British writer

London, England.

Christmas is getting closer and closer, and the festive atmosphere on the streets is getting stronger.

Especially Burya Road,

Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki were often given food by the female owner of the RUDDER pub.

Roast turkey, barbecue, vegetable salad, pudding...

Everything is available.

Of course, the more important thing is drinks.

The female boss seemed to particularly want to see Lu Shi drinking like crazy. All she brought were strong drinks, such as brandy and whiskey, which could make people cough after just one sip.

December 19,

early morning.

Lu Shi was sleeping when he suddenly felt a stone pressing on his chest, making it difficult to breathe.

He opened his eyes,

I saw that I was rubbing my cheek against myself,

"Meow~"

It made a hungry cry.

The little guy's weight seems to have stabilized recently and he hasn't gained weight during this time.

Lu Shi rubbed the other person's head,

"hungry?"

"Meow~"

We all screamed in joy.

Lu Shi "moved" it away from his chest and sat up.

Natsume Soseki had already gone out;

He is currently preparing various matters for graduation. He leaves early and comes home late, and is nowhere to be seen all day long.

Lu Shi glanced at the table and asked us: "There is still turkey meat left, do you want to eat it?"

I immediately showed disgust and backed away.

The turkey meat was very woody and he didn't like it.

Lu Shi laughed loudly,

"You little guy actually started talking. Well, I'll get it for you."

He slid out of bed deftly,

As soon as I got dressed, there was a knock on the door.

Dong dong dong——

Margarita's voice followed: "Professor Lu, are you at home?"

"coming!"

Lu Shi went over and opened the door.

Her Royal Highness the Princess stood gracefully outside the door.

She did not wear a smart and simple women's suit today, but a long velvet skirt.

The design of the skirt is full of artistic sense.

The waist is cinched to highlight the perfect lines, while the skirt unfolds like a waterfall, elegant and flowing.

Lu Shi looked up and down,

"nice."

Margarita sneered,

Qiao Qiao Qianxi,

"Does a great writer only know this simple vocabulary?"

She ducked into the house.

We have known each other for a long time, so I jumped up and showed my belly.

Margarita bent down and petted the cat with ease.

My generation: "Hululu~"

One person and one cat are having a great time.

Lu Shi asked: "Rita, why are you here today?"

Margarita looked up,

"Your short science fiction collection "Chao Wen Dao"... um..."

She looked at the half-eaten turkey on the table with some confusion, and said puzzledly: "Professor Lu, Christmas Eve is still far away, how can anyone eat turkey now? Moreover, turkey is not very delicious. ah……"

Lu Shi wanted to laugh when he heard this.

Unexpectedly, Westerners also know that turkey is not delicious.

Turkeys were brought to Britain from North America in the 16th century.

Before that, the British Christmas table was actually much richer:

Northerners eat roast beef;

In the south, roast goose and smoked pork are more common.

It can be seen that Britain was not a food desert from the beginning.

But things are rare and expensive. After Henry VIII made turkey the main course of his Christmas dinner, roasted turkey began to be popularized.

So much so that in modern times, the British eat nearly 10 million turkeys every Christmas season.

Lu Shi spread his hands and said, "We didn't make it, it was given to us by the proprietress of the rudder."

Margarita:! ! !

"You mean...that woman?!"

Lu Shi sniffed,

Faintly, he smelled a sour smell of vinegar in the air, and he suddenly became mischievous and said: "In addition to turkey, there are also barbecues and salads..."

Just play the game and sign up for the dishes.

"Tsk..."

Margarita was speechless and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

“Turkey isn’t cheap.”

Because refrigeration technology is immature, eating turkey is indeed a very luxurious thing for the general public.

That is to say, only pubs and restaurants that operate externally will start supplying early.

Lu Shi tried his best to suppress his laughter and followed the other person's words.

"Well, it's really not cheap."

Margarita: "..."

She was so smart that she had already figured out that someone was teasing her.

She stretched out her legs, preparing to kick the opponent lightly, but she forgot that she was not wearing pants that would facilitate mobility today, mixed her feet with garlic, and plunged into Lu Shi's arms.

Instantly, the atmosphere in the room became ambiguous.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The two looked at each other.

After a moment, Margarita said: "You...you turn around."

Lu Shi said "Huh?", a little confused by this request.

Her Royal Highness turned away her face,

"shy."

(ω)

Of course, Lu Shi couldn't say anything about this reason.

As a result, as soon as he turned around, the other person hugged him from behind and pressed his cheek against his back.

Listening to the powerful heartbeat, Margarita blushed as red as blood,

"Professor Lu, His Majesty the King has talked to me."

Lu Shi didn't say anything.

"..."

In fact, he already felt something.

Seeing that he remained silent, Margarita asked in a low voice: "Do you already know? About...um...about the awarding of honors."

On the surface, they are talking about conferring honors.

Actually, it’s about marriage.

Her Royal Highness the Princess did not explain clearly because she was shy.

Lu Shi smiled and joked: "Rita, I have already turned around, why are you still shy?"

Just finished saying this,

Boom——

There was a muffled sound behind him.

Margarita nudged Lu Shi with her forehead in dissatisfaction, then buried her face in Lu Shi's back, inhaled deeply, and inhaled the smell that could "charm women" to her heart and lungs.

For a moment, Her Royal Highness the Princess was so dizzy that she was speechless.

The room was quiet again,

"..."

"..."

"..."

Finally, someone... couldn't stand the cat anymore.

Me: "Meow~"

Margarita woke up instantly and pushed Lu Shi away, leaving only a trace of warmth behind her.

Lu Shi glared at me unhappily,

"You little bastard, lose weight today! Stop thinking about eating!"

My generation: "Meow~"

His ears were so wilted that they drooped down.

Margarita covered her lips and smiled softly: "Professor Lu, why are you bullying me~"

She removed the turkey plate from the table,

"We, let's eat."

We glanced at Margarita with resentment and tore the turkey into pieces with tears in our eyes.

Lu Shi saw that he could no longer be intimate with Margarita this time, so he asked about the business: "Rita, why did you come to see me?"

When talking about work, Margarita also became serious,

"First of all, it's about the serialization of "The Lord of the Rings". After "The Two Towers" ends, will it continue directly with the third part?"

There's nothing to hesitate about,

Lu Shi said: "We are currently working on a three-pronged approach of novels, comics, and board games that promote each other. Of course, we must strike while the iron is hot. From the perspective of profit, or consideration of influence, it is reasonable to continue serializing the third volume. "

Margarita also agreed with this,

"Then the matter is settled."

Then, she took out a piece of paper she had with her.

"Just now, Mr. Alex Herzel received a telegram from Paris."

Lu Shi glanced at it briefly and was confused.

""Chao Wen Dao" sold 130,000 copies?!"

This sales volume is too outrageous!

Even so, Hetzel concluded that the current data lags behind because "Chao Wen Dao" has not yet reached its full potential.

At first, he thought that the science fiction collection could sell at most 50,000 copies.

This estimate is actually not conservative.

But who would have thought that Nicholas II would jump out to advertise!

"Chao Wen Dao" immediately became in short supply.

The printing presses all over Europe are running at full power, but the printing speed cannot keep up with the sales speed.

Those hungry readers are waiting next to the bookshelf. As soon as "Chao Wen Dao" is put on the shelf, they will swarm up like hungry wolves seeing fresh meat.

No matter what the price, they want to see how awesome the books banned by the Tsar are.

Lu Shi muttered: "Nicholas II is too miserable."

Margarita asked: "Why do you say that?"

Lu Shi shrugged,

"Actually, when I wrote "Animal Farm," I didn't think about who I wanted to satirize. Who would have thought that the Tsar was so sensitive? Now, the yellow mud fell out of his crotch—it's either shit or shit."

"puff!"

Margarita laughed on the spot,

Then he turned red and rolled his eyes at Lu Shi, scolding: "Vulgar!"

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"I'm not kidding."

He shook the telegram in his hand,

Herzel believes that there is another important reason for the discrepancy in the sales volume of "Chao Wen Dao"——

There is no statistical approach to Russian data.

Undoubtedly, "Chao Wen Dao" must "sell" the best in Russia, but those books are pirated to a certain extent and cannot contribute to sales or royalties.

Lu Shi opened the drawer,

"Look at these."

Margarita stepped forward,

I saw various Russian pamphlets in the drawer.

She picked up the top one,

Unexpectedly, the printing is quite exquisite, and the cover is even in color.

There is a picture of a pig walking upright and wearing a red military uniform. There is also a blue ceremonial ribbon hanging on the military uniform, with three medals hanging down.

Margarita carefully identified,

"The Order of the White Eagle, the Tsar's Coronation Commemorative Medal...well..."

She didn't recognize the third one.

Lu Shi said: "That is the Central Asian Military Action Medal. Its purpose is to commend the Russian officers and soldiers who made military exploits in the conquest of Central Asia from 1853 to 1895."

Margarita understands,

"So, this pig is Nico...ahem...I didn't say anything."

I understand everything.

Lu Shi sighed and said: "What makes me depressed is the content of these booklets. To a certain extent, they are "Animal Farm", but they are not completely "Animal Farm". It can only be said to be 'such'."

Margarita said "Uh..."

"You mean, they made hundreds of millions of adaptations? Sorry, my Russian is not very good. Can you give an example?"

Lu Shi nodded clearly and opened one of the pages.

"Like here."

He pointed to one of the lines and translated:

"

‘Napoleon had a strict education. He speaks fluent German, English and French and has received some military training. ’

"

Margarita was a little confused;

"Isn't Napoleon a pig? German, English and French...what's going on!?"

Obviously, this setting was forced in.

The animals in "Animal Farm" only know one common language among animals, so the subject matter is considered to be a fantasy fairy tale and fable.

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"You can see that too? So, who is the master of German, English and French?"

You can figure this out with your buttocks——

Nicholas II.

Lu Shi pointed to the drawer,

"There are at least two hundred editions of my Animal Farm in Russia, and these pamphlets are only a part."

Margarita asked curiously: "Have you finished reading?"

Lu Shi shook his head,

"How is that possible!? Only now do I realize that reading my own book can be so tiring."

Seeing the helpless look on his face, Margarita couldn't help but smile,

"Let me help you sort it out."

As he spoke, he took out the pamphlets one by one.

At this moment, Lu Shi suddenly took her hand.

Margarita blushed,

"You...what are you doing? No, no, no...you can't do it! It's not the time yet, we haven't...you haven't been decorated yet~"

Lu Shi: "..."

I didn’t expect Her Royal Highness to be so in love.

He coughed awkwardly,

"Don't get me wrong, I just saw a book and was a little surprised."

Only then did Margarita realize that she had made a mistake.

She tried to pretend to be calm,

"This one?"

"right."

Lu Shi took the pamphlet from the other party's hand.

——

"Haiyan\

,"Author: Gorky, Lu

——

He turned to the first page,

What caught my eye was indeed the beginning of the familiar prose poem: "On the vast sea, the strong wind is gathering dark clouds."

Lu Shi's head was full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

To be honest, when I traveled back in time, I copied so many books?

But this is my first time co-signing with the original author.

This feels so strange!

Margarita fell into silence when she saw Lu. She was inevitably curious.

"Professor Lu, is there something wrong with this poem? Can you translate it for me?"

Lu Shi nodded and recited it in English.

"Huh~"

Margarita let out a sigh of relief.

This poem is so well written!

If we were in Paris, people might have taken to the streets to demonstrate.

She whispered: "Tsar Nicholas has watched so many "Animal Farm", maybe he will go crazy with anger?"

…

Russia, Saint Petersburg,

Catherine Palace, master bedroom.

boom--

With a loud noise, the delicate porcelain cup fell to pieces on the ground.

"Let the storm come more violently..."

Nicholas II's eyes were blood red and he was mumbling, as if he was in a daze.

Half a second later,

boom--

There was another loud noise.

This time it was a decorative gold dinner plate. It fell to the ground and rolled away until it reached Sergei Veidt's feet.

Nicholas II was furious,

"Storm? I can fuck you! @* # ￥%..."

What follows is a string of standard Russian curse words.

Originally, the purpose of banning "Chao Wen Dao" was to control public opinion.

It's better now. The more we block, the more we get.

Who can bear this?

Werther glanced at Nicholas II and said nothing.

He knew that the current Tsar inherited the worst parts of the personal character of Pavel I and Alexander I:

no personality,

indecisive,

Anger will be repaid,

…

If Lu Shi was in Russia, he would have been sent to Siberia by now.

It's a pity that I'm in London,

Nicholas II could only stare.

He threw a few more exquisite decorations, and finally finished venting his anger. He gradually regained his composure and looked at Werther standing aside.

"Sir Witte."

Werther bowed respectfully,

"His Majesty."

Nicholas II's lips trembled slightly and he said: "Find this Gorky and move him to a new place."

Werther lowered his head, did not speak, and did not move.

This behavior certainly displeased the Tsar;

He said: "Why don't you go out?"

Werther was expressionless;

"Your Majesty has decided? Okay, then I'll do it now."

This is a strange thing to say.

Nicholas II was stunned for a long time, then quickly stopped and said: "Don't mess around yet!"

Werther tried to tighten his face,

He complained in his mind: "It's obviously you who is messing around!"

At this time, the Tsar also came to his senses,

"Chao Wen Dao" seems to be different from other books.

When other books are sealed, they will be sealed. Although it will cause an uproar at first, over time, all the waves will naturally subside.

Even "Resurrection" is like this,

Tolstoy even had to cut out the content for publication.

But what about "Chao Wen Dao"?

This book is like an endless collection of leeks. Just after one crop is cut, another crop will grow, even more luxuriant and stronger than before.

If taxes were like this, Nicholas II would laugh out of his dreams.

But now it's a satirical novel.

"!@#*￥%..."

He uttered garbled words again,

"If you send this bastard trash Gorky to Siberia, I'm afraid things will become more troublesome later on."

Werther raised his eyebrows, somewhat different,

The Tsar actually started to grow a brain! ?

Unexpectedly, "Chao Wen Dao" is also an educational book that can create such a medical miracle.

Maybe, this is science fiction...

Nicholas II asked: "Sir Witte, is that book "Animal Farm" a satire of Britain?"

Werther pondered,

"If you want to get the real answer, you have to ask the original author Lu."

Nicholas II asked with a puzzled look on his face: "What are you talking about? What is a 'real answer'? Are there also 'false answers'?"

Werther whispered: "There are no 'false answers', there are 'answers that are truer than reality'."

There is no need to say the following words explicitly.

The so-called "answer truer than reality" refers to Russia, of course.

The Russia satirized by "Animal Farm" has almost become the consensus of everyone in Europe.

A million grass-mud horses galloped through the heart of Nicholas II.

He said helplessly: "What should we do now?"

Werther was lost in thought;

After a long time, he said: "Your Majesty, please cut off your strong man's wrist and unblock "Chao Wen Dao"."

What a god, "a strong man cuts off his wrist"!

If "Chao Wen Dao" is unblocked now, it should be called "strong man's high amputation", where the parts below the head are chopped off.

The disease is cured,

People are gone.

Nicholas II had a dark face;

"You're right! Not only do I want to unblock "Chao Wen Dao", but I also want to give Lu a literary award."

This is obviously irony.

Werther's eyes widened.

"As expected of your Majesty! He is thoughtful enough to think of this kind of shock therapy."

Nicholas II almost spit out a mouthful of old blood on the spot,

"I...you...fuck you!"

Lun was speechless and couldn't even speak.

Witte continued to pretend to be stupid: "Unblocking "Chao Wen Dao" is equivalent to recognizing its genuine copyright. Then, those haphazardly printed pamphlets have become pirated copies, and spreading it is an illegal and unjust act. "

Nicholas II was shocked;

He really didn't expect that the other party was actually considering unblocking "Chao Wen Dao".

Moreover, the idea of ​​solving the problem is surprisingly convincing.

He murmured: "Do we really want to lift the blockade? No... no! Our goal is to get Russia out of the influence of "Animal Farm"... Well... it seems that we can get rid of it..."

His Majesty the Tsar fell into confusion;

The CPU is dry burned.

Witte said in a persuasive manner: "Your Majesty, don't forget that "The Road to the Morning" is a collection of novels. We can completely declare to the outside world that the original ban on it was not because of "Animal Farm", but because of the problems in the other two articles."

Nicholas II seemed to be struck by lightning and suddenly became enlightened.

"Yes! It can still be like this!"

He ordered to Werther:

"Mr. Witte, go and seize these pamphlets...these pirated books now! We in Russia have always been friends of writers. No matter who dares to block their free creation or steal their achievements, Russia will do its part and punish the scoundrels. Crack down hard.”

Werther really couldn't hold himself any longer this time.

He tried hard not to laugh out loud, and his throat made a "gurgling" sound.

After a while, he said, "I'll do it right away."

Nicholas II nodded,

"Go ahead."

Werther went to the door;

As a result, just as he held the door handle, Nicholas II spoke again: "By the way, Sir Witte, about the literary prize..."

He waved his hand,

"That's all, let's talk about that later."