Standing by the window, I saw Andymond's car coming in from the end of the road and parked downstairs. After getting out of the car, he looked up and saw me and smiled. He opened the door and came in and sat on the sofa with a tired face: "Alan, you should have told me before you came."
I handed him the photo: "It's hidden behind the frame. I thought you didn't know my mother well?"
Andmon was undoing his tie when his body froze suddenly. He took the photo, and his expression suddenly became a little strange. I was waiting for him to explain, but he just took out Rousseau's "Emile" from the next shelf and carefully inserted the photo.
"You shouldn't just rummage through my things," he pushed open the door, "Let Annie take you upstairs to the restaurant first. You've been waiting for me all afternoon, what do you want to eat tonight?"
I insisted on not changing the subject: "I haven't even seen this photo before."
Andrew nodded: "Really?"
I don't know what to say, I always have a sense of frustration with Andrew. I don't know why he kept a photo of his mother many years ago by his side. I don't know his real identity. Even if he promised to try to fall in love with me, I don't know if he really loves me. I walked out the door slowly, and suddenly heard him say behind me:
"Mrs Custer was present at my Putcelli Medal of Mathematics award ceremony, when you were five years old. I used to admire your mother's ideas on cryptography. She was my idol when I was young— Purely academic."
I bumped into Linton in the corridor. brown. He passed me by with a pile of books in his arms. We were amazed by each other. I haven't seen him lately and thought he was skipping class again. Didn't know he was here.
"You proved the Warren problem?!"
Linton carefully placed the book in his arms on the windowsill: "You proved it?!"
We shook our heads at the same time.
"There is one key data that is different. I wrote out all the places I can prove, and asked the school to pass it on to the professor, and then I was sent here. What about you?"
I shrugged: "I used that key data as a phone call, and it ended up here. I want to come in too, but Mr. Garcia doesn't want me. But I seem to have deciphered the code S, and he may change his mind."
Linton looked at me with strange eyes: "Impossible, Alan. How could you decipher such a high-level code before you participated in the training? This kind of joke can't be played around." He hurriedly picked up the book: "Immediately The training session has just started, and I'm leaving."
At dinner, I complained aggrievedly to Andemon: "Why do you want Linton but don't want me?"
He smiled and kissed me on the face: "Honey, aren't we in love?"
"I've cracked Code S, why shouldn't I be allowed into Plimpton Park?—you said it was hard to crack!"
Andmond nodded and began to laugh: "Well, I said it. But it's only used by the Navy's weather system, and it's not very important."
"It doesn't matter why do you want me to solve it! Damn you do it yourself!"
He answered it as a matter of course because he was busy.
"If I put my heart and soul into it, it doesn't take three months, it can be deciphered in about three weeks. And I have a team of cryptographers under me—but it's about to expire, and my focus can't just be on this." Ann Demon came over, hugged my shoulders, bowed his head and kissed me.
"Alan, you are very good, beyond my expectation. But you can't enter Plimpton Manor."
This was the first time that Andymond kissed me on his own initiative.
He kissed lightly. As if giving me time to get used to it, touch it lightly first, go deep in, and gently touch the tip of my tongue. Every slight movement of the tip of his tongue can cause my body to tremble.
Andemon's kiss was very clean, reminding me of the comfortable sea breeze blowing in my face when I opened the window when I went to a seaside villa for vacation. His clothes always smelled fresh like privet leaves. I want to kiss him back, but the initiative is not in my hands. His arms around my waist were strong, and he pressed me against the window, making me unable to move.
I remember the kiss being so long, I was a little out of breath when he finally let me go.
Like a farewell kiss.
"Alan, your parents... didn't just die in a fire. They sent you to the Bedfordshire countryside to protect you. The Custers have already sacrificed two for Britain and I don't want you to The third. This is the organization that once in you can’t get out.”
"If you're just tired of math and think it's fun to solve codes..." he said, "You can come to my villa, where there are many codes like code S for you to play with."
Andrew was right. Plimpton Manor was MI6's government cipher school, a place where it was hard to get out.
"Alan, people here work for the country. Your life does not belong to you." Andemon's voice was very soft: "There will be foreign agents trying to get close to you. If necessary, your private life will be closely monitored .If you are accused of treason, you will be dealt with secretly. If your superiors suspect you of treason without evidence, you may accidentally fall off a coach one day and just break your neck. This is the system of the organization, for all Safety."
I asked him: "Create accidents and dispose of untrusted members... You gave this order?"
Andmon lowered his eyes, covering his deep blue eyes.
He hadn't spoken for a long time, and I thought he wouldn't, until I heard him say, "Not exactly, but I did. But I didn't give the order about your parents. I wasn't at Plimpton Park then."
I did not issue orders about your parents.
Peter drove me back to Cambridge. I was depressed for many days. Edgar pulled me out of bed, tucked me into my clothes, threw me into a bar, and poured me down. The bar was packed, and a hot whore came up to us and asked if I could buy her a drink. She's a pretty girl with big breasts, but I don't like the smell of powder on her.
Edgar advised me to be normal.
"You don't even like women anymore," he said.
After that, I never took the initiative to contact Andremon again. He was very euphemistic, but I can understand. It's not because of my own lack of ability that I can't enter Pringduan Manor, but because Anderson doesn't trust me. He's looked into my file, my parents have tainted records, they didn't die in a fire, they were "handled" by the government's own spy agency for being suspected of leaking information.
Andrew made it very clear that I have a tainted record. When I am not trusted, I will probably be "disposed" by the government just like my parents.
This order will be given by him personally.
I believe this is torture for me and for him. And I chased him, which was actually a big trouble for him.
"I don't like Andymond anymore." I swore to Ed. "The next time you see me going to London, drag me out of the car. If I resist, beat me up."
That summer went by so fast. Followed by autumn leaves. There are also many quiet taverns in Cambridge. There are jingling glass wind chimes hanging at the door, and they make a comfortable sound when the wind blows. I've rarely come out since Edgar threw me in the bar. I only intended to have a small drink, but before I knew it, I sat in it until the sun went down. All the guests had left, and the shadows of the seats were projected obliquely from one end of the hall to the other.
I don't think I'm gay, it's just bad luck that Anderson is a man. But there are few girls in Cambridge, and there are many underground gays.
One day I was drinking a little too much, and a tall student came up to me and said, honey, there is a hotel nearby where you can stay overnight, how about going to hang out
It was evening, there was a strong wind blowing outside, and there were only two of us in the store. The bartender seemed to be looking down at a distance to wipe glasses. I didn't know what he was going to do at first, until he picked me up from the seat and dragged me to the door.
Although he has broad shoulders and looks very powerful, I think I can still fight him-if I don't drink too much.
I drank too much rum and started shaking when I stood up. He smiled and wanted to help me, and took the opportunity to put his hand into my clothes.
Maybe I drank a little too much that day. I saw Andymond's black car parked outside the tavern through the fallen leaves blown by the wind. Peter got out of the car and opened the door expressionlessly. Andrea got out of the car and walked towards me through the revolving glass doors. Peter just punched the boy, threw him out the door, and came back and helped me onto a chair.
During the whole process, Andmon just stood against the bar counter without saying a word. He was wearing a white suit and a thin black tie that day, with his hands in his pockets. When large golden leaves drifted past his side window, it made him feel like he was standing in a painting.
He said, "Alan, leaving me doesn't mean you can find any man."
Edgar said it was actually a hallucination caused by my drinking too much. Because he was the one who moved me from the tavern back to the apartment, I lay on my stomach and slept like a dead pig, nothing happened.
He threw me on the bed and punched me right out of bed. Edgar was flipping through my notebook when I woke up. I snatched it away, and he spread his hands: "There is nothing in it that I can't understand."
The next day I burned the notebook where Code S was deduced.
"If you continue like this, you will fail at the end of this semester." Edgar drew me drunk as a caricature and threatened me: "If you dare to fail, I will make a hundred copies of these drawings and paste them all over Cambridge." High streets and alleys."
I ran into Linton. He came to get his diploma with grass-like hair, and has since entered Plimpton Manor to play for the country. We didn't really like each other, nor did we really hate each other. He asked me about the code name S that I said last time, I shrugged: "Just kidding."
Linton smiled, showing a row of white teeth, and pointed at me: "You finally lost, I entered Plimpton Manor, and you were eliminated."
I was joking with Edgar, what would happen to you if your parents were suspected of treason
Edgar was drawing a picture, using me as a free model, and posed a difficult pose. He stopped writing suddenly, came over to hug me, and sighed: "My parents can't believe it, who else can you trust? Right, Alan?"
When he sighed, I felt that there was really something in his eye. I don't know anything about Edgar's family background. All I know is that his family is not rich, and he buys paintings by himself to pay tuition. He is very familiar with all the galleries here, and he often sends finished paintings to sell, or carries other people's works back for copying.
I have seen his paintings, including landscape sketches and portraits, and sometimes he even sold me for money. Another category of works is impressionism, which was very avant-garde in the art world at that time, full of incomprehensible circles and lines of various colors. I often told him that Impressionism can help you paint, and I knew this kind of painting when I was three years old.
I went back to my uncle's house in Bedfordshire for a fortnight at Christmas. Edgar did not go home, but stayed in the rental house to sell paintings. When I came back two weeks later, he told me that Andymond had come to see me. He came alone.
"I said you went home, and he left."
The year was 1937, the Third Reich was on the rise, Italy withdrew from the League of Nations in favor of an alliance with Germany and Japan, and the Spanish Civil War.
I brought the two wooden boxes of books and notes left by my father and mother to London from Bedfordshire, and began a long learning process. I read one by one and burned one by one. By the summer of 1938, I had officially burned them all.