On the E27 highway between the Alps, a SETRA bus is travelling in the direction of Italy.
In the bus compartment, a thick and low man's voice was explaining to the passengers in standard Mandarin: "Ladies and gentlemen, on this beautiful morning, our Secret Stone Travels France, Italy and Switzerland tour continues to depart! I'm Shaun, the tour guide! Today I'm here to introduce you to a rather mysterious piece of wild history!" The man's voice purposely stretched into a long inflected sound when he said the word "wild".
"Today our travelling group will travel over the Alps to Milan. Shortly ahead of us we will pass the Great St Bernard Pass, the same pass where Napoleon led his army of nearly forty thousand men over the Alps into northern Italy in May 1800 and won the subsequent Battle of Marengo."
"When we visited the Palace of Versailles in France two days ago, you had seen a painting inside the Palace entitled 'Napoleon Over the Alps' set against the backdrop of this courageous military action. This painting, like the 'Coronation of Napoleon' preserved in the Louvre, is the work of Jacques. Louis . David."
Speaking here, the voice of the man who was explaining the story lowered even more by two points, thus adding a bit of mystery as he continued to speak: "In fact, when Napoleon first started to cross the Alps, there was a hint of doubt in his heart, the severe cold and complex terrain of the mountains made Napoleon hesitant, and had a slight wavering of the tactic of trying to take a shortcut into Italy at a rate of nearly 40,000 men The failure of this plan would mean that he would be unable to turn the tide of war in Italy and would cede control of Italy to his arch-enemy, the Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Austrians."
"With this hesitation in his heart Napoleon entered the Alps on the Swiss side and led his army on a day's march through the mountains, where, as night fell, the French set up camp for the night."
"Napoleon, heavy-hearted and tossing and turning, simply got up and toured the camp in his tweed cloak."
"The French campfires and tents filled the valley, most of the soldiers were asleep, and the camp was unusually quiet. Napoleon walked confidently out of the barracks and took his escort beyond the reach of the flames of the camp fires."
"Where the campfire did not shine, Napoleon looked up at the starry sky, which was unusually clear at the time, and the mountain air was so pure and the visibility so high that he could see the Milky Way undisturbed."
"If nothing had happened later, the scene would have been like a passage from Zweig's 'When the Stars of Mankind Shine,' where a great commander-in-chief looks up at the stars and, firm in his convictions, decides history."
"But," the man's voice in the microphone paused deliberately to leave something to the imagination and whet the listener's appetite. "What happened after that can't be recorded in the official history."
"Napoleon then took a walk to a higher ground near the barracks, and in a flat area with an open view, Napoleon saw a spectacle: in the centre of that open area, there was a stone tower made of stone, the height of an average adult, the height of an average adult, and the height of an average adult, the height of an average adult, the top consists of twelve oval stones the size of an adult's fist enclosed in a circle."
"There were obvious signs of artificiality in the stacking of the tower-shaped stone pile, and the twelve stones at the top were all painted with different patterns in different colours. Amazingly, there are countless starry white points of light that are slowly rising and coalescing from the circle of twelve stones at the top of the stone tower, like a slowly reversing waterfall of light, shimmering and quietly drifting towards the sky, visually gradually connecting with the Milky Way in the night sky like a dream."
"Napoleon and his escorts were so stunned by the spectacle that Napoleon unconsciously walked towards the pile of stones and put his hand into the rising and coalescing point of light. The point of light passed through his hand unimpeded and continued to rise as if a giant hand had cut through the Milky Way."
"In this instant, Napoleon was suddenly and unusually determined:If my tactics were wrong, how could the gods of fate show me the miracle before me! Forward! Forward! The God of Fate is with me!"
"What followed is known to all, Napoleon was firm in his conviction, and highlighted a strange army that succeeded in crossing the Alps into Italy and driving out the Austrians."
"But what everyone doesn't know is that Napoleon took the twelve mysterious stones from the Alps and kept them with him as lucky stones. In the years that followed Napoleon was invincible and was finally crowned emperor. He believed it all had something to do with the mysterious lucky stones."
"It wasn't until 1812 when France began attacking Russia that the twelve lucky stones magically disappeared from Napoleon's side! By this time the army had already started, and Napoleon had no choice but to order twelve similar stones to be found and painted with the same pattern in the same colours. Unlike the original Lucky Stones, each of these twelve replica Lucky Stones had been signed by Napoleon himself."
"Even so, a replica is a replica after all, and failed to bring Napoleon any more luck than the original Lucky Stones did. His eventual defeat in Russia set off a series of historical events that followed." "Where the real Lucky Stones went, no one knows. The twelve replica Lucky Stones signed by Napoleon were given by a disillusioned Napoleon to an English guard with whom he was on good terms when Napoleon was exiled for the second time to the island of St Helena. After several auctions and collections, these twelve replica Napoleon autographed Lucky Stones have come to ...."
Speaking of this the tour guide named Shaun haughtily from his seat next to the front door of the bus, took the microphone and faced the passengers on the bus with a mysterious and eerie smile:"... in Your tour guide, Shaun, my hand!"
"Uncles and aunts, handsome ladies, secret stone travel agency town community treasure, the economic downturn had to endure today, Napoleon autographed replica lucky stone, with the early nineteenth century, with the early nineteenth century, with a generation of great man's obsession came to you! Out-of-print superb artefacts, each of which can make huge waves in the world's heritage market! The original price of each one is immeasurable, now I give you a super discount, only one hundred and ninety-nine euros each, a one-time purchase of a full set of twelve, can enjoy the ultimate discount price of one thousand eight hundred euros! This is the only set available, pre-order quickly ah ah ah ah!"
After Shaun's vociferous and emotional introduction, the bus compartment was silent, and a mountain wind seemed to blow outside the bus, causing it to sway.
"Om....., Mr.Shaun," finally a middle-aged older woman broke the silence from her seat.
"My lady,please!" Shaun's eyes let out a brilliant light.
"That hyaluronic acid what I bought from you yesterday, I used it last night and it feels pretty good, I'll order two more boxes." The middle-aged lady said.
After a moment of silence, Shaun said seriously, "My lady, why do I feel that you are younger than yesterday!"
~~~~~~~~~~ split line ~~~~~~~
That night the tour group stayed at the Hotel Pearl, about sixty kilometres from Milan. It's a traditional style resort hotel with little in the way of modern decor, surrounded by woods and with the beautiful Ticino River running not far away. The townhouse-like rooms surround a swimming pool, perfect for a family holiday. But the best thing about this hotel is the restaurant.
The European custom is that dinner starts later the further south you go. The Italians start dinner later than the Germans and French, and usually the restaurant doesn't open until 7.30pm. In between waiting for the restaurant to start, Shaun told the group more about Italian food.
"Italy is definitely the land of food! At a time when the French didn't know what table manners meant, the Italians had already elevated food to the level of culture!"
"Compared to the lightness and delicacy of French food, the elements of Italian cuisine are the use of fats and oils and the blending of flavours, which in human terms means that it is like the Sichuan cuisine in our country, big on oil and heavy on flavour, and inexpensive! Remember, in the Mediterranean countries that love olive oil, there are bound to be the best food in Europe! Such as Italy, such as Spain, such as Greece!"
"Today, we have arranged for everyone to stay here in order for everyone to enjoy the charm of Italian cuisine!"
"This hotel has average accommodations, but it has a superb restaurant! There's a rich buffet of appetisers, Mediterranean specialities of pan-roasted seafood, local specialities of seafood pasta, and Italian flavours of T-bone steak. The flavour of the T-bone steak is as good as Florence! Of course, on top of that there are the restaurant's homemade after-dinner desserts."
"Lastly, some advice, if you order the T-bone steak, don't order one for each person, the steak is too big, one for two is better. Also, the steak should be at most medium rare to savour the original taste of the beef. Okay enough talk, my mouth is watering, let's go everyone!"
With the restaurant ready, the group, who were gagging from Shaun's lecture, swarmed in and sat in the reserved seats waiting to enjoy the evening's food.
Getting the group set up, Shaun walked into the kitchen where several cooks were busy, Shaun walked over to a greasy, red-faced fat man and said in Italian as he grabbed him from behind by the scruff of the neck, "Luigi, fry me up a bunch of shrimp and split a steak, thin it out, it's too thick for you to eat!"
The fat red-faced Luigi was taken aback: "Hey Shaun, it's you guys! Did you bring what I asked for?"
Shaun hemmed and hawed and removed a duffel bag from behind him: "Ten bottles of #12 Westvleteren Abbey Beer for two bottles of your old Tuscany home-brewed wine. Open one for me first, I'll drink it at dinner later."
Luigi licked his fat lips: "Wine taken straight from the abbey doesn't feel the same as second-hand stuff bought online. Ceremony is part of good food, isn't it? We'll have a drink together later."
Shaun grinned and snapped his fingers:Â "Your home-brewed wine from back home isn't so bad, it has the flavour of the bright Tuscan sun in it, I've missed it for a long time."
Six hours later, the guests, who had spent a pleasant dinner time and an after-dinner walk, went to sleep in their rooms.
The difference in temperature between morning and evening in the north of Italy in May is still considerable, and the cool air of the Alps does not yet arrive here to be assimilated by the hot and humid air of the Tyrrhenian Sea. At this season one does not have to be troubled by black mosquitoes as in summer for a while.
While even Beto, the German shepherd that Luigi kept, was asleep, the fog began to rise.
A thick fog slowly drifted along the Ticino River from the direction of the mountains, gradually enveloping the forested area along the river, including the Pearl Resort. If anything, dark figures of people floated in the fog, looming like black smoke in the mist, and drifted into the area of the hotel with the fog.
Beto was sleeping just fine in his kennel, and the mist that enveloped the kennel didn't disturb Beto's beauty sleep in the least. Two humanoid black figures in the fog floated over and hovered above Beto, a wisp of milky white gas much thicker than the fog floated out from Beto's body and slowly drifted towards the humanoid black figures, then disappeared into the fog along with the black figures.
Beto was completely unaware of what was happening, only shaking in his sleep from the sudden feeling of exhaustion.
More fog and humanoid black figures slowly drifted towards the guest rooms occupied by the hotel's occupants.
Suddenly the fog disturbed slightly and a man stretched out suddenly appeared in the fog. He yawned and rubbed his sleepy eyes and said, "Alpine Mist People? How did you guys end up here?"
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European Gods and Monsters:
Alpine Mist People:A kind of spirit, or mountain spirit, living deep in the Alps, capable of creating dense fog as a cover for movement, and living by sucking the essence of the plants and animals in the mountains. Because of their timid nature, they never dare to move into areas populated by humans.