Rimbaud's girl

The local government has no money, so it is impossible to talk about the construction of good public facilities. Most of the residents just have enough food and clothing, and the rich are a minority in any era.

Almost no one in the remote town knows what it is like in the court of Paris. This does not prevent Vitaly from bragging about it. The grade only needs to be a little higher than "the emperor goes to the ground with a golden hoe".She regretted that she didn't have time to visit the Louvre in Paris. Although she couldn't get in, it would be nice if she could look outside the door, which is a pity.

She also painted a beautiful prospect for Arthur: after passing the graduation exam, going to Paris to go to university, meeting an awesome boss, and the boss took him to debut, wouldn't it be so beautiful!Mérimée passed away last year, but there are still many bigwigs in the literary and art circles in Paris. As long as you hang out for a long time, why don't you have no way to get to know the bigwigs!

He likes this topic.

Going to college wasn't necessary, but it didn't conflict with his desire to be a "great" poet, which he quickly accepted.

After the summer harvest, Mrs. Rimbaud took her eldest son back to Charleville, signed the lease of the store and the new house, and took the children to start the operation of the small supermarket.

She has no experience in running a small shop, but Vitaly can always speak clearly and logically. Most of the time it is Vitaly who makes decisions, such as what goods to buy, how to price them, and how to promote them.Think about how many people in the future will line up for fresh eggs that are a few cents cheaper. Black Friday’s discounts are no less than Taobao’s Double Eleven promotions.

She made a marketing plan. Three days before the opening, she selected one or two types of goods for discount promotion every day, as well as full gifts and full discounts.It can be said that these merchants in later generations have achieved the ultimate in these marketing methods, such as full gifts and full discounts. In order to covet the small cheapness of those few francs, people just scrape together to buy enough amount.

The store is not big, probably a little bigger than the small supermarket at the gate of the community in later generations, with an area of ​​70 square meters.On the day of the opening, a few half-grown children were hired to distribute advertisements nearby and buy eggs and flour at a discounted price with the advertisements.The clerks were Mrs. Rimbaud and Cousins ​​Frederick, Arthur, and Charles.The goods in the store that are not easy to move are sold on open shelves, such as flour; some smaller goods are placed on the back of the shelf, Arthur and Shire are responsible for picking up the goods at the counter, and Vitaly is responsible for collecting the money.

The first day was very hectic.

Opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m., "Rimbaud's Little Shop" is almost one-third sold.

Vitaly is very flexible, and she will give off a change at the checkout, sometimes even several centimes.Mrs. Rimbaud thinks she is too generous, can she still make money?But her calculation ability is only enough to calculate the accounts of a few items, and it is impossible to calculate too many items, especially the prices set by Vitaly are all fractions, such prices as 15.99 sous and 4.95 centimes often appear. 1 franc is 20 sous, which is 20 bases; 1 sou is 5 centimes, which is 5 bases, and different base systems make it difficult to calculate accounts.

Vitaly got a Chinese abacus from somewhere to settle the accounts, and the customers were very surprised to see her small and thin fingers dancing on the abacus.She will write down every payment in the account book, and write down the erased change.At night, the shop is closed to settle the accounts, calculate the purchase price, calculate today's expenses, and then calculate today's income. After deducting the cost, the net profit unexpectedly exceeded 500 francs.

——This is the living expenses of the whole family for 3 months!

The whole family—except Vitaly—was stunned.

500 francs is not much to say, but it was earned in one day!

Vitaly thought it was normal.It's because she has seen it in Paris. Clothing stores can earn thousands or even tens of thousands of francs every day. The profit of ready-made clothing is much higher than that of daily necessities. Daily necessities cannot set a high retail price. Add 20%, and expenses, losses and profits are all included in this 20%.

兰波家的小店除去开业大酬宾的前三天，每周的净利润稳定维持在100法郎到150法郎，全家的生活水准从一个月开销120法郎到150法郎上升到200法郎，整体生活质量跃升了一层。精打细算的兰波太太每个月还能存下2、300法郎。

Vitaly took the time to teach Mrs. Rimbaud how to calculate accounts, how to use the abacus, and how to keep accounts. At the beginning of September, she went back to Mr. Pierre's house for classes.

The new home was only two streets away from Mr. Pierre's house, and she would go there by herself in the morning, and Arthur or Charles would pick her up in the afternoon.She ordered uniforms for the clerk, and Arthur was cute in his uniform and apron.

Charles was forced by Uncle Felix to work in the store, of course he was not happy at first, how can he spend all day outside at work, after being cleaned up by Frederick a few times, he finally realized painfully that he was hiding If you don't want to drop it, you can only be a little more obedient, and become a small shop assistant honestly.

Arthur has been very busy recently, so he doesn't talk much about going to Paris again.

One day in August, he wrote a letter to Paul Verlaine, copied five poems and put them in the letter.He is not very hopeful about this, after all he has written letters and sent poems to other poets before, but has not received a reply.Vitaly jokingly said, is it because he said in the letter that he was only 8 years old, and those grown men don't think this at all-->>

Poetry would be written by a 16 year old boy - makes sense!So in a letter to Verlaine, he said he was 21 years old.

He told Vitaly that Verlaine was his last hope, and if Verlaine didn't reply to his letter, then he would stay in Charleville honestly and finish his graduation exam.

Vitaly was really entangled: she couldn’t stop Arthur from writing to Verlaine; but once Verlaine replied, Arthur would definitely go to Paris again, and then the two began to be shameless, shameless, and not tossing each other. for two years.Mother would be furious; and if Arthur hadn't gone to Paris, would he still be the teenage genius poet so sought after?Well, although it seems that Arthur Rimbaud was not very well-known during his lifetime, and he stopped writing early, the two years he and Verlaine were together were exactly the two years when he had the strongest creative desire. It can be said that "creation lies in Tossing", she wants him to take a calmer life path, will it kill his creative desire instead?

She tactfully discussed with Arthur, if an artist changes his living environment, will he not become the person he should be?

Arthur thought that gold would always shine, and that a lighter environment might be better.

This is about Mrs. Rimbaud's desire to control her children.

Arthur, a literary teenager, thinks that his mother's control over him is too suffocating for him. Why he always wants to run out, firstly, he can't stand the overall atmosphere of a small border town that doesn't change, and secondly, he can't stand his mother's desire for control.As a "good boy" and "good student" since he was a child, Mrs. Rimbaud certainly loved him very much, but this kind of close "care" would make the boy in the rebellious period feel "unbearable" and "suffocated". , which she never expected.

To put it simply, Arthur is now in the rebellious period of his youth; to put it more complicated, he knows that he is gifted, but his relatives cannot understand his spiritual level, and the surrounding environment is not suitable for a young genius like him, so he just would want to flee.

"But you can't be without money." Vitaly pointed out this practical problem calmly and sharply.

Arthur rested his chin, very sad, "Mom gave me a salary, but it's not enough."

It was Vitaly's suggestion to pay my brother and cousin a salary, on the grounds that my brothers are getting old and need some money.Mrs. Rimbaud disagreed at first, but the profit of the small shop was still considerable, and Vitaly finally made her mother realize that Arthur would run away again if he did not pay for work.

"Work for a few more years and save money slowly."

Arthur glared at her. "I can only stay until tomorrow summer at most. If Verlaine writes back to me, I'll go to Paris and meet him."

Vitaly hesitated, "You can go to Paris to meet him, but you..."

"What's the matter? You don't seem to like him very much?"

"I don't like it. A person's talent and character are not necessarily proportional. Maybe he will be a morally corrupt guy. If you go to see him, I will give you the money for a hotel. You have to know, you can be a country Poor boy, but you have to have your backbone, you can't accept charity from others."

"Alms?" Arthur laughed, "How come? What are you thinking in your little head!"

He ruffled her hair carelessly.

Her hair had been cut as short as a boy's, while Arthur's had been kept till it could be braided.

She cut her hair short, so Jules couldn't pull her braids, and things were fine for the next few weeks; classes went back in September, and Jules didn't show up.Mr Pierre said Jules had left Charleville.

Vitaly doesn't like the kind of bully boy and quickly forgets about Jules.She cut her hair short, and she wore Arthur's old clothes when she went to school. She dressed like a boy. You should be surprised to say that you are a little girl, how come you look like a boy?Vitaly gradually stopped going to the store.

"If you live on other people's money, it's a very annoying thing. I don't like it when you say things you wouldn't have said for money." She pouted, "If you don't have money, find a way to make money."

Arthur agreed, "I also think I should make money by myself. I don't like to ask others for money, even if I ask my mother for money, it makes me feel uncomfortable." He is completely arrogance of a teenager.

Verlaine's reply letter was sent in early September. In the letter, he praised Arthur Rimbaud very much, thinking that his poems are not bad, but some are too "childish".

Arthur wrote another letter to Verlaine in high spirits, enclosing other poems.In Paris, Verlaine was already enthusiastically recommending a young poet to his friends.

In the "Gas Café" and Nina's salon that Verlaine often visited, his poet and artist friends read the poems of the poet of Charleville, and agreed that he was a talented and rare figure.Verlaine soon wrote to Arthur, "Come, great soul, we are calling for you, waiting for you..."

A few days later, Arthur received a money order from Verlaine for his travel expenses to Paris.