[Infrastructure] Rose kissed Barcelona

"Oh! Miss, where are you going in such a hurry?" Ada asked.Nothing to do in the salon, she couldn't help sneaking into the back garden to feed the pigeons.

"Come on, let's go to the telegraph station!"

Something at the salon reminded her that she was going to send a telegram to the Fernandez house.

Since it's something related to painting, why not call him Vincent?

Moreover, it has been several weeks since she left Barcelona without knowing it, and she has not asked how her family is doing.

I don't know how everyone is doing.

There is a civilian telegraph station set up by the Paris Telegraph Office by the Seine River. The door is open under the gray-blue dome, and it is divided into a telegraph machine for personal use at any time and a batch telegraph room.

On the right hand side of the entrance is the batch telegraph room, which is mainly used for the communication of large companies and organizations.

Several groups of telegraph operators quickly operated the equipment in front of the rows of telegraph machines, wrote down the information of the sender and receiver on the beeping notes, and then threw them into a big basket, and the special pickers Put them in different categories, and then hand them over to the postman, and deliver them to the recipient's address like a letter.

Joey tilted his head as he entered, so that the feathers fluttering from his hat didn't catch on the doorframe.

The personal telegraph room on the left is deserted, with few customers, which is in stark contrast to the busy scene on the right.

Although the telegraph has been invented for nearly half a century, and even the transatlantic cable has been laid decades ago, for ordinary people, the main method of communication is still writing.

Although the telegram is fast, it is much more expensive than the post.Most people don't feel that they have such a high need for instant messaging, let alone the ubiquitous telephone.

However, for Joy, who has stepped back from the 21st century, the speed of the telegram is her last bottom line after she left the Internet.

She didn't even want to wait for the telegram to arrive home from the city substation, and directly installed a telegraph machine at Fernandez's house.

In this way, a telegram sent from Paris to Barcelona can be sent home after only one forwarding at the city's main station.As long as someone notices the movement of the telegraph, instant communication can basically be achieved.

"Spain, Barcelona," she said to the girl at the telegraph machine, "ask them to forward 0416, thank you."

The telegraph operator skillfully operated the telegraph, his dexterous fingers crackling on the discolored round metal keys, and soon sent the first telegram for them.

[All is well in Paris.How is the situation at home?Joey. ]

"Miss, are you... waiting for a reply?" The telegraph operator was a little surprised.

"That's right." Joey nodded, "It may be a little slow, won't it delay your normal work?"

The telegraph operator grinned: "What are you talking about, of course not. In fact, I wish I could talk to people more."

So they chatted and waited for a reply, guessing that it took some time for the telegraph station in Barcelona to transfer, or that the family didn't notice the telegraph——

The telegraph suddenly beeped twice and began to print the telegram.

"Wow, this is the first time I've seen a person send and receive telegrams in real time." The telegraph operator exclaimed.

[everything is fine.Did the application go well?Mary. ]

It really is a little girl.

It's the school holiday time, and she probably spends her days in the lab.The laboratory is not far from the telegraph, and she is the one who has studied the telegraph most thoroughly in her family, so it is not uncommon for her to telegraph back and forth.

[smoothly.You are invited to Paris, especially Vincent.Let him play mahjong less, Paris has his new friends. ]

[Received, looking forward to it. ]

"Miss, have you finished sending?" the telegraph operator asked.

It stands to reason that this telegraph communication has completed its function so far.Telegrams charge by the word, and no one talks nonsense in it.

Joey hesitated for a long time, then stuck out his tongue and smiled at Ida: "Ada, there is an Italian ice cream shop next door—can you buy two ice creams? I want lemon flavor! The other is yours, You can buy whatever flavor you want!"

Ada froze for a moment, then narrowed her eyes with a smile: "Of course it's no problem."

As a maid who watched Her Royal Highness grow up... She should have thought of it earlier!Your Highness is still a young girl without any experience in love, so she is naturally shy.

Of course, it's not too late now.

Joey watched Ada go out, and then whispered to the telegraph operator: "Please send another sentence, thank you!"

[Is Antonio okay? ]

She folded her fingers a little guilty, and twisted the white lace gloves.

After Antonio woke up, if he knew that she ran away without a word, what would his reaction be?

I walked away in a panic at the time, but now that I think about it, I feel that it was a little unkind—after all, he was injured so badly to save himself.

The telegraph was silent for a long time.Joey couldn't help but start thinking wildly.

Wait, could it be that his injury worsened after he left?If there is something wrong with him, other people are not in the habit of using telegrams, and the letter to her hasn't arrived yet...

Her heart beat faster and faster uncontrollably.

thump, thump, thump...

After about a century, the telegraph finally started to move slowly, spit out a few words.

[Alive. ]

Joey: "..."

My heart suddenly relaxed, followed by a spontaneous feeling of death.

Well, needless to say, Antonio must be by the side.Maybe it's because he bad-heartedly asked Mary to slow down, just to make her anxious!

Joey thought about it, and suddenly became a little angry-this guy!

He actually made a joke of a matter of life and death!

"Well, it's over. Please settle the bill." She said to the telegrapher bitterly.

The telegraph operator skillfully drew vertical lines on the paper, added up the number of words sent several times, and reported the telegram fee to Joey.

When she was handing out the money, the telegraph operator couldn't help asking curiously, "Is Antonio your cat?"

After all, this young lady has already asked everyone.

"Well, that's right."

"Still a particularly irritating cat."

……

Paris has always been a cosmopolitan city.As the date of the World Expo election approaches, the city becomes more and more lively.

"Le Figaro" took the lead in discovering the business opportunities hidden in it, and launched the World Expo guessing activity.

"London, San Francisco, Moscow, Barcelona, ​​who will take over the crystal glass of the World Expo after Paris? You are welcome to buy lottery tickets for the World Expo campaign, and they only cost one franc!"

For the always passionate Parisians, compared with the ups and downs of life in previous years, this summer is as boring as God is taking a nap.

The Paris Commune is gone, and the Franco-Prussian War has ended in France's defeat.Of course the French were unwilling to bow down to Germany, but the peace treaty had been signed and life must go on.

As a result, the excess energy that had nowhere to rest was invested in the lottery.The Parisians paid close attention to the four candidate cities with unprecedented enthusiasm—as long as there are no German cities!

When Joey came to the lottery station under the office building of Le Figaro, he was stunned by the bustling scene beside the lottery station.

She waited in line for half an hour before she came to the counter.

Paris in the midsummer is a little hot, and the red-haired young man at the counter seems to have become numb to business. He wiped his sweat, lowered his head and sorted out the piles of banknotes and lottery tickets in his hand, and said quickly without raising his head: " Which city to buy and how much to bet?"

"One bet is one franc, and the odds are 1.26 in London, 2.3 in San Francisco, and 4.5 in Moscow."

"How about Barcelona?" Joey asked.

"What?" the young man asked impatiently, "Miss, please speak up, I can't hear you!"

The surrounding crowd was crowded and it was indeed too noisy.Joey had to raise his voice.

"I want to ask the odds for Barcelona, ​​sir!"

The surroundings suddenly quieted down.

There was a burst of laughter, and someone whistled: "This lady is not from the local area, is she?"

"Hahaha my dear lady, although the odds of Barcelona must be high, buying it is like betting that Napoleon Bonaparte is still alive!"

More than 60 years have passed since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.

Even the overwhelmed young man behind the counter stopped and laughed.He flipped through the pile of papers in front of him, and read very seriously: "Theoretically, it's not impossible, let me see - the odds of Barcelona are, um... 800."

And such good things?

Joey couldn't help raising his eyebrows: "London 1.26, San Francisco 2.3, Moscow 4.5, Barcelona 800? Are you sure you didn't make a mistake with the decimal point?"

The young man suppressed a smile: "As the gentleman said just now, Barcelona is really unlikely...Miss, you may not know the situation, let me introduce it to you."

"It's like this. You see that there seems to be little difference between Barcelona and several other cities, but the British and Yankees are very cunning. They kicked Barcelona out of the qualifications directly - because of the issue of national unity. .”

The enthusiastic uncle immediately explained: "Cunning is a little cunning, but it can't be said to be unreasonable. The country is not unified, and the capital of the Yuan Dynasty does not exist. Who can guarantee that your city will be able to hold the World Expo normally in five years? ? This is a matter that affects many countries. If there is a war at that time, 'paji', this city will not be able to run—who will lose the loss?"

"Okay, okay, I know, it's the "Exposition Convention" regulation just announced this year, right? Then I know." Joey rolled his eyes silently in his heart, "It's just that there is no king yet."

"..." The people around looked at each other, and then smiled tacitly: "Indeed, we thought the same way decades ago..."

The young man behind the counter suddenly understood something: "Oh! Look at my ears. Judging from your accent, is it a Spanish lady?"

He knocked on the copper-clad counter and said with an apologetic smile: "Understood, then it's normal to support the motherland. Buying a dozen or so bets, you can be regarded as an expression of your heart..."

"I'll buy 500 million bets." Joey replied calmly.

The young man choked suddenly.

The surrounding crowd suddenly fell silent.Everyone's eyes widened, only the young man blushed and coughed crazily.

"Cough cough... you, you, cough cough, are you sure you didn't say the wrong decimal point?" The young man coughed heart-rendingly.

"Ada." Joey whispered.

Arrogantly, Ida took out the checkbook and pen and put them on the counter.

... Oh, the French who have used the white flag for hundreds of years as their national flag!Laugh, why don't you laugh!

Joey wrote down the number very smoothly, then signed his name, and gracefully handed it to the stunned young man: "Please check, 500 million francs."

"...Miss, are you serious?" The young man swallowed.

"Why, don't you want to do the door-to-door business?" Joey smiled.

The next day Le Figaro carried a message through the streets of Paris.

The homeless man sitting in the square got a newspaper with a faulty binding—these newspapers were relatively cheap, and you could buy a copy for twenty centimes.

Tramp doesn't care about that either, as long as the content is correct.He excitedly picked up the newspaper. The first page was not the front page, but the real-time odds of the original World Expo guessing lottery on the sixth page.

Oh, just right.He pays attention to this.

London odds 1.25, has dropped.San Francisco 2.3 unchanged, Barcelona 300.

Huh?The homeless man scratched his head in doubt, how did he seem to remember that Barcelona's odds were originally 800?

Maybe I remembered it wrong, after all, 3 and 8 look alike.

He paid more attention to the remaining city - he bought Moscow.

But what about the odds for Moscow?

The tramp frowned, and flipped to the front page.

It was like being struck by lightning.

The headline on the front page is placed in the center with a capitalized and bold title——

"Shocking! The Russians broke the scandal, and the Moscow delegation bribed elections in the World Expo competition!"

The author has something to say: Thanks to the mines of the little angel of water beauty, thanks to Jiuxian, Gardenia, and Tristan for the nutrient solution~