A Date

Upon hearing Joseph's request, Fouché paused for a moment, then laughed, "I understand. But Mr. Bonaparte, you're about to return to Toulon, which seems a bit far."

Joseph chuckled and said, "It is a bit far, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"Mr. Bonaparte, I met the girl at Armand's funeral. To be honest, she's a nice person. She managed to control herself under those circumstances; she could definitely manage a household well. But Mr. Bonaparte, why don't you think of a way to bring her back to Toulon?"

"She still has parents in Paris, and they're sick," Joseph said, shaking his head. "We'll figure something out later."

"Oh, right, I need to ask you for a few things," Fouché said.

"What is it?"

"I need some 'Little Melon'," Fouché said. "Don't look at me like that. I don't want to cause trouble in Paris. You know, what I do now often involves dealing with gangsters. These people can do things that others can't, but many times, you have to let them know that you have the ability to cause trouble. Otherwise, they won't cooperate with you seriously. Sometimes they might even want to treat you like a tool to be dealt with."

"I don't understand," Joseph said. "Come to me early the day after tomorrow, and I can give you some. But Mr. Fouché, you should be careful when dealing with these people."

"I want Little Melon, mostly as a deterrent. And the best deterrent is to do nothing," Fouché laughed.

"You're an expert in this field. Oh, by the way, does Miss Fanny know you?"

"I saw her at Armand's funeral, but I doubt she would have noticed me."

"I have some things to give to Miss Fanny the day after tomorrow. You can also meet her there; I'll be relying on you to take care of her in the future," Joseph said with a smile.

With Fouché gone, Joseph's business in Paris was essentially complete; all that remained was his date the next day. Dating girls wasn't anything new for Joseph; he'd had plenty in his past life. However, dating a girl in a cemetery was a first, both in this life and the last. Thinking back to his past life, if he'd asked a girl out with a WeChat message like, "Are you free? If you're not busy, how about we go for a walk in Biandan Mountain?" he'd definitely be blocked immediately.

The next morning, Joseph brought a bouquet of flowers and drove a light carriage to Fanny's house. He tied the carriage there and knocked on Fanny's door.

Getting Fanny out of her house wasn't difficult; in fact, the old viscount was quite pleased to have someone to date his daughter. Although Fanny was still very young by today's standards, in this era, Fanny could indeed be considered an old maid.

So when Joseph took Fanny out, the old viscount called out to them, telling them not to rush back and to stay as long as they wanted.

Joseph took Fanny's hand and helped her into the carriage. He then sat down in the seat next to her, flicked the reins, and drove the light carriage toward Montmartre Heights. From Fanny's house to Montmartre Heights, even with a carriage, it would take almost two hours. So they didn't arrive at the cemetery until almost noon.

Due to financial difficulties, many public works expenditures, including those for the cemetery, have been cut, so the cemetery no longer has a caretaker. The gate is wide open, and looking inside, the various trees and flowers in the cemetery grow freely and openly, but because no one trims or manages them, their original pruned shapes are nowhere to be seen.

It was noon, the sun was high in the sky, so although it was an unattended cemetery, it didn't have the eerie feeling of a mountain village corpse. Joseph took Fanny's hand and walked into the cemetery.

"Go a little further ahead, then turn right, and you'll find it." Led by Fanny, the two quickly found Armand's grave. The grave was still quite new, with a tombstone in front of it that read: Playwright, soldier of the Republic, author of Spartacus, Armand Lavoisier.

Joseph took off his hat, placed the bouquet of flowers in front of the tombstone, and then stood beside Fanny, who was silently weeping.

"Armand, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to see you," Joseph said. "To be honest, things aren't going very well in France right now. Everyone's having a tough time, but don't worry, I'll take good care of your family."

As he said this, he casually took Fanny's hand.

Fanny didn't say anything, she just silently shed tears. Joseph didn't know how to comfort her, so he could only hand her a handkerchief he had prepared.

Fanny took the handkerchief, but suddenly burst into tears.

Joseph knew it was because she had been suppressing her emotions for too long, and that being able to cry and let it all out was actually a good thing for her. So, just like last time, he reached out and stroked her hair. But unexpectedly, Fanny suddenly hugged him, buried her head in his chest, and cried uncontrollably.

Joseph felt a little embarrassed. He glanced at Armand's tombstone, then reached out and hugged Fanny.

Fanny cried for a while before gradually stopping. She lifted her tear-streaked face from Joseph 'Joseph embrace, gently pulled away, and lowered her head, saying, "Sir, I'm sorry, I..."

"It's nothing, you can just treat me like family, like a brother," Joseph said sincerely. However, generally speaking, when a man tells a woman he sees her as a sister, he usually means he genuinely doesn't have any romantic feelings for her. But if he says he hopes she'll treat him like a brother, that's a different story. It's very likely he's just being a lewd person who lusts after her body.

Joseph, of course, probably harbored similar despicable thoughts, so he stroked her hair and said, "Look at your little face, you've cried your eyes out. When we get back, your father will think I bullied you outside."

As he spoke, Joseph took the handkerchief from her hand and wiped away her tears himself, then pulled her into a hug. "It's alright, don't worry, the hard times are over. Now that I'm here, you don't have to worry about anything."

Fanny struggled slightly, but her movements were not firm, so nothing changed, and she remained in Joseph's arms. She rested her head on Joseph's shoulder, which was broad and should be a place she could lean on.

A little while later, some noise suddenly came from the other side. It seemed that someone was coming this way. Fanny was startled and immediately broke free from Joseph's embrace. Joseph also looked in that direction and saw several people heading in the other direction.

"They're probably just like us, people who came to visit the graves," Joseph said.

"Unlike us...we've been out for a while now," Fanny said softly. "We should go back."

"Alright," Joseph said, then turned to Armand's grave and said, "Armand, we're going back now. We'll come see you again later."

Then, taking Fanny's hand, he turned and walked out of the cemetery.

Joseph thought, "If Armand, that siscon, could actually see someone hugging and cuddling his sister in front of his grave, he'd probably be so angry he'd crawl out of his grave." So he glanced back a little guiltily, but... of course, he didn't see anything unusual. After all, we're writing a historical novel, not From the Dawn.

The two left the cemetery and got back into the carriage. The midday sun was very strong, so Joseph pulled up the carriage canopy and drove the carriage back.

Perhaps exhausted from crying, Fanny quickly fell asleep in the swaying carriage. She rested her head on Joseph's shoulder, her hands still tightly wrapped around Joseph arm.

The carriage traveled for a while, then slowed down near the City Hall due to the crowds. The surrounding noise woke Fanny. She quickly sat up straight and tidied herself up—she wasn't far from home.

Just then, a newspaper boy ran past the carriage, carrying a stack of newspapers in one hand and a single newspaper in the other, shouting as he ran, "News, news! The battle on the Belgium front has been won by our army! General Joubert has been wounded!"

Seeing that it was very crowded ahead, Joseph simply stopped the carriage, called out to the newsboy, and bought a newspaper from him.

"What's wrong? Has something happened at the front?" Fanny asked.

"Let me see... Ah... the news isn't clear enough. It seems our army defeated the Austria again, but General Joubert was wounded in the battle. They didn't say how he was wounded or what the extent of his injury is. I hope it's nothing serious," Joseph said.

The news report is true, but it doesn't clearly explain the circumstances of Joubert's injury. In fact, Joubert was injured by a friendly fire Little Melon.

Following the Thermidor Reaction, military production was severely disrupted and damaged. Joubert's army began to suffer a growing shortage of "Little Melon"Little Melon (military supplies), while the Austria on the other side were constantly supplying him. As a result, Joubert suffered a series of defeats.

However, recently, some new arsenals began operating, and new "Little Melon" munitions with various trademarks began to flood the troops. Having obtained a sufficient supply of "Little Melon," Joubert led his army in a counter-offensive. Relying on his superior skirmisher force, he once again defeated the Austria and forced them to retreat. But it was during this battle that a French Army soldier, not far from Joubert usually preferred to command from the front lines, threw a "Little Melon" at the enemy. Unexpectedly, the fuse of this "Little Melon," which didn't bear Bonaparte's name, seemed faulty; it exploded in his hand the moment he pulled the pin. The unfortunate French Army soldier was killed instantly, and even General Joubert was struck by shrapnel and seriously wounded.

Of course, Joseph learned of this from Fouché afterward.