Lionel shook his hand:
"Thank you very much, Friedrich, and also Mr. Lafargue and other friends for your help."
Then he sat down on the sofa beside them.
Friedrich also smiled and sat back:
"You're welcome. We are dealing with a common 'enemy'!"
At this moment, a servant brought red tea and some simple snacks. The old man refilled his pipe with tobacco, struck a match to light it, and took a deep puff.
He looked at Lionel through the curling smoke:
"So, our young 'rebel', how was your adventure in Paris this time?
I heard it was quite lively, even the circus made an appearance."
Lionel gave a self-deprecating smile and took a sip of red tea:
"To be honest, it was somewhat beyond my expectations.
I originally thought I just needed to present my views in court, but I didn't expect someone to be monitoring me, and then everything spiraled out of control.
It eventually turned into a farce!"
Friedrich let out a hearty laugh:
"Haha! You're right! Paris always has surprises.
Paul told me the general course of events, and you're lucky you didn't fall into the hands of fanatical colonialists."
At this point, the old man's tone became a little more serious:
"Lion, your previous judgment of France's political situation was too optimistic.
Or perhaps, you were blinded by the superficial 'calm' of the past few years; you seem to have underestimated the intensity of internal conflicts in France!"
He began to elaborate on his observations in detail, point by point:
"Jules Ferry's 'Moderate Republicans' seem to hold power, but their foundation is not solid.
The 'Radical Republicans' led by Clemenceau, Vaillant, and others, inherited part of the legacy of the Paris Commune, demanding more thorough reforms.
As for the royalist remnants, Bonapartists, and those aligned with the clerical power, they have never truly accepted the Republic and constantly desire its restoration!
They still maintain great influence in the army, judicial system, and local administration, happy to see infighting among Republicans, and even willing to incite extreme emotions.
Think about it, in your recent ordeal, who were those people who showed up?"
Lionel silently considered it—he was surrounded by military cadets, prosecuted by a minor offenses court, and ignored by the local police…
A chill ran down Lionel's spine as he realized how naive his previous belief that France would not exile a writer was.
He slowly nodded:
"You are right, I was too idealistic. Looking back now, the birth of the Third Republic itself had questionable legitimacy.
It was not established after the full deliberation of the popular will, but rather as the product of a provisional government forced to declare it amidst crisis after the disastrous defeat in the 1870 war.
Therefore, it lacked a solid foundation from the very beginning. Orleanists, Legitimists, Bonapartists, Republicans… they never stopped tearing at each other.
The 1875 code was a compromise dominated by conservatives, full of contradictions and ambiguities, as if prepared for an empire or dynasty to return at any time.
Each faction could use it to find grounds for their own struggle for power."
Friedrich praised Lionel's analysis and added:
"Furthermore, one cannot ignore the wounds left by history.
The painful defeat of 1870 and the bloody suppression of the Commune are two wounds on the body of the Third French Republic that have never truly healed.
However, the 'brain' of this Republic chose to deal with them superficially, or to brutally suppress them; in short, they were unwilling to face them directly.
Like last year's amnesty, it was more like 'the victor's pardon' than 'equal reconciliation,' so the workers remain dissatisfied."
Lionel sighed:
"Indeed, that was a grand performance of 'the Republic forgiving its wayward children.'
The amnesty was not to promote justice, but to hasten forgetting—the Republic lacked the courage to confront its own violence.
The Republicans hoped to shed the historical responsibility for the massacre and quickly bury that memory completely.
Not a single person killed received official recognition, compensation, or investigation; they even banned any public commemorative activities."
Friedrich nodded:
"Thus, institutional risks and historical wounds intertwined, the parliament was fragmented by factions, and the average lifespan of a cabinet was less than a year.
The entire national system was caught in a fragile stalemate and frequent turmoil, which is the most fundamental reason for your current predicament.
So, Lion, having been drawn into this struggle, what kind of writer will you choose to become in the future?"
Lionel felt a wave of bewilderment.
For over two years, he had been immersed in Paris's growing prosperity and his own increasing income, and some of his nerves seemed to have become numb and dull.
From the late 19th century to the outbreak of World War I in the early 20th century, Europe experienced nearly forty years of relative peace, known as the "Belle Époque."
Especially France—electric lights, Impressionism, the metro, Moulin Rouge, secular education, scientific progress, consumer society…
But this "Belle Époque" belonged only to the upper class, and countless contradictions and problems accumulated in places the elite preferred not to glance at.
The "Belle Époque" was like a crumbling glass dome, appearing bright, delicate, and orderly from afar…
But internally it was riddled with cracks—nationalism, colonial violence, social injustice, the disillusionment of reason…
It was not a true era of peace, but a masked ball held on a volcano.
People indulged in pleasure in ballrooms and cafes until the sound of cannons in 1914, when all the splendid illusions collapsed in an instant.
An entire generation of European youth would be fed into that relentless meat grinder, and among them, very likely, his future children.
Even if he truly had money, power, and influence at that time, he probably couldn't change this fate.
He had seen that series of numbers.
Over seven thousand elementary school teachers died in the war, leading to the complete collapse of grassroots education in post-war France.
The University of Paris lost two-thirds of its students, and Durkheim's school was almost wiped out.
The mathematics department was left with only a few teachers of function theory…
By calculation, it was only about 30 years later; if he didn't die in some accident or illness, he would be in his prime.
But what could he do?
Or could he only watch all this happen helplessly?
He remembered he had once asked Gu Hongming whether he planned to stay in Europe, return to Penang, or go to China—to be among the "upper class."
When this question fell upon himself, its weight was far heavier than when he asked others.
Friedrich did not interrupt the young man before him.
He leisurely took a sip of tea, then a puff from his pipe, and slowly exhaled the blue smoke.
After a long while, he slowly opened his mouth:
"Lion, when do you think I first noticed you?"
Lionel came back to his senses and realized that the other person did not seem to be pressing the previous question, so he replied:
"Was it 'The Old Guard,' or 'My Hometown'?"
Friedrich shook his head:
"Neither. In fact, the first time I noticed your name was not from a novel or a play.
It was from the essay you published in 'Good Words' about 'Impoverished Individuals and Family Responsibility'."
Lionel was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected Engels to notice that relatively academic article.
It was a short essay he wrote at the invitation of Norman Macleod after the publication of "My Uncle Jules," combining it with the novel's background.
In this essay, he attempted to analyze the deeper causes of Jules' tragedy from a sociological perspective.
The old man noticed his surprise and continued:
"I've always been very interested in family matters, and the points you raised in that article are very interesting.
You said that today, whether in Britain or France, traditional family relationships are facing enormous challenges brought by industrialization.
The traditional agricultural society's family ethics, built on land ownership and common labor, are rapidly disintegrating…
These have given me some inspiration. I'm planning to write a book soon about marriage, family, and the origin of private property…"
(End of chapter)