dead souls, imperial envoy

Chapter 65 Outerwear (4)
Not long after, he woke up and got up from the snow, but where could he still see the shadows of those people?They had taken his overcoat from him, and he was terribly cold in the snow, and he cried out.However, the sound could not come out of this square at all.Anxious and angry, he shouted at the top of his voice, and then ran across the square to the sentry box.A policeman was standing guard over the sentry box. He seemed to be interested in this guy who was rushing from a distance, shouting and yelling at him, and was looking over here.Akaky Akakiyevich ran up to him, panting heavily, and loudly accused him of being completely ignorant of business, not even noticing the robbery just now, he must have been lazy and fell asleep here up.The policeman said that he saw him being stopped by two guys in the middle of the square, and he just thought it was an old acquaintance saying hello, and he didn't see what else happened besides that.The policeman said he had better wait until tomorrow to go to the inspector for help, and the inspector would certainly find out who had taken his coat.Otherwise, it would be of no use for him to stay here and yell.

Akaky Akakyevich could only return home.He looks really bad now: his hair, which was not much left, gathered at the back of his head and at the sideburns, is now all messed up; he has a lot of snow on his body, chest, chest, Waist and trousers were not spared.He knocked on the landlord's door, and the old lady jumped off the bed in a hurry, only pulled a shoe, and hurried over to open the door.When she was busy, she did not forget to carefully protect the shirt on her chest to prevent it from being exposed.After opening the door, Akaky Akakiyevich's terrible appearance was suddenly exposed before her eyes, and she couldn't help but back away again and again.After hearing the whole story from Akaky Akakiyevich, she clapped her hands and said that if she wanted to go to the inspector, she might as well go directly to the sheriff.You must know that what the inspector is best at is talking but not doing, using big talk to perfunctory.As for the Sheriff, she could still have something to do with him, after all.Her family once employed a Finnish female cook named Anna, who is now working at the sheriff's house.The old lady of the landlady also said that the sheriff's car often passed by her house.Every Sunday, the sheriff goes to church.For the people around, the sheriff is always very kind and smiling.Such a person should be easy to talk to.Akaky Akakyevich, after listening to her advice, went dejectedly to his room.How he survived this long night, you only need to imagine it with your heart to understand.

Early in the morning, he went to visit the sheriff's house, and the reply he received was that the sheriff hadn't gotten up yet.I went again at ten o'clock and was still sleeping.At eleven o'clock, I went there for the third time, but was told that the sheriff had gone out.At lunchtime he called again, this time stopped by the sheriff's secretaries.They had to ask what they said, whether the matter he wanted to report to the director was official, whether it was urgent, and what the specific content was.Akaki Akakievitch suddenly turned into a tough man, which was unprecedented for him.He insisted on seeing the sheriff himself, and his tone was unquestionable.He pointed out that those secretaries had no right to keep him out, and if they refused to let him in, he would definitely tell the sheriff and make them go away.Hearing this, the secretaries finally eased their attitudes, and went in to invite the sheriff out to meet the guests.

In handling the coat robbery case, the sheriff's behavior is simply unbelievable.He kept asking Akaky Akakiyevich if he had gone to some indecent place last night and hang out with some indecent people. If not, why did he not come home until late at night?As for the key points of the case, he didn't pay attention at all.Akaky Akakyevich was very embarrassed by his questioning, and he didn't bother to ask whether he would handle the case properly, so he left in a hurry.

For the first time in his life, he did not go to work in the Yamen for a whole day.The next day, when he went to work, his face was as white as paper, and he put on the old tattered smock again.He told everyone about the robbery of his new coat, and many colleagues felt pity for him.Of course, several colleagues took the opportunity to ridicule him.Those well-meaning colleagues immediately helped him hold a donation event, but because everyone spent too much before, you know, buying a portrait of the director, buying a book written by his friend to please the director, such expenses It is absolutely impossible to save, so the total amount of donations is very unsatisfactory.Under such circumstances, some sympathetic colleagues began to think of other ways to help Akaky Akakyevich.

They told him that it was not wise to ask the inspector for help.The reason is that even if the inspector tried his best to find the coat and hoped to please his superiors with it, if Akaky Akakiyevich could not find strong evidence to prove that he was the owner of the coat , then it cannot be taken back from the police station.That being the case, it would be better to go directly to a big leader for help.Once the leader's instructions come down, it will not be troublesome to solve this matter.

Up to now, Akaky Akakyevich couldn't think of any other solution, so he could only muster up the courage to ask the big leader for help.But no one knows what kind of key position this big leader holds.Just a few days ago, he was still an insignificant ordinary person, and he became a big leader only recently.Of course, his current status still cannot be compared with those real high officials and dignitaries.However, there is a type of people who always like to magnify the small things in the eyes of others infinitely, and never forget to show their status.For example, he stipulated that every time he came to work, all subordinates should line up on the stairs to welcome him.It is absolutely not allowed to meet with him by leaps and bounds. You must follow the procedure and make no mistakes: first, the [-]th-class civil servants report to the [-]th-class civil servants, and then the [-]th-class civil servants report to the ninth-class civil servants or others. The relevant officials reported it, followed by the report level by level, and finally reported to him.

It is common for all Russian officials to imitate their superiors.There was a legend that a ninth-class civil servant went to a small office to serve as the director.After he arrived at his workplace, he immediately isolated a room as his "director's office".Although the size of this office was so small that it could barely fit a desk, he still set up several guards in front of the door.The guards all wore uniforms with red collars and trimmed with gold and silver.They hold the doorknob of the office tightly in their hands, and whenever a guest comes to the door, they will open the door for the other party in a serious manner.The procedure to meet this great leader is actually not complicated, but it is full of style.He asked everyone to strictly enforce their own series of regulations.One of the words he often said is "there is no strictest, only stricter". Every time he said it to the end, he would look thoughtfully at the expression of the person who listened to his teachings.In fact, he didn't have to do that at all.The reason is that there are only ten members in the place where he works, and all of them are respectful to him. As soon as they see him, they will immediately put aside the work at hand, stand upright humbly, and welcome his review.When he talks to his subordinates, his attitude is always arrogant. There are three things he always likes to say: "Who gave you the courage to do such a thing? Do you know the identity of this person standing in front of you? You know I don't understand who you're talking to?" But he wasn't a bad guy, he was helpful and nice to his colleagues, but after he got the rank of general, he got carried away.The trajectory of his life was deflected, and he didn't even remember how to get along with others normally.When he was with those who were his equal, he was still a good person, and he was a very good person no matter how you look at it.However, as soon as he meets someone with a lower status than himself, even if the official position is only one level lower than himself, he will immediately put on a disgusting face and stop saying a word.If it wasn't like this, he would have been able to enjoy a wonderful and happy time with these people, and even he himself felt it.But it is because of such a superior posture that he must stay away from this kind of beauty. Thinking about it this way, he is also very worthy of sympathy.He may not have the desire to join everyone and communicate with everyone, and this desire is occasionally revealed in his eyes.However, he thought about it again, in this way, he would lose his original majesty, completely inconsistent with his own identity, and it was absolutely unfeasible.Therefore, he could only say nothing from the beginning to the end, and only let out a muffled grunt from his throat at very few moments.In view of this, everyone gave him such a title - boring guy.

The big leader that Akaki Akakiyevich is going to meet today is a typical representative of the above-mentioned people.When Akaky Akakyevich came to visit, it just happened to catch up with the leader's happy time, but for Akaky, it was really not a good time.At that time, the leader was chatting happily with an old friend in the office. The two had been good friends since they were very young.Who would have thought that someone would be so ignorant and come to visit at such a moment.Hearing the rumors from the subordinates that a guy named Basmachkin was coming, the leader asked impatiently: "What's the origin?" The subordinate said: "It's a civil servant." Tell him to wait outside." Apparently, the leader said that he "has no time" is just talking nonsense: he and this old friend have talked enough, and all the topics that can be talked have been finished. There is nothing new to talk about, so they can only pat each other on each other's legs, and at the same time make boring chats: "That's true, Ivan Abramovich!" Stepan Varlamovich!" Even in this case, because he wanted to show his old friend who had lived in the country and had nothing to do all day long, how long a civil servant who came to see him had to wait to be admitted. Seeing myself, so I still insisted on letting the civil servant wait outside.

When he really had nothing to talk to his old friend, and even started to feel bored, the leader sat in his comfortable chair and smoked a cigar.At this time, he seemed to think of the civil servant all of a sudden, so he told the secretary standing at the door: "Oh, is there a civil servant waiting for me outside? Tell him to come here." Wait until Akaki A When Kakiyevich came in respectfully in his old tattered smock, the leader suddenly turned and rushed to him, asking in a straightforward and cold voice: "Why are you here?" He hid in his room for a week before being appointed to serve here, and with the help of a mirror, he successfully mastered this tone of speech.Akaky Akakyevich was already very nervous and didn't know what to do, but now he explained clumsily.The general idea is that a group of robbers robbed a new coat that he had just made. Therefore, he begged the adults to help him, and asked the chiefs of the police station to make accommodations so that his new coat could be returned to Zhao.Compared with usual, his eloquence was even worse, and Rory added a lot of nonsense.

The big leader thought that his visit was unreasonable, so he asked again coldly: "Sir, don't you even know the most basic rules of doing things? Do you know where I am? How should such a thing be handled? Don’t you understand at all? First of all, you have to write the document, send it to the office, and after the section chief and section chief approve it, hand it over to my secretary, and finally submit it to me..."

Akaky Akakyevich was so nervous that he was sweating all over his body. With the support of his remaining courage, he said: "My lord, the reason why I came to you directly is that those secretaries are...untrustworthy... ..."

The leader shouted: "It's a bunch of nonsense! How dare you act recklessly and say such things! Seeing how young you are, you are quite courageous!"

In fact, Akaky Akakiyevich was already over 50 years old.To say that he is "young" can only be compared with those old men who are over seventy years old.However, our big leaders don't seem to be aware of this at all.

"Do you know the identity of this person standing in front of you? Do you understand who you are talking to? Do you understand? Hey, I'm talking to you!" shouted.

Anyone who saw such a scene would inevitably be terrified, let alone Akaky Akakyevich?I saw that he was so frightened that his feet slipped, he couldn't even stand firmly, and his whole body was shaking uncontrollably.Originally, he must have fallen to the ground, but luckily the guard came over in time to pick him up.Akaky Akakiyevich's whole body was almost stiff when he was carried out.The leader never expected that his performance would cause such a big reaction from him, and he couldn't help feeling proud.I just said a few words, and I can make a person faint. Thinking of this, the leader feels more and more ecstatic.He wanted to see how his old friend felt about it, and he couldn't help stealing a look at him.The old friend was obviously taken aback too, his face was full of bewilderment, and he still didn't come back to his senses at this time.Seeing this, the leader felt even more joyful in his heart.

Akaky Akakiyevich forgot how he got down the stairs and how he got into the street.All his limbs were useless.For the first time in his life, he was reprimanded so severely by a general, and before that, he had never even met the general.The strong wind was carrying heavy snow, pouring it down overwhelmingly.Akaky Akakyevitch could no longer see where the sidewalk was, so he kept walking with his mouth open.As usual, today's cold wind in Petersburg is still everywhere and pervasive, wrapping him tightly in it.It didn't take long for him to catch a cold from the cold, and his throat was very swollen and sore.When he got home, all the strength in his body was exhausted, and he couldn't even speak a word.He collapsed on his bed, swollen all over.I really didn't expect the consequences of being severely reprimanded by others to be so serious!The next day, he developed a high fever.After that, under the influence of the bad weather in Petersburg, his condition deteriorated rapidly, far beyond ordinary people's imagination.When the doctor arrived, it was too late.To make him feel better, the doctor ordered hot compresses to be applied to him.But the doctor immediately came to the conclusion that he only had another day and a half to live.The doctor turned around and told the old lady of the landlady: "He really can't afford to delay in this situation. Since the price of oak is too high, I suggest you hurry up and book a pine coffin for him."

(End of this chapter)