To Claude's surprise, it was almost nine o'clock when he got home, but there were still several carriages parked in front of the big red brick house, and it seemed that there were still a few guests who had not left.
"No way, it's so late at night. Why haven't you left yet?" When I walked in, there were no customers in the restaurant. My mother was mopping the floor with a mop. The smell of alcohol and vomit could still be faintly smelled in the air.
In this era without air fresheners, all my mother could do was to open the windows and doors, hoping that the evening breeze would bring fresh air.
Seeing her second son entering the door, the mother straightened up and asked, "Why are you coming back so late? Have you eaten?"
"I have eaten." Claude nodded: "I ate at Ike's place. He said that my father was having a banquet that night, so I didn't come back."
Putting down his schoolbag, Claude went up and took the mop: "Mother, should I do it? Are there still guests here?"
"Well," my mother pointed upstairs: "They are in the study. Your father seems to be talking to them about investment. There was a fierce argument just now. No need to delay there, I have already delayed it."
"By the way, where are Anna and Little Booker?"
"Little Booker was taking a nap just now, so I asked Anna to take him to the third floor to sleep first. There were many guests today, and Little Booker was very excited and made a lot of noise all night. Now he has finally calmed down."
Mother sat on the chair. It seemed that she was very tired tonight.
"By the way, Claude, do you want anything to eat? The chef tonight is Pied, and he made a lot of delicious food. I specially left a portion for you in the kitchen. If you want to eat, I will go and give it to you.
Bring it over..."
"No, mother, I had a full meal tonight. When will father and the others finish?"
"What's wrong? Are you looking for your father if you have something to do?"
"No, I want to go to the study room to get the Ancient Hertz dictionary. I need it for class tomorrow."
"Then wait a little longer. I think they should have finished discussing it soon. How about you go upstairs first, and then come down and get it after your father sends away the guests."
"Okay then, the floor is mopped, I'll go upstairs first."
Returning to his small attic, he suppressed his inner excitement, lit the oil lamp, closed the door, and threw himself at his schoolbag.
The silver hair card for my sister and the little pirate doll for my brother. These two can be given to them tomorrow morning and put aside for now. Claude tremblingly took out the magic recipe book from his schoolbag, opened it, and turned it over with the help of an oil lamp.
The bright light focused his attention on the brown pages. Soon, the pages began to change again, and the dark blue ancient Hertzian words appeared line by line on the ivory white pages.
At this time, Claude wanted to go down with a knife and drive away all the guests in the study, and then bring up the Ancient Hertzian dictionary. As long as you have that dictionary in hand, it will be easy to decipher such dark blue Ancient Hertzian characters.
Even though there are some grammatical errors, you can roughly understand what it means when you translate the words one by one.
But now Claude still has to suppress his impatience and wait patiently for the guests to leave. He has been holding back for most of the day, and he doesn't care to wait a little longer, even if his heart feels like countless ants crawling, at this time
You must be able to endure it.
But he might be able to do something else during this waiting period. Claude suddenly remembered, is this the only page of this magic cookbook that has these dark blue ancient Hertzian words, or are other pages also like this? He might as well
Give it a try…
The recipe has a total of seventeen pages, and each page records the preparation of a dish. The first page, the second page, the third page...the fifth page...the eighth page...the tenth page, each page will have those.
Dark blue font.
Claude became more and more excited. Obviously, this cookbook must be a disguise, and the dark blue fonts hidden by it are the real focus. If only one page of this cookbook has these blue ancient Hertzian words
If so, then this may be just a clue, just like those described in legendary novels, where a treasure map is hidden in a certain book.
But this cookbook only has seventeen pages, and now we have turned to the tenth page. Every page will change, and these dark blue fonts will appear. This shows that this cookbook itself is a magic book, and the recipes are just a cover-up.
.
Just like Ike, Boa, and the new owner of the old Munch Grocery Store, Vakuri, in their eyes, this is just a cookbook. The only thing worth mentioning is that this cookbook is made of animal skin paper.
It's made, it's a bit old, it's considered an antique, it's probably worth some money...
If it hadn't been for the bad lighting, and I wouldn't have focused on reading it, then maybe I wouldn't have discovered the secret of this recipe book. Maybe I would have just flipped through it a few times and put it back on the wooden shelf, thus keeping the same relationship with this book.
The magic book was missed...
Claude turned to the eleventh page with emotion, put away the random thoughts in his mind, and continued to stare at the page intently, preparing to check whether the next seven pages also had dark blue ancient Hertzian text.
What Claude didn't expect was that when the pages began to change, and the original brown color receded to the surroundings, revealing the ivory white pages in the middle and rows of dark blue fonts, Claude's eyes suddenly went dark, and it felt like
I fell into darkness all of a sudden, and it was still the kind of darkness where I couldn't see my fingers...
Claude was shocked and wanted to stand up, but found that his limbs were weak and he couldn't move at all. It seemed that he couldn't control his body. He couldn't hear anything and there was a feeling of death all around. He couldn't even breathe on his own, no matter how much he opened his mouth.
I still feel suffocated and panicked...
What's going on? In just a short moment, countless thoughts passed through Claude's mind, evil magic? Or is the magic book concealed by this recipe itself containing a curse? Am I being tricked? I
Will I die? Am I blind or deaf now? Can I still make a sound...
Calm down, I have to calm down, but the panic in my heart is spreading...
After an unknown amount of time, which seemed like a very long time to Claude, he finally heard a sound, "Bang, bang, bang..." one after another.
This was the sound of his own heartbeat. Claude seemed to be able to feel his heart beating vigorously, and he seemed to be able to see the blood vessels around the heart continuously delivering blood to the heart. Then his ears began to return to normal, and he slowly listened.
From the study room on the second floor, I could hear the conversation between my father and the guests...
A blur of light gradually appeared in front of my eyes. It was the oil lamp on the table. Although I couldn't see the outline clearly, I could still feel the heat and light emitted by the flame...
His limbs began to regain consciousness and his body could move. Claude closed his eyes hard, opened them again, closed them again, opened them again...
Finally able to see things clearly, Claude stood up and moved his hands and feet. Apart from his head feeling a little dizzy and his temples on both sides feeling a little swollen and painful, he could confirm that there was nothing abnormal about his body. Then he realized that even time had passed.
It took several minutes, which can be seen from the time scale on the hourglass on the table.
But what happened to the darkness and the loss of control of the body just now? Is it really because of the magic recipe book on the table?
Claude came to the table and looked at the magic recipe again.
But this time, before the pages of the book even started to change, Claude felt that his eyes were dark again. But this time, he didn't have the same feeling of falling into darkness just now. He could still feel the light of the oil lamp, and he could still move his body, even at his temples on both sides.
It hurts even more...
I understand... Claude fell headlong on his bed, scaring himself for a long time. In fact, he had used up all his mental energy. Just now, he concentrated all his attention on checking the magic recipe book, which probably took about 100 seconds.
More than half an hour, just like those computer game characters in previous lives, their mental power has a limit. Of course, if you use it up, you will feel abnormal.
He raised his head, blew out the oil lamp, and let himself lie down for a while to rest. It seemed that he had to be careful even if he looked at this magic recipe book in the future, so as not to make the same mistake again accidentally.
Claude thought as he watched the silver moonlight fall from the sky, through the open window, and onto the table and bed, covering Claude's entire upper body with a silvery glow.
The moonlight is like water... No, Claude was startled, how could he feel refreshing and moist? The moonlight shines on his head, as if there is a kind of coolness moisturizing his skin, just like the spring rain falling on dry skin
On this land, even the drowsiness in my head and the swelling and pain in my temples on both sides made me feel a little relaxed...
This is definitely not an illusion! Could it be that moonlight can also heal mental wounds? Or can it speed up the recovery of mental power?
I looked up at the disc-like silver moon hanging high in the sky, and then thought that this is a magical world, so as a traveler, I should stay calm about these unreasonable things instead of making a fuss.
Is it what you think? You’ll know if you give it a try?
Claude got up from the bed, took off his linen socks, got on the table with his bare feet, got out of the attic window, and stood on the roof.
Well, go a little further so that you won't be blocked by the windows or the shadow of the attic. Unless the moon is covered by clouds, the moonlight will shine on you.
Claude lay down in the middle of the two lofts. This is the roof of the building. It is paved with wooden tiles and the slope is not large. It feels really good to lie flat like this. Just be careful not to fall asleep if you lie down comfortably.
It won't be a big deal if you roll it off...
It was certain that the moonlight was really helpful in soothing the depleted mental energy. Claude only lay on the roof for about half an hour before he felt his mind began to clear up, and his temples on both sides no longer swelled and hurt, and there was no more pain.
It seems to be an illusion that suddenly rises and shrinks.
Bathed in the silver moonlight, his mood gradually calmed down. There was a comfortable atmosphere around him, which made Claude feel lazy and didn't want to get up and go back to the attic. His hearing also began to recover, even though he was so far away.
, you can still vaguely hear the conversation coming from the study room on the second floor, but you can't hear it clearly, but it seems that your father is seeing off guests.
Why is there still the voice of the eldest brother, mixed with the voice of a woman? My father invited a female guest to the banquet tonight? No, this is impossible, let alone inviting her to the study so late.
No, the sound came from here. Claude climbed up and looked at the loft on the left. In his memory, this loft was also rented out. The tenant was a young woman, who seemed to be twenty-six or seventeen years old.
My mother once gossiped with my father about this woman, Miss Christina, at dinner, saying that her speech and behavior did not look like a serious woman.
But his father said that Miss Christina was a financial staff member of a certain business firm in the town. He had forgotten which business firm it was, but his father confirmed that it was the director of that business firm who introduced her to her. She had a serious job, and she asked her mother not to let her live there.
Commenting on others behind their back...
None of this is important. The question is why at this time, my eldest brother, Albert, who is extremely different from me, is in the loft rented by Miss Christina...