate of the guards was opened in response. On the other side of the gate, the white dawn light appeared on the square.

What a strange sight!He was pushed forward again.He staggered against the threshold, scratching his toes on the protruding stones.When he looked back, he saw the door being closed behind him.Now he stands alone outside the prison gate, in the great square of Rosallo.His feet and hands were no longer bound, and all he could see was the endless blue sky! He muttered to himself: "That is to say..." He couldn't believe it, he didn't even dare to say that word!Now even he himself doubts the meaning of that word! A dog trots past him before urinating nonchalantly by the prison gate.Afterwards, the puppy walked across the plaza, all the way to the slopes of Rosario.Jia Boye looked at it all the way and found a double carriage parked in the square.It was a silver and black luxury four-wheeled carriage with a gleaming body and a very familiar emblem on the door. He was dumbfounded. The Marquis de Talavera's carriage...his father's carriage! The car door was ajar, and a gloved hand greeted him.The footman on the coachman's seat was also staring at him. Although full of doubts, Jia Boye still walked across the square.The cold stones on the ground stung his bare feet bit by bit.As he approached the carriage, a familiar voice said to him: "Get in the car, fool! Do you want the whole town to see you now?" He did as he was told, as he was used to being told.As soon as he sat down, the carriage started immediately. The sumptuous carriage and his father's gorgeous Segovian tunic made him suddenly aware of who he was.The tight black trousers on his body were now covered with gray dust, and a large piece of the shirt underneath was protruding from the hole in the tuxedo.The socks on the feet were torn from the bottom to the knees, and the prison guards had taken over the riding boots on the pretext that the handcuffs would wear the leather. The Marquis continued the topic just now.He rolled his two small black eyes with disdain, then pointed with a gloved finger to a package on the seat, and said: "Damn it, you stink! . . . Here are some clean clothes, put on at once . . . Ah! You stink!" Jia Boye deliberately made a funny expression of worship: "I'm sorry, Marquis." "You should apologize to me! Apologize for all the stupid things you have done. I spent three thousand and two hundred ducatos to bail you out! That is the tax of Almeria's one-year lease. All because of Your nonsense and that bitch!" "Marquis, I..." There was a jolt, and the Marquis's hat shook, but his hands clapped loudly. "No, no! Don't open your mouth, sir! I don't want to hear a word from you! That's the end of it. For my dignity, I have taken care of you until now; for my dignity, I have admitted you to the academy. And you From the beginning to the end, under my name, I have been with those lunatics and heretics! Damn it! The Marquis de Taravija is suspected of betraying the faith because his illegitimate son is associated with Lutherans!... Three thousand taels Baeducato! My groveling, begging, shameful promises, fear and hiding for two months to clear my bad record with the Inquisition is the price you make me pay! It's all over, all over. I promise the Lord Chancellor that you'll never be seen again. I promise I'll send you away as easily as I sent you into this world..." The Marquis took out a letter with the official seal from his coat pocket, handed it to him like a dead mouse, and said: "There are some documents in it to work in a Dominican monastery in Nepal. The last bit of my religious conscience wants me to leave you a future! Remember to never mention my name again! A lawyer has already removed your name from Excluded from all my files..." "Abandoned, isn't it?" Jia Boye muttered. "Like dumping a whore." He was breathing heavily, and his scream was full of fear.He screamed wildly to stop the car, and when the carriage stopped, he snatched the letter still in his father's hand, tore it into pieces, threw it on the seat, and threw a few words heavily: "Marquis, you always thought that I was just a stumbling block to you! ... Anyway, I never got your real love, and I don't need your love anymore. I was abandoned by you, and I will abandon you now; I was abandoned by you I despise you, I despise you now, I hate you. I wish I never had to bear your last name! I am glad to be able to tell you that one day you will hear my name." The Marquis's mouth opened and then closed like a fish thrown out of the water.Jia Boye jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut.The coachman, reins in hand, hesitated.After that, there was the sound of a cane knocking on the window, and the car staggered on the road. At this time, the door was opened again, and a pile of clothes was thrown on the ground. Although Jia Boye had a sneer on his face, his heart was already as disheartened as a walking dead.His heart was beating hard.After the car was far away, he hiccupped continuously.He hurried forward a few steps and leaned against a wall, but his throat couldn't help but choked up. His limbs trembled and his feet were weak, like a person about to die. He knelt down on the ground, ignoring the strange eyes of passers-by on the street in the early morning.