The baron shook his head and looked at the flames in front of him. He suddenly looked much older:
"My mother never told James that the man she was engaged to was also named Cumming, so James knew nothing about it. As for my mother, she probably guessed something before I was born, but because of love, she didn't want to accept the reality.
So I pretended not to know.
Her mother's early death was probably related to the speculation that she didn't want to pay attention to the future. In addition, she was unable to contact her father again. In the end, her heart died, and she died of anxiety and longing.
So in our family's fifty-year story, among all the participants in this tragedy and comedy, I know everything best."
Shade looked at him curiously:
"But I still don't understand, what does this have to do with when you were young and went to 1809 to steal your one-year-old wife?"
"It took me, at the age of 23, more than half a year to read my mother's diary and figure out what happened. At that time, I almost went crazy, and even wanted to regard the diary and the book as evidence of my mother's madness.
After all, my mother was indeed mentally disturbed when she was alive."
He took a deep breath, trying to stop himself from being so excited:
"I read a lot of books and searched for a lot of information during that time, and then I realized one thing: many things that have not happened in the future have jointly caused me to be who I am at that time. But once some things in the future do not
happens, then I cease to exist.”
He paused, and then asked Shade seriously:
"Do you get me?"
Shade nodded slightly:
"Understood, normally the [past] determines the [present]. But because your family's affairs involve time travel, for you the [future] determines the [past] and [the present]."
The baron exhaled a breath of white air and picked up the teacup given by the hermit monks just now:
"I never thought about changing the past. When I was young at that time, I just thought that I must exist and what should happen must happen.
It took me a long time to sort out everything that happened in the past and future, and the occasional voices in that book, which I guess came from other times, allowed me to further complete the story from my mother to me.
The entire experience of three generations of my family up to my son, including the origin of my wife.
Later I found out that I was speaking near that book in 1850."
He looked at Shade:
"The only thing I didn't figure out when I was young was who James' father was. It seemed that the previous holders of this book didn't figure it out. But at least I knew the origin of my wife, and I knew that James must get it.
to this book. It is a necessary condition for 'I am me'."
“So, was it really you who gave ‘Opening the Woods: Our Animal Companions’ to James Cumming?”
"I didn't give it away, I just let him find it. I didn't give him any hints. He discovered the function of the book on his own, and he also contacted his mother who lived in the 1800s."
The Baron took a deep breath again and looked at Shade in the snow:
"So the answer is this, I can't be sure who stole my wife. But if she didn't become my wife, if she didn't become a baroness, then James would not have been born, and then the mother Erica would not have been born.
Had I known James across time, I would never have been born."
Shade and Owl both understood:
"Did you do this yourself for you or you?"
"Yes, although I am not familiar with Ximu Town and the farm where her real parents live, I successfully brought out the child after only one attempt.
Although I was able to determine the address of her real family, I was not sure about the schedule of her adoptive parents that day. I had already thought about waiting for a long time before I found the opportunity to send the child away, but in the afternoon when I took the child away
, I met the timber merchant couple in the forest."
At this point, everything was closed, and Shade could even think of the expression on the young Kane Cumming's face when he saw the timber merchant riding a horse-drawn carriage in the forest, holding a baby.
And Baron Cumming has his own thoughts to say:
"I'm not a magician like you, I'm just an ordinary person. When I took her away, I thought it was fate that arranged three generations of our family. But when I watched her being adopted, I suddenly understood that my
Existence itself proves that I must do this.
Just like I said when I told you the beginning of this story, this story spanning fifty years is a circle, and all beginnings are endings, and all endings are beginnings.”
"No, the beginning of everything was when Erica got the book. The end of everything was when James Cumming lost the book and cut off contact with Erica."
Shade corrected, still savoring the story carefully in his heart.
Compared with what Outlander has experienced before, the story of the three generations of the Cumming family is more complicated. Two time travels, that is, James Cumming made Erica pregnant, and Baron Cumming stole the baby, together they completed this fifty-year journey.
cycle.
For the Baron, this is indeed a circle. The fate of three generations keeps wandering in this cycle. Only people outside the story like Shade are qualified to say "beginning" and "end".
The most bizarre thing about this story is that there is no pure bad guy in it, but everyone did something wrong.
The love between two young people across time is not immoral, but it is just immoral and despised. After all, they both have their own marriages; Baron Cumming made a big mistake of stealing a baby, but since he exists, then this matter
Things are bound to happen, and it can even be said that he took the initiative to maintain the stability of time.
??????55.??????
Therefore, neither Shade nor Miss Winslet knew how to evaluate all of this. Absurd but very reasonable, taboo but if you think about it carefully, everything is voluntary.
Snowflakes fell from the top of the head, and the sound of the round-faced owl on the shoulders shaking its body broke the silence of this moment:
"According to what you just said, when you married your wife, did you actually know that she was actually your grandmother?"
The Baroness gave birth to James Cumming, and James Cumming traveled through time and gave birth to the current Baron with Erica, so this title is correct.
The baron nodded silently.
"So when you married her, you knew that she would definitely give birth to someone else's child?"
Shade asked again, trying not to let any pity appear in his tone. He actually didn't really want to ask this kind of question. This matter would tear a wound from the other person's body, but he had to ask for the truth.
The Baron did not nod this time, but said in a hoarse voice:
"I thought at that time, if James was my biological son, and then my biological son gave birth to me, then it would actually be nothing, but then I met them."
He looked at the hermits:
"They told me some basic common sense about time travel. If I am James's father, and James is my father, then our paternal bloodline is equivalent to arising out of thin air. This level of paradox is not something ordinary people can create, so James
My wife gave birth to me in an affair, and she still thinks I don’t know about it.”
Shade is now envious of the owl on her shoulder, because she can care less about her expression, but Shade must not show more pity:
"I'm sorry to hear that."
The baron shook his head:
"Don't be sorry, because she also doesn't know that I also have illegitimate children outside, two sons and a daughter. I only made up my mind to do this after I knew that James could not be my son. After all, I have to do it no matter what.
Leave your own descendants. Although in terms of blood, James and I actually have nothing to do with the blood of the Cumming family."
The sad man looked up at the falling snow. Even by the bonfire, the snow had already dyed his shoulders white:
"Besides, I don't want to leave any descendants with her. The relationship between her bloodline and mine is very complicated. I want my descendants to get rid of this."
At this time, Shade even admired the ordinary man who was shivering with cold in front of him. As an ordinary person, Baron Cumming had extraordinary thoughts, thoughts and actions. He did do something wrong, but all this was wrong.
It's really not his fault.
The time loop was completed, there was no embarrassment for other parties involved in the matter, and he himself realized his wish. Even if the outsider did not appear here, he had already achieved a result that everyone could be satisfied with by his own hands.
"So you see, sir, you don't have to give me a hard time. It's over. Even if you want the book, just go back to 1854 and take it. I've done everything I can do and it's over."
, it’s all over.”
The baron showed a sad smile, shook his head and looked at the flame again.
Shade heard what he meant:
"So, Erica Cumming is pregnant?"
"Yes. If they can meet again next time, mother will tell James about it. So actually it doesn't matter whether they meet or not. My age has reached the end of all things. If you don't find me, I will
I will find an opportunity to get rid of that book."
Shade touched the owl again:
"Where on earth did your mother get this book?"
The baron shook his head:
"It's not written in the diary, and I haven't found any clues. But I probably bought it from a bookstore. I have researched this book. It is a very common book in this era. It is now available in bookstores in the town.
Sell."
“So who is James Cumming’s biological father?”
Shade asked again. This question was actually not very important. After all, this man was not involved in this fifty-year cycle. He was just having an affair with the Baroness, but Shade was still curious.
The baron still shook his head:
"If I wanted to investigate, with my status and financial resources, I would definitely be able to find some private investigators, but I didn't do that.
So what if we find out? I can't not love James, after all, we are indeed the closest blood relationship. My wife betrayed me, but she gave birth to James after all, and I also have an illegitimate child. So I shouldn't know
If I know who it is, I will have other ideas."
He laughed self-deprecatingly:
"I have experienced too many things in the first half of my life. I understand very well that the less I know, the happier and safer I am. It is only when I know too much that I become what I am now. If I had not discovered my mother back then,
For those relics left behind, time will actually complete the closed loop in other ways. This is also a very dangerous idea. I can't think about 'what if I didn't have it'."
What he said at the moment, "the less you know, the safer" is also the consensus of the ring magicians, and Shade understands his thoughts.
PS: Additional update 3/3. Turn back and there is another chapter, it is a normal update this morning.