Tokyo: The life of a literary giant begins with home self-defense!

Chapter 309: Longchuan Tetsu's Travels 5
“That’s a good question.”

Standing at the door of the executive's residence, Longchuan Che pinched his chin.

Before leaving Tokyo, he was a very poor man.

All his income was used to buy a house in Shinjuku District, and he did not even go to see the settlement of his royalties for May and June.

I haven't spent much money since I came here to study, so now I have no choice but to invade the young lady's wallet.

"I'm sure you wouldn't want to see a gentleman rushing to a date being stuck with 129 euros."

Longchuan Che's words made the eldest lady nod her head, and she said thoughtfully.

"A true gentleman wouldn't take a girl's money without saying thank you."

"Thank you."

"Thanks are useless."

The eldest lady rolled her eyes and took back her watermelon wallet.

The girl put her money in her pocket and threw two coins to Longchuan Che.
"You can come with me to find a place where you can exchange currency, or just take 2 euros and go on the road."

The eldest lady walked out of the town of Gold with a small bag on her back. Long Chuan Che was in a hurry to go back, but she was not.

Here the sky is clear and the lavender is swaying gently.

The young lady in the floral dress plans to stay in the town of Gold for a few days, but she can't let Longchuan Che take away her remaining money.

"Do I have any choice?"

Longchuan Che shook his low-battery cell phone.

This Fujitsu waterproof mobile phone given by his girlfriend has the problem of consuming power too quickly. Ryukawa Toru feels that he can only meet the general manager in the concert hall.

"Can't you change your phone?"

The young lady walked down the mountain carrying a small bag. Gold is a town built on the mountain.

Lavender, stone castles, and the medieval church in the distance were washed white by the sunlight.

"Even if you cherish the things Muzi gave you, it can't change the fact that you are a scumbag."

Longchuan Che did not hide the fact of his relationship with other people from the eldest lady. Hearing the girl's teasing tone, Longchuan Che shrugged.

"I maintain my spiritual virginity for Muzi."

"Your spirit has also reached a point where it is beyond redemption."

The two chatted as they walked and stopped at a small shop on the mountainside.

The shop is built with gray stones and there are a few white canvas chairs at the door.

There was an old man painting on a white chair, and Longchuan Che gave the young lady a look that indicated that she was not planning to exchange money with him.

"why not?"

The person who was painting was an old man wearing a grey short-sleeved shirt. When the young lady walked over, he was just finishing up his painting.

The sun was high in the sky and the breeze was gentle.

The other painted Gordes at the foot of the Vaucluse Mountains, focusing on the ruins of the building complex.

In the typical European classical romantic vision, ruins symbolize transience and obsession with the flow of time.

The old man's hands were stained with lead dust, and he was stunned when he saw two young men coming towards him.

"Is something wrong?"

She spoke fluent French, but the young lady was able to have a good conversation with him.

“We want to stay here for a while, but we don’t have enough money.”

Natsuko Imamura's smile is very cute.

"Can I exchange some money with you in Japanese yen?"

I was just sitting there at the door of the store, when suddenly a foreigner came to exchange Japanese yen with me.

The old man looked at Imamura Natsuko and shook his head to refuse. "You see, I'll tell you."

Longchuan Che raised his eyebrows and gave the eldest lady a look that said, "I knew it wouldn't work."

In this era, exchanging foreign currencies is quite troublesome, and issues such as rate depreciation must also be considered.

It's not like you're exchanging change in the country, so the possibility of picking someone up on the street is almost zero.

"Is this the painting you imitated from Borges's Circular Ruins? It's quite beautiful."

The eldest lady suddenly changed to English so that Longchuan Che could understand.

The old man in front of him raised his eyebrows and then nodded slowly.

“Borges’s The Circular Ruins, like The Garden of Forking Paths, is a division of space into layers.

If The Garden of Forking Paths is a temporal peeling of space, playing a symphony of infinite space sounds at the same time, then Circular Ruins is an overlap of infinite space between reality and illusion, forming a confusing ghost song. This world is presented to the audience in an exceptionally warm and crowded way. "

The old man said a few words casually, and then put on a somewhat apologetic attitude.

"'The Garden of Forking Paths' is a short story written by Borges when he was young. You may not be familiar with it."

Borges, a famous Latin American writer.

The eldest lady turned her gaze towards Longchuan Tetsu.

"The Garden of Forking Paths was published in 1941. It consists of seven short stories with more than 30,000 words."

Although he didn't know what the eldest lady was up to, Longchuan Che continued the conversation along with the other party.

The old man in front of me has thick calluses on the first joint of his little finger, which is obviously the result of long-term use of the printer.

"you saw it?"

The old man was stunned, obviously surprised that Longchuan Che knew this short story.

"Take a quick look."

Longchuan Che looked around the other person, wondering how many euros he could exchange for.

The eldest lady needs money and Longchuan Che also needs money, but it is very troublesome to go to the bank to exchange money.

“Borges is a writer who is deeply interested in Eastern culture, and the title of his book, The Circular Ruins, is quite meaningful. Ruins are the memory of time.

Decay, desolation, unspeakable sadness. The circle is an irresistible and endless force. The circle means completeness and closure; the beginning is the end; eternal and unchanging; the cause and effect cycle mentioned by Buddha. The contradiction between the circle and the ruins is vividly expressed on the paper. This contradiction is the contradiction of the context of the ruins themselves. "

The old man's painting is a top-down perspective, with Gordes at the foot of the Vaucluse Mountains forming a circle.

The town was shrouded in mist, among which the dilapidated church and the ruined stone castle were particularly conspicuous.

“Whether it is stone buildings in the West or wooden buildings in the East, human beings cannot perceive the beauty of ruins without buildings.”

After chatting for a while, the old man touched the bag at hand.

“The huge things that architects have created are so magnificent that the sigh of loss after their disappearance is even more shocking because of the existence of such huge things.”

Because they were able to get along and the old man was very easy to talk to, he looked at two young people, a man and a woman.

"How much?"

It is very likely that one will suffer a loss if he or she exchanges euros for Japanese yen on his own. Ryuukawa Toru gave the young lady a look that said, "You are really something."

"He can change it, I don't need it."

The young lady smiled and thought that it was much more profitable to talk to the other party than to exchange money.

Ryukawa Toru used the only Japanese yen he had left to exchange for 200 euros.

When I was about to leave, I saw a nameplate in the other person's wallet.

Patrick Modiano.

Visiting professor at the Sorbonne University and invited judge of the 86th Goncourt Prize.

(End of this chapter)