Maison vide dans l'abîme

Chapitre 36

Then, the day after tomorrow, he will possess all the essential fragrances to create the world's finest perfumes; he will become the one who exudes the best fragrance in the world.

Those who smell the fragrance leave Grasse.

Around noon, he finished preparing the kalanchoe perfume. He extinguished the fire, covered the oil pan tightly, and went to the front of the workshop to cool it down.

Let's enjoy this moment. The wind is blowing from the west.

As he took his first breath, he already sensed something was wrong. The airflow was abnormal. Amidst the city's scented clothes...

In this veil woven from thousands of threads, a single gold thread is missing. Last week, this fragrant...

The line was very real; Grenouille could feel it clearly even near the cottage on the other side of the city. Now this...

The thread was gone, vanished without a trace, and even the most determined sniff couldn't detect it. Grenouille was paralyzed with fear.

She's dead, he thought. Even worse, someone beat me to it. Someone picked my flowers, and...

The fragrance wafted onto him! He didn't scream, too shocked to speak, but tears welled up in his eyes.

His eyes filled with tears, which suddenly rolled down his nose like a string of beads.

At this moment, Drew came out of the "Four Heirs to the Throne" tavern to go home for lunch, and he casually mentioned the second...

The senator moved to Grenoble this morning with his daughter and twelve mules. Grenouille wept.

He swallowed it, and walked across the city, past Guilin's shady trees, to the square in front of the city gate. He stopped and sniffed. He was...

Sure enough, in the pure, untouched westerly wind, he found his coins again, though they were thin and weak.

It was clear and distinct, not easily confused; however, this lovely fragrance did not come from the road leading to Grenoble—west.

It didn't come from the north—it was from the direction of Kablish—but rather from the southwest.

Grenouille asked the sentry which road the Second Senator had taken. The sentry pointed north. Not to Capri.

What road? Or another road leading south to Eurybo and Lanaple? — Certainly not, the sentry.

He said he saw it with his own eyes.

Grenouille ran through the city back to his cottage, bringing back linen, a jar of grease, a spatula, scissors, and a pair of...

The smooth olive wood stick was packed into the travel bag, and it was time to set off immediately—not on the way to Grenoble.

Instead of following the road, I followed the path guided by my own nose: southward.

This road, which leads directly to Lanaple, follows a branch of the Taneron Mountains, crossing the Fréyère and Siané rivers.

The riverside depression. The road was easy to walk on. Grenouille strode forward. When Eurybau appeared on his right...

At that moment, he sensed from the air atop the round mountain that he had almost caught up with the people trying to escape. Not long after, he...

He reached the same height as them. He could now smell the individual scents, even the horses they rode.

The stench. They were at most half a mile to the west, somewhere in the forests of the Taneron Mountains. Their direction was towards...

Southward, facing the sea, just like himself.

Around five o'clock in the afternoon, Grenouille arrived in Lannaples. He went into the inn to eat and asked for a cheap bed.

He said he was a tanner's apprentice in Niza, on his way to Marseille, and was passing through. He also said he could work in the livestock pen.

He spent the night there. He lay down to rest in a corner. He smelled three horsemen getting closer and closer. He waited patiently.

Wearing.

Two hours later—it was already very dark—they arrived. To conceal their identities, they...

They changed their clothes. The two women were now dressed in dark clothes and wearing veils, and Mr. Richis was wearing a black overcoat.

He pretended to be a nobleman from it; he said he was going to the Leland Islands tomorrow and asked the owner to prepare clothes for him at sunrise.

They prepared a small boat. He asked if any other guests besides himself and his men were staying at the inn.

The boss said there was only one tanner from Niza, who spent the night in the livestock pen.

Richis sent two women into the room. He himself went to the livestock pen, saying he needed to get something from the saddle.

West. At first he didn't find the tanner, so he had to ask the groom to bring a lantern. Later he saw him sleeping in a...

On a patch of straw in a corner, covered with an old quilt, a man slept soundly, his head resting on his travel bag. His appearance...

So inconspicuous that Richis's immediate impression was that he didn't exist at all, but was merely the flickering light of the candle.

A phantom. In any case, at this moment, Richis believed that this unassuming man was not at all frightening, and in order not to fight...

Disturbing his sleep, he quietly left and went back into the house.

He ate dinner with his daughter in the room. He didn't explain to her the purpose of this unusual trip, now...

Despite her pleas, he still wouldn't tell her. He said he would tell her tomorrow, and she could completely trust him.

Everything we do and plan to do is for her best and will bring her future happiness.

After dinner, they played cards several times, and he lost every time because he didn't look at the cards; he kept staring at her face.

So that he could enjoy her beauty and feel happy. Around nine o'clock, he escorted her to her room, which was in his own room.

Across from her, he kissed her goodbye and locked the door from the outside. Then he went to bed by himself.

Suddenly, he felt the exhaustion of the previous night and the day, while simultaneously feeling very satisfied with himself and the progress of things.

He felt uneasy. Until yesterday, every time the lights were turned off, a gloomy premonition tormented him, keeping him awake all night.

He had no such premonition at all, and fell asleep immediately, carefree, without dreams or groans.

Without any convulsions, and without the restless tossing and turning of his body, Richis slept so soundly for the first time in a long time.

A good sleep that is peaceful, calming, and rejuvenating.

Meanwhile, Grenouille got up from his bunk in the livestock pen. He was also thinking about the progress of his affairs.

Feeling satisfied, despite not having slept a wink for a second, he still felt exceptionally refreshed. Richis went to the livestock.

When they looked for him in the column, he pretended to be asleep so that, since he had no scent, he would give the impression of being kind-hearted.

It became even more obvious. Furthermore, unlike Richis, who noticed him, he observed with extremely precise precision through his sense of smell.

When he arrived at Richis, Richis's relaxed mood upon seeing him did not escape his keen senses.

Therefore, during their brief encounter, they both deeply believed in each other's kindness, only harboring some misunderstandings.

The distinction between certainty and correctness is as Grenouille discovered, due to his feigned kindness and Richis's true nature.

His kindness made Grenouille feel at ease—moreover, even if Richis were in the opposite situation, he...

I would definitely hold this view.

Grenouille worked with business acumen. He opened his travel bag and took out a linen cloth. (Ancestral precepts)

With a scraper, he spread the grease out on the large, map-like blanket and began to apply the grease to the cloth. This was a time-consuming process.

The work, because it requires applying grease according to the specific part of the cloth that should be placed on a specific part of the body, some parts...

Apply a thicker layer to the sides and a thinner layer to the rest. The scent emanating from the mouth, armpits, breasts, genitals, and feet...

The amount of odor emitted from the lower legs, back, and elbows is greater than that from the palms, arms, and eyebrows, which emit more odor than from the eyelids.

Therefore, more grease must be applied accordingly.

Grenouille appears to be drawing a fragrance diagram of the body to be treated onto linen, this part of the work...

Scriptwriting was his most satisfying work because it was an artistic technique that brought together the five senses, imagination, and...

Everyone's hands are busy, and they can enjoy the expected final results in an ideal way in advance.

After he finished using the grease, he continued to rub it here and there, then removed the grease from one spot on the cloth.

Add it to another location, refine it, and finally enjoy the finished oil painting with satisfaction—naturally, it's done with...

He used his nose, not his eyes, because all his work was done in the dark; perhaps this is what Grenouille meant.

Another reason for Ye's calm and pleasant mood was that nothing could distract him on this new moon night. The world...

It was nothing more than the smell and the sound of waves coming from the sea. He was truly adept at it. Then he arranged the cloth like a fabric patchwork.

He folded it up in the same way, so that the greased parts were layered on top of each other. For him, this was a painful process.

Because he knew perfectly well that the carefully crafted outline would be flattened and shifted as a result. He pleaded to move it.

There was no other way. He folded the cloth so small that it could be easily carried on his forearm.

Then he took the scraper, scissors, and the olive wood stick and quietly went outside.

The sky was covered with thick clouds. The lights inside the house were off. In this pitch-black night, the only faint light was...

A tiny, gleaming stitch, pinned to a black cloth, flickered on the lighthouse on St. Margaret's Isle, a little over a mile to the east.

A gentle breeze carrying the scent of fish blew across the bay. The dogs were all asleep.

Grenouille walked to a small window outside the barn, where a ladder was leaning against it. He took the ladder down.

Three horizontal beams were placed under the free right arm, with the upper part resting against the right shoulder, to keep the ladder balanced upright in the yard.

He climbed the ladder all the way to the window. The window was half open. He climbed the ladder as easily as climbing stairs, and he was glad he could.

To obtain the fragrance of this maiden in Lannaples. In Grasse, the houses are heavily guarded, and the windows are all nailed shut.

The railing made movement much more difficult. Here, she even slept alone. He didn't have to deal with the maid. He pushed open the window...

She quietly entered the room, laid down the sheet, and then walked towards the bed. The room was mainly filled with the scent of a young girl's hair.

The smell was noticeable because she was lying face down, her face buried in the crook of her arm, so that the back of her head was visible.

It facilitated striking with sticks.

The knocking sound was low and guttural. He hated it. He hated it simply because of the sound.

He could only endure the irritating noise by clenching his teeth, and even after the noise subsided, he remained stiff and forced to bear it.

He stood there for a long time, his hand trembling as he gripped the stick, as if afraid the sound would echo back from somewhere.

It seemed to come. But the sound didn't return; instead, silence returned to the room, because now the girl's breathing was no longer heard.

Got it. Grenouille's tense posture relaxed (that tense posture could perhaps also be interpreted as a kind of respect).

(In a timid posture, or in a restrained silence for a minute), his body slumped down limply.

He threw away the stick and busied himself with his work. First, he spread out the scented cloth, making sure it was spread out on his back.