After a while, many of the drunken guests noticed that the other guests around them were acting like decent people and had regained their composure as they waited for Bilbo, the host of this grand birthday dinner and the birthday boy tonight, to speak.

, these embarrassed hobbit men and ladies, who had just had alcohol rush to their brains and were intent on shouting and acting drunkenly, also closed their mouths in a sensible manner.

Seeing that the banquet venue had returned to the quiet scene he had expected when delivering his speech, Bilbo nodded slightly with satisfaction.

After a while, he raised the wine glass filled with wine and drinks again and made a 180° semicircular toast to the guests in all directions to express his welcome to everyone's arrival.

After completing this symbolic etiquette ceremony, he continued to deliver the speech of an old birthday star:

"Dear respected relatives and friends, all decent Hobbit gentlemen and ladies, I am extremely honored to have you here today. Although you all knew the theme of this birthday dinner before arriving, I still want to do it twice.

I am honored to officially announce to you that after tonight, I will be 111 years old!"

"Well, kind and generous Bilbo, I wish you a happy 111th birthday soon! I wish you health and happiness forever!"

When they heard that Bilbo did not give a long speech like other elderly hobbits, but instead kept it short and concise, these guests who were forced to stop and enjoy the countless delicious food and drinks on the table suddenly smiled with joy.

Yes, enjoying good food and gifts is the common nature of all intelligent creatures. Regarding this, even the optimistic and generous hobbits cannot escape the shackles of nature.

Now they were all cheering for Bilbo's 111th birthday, not only to congratulate the host of the banquet who gave countless extravagant and precious gifts, but also to applaud his straight-to-the-point speech.

According to the way Bilbo gave his speech, maybe they can continue to enjoy the food on the table in less than three minutes! Many of the guests at the table at this moment were thinking this quietly in their hearts.

In this seemingly happy scene where the guests and hosts were enjoying themselves, Bilbo happily continued:

"I sincerely hope that you will have the same good mood as me at tonight's banquet."

Before he finished speaking, deafening cheers came from under the high podium.

Whether intentionally or not, the guests, eager to get over this boring part of the speech as quickly as possible, responded to Bilbo's best wishes with applause, cheerful whistles and bright smiles.

Almost at the same time, the singing and dancing troupe who had been hired by Bilbo to dance and play music for the banquet and had already been seated beside the tables and chairs immediately began their performance.

Whether it was to please Bilbo, a big customer who paid several silver bars for every purchase, or because of the dedication of the singers and dancers, the song and dance troupe that suddenly danced and played music at this moment was undoubtedly excited for this grand birthday.

The dinner added a lot of beautiful and joyful atmosphere.

As if they were deeply infected by such a cheerful atmosphere, many of the young hobbits who were invited to the banquet even took out various musical instruments that they never left behind from the packages they carried with them.

In this day of celebration, how can we miss out on musical instruments?

For a moment, the sky above the entire banquet hall seemed to be plunged into a sea of ​​singing, dancing and musical instruments, and some younger hobbit children even played the flute and cannon one after another.

Seeing the joy in front of him, not caring about the lively scene in which his master, who had not finished speaking, was going on his own, Bilbo had veins popping out on his forehead.

Although he was slightly dissatisfied, Bilbo did not speak.

He grabbed a horn from a young man nearby and blew it three times. Then the noise of the crowd quieted down.

"I won't keep you for too long." Bilbo's angrily expression clearly made the guests and the song and dance troupe realize the rashness of their own decision.

Now almost everyone's attention was on Bilbo.

"Today, the reason why I spent so much effort to host this birthday dinner actually has three purposes." He said the word "purpose" in a very special tone, and the scene fell into dead silence for a while, and many of them were waiting for Bilbo.

The relatives of the Baggins family who could inherit his inheritance after his death seemed to have triggered an alarm bell in their minds, and they listened very seriously for an instant.

"There are three purposes in total, which are actually very simple. The first is to tell you that I like you very much. It is a great honor for me to be my relatives, friends, and neighbors with you for more than a hundred years. This is really a blessing to me.

A joyful and cherished time!”

When I heard that the usually philanthropic host of the banquet was so polite, thunderous applause came one after another.

"There are many of you who I want to get to know, but have never had the time to put them into practice. There are also many people who deserve my deeper emotional investment."

This passage was unexpected by everyone. Perhaps it was because the obscure words were difficult to resonate with the audience. This time, only a small number of people present chose to cheer for Bilbo's speech failure.

In order to understand the meaning of Bilbo's words, many guests who were drunk and dizzy began to whisper among themselves, hoping to understand whether this sentence was a compliment or a criticism.

"The second purpose is the theme of this banquet. To celebrate my birthday."

Cheers sounded again, and at least all the invited guests understood the meaning of celebrating Bilbo's birthday.

"In other words, it should be to celebrate "our" common happy birthday! Please don't forget that in addition to my birthday today, there is also my legal heir, Frodo, and I also ask you to wish him with me.

Happy birthday! God, time flies so fast. Frodo is 33 years old this year, an age that means he has grown up. I think this also means that he is eligible to inherit my property, and he will also be in the future.

Act on the legal right to inherit all my family property.”

I heard the very old Bilbo making a solemn declaration to all the relatives, friends and other good neighbors present, declaring Frodo as the heir of his property, including many cousins ​​and elders of the Baggins and Took families.

They immediately clapped happily.

As for the other young hobbits who had always played well with Frodo, they also shouted and cheered for Frodo and shouted his name.

In the midst of the joy, only Bilbo's cousin, the Sackville family, who had always secretly coveted his rich fortune, frowned and tried to protest to Bilbo with their frowned eyebrows.

"The combined age of the two of us is one hundred and forty-four. The number of guests I invited is precisely to fit this mysterious number: please allow me to use the expression twelve dozen." No one cheered. This is too ridiculous.

Many guests, especially the Sackville family, felt humiliated. They did not expect that they were invited to fill up the numbers, just like the stuffing used to stuff the box. "Yeah, twelve dozen! You really know how to choose.

Words!"

"If you allow me to recall the past, today is also the 60th anniversary of my escape to Changhu Lake in a wooden barrel. I was only fifty-one years old when I participated in the Solitary Mountain Expedition and arrived at Changhu Town.

To be honest, it seemed that it was nothing for me to miss a birthday at that time. However, the banquet that year was very exciting, but it was a pity that I had a bad cold at that time and was unable to enjoy it. Please allow me to say it clearly this time

End: Thank you all for coming to my little party."

The guests were speechless for a moment. They were all worried that Bilbo would start singing or reciting poems soon. At this moment, everyone was eager to toast him and end it all quickly. To their surprise, Bilbo did not sing or recite poems.

He was silent for a moment.

"The third and final point," he said, "I want to make an announcement here." He especially amplified the word "announcement", and the people who were still barely awake were shocked. "

Although I apologize a little, as I said before, although these wonderful 111 years are joyful, they are very short. I think it is time to leave everyone. I have to go. Let's go now, everyone, see you again when we have the chance.

!”

He jumped off the chair and disappeared immediately. A bright light came from somewhere, and all the guests were dazzled. When they opened their eyes, Bilbo had disappeared without a trace.

The more than a hundred guests who were sitting at the round table and were eager for Bilbo to end his speech quickly so that he could continue enjoying the food were now sitting in their chairs in shock.

Those dumbfounded and exaggerated expressions were enough to show how surprised these guests were at Bilbo's sudden disappearance.

It was obvious that even the most gluttonous hobbit among the people present had no intention of eating.

After all, Bilbo, the organizer of the banquet, made an inexplicable speech directly to the public and then disappeared out of thin air. No one could accept such an arrogant but slightly thrilling "joke".

Many old hobbits who were Bilbo's contemporaries stamped their feet anxiously. Because of their bad throats due to age, they could only vent their dissatisfaction in this rude way. As for the other young and strong people, their voices were not bad.

The good young man started shouting vigorously at this moment, jumping up and down in the field trying to find the hidden figure of Bilbo.

Everyone agreed that the joke was in poor taste, and that the guests should drink more and have some dessert to calm down their anger and calm their shock. "He's crazy, I told you so," was the comment most likely made by those present.

Most commonly heard comments.

At this time, even the relatives of the Took family who had been the most supportive of Bilbo's extraordinary behavior, such as traveling thousands of miles to participate in extremely dangerous adventures such as the Dwarf King Thorin Oakenshield's expedition to the Lonely Mountain, also spoke to express their disapproval of Bilbo.

I don’t understand Bo’s behavior.

At this time, everyone naively thought that his disappearance was just a farce.

While the guests were all in a panic, as if they had encountered an invasion of orcs for a century, Frodo, the legal heir to the property that Bilbo had previously established in his speech, was the only person present who did not say a word.

The young man who seemed to almost everyone to be Bilbo's talker sat in his original position in a daze for a long time.

No matter what other people said, he was as unmoved as a wandering outsider.

In fact, Frodo's calm expression at this moment was almost filled with uncontrollable joy.

As Bilbo's beloved adopted son and legal heir, of course he had learned about this magical disappearance plan from Bilbo early.

At this moment, even though he had known about this for a long time, he couldn't help but feel as happy as if he were watching a funny play when he saw the panicked expressions of the guests. Seeing the guests so panicked, he almost couldn't help laughing.

But at the same time, he also felt very uneasy. Only then did he realize how much he respected this elder. Most of the guests continued to eat, drink, and discuss Bilbo's weird behavior. However, they coveted Bilbo's wealth because of Frodo, the legal person.

The Sackville family, who were disappointed when the heir to the property suddenly appeared, had already fled the scene in disgrace.

When things developed to this point, even Frodo himself was in no mood to stay here and listen to the complaints of other guests.

He quietly drank the wine in his glass, wished Bilbo good health, and then quietly slipped out of the tent, about to walk back to Bag End.

As for Bilbo, as early as his frothy speech, he had already begun playing with the golden ring in his pocket: it was the magic ring that he had secretly collected for many years. When he jumped out of his chair, he

Put on the ring immediately; from then on, no one in the Shire saw Bilbo again.

He walked silently to the door of his home, with a smile on his face, and his concentration was high, listening to the laughter coming from the tent and other banquet venues. With a happy mood, he stepped into the door. This naughty man

The host of the banquet, who had played a prank, took off the dress he wore for the banquet, folded and wrapped his gorgeous silk coat with clean paper.

Then he quickly put on a set of old clothes and tied a belt that had been used for many years around his waist. On it hung a short sword in a black leather sheath. He opened a locked drawer that smelled of insect repellent pills.

, and took out an old hooded cloak.

Then, he walked into the study and took out a package wrapped in old clothes, a leather-bound manuscript, and a bulging envelope from a large safe.

He placed the manuscript and the wrapping board squarely in the most conspicuous place, as if waiting for his heir apparent, Frodo, to see them as soon as he entered the door.

In an emergency, he took off the Lord of the Rings that he had kept beforehand and put them into the envelope, taped the seal, and wrote Frodo's name on the recipient's place.

While he was doing all these actions, the door suddenly opened, and the gray-robed wizard Gandalf walked in with a solemn expression.
Chapter completed!