Fox of France

Joseph followed Amon into the yard of his house and walked up the steps. He noticed that the small building of Amon's house was a typical Rococo style building. The walls were adorned with carvings of various shapes and ornamented with gold lacquer and paints of various other colours. Such a small building must have been full of ostentatious show-offs back then, but now, the gold and other paints of various colors have weathered and peeled off, and the entire wall is mottled.

Amon noticed that Joseph was looking at the wall, and said, "This house is old, and it should have been completely repaired long ago, but my father, like me, is a hopeless playboy, and he doesn't care about it at all." These. So, to make this house . . . what should I say?"

Amon frowned.

"I think this is actually not bad," Joseph said solemnly in an aria-like tone, "it has a special sense of beauty. It's like an open time scroll, full of the weight of history. Seeing it, You see impermanence, you see fate..."

"Joseph, what you said... I'll take it as a real compliment." Amon said, "Anyway, you know, this is one of my greatest strengths. In addition..."

Amon stopped, raised his head, and carefully looked at the mottled wall: "Joseph, you are right about one thing, this is impermanence, this is fate. The loneliness and despair under the bustling, this is Luo Luo. The true essence of cocoa!"

"O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvevit ut glaciem." Joseph chanted in a low voice. (This is a passage from "Fate, Queen of the World" in the Latin work "Burana". The general idea is: O fate, like the moon, is fickle, full and empty; a hateful life intertwined with suffering and happiness; no matter how poor or poor Both wealth and wealth melt and perish like ice and snow.)

"Damn it! You actually wrote a poem in Latin immediately!" Amon feigned anger, "You have already crushed me in natural science, and now... You bastard, do you want to live!"

"I didn't write this." Joseph shook his head and said, "I don't know who wrote it, maybe it was written by an unknown poet in the eighth century or earlier. Well, I told you , my godfather was a bishop, and this is from a fragment I saw in his church."

"In the terrible Middle Ages, I don't know how many talented poets have been buried." Amon shook his head and said, "Okay, let's stop chatting on the steps. Let's go in together."

The two entered the door, and Joseph looked inside. There was a crystal chandelier in the middle of the living room, and more than a dozen candles on it illuminated the hall, which had already reached nightfall. There are a few chairs on both sides of the hall, and in the middle is the dance floor. The floor is covered with marble, but because of the age, these marble floors have become dull and lost the brilliance of the past.

There was no one on the sofa in the hall, and Amon said to Joseph: "We didn't invite too many people this time, only a few friends, so they are all in the small living room."

Follow Amon and turn to the right, and you will arrive at the small living room. Just as Amon said, everyone is in the small living room.

Amon walked in with Joseph, then raised his hand and slapped his hands lightly twice, so everyone who was talking in the chairs in the small living room stopped and turned their faces to look this way.

"Everyone, please allow me to introduce to you my friend, the future great scientist of France—Mr. Joseph Bonaparte... an Italian Viscount, let us welcome him."

"Welcome, Monsieur Bonaparte." A man in his forties stood up and greeted Joseph.

"Joseph, this is my father, Viscount Charles de Lavoisier." Amon introduced solemnly.

"Thank you for your hospitality." Joseph also bowed and saluted.

"Come on, Amon, why are you making it so formal?" Viscount Charles shook his head at Amon and said, "This is just a casual family gathering."

Then he turned his head and pointed to a high-backed chair and said to Joseph, "Mr. Bonaparte, please sit here."

"Thank you." Joseph said, "I'm Amon's friend, you can just call me Joseph."

Amon continued to introduce other family members.

"This is my mother, Vicomtesse Lavoisier."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Joseph nodded hurriedly.

"I love seeing you young people, too," replied the Viscountess. "It always reminds me of the good times when I was young."

"Mom, you are also a young man." Amon said.

"This is my cousin Samuel de Fermat. He is good at fencing and shooting. He once fought with the Marquis of Lafayette in North America. He is a great guy." Amon introduced another to Joseph. The short guy sitting here. Joseph noticed a long scar below his right ear, running down his lip. Perhaps in order to cover up this scar, he deliberately grew a beard like Captain Haddock in later comics, which also makes it difficult to judge his age.

"Hello." Samuel stood up and nodded.

"Nice to meet you." Joseph also responded.

Then Amon introduced several people to Joseph, most of them were relatives of their family. Finally, Amon brought Joseph to a girl in a pale yellow dress.

"This is the most precious pearl in our family, my sister Fanny." Amon said.

"Nice to meet you." Joseph said hastily.

"Me too." The girl lowered her head slightly, holding the corners of her skirt with her hands and slightly bending her knees in response. Then he raised his head again, opened his big green eyes and gave Joseph a quick glance, then lowered his eyelids and said: "I have heard a lot about you from my brother, and I heard that your thesis won a prize from the Academy of Sciences. Not only that, my uncle said that you have already made many important achievements in mathematics. And you have been recommended and will soon be able to get a teaching position at the Paris Military Academy. You should not be twenty years old now Well, to be able to get such a recommendation is really amazing!"

"Miss, it's actually not as difficult as you imagine." Joseph replied with a smile, "I'm just lucky."

"My brother said that luck only belongs to those who are ready." Fanny whispered with a smile.

"Okay, everyone sit down. Don't stand and talk." Viscount Charles de Lavoisier said.

So Joseph sat down on a chair beside Amon. A servant brought up a cup of tea and placed it on the small coffee table beside Joseph.

Everyone then chatted.

"What was everyone talking about just now?" Joseph asked.

"Before I went out, everyone was talking about the "The Marriage of Figaro" that was staged not long ago." Amon replied.

"The Marriage of Figaro" by Beaumarchais. But for later generations, what they are more familiar with is the opera version adapted by musician Mozart. However, the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" could not be completed until 1786. The most recent performance was not the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" which is more familiar to the later generations, but the drama "The Marriage of Figaro".

"Mr. Beaumarchais' irony in this play is so sharp and ironic. It's rare that he has such guts," Armand said.

"If you want me to say, Mr. Beaumarchais is fine. The people in the comedy troupe are really daring. They even changed the plot and satirized Her Majesty the Queen. This is really daring!" Lavoisier said the Baron.

"Isn't it?" whispered Fanny, also smiling, "that they let the Count Almaviva say something like that. It's very bold. Don't they worry about the queen? She doesn't think it's meant to be Sarcastic at her, maybe she will feel that what Count Almaviva said is a compliment to her!" Amon laughed with a contemptuous look.

Queen Marie Antoinette likes to spend money indiscriminately because of her extravagant life. Countless expensive gemstones and fashions are brought into her palace. Under her leadership, the luxurious fashion atmosphere swept the French aristocratic circle of life. She is happiest when she invites the nobles she likes to participate in all-night gambling, carnival, and ball.

According to folklore, whenever there is a whimsical new idea to spend money, she will act like a child, crying and making a fuss, forcing her husband to realize it for her. As a result, the royal family spent more and more, and the budget deficit became more and more serious. In the folk, Queen Mary also has a nickname of "Queen of Deficit".

"Amon, what did Count Almaviva say?" Joseph asked.

"The earl said: 'What's the point of spending money? Even if it's full of deficits and you can only look for loans from Jews everywhere, that's okay. You know, since ancient times, there have been many kings who have given up their country for the sake of a beautiful woman's smile. Even if the husband goes bankrupt, he should be able to let his wife wear those sparkling gemstones that she likes." "Amon replied.

"Is that so? Amon, you underestimate the queen. Anyway, the queen is also from the Habsburg family, so she must have received a good education. She can understand this simple metaphor. So those of the comedy troupe It really takes guts for the screenwriters to make such changes. But to be honest, the risk they took was not as great as imagined. Because even if they see these ironies, the king and queen may not care." Joseph said.

"Why don't they care if they're being accused in public?" Samuel put in.

"Ah, that's the question. Please let me make an analogy, well, you fought in North America. I heard that some Indians in North America stood with the British and fought against you. It is said that those Indians would use their Witchcraft curses you. So Mr. Fermat, do you care about their curse?" Joseph asked back with a smile.

"Of course I don't care, because I know their superstitions are of no use. There's no witchcraft that a bullet can't fix, you know," replied Samuel.

"If one can't solve it, then get another one." Joseph laughed.

"You are right, Monsieur Bonaparte." Mussel also laughed, "But generally speaking, it only takes one bullet to deal with Indians."

"In the eyes of the king and queen, such accusations are no different from Indian curses. They don't care."