In the yard, the hornbeams began to lose their leaves again, and the yellow-green leaves were flying all over the sky. A group of children chased and played with the leaves, and the whole school was filled with cheers.
Not far from the door of the classroom, Roy leaned against the mottled wall, staring at the half five-pointed star on his left sleeve in a daze, frowning and out of place.
"Roy, I was in a bad mood yesterday, so I didn't stay after school." Vivien walked up to him suddenly, with an apologetic look on her face, "When the afternoon class is over, will I help you review?"
Roy nodded, his face still tense, and his thoughts were not on her words at all.
"By the way, Mr. Kadel told you to go to the second floor to find her."
…
"How did you feel after staying at school for a while? Are you still used to getting along with other children? How do you think the classroom environment is, and is there anything that needs to be improved?" Cadell put his hands on the desk and looked at the sitting opposite. Roy in the chair looked encouraging.
The deep nasolabial creases made her more like an interrogation.
"I think it's all good." Roy answered truthfully, "especially thanks to Teacher Vivien for her careful guidance. Without her, my progress would not be so fast."
"Vivien is a wonderful teacher who is liked by no one in the school who doesn't love her. She would have done a better job if she hadn't spent a lot of energy taking care of her parents."
"By the way, Miss Cadell, I have a question," Roy paused. "Does Miss Vivien have a brother?"
Cadell shook his head, "Vivien has no siblings, he only has an alcoholic father and a delirious mother. Both of them can't work and depend on her to support them. It is also for this reason that Vivien has never been married. ."
Roy was even more puzzled. Vivien told him that yesterday.
"I thought she had a younger brother and treated me like that guy, so she took care of me so much."
Cadell shook his head with a serious look on his face, "Roy, Vivien has been assisting me with school affairs since ten years ago. I treat her as my own daughter, know everything about her, and I confirm that she has no siblings. She cares about every A student. Because you just came to school, you paid more attention."
Roy stopped asking, and seemed to accept the result.
Cadell patted his head with a smile. Several adolescent boys in the school had a good impression of the young and beautiful Vivien, and imagined that the beautiful teacher would treat him differently. She thinks Roy is one of them.
"Speaking of which, Roy, you have great potential. You are smarter than the other 64 children after taking the courses of other students for more than two months in half a month. Maybe in a few years, you will become the home of Cardell. When the time comes, the teacher will paint a portrait of you with your own hands, so that your honor will always be preserved in the school and encourage latecomers."
Cadell opened the drawer in front of the desk and took out a few framed portraits to show Roy. The lifelike oil paintings are all the faces of teenage boys and girls who are slightly green.
And when Roy's eyes swept across one of them, it suddenly solidified.
"Helheim, graduated December 20, 1259."
It was the face of a young boy, about thirteen or fourteen years old, with black hair and light freckles between his nose. But there is an ugly scar the length of an index finger under his right eye, which is impressive.
Roy was sure he had seen him before, but he couldn't remember where.
"Where do outstanding graduates go to work?"
Kadel looked very proud when he heard the words, "Teacher still has some energy in Aden. They are all things that can be made, but they still need to be polished. So I recommended them to other cities, such as Leiria and Livia. , Upper Posada, Lower Posada, and Vangerborg, the capital. Most of the work is related to writing, becoming a historical researcher, transcriber, librarian…”
Roy pretended to look longing and longing, but he faintly felt that Kadel was lying. The school's purpose of educating students does not seem so simple.
…
After school, Vivien was explaining some complicated vocabulary to Roy when a bloated, sloppy middle-aged man suddenly broke in.
His face was full of flesh, his shirt was dark brown, with wine stains and food residues, his hair was messy and pimpled, and it was covered with a greasy layer that had not been cleaned for many days, exuding a musty smell. The whole person is depressed like a beggar.
He walked slowly to the two gods, looked suspiciously around Roy, then turned to the woman, spread out his right hand at her, showed a natural expression and said with a big tongue, "Vivien, Why didn't you go home yesterday? Give me the money... I want a drink!"
Vivien quietly pulled Roy behind her, blocked herself in front, and said coldly with a tight face, "I don't have any money for you."
"Damn girl, where did you use the money? I don't know how to save some filial piety to your father?" The middle-aged man frowned deeply into Sichuan characters. She spit out thick phlegm in front of her, "You must bring the money home tomorrow, or you will know the consequences!" He threw a harsh word threateningly on his face, and then turned away cursingly.
"Is he your father?" Roy asked cautiously, looking at Vivien, whose face was ashen.
"Yes, his name is Bob, my father." Vivien said quietly, "Isn't it scary?"
Roy hesitated, he was not good at blaming other people's elders. "That's what it's like when you're drunk."
"Don't worry, you can scold him, I don't mind. This guy has never been sober and never cared about anyone in the family... He started drinking when he opened his eyes, and he must be drunk when he closed his eyes." Vivien's pretty face All numb, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone of helplessness.
No matter who put on this kind of alcoholic father, it will be bad for eight lifetimes.
"Bob has never been a father, not even asking if his son is missing."
his son? Vivien's younger brother? The non-existent person who has been denied by Cadell.
When Roy looked at Vivien again, his eyes became strange.
"Sister Vivien, what's going on here? How about tell me?" Roy further said in order to strengthen his persuasion, "I once stayed with a master witcher for a while, to be exact, my The teacher is a witcher of the Viper School, and he taught me how to deal with unusual troubles and difficulties. Maybe it can help you."
"Are you serious?" The woman raised her eyebrows, her beautiful eyes questioning, "As far as I know, your eye color and shape are different from those of those magical witchers."
"Because I'm still an apprentice and haven't passed the green grass trial... My body is no different from an ordinary person." Roy told the other party some experiences of following the witcher.
Vivien pondered for a moment.
"Okay, Roy, I believe in you. Although I don't know why a witcher apprentice wants to work in the herbal shop in the market, since you are willing to listen to me, you have experience in that area, so it's okay to tell you. At least you don't think of me as a lunatic like ordinary people?"
"It's incredible, even I don't know what that brother looks like, how old is, and where is he?" Vivien laughed at herself, with a complicated expression on her pretty face. absurd.
"When I first preached this fact to others, everyone around me thought I was crazy, whether it was the esteemed Principal Kadel, or those lovely naughty students, no one had seen my brother, no one had seen me. Remember... I used to have a brother."
"I tried to prove to the alcoholic that he still has a biological son, and showed him the clothes of the extra boys at home! He scolded me for having an illegitimate child outside. As for my mother, she couldn't understand me at all. Later, I realized, and if I keep preaching it, probably everyone will think that I was possessed by the devil and put me at the stake to purify me. Since then, I have kept this matter in my heart and just assumed that everything was normal. So far, probably It's been two years, and I haven't mentioned it to anyone again." Vivien fell into a brief silence.
Roy's doubts became heavier, "Mr. Vivien, this is very strange, no one remembers him at all. How can you be so sure that you have such a relative?"
"Because I have evidence... As I said just now, I found some boys' clothes in the house... If it wasn't all burned by the alcoholic, I can show you." Vivien's beautiful eyes flashed a trace of regret, Then he became firm, obviously convinced of this idea, "Besides, since I started working with Principal Kadel, I have a habit of writing a diary every fortnight or a month to record my deep impressions. Accidental encounters at school, at home, on the street. I recorded it for ten years.”
"I occasionally turn over these diaries and look at them. I am very demanding of myself, and I dream that one day, I can become a person who is respected and loved by everyone like Principal Cardell... So I often go through those records and correct me if I am not. Such proper words and deeds."
"Sister Vivien, you have actually done it. Everyone in the school likes you. And the parents of those children." Roy said sincerely, he felt that the woman in front of him put too much pressure on him.
"It's still a long way off." Vivien shook her head, staring at the air, and said in a trance, "When I was looking through my diary the year before, I found some strange records—"
Vivien's voice paused and suddenly increased her tone, "In addition to me, the alcoholic, and my poor mother, there is a fourth person in the house!"
Roy shrank his neck, feeling like he was listening to a ghost story.
Vivien took off the silver necklace on her chest, squeezed it lightly, opened the square pendant, took out a small piece of crumpled paper from the inside, opened it and laid it out, it was about the size of a palm, and it was made of rough and simple paper. The lines depict two people, one tall and one short, holding hands. There was a tall woman on the left and a boy on the right, with a lovely blush on both cheeks.
The two of them with bright smiles and intimacy are obviously a pair of siblings.
"Later, I found a bunch of boys' clothes at home. The size is obviously much smaller than that of the drunkard. Coupled with this inexplicable painting in the pendant, I am sure that I originally had a younger brother. It's just that I don't know the reason, I really can't remember it." Vivien's pretty face showed a puzzled and frantic expression, and she continued after a while.
"When I helped you out of the siege in the slum that day, this feeling was especially strong. I know that there must be many similarities between you and him."
"Although I don't know what he looks like, my feelings tell me that he does exist."
This can explain Vivien's surprisingly good attitude towards Roy when they first met.
But Roy always felt that something was wrong, so he decided to follow the other party's words and find out.
"Sister Vivien, take the liberty to ask, can you show me that part of the diary?"
"If you want to read it, of course there's no problem. If there are words you don't know, I can explain them to you," Vivien said cautiously, her face tensed, "but don't publicize the contents before there is definite evidence. It's for your own good, understand?"