I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 9 Shrimp and Pig Heart
  Spring in St. Petersburg is always very short, as if winter turns to summer in a blink of an eye.

A month has passed since the assassination of the Tsar. Ya Er's body has been sorted out and is still placed in the Winter Palace. A large amount of ice has been placed in the coffin where the body is stored to prevent the body from rotting. Members of the royal families attending the funeral are arriving in St. Petersburg one after another.

George's family has moved out of the Winter Palace and returned to their previous house. This is a palace built by Ya Er for Catherine. Although not as large as the Winter Palace, it is equally tall and grand. It is located in the beautiful Neva By the river, George spent his childhood here.

Ekaterina was first arranged by Ya Er to serve as a female official next to the queen for two years.

During these two years, Yaer built the palace for Catherine and named it after her.

This is an English-style palace mixed with Russian pastoral style. Facing the Neva River, it has a palace building and a high tower. It has three independent gardens and a total of 45 rooms. Each room is beautifully decorated. Ekaterina lived here until she officially married Yaer.

Maria did not want to see Catherine at Alexander's coronation ceremony, so after Alexander's funeral, Catherine would go to France. This palace was also given to George as a final gift by Catherine , privately owned by George.

Counting this way, George also has a lot of private property. In addition to vineyards in France and this palace, George also has a farm outside St. Petersburg and near Moscow. These were all given to Catherine by Ya Er. The gift was forwarded to George by Catherine.

Catherine was full of guilt for leaving George in St. Petersburg, so she was doing her best to compensate George.

Alexander did fulfill his promise, and George went to the Winter Palace every day to study with Nicholas.

Ekaterina was worried about this arrangement because Nicholas was four years older than George and the course schedule would definitely be different. Ekaterina was worried that George would not be able to keep up with Nicholas' study progress, thus affecting George. results.

George wasn't too worried about the problem.

The knowledge system of the 19th century cannot be compared with the era of knowledge explosion in the 21st century.

George graduated from college anyway. Although most of the knowledge he learned in school has been returned to the teacher, the remaining part is enough.

When it comes to learning this kind of thing, you have to see who you compare with.

Compared with the professors at St. Petersburg University, George may be inferior.

Nikolai——

George can say without humility, come on, come on, give you half a brain.

Like George and other princes of his generation, Alexander arranged a very intensive curriculum for Nicholas, which included language, military, economics, mathematics, law and other subjects. Alexander did not expect Nicholas to become a general genius. In order to understand the level of knowledge, the crown prince cannot be ignorant.

To Alexander's disappointment, Nicholas was not very talented in learning.

It was not the first day that Nicholas started systematic learning. Like George, he had been educated for many years early. However, Nicholas's learning progress was not very fast, and the courses were greatly reduced compared with George. In terms of language, Nicholas Just started learning French and German.

George is already proficient in communicating with professors in French and German.

Alexander had high hopes for Nicholas, and the teachers he invited for Nicholas were all famous professors from higher education institutions. The professors who taught French and German were Duboret and Lanson respectively. Both of them were very familiar to George, because George's previous French skills And the German professor is also one of them.

"Long time no see George, are you okay?" Gustave Lanson was pleasantly surprised when he saw George on the first day of French class.

George's grades are always very good, which makes the professors feel a sense of accomplishment. Who doesn't love such a student?

Compared with George, Nicholas is a headache for professors.

Nicholas always lacks concentration in class, looks around, and picks his nose when impatient. The professors had very relaxed requirements for Nicholas. They would not embarrass the crown prince when setting up courses, let alone examinations, so Nicholas never left any performance records during his studies.

"I'm fine. I've finished watching "Les Misérables" that you asked me to watch. What should I watch next?" George likes Lanson very much. He is a literature professor at the Collège de France.

"How do you feel?" Lanson smiled, holding a book of poems by Victor Hugo in his arms, trying to use Hugo to inspire Nicolas' interest in learning French.

"Well, it's very profound -" George learned his lesson well and said too much to make mistakes.

Just these two sentences have already attracted a surprised look from Nicholas. Now George feels a little regretful that he shouldn't have mentioned "Les Misérables" just now.

I’ve finished reading it. If I want to continue reading, I go to the study to look for it. I mention “Les Misérables” in front of Nicholas. Isn’t that a slap in the face?

Fortunately, Nicholas is not a narrow-minded person. He still respects George as his uncle and does not mind that George steals his limelight. Instead, he is very grateful to George for helping him attract firepower.

"Uncle George, what is "Les Misérables"?" Nicholas's brother, another George, was full of curiosity.

There are many children in the royal family, and there are only a few commonly used names. Every family has boys named Alexander and Nicholas, and there are a lot of girls named Ekaterina and Maria. The probability of having the same name is very high.

"Georgi, be quiet, we are going to start class-" Lanson came to George's rescue in time.

Although he has passed the elementary learning stage, George is still very serious in class.

Nicola seemed to be serious, but if you observe carefully, you will find that Nicola's gaze was straight, looking straight ahead, and did not follow Langson's pointer at all.

Georgi, who is one year older than George, is very smart and very expressive. Whenever Langson asks a question, Georgi is always the first to answer.

George finally learned to hide his clumsiness. Unless Lanson asked a question, George said nothing. When answering questions, he was very careful with his words and refused to say a word more.

Finally, when get out of class was over, Nicholas jumped up from his seat like a mummy coming to life: "Let's go to the game!"

Georgi didn't speak at the moment, looking at George expectantly.

What else could George do, he could only nod in agreement.

The game room is on the east side of the second floor. It is all used by the Nicholas brothers and includes a reception room, dining room, bedroom, gym and game room.

The playroom was well stocked with toys and puppets, as well as military drums and racks for rifles.

The rifle here is definitely out of ammunition.

There is also a bugle with tassels hanging on the gun rack. Next to it are swings, rings, sand piles for wrestling, and a small train that can be driven.

"Uncle George, have you ever played with these?" Georgi showed George his new toy excitedly.

George's smile was forced.

This was originally George's playroom. These toys used to belong to George. Do you think George ever played with them?
  This little bastard is so bad, with a shrimp heart and a pig heart.

(End of this chapter)