shadow of britain

Chapter 611 Xiao Hei's Talk
In the evening, the mayor's house was brightly lit, candlelight flickered, and the hall was filled with the smell of candle oil and barbecue.

Although the restaurant in the mayor's house is not spacious and cannot be compared with a real high-end restaurant, traces of careful arrangement can be seen everywhere in the details.

In the center of the oak dining table was placed a large silver candlestick with five candles inserted high in it. The flickering flames illuminated the food and the faces of the guests at both ends of the table.

The tableware was neatly arranged on the brocade tablecloth. The material was obviously of good quality. Each plate had a strange luster, and the edges of the knives and forks were shining.

The plate was made of exquisite blue porcelain with an elegant gold rim and intricate floral patterns in the center. The first course of the day was neatly arranged on it - a seemingly carefully prepared cold cut of thinly sliced ​​beef, pickled cucumbers and steamed egg yolk.

The meat was neatly cut into thin slices by the cook, and the cucumbers were also cut into evenly spaced round slices and arranged around the plate. Each slice was lightly sprinkled with a layer of olive oil and spices, making it look particularly gorgeous. Unfortunately, it lacked the most basic rustic taste.

The second dish that came up was a hot soup served by the cook herself. The soup bowl was covered with a layer of gold rim, which matched the silver tableware. The warm breath hit us, making us absorb a lot of heat in this cold winter day.

However, if we follow the evaluation standards of the authentic gourmet Alexandre Dumas, this seemingly rich bowl of mushroom soup is actually bland in taste and dull in color. It seems that no special seasonings are added, and the rare aroma is merely superficial.

Arthur placed his finger on the edge of the soup bowl and lightly lifted it, pretending to be tasteful, then wiped the corners of his lips with a napkin, as if silently performing some quirk that only upper-class people would have.

The mayor held up his cutlery with reverence, took the tray handed over by the servant, and whispered, "Colonel, Your Excellency, today's dishes are specially prepared for you. What do you think?"

Arthur frowned slightly, gently raised his knife and fork, and picked some cold dishes, but he was obviously not in a hurry to eat.

He looked around, his eyes lingering on each dish for a moment, his eyes carrying a somewhat pretentious scrutiny.

"Hmm..." He said calmly, "It tastes good, but the ingredients here are obviously not as good as the ones at the banquet in St. Petersburg. Your spices don't seem to be used boldly enough. At the banquet in the capital, every dish must have a strong aroma. But like I said, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. By Druisk's standards, this is definitely excellent."

The mayor nodded hastily. "You are right. Your insight is impeccable. Although our cooks tried their best to imitate the styles of St. Petersburg and Moscow, you still saw through them at a glance."

The mayor's wife asked curiously, "After all, you are a distinguished person from the capital, but when you are in Petersburg, do you usually go to restaurants more often, or do you prefer to eat at home?"

Arthur analyzed in a pretentious manner, "Madam, whether to eat at home or in a restaurant is mainly determined by one's status. When I was still a ninth-rank official, I mainly ate in restaurants. After all, as you know, that meager salary could not allow me to support a French chef. Although my parents wanted to support me with some money so that I would not live too poorly, I am an independent young man. How can I let others gossip about me behind my back and say that I rely on my family background to make a living? It is because I have this ambition and such a determination that I can climb much faster than others. Since I became a colonel, my salary has increased a lot. Although Beijing officials are not like local officials, we do not have many sources of income, but relying on salaries, subsidies and occasional tributes from local governments, at least I can support a groom, a French chef, a monkey for fun, and pay the salaries of a few tutors. It is definitely more than enough."

The mayor's wife raised the sleeve of her blue silk dress and covered her mouth in surprise and asked, "You keep monkeys at home?"

“This is a little hobby of mine.”

Arthur analyzed seriously, "You see, monkeys are intelligent creatures. There is no smarter animal in the world than monkeys! Besides, the monkey I raise is the smartest one among monkeys. Sometimes you even suspect that he is no different from humans. He eats with a knife and fork, likes to go to the theater, knows how to appreciate beautiful ladies, and from time to time he picks up a newspaper on the sofa as if he can understand it. If he were put on a tuxedo, he could pretend to be a college student, recite a few poems by Shakespeare and Byron, and get a job as a civil servant."

The mayor's wife was so amused by Arthur's serious expression that she almost cried. "You are such a joke teller. No matter how smart a monkey is, it can't be that smart, right? You are taking advantage of me because I am an ignorant country woman, so you are deliberately lying to me."

Arthur replied seriously, "Oh, ma'am, although the countryside cannot be compared with Petersburg, you are obviously from a wealthy family. Look at your clothes. This blue skirt is a typical Parisian style. An ignorant country woman does not have such good taste."

The mayor's wife blushed slightly when Arthur flattered her. She straightened her waist with pride and humbly agreed: "You have a good eye. When I bought this skirt in Moscow, they said that it was indeed shipped from Paris. However, you said that I am from a wealthy family, but I really don't deserve it... I was born in a provincial capital. Of course, the provincial capital is definitely not comparable to St. Petersburg. It is just a little better than Druidsk."

The daughter who was sitting next to the mayor's wife looked at her mother with resentment and muttered, "Mom... that skirt was originally..."

The mayor's wife naturally couldn't let her daughter speak. She quickly pinched her daughter's leg under the table and whispered to her, "Look! Look! It's started again! You only know how to be conceited and pretentious all day long. You look at yourself in front of the mirror endlessly, either decorating here or applying makeup there. You can spend two hours every day choosing a skirt. That bottle of top-notch Paris perfume, you sprayed a little when Captain Potemkin came today, and you sprayed a little more when the inspector came tomorrow. You acted coquettishly and thought they were all pursuing you and wanted to duel for you. Now, a colonel from Petersburg came today, and you ruined the perfume. Not only do you have nothing to spray, but I also have nothing to use!" The mayor saw that his wife was busy arguing with his daughter, so he quickly took over the conversation and drowned out his wife's chattering voice: "Colonel, you said that you hired a tutor at home? Does this mean that you are married and how many children do you have?"

As soon as this question was asked, the wife and daughter immediately stopped arguing and pricked up their ears to listen carefully.

Arthur took a sip of the Bordeaux red wine that the mayor had gone to great lengths to find. "I'm not married, and the tutors I hired weren't for my children, but for myself. A German poet and a British scholar, they taught me philosophy and natural philosophy respectively. After all, times are different now, and you can't get promoted just by being an errand boy, especially at social banquets, where you have to show some real talent! The ladies in St. Petersburg not only like men with medals on their chests, but also those who can recite poems and understand electromagnetism."

"Electromagnetism?" The mayor held his forehead and exclaimed, "My God, this is a new word for me. Do you mean thunder and lightning? Can the girls in Petersburg understand such profound things?"

Arthur nodded slightly and said, "It's better if they don't understand. They like things they don't understand, the more profound the better. To be honest, I have only learned the basics of electromagnetism. I know how to write a few formulas and say a few new words. But in St. Petersburg, they all praise me as a great scholar, saying that I am the leader of electromagnetism in Russia, the electromagnetic authority Artur Agaresovich Hestingov. There are many sixth-rank officials in St. Petersburg, but there are very few electromagnetic scientists, so this title is much more useful than the sixth-rank official."

The mayor's wife blushed as she complimented him, "You are so knowledgeable! Electromagnetism, this is amazing! I only knew that thunder was scary, but I never thought it could become a science now."

"It's nothing."

Arthur waved his hand and said, "You know, my cook is French. Every time I give him a holiday to go back to his hometown, I give him some money and ask him to bring me some local specialties when he comes back. Sometimes it's French fabrics, sometimes it's pickled food and red wine. Last year, when he came back from France, he shouted outside before he even entered the door: 'Master, look what I brought you!' He handed me a cloth package, and I opened it and saw that it was several novels and scripts. To be honest, among all the gifts I have received, these scripts and novels are my favorite. I have loved literature since I was a child, and sometimes I even wrote it myself..."

The mayor's daughter blinked her eyes. She was so absorbed in listening that her swan-like neck couldn't help but slightly lean forward. "Can you write scripts and novels?"

Arthur wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Yes, I sometimes publish articles in magazines. I have written a lot. Do you read newspapers and magazines? You can often see my articles in The Northern Bee and Moscow News. Because of work, as you know, due to political considerations, in order to monitor those bastards who are plotting to overthrow the government, the Third Bureau often has the opportunity to go abroad. When I go on business trips abroad, I will also take the opportunity to submit to foreign magazines. For example, Antony is a work by the French playwright Alexandre Dumas. I helped to correct it. We have a good relationship, so he often taught me to help him look at new works. Oh, yes, there is also Heine of Prussia. I didn't like Heine's poems at first, but that guy heard my name from somewhere and came to me in the heavy rain and said, 'Please have mercy on me and help me look at this North Sea Collection.'"

The inspector interjected, "I guess he knew you were working for the Third Bureau, and he wanted to publish his work in Russia, so he tried to get in touch with you."

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

Arthur shrugged and said, "Who knows? But for me, this is just a matter of convenience. As I mentioned before, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I don't like to make things difficult for others. As long as they don't offend me, I am willing to make friends with everyone. Even Xiao... um... Liszt and I have a good relationship. Do you know Liszt? The King of Piano in Paris, the Tsar of the European Music World."

"You also know music?"

"I know a little bit about it," Arthur replied with a smile, "but I did write an opera called Turandot, which was adapted from Goethe's work."

"Oh my God!" The mayor was sweating as he listened to this. "Are you omniscient and omnipotent? No wonder you can become a sixth-rank official at such a young age."

"You think you can become a sixth-rank official with these? You are totally wrong! Music, literature, and science are girls' favorites." Arthur gave an example seriously: "But for someone like you, if you met a young man like this in Druisk, would your first reaction be to promote him?"

"Isn't it true?" the municipal judge asked after a long silence, "that young people like this deserve to be promoted."

The mayor next to him, Bakaldin, understood what Arthur meant. "No, Nikolai Ivanovich, a young man like him is most likely a liberal. Even if he is not a member of the Decembrists, he is most likely a reserve of the Decembrists. For such a person, not only should he not be promoted, but he should be monitored more closely!"

Arthur looked at the mayor with admiration: "Nikolai Ivanovich, look! If you had the same awareness as the mayor, you would not have been transferred from Slonin to Druisk, and you would have become a sixth-rank official like me. Yes, the reason why I want to learn these things is not only to please the girls, but also to facilitate my work. This is all the hard work I did to get along with the liberal elements! As for why I was able to get promoted quickly, on the one hand, it was because I did a good job, and on the other hand..."

Everyone present held their breath. After all, there weren't many good people willing to share their experience in getting promoted these days.

Arthur's eyes swept over everyone's serious faces one by one. He slowly picked up his wine glass and shared his experience without reservation: "I think it's because I often attend parties and play cards. The Foreign Minister, the French and British envoys, we often play cards together. Once when I was in London, I even played at the Duke of Wellington's card table. And the director of our third bureau, Count Benkendorf's sister, Lady Leven, I danced with her a few times before. It is worth mentioning that she is particularly good at dancing the German waltz."

(End of this chapter)