Chapter 94: It tells of my adoptive father, Nikolai Sergeyich, who, after gambling away his family fortune in his youth, quit gambli

And just in this process, he met a duke who was very skilled at manipulating people's hearts, and wholeheartedly became that man's steward, managing his property.

Because he was a "very kind, innocent, and somewhat romantic person; although some spoke ill of them, such people are still well-regarded in our Russia. Once they fall in love with someone (sometimes only God knows why), they will devote themselves utterly to that person, dying only after their duty is done. Their one-sided foolishness sometimes reaches a ridiculous, even comical degree."

He was so loyal and kind that he almost regarded that duke as his own brother.

And what kind of person was that duke?

Born of a ruined noble family, he had no choice but to marry a merchant's daughter. Relying on his wife's dowry, he stabilized his footing and revitalized his family's business.

This merchant's daughter was only slightly literate, barely knowing a few characters, and her appearance was ugly, but she had a good heart and was completely obedient to the duke.

Thus, the duke fully exploited this trait of hers; a year later, he separated from her and had long since begun to continuously abuse her. After six or seven years, this merchant's daughter finally died.

Immediately after, the duke began to rise rapidly in the world, relying on the fortune he had schemed to acquire and his ability to navigate both sides. In this process, the duke sent his son to Nikolai for a time. Then, the duke seemed to have heard some rumors, saying that his steward appeared to have embezzled his property and that his daughter was seducing his son.

At the very beginning, the duke had only wanted to find a reliable steward for himself, with no interest in deeply understanding the steward. Thus, he quickly believed these words and publicly insulted the steward who had worked hard for him and trusted him, calling him a thief.

This insulted old man, in a fit of rage, abandoned everything and decided to move his entire family to St. Petersburg to personally campaign for justice regarding this wrongful case.

The duke seemed to realize very quickly that he should not have insulted Ikhmenev without cause. But because of face, the duke decided to use every trick in the book to win this lawsuit: "In other words, it actually meant snatching the last piece of bread from his former steward and reducing him completely to a pauper."

Upon reading this, the young Tolstoy felt a prickling sensation all over his body, because he saw far too many familiar things in these contents. Yet, as far as he knew, those people all took pride in their actions and felt no shame whatsoever.

On the other hand, he unconsciously put himself in the situation; anger rose involuntarily, and he wished he could simply shoot that hypocritical, disgusting duke.

But when he thought of his own recent behavior, he fell somewhat silent.

But regardless, he had been completely drawn into this story and could not wait to see the subsequent developments. Thus, with trembling hands, he hurriedly flipped backward and very soon saw these words: "To be continued."

The young Tolstoy: "???"

A nameless fury made this young man tremble all over. He would even swear to God that if this author had finished writing but still refused to upload the entire novel, then he would definitely shoot him!

"Achoo!"

Mikhail, walking down the street, suddenly sneezed several times in a row. Although he felt no chill, he, who cherished his health, still tightly wrapped his coat to avoid catching a cold or similar illness.

"How strange."

Mikhail could not help but mutter.

(End of this chapter)