British writer.

Chapter 133 It's worth it!

Dirty——

The whistle of the train sounded, reminding the people on the platform to get out of the station quickly.

An old man picked up his suitcase and walked out slowly.

The old man was simply dressed in a black trench coat and had a beard that hung down to the opening of the front of the trench coat. Miraculously, his beard was white and his hair was gray and black, which looked a bit strange.

Because the suitcase is heavy, he looks limping,
A flight attendant leans over,
"Sir, do you need help?"

The old man raised his head,

"Ah, no, no, no. I want to ask, is there a telegraph place near here?"

The flight attendant looked confused.

"You... uh... what did you say?"

He could tell that the other person was speaking French, but the accent was too strong and the accent was extremely thick, making it difficult to understand.

The old man couldn't help being embarrassed, lowered his speaking speed, and repeated: "I want to ask, is there a place to send a telegram near here?"

The flight attendant listened to the general idea this time,

"Telegram? To the telegraph office...er, to the post office."

After the World Expo, Paris banned the specialized telegraph operator and merged it with the post office.

The old man nodded,
He opened the suitcase he carried with him, rummaged through it for a while, took out a map of the city of Paris from it, and handed it to the other party.

This time, even the language communication is not needed, the flight attendant can understand.

He looked for the location of the post office on the map, but he couldn't find it. Then he looked at the lower left corner of the map and found that the map was the 1878 version, which was also the commemorative version of the Paris World Expo that year.

The flight attendant was speechless.

"This……"

The old man asked: "What's wrong?"

The flight attendant sighed, drew a circle next to the train station from memory, and said, "Sir, this is where the post office is. But I must remind you that this map is out of date, you'd better buy another copy at the post office .”

The old man nodded,

"Thank you."

After thanking him solemnly, he slowly left the train station with the box in both hands.

As soon as I stepped out of the station, the liveliness and vitality of Paris rushed to my face.

The square in front of the station was full of people in a hurry. Relatives and friends were busy picking up or sending off the station. Newspaper deliverymen shuttled among the crowd, shouting advertisements: "Novel! A novel recommended by Mr. Verne!"

The old man could not help but hesitate,

Everywhere he goes, he buys a lot of books, so bookstores and university libraries are the places he visits most often.
But now, there are more important things to do.

He forced himself to suppress his curiosity and followed the map towards the post office.

Soon, an unusually busy building appeared in front of him.

The old man walked in and said to the clerk in (self-confident) correct French: "Hi, I want to send a telegram. Where should I go?"

The clerk looked him up and down for a while,
"Sir, is it a long message? Or a short message?"

The old man was surprised,
"Is there any difference?"

The clerk's face flashed with pride, and he replied: "Old man, in France, the fee for short messages is fixed, and a message only costs seven francs. Only long messages are charged according to the number of words."

Seven francs is not a small number,

But compared to the previous telegrams that charged by the number of words, this price must be very cheap.

The clerk added:
"All over the world, as long as France is like this."

The old man was curious,
"Why?"

The clerk explained with a smile: "Because of last year's World Expo, the government put a lot of effort into reforming people's livelihood."

After hearing this, the old man was slightly saddened,

It would be nice if Russia would become like this anytime soon.

He calmed down and said, "What I want to send is a long telegram."

The clerk was surprised, and looked at the old man again, and then said: "Sir, the price for long telegrams is very high. So, try to be as concise as possible."

The old man smiled and shook his head,
"It's okay, I'll just pay. Taking a step back, even if I send a short message, you have to charge by the word. Because I'm going to Stockholm."

This time, the clerk couldn't persuade him anymore.

In the early 20th century, telegraph operations were relatively primitive and rudimentary,

Both the sending and receiving parties have a code book, on which Arabic numerals are used to replace the horizontal and vertical letters, and the letters at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical are the cipher text.

Although civilian telegrams are transmitted in clear codes, due to various reasons such as political appeals, economic needs, or different languages, there are still great differences in plain codes in different regions, resulting in the need for multiple transfers of transnational telegrams.
Therefore, even if France charges less for short messages, Sweden still charges by word, and the telegraph fee will not be low.

The clerk coughed lightly,
"Old sir, the length of the long telegram is limited to 140 characters, and the fee is one franc per word. Do you have enough money?"

The old man said, "No problem."

With such a large sum of money, the clerk couldn't help but be more curious about the identity of the other party.
"Then tell me."

He picked up a pen and paper, ready to record.

The old man said: "The telegram is as follows, 'Dear Nobel Committee, colleagues from the Swedish Academy, I...'"

Clerk:? ? ?

Senseless!

He has no idea what the Nobel Committee is.
But he still knew about the Swedish Academy.

Because I was too shocked, the pen in my hand stopped, and I couldn't hear the words that followed.

The old man also noticed that the other party was in a daze, coughed lightly, and asked, "That... is because my accent is too strong, don't you understand?"

The clerk let out a long breath of "huh~",

"It turned out to be a heavy accent."

Only then did he realize that he had heard wrong,

The other party must not have said anything about "Swedish Academy" or "Nobel Committee".

The clerk handed over the pen and paper,
"Can you write? Your French is all right?"

The old man's first language is Russian, but he is also good at French, German, and English, but he is not good at speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

He took the pen and paper, finished writing the telegram with a few swipes, and handed it to the other party.

Because of the charging mode of the telegram, it is necessary to count the number of words, and there is no such thing as privacy.

The clerk began to read.

-

Dear Nobel Committee, colleagues from the Swedish Academy,

Thank you very much for nominating me as a candidate for the first Nobel Prize in Literature.

However, please allow me to decline this nomination.

As I said before, there are many talented people in the European literary world, but those works of mine are just "grandfather's games" and have no merit whatsoever.

Please leave this precious opportunity to others.

Your faithful Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

-

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy?
Clerk:? ? ?

I feel like I drank too much and went crazy in the middle of the day.

An eerie silence lay between the two,

"..."

"..."

"..."

Finally, Tolstoy spoke up and asked: "My friend, have you finished counting the words? How much should I pay in francs?"

"Gu..."

The clerk swallowed, raised his head with difficulty,
"Mr. Tolstoy, would you like... um... go to the Russian consulate? Or go to the Swedish consulate? There is a special transmitter there, which does not need to go through many rounds, and the efficiency is much higher than that of the post office. And it does not cost money. .”

Tolstoy sighed,

He thought to himself, it would be great if the people in the Russian consulate were so easy-going,

Because of the "Resurrection", the Tsar threatened to exile Tolstoy to Siberia.

Of course, this kind of thing can't be said clearly.

Tolstoy waved his hand,
"This is my private matter, so it won't take up state resources."

personal matter...

The clerk couldn't understand it, so he could only secretly praise his integrity, and then said: "The number of words is just right, and the total is 135 francs."

Tolstoy smiled and pointed out the cash, handed it to the other party,

At the same time, he asked, "Is there a bookstore near here?"

The clerk gave directions to Tolstoy,
"Two streets from here, there is a big bookstore at the corner. It cooperates with the post office in the telegraph business. Many busy businessmen go to the bookstore every day to see if they have any new telegrams."

Tolstoy hastened to thank him.

This journey has been tiring, and I have finished reading all the books I brought with me, so I need to "replenish" them quickly.

He carried the suitcase and went to the bookstore according to the clerk's instructions.

As a result, he had the illusion as soon as he entered the door, thinking that he was in a restaurant with a good business, and it was extremely crowded.

I saw dozens of people standing in front of the outermost bookshelf, with three floors inside and three floors outside, surrounding the bookshelf.

All the people on the outer floor stood on tiptoes and looked towards the inner floor.

From time to time, there are voices of discussion,
"Damn it! You're so fucking awesome!"

"Is there really such a powerful weapon that can shatter the sun with one shot?"

"You ask me, who do I ask?"

"This person writes really well. Hahaha!"

……

Tolstoy never imagined that a bookstore could be so noisy.

He walked to the boss,

"Sir, are there any good new books recently?"

While asking, his eyes stayed on the group of people.

The boss didn't understand anything, so he replied with a smile: "It's a science fiction novel by a Chinese writer, called "Country Teacher"."

Chinese writer,

science fiction,

"Country Teacher",
When these three words are taken out, there is a feeling of incongruity everywhere.

Tolstoy had a flash of inspiration,
"Professor Lu from London Political Economy? Professor Lu Shilu?"

The boss touched his chin and said, "It seems to be called that name. On the title page of the novel, there is an author's brief introduction, saying that he is an international student sent to London by China, but because of the fame of "Guns, Germs and Steel", he became a guest professor."

Tolstoy nodded,
"Sure enough."

The boss said again: "It seems that you are quite familiar with the author?"

Tolstoy chuckled,

"It's been a long time since I met God."

The boss said: "Then you should buy a copy of "Country Teacher". Alas... those people are really real, they only know how to take advantage of it."

Tolstoy was curious,

"How to explain this 'taking advantage'?"

The boss spreads his hands,

"You'll know when you go buy a book."

Tolstoy nodded, pushed his way through the crowd, and reached for the "Country Teacher" on the bookshelf.

As a result, the person next to him immediately said: "Old man, this novel is just a short story, you don't need to buy it! Just read it in a bookstore."

Tolstoy: "..."

He now understands that this is a blatant prostitution for nothing~
But because there are only a few books with the book cover open, these white prostitutes need to line up to read, so they surrounded the inner three floors and the outer three floors.

Tolstoy thought about this and couldn't help but become more curious.
How dare a short book sell like this?

Lu Shi must be very confident in his novels.

Just thinking about it,

"Snapped--"

With the sound of closing the book, one of the people in the crowd just finished reading the novel.

Someone from behind immediately said: "It's my turn! It's my turn!"

Unexpectedly, the person who finished reading the book had a blank expression on his face, as if he didn't hear it.

The people on the outer layer shouted: "Hey!"

Then the man came back to his senses,

"Whoo~"

He let out a long breath, silently handed out the unpacked "Country Teacher", then took out a brand new copy from the bookshelf, slowly squeezed through the crowd, and went to the bookstore owner to check out.

For a while, everyone around fell silent.

Then, there was another discussion,

"Is he going to buy it? Hasn't he finished reading it? What else is he going to buy?"

"Oh... I don't know. In the past two days, there have been a lot of people with this symptom. Eight out of ten people have to buy it home after reading it. They are ordinary people, so they still want to collect arty like the senator. ?”

"Is there any magic in this book?"

"What kind of magic can it have?! I also read a few words, and I have to admit that it is really well written. But this book was published in France, but it was bilingual in English and French. The English content was just used to make up the word count. Is it?"

"Looking at it this way, the word count is for the sake of having more pages, so it's really not worth buying."

……

Obviously, no one else could understand that person's purchase of the book.

The person who bought the book turned around,
He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to justify something, but when the words reached his mouth, he turned into a sigh, and then said: "You guys, you will understand after reading it. This "Country Teacher" is really very different. .”

After speaking, he took out the money and settled the bill, and then left with the book in his pocket.

Leaving everyone staring at each other.

Tolstoy couldn't help being curious,

He picked up the book, pinched the edge of the book, and found that it was indeed pitifully thin, and it was indeed a short story.

This kind of book can be sold, which shows that Lu Shi's skills are indeed extraordinary.

If so, you have to buy it.

Tolstoy put the book away, then continued to wander among the bookshelves,

Since you are in France, you should buy more.

He picked carefully and took Verne's "Towards the Tricolore",
In the eyes of future generations, this book is not a classic, because as a science fiction novel, the things in it are really not very good.

But in the eyes of those humanist and pacifist writers in the early 20th century, this book is even better than "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Mysterious Island".

The novel portrays a famous French chemist named Thomas Roche,
He invented an attack missile called the Rosh Lightning, but it was blocked all over Europe because of its high asking price.

As a result, he was bought by the pirates, and the pirates got the "Rosh Lightning",
When the warships of various countries came to encircle and suppress the pirates, the pirates fired missiles and blew up the warships to pieces.

Finally, when a French warship hoisted the tricolor flag, Thomas Roche's soul was suddenly shocked, and he realized his crime and blew up the pirate island.

This book is a classic within a classic.
But Tolstoy just loved it.

He put the book away and continued to look for it in the bookshelf,

At this moment, there was a quarrel near the door of the bookstore.

Someone yelled loudly: "You can just buy the book. Why did you take this opened one away? The price is the same anyway, why don't you buy a new book? Are you trying not to let us read it?"

The person who was scolded retorted loudly: "That's right! I just don't let you read it! You should honestly pay for this book! It's worth it!"

Tolstoy: ? ? ?
He walked out between the bookshelves and looked towards the source of the quarrel.

I saw people who wanted to buy books, one to many, but they were not afraid at all, and instead stared at them angrily.

Tolstoy looked at the "Country Teacher" in his hand,
What is the magic of this book?
(End of this chapter)