After a sumptuous dinner, the group moved to the villa's large living room. It was not only more spacious, accommodating the newly added guests, but its wide-open windows facing the garden also brought in the cool breeze of the early summer night.
After some idle chatter, everyone's gaze eventually fell on Lionel, who had yet to speak.
"Lionel," Zola's voice was filled with anticipation, "It's your turn. Let's hear what story our most talented young short story writer will bring us today?"
Lionel nodded slightly. His gaze swept over Maupassant, then over Chekhov, before he silently rose and walked to the center of the living room.
The gaslight outlined his figure. His voice was not loud, yet it was exceptionally clear and cold: "Gentlemen, Émile's story revealed the brutality and complexity of war, and Guy's story was a brilliant black satire.
My story, perhaps, is smaller, more silent, like an inconspicuous grain of wheat buried in the soil of the France countryside."
The story began with the Prussians already occupying the entire Normandy region, while General Faidherbe was still leading the Northern Army in a tenacious resistance.
Lionel's voice was like "...In the Normandy countryside, not far from Rouen, there was a small village, whose owner was named Pierre, Pierre Milon. Everyone called him father milon.
He was sixty-eight years old, small and stooped, with large hands like crab claws. Everyone thought he was ill-tempered and difficult to deal with."
With just a few words, Lionel sketched the image of a typical French old farmer.
Such old farmers were common in the French countryside: stubborn, persistent, hardworking, taciturn, valuing land and property more than life—completely different from the frivolous and dissolute Parisians.
"...Then, the Prussians came, requisitioning his grain, slaughtering his livestock, and using his home as a temporary barracks. father milon silently endured it, like a submissive old donkey.
In front of the Prussians, he always remained silent and compliant, almost appearing somewhat dull and foolish; he even served the Prussians, preparing their hay and fetching clean water...
So the Prussian officers thought this old man was harmless and a little ridiculous, and allowed him to move freely around the farm..."
Lionel narrated in a simple tone, yet it created a discrepancy between father milon's image and the previously portrayed characteristics.
However, the twist in the story quickly appeared:
"...However, the tranquility of the countryside was merely an illusion. Beneath the calm, undercurrents surged. Prussian soldiers began to mysteriously disappear, not dying on the battlefield, but vanishing silently while on patrol or at their posts.
Sometimes bodies were found at the edge of the woods, throats slit; sometimes in ditches, the back of their heads crushed by a blunt instrument; sometimes they simply disappeared without a trace, neither dead nor alive.
The perpetrators even spared no horses, slitting their necks with a single cut."
Lionel narrated the bloody events in a calm tone, which made the audience feel particularly terrified.
Chekhov, sitting in the corner, unconsciously moved closer to the fireplace—though there was no fire in it.
Lionel's voice echoed in the living room: "Fear spread among the occupying forces. They frantically searched, torturing villagers, but found nothing. People rumored it was the work of the elusive 'Avenger'...
"So, the Prussians carried out a reign of terror in the area. Farmers were often executed based on a flimsy accusation, and women were imprisoned;
They even tried to extract information from children through intimidation, but to no avail..."
Huysmans cursed angrily, "Damn Prussians, only capable of preying on unarmed farmers!"
Maupassant, who had served as a soldier on the front lines, said bitterly, "Isn't that because the soldiers with guns have already been defeated and surrendered?
Alas, let's hear Lionel continue..."
Lionel's tone did not falter because of the interruption; it remained as calm as still water: "...One morning, someone saw father milon lying in his stable, with a bloody knife wound on his face.
And on that very day, not far from father milon's farm, two lancers were found with their stomachs pierced. One of their sabers was stained with blood, suggesting he had fought with the assailant before he died."
"Ah? father milon?" Paul Alexis exclaimed.
"His subservience to the Prussians was all an act?" Henry Céard added.
Léon Hennique, however, became excited: "Well done! father milon! I knew he was a patriot!"
Zola, however, frowned slightly and did not agree. He felt that Lionel's story would not be so simple.
Lionel did not try to be mysterious: "father milon was arrested by the Prussians, and a military trial began in the open space of his farm.
The colonel leading the occupying force asked him how he got the knife wound on his face, and if he knew who killed the two lancers.
Although everyone knew the answer in their hearts, no one expected father milon's blunt reply, 'It was I.'"
Lionel at this moment seemed to embody that old father, his tone becoming resolute, startling the listeners.
Immediately following, "father milon's" narration shocked everyone:
"I remember the second day after you arrived, at ten o'clock at night, your soldiers took fifty écus worth of my hay, a dairy cow, and two sheep.
I thought then, if you took another twenty écus from me, I would come and get it back from you—oh, and one more thing, I'll tell you about it later.
Just then, I saw one of your cavalrymen sitting by the ditch behind the granary, smoking his pipe. I took down my scythe and quietly crept up from behind...
One stroke, just one stroke, his head, like a ripe ear of wheat, was cut off by me. He didn't even have time to make a sound.
Go look at the bottom of the pond, you'll find him in a coal sack, with a large stone inside."
When Lionel narrated the killing, he did so without any change in tone, instead speaking like a simple old farmer, as if killing a Prussian was no different from killing a chicken or a sheep.
What was even more incredible was "father milon's" reason for killing: the Prussian occupying forces had stolen his hay, dairy cow, and sheep.
It was not out of any "patriotic sentiment," but merely because his property had been violated.
What theme was Lionel trying to express?
Next, "father milon," like a floodgate opening, spilled out the details of how he killed other Prussian soldiers.
Every night thereafter, he would wander like a ghost through the village, fields, and forests, secretly killing any lone Prussian he encountered. In total, he killed sixteen.
And "father milon" finally calmly spoke of "the other thing"—
'My father followed Emperor Napoleon to war and was killed by you! Last month, you also killed my youngest son, François, near Évreux.
Eight for my father, eight for my son. The scores are settled. Now no one owes anyone anything.
I don't even know you! I don't even know where you came from.
Now you've invaded my home, occupied my farm, and stolen my things, as if this were your own home.
I have taken my revenge on those men, and I don't regret it one bit!' father milon said, straightening his back."
Lionel's voice gradually deepened, finally stopping abruptly after "father milon" was executed: "father milon, before taking his last breath, even smiled at them."
The story ended. Lionel's voice disappeared.
As with the previous two stories, there was no applause, only a deathly silence and heavy breathing.
Zola said in an almost hollow tone, "Lionel, what kind of story have you told us..."