[Masterpiece Les Miserables] Paris Sparks

After breakfast on Saturday, Jean Valjean handed her a stack of letters.

"All about your letters," he said mildly. "Three this week."

Corona sighed and took the letter. "I really want to throw them all into the fire and burn them," she complained. "Monsieur Jean, I will trouble you to write a letter later."

"Then I shall wait for you in the study," replied Jean Valjean.Then he got up and went to the study first, while Corona sat on the sofa and opened the letter.

All the letters were proposals to her.

Although she is in charge of the family now, the courtship letter from a young man to an unmarried lady will naturally not be handed directly to the woman. It is considered too frivolous and immodest, and unmarried girls usually do not have the right to dominate themselves marriage contract, it is up to their parents to make the decision.Herein lies the problem: Coronne's parents are no longer alive, and neither of her sisters has ever been formally married. The suitors picked and chose Jean Valjean, the only male in the family.As a result, letters of proposal from various families were delivered one by one with Jean Valjean's name on them.

Corona felt that this was both absurd and ridiculous.Naturally, Jean Valjean did not think he had the right to make a marriage contract to Corona, so he handed these letters to Corona as they were, and she opened them to read and write a reply, and then Jean Valjean copied them and sent them back.One letter after another, all tactful refusals.Now that Corona already has one, she is tired of reading proposal letters and writing replies.She has a reputation for being cold, but there are still people who try to win her over.She just opened the three letters and glanced briefly, then shook her head and put them on the table beside her.

"Marriage, marriage! Why do people have to get married?" she whispered helplessly.

In these letters, how many people really admired her?I'm afraid there is only half of it, and the remaining half is chosen by her parents, and the son of that family may not have spoken a few words to her.How many people really know her?not a single one.It is really incomprehensible that people decide their life's major events based on their appearance and hearsay. They would rather be so hasty when they get married, and then cheat on each other after marriage and have fun with their lovers.She thought to herself of Courfeyrac, and of Enjolras, and she had made up her mind that she would never marry, and would rather remain an old maid all her life than sleep with people who were tired of each other.

When she picked up the letter again and was weighing the words in her heart to write a reply, Cosette ran in from the garden, stopped in front of her, and handed her a rose, which had been carefully peeled off the stem. the thorn. "Thank you." Corona took the flowers with a smile and kissed her cheek, "Did Master Mazlo give it to you?"

"Yes." Cosette nodded, "I thank him."

In the other hand she held three flowers, evidently intended for Jean Valjean, Fantine, and the old maid Toussaint. "Mr. Jean is in the study, and Fantine is in her own bedroom. You can see if Toussaint is in the kitchen." Corona showed her the way.She nodded, and ran briskly to the nearest study like a little bird.With a smile on her face, Corona carefully placed the flowers in the thin-necked porcelain vase on the coffee table.

Cosette is now also eight years old, a sweet and lovely child.Corona still remembered the childish appearance of the little girl when she first met her, but she was considered old, and she would be 15 years old in seven years—the age when someone would come to propose marriage!

At that time, what kind of family can be worthy of Cosette?What kind of young man can make her rest assured that Cosette's life will be handed over to the other party?

Thinking about these things gave her a headache, and she decided to put this problem aside for seven years before worrying about it.She wrote a reply letter and asked Jean Valjean to copy it, and then went to help Cosette with him.In the afternoon, she went into her studio and spread the drafts on the table.

More than half of the thick book bound with white paper had been used, but when I turned to the last few pages, there was only the same person on it.Frontal, profile, downcast, raised head, frowning, all kinds of Enjolras.Corona shook her head, turned to a new page, determined to draw a small portrait of Cosette, but as she was drawing, she realized that the hair was drawn a bit short, and the ends of the hair were a bit too curly ――This is Enjolras' blond hair.

With a long sigh, she dropped the charcoal pencil on the table.

"Love! Why did God invent this emotion to torture human beings, and call it love?" she murmured.

This was a feeling Corona had never experienced before.Of course, she had loved Enjolras before—she had loved him long before she knew it.But when she saw this emotion herself, and understood this intensified and uncontrollable love, she seemed to be particularly keenly aware of how her every move was affected by it.The self-control she was once proud of seems to be gone whenever she encounters Enjolras, and her former single-minded, meditative focus cannot be maintained.Whenever she stays with Enjolras, her whole heart is no longer under her control, and her every step and fall are all guided by him.Even if the opponent is Enjolras, this feeling is really uncomfortable.

It's a pity, how can emotion be restrained by reason?Even though she knew it was making her unhappy, every time she walked to Collins' door—no, every time she sat down in front of the mirror and began to make up for herself, her heart was already on Enjolras.For example, right now, she was thinking about Enjolras again.Looking at the plausible portrait of Cosette on the draft paper, she has already started to wonder if Enjolras will come to Collins tonight——he has already healed from the injury he suffered last time, but recently he was having an exam, so he Studying behind closed doors, Corona hasn't seen him for more than half a month.Calculating the time, the exam should end this Wednesday.He will probably come, what will he talk about this time?

She suddenly realized that she was thinking about these things again, and quickly stopped her thoughts.She let out a breath, turned to the first few pages full of Enjolras, and looked at them.

"Just paint." She said angrily, "There is nothing Enjolras can't paint!"

She turned to a new page, picked up her pen, and began to sketch.The tip of the pen fell quickly, as if this painting had been sketched in her mind countless times.In a few minutes, a draft on the paper has been formed.Corona looked at it critically, and made some corrections and additions in some places.Then she went to the wall and stretched a new canvas on the easel.

Collins at night was as noisy as ever.

Corona arrived early that day.Is it too early too?She asked herself, and she blamed herself secretly in her heart.Is it too eager?But she hadn't seen Enjolras for more than half a month, and her anticipation made her pace up and down at home, unable to wait for a moment.Fortunately, Re'an is not here today, and Gongbefer has not yet arrived, and no one else has the heart to pay attention to her slight emotional changes.Joly and another medical student were chatting about some school affairs, Grantaire was drunk again, and made a big noise in another corner of Collins, so loud that even Corona didn't want to pay attention to him.Corona sat with Baare and a few other workers and listened to their stories about the factory.She was very silent, listened absent-mindedly, her eyes were always wandering around the door of the tavern, and their comments just passed her ears.But suddenly, a word caught her attention.

"...That's why I said that the literacy class was actually not bad. They said it not only taught literacy, but also gave money to the female workers who learned well. If it wasn't there, their family might not have survived last winter."

"I also asked where did the sweater on his body come from." Baare said, "The literacy class still distributes sweaters?"

"Fat! Not only does he have one, but his mother-in-law also has one, which she wears in rotation with her daughter."

Corona missed the previous conversation, and couldn't recognize who they were talking about for a while-such things are too common in literacy classes.The reason why she negotiated with Anne to set the scholarship money at the price of two sweaters rather than one sweater is precisely this: After receiving the money, many female workers will first buy more for their husbands and children. Clothes, on the contrary, he was at the bottom.

This is not a kind of inequality, but a kind of bitter helplessness in poverty: after all, most of the time, men are still the main labor force in a family.When struggling on the verge of survival, it is the best consideration for the whole family to give priority to ensuring the survival of men.

"However, his family sold those two sweaters at the beginning of spring." Another worker said, "Old Duke got a finger off in the factory, and his family sold everything they could sell. Only then did I invite a doctor. At least my life was saved."

"He has lost his job now, and what will happen in the future is uncertain!" The worker who first mentioned this incident sighed, "At that time, everyone pooled up some money for him, and we didn't expect him to pay it back. We lived for the first time." talk later!"

"Is there no compensation from the factory?" Corona asked.

"It's all right, what's the use of that little money? I've used up the doctor twice. At the beginning, it was said that it was a machine failure that cut off his finger, and he wanted extra compensation, but the factory has been delaying, Lao Du The Ke family looked like that again, and they finally dragged it out."

"It's just a pity for little Marie. That girl is beautiful!"

"Oh, yes. Pity little Mary!"

"Didn't it mean that the son of Trey's family is on good terms with little Mary?"

"Trey's family? They're still on fire."

"What's the matter with his house?"

Gradually their conversation turned to the drinking of Trey's father, and from there to the taverns in Paris.As Corona listened, she recalled the people in the literacy class in her mind: She knew almost all the female workers who came to the literacy class, especially everyone in the advanced class, and even knew the addresses and conditions of their homes. Clearly.She is not so familiar with the intermediate class, and the low-level class can only recognize the name.Among these people, there are four or five girls named Mary, and two or three of them should have received last year's scholarship. Coronna remembered this in her heart, and planned to go back and find out the girl named Mary, and help her As soon as she gave her a hand, she always told her not to stop studying halfway because of this incident.

She is always very attentive to matters concerning female workers.Right now, she was thinking about this matter in her mind, while pretending to listen to the conversation of Baare and the others seriously, so she was distracted and didn't have much energy to worry about the situation by the door.Therefore, when Enjolras walked in, she didn't notice it immediately.It was Enjolras who spoke first, and she raised her head abruptly when she heard the voice.

"I have brought a new friend," said Enjolras, walking towards them.And Corona raised her head happily, and saw him and the young man standing beside him.

"—this is Courfeyrac," said Enjolras.

Courfeyrac!God, what Courfeyrac again!

Corona almost had the urge to curse in her heart.At this moment, Grantaire was noisy again, Enjolras frowned and looked there, his attention was completely attracted by him, and he didn't pay attention to Corona, but Courfeyrac quickly scanned around the tavern, his eyes Soon he stared at her.

He was the only one here, other than Feuilly, who had seen Corona in women's clothing.But it was too late to lower her head at this time, or to leave the scene, Coronna simply acted as if nothing had happened, looked back at him, and even smiled at him friendly.Courfeyrac approached her, and there was no room for them at the table, so he sat at the next table and nodded friendlyly at them.

"How did you and Enjolras know each other?" Corona asked pretending to be curious, before deciding on the direction of the topic.

"Oh, we're in the same academy—he's a year above me. There was a lecture on Rousseau in school before, and we sat together and we just chatted."

"Ha, so you agree with him—poor Grantaire, there are more and more revolutionaries he doesn't want!" Bahore laughed.

"Grantaire?"

"The one over there who went berserk."

At this time Enjolras had decided to ignore Grantaire's madness and walked towards them.He sat down next to Courfeyrac and introduced him one by one: "These are friends who often come here. Cole, Bahoret, Tom, Rennek, Doug, Feyle. Cole is a painter , Bahore and Rennek are students, and the rest are workers."

Courfeyrac greeted them one by one.He looked at Corona very carefully - Corona only hoped that the lights in the store were dim enough. "You look familiar to me. Have we met somewhere before?" he asked.

The author has something to say: I have seen everyone's replies, but the network here is really bad, and I can't reply to comments. Next time I will find a chance to fish at work and give it a try!

The lost horse probably... There is still a short plot, but it's not far away... I guess...