[Pride and Prejudice] Sky Bookstore

If a man's thought cannot rise higher than a bird, it is a humble thought.

The afternoon sun was slightly drunk, and the ground was covered with golden light.On the blue bricks at the entrance of the store, there are several cats huddled into fur balls and basking in the sun.

The shop owner picked the remaining dirt from yesterday at the corners of his eyes, and yawned a lot. He leaned on a pair of dirty pillows that couldn't be seen in color, and took the first book in his hand, enjoying himself to the fullest. A time when no one cares.

But such a good time is short-lived after all.

Since the bookstore reopened, many boring people have come to disturb her life every day. These people pretend to buy books, and then linger in the store.

"···Is anyone here?"

Today's look seems particularly bad.The owner propped his head up, leaned on the cushion and looked at today's guests coldly.

This man looked handsome and upright. From the way he walked and the texture of his clothes, it could be seen that he was educated and from a wealthy family.Maybe a nobleman or something?Who knows?

The owner scribbled over a page of the book in his hand, stroked the line he was reading with his index finger, and read the content silently.

Hearing the sound of flipping the book, the guest looked back carefully, and finally saw the shopkeeper hiding under the pillow.

He frowned and looked at the unusual shopkeeper.

As far as he knew, the previous name of this bookstore should be Claire's Bookstore.The owner of the bookstore is a university professor who started selling books after retirement.

Claire's lifelong quest is to spread knowledge to as many people as possible.However, this is just an idealist's beautiful blueprint after all. Professor Clare never saw a moment when universal education sparked a blaze in his life.

Mr. Darcy had frequented this bookstore for some time.Because he found that thanks to the owner's professor status, it was always easier to find some rare or hand-copied latest books here than other stores.The owner, Mr. Claire, is also a knowledgeable person, and he can gain a lot of interesting knowledge in the limited communication time with him.

But Mr. Darcy hadn't been in the store for several years.

It should be calculated that he has not been here since he graduated from university.

Family affairs once left him with no extra time to add books to the study.

And this time I came here specially because it was rainy and rainy in Bloomberg, and some books were damp and not properly kept.By the time the rainy day was over, some books had done irreversible damage.Although Mr. Darcy severely punished the servant involved in this matter, it still cannot change the fact that he has to buy these books again to fill them.

After the book list was issued, most of the books were returned to the study room under the management of the housekeeper.And there are a few books that can't be found no matter what.

Mr. Darcy recounted this little regret in a conversation with a friend.

As a result, the friend who also loves books suggested him with a narrow smile: "Do you still remember the Claire's Bookstore? The last time I visited, the bookstore changed owners, but the books are still there. Besides, there It’s not very far away from Bloomberg, why don’t you go and have a look yourself?”

——After arriving here, Mr. Darcy realized the profound meaning contained in his friend's smile.

The original signboard of Claire's Bookstore was crookedly altered with paint into an illegible word "sky".If such sloppy gestures can't reflect the owner's character, then you might as well take a look at the original clean interior decoration.

Mr. Darcy couldn't even believe that this was the bookstore he used to frequent. ——A pile of tomes have been piled up at the door of the store, exposed to the sun and rain without care.

Standing at the door of the store, one can see the ruins of the store. It seems that a bookshelf has fallen, and the books on it have spread all over the floor, and no one has helped it up.The hygienic situation in the store is no longer as clean as before.Dust flies in the sun and is visible to the naked eye.

Due to such a bad scene in front of him, although Mr. Darcy saw the closed sign hanging on the door of the store, he pushed the door and walked in without hesitation.

If the owner told him that there was a second bookstore nearby, he would definitely turn around and walk away.After all, the furnishings of this store, including the weird shopkeeper in front of him, can't make customers feel any comfort.

"You can find any books you need by yourself." The shopkeeper didn't mean to greet the guests at all, he still leaned there and said lazily.

"Since you are sitting in the store, why does the sign hanging at the door say it is closed?" Mr. Darcy pursed his lips and bent down to pick up a few books on the floor.

"But you still came in. Forget it, please help me turn over the sign... Dear Sir." The shopkeeper's voice was hoarse, as if it was covered with broken glass, and Mr. Darcy stood in the shop and watched On the other side of the sign, the owner's request was ignored.

He silently looked at the other side of the sign, which was supposed to say that it was open.But now the text on the sign has also been altered, and the poor black handwriting shows the viciousness of the shopkeeper.

——Both front and back are unopened signs.

This reduced Mr. Darcy's impression of the shopkeeper to the utmost.

In the spirit of buying as many books as possible if he could save them here, lest they fall into the hands of an unknown and despicable person who has no love for books, Darcy did not leave the bookstore.

"I need a copy of "Letters from the Persians" and a copy of "The Spirit of the Law." Mr. Darcy walked up to the shopkeeper and said word by word.

In doing so, he blocked the owner's hard-won sunlight, and at the same time, he did not comply with the owner's rules.

The innkeeper unhappily licked himself out of the pillow pile, and raised his sharp chin at Mr. Darcy.

"The third bookshelf on the left, you can find any books you need."

While hearing the ugly voice clearly, Mr. Darcy also saw clearly the appearance of the shopkeeper.He was small and thin, but he was hiding in an outdated black three-piece suit. His natural black curly hair was unkempt and unkempt, and there were black dirt embedded in his fingers, giving him an unkempt appearance.

"Are you the shopkeeper here?"

"Don't I look like that? What's the name of this... sir?"

"Fitzwilliam Darcy."

"Then Mr. Darcy, please turn around and go out, and then close the door for me." The shopkeeper closed the book in his hand, and gave Mr. Darcy a very rude nod. People are very worried that he will drop the book by mistake and make a hole.

Darcy began to be offended by his rudeness.But his eyes fell on the cover of the book in the owner's hand.

The cover of the book is of the finest cowhide.The spine has obvious perforations for anti-theft chains.The instruction book itself should be kept in a private library, or in the hands of a bibliophile.

Looking at the cover of this book again, although it is difficult to distinguish due to some years, Darcy still recognized that it was a French version of "The Legend of Giants" by virtue of a few prominent words.

Although Bloomberg's collection of books is very rich through the efforts of several generations, it does not mean that there are all kinds of books.Darcy once heard the teacher tell the content of this book when he was studying at Oxford.But because so many people borrowed it, he still missed the opportunity to read it in the end.

"Are you reading this book?" Darcy's attitude softened a little.But this is only the softness he thought.The voice reached the shopkeeper's ears, and it was still the worst tone and the unique aloofness of this guest.

"No. I just think the cowhide cover is very soft, and it will be very comfortable for me to put it under my head." He replied mockingly, deliberately not giving this respectable guest a good face.

"how much does this book cost?"

"This book is not for sale." The shopkeeper's patience was exhausted.He has a headache, and he doesn't know when it will strike, but as soon as it starts, it will make people irritable and don't want to do any communication between people.

Darcy frowned as he watched the shopkeeper get up from the ground, his height was just above Darcy's shoulders.Because of the dim light in the bookstore, Darcy even felt that there was a woman standing in front of him.

He got up from the ground, but it was like waking up from a grave tremblingly.

Darcy wanted to see the face of the shopkeeper clearly. If he could find a little resemblance to the previous shopkeeper on his face, it might also explain why such a slob was able to inherit the shop.

But the lighting in the store was really poor, but when the owner walked away from the only window that allowed light to pass through, only a vague outline could be seen in this closed, gray small bookstore.

"What are you doing?" Darcy lowered his head, watching the short man poking his shoulder for a long time, with the last angry expression.

"Obviously. I'm pushing you, sir! I've changed my mind, no books will be delivered today. You can come over tomorrow if you want. I'm closing!" the owner repeated the 'poke' action.This time Darcy finally saw clearly that he was indeed driving away.

"As long as you propose a reasonable price, I can accept it."

"I told you I'm closed today!" The shopkeeper only felt that her headache was about to split. What she needed was absolute silence, and then she could take a good rest in this place that could shelter from the wind and rain, so that she might be able to Mixed into a whole swallow to feel.

"Everyone thinks that they are reading these days. It's like buying a few books in a bookstore, which means they have mastered the meaning. Rich people are willing to put a bookshelf in their room no matter whether they are well-educated or not. , Put two books in each language, and the only function of these books is to serve as conversation material. Then why do they buy any books? Just need to bring back some covers, can’t all problems be solved?”

It was getting dark.

The shopkeeper spoke the longest string of words today in one go.He decided not to tell this annoying rich man that his bookstore sold only one book a day.

At the same time, she also decided that if this man still came tomorrow, she would not agree to his request to buy books.

No reason, just hate it!