Currently before Lionel lay 100 francs in cash and a telegram.
The 100 francs was an advance payment from Le Bruit for his work in the coming week.
Garbriel had eagerly made the contributions of "An Honest Parisian" a serialized column in Le Bruit, even moving its position from the minor section to the second page.
Since the publication of the "Priest Trilogy," Le Bruit had successfully suppressed rivals like Le Lantern and Le Clown, and other toilet reads, becoming the favorite companion for Parisians on the toilet, with an increase of over 20,000 copies per issue.
Those short stories, one after another, combined popular elements like erotica and homosexuality, while being subtle and clever, leaving everyone who read them craving more.
These French people never imagined such things could be expressed with so many roundabout hints; everyone truly enjoyed the pleasure of "sudden realization."
But there were also side effects—
Parisian doctors recently treated a large number of patients with ruptured hemorrhoids, all because they laughed too hard while on the toilet, causing the affected area to rupture.
For a time, the toilets of Paris were practically a "bloodbath."
Under these circumstances, Gabriel not only agreed to raise the remuneration for "An Honest Parisian" to 13 sous per line but also agreed to pay it in the form of a weekly advance of 100 francs.
However, "An Honest Parisian" had to provide Le Bruit with no less than 150 lines of manuscript by Tuesday each week.
Le Bruit knew that since the other party chose to receive remuneration via "poste restante" (general delivery), if these conditions were not met, "An Honest Parisian" might at any time submit manuscripts to competitors like Le Lantern.
This was a characteristic of tabloids—remuneration often lacked a "middle ground."
On one hand, they extremely exploited and withheld payment from budding young authors, while on the other hand, they paid high fees for good works that boosted sales.
The price of 13 sous per line was already the standard for authors of "minor fame" in the Parisian publishing world.
Maupassant, who established Lionel's reputation for being "poor" and "upright," currently did not earn more than 10 sous per line, and his published works could be described as "few and far between."
But Lionel couldn't be happy at all, because the telegram from the Alps brought bad news—
Just one day before Lionel's telegram reached home, the Sorel family had already handed a whopping 5,000 francs in cash to the swindler named "Émile," for him to take to Paris to buy "Panama Canal" bonds.
Lionel had acted fast enough; after receiving the last family letter, he had investigated "Émile's" background within three short days and even sent a telegram back to dissuade his family.
But in this era, even telegrams were not widespread in every town.
Lionel's telegram was first sent to "Larayne," the largest city near his hometown.
Then, the Larayne telegraph office would notify the recipient through the postal system, and the recipient would have to travel to Larayne to collect the telegram.
Going back and forth, 3 days had passed.
By now, "Émile" had disappeared with Lionel's sister's dowry and most of the family's savings.
The Sorel family panicked upon receiving the telegram.
First, they inspected the gifts Émile had given their daughter, discovering that both the rings and necklaces, as well as the dazzling jewels, were fakes.
They then went to the provincial capital of "Gap" and visited the office of "Orby Trading Company," where the company bluntly stated they had never heard of anyone named "Émile" and there was no record of such a person.
As for the large farm in Guyana, the Sorel family neither had the means nor the need to verify it.
The Sorel family was almost broken—the father was dazed all day, struck by the bad news, and had no heart to work; although the mother could still manage the household, she secretly shed tears whenever she thought of it;
His sister, not to mention, cried daily and no longer left the house.
At the end of this long telegram, his father difficultly made a "request" to him, just like in the previous letter: drop out of school and come home.
However, this time, there certainly wouldn't be an office job earning 260 francs a month.
What awaited him was likely to start as a small clerk earning 120 francs a month in some company or large farm, just like his father, and only reach 200 francs by the time he was his father's age, with both eyes ruined.
Lionel sighed, folded the long telegram, and put it away.
He was even less likely to return to the Alps now.
It wasn't that he had no deep emotional connection with these "stranger" family members; rather, returning now would only ruin his own future without helping the situation.
If Le Bruit didn't change its terms, he could now earn almost 400 francs a month, which would be nearly 5,000 francs a year.
In the "commoner" class, he could already live what could be called a "decent" life—of course, this was not stable.
Once Le Bruit was banned (which was common), or if his stories lost their appeal, this money could be halved at any time.
Furthermore, there was another hidden danger: "anonymity" on one hand could ensure his safety, maximally avoiding standing in the defendant's box in court and undergoing a trial for moral corruption after his identity was exposed.
On the other hand, it also meant he did not have control over the pseudonym "An Honest Parisian."
Paris had plenty of talented but down-on-their-luck writers, and Le Bruit could find someone to replace him at any time, saving at least 50 francs every week!
After all, The Forest of Jokes (Xiaolin Guangji) contained only short jokes, the genre's capacity was limited, and in terms of technique, it could only be considered "novel" to the French, definitely not "profound."
This novelty would last at most two or three months, after which it was estimated that "An Honest Parisian," "A Simple Parisian," "A True Parisian," "A Sturdy Parisian"... would spring up like mushrooms after rain.
But no matter what, to solve the Sorel family's crisis, the opportunity was not in the Alps, but in Paris.
Lionel first wrote a letter home, stating that he had found a part-time job as a tutor in a noble family, earning 200 francs a month, enough to cover his personal living expenses and Sorbonne tuition.
He enclosed 100 francs in cash to prove his words were true.
Then he asked his family to describe "Émile's" appearance in detail, preferably to have an artist draw it and send it to him; he would look for traces of this swindler in Paris.
Finally, he sincerely expressed that although the family had lost a huge sum of 5,000 francs, the most important thing was that the family should not be defeated; as long as he and his father could still work, the Sorel family had hope of a "comeback."
After writing this letter, the bright moonlight streamed in through the round skylight.
He sighed, tucked the letter into the envelope, and then pulled out a stack of manuscript paper.
He wrote a full page, then took a second sheet, but wrote only one line
(End of Chapter)
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