[Masterpiece Les Miserables] Paris Sparks

The morning of December 26 is usually quiet.

The day before was Christmas, and the poorest families gathered and celebrated as best they could, while unmarried bachelors and young girls frolicked late in taverns and cheap dance halls.But Anne got up very early.She opened the curtains to let in the dim light from outside, combed her hair, took off the coarse towel hanging on the wall, wet it in the basin, and wiped her face casually with cold water.

Just a few months ago, she had saved enough money and moved to rent a house with better conditions. The new room had a broken fireplace and piled up a pile of firewood that hadn't been burned much.Anne looked at the fireplace, hesitated, and lit it anyway.

Just when the room was just starting to warm up, there was a knock on the door.Annie smiled unconsciously. She threw the wool she was knitting on the bed and got up to answer the door.

"Merry Christmas--!"

The first thing that caught her eyes was a large bouquet of brightly colored flowers, and then Corona's smiling face appeared.Anna blinked and asked, "Where did you get the flowers?"

"Look carefully." Corona said with a smile.

Annie took a closer look, only to realize that it was actually a paper flower folded out of crepe paper. It wasn't really a fake, but the colors were well matched, and it was very confusing at first glance.Corona stuffed the bouquet of paper flowers to her, then jumped up and hugged Annie's neck, forgetting to put down the basket in her hand.

"Anne, Anne!" she laughed. "We can run a school!"

"What, really!" Annie also jumped up, "Really?"

Corona nodded with a smile.

Anna screamed and hugged Corona, laughed again, and dragged her around the room several times. "What's the matter?" she asked impatiently. "Didn't you say last time that there was at least eighty thousand francs?"

"This matter is resolved! And it is resolved very bizarrely." Corona said with a smile.

"It's only been five months! Good God, eighty thousand francs—I've never made ten thousand francs in my life. How did you manage to make eighty thousand francs in half a year?"

"This matter really needs to start half a year ago." Coronna finally remembered the basket in her hand as she spoke.She put the basket on the table, and Anne helped to take out the packaged turkey, chestnut cake, butter, and sweet bread from it, and laid them out on the table in turn.

Corona has a family, and she must spend the festival with her family, but she is worried about letting Annie celebrate the festival alone.Every morning on the second day of the festival, she would bring breakfast to meet Annie. This had been a habit for several years, but this was the first time that neither of them paid attention to breakfast. "What's going on, what's going on?" Annie pushed the empty basket aside and asked repeatedly.

"It's really not easy to explain this matter clearly..." Corona thought for a while, "If I want to fully explain it to you, I have to start from the very beginning. Have I ever said before that my father originally lived in England, and later He proved that he was a descendant of a French marquis before he came to France to inherit a large inheritance?"

"I remember this."

"At that time, he suddenly became famous. He was afraid of attracting attention, so he gave up part of his property. The rest, because he only had me as an only daughter, could not be a knight, and he was not married. He was afraid that I would not be able to keep these properties in the future, so he It took several years to transfer a large part of the family property to the dark place. At first glance, these properties are not in my name. It takes a professional lawyer to go through the contract and files carefully to find out that several hands have been changed in the middle, and the property rights are still the same. Here I am. Over the years, I have gradually established a foothold in Paris, and I am slowly transferring property to the public. Among the properties left by my father, there is a debt of [-] francs, which is a company called Morel & Sons. The debt owed by the shipping company. These bonds were resold several times in the middle, and finally came to me.

"About half a year ago, in May and June, a letter came from Marseilles, saying that a Roman bank wanted to buy the twenty thousand francs from me. I declined. Marseilles came again. I refused the letter with more earnest words. Unexpectedly, after only a week, an English gentleman came to visit and said that he was here because of the debt.”

"Why is he in such a hurry?"

Corona smiled: "I was also very surprised by this at the time."

In fact, it was one of the most astonishing business deals she'd ever been through.So much so that she can still recall her feelings at that time - when she came back from painting outside that day, she saw an English gentleman sitting in the living room, and introduced himself as a senior employee of the Thomson French Bank in Rome.When Corona heard the name, she glanced at him unexpectedly.

"I think I understand your purpose," she said. "I did not expect your bank to be so obsessed with a debt of twenty thousand francs."

"Now that you know, it seems that I can save my introduction." The other party said, "I think the previous communication was probably due to the barrier of letters, and there was some misunderstanding, so I came to Paris specially to introduce this transaction well. To be more clear: we will buy your debt from you at the original price of [-] francs, and pay you directly in cash. And I don't need any commission from you, my commission bank has already I paid. In fact, I have cash with me, and I can pay you at this moment, so you don't have to worry about this being a scam."

"You are really mistaken. I didn't think it was a fraud. Thomson & French's reputation is something I can trust. But I'll excuse you, but you haven't changed my mind. I don't intend to sell the money." debt."

"I don't understand what you mean." The other party asked politely and coldly, "From all the information I have received, Morel and Sons are on the verge of bankruptcy, and your debts, according to the best plan, will not Six percent can be recovered at most."

"I understand that. That's why I don't want to sell to you."

"What do you say?" asked the Englishman, leaning forward and looking interested.

"I have an agent in Marseilles. I believe you have met him?" She saw the other nod. "I learned about the business there through him, and I went there myself a few years ago. As far as I know, Mr. Morel is a decent man who takes the company's reputation very seriously." She paused, Looking at the Englishman, "I wonder if that's what you heard?"

"As far as I know, it is," said the gentleman slowly.

"And I received a letter from them half a month ago, begging me to defer the debt. I think, if a decent, self-respecting old gentleman took the trouble to ask for help like this, I'm afraid the situation of the company It's not far from the end of the mountain. So I don't want to sell to you. On the one hand, I don't want to sell you these bonds that are equivalent to waste paper at the original price knowing that you can't pay back; The company has come to a dead end, I can't save it, but I don't want to push it from behind."

She smiled and said, "Since it's about business, I'll be honest with you. Who doesn't want money? But I can afford the lack of [-] francs, and Morrel and Son's debt of [-] francs more can afford it." If I can't bear it, I can't tell. You're not buying a debt, you're buying my conscience—I'm afraid you can't buy it."

The Englishman crossed his fingers and clenched them while listening. The knuckles of his hands were white, and his clenched hands trembled slightly, but it seemed more excited than angry. "You are a good man," he said.

"Thank you for your compliment." Coronna smiled, "I'm afraid I will trouble you to make this empty trip."

"Then what are you going to do with your debt of twenty thousand francs?"

"I have already sent a letter to Marseilles. This debt was supposed to be paid in August this year. I have postponed it for two years. If the money is in vain after two years, I will admit it. At least I can be clear in the heart."

"If I say that our bank's acquisition of this debt is not to force the company to close down?" the British asked, "We are very optimistic about the potential of this company and plan to inject capital, which may bring it back to life."

"Sir, in business, I only believe in contracts written in black and white. Apart from that, you don't need to mention verbal promises."

"So it seems I can't change your mind."

"I'm really sorry."

The British thought about it. "In this case, I can't force it. But I have to try to make a deal. I hope you understand—in order to meet my errand, can you please show me your contract document for the extension of debt?"

This is not an excessive request, and Corona readily agreed.She went into the study to find a copy of the contract, and handed it to the other party. The other party read it carefully, returned it, and then simply got up and left. "God bless you," he said.

The words of farewell were a bit weird, and Corona didn't think much about it.But the strange thing is still to come - in September, she suddenly received a repayment from Morel's company, and she wrote to inquire, only to know that the sunken Pharaoh miraculously reappeared in the port; All debts of the company were acquired and written off.Strangest of all, the Thomson & French side insisted that it had never sent such an employee.

"That's queer!" cried Annie. "What's the matter with this man? Does he like to pay other people's bills? Can't he pay for our school too?"

"In a sense, the money for building the school is indeed paid by him." Coronne said, "On the one hand, the debt of [-] francs was recovered thanks to him; A month later, there was a news from a gallery in Italy, saying that a count had taken a fancy to the paintings I was exhibiting and bought more than a dozen oil paintings at double the original price, totaling nearly [-] francs."

Annie opened her mouth wide. "What?" she asked.For the female worker who used to live in the slums, even if her life has improved a lot, such a huge sum of [-] francs does not even have a concrete concept for her.

Corona smiled wryly. "I'm just as confused as you! I've only heard of people haggling, but never heard of someone deliberately doubling the money.——I thought about this matter for a long time, and I think this kind of style of throwing money out is quite good." Similar. Do you think that the Count of Monte Cristo is here to help the Morrels and his sons, and I just happen to be in the limelight?"

"If this is the case, then the Count of Monte Cristo you mentioned is too powerful, he can float a sunken ship again." Anne sighed, "However, since he is so powerful, go directly to the Morell Company Negotiate, give them money to pay the bill, isn't it over? As for such trouble?"

"Who knows, I can only guess wildly. But, Anne!" Coronne couldn't help but smile when she mentioned this topic, "We can build a school now!"

Anne laughed too. "What kind of school is going to be built?" she asked.