Dirty dirty——
The train whistle sounded, reminding people on the platform to get out of the station quickly.
An old man picked up his suitcase and walked slowly outside.
The old man was simply dressed in a black trench coat and had a beard that hung down to the opening of the front of the trench coat. Miraculously, his beard was white and his hair was gray and black, which looked a bit strange.
Because the suitcase was heavy, he seemed to be limping,
A flight attendant came over,
"Sir, do you need help?"
The old man raised his head,
"Ah, no, no, no. I would like to ask, is there a place to send telegraphs nearby?"
The flight attendant looked confused.
"You...uh...what did you say?"
He could tell that the other person was speaking French, but the accent was too strong and the accent was extremely thick, making it difficult to understand.
The old man couldn't help but feel embarrassed, lowered his speaking speed, and repeated: "I would like to ask, is there a place to send telegrams nearby?"
The flight attendant listened briefly this time.
"Telegram? To the telegraph office... um, to the post office."
After the World Expo, Paris abolished the specialized telegraph operation agency and merged it with the post office.
The old man nodded,
He opened his suitcase, rummaged through it for a while, took out a map of Paris and handed it to the other party.
This time, the flight attendant understood without even using language.
He looked for the location of the post office on the map, but he didn't expect to find it anywhere. Then he looked at the lower left corner of the map and discovered that the map was the 1878 version, a commemorative version of the Paris World's Fair that year.
The flight attendant was speechless.
"this……"
The old man asked: "What's wrong?"
The steward sighed, drew a circle next to the train station from memory, and said: "Old sir, this is where the post office is. But I must remind you that this map is out of date. You'd better buy another one at the post office. .”
The old man nodded,
"Thanks."
After thanking him solemnly, he slowly left the train station with the box in both hands.
As soon as you step out of the station, the liveliness and vitality of Paris hit you.
The square in front of the station was full of people in a hurry. Relatives and friends were busy picking up or dropping off the station. The newspaper delivery man shuttled among the crowd, shouting advertisements: "! Recommended by Mr. Verne!"
The old man couldn't help but hesitate,
Everywhere he goes, he buys books in large quantities, so bookstores and university libraries are his most frequent places.
But now, there are more important things to do.
He suppressed his curiosity and followed the map in the direction of the post office.
Soon, an extremely busy building appeared in front of us.
The old man walked in and said to the clerk in (what he thought was) fluent French: "Hello, I want to send a telegram. Where can I go to do it?"
The clerk looked him up and down for a while.
"Sir, is it a long message? Or a short message?"
The old man was surprised,
"What's the difference?"
A trace of pride flashed across the clerk's face and he replied: "Old sir, in France, the charge for short messages is fixed. One message only costs seven francs. Only long messages are charged based on the number of words."
Seven francs is not a small number,
But compared to the previous telegrams that were charged by the number of words, this price is definitely very cheap.
The clerk added:
"All over the world, as long as France is like this."
The old man was curious,
"Why so?"
The clerk explained with a smile: "Because of last year's World Expo, the government spent a lot of effort on reforming people's livelihood."
After hearing this, the old man felt slightly sad.
It will be great if Russia becomes like this.
He calmed down and said, "What I want to send is a long message."
The clerk was surprised, looked at the old man again, and then said: "Sir, long messages are charged per word, and the price is very high. Therefore, please try to be concise and to the point."
The old man smiled and shook his head,
"It doesn't matter, I'll just pay. To put it mildly, even if I send a short message, you have to charge per word. Because I want to send it to Stockholm."
This time, the clerk couldn't persuade her any more.
At the beginning of the 20th century, telegraph operations were relatively primitive and crude.
Both the sender and the receiver have code books. In the code book, Arabic numerals are used instead of horizontal and vertical letters. The letters at the intersection of horizontal and vertical letters are the cipher text.
Although civilian telegrams are transmitted in clear code, due to various reasons such as political demands, economic needs, or different languages, there are still great differences in the clear code books in various regions, resulting in the need for multiple transfers of transnational telegrams.
Therefore, even though France charges less for short messages, Sweden still charges per word, so the telegraph fee will not be low.
The clerk coughed slightly,
"Sir, the number of long messages is limited to 140 words, and the fee is one franc per word. Do you have enough money?"
The old man said: "No problem."
With such a large sum of money being paid at the drop of a hat, the clerk couldn't help but become more curious about the other party's identity.
"Then tell me."
He picked up a pen and paper and prepared to record.
The old man said: "The message is as follows, 'Dear colleagues from the Nobel Committee and the Swedish Academy, I...'"
Clerk:? ? ?
Senseless!
He has no idea what the Nobel Committee is.
But he still knew about the Swedish Academy.
Because I was too shocked, the writing pen in my hand stopped and I couldn't hear what was said next.
The old man also noticed that the other party was in a daze, coughed slightly, and asked: "Well... my accent is too strong, can't you understand?"
The clerk exhaled a sigh of relief.
"It turns out he has a strong accent."
Only then did he realize that he had heard wrongly.
The other party must not have said anything about "Swedish Academy" or "Nobel Committee".
The clerk handed over the pen and paper,
"Can you write? Is your French writing okay?"
The old man's first language is Russian, but he is also good at French, German, and English. He is just not good at speaking, but he has no problem listening, reading, and writing.
He took the pen and paper, finished writing the message with a few strokes, and handed it to the other party.
Because of the charging model of telegram, word count must be counted, and there is no such thing as privacy.
The clerk began to read.
——
Dear colleagues from the Nobel Committee and the Swedish Academy,
Thank you for nominating me as a candidate for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. Thank you very much.
However, please allow me to decline this nomination.
As I said before, there are many talented people in the European literary world, but those works of mine are just "grandfather's games" and have no merit whatsoever.
Please leave this precious opportunity to others.
Yours faithfully Leo Tolstoy.
——
Leo Tolstoy?
Clerk:? ? ?
I feel like I drank too much and went crazy in the middle of the day.
An eerie silence lay between the two of them,
"..."
"..."
"..."
Finally, Tolstoy spoke up and asked: "Friend, have you finished counting the words? How many francs should I pay?"
"Gu..."
The clerk swallowed and raised his head with difficulty.
"Mr. Tolstoy, do you want to... um... go to the Russian Consulate? Or the Swedish Consulate? There is a special transmitter there, which does not need to be turned over many times, and is much more efficient than the post office. And it does not cost money. .”
Tolstoy sighed,
He thought to himself, it would be great if the people in the Russian consulate were so easy to talk to.
Because of "Resurrection", the Tsar threatened to exile Tolstoy to Siberia.
Of course, this kind of thing cannot be said explicitly.
Tolstoy waved his hand,
"This is my private matter and it does not occupy national resources."
Personal things...
The clerk couldn't understand it, so he could only secretly praise his noble character, and then said: "The number of words is just right, totaling 135 francs."
Tolstoy smiled and pointed out the cash and handed it to the other party.
At the same time, he asked: "Is there a bookstore near here?"
The clerk gave Tolstoy directions,
"Two streets away from here, there is a large bookstore on the corner. It cooperates with the post office in telegraph business. Many busy businessmen go to the bookstore regularly every day to see if they have any new telegrams."
Tolstoy quickly thanked him.
This journey has been tiring, and I have finished reading all the books I brought with me, so I need to "replenish" them quickly.
He carried the box and went to the bookstore according to the clerk's instructions.
As a result, as soon as he entered the door, he had the illusion that he was in a restaurant with good business and it was extremely crowded.
I saw dozens of people standing in front of the outermost bookshelf, with three floors inside and three floors outside, surrounding the bookshelf.
The people on the outer floor all stood on tiptoe and looked toward the inner floor.
From time to time, there are voices of discussion,
"Nah! So awesome!"
"Is there really such a powerful weapon that can shatter the sun with one shot?"
"You ask me, who should I ask?"
"This person writes really well. Hahaha!"
…
Tolstoy never imagined that a bookstore could be so noisy.
He walked towards the boss,
"Sir, are there any good new books to read recently?"
While asking, his eyes stayed on the group of people.
The boss didn't understand anything, so he replied with a smile: "It's a science fiction novel by a Chinese writer, called "Country Teacher"."
Chinese writer,
science fiction,
"Rural Teacher",
When these three words are taken out, there is a sense of incongruity everywhere.
Tolstoy had a flash of inspiration,
"Professor Lu from London Economics and Political Science? Professor Lu Shilu?"
The boss touched his chin and said, "It seems to be that name. On the title page of , there is an introduction to the author, saying that he was an overseas student sent by China to London, but he became famous because of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and became a visiting professor. .”
Tolstoy nodded,
"As expected."
The boss asked again: "It seems that you are quite familiar with the author?"
Tolstoy chuckled,
"We have been friends for a long time."
The boss said: "Then you should buy a copy of "Country Teacher". Alas...those people really only know how to take advantage."
Tolstoy was curious,
"How to explain this 'taking advantage'?"
The boss spreads his hands,
"You'll find out when you go buy a book."
Tolstoy nodded, squeezed through the crowd, and reached for "The Village Teacher" on the bookshelf.
As a result, the person next to him immediately said: "Old sir, this is just a short story, you don't need to buy it! Just read it in the bookstore."
Tolstoy: "..."
He now understands that this is a blatant act of prostitution for free~
But because there were only a few books with open covers, these white prostitutes needed to line up to read, so they surrounded them on three levels inside and three levels outside.
Tolstoy thought about this and couldn't help but become more curious.
How dare a short story stand-alone be sold like this?
Lu Shi was very confident in himself.
Just thinking about it,
"Snapped--"
Along with the sound of closing the book, one person in the crowd had just finished reading.
Someone from behind immediately said: "It's my turn! It's my turn!"
Unexpectedly, the person who had finished reading the book had a blank expression on his face, as if he had not heard anything.
Someone on the outside yelled, "Hey!"
Only then did the man come back to his senses,
"Huh~"
He let out a long breath and silently handed over the unsealed "Country Teacher" in his hand, then pulled out a brand new copy from the bookshelf, slowly squeezed through the crowd, and went to the bookstore owner to check out.
For a moment, everyone around became quiet.
Then, there was discussion again,
"Is he planning to buy it? Hasn't he already finished reading it? What else is he planning to buy?"
"Sigh... I don't know. In the past two days, there have been many people with this kind of symptoms, eight out of ten, and they still want to buy something to take home after reading. You are obviously a common man, but you still want to imitate the arty and elegant congressman and start collecting. ?”
"Does this book have any magic power?"
"What kind of magic can it have?! I also read a few words, and I have to admit that it is really well written. But this book was published in France, but it was bilingual in English and French. The English content was just used to make up the word count. Of?"
"Look at it this way, the word count is just to increase the number of pages. It is really not worth buying."
…
Obviously, no one else could understand that person's behavior of buying a book.
The people who bought the book turned around,
He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to defend something, but the words turned into a sigh when he reached his lips, and then said: "You guys, you will understand after reading it. This "Country Teacher" is really different. .”
After saying that, he paid for the bill and left with the book in his pocket.
Everyone was left looking at each other.
Tolstoy couldn't help but wonder,
He picked up the book, pinched the edge, and found that it was indeed pitifully thin, and it was indeed a short story.
This kind of book can be sold, which shows that Lu Shi's skill is indeed extraordinary.
In this case, you have to buy it.
Tolstoy put the book away and continued to wander among the bookshelves.
Now that you are in France, you should buy more.
He picked carefully and took Verne's "Facing the Tricolor Flag".
In the eyes of future generations, this book is not a classic, because as science fiction, the things in it are really not very good.
But in the eyes of those humanistic and pacifist writers at the beginning of the 20th century, this book was even more awesome than "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "The Mysterious Island".
Created a world-famous French chemist named Thomas Roche,
He invented an attack missile called the "Roche Lightning", but it was blocked in Europe because of its high price.
As a result, he was bribed by the pirates, allowing the pirates to obtain "Rosh Lightning",
When warships from various countries came to encircle and suppress the pirates, the pirates fired missiles and blew the warships to pieces.
Finally, when a French warship hoisted the tricolor flag, Thomas Roche's soul was suddenly shocked, he realized his crime and blew up the pirate island.
This book is a classic within a classic.
But Tolstoy just loved it.
He put the book away and continued to search on the bookshelf.
At this moment, there was a quarrel near the door of the bookstore.
Someone yelled loudly: "You can just buy the book. Why did you take this opened one away? The price is the same anyway, why don't you buy a new book? Are you trying to prevent us from reading it?"
The person who was scolded retorted loudly: "That's right! I won't let you read it! You should honestly pay for this book! It's worth it!"
Tolstoy:? ? ?
He walked out from between the bookshelves and looked towards the source of the quarrel.
I saw people who wanted to buy books, one to many, but they were not afraid at all, and instead stared at them angrily.
Tolstoy looked at the "Country Teacher" in his hand,
What kind of magic is this book?
(End of chapter)
