After the main meal, it is followed by a variety of cheeses, dessert mille-feuille ice cream, coffee, chocolate and cookies. As for the table wines, there are famous wines from 1983 and champagne.

During the dessert tasting and drinking, 10 people finalized the eight finalists for the Prix Goncourt, which were then announced by Cecil, the rotating president of this year's jury. However, before that, they have to settle the meal bill.

The owner of the restaurant came in person, handed over the bill, and Cecil gave him a symbolic look, yes, two francs.

"The old rule, two cents per person. Cecil said, pulling two coins out of his pocket and placing them on the table.

"This is mine. ”

"Two cents is here. ”

"And mine. ”

"Who has change? give me change, I have a franc here." ”

"I knew I wanted to use it, but I didn't bring change. ”

......

This sumptuous dinner would cost 10,000 francs, to say the least. The bottle of 1983 wine, if ordered a la carte, costs at least 3,000 francs, but the bill from the owner himself shows that the dinner cost only two francs.

It's tradition. It was here in 1903 that the first Prix Goncourt was announced, and the jury ate two francs for a meal. For more than 100 years, no matter how the currency depreciated and appreciated, the two francs remained the price of the dinner, no matter what the person ate or drank.

Each of the 10 old men contributed two cents, scraped together a large handful of coins, and handed them to the boss.

After the boss accepted it with a smile, he asked, "Is there a "French Will" shortlisted this time?"

Cecil said, "You have a good eye, and Professor Morris recommended this one. ”

The boss said happily, "Ah, that's great, I'm a big reader of this book, and I've often cried over what happened to Chamkeli." ”

Cecil said, "You are such a sentimental person who sees through the essence of life. From birth to death, man comes crying aloud and weeping secretly. Crying is our destiny, and disappointment is a common thing, so, I want to tell you, you rejoiced too soon, the French Testament was recommended and eliminated again. ”

After that, he led the crowd out of the private room and into the lobby of the restaurant, where he faced the reporters gathered here and began to announce the works shortlisted for this year's Prix Goncourt.

Every year at 8 p.m. on this day, European journalists flock to the diner, where they feast on French and Western cuisine while waiting for the jury of the Prix Goncourt upstairs to announce the finalists. Among these people, there are not only media reporters, but also editors of many publishing houses, hoping that the publication will be shortlisted. Anyone who is shortlisted for this award will have a significant increase in sales. In China, a bestseller cannot be called a bestseller if it does not sell more than 1 million copies, but in France, it is already difficult to reach 100,000 copies, especially for literature. The cost of publishing literary works in France is very low, and the taxes to be paid are negligible, and the income that writers can get is very considerable. As for some popular bestsellers that have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, they are the lucky ones of the times and have no reference.

The editor of the French publishing house La Rouce was huddled in the Drouen restaurant, where the man in his early 30s with a two-puffed mustache had just finished eating a steak when he saw 10 old men coming down from the second floor of the restaurant. Normally the upper floors are open, but tonight is an exception. If everyone wants to know the result, they can only wait on the first floor.

This year, the Laroux publishing house has published several well-reviewed books, all of which are likely to be shortlisted for the Goncourt Literary Prize, and the management has high hopes for this year, believing that at least two of the eight books will be shortlisted, and if optimistic, there may be three or four. Unfortunately, the final result was a big disappointment, but fortunately, there was finally one shortlisted, and that was "The Old Man and the Sea" from Huaxia. They also put this book on the list of "possible winners" before, but only this one lived up to expectations, and the others were all wiped out.

After Cecil announced the list, he said: "These are the eight books that have been shortlisted for the Goncourt Literary Prize this year, and I know you must have a lot of questions, oh, why this one, why not that one, what can I say about it? Girls, gentlemen, this is the end of the evening, according to tradition, three days later, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, we will see you here again, now, if you don't mind, please get out of the way, let us die old men leave, at half past eight o'clock, the "Goddess of Kindness" at the opera house next door will be performed, this is our scheduled program for tonight, and now, there are still 5 minutes left, and we have to run two steps on the way. ”

Some people were very dissatisfied with him running away without answering questions, and muttered that all the answers were in the book, obviously to watch the opera, in a hurry, it was really irresponsible.

The editor of the Laroux publishing house did not listen to Cecil's last words, and immediately ran out of the restaurant, called the publishing house, reported the latest situation, and then returned, returned to his table, finished his last supper, and drank the red wine from his glass.

There are many reporters and editors like him, everyone raised their wine glasses, greeted each other from afar, and asked each other about tonight's harvest, some were happy, some were depressed, and some were talking about each other, and they were full of comments on the eight books that were announced. Just as the people of Shengjing like to discuss politics, everyone is a civil politician, Parisians like to discuss food and literature, and everyone is a wild critic.

It is 9 o'clock in the evening in Paris, and it is 4 o'clock in the morning in Shengjing, whether it is a happy event or a sad event, let's wait for the sun to rise. An email from the Laroux Publishing House has been sent to the mailboxes of Li Xiang, Gu Qijing, Ding Ding Bookstore and Huaxia Bookstore, and someone will come to open the surprise after dawn.

At six o'clock in the morning, the sky was just dawning, and a thick haze drifted between the sky and the earth. A few years ago, there was smog in Shengjing, but after treatment, it is no longer visible. In the distance, the fog could not block the red light coming out of the ground, and the sun had not jumped out of the horizon, but Gu Qijing knew that today was another sunny day.

She stood on the balcony, did a simple 5-minute stretch, reluctantly gave up the morning view of the park in front of her, and went to the kitchen, ready to make breakfast for two.

In October this year, the new house she bought with her boyfriend was accepted and moved in. After 4 years in Shengjing, she finally has a house of her own, and more importantly, a home.

She feels very lucky to have achieved a dream that others could not achieve in more than ten years in just 4 years. After graduating from high school, she entered the society and became a North Drifter, struggling in this big city, and by chance she entered Miya Entertainment, and by chance, she followed Li Xiang. Her former friend still lives in a "snail house" and lives a life like an "ant clan". This made her always tighten the strings in her heart, did not dare to relax, now is far from the time to enjoy leisure, for this reason, she enrolled in night school, learn English, and prepare for the undergraduate examination. Since she was in charge of Li Xiang's literary affairs, she has begun to deal with foreign publishing houses, and she can't speak English, which is a big shortcoming.

After having breakfast with her boyfriend, she drove to the studio, met Natsu and Zhang, who were always one step ahead of her, said hello, returned to the office, turned on the computer, and habitually started the day by handling emails.

She saw an email from Ding Ding Book City and Huaxia Bookstore last night, informing them of the sales of works such as "The Old Man and the Sea" and "I Am a Cat" the day before. It's a routine email, and she's told about sales every day.

Gu Qijing especially observed the sales of "The Old Man and the Sea", which sold 20,000 copies in one day yesterday, if only the European market could have half the popularity of the domestic market. After the last time the online anchor "Mu Xue" ridiculed Ding Ding Books' slogan to promote "The Old Man and the Sea", Ding Ding Books changed the propaganda slogan and tried to be as low-key as possible, so as not to let some people who are hot on Li Xiang find an excuse to attack.

Gu Qijing saw an English email lying quietly in the mailbox, clicked on it and tried to browse the translation, it was too difficult, and saw that the sender was a familiar Larousse publishing house, got up and came to the outside of the office, and said to Xiao Xia, who was talking to Xiao Zhang: "Xiao Xia, do you have time? Help me translate an English email, which was sent by Larousse Publishing House in the early morning." ”

Xiao Xia immediately got up: "It's coming." ”

She put down her unfinished breakfast, took a sip of a hot drink, wiped her mouth clean, and went to Gu Qijing's office. She now belongs to Gu Qijing's subordinates, and they all belong to the literary business sector.

"This is the email, which came from at 4 o'clock this morning. Gu Qijing turned her head around the computer notebook and asked Xiao Xia to take a closer look.

Xiao Xia stared at it for a while, then looked up and said to Gu Qijing: "Sister Xiao Jing, this is from Larousse Publishing House, they said in the letter that my brother's "The Old Man and the Sea" was shortlisted for the Goncourt Literary Prize, and three days later, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon French time, the final winning works will be announced, so let's prepare accordingly." ”