[Masterpiece Les Miserables] Paris Sparks

Paris is already like a cannon, the guns have been loaded, and it will explode when a spark/star falls.In June, [-], that spark was the death of General Lamarck.

Such a situation was foreseen and prepared by both the people and the government.When the workers and students asked each other, "Do you want to go to the funeral of General Lamarck?", they held hidden weapons in their hands at the same time.On the evening of June [-]th, Corona informed the family: "Tomorrow morning, I will go to the funeral of General Lamarck."

The "funeral" in her mouth also meant the same thing.

All these days she had not spoken clearly of her plans to Fantine and Cosette.She always remembered that in Montreuil, when Fantine found out that she had a younger sister, she cried and laughed while hugging her, but she couldn't say these words.But she didn't deliberately hide it.Fantine and Cosette did not disappoint her guidance over the years. They guessed a little bit from the clues, but they dared not say it clearly. Smashed by Corona.

Fantine turned pale. "You can't... must you go?" she asked.

"I must go." Corona replied apologetically but firmly.

Fantine said nothing, and Cosette still less; neither of them was used to rebelling against Corona's decisions.She looked at Jean Valjean for help, but Jean Valjean just looked down at his plate and remained silent.

The dinner, which everyone couldn't eat, came to an end quickly.Corona shut herself in her room as soon as she left the dining-room, Jean Valjean went into the study, and Cosette went back to her room upstairs.Fantine crossed the drawing-room quietly, put on her coat, and left the room.At the moment Monsieur Mazlo, the porter, was stooping over the fire, and Fantine took the key, opened the gate, and went out without disturbing the others.She walked half a block, hailed a stagecoach, and went straight to Glassworks Street.

At the end of Glassworks Row lived a family of workers.The husband works in a glass factory, and the wife originally worked in a shoe factory. Later, a finger was cut off by a machine and she couldn't work. The family's situation suddenly declined.The two daughters of the family often went to the girls' high school to help out, in exchange for a bite of bread, and their mother knew Fantine through this.It was this family that Fantine went to, or more precisely, to the worker whose finger had been severed.When the female worker opened the door, the husband in the corner was busy stuffing something under his clothes to cover it up. Judging from the bulging shape, it looked like a gun.

Fantine ignored these matters, and went straight to the point. "I asked about that Plutarch mother you told me about this morning, and I can't help her."

The dark and strong-looking female worker who actually had a warm heart was in a hurry. "Why! Didn't you say this morning—"

"Don't worry," said Fantine calmly. "When I say I can't help her, I don't mean that I don't intend to. You see, this Plutarch mother has neither literacy classes nor I've been to a girls' school, so I can't help. But my sister Corona, that Miss Evermond, can help her. Ask her, and she will."

This lie fabricated out of desperation was full of loopholes. She didn't say why the female worker had to ask Corona instead of conveying it to her, but the female worker was so anxious that she forgot to pursue this point. "Will Miss Evermond help?" she asked earnestly, "but how am I going to see her? I've heard my girl say that she doesn't go to school much now—"

"She will definitely be willing to help, you just need to rest assured. But she is always out of business these days, if you trust me, just do as I tell you."

The female worker nodded repeatedly.

"I'll tell you the address. We live at 31 Boulevard Saint-Germain. But I can't take you there now because she's not at home." Fantine lied with her heart pounding. The light was very dim, and it was almost impossible to see other people's expressions, "She will come back very late today, and she will go out early tomorrow morning. You come and wait at dawn tomorrow morning, and beg her when she goes out, and she will definitely agree."

The female worker repeatedly agreed, and she turned to tell the two daughters who were huddled on a broken bed inside: "I'm going out tomorrow morning, do you hear me? You two stay at home, or go to school, and don't run around. "

"Are you going out with Daddy?" the youngest girl, who was under six years old, asked.

Her father gave her an instant stern look, and turned his watchful eyes on Fantine.Fantine already understood in her heart what they were going to do, she just pretended not to hear, and left hastily.

Corona got up early in the morning on June [-]th.

She was dressed very plainly, just a dark blue cotton dress, a white shirt on her upper body, and her hair was tied up. She was no different from an ordinary girl from a better family.It was an old dress that hadn't been worn for several years. There were specially designed pockets sewn into the skirt, which could hold a gun or a small dagger.

The summer dawned very early, and when she quietly closed the door, the sky was already bright, but no one in the family had gotten up yet.But just as Corona turned around, a figure suddenly jumped out from the side, which startled her so much that she almost pulled out her gun subconsciously.Fortunately, she restrained herself at the last moment, and recognized that it was a female worker she was somewhat familiar with. "Miss Evermond!" cried the maid, "please help Mama Plutarch!"

Corona has become used to dealing with such things, and subconsciously put on a soft tone. "What happened to Mama Plutarch?" she asked.

"She's very sick, and her man can't pay for his medicine. I haven't seen her on credit at the bakery for days, and you know there's only one shop in the whole market who'd be kind enough to let us on credit." You said how can a person go without food for several days, that’s okay! Then I went to her house, she was sick in bed, and there was no one to take care of her, the old man in her house couldn’t walk by himself. Said I called a doctor, but I couldn’t afford the medicine prescribed by the doctor, and there was nothing I could do. That’s why I found you. My two girls always say that you are the most caring young lady. Please help me!”

She finished these words in one breath, apparently she had pondered over and over in her heart many times before.Corona looked back at An'an's quiet residence, and then glanced in the direction of Glass Factory Street.Standing here, everything feels quiet: Paris seems to have not yet awakened from sleep.

She wanted the working girl in front of her to wait a moment: she was not obliged to do this, Fantine, Cosette, Anne could handle it well, even more thoughtfully than herself.But, alas, how could she say that to a person who was in a hurry to see a doctor or buy medicine and wait until they got up?

She reached into the pocket of her skirt.This is her habit. There are always more than one secret pockets sewn on the skirts she wears every day, and she is also used to putting some money in the secret pockets.This time she went out, because she was going to an uprising, so she didn't make extra preparations, but she still found a small handful of coins left over from the last time she wore them. Among them, there were two larger ones, which should be Napoleon gold coins. "Where does Mama Plutarch live?" she asked the worker, "take me there."

The female worker eventually took her to a small house in Austerlitz.The garden outside is very beautiful, there is only a small flowerbed with withered plants, which can't be seen.The inside of the house can be called bare, except for the bare bed and table, and a chipped jug, there is almost nothing that can be called furniture.An old woman, apparently Plutarch's mother, was asleep in bed, and to their surprise there was a stack of five-franc pieces on the bedside table, and an open box of medicines.

"Oh! What's the matter?" cried the woman worker. "I don't know..."

Corona put a finger to her lips, and shook her head slightly to avoid waking up the patient.She approached the bedside table, roughly counted, and calculated that the silver coins were more than eighty francs. There was a doctor's prescription beside it, folded several times, and she opened it to see that it was indeed the same as the unpacked medicine. of.

"Didn't you say that she...has a husband?" she asked the female worker softly.

"Husband? Hey! Not a husband! I don't know what the relationship is between them living together, but she said she wasn't her husband. She also said that the man used to be a priest, and I don't understand. Who would listen to others What about the bitter water?"

Apparently she didn't know much either.Corona knocked lightly on the door next door. The door was not closed, and it opened a crack when she pushed it. It could be seen that the inside was empty, and the house was also barren.Against the wall stood a large bookshelf, also completely empty, save for old books and a dull pencil on the bottom shelf.Coronna pleaded guilty in her heart, and opened the book to read. It contained the title of the book, the name of the publisher, and the year.She hadn't read all the books, but judging from the few of them she knew, they were all beautiful, excellent, and famous editions.

She looked up at the empty bookcase again, somehow recalling in her mind the scene when Fantine was planning to sell her two front teeth.She turned to the blank page at the back, wrote a few lines quickly with a pencil, and then carefully tore it off. "Do you know the address of the Girls' High School?" she asked as she worked.

"I know! Two girls from my family go there to help every day." The female worker replied confidently.

Corona fumbled in her pocket for a while, took out a gold coin, and handed it to her together with the note.

"Go there and find the headmaster, or some girl named Anne, and you'll give her the note. Plutarch's mother is in need of care, and we'll see if we can do anything about it. I beg your pardon." , I have other things, and I can't take care of the follow-up matters by myself, but I assure you that someone will be responsible for this matter."

After she finished speaking, she walked out, not forgetting to carefully close the door behind her.The female worker followed.Waves of noise and confusion could already be heard in the house, and Corona suddenly turned her head and asked her, "Do you know the name of the old man who lives with her?"

"It seems to be Mr. Ma Baifu. Why, can you find him?"

Corona listened to the movement in the distance and sighed.

"I'm not hopeful about it," she said.

She rushed to the original place almost immediately.But this time, it took several hours just on the road, and it was completely impossible for her to meet up with her friends at the original place.

The author has something to say: Let me give you a preview first: I finally gave up looking for a street map of Paris in the [-]th century......

Next, please think that the whole matter of barricades in this article took place in an elevated Paris, where the various streets can be spliced ​​together like water pipes.Don’t ask me which street is connected to which street, I’m just writing according to Hugo Da’s original work and I don’t know anything (Lie peacefully)

The first paragraph of this chapter is from the original work.