dead souls, imperial envoy

Chapter 30 Dead Souls (30)
No matter who is rich and who is rich, he feels envious, which even he himself can't understand.He didn't even take a break after leaving school: he was so anxious to get things done quickly.However, although he has a diploma with excellent grades, it still took him a lot of effort to get into the tax office.It turns out that there is a need for a backer in a remote and poor country!The job he had found was very poor, with an annual salary of only thirty or forty rubles.But he was determined to do well, overcome and overcome all difficulties.Sure enough, he displayed a spirit of self-sacrifice, patience, and thrift that no one had ever heard of.He copied tirelessly from morning to night, threw himself into the pile of official documents, stayed in the office after work, slept on the desk in the office at night, and sometimes ate with the watchman. To be well-dressed and well-groomed, to put a pleasing expression on one's face, and even to impart some refinement to one's demeanor.It must be said that the officials of the tax bureau are particularly ugly.Some people's faces are like toasted bread: the cheek is tilted to one side, the chin is tilted to the other side, the upper lip is swollen like a new bubble, and the mouth is still open; there is nothing beautiful about it.Their speech was vulgar for some reason, and their voices sounded as if they were about to hit someone; they often went to make offerings to Dionysus, showing that there was still a lot of polytheism in the Slavic nature; they even sometimes As the saying goes, you don't come to work until you have had enough yellow soup, so the air in the bureau is very bad, and the smell has no fragrance at all.Among these officials, Chichikov could not but stand out and be noticed.He was quite different from them, he was not ugly, he spoke kindly, and he did not drink any strong drinks.Even so, his official career was still difficult: he fell into the hands of an octogenarian section chief, who seemed to have a hard heart and no emotion: he always had that face of rejecting others, There has never been a smile on his face, and he has never greeted anyone.No one ever saw him, not even once, in the street, or at home, what he would be different from his usual self; he never sympathized with anything; Laughed once; even if the robber is drunk, it is inevitable to have a carnival, but there is not even a sign of carnival in him.His expression was dull: neither evil nor kind.Because there is no, it is daunting.Everything was so regular in his impassive marble face; his features were serious and well-proportioned.The extra density of potholes allowed his face to be included among those faces on which, according to folklore, ghosts had ground peas at night.It seemed that no one in the world would be able to get close to this kind of person and win his favor, but Chichikov insisted on trying.At the beginning, he tried to please the section chief in various trivial matters: he paid attention to observing the way of sharpening the quill pen used by the section chief for writing, and after sharpening a few of them, he delivered them to him every time; There is dust and soot on the section chief's table, and he wipes it clean; in order to wipe the ink bottle for the section chief, he specially prepares a new rag; Find the ugliest hat and send it to the section chief; if the section chief’s back rubs against the white ash on the wall, he will immediately dust it off——but this effort seems to have never been noticed, just like Nothing is done at all.Later, he finally found out about the section chief's family situation, and learned that there was a girl who was waiting to be married in his family, and her face looked like a ghost had ground peas on it at night.He decided to attack from here.After finding out which church the girl went to on Sunday, he put on a more flour-starved bra, changed into clean clothes, and went to stand opposite the girl every time. This time he succeeded: the indifferent Ke Long moved, he was invited to his home for tea!Before the colleagues in the office found out, Chichikov moved to the section chief's house and became an indispensable and useful person. He bought flour and sugar at the section chief's house, and treated the wife like his fiancee. The girl, who also called the section chief Papa, kissed the section chief's hand tenderly; everyone in the bureau thought that the wedding would be held before Lent at the end of February.The ruthless section chief even went to his superiors to work for him, and after a while, Chichikov himself was promoted to section chief.It seems that this is the reason why he got close to the old section chief, because as soon as he became the section chief, he took his suitcase home secretly and moved back the next day.He no longer called the old section chief Papa, and he never kissed his hand again; he also put aside the matter of marriage, as if there was no such thing at all.But every time he met the old section chief, he would still shake hands with him affectionately and drink tea with him at home. Although the old section chief was still as calm and indifferent as usual, he shook his head every time he saw him. Nodding his head, he muttered in a low voice: "You lied to me, you lied to me, son of a bitch!"

Chichikov passed the most difficult hurdle.After that, everything went well for him, and his fortune was prosperous.He became a remarkable figure.Elegant in manner and shrewd in his dealings--everything the world needs in him.Relying on his abilities, he got a so-called fat position in a short period of time, and the method of using this fat position to make money is quite brilliant.It must be pointed out that at this time, the campaign to crack down on all kinds of corruption began.The sweep did not frighten him, and he went along with it, using it to his own ends, and unambiguously demonstrated the inventive genius of the Russians under pressure.Here's what he did: he was alone on an errand, and just as he reached into his pocket for the familiar letter of introduction from what we Russians call Prince Khovansky, Chichikov stopped him with a smile on his face. He put his hand in his hand and said: "No, you think I... no, no. This is our duty, our duty, and we should do our best to do things for you! Don't worry about this: everything will be done tomorrow. Please stay Your address, you don’t have to worry about it yourself, everything will be delivered to your house.” The bewildered applicant was so happy that he almost jumped up on the way back, thinking: “After all, there are good people, I hope this kind of civil servant will come again. More, this is a precious gem!"

But he waited for one day, two days—there was no approval document delivered to his home, nor did the third day.He came to the office to inquire——before the matter started, he went to find the precious gemstone. "Oh, please forgive me!" said Chichikov, shaking his hands with great humility. "We have too many things to do; but tomorrow will be done, tomorrow will be sure. Really, I even feel guilty!" said These words are accompanied by some graceful gestures.If his skirt was open at this time, he would immediately cover it with his hands and pinch the skirt.But no matter how long it has passed, there will be no approval documents delivered to the home.Finally, the applicants began to wake up: Enough waiting, isn't there a reason?As soon as he inquired, someone told him that the clerk needed to be oiled. "Why don't you pour it? I'd like to issue two 25-kopeck banknotes." "No, 25-kopeck banknotes are too few. I want to give 25-ruble banknotes, one for each person." " Give the clerk a ticket for 25 rubles each!" shouted the applicant. "Why are you in a hurry," people said to him, "that's it, the clerks get 25 kopecks each, and the rest is handed over to the superior." The movement and the courteous and dignified demeanor of the officials were scolded heartily.Before at least I knew what to do: I just gave the director a red ten-rouble note, and it was done; now it's up to everyone to give a white twenty-five-rouble note, and you have to wait a week to figure it out their true thoughts.The honesty and noble sentiments of the officials are really a ghost!Applicants should of course scold, but the result of doing so now is that there will be no corrupt officials: all directors have become the most upright and noble people, and the secretaries and clerks are the corrupt ones.Soon after, Chichikov was able to expand his reach again: a commission was formed for the construction of an important public building.Chichikov managed to get his way into this committee and became one of its most active members.The committee immediately started working and coordinating, and worked on the side of the building for six years; but it is not known whether it is because of the obstacles of the weather or the material, anyway, this public building has never been able to rise above the foundation.But in other parts of the city, there are luxurious mansions of various committee members: it seems that the soil quality in those places is better than that of public buildings.The committee members all have family businesses and enjoy the blessings of life.It was also at this time that Chichikov relaxed somewhat the strict rules of self-restraint and self-sacrifice.At this time, he finally changed his long-standing fasting life. It turned out that he did not object to the various enjoyments that he could restrain himself in his youth (there is one person at that age who can completely restrain himself) not to be contaminated.He began to be extravagant: hired a very good cook, and wore fine Dutch shirts.He also began to buy those woolen fabrics that no one in the province wore; from this time on, he began to like to wear dark brown and reddish woolen fabrics with small flower spots; at this time he also bought a very good double At this time, he even got into the habit of scrubbing his body with a sponge dipped in water mixed with expensive perfume; at this time, he had begun to use expensive to buy a soap to increase the smoothness of the skin; when...

That's when a new boss suddenly came to replace the old scumbag.The new boss is a ruthless general who regards all corruption, bribery and malpractice as a thorn in his side.As soon as he took office, he made all the officials jump up in fright. He asked to see the accounts of revenue and expenditure. it has started.All the officials were dismissed; all the mansions were confiscated and turned into various charitable facilities and hereditary military schools; the officials were tossed into bankruptcy, and Chichikov suffered particularly heavy losses.His cute face didn't endear him to his new boss, for what reason, God only knows: things like that don't make sense sometimes.Anyway, the boss hates him as hell.The boss's ruthlessness scared people out of their wits.But after all, this boss is a soldier, and he doesn't know the subtle tricks of civil officials, so it didn't take long for other officials to gain his favor by relying on their appearance of honesty and flattery, which made him fall into some positions very quickly. In the hands of even bigger liars, he never thought that they would be this kind of people. He also proudly thought that he had finally selected a talented person, and he seriously boasted about his knowledge and responsibility.The temper and habits of the boss were finally determined by the officials.Under the leadership of this boss, everyone became a vanguard of malpractice; they seized malpractice in various places and things, like a fisherman with a harpoon after a fat big white fish; and it was quite effective: Soon, thousands of items appeared in everyone's hands.At this time, many former officials also reformed and were reused.But Chichikov was unable to squeeze in no matter what. Although the general's secretary-general, under the care of Prince Khovansky, used various opportunities to speak for him, although the secretary-general was good at leading the general by the nose, There was nothing to be done about this matter.A general is the kind of person who, although he will be led by the nose (but this is without his knowledge), if he has any prejudices about anyone in his head, then he will be like a general. It is like a nail that is firmly driven, and it cannot be pulled out by any means.All the wise Secretary-General could do was destroy the tainted resume, and this was done by vividly describing the pity of Chichikov's unfortunate wives and children (fortunately Chichikov had no wives and children) to the general. The situation made the general move his soft heart to do it.

(End of this chapter)