[Masterpiece Les Miserables] Paris Sparks

"This year's results are calculated much faster than before. Can we give everyone money earlier?" A girl with long braids asked excitedly.

It was already very dark.The advanced class had just finished the class, and the other female workers dispersed separately, while Corona and several female workers who were in charge of assisting the teaching remained in the classroom, making regular summaries.

"I would like to post it a little later." She said, "The weather is not too cold. I'm afraid that everyone has got the money and used it for other purposes instead of spending it on winter clothes."

It is true that many female workers themselves, their husbands, and their parents are addicted to alcoholism and other bad habits. This reason is reasonable. The girl with long braids who teaches the elementary class nodded in disappointment and turned to another report. "Last week, another twelve people came to me to sign up. I wrote down their names and addresses, and said that I will admit them when the next class starts."

"Already nearly 100 people have signed up." Corona smiled wryly, "Maybe I should post an advertisement to recruit female teachers... Even if I can let you help substitute for the class, but if this continues, the teachers in the advanced class will not be enough gone."

"Maybe one day in the future, we will build a school." Another female worker who taught the elementary class said with longing.

"It's too expensive to run a school." Corona smiled, "I'm trying to save money for it."

They made a few jokes together and imagined a bright future. "—By the way, there is one more thing." Finally, the girl with long braids brought the topic back on track again, "The two girls from the junior class one stole something again last week—the third time! They said that they will be fired and that they will not be given any more subsidies in the future."

"The two people you mentioned last time again?" Annie asked.

"Which two?" Corona asked.

"By the way—it's my fault. Last time we talked about it earlier, you hadn't come yet, and then I forgot to tell you when you came." Annie explained, "It's a newcomer from the first class. The two little girls, who are only eleven or twelve years old, have fresh faces. They say they have just moved to Paris. They don’t study very much, and they often miss classes, but their grades are very good. It seems that they have learned some literacy before. They have talked and suggested that they can go directly to the intermediate class, but they have been stuck in the elementary class, and later they stole things——I think, most of them are here to cheat the subsidy again.”

This kind of thing is not uncommon. Some people always want to get something for nothing when they hear that she gives money for nothing.Corona has been teaching for these years, and she is used to this kind of thing.She just asked casually as usual: "What are the names of these two little girls?"

"Azma and..." the girl with long braids quickly flipped through her notebook, "Oh, my sister's name is Azma, and my sister's name is Eponine."

Corona blinked suspiciously: "Epony and Azma... I always feel that these two names are a bit familiar."

"Maybe we mentioned it sometime?" Anne asked.

"Probably so—speaking of it, Azima is fine, that sister's grades are really good. It's a pity to engage in such sneaky things." The girl with braids said.

I didn't talk about this matter further. After all, there are so many classes and so many students, there are many things to discuss, and everyone is very busy.But for some reason Corona kept thinking of the names Eponine and Azma.

She must have heard these two names before, and these should be two names that have some special meaning to her, otherwise she wouldn't even be impressed.But where?When she was sitting in the carriage going home, she changed from aristocrats to workers, and even recalled her childhood memories in England, but she still couldn't get the numbers right.

She was still thinking about it when she stepped into the house.After saying hello to her family, when she casually hung the coat on the hanger, she touched another coat hanging on it with her fingers, and suddenly found that Cosette's coat was still a little chilly at night. "Are you late to-day?" she asked Cosette.

"Father took me for a walk in another park, and we took a short detour." Cosette replied briskly.

"Is it beautiful there? Is the road easy to walk?"

"I think it's about the same as the previous one, right?"

Corona smiled at her, but secretly sighed in her heart.Cosette's character is like this-she always feels that nothing matters, and she is submissive. As long as there is someone who makes up her mind, she will obey others almost immediately.Under the cultivation of Corona and Jean Valjean Fantine over the years, this character is no longer as thorough as she was when she was a child, but in essence Cosette still lacks her own interest in many things. "Why are you so late today?" Cosette looked up and asked her while she was knitting the wool in her hands, "Oh, yes, I forgot! Today is the day you have class, right?"

She smiled a little embarrassedly, "Since I don't go to school, I don't really remember the days!"

She is 12 years old and just graduated from girls' elementary school in the summer. "Are you really not thinking about continuing to study?" Corona said as she took off her shoes and put on soft slippers for the furniture, and sat next to her to look at the fur shawl she was knitting in her hand. "Although there are very few girls' secondary education schools, But there are also one or two in Paris. I can find a way to ask and let you enroll."

Cosette pursed her lips and thought for a while.

"If you want me to go, then I will go." She said obediently.

"But you really aren't interested in that, are you?"

Cosette nodded.

——She has a very clear personal attitude towards this matter.Coronna sighed, stopped persuading her, and turned to look at the color of the shawl.The fine black wool has been woven into the tie, buckle and upper half, the lower half is not yet finished. "I want to finish knitting this one for you, and I will knit a rose red one for my mother, and I will keep a gray one for myself. We will go out together in the future, how beautiful it looks!" Cosette said, picking up the cloth with great interest. Different colors of wool are gesturing on the unfinished shawl, "It's just that the black is too monotonous, and I want to weave a decorative lace underneath. Do you think it's better to use white? Or is it better to use this light red?"

"Really?" Corona asked in surprise and joy, she felt that her heart was so soft that it would melt into a pool of water, and she simply didn't know how to love the little girl in front of her. "Then thank you in advance."

"Choose a color!" said Cosette excitedly.

Corona carefully compared the two color schemes for a while. "I want white," she said.

Cosette immediately bowed her head and carefully planned the knitting pattern.Corona sat by the side and watched, feeling sweet and soft in her heart, wishing that two long wings would really grow out of her back to protect her in her arms, without any grievances in the world.

She could see that Cosette and herself were two completely different people.Cosette likes to study the collocation of clothes and hairstyles, tidy up the house, grow flowers, arrange flowers, knit, and cut, so let her like it!what is the relationship?It might be happier in this way, after all, it is easy to satisfy what she requires, and she does not have to experience the pain of being trapped in society and unable to escape that Corona feels.How wonderful!Hadn't she suffered enough as a child?

——No, wait.

In a flash of inspiration, Corona seemed to grasp something, but that thought immediately disappeared.She frowned, trying to catch a trace of something wrong that she felt just now.What was she thinking about just now, Cosette's hobbies... Then she thought about her future life along the way, and her character... When she was a child... That's right!

She suddenly remembered why the names Eponine and Azma were familiar to her.In the family that abused Cosette, didn't the two youngest daughters have these two names? !

Back then, Corona went to that hotel with Caton to pick up Cosette, and heard the proprietress mention her daughter.She still clearly remembered the scene at that time: the two little girls were well dressed and warm, while Cosette was shivering with bare feet in the cold winter, her face was yellow and thin, and she was quite shorter than them up one end.She still remembers the anger that burned in her chest clearly to this day.

No one is willing to leave this matter alone.Although there was not much that could be done to keep Fantine from the news, Carton and Jean Valjean managed to arrange for someone to inquire about the family.It took a little work to find someone who was reliable and trustworthy.They took over half a month after Cosette left before arranging the matter.Unexpectedly, in just half a month, the hotel closed its doors neatly, and the owner and his family were nowhere to be seen.

But no matter what, I still found out a lot about the family.It is even easier to inquire about the parties because the parties have disappeared.Corona was studying with Caton at the time and helped him sort out the information. It was at that time that she wrote down the name of the family: the Thenardiers and their two daughters, Eponine and Azma.They ran a little shop called the Sergeant's Apartments in Waterloo, and were known for their unscrupulous prices.When the family fled, they still owed 310 two francs, and the creditor had already gone to court to pursue it.It seems that Caton's intimidation at the time was only one of the reasons for their escape: they escaped the day before the bill was delivered by the bailiff of the court, and they ran away cleanly, leaving no broken picture frame in the house .

The family has thus been placed on the police list, but there is no doubt that there is little hope of catching them.At that time, Corona felt a little bit aggrieved by their escape, but the important thing was that Cosette had reunited with her mother, and they didn't pursue the family too seriously, and the matter was shelved from then on.

Unexpectedly, after seven or eight years, she saw these two names again.If she hadn't really cared about this matter very much, she might not have thought of this connection.

Thinking of it, she couldn't sit still.After chatting with Cosette for a few more words, she found an excuse and went into the study room, and found the records at that time from the old documents left by her father. There were still a lot of Caton's old handwriting on them.The above remembers it clearly: the two children of the Thenardier family are indeed named Éponine and Azma, verbatim.The older one, Eponine, should be about the same age as Cosette, so the age is also suitable.

In other words, Dana's family came to Paris first, and also found the literacy class run by Coronne.What are they thinking again?