Four Hundred and Thirty Pairs

Wearing a dark green luxurious dress, Carmen leaned idly on the mottled stone window sill of the ancient castle, her beautiful big eyes scanning the crowds of people below the city through lace, indifferent and cold, like a deep pool in an ancient well.

"Too many people have gathered," she said to herself. "If it rains heavily at this time, we may all die here."

"Didn't you take Daniel's panacea?"

Henna, dressed in a black veil, floated in from the window, talking, landing on all fours like a cat, from forelimbs to hindlimbs, elegant and steady.

Before she could stop, there was a meowing scream outside the window, and White Ears slammed in from mid-air in an extremely inelegant manner, like cannonballs, slamming on the stone floor of the corridor.

Haina was obviously dissatisfied with the apprentice's performance, she straightened up, walked over, picked up the nape of Bai Er's neck, and brought it up to her eyes.

"There's only a four-meter drop, and you're so clumsy that you don't look like a cat at all."

White ears and brows together: "Meow..."

Carmen rolled her eyes and poked her head out, then retracted quickly: "A drop of four meters means jumping from 15 meters to 11 meters on a straight castle. White ears are no worse than other fat cats. On the contrary, you ...emmm, can't you be a little bit human once in a while?"

Haina casually threw away the already big white ear, and the white ear seemed to be pardoned, and disappeared after three jumps and two jumps.

Until it ran away, Hana suddenly said: "You are not right."

"There are a lot of refugees outside the castle, and I am always concerned about my health." Carmen lifted the lace on her forehead provocatively, raised her eyebrows, and raised the corners of her eyes, "Or, in the fields of alchemy and medicine, do you think you are better than Daniel?" More Professional?"

"I'm not talking about the body, but about the state." Hana paused, "You are very mean this time when you go to sea. Since Southampton, you have put on the posture of not being close to acquaintances. Everyone is very worried about you."

"Ala, I remembered! Bell is not here, you are now the veritable second-in-command on the pirate ship."

"But Ms. Helmsman, don't forget that we are a merchant ship flying the pirate flag. Merchant ships have ranks of merchant ships. Below the boss is the admiral, and below the admiral is the captain. Below the captain is the first mate, then the pilot, then the second mate, the helmsman and the lookout. It is no more noble than a staff officer, but in the position of the General Assembly, I am the executive director and general manager, and you are just an ordinary director."

Carmen Pingpingtingting stood up and swayed past Hana.

"Don't try to talk to me in a judgmental tone, you said it yourself, I'm mean."

Hannah snapped Carmen's wrist: "What are you worried about?"

"Population." Carmen replied casually, "The castle has gathered too many people. The captain has mobilized the entire African branch to deliver food and civilians. Only Valkyrie and the lady are left in the open sea. Although this does allow us to earn money from the new government. We have made a lot of money and gained a reputation among the Omanis, but this is not a long-term solution, and perhaps we should abandon our commitment to Spanish and French merchants."

"I never cared about the affairs of the chamber of commerce. I'm asking you, what are you worried about and what are you avoiding?"

Carmen tried to break free, but it was the wrist held by Hana...

She gave up, turned around, and put down her hands, at least allowing her arms to relax for a moment.

"What do you want to hear?" she asked.

"Reason, the reason why you hate people."

"The objectionable reason is, of course, the meanness,

Isn't that what you said? "

"I want a deeper reason."

Carmen suddenly stared into Henna's eyes, full of murderous intent and anger.

Hana, as always, looked back with her emerald eyes, neither flickering nor wandering. There are very few indistinguishable emotions in those deserted eyes, and the most contained in them is probably a kind of curiosity that ordinary people don't pay much attention to.

"Except for a beautiful human skin, you have been trained to be a cat by Assassin's inheritance." Carmen threw away her arm bitterly, and had to give up again.

This is very unusual for her.

Facing the same opponent in the same match, it was difficult for her to show weakness even once in the past, let alone twice like today...

But the opponent is Henna, which is an unassailable reason.

Carmen let out the suffocation in her chest weakly: "I know something is wrong with me. I know both the time and the reason. The irritability started from the short stay in Southampton, because I summoned little Sharon there."

"Sharon Artis?"

"Little Sharon is my student. Although she is different from me in terms of talent, she followed me to deal with affairs since she was a child. Naturally, she has a lot in common with me in terms of cognition and handling of things."

"You know that this kind of relationship is closer than ordinary teachers and students, like the captain and Pierce Jr., Karen and Reiner, you... maybe with White Ears?"

"Get rid of me and Bai Er, and continue." Hana said coldly.

Now it was Carmen's turn to be curious: "I thought you didn't dislike White Ears as a cat at all."

"I really don't dislike it." Hana explained very seriously, "But it is a failed work. It is obviously better than mine, but it can't learn anything."

"You actually think that a cat is more like a cat than you are a talent..."

"Is something wrong?" Hannah didn't understand, but that didn't matter. She said, "Go on."

Carmen was so suppressed that she had no temper at all...

"Sharon was very disappointed when she first boarded the ship." Carmen recalled, "Pierce returned to England with the fleet, and did not go to London to find her, but brought Sanmei Xiao from the original ship to the Noble Lady. It seems that this is intimacy."

"Of course I know about the relationship between Pierce and Third Sister Xiao. Pierce is exactly the same as the captain in this respect. He is obviously not dull, but he is very passive. He will neither hunt around like Yazha, nor take the initiative to attack like Bell."

"He has no physical relationship with Third Sister Xiao, nor is he closer spiritually than he and Sharon, but Sharon disagrees with me. She has a more intuitive feeling that Pierce prefers to be with Third Sister Xiao. A piece, not her."

Carmen smiled weakly: "Look, that's why I'm irritable. I'm worried about my students. In my opinion, she is more involved than Sanmei Xiao, but she doesn't get the response she deserves, even... ...Pierce got away too."

"Do you know? Even though I have faced hundreds of men, but this round alone, I can't find a way to break through, and I don't know whether Sharon's perseverance is meaningful."

After speaking, Carmen felt a kind of redemption and release from the depths of her soul.

Her strength melted like an ice sculpture under the sun, she wanted to sit down, but her pride did not allow her to sit down.

She looked at Hannah: "Muscat has already begun to close. The captain has turned this war into a big business. In business, my state is far more important than your state."

"So don't worry, I will work hard to adjust my state. I am a professional manager, and I will never let myself become the flowering bomb in the team that can spontaneously ignite at any time."

Carmen floated away, and her leather boots stepped on the hard stone slabs of the castle corridor, making a crisp and confident sound.

Henna's voice chased after her like a shadow, and suddenly stopped at the blind spot of Carmen's sight, like an assassin, teasing the back of Carmen's neck with her warm breath.

"Do you know the difference between us?" Hana asked without beginning or end.

"Us?" Carmen asked differently.

"You and me, Third Sister Xiao and Sharon."

"Us?" Carmen repeated the exact same words and intonation, but the meaning was completely different.

Hannah reached out and strangled Carmen's neck from behind, and lifted her head up, forcing her to put her ear to the assassin's lips.

"From the time I was sensible, my father told me that my future husband will have four wives. This is given to him by wealth and status, and it is allowed by Allah. I must be humble. This is an obligation."

"It just so happens that Xiao Sanmei's situation is very similar to mine. Wang also told me that women in the Qing Dynasty had three obediences and four virtues, and men had three wives and four concubines."

"We never thought about exclusivity, so we don't bother with it."

"But you are different."

"You, Sharon, Pierce, and Lorraine, no matter what you believe in or how you believe in, you all regard this as a tragic war with only one winner. Men avoid war, and women yearn for war."

"If there was a war, I would have slit your throat long ago."

Henna stroked Carmen's throat lightly with her slender hands, then let her go and jumped long.

"You said that women who can only fight and kill are not good at helping men solve problems, but you forgot that we are good at eliminating problems."

"Why haven't you been eliminated? It's strange, I don't like you..."

Henna's voice drifted away, and these emotional voices that had never appeared in Carmen's memory drifted further and further until they disappeared at the end of the corridor, leaving only the aftermath.

Carmen stood there blankly, her clever head, which had to deal with millions of pounds every year, kept sorting out the problems.

Why wasn't it wiped out...

The answer to this question is obviously unique, so she is not Hina's problem at all.

"But you are my problem! You are not only my problem, we also became Lorraine's multiple-choice question..."

Carmen bit her lip.

"She's obviously a stupid woman who can't comfort people at all! You're making me even more irritated!"

"Sharon! I want the shipping schedules and locations of all the merchant ships of the African branch, as well as a list of goods from all non-Portuguese-controlled ports within 500 kilometers!"

"I know yesterday's was on my desk, but I want today's! 30 minutes!"

"There is still an agenda! Draft an agenda. Tomorrow's deputy meeting needs to seriously discuss the issue of refugee insulation and epidemic prevention. I don't want to tell them that a whalebone corset won't strangle a lady's ribs!"

"Let our staff run, Sharon, they are too idle!"