[Pride and Prejudice] Lady Makes Money

"In any family, a promising man in the family will not be allowed to join the militia. If he is really rich, handsome, and promising, as his mother said, he would have become a knight a long time ago. Where? What kind of militia will you join?①

Those who can appear there, even if they come from rich families, must have a problem with their own conduct and have been abandoned by the family.If my mother must choose a husband for us among these people, I think not only me, but other sisters will definitely not be willing. "

Manli's words surprised everyone in the room.

The women were totally ignorant of what she was saying.

From their superficial understanding, those tall and handsome men in uniforms are full of hormones, and they are full of masculinity.

If you have a little wealth, how can you not be a good partner for marriage?

And Mr. Philip was amazed at the insight of this niece.

All he knew about Manli before was that she was a girl who loved to read, didn't like to talk, and was a bit dull.But I didn't expect that she actually had inner beauty.

In today's Britain, the militia and the aristocratic military system are parallel. Although they both serve the king in name, their identities are very different in reality.

The status of the officers and soldiers of the militia is very low, and they are basically composed of civilians and some liberated serfs.Joining the Corps is just for that little allowance.The status and status of those soldiers in the knight service in the noble corps are completely different.

But how did Manli, a reclusive girl, know about this?

But Mr. Philip didn't care about these things.

He just looked at Manli with a very appreciative look, and nodded again and again: "This is the most sensible answer I have heard these days. You elders, your knowledge is not as good as that of a teenager. Since you are stupid If this is the case, in the future, don't show off your old experience in front of the children."

"Honey, why are you talking like that?!" Mrs. Philip suddenly became uneasy.

She glanced at her older sister and scolded her husband in a low voice: "How can you say that about my older sister?"

But Mr. Philip obviously didn't like her, and snorted coldly: "I didn't just talk about Ella, but also you. Are you not allowed to talk about it without knowledge? I don't think my reminder just now was wrong, thank you This child, Manli, is very smart, otherwise all the good girls will be misled by you!"

After finishing speaking, he simply stood up from the chair, said: "Go upstairs and talk to brother-in-law for a while", then ignored the group of chattering women and left in a hurry.

Because I have known my brother-in-law since childhood, and I also know that he has such a temper.

He had a bad mouth but no evil intentions, and Mrs. Bennet didn't take his mean words to heart.

Seeing him leave, Mrs. Bennet quickly moved to Manli's side, her face full of shock that couldn't be concealed.

"Manli, what you just said is true? You mean, those handsome young men were all abandoned by their families?"

"Not all of them. There are also poor people who voluntarily sacrifice their lives for that little allowance and serfs who have gained free status." Manli added.

"My God, how could this be?!" Mrs. Bennet was in a bad mood.

"I'm still thinking about letting a few of you sisters visit your aunt's house during this period of time, and let your aunt take you to get in touch with those boys more by the way!"

What her mother said made Manli feel unspeakably depressed.

Before that, she had always thought that it was Kitty and Lydia's personal behavior to interact with those members of the Corps.

It is not incomprehensible for a little girl who has no one to discipline her to have shallow knowledge.

What she never expected was that her own mother was the instigator of this incident.

Thinking that in the book, things developed to such an unmanageable situation in the end, and the cause was actually instigated by her mother, Manli felt that she could hardly control her emotions.

She was a little scared.

If she is not here today, or the aunt does not choose such an opportunity to speak out about it.

So, is it possible that Lydia will repeat the same mistakes?

The more she thought about it, the more troubled she became, Manli couldn't understand, in her mother's heart, how difficult it is for them to marry each of them?How could she be so embarrassed!

Maybe it was because she finally complained to Mrs. Bennet in her heart, and Manli's tone became bad.

"Mom, I advise you to forget about this plan completely, and don't even think about it! I'm putting my words here today. I will never meet those soldiers and have any contact with them. The others Sister, it’s not allowed either! If you still have such thoughts, I don’t mind going upstairs and telling your father right now, and let him talk to you.”

Her words didn't save her mother any face. After she finished speaking, she even turned her head and gave the two younger sisters a warning look, especially the youngest one.

His eyes were sharper than ever before.

Lydia was so frightened that she was about to express her thoughts, she shut her mouth suddenly, and quickly hid behind Jane.

In Mrs. Philip's eyes, such a scene was a bit glaring, and it made her feel a little unhappy.

She brought up the topic of the Corps.

And in the previous chats, she had been showing off how familiar she was with the boys in the regiment and how much she was respected by them.

Now Manli said one by one that their status was low, and one by one was a soldier, and it sounded particularly harsh to her ears.

Speaking of it, Mrs. Philip really didn't have any malicious intentions, and she even wanted to help her sister.

From her point of view, all the young men in the Corps were really good, and even if she could find only one husband for her nieces, it would be considered a great deed for her!

Today, she and her husband ran over specially to visit her brother-in-law. On the one hand, and more importantly, Mrs. Philip wanted to discuss this matter with her sister.

Even before she arrived, she was ready to bring all five nieces home and take them to the weekend dance.

But now Manli's words not only ruined all her plans, but also caused her to be scolded by her husband, and all her good intentions turned into donkey livers and lungs in the end.

"It's not necessarily like what you said, is it? I have been in contact with those boys, and they talk a lot, and they are polite and polite. They look very educated. How is it like what you said? Manli, what do you say? Where did you hear about it? Why didn’t I know anything about it in Meryton? Don’t tell it to you on purpose, lest you snatch all those outstanding young men away?”

Mrs. Philip said with some displeasure.

In fact, Manli could understand Mrs. Philip's state of mind at the moment.

In other words, if she hadn't known the outcome of this matter in advance, she would never have spoken so harshly and behaved like she is now, leaving no room for anyone, or even a little aggressive.

It's a trivial matter to save people's face in this way, and it may hurt people's hearts.

However, Manli had no choice.

Compared with these results that can be made up in the later stage, it is more important than anything else to prevent Lydia from filling the quagmire again.

Although she has never dealt with that Wickham, in the original book, the author used a lot of details to explain how hypocritical, how liar, winking, and likable man he is.

It can be said that any person who has dealt with him, as long as he is willing to please, there is no one who does not bow down under his suit pants, absolutely all young and old.

Hadn't even a girl as bright as Elizabeth been fooled by the illusion he made up?

Manli considers herself not a particularly patient person.

She will do her best to be good to her family, but she is definitely not a good-tempered person.

She was afraid that if her sisters were given ecstasy by that dog without her noticing, they would be confused by him again.

Then... there are likely to be two results:

One is, Manli couldn't help herself, she went to the scene and tore off the man's dog's skin, making him act on the spot.

But this can easily arouse other people's doubts. After all, nothing about that person's background should be known to her now.

Another result was that I had a dispute with my sisters because of this scumbag, which caused my temper to explode, and I said something unpleasant, which finally hurt the feelings of the whole family.

No matter what kind of result Manli wants, so the best way she can think of at the moment is to stay away.

Stay away from the corps, stay away from scumbags.

Whenever there is a chance, Manli is going to have a little hint with Darcy, and let him solve this trouble that should belong to him.

Manli thought a lot, but in fact only a moment passed, and Mrs. Philip was still waiting for her answer.

She sighed silently in her heart, tried her best to control her emotions, and stepped forward to salute Mrs. Philip.

Then he slowed down his tone and said: "Auntie, I was too reckless just now, don't get angry with me. But what I said is true, even if you don't believe me, don't you believe Uncle? Just now Uncle I also said that those people are not as good as you think. As for how I know their situation... I heard from a few noble people."

She didn't say which noble person she got the news from, but both inside and outside the words showed that the channel through which she got the news was very reliable, and what she said before was also true.

Mrs. Philip and Mrs. Bennet looked at each other, and it could be seen from each other's eyes that they believed Manli's words no matter how reluctant they were.

After all, even Mrs. Philip, who seldom saw each other, had heard that these nieces of hers were very powerful now, and they had a very good relationship with the distinguished guests in Netherfield Gardens.

If Manli heard these words from those noble people, then in terms of truthfulness, it must be irrefutable.

Because of such an episode, the visit broke up a little bit.

Mrs. Philip did not sit for a long time, and called her husband upstairs to leave in a hurry on the grounds that she had a headache.

And Mrs. Bennet was also a little listless, and sent Philip and his wife away, ignoring their sisters, and went back to her room to rest.

The sisters all looked at Manli nervously, with a look of hesitation, obviously wanting to ask her about the Corps.

But what could Manli say to them?

Say that what I know is all from some materials that later generations accidentally read?In fact, she doesn't even know what the people in the Corps look like?

She could only pretend that she didn't see what the sisters were thinking at all, and went back to the room.

But lying on the bed, the more she thought about Manli, the more she felt that the current situation was definitely not the final solution.

If she could fool her mother and aunt, the sisters would naturally be able to carry out their activities quietly without telling her.

According to the book, didn't Lydia and Wickham's getting together was also hidden from the family at first?

The more she thought about it, the more Manli couldn't lie down anymore, she simply got up again and went to the room where her father was recuperating.

Mr. Bennet is recovering well.

Although he definitely couldn't get out of bed because of a broken bone, his body was weak due to bleeding before, and under the careful care of Manli and her family, he has almost recovered.

At this moment, he was reclining on the bed in good spirits, looking at a page full of words with great interest.

Mr. Bennet was visibly pleased to see Mary come in.

He beckoned to her: "Come here, show you something, you will be very happy."

"What?" Hearing what her father said, Manli suddenly became interested.

When she approached, Mr. Bennet handed her the paper in his hand: "Your uncle will come to visit our house next week. When your uncle went to London, he told him about my fall. If you can't leave because of something, I will ask your uncle to bring a letter of greeting."

Hearing what her father said, Manli was naturally happy. Even the irritability in her heart seemed to disappear all of a sudden, and her whole body became cheerful.

Indeed, no one wanted to see that uncle in London more than she did.

She thought about visiting in person before!

After reading my uncle's letter, it was as my father said.Moreover, Manli also discovered that both her uncle and uncle seemed to have a pretty good relationship with her father.

From the casual attitude of speaking between the lines, one can feel that the relationship between them should be a very kind one.

Uncle kept nagging in the letter, disliking his father for not knowing how to take care of his body, but at the same time, he asked again and again what was missing at home, and asked him to send a message in advance, when he came Bring it with you.

Manli was very satisfied with the intimacy of family members.

After reading her uncle's letter, she suddenly remembered the matter of opening a tofu shop together that Gene mentioned before, and she hadn't found a chance to talk about it with her father yet!

So Manli told her father everything that happened during the previous trip to Netherfield.

Including that she gave the recipe to Mrs. Horst free of charge on the premise of promoting soy sauce, and gave the design of the bathtub to Mr. Darcy on the premise of promoting the bath gift package.

After hearing this, Mr. Bennet had no objection except that he was a little worried that Manli would not be able to provide so many goods.

When Manli proposed to invite some workers to help, she readily agreed.

She also said that she didn't need to worry about this matter, and she would let the steward of the manor come forward.

The two father and daughter can be said to have a very happy conversation.

Seeing that her father was still in a good mood, Manli told him in detail about her plan to make the tofu shop bigger.

Finally she said: "Father, I originally wanted to cooperate with my uncle, but you don't want to. If that's the case, we might consider Mr. Jean's proposal. I think the conditions he offered are very attractive. Then A piece of land, when I went to send Mr. Alang home the day before yesterday, I went to see it with two other gentlemen, it was very good! The land is very fertile, whether it is soybeans or other things, there will be good crops in those years Harvest. Although I haven't had time to see that house, I believe it shouldn't be bad."

Manli was talking, but she felt something was wrong.

Because she found that her father's complexion was getting worse and worse.

"Dad, what's the matter with you? Is there something wrong? Or, what did I say wrong?" She asked a little nervously.

Mr. Bennet looked serious: "There is nothing wrong with me, and there is nothing wrong with what you said. I am just a little strange. Did the smartest daughter in our family really not find anything wrong with this agreement? "

Manli was taken aback, and her face suddenly became serious: "What's wrong, I think these terms are very beneficial to us? Dad, what did you find? Tell me."

Although Manli was very satisfied with the terms of the agreement proposed by Gene before, she was not the kind of person who would use her own will.

She knew that she didn't know the laws or systems of this country, and there might be some big loopholes that she didn't discover and didn't know.

Seeing the ignorant expression on his daughter's face, Mr. Bennet's expression softened a little.

He looked at Manli and said indifferently: "It's so strange that it's so beneficial. Your tofu, if I remember correctly, the two gentlemen only met once, right? It's just the same food, what is there? What kind of charm made them offer such generous terms?"

It was this that her father questioned, and Manli was finally relieved.She quickly and patiently explained: "It's because those two gentlemen are good-natured, and they don't want us to suffer. But I've already figured it out. If you agree, then we can't let Mr. Darcy's 30.00% shares go from The shares of Mr. Jean are out. I want to divide all the shares into three shares, and our family accounts for [-]%. After all, whether it is the prescription or the later production, it still depends on us. The two of them each get half, do you think this is okay?"

"No." Mr. Bennet replied immediately, without thinking at all.

This time Manli was really stunned.

She didn't understand what her father wanted?

"This agreement cannot be signed, no matter what the content is, and no matter how favorable the conditions are, it cannot be signed."

Seeing Manli's incomprehensible look, Mr. Bennet glared at her, and said simply: "The reason why I disagree is not the terms of the agreement, but those two people. Our family does not do business with dignitaries like them." .”

"why?"

Manli felt that her father was discriminatory.

When doing business, I have only heard of choosing character and ability, but I have never heard of choosing family background.

What's more, I don't want a good family background.

"Why do you need me to say it?"

Seeing his daughter's dissatisfaction and wanting to argue with him to the end, Mr. Bennet was also angry.

He blew his beard and stared at Manli and scolded, "Do you have anything else in your head besides business and prescriptions? Have you completely forgotten that you are still a girl?! I have never seen a girl like you, so stupid!"

Manli, who was scolded by her father for being confused, felt wronged.

She tried to calm herself down, trying to think from her father's point of view what went wrong?

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that my father might have heard some messy things from someone, just like the two sisters, worried that he would get too close to those two people.

She had no choice but to explain patiently again: "Father, Mr. Jean and Mr. Darcy and I really do business, nothing..."

"Business! Business! Who allowed you to do business?! When did I, Bennet, force my own daughter to go into business to make ends meet? Are you disgusting that my father is incompetent and can't support you? !"

Mr. Bennet was so angry that he slammed his fists on the bed and said.

Manli had never seen her father so angry before, and she was too frightened to say another word.

She hurried forward, picked up the kettle on the table, changed her father to a cup of warm water, and served him to drink it.She wiped the corners of his mouth again, arranged the pillow behind him, and supported him to lean on.

He moved cautiously, but didn't dare to open his mouth to say anything the whole time.

Seeing her like this, Mr. Bennet sighed slowly, reached out and touched her hair: "Being my daughter has wronged you."

Man Li's eyes were wet instantly after she said a word.

"No, I was wrong. Dad, I will never deal with them again, don't be angry."

She sniffled and said with a sob.

Compared with family harmony, business, and making money, what is it?

Isn't the reason why Manli is obsessed with making money is to make her family's life happier?

If it makes father angry because of this, it's no big deal if the money is not earned.

She strengthened her confidence in her heart, and wrote a letter to Mr. Jean when she got back, telling him that the business would not be discussed.

As if he had seen his daughter's heart, Mr. Bennet showed a look of relief in his eyes.He softened his tone, and said to Manli in a gentle voice: "You have to trust Dad, I will find a way to create a better life for you. If there is no sudden accident this time, I may have already taken the Spencer family The ownership of that carriage has been negotiated."

"Spencer's horse farm?"

The father's magical stroke made Manli forget the previous sadness all at once, and asked curiously.

After Mr. Spencer's death, hadn't his son sold the stud farm to a stranger?