[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

Irene was right in saying that although Mary was troubled by this matter, she might not have no ideas of her own.

She does.

After the Bennets came to London, they lived in the mansion of the Gardners.Several Bennet sisters and two brother-in-laws naturally visited the Gardners' mansion early to reunite with their parents who hadn't seen each other for a long time.

Mrs. Bennet married two daughters one after another, and her two sons-in-law are so outstanding, it is not an exaggeration to say that they are one in a hundred and one in a million.Therefore, the first decision made by the mothers of the girls when they arrived in London was to visit the residences of the Bingleys and the Darcys in London.

This gave Mary a chance.

Taking advantage of her mother's inattention, she first invited their father, Mr. Bennet, to visit Serpentine Street.

Mary's idea is very simple: to use an inappropriate metaphor, when the children who leave home meet their parents again, it is like a player challenging the boss of the level. It is much easier to defeat them one by one than to deal with two at once.

Of course, Mary knows that real advanced players can easily deal with two level bosses, but she doesn't think she can do it.Therefore, compared to Mrs. Bennet, who is completely unreasonable when she screams, Mary thinks it is most appropriate to confess to her father first.

After all, before she moved out of Longbourn, Dad didn't express any intention of obstructing or opposing her, did he?

Naturally, Mr. Bennet would not refuse Mary's invitation.

Although the apartment on Serpentine Avenue is nominally owned by Jane who has become Mrs. Bingley, Mr. Bennet manages the land and property of Longbourn. He has not asked much about the private affairs of his two daughters, but he is also clear about it. very.

Mr. Bennet readily agreed. Firstly, as a father, it was natural for him to visit the living environment of his daughters. Secondly, it also had a sense of inspecting Mary.

Therefore, Mary put all her energy into preparations.

Mr. Bennet visited Serpentine Street one fine afternoon, and when he rang the bell, Catherine and Mary were inspecting the house—they had already cleaned the apartment thoroughly, and they were afraid that the cleaning was not clean enough, and there was nothing missing. Come.

Hearing the doorbell, Mary told Lydia to help Catherine, and went to open the door.

She gave her father a big hug, then introduced her landlady to Mr. Bennet, took him to the kitchen, and said hello to Aunt Blow.Seeing the clean and tidy kitchen and the neat and tidy Aunt Blow, Mr. Bennet is quite satisfied.

The living room of the small apartment is equally clean, and the master bedroom has two beds and a vanity mirror for the two youngest daughters of the Bennet family.Just looking at the layout, it is no different from their room in Longbourne, except that before there were three girls sharing one room, but now there are two. Even though the master bedroom in London is smaller than Longbourn's, it is much brighter and more spacious.

As for Mary's bedroom-study, it is more lifelike than the carefully cleaned living room and master bedroom.

Even if Mary tidied it up by herself, no one would ignore the manuscripts and reference books piled up on the desk.Mr. Bennet sat down. Mary was about to call Aunt Blow to get a cup of tea, but Mr. Bennet stopped her.

"Katie and Lydia can just go drink tea," Mr. Bennet casually picked up the newspaper of the day on the desk, and leaned back comfortably on the chair. His appearance was basically the same as that in Longbourn, " I'll talk to Mary alone."

Mary: "..."

What should come will always come.

She winked at the two sisters, and when they were gone, Mary closed the door.Then Mr. Bennet flipped through the newspaper without looking up: "Do you usually sit at your desk and create, Mary?"

"Of course," Mary said inexplicably, "my typewriter is on the desk, Dad."

"Then you sit down."

"..."

Mary understood immediately.

When Mary Bennet sat at the typewriter, her father sat opposite her on the other side of the desk.This was not the scene of a father-daughter conversation—at least not the one Mary imagined.

What kind of communication would two people in a scene sit on opposite sides of a desk?Of course it's an office.

After understanding her father's intentions, Mary pulled out her chair silently, and sat face to face with her father across a table.

"Your business," said my father, reading the newspaper, "is in the paper."

Or the "Times", or Mary's first "die-hard fan" Franz Harvey, the reporter who wrote the news report himself.Mary thought for a moment, then decided that it was necessary for her father to know this.

"The reporter is my friend," she said truthfully, "and a long-time friend of the editor-in-chief of "Beach Magazine". Because of this, when my first serial was published in the magazine, Mr. Reporter was already following up the report gone."

"Even the reporter of The Times is your friend," said Mr. Bennet in the same leisurely tone. "It seems that living in Longbourne has really wronged you. Sent to the Gardners."

"..."

Mary would not take her father's words as a compliment.

After hesitating for a moment, she still asked, "Then... Dad, does Mom know about this?"

Mr. Bennet finally put down the newspaper in his hand.He raised his eyes to look at Mary, and teased with a smile: "Why is your observation ability useless at this time, Miss Detective? If you let your mother know that you went to the slums to investigate the case, do you think she will still have the mind to enjoy it?" Is it the hospitality of the two rich sons-in-law?"

Sure enough, I don't know.

Realizing this, Mary's hanging heart was slightly relieved—it wasn't because her mother didn't know, it was obvious that Mrs. Bennet didn't know about it.What reassures Mary is that her father did not tell her mother about this, which means that the situation may not be as serious as Mary imagined.

Mr. Bennet glanced at Mary again, and shook out the newspaper again: "Go ahead."

Mary: "What?"

Mr. Bennet: "On weekdays you are so keen on reading those thick and heavy tomes, and what you say is also a set of big truths. What about your big truths today, Mary?"

Mary hooked her lips.

Knowing that Mr. Bennet was mocking her, Mary was not embarrassed or angry.She has long been used to her father's way of speaking, and he has no malicious intentions.

If he had malicious intentions, he wouldn't have come to London specially for his daughters, would he?

"There are no big reasons today," said Mary, "but a lot of little things."

"Like?"

Mary's hands rested on the thick document next to the typewriter.

The manuscripts on the table were divided into three stacks, and Mary pushed two stacks in front of Mr. Bennet: "Dad, here are the original manuscripts of "Serial Killer Chess Game" and "The King of Carnival", which have been published in the "Mr. Seaside Magazine, made a total of £52. And these."

She handed the third stack of manuscripts to Mr. Bennet.

"It's the outline of my next serialization of "The Lady with a Check," Mary explained. "I have completed the preliminary ideas, and the estimated length is about [-] to [-] words. It should be able to be completed in four to five issues. Currently there is no For other things, I expect to complete the serialization in [-] days and deliver it next month. The editor-in-chief of the magazine Hall promised me that once the manuscript is accepted, I can get ten pounds for each issue of the magazine. Because of the public opinion sensation of "The King of Carnival" , I think the chances of this work being accepted are very high, and if you count five issues of ten pounds, you can get fifty pounds."

"Ah."

Mr. Bennet took Mary's new serial outline, but he didn't open it, but said directly: "Not counting the creation time, Mary, from the first serial to the end of the third serial, you used eleven You earned £[-] a month in royalties, plus this month’s gap period, that’s £[-] for a whole year.”

"Yes."

"Enough for you to live in London for a year," Mr. Bennet concluded, "is barely enough. But as your third series is not finished, it is premature to count £52. £[-] income , you even have a problem with the rent."

Mary nodded, then opened the drawer and took out the notebook.

She spread out the notebook and pushed it in front of Mr. Bennet, which was filled with various living income and expenses.

"Here," Mary opened the first page of the ledger, "my start-up capital, two hundred pounds. I was paid by Milton after they helped Mr. Thornton and other local factory owners solve a case. I used The two hundred pounds I rented an apartment in London and took care of various moving matters. In addition, the remaining money and my manuscript fee have been deposited in the bank."

After speaking, Mary continued to flip through the ledger. She stopped at a relatively new page and pulled out a receipt from it.

"I helped the government track down the clues of the Illuminati," Mary explained. "In return, the government diverted part of the funds from the embezzlement funds of the Illuminati members to me and paid the rent for ten years. In a short time, I don't have to worry about The rent is worrying, but your fears may still come true, Dad. If I fail to draft "The Lady with a Check", I will have to embezzle the savings."

"But there will be a day when the deposit will be used up." Mr. Bennet hit hard.

"That's right," Mary agreed, "so I plan to discuss the specifics of the previous manuscript contribution agreement with Editor-in-Chief Hall."

The previous agreement between Mary and the editor-in-chief of Hall was a gentlemen's agreement - the editor-in-chief of Hall verbally promised Mary that as long as she contributed to the "Seaside Magazine", once the manuscript was approved, the manuscript fee would be at least ten pounds per issue.The condition is that she cannot send the manuscript to other magazines.

The gentleman's agreement means that if Mary is poached, or if the editor-in-chief of Hall thinks that Mary no longer has the value of ten pounds a month, it is reasonable and reasonable to break the contract.

and so……

Mary wants to sign a contract with Editor-in-Chief Hall.

Her idea comes from the real-life treatment of Sir Conan Doyle himself.The real Shore Magazine once offered the famous Sir Conan Doyle £[-] for twelve short stories.Of course, Mary would not ask for so much money. She just felt that once "The Check Lady" was finished, Philip Luther, who was about to serialize the story in "Seaside Magazine" for a whole year, had the confidence to cooperate with her trust Partners sign contract agreement.

A thousand pounds is impossible, and one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds a year, providing three novellas, should not be an excessive request.

"In addition to serialization," Mary continued, "after the serialization of "The Check Lady" is completed, the three stories add up to 20 words. I will ask my friends to help me contact the publisher."

The serialization of three short and medium stories is enough to publish a whole book.In particular, "The King of Carnival" suddenly gained a lot of attention because of pt Barnum's comeback. At that time, the story had already been serialized to the second issue, and there would always be people who wanted to finish the story but couldn't buy the magazine.This is a great opportunity to publish.

"That's all for now." Mary concluded.

Mr. Bennet nodded seriously: "It sounds reasonable, but..."

"but?"

Finally, the father put down the newspaper in his hand completely. He took the account book that Mary spread out on the table, looked at it carefully for a while, and said with emotion: "You can keep accounts, Mary. As the saying goes, life makes you People make progress, it seems that there is indeed some truth in this statement."

Mary: "..."

What is this!

Well, to be precise, my father's teasing is not too much.At Longbourne Mary had never cared about the bills, income and expenses, which she thought were 'common things'.

But when I live by myself, as a tight-knit life—to use the metaphor of youth life in the 21st century, Mary is a "wage earner" or "fresh student" who just moved to the capital and has no savings. She, as always, hates accounting , but without the protection of parents, you can't do it seriously.

Fortunately, the living expenses of Catherine and Lydia in London are paid by their parents, and Mary does not need to calculate this part of the account, otherwise she would have to be dazzled by colorful figures.

However, did she get such a reply after talking seriously for a long time? !

Mary was a little dumbfounded: "Dad! I think you seem to be focusing on the wrong point."

"if not?"

Mr. Bennet still had the attitude of not caring at all, and as if he had already figured out everything: "You said so much, but you just want to prove yourself. So Mary, what do you want to prove to me?"

"...I'm trying to prove to you," Mary replied earnestly, "that I have a reasonable life plan, and I'm trying to live independently."

"Then you have expressed your attitude, and I don't think I need to respond."

The father closed the ledger for Mary, and suddenly said, "Do you know why I said that there is no difference between you and Lydia, Mary?"