One should praise women, not love them.
– Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
For an officer constantly living under high-pressure conditions, nothing is more comforting than a lavish foreign reception.
In Leipzig, he didn't have to worry about suddenly receiving urgent tasks from superior officers, nor did he fear unforeseen calamities springing out of nowhere, nor did he need to guard against those hidden arrows that might come from his colleagues at any moment.
In Leipzig, in a place unseen by the Tsar, he could indulge freely without the fear of political scrutiny for being lost in an enchanted realm or seduced by the British charming overtures.
The front stage presented Turandot, a crystallization of human civilization's wisdom, while in the backyard, the most primitive and clichéd play of human civilization—money, liquor, and lust—was simultaneously being staged.
