Chapter 26
Mrs. Bernhardt's request was so reasonable that it was impossible to refuse, and Verlaine never expected that he would one day be tricked by his own actions.
Given his usual behavior in front of others, Verlaine knew that if he refused to teach French at this moment, it would seem extremely unusual.
If such a detail leads to mission failure and tarnishes his career, it would be a disgrace that Verlaine would absolutely refuse to accept.
"As you wish, madam."
Verlaine smiled gently, his handsome features radiating politeness. “Since doing this will also help our new neighbors adapt to life in this country as quickly as possible, I have no reason to refuse this unexpected new job.”
Ye Yihe, holding the soup spoon: "…………"
Just kidding, Verlaine was clearly extremely dissatisfied, to the point that he even wanted to kill him in the middle of the night.
“Okay, okay, I knew you would agree, Paul.”
Grandma Bernhardt was delighted. "There's one more thing," she said. "My son will be bringing his family over for dinner next weekend. I'd like to invite you all to join us."
Speaking of her son, Ye Yihe recalled that at the bank, Bernhardt's mother had easily obtained the power to keep the incident secret from the public simply by giving her son's name.
It must be a high-ranking government official, perhaps with ties to the military.
After all, he remembered that France was a semi-presidential, semi-parliamentary country where many regimes were intertwined. To possess such influence, even extending to one's own family, meant one was essentially at the very top of the power pyramid, and one had to hold real power.
When it comes to real power, nothing is greater than the armed forces.
Is it really asking too much of him, someone who has only been in the country for less than a day and doesn't speak French at all, to contact such a high-ranking official in the government?
Ye Yihe sipped his soup and thought to himself.
Perhaps he really needs to call in Ivan's good friend as a temporary replacement, even if it's just to be his mouth mouth for now.
Is it to celebrate Grandmother's Day?
As expected of a local, Verlaine succinctly revealed the reason for the weekend gathering.
Grandmother's Day is the first Sunday of March each year. As the name suggests, it is a wonderful day for younger family members to offer their blessings to their grandmothers.
Of course, what made Grandma Bernhardt even happier was that everyone could join her in enjoying a sumptuous and delicious meal.
“He is truly a child you raised,” Verlaine continued with a smile. “He will always love you so much, even when he himself has become an elder.”
"To me, it's like fallen leaves voluntarily offering their future to the roots. It's a long-lasting, stable, and enviable deep family bond."
Ye Yihe felt the phrase was a bit strange the more he listened, but perhaps he didn't understand the local French customs... Maybe it was actually a slang term, like how in English they would use "rain cats and dogs" to describe a torrential downpour, which sounds rather cute.
Grandma Bernhardt beamed with delight at the kind compliments. "He's always like that. Although he's not good with words, he values his relationships with his family very much."
Seeing that Ye Yihe was silently drinking his soup, she reached out and patted his forearm to comfort him.
"Don't be nervous. Sartre is someone I watched grow up. He's a good kid just like you."
Ye Yihe thought to himself that if he were like him, then he wouldn't be considered a good child... His grandmother's "good child" filter was really thick, and it even affected him.
After saying that, Bernhardt turned to Verlaine and said, "Didn't Paul only meet him once? He's just been too busy lately to come. Who would have thought that there would be even more things to deal with after the war ended?"
Verlaine maintained the slight curve of his lips and nodded in agreement with her words.
Knowing beforehand that he was the original owner's colleague, Ye Yihe subconsciously harbored some suspicions about his every move.
There's nothing else to it, I just feel like he has ill intentions.
Speaking of the organization the original owner used to belong to, they actually kidnapped him later, which is outrageous.
"It is an honor to participate in such a grand and private family gathering."
Verlaine sat at the table, but still gave a very polite bow.
Ye Yihe naturally nodded in agreement; he couldn't possibly spoil Bernhardt's mood.
The first dinner in France came to an end, and Ye Yihe was delighted to have a French teacher.
Although he actually wanted a safer French teacher, in every sense of the word.
At the same time, he greatly admired Verlaine's acting skills—this person could actually teach him French without batting an eye, even knowing that the original owner was fluent in French!
And she teaches really well!
"Based on your situation, I've created this crash course schedule for learning French,"
Verlaine smiled and pinned a piece of white paper covered in writing to the wall with thumbtacks.
"Please keep up the good work, Mr. Dostoevsky. I would be very disappointed if you acted too foolishly."
Ye Yihe: "…………"
They even dared to provoke him indirectly, which would make him want to punch them hard.
But considering the other party's excellent teaching level, Ye Yihe merely narrowed his eyes slightly, revealing a hint of sharpness in his eyes.
Even if he can't speak, he can still provoke back.
Ye Yihe was almost certain that the other party had come to this apartment for a specific purpose.
Before that, he could not reveal his true identity in advance and had to always play the persona he had carefully created for himself: elegant, gentle, and considerate.
Since Ye Yihe himself was also trying to play the role of the original owner based on fragments of information, he inexplicably felt that Verlaine was also playing someone else—because some of his actions did not seem to be based on "how he should do it if it were this person", but rather "how he would do it if it were him".
But these were just some divergent thoughts he had during a short break while studying French diligently, when his mind was blank, and he had no intention of investigating them further.
To reiterate, he lacks curiosity about many things.
With less than two weeks until the family gathering, his top priority right now is to learn French.
Although, in Verlaine's view, it was probably just two colleagues accidentally bumping into each other at the same planned location, and then a teacher who wasn't actually a teacher was teaching a student who was actually fluent in French but pretended to be illiterate how to quickly master French... highlighting a French version of spy play.
It's amazing that he teaches so diligently.
Ye Yihe turned to the next page of the textbook and continued taking notes while listening.
The other person might also be marveling at how he managed to convincingly portray himself as a French illiterate.
In short, we have to thank Fyodor for his sharp mind; he has never memorized things so quickly before, and he even feels that this is not the limit.
The clock on the first floor struck five long times, and Verlaine, who never went overtime, stopped writing on time, and Ye Yihe also closed his textbook.
"Thank you for listening, Mr. Dostoevsky."
"Thank you for your teaching, Professor Verlaine."
Ye Yihe and Verlaine exchanged polite farewells and tacitly completed the final step of the lecture.
After Verlaine left, Ye Yihe also went out to buy today's groceries.
The dinner on the first day was specially invited by Bernhardt's grandmother. In fact, each apartment has its own kitchen, so they don't usually eat together.
However, besides shopping, Ye Yihe also needs to meet someone today.
…………
When the appointed weekend arrived, Bernhardt's son, Sartre Bernhardt, drove up in a discreet black car to visit her, without any bodyguards accompanying him.
In his words, "I didn't want those boring guys to be in such a cozy place, so I sent them to keep watch in a more distant area."
His wife is also very beautiful. Ye Yihe has recently been learning to listen by watching the news, and he can recognize that she often appears in various interviews, and seems to be a successful speaker herself.
"Are these the two you mentioned to me before?"
At the dinner table, Sartre Bernhardt looked closely at Yeikh and Verlaine and greeted them politely; he also expressed his special thanks to Yeikh for standing up during the bank robbery and stopping the robbers from assaulting his mother.
"You all have stunningly beautiful looks, and girls will be head over heels for you, lads, but remember to be gentlemen."
He casually made a compliment at the end, then continued chatting with his mother about other interesting things.
It's understandable that Sartre Bernhardt wasn't very enthusiastic towards them, since they had never met before and had nothing to talk about.
His son, however, was interested in Ye Yihe's fluffy cloak and hat, reaching out his little hands towards it several times. Ye Yihe then gave him a corner of the cloak to play with.
"Speaking of the bank robbery you unfortunately experienced before,"
Sartre Bernhardt seemed to only then notice them again, and took the initiative to bring up the topic, saying, "We learned their identities and purposes."
"Is it to see Pascal Monuri?" Grandma Bernhardt recalled the name. "I heard he made a bad decision."
“A premeditated war crime trap. I had told him long ago that he shouldn’t do this, but he issued the order without authorization.”
Sartre Bernhardt sighed, “While I was trying to exonerate them, they were also fighting in their own way—even though I’m angry that you were implicated, I can still understand why they did it.”
Only then did Ye Yihe finally learn the whole story. The bank robbers' goal was not money or power, but rather a fight for their own innocence.
Before the war ended, the bandits were also members of the army, led by a highly capable officer who was also a person with supernatural abilities.
They obeyed the orders from headquarters to go into battle and successfully captured the enemy's fortress. However, amidst their joy, they learned that their country had already signed a peace treaty with the enemy, and they were labeled as traitors who had committed war crimes, losing the honor of soldiers who had fought to defend their homeland.
Even after breaking out of the encirclement by friendly forces, this 40-man unit had no way to appeal. The state had completely abandoned them and cut off any channels of resistance.
"I think their desperate decision to rob a bank and use hostages as leverage in negotiations with the government was because they were forced into a corner."
Sartre Bernhardt said, "They must have somehow smuggled themselves into France, since they're still wanted... Well, I heard they're now a mercenary group roaming Europe, apparently called [Mimic]."
"But this is also an opportunity for me. It's almost time for the leadership transition, and we're planning to release the truth about this matter, which will definitely bring them severe public pressure and negative approval ratings."
In this ruthless power struggle at the top, the robbers are nothing more than yet another political victim.
Unlike Yeikh, who was not fluent in French and therefore taciturn, Verlaine did not say anything throughout the meal, but simply listened with a smile and offered no opinion.
As night fell, Sartre Bernhardt said goodbye to his mother at the door after the party, preparing to drive back to his residence.
Ye Yihe, who had been keeping a close eye on Verlaine's movements, immediately noticed that he was missing.
In other words, he finally took action.
Was the target actually Sartre Bernhardt...?
Ye Yihe stood on the roadside not far from the door, his brows furrowed in thought.
Although she wasn't sure if the good deed she was about to do was related to the other person, she couldn't let Verlaine kill him, otherwise Bernhardt's mother would be heartbroken.
The thick clouds tonight not only blocked the moonlight, but also made the streetlights in front of us appear particularly dim, not to mention that several of them were broken along the way.
He had neither the ability to track nor the stamina to travel, so it was impossible for him to catch up with Verlaine, who had already disappeared—perhaps the other party shared the same thought, which was why he chose to suddenly shake him off at this moment.
"It's your turn to step in,"
Yeikh spoke to the empty street, but in Russian.
"Stop him."
—A faint sound of gravel vibrating suddenly arose on the flat land on both sides.
"Ah, my respected master, you have finally granted me permission to offer you everything I have..."
With an operatic rhythm, yet speaking slowly and softly, it was as if a believer was uttering a joyful murmur for a miracle.
Countless stones were invisibly drawn together and eventually transformed into a tall and slender figure under the night sky, with long, silver hair as soft as moonlight reaching her waist.
"The earth is my domain."
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