30. Classic: Pride and Prejudice
“…… God, who will save me! Lydia, who tried to elope but was stopped, cried.
Yue Lingshan was moved: "I'm here to save you." ”
Several women looked back at Yue Lingshan, and for the first time realized that this mediocre man who stayed in the study every day and held a book was so dazzling.
"Dad, you're going to help Katie, aren't you?" Katie asked in a trembling voice with a pleading. Lydia really made a big mistake this time, if it was known, her reputation would be ruined, and she would either marry an old widower or study in a convent, and there was almost no other way out.
Yue Lingshan smiled and said gently, "I came to this world to rescue you, baby." ”
Mrs. Bennet actually blushed, she didn't expect her poisonous husband to have such a gentle time, but it was a pity that the object was her own daughter, what a waste.
Yue Lingshan went out of the door, and when she came back, she told the women that she had had negotiated amicably with George Wakeham, and the other party promised to keep it a secret and never tell her plan to elope with Lydia, and that Wakeham was actually preparing to leave for distant Australia, and it was impossible to affect Lydia.
Mrs. Bennet thanked God that Jane and Elizabeth felt that Wakeham, who had always been frivolous and untrustworthy, could do such a gentlemanly thing.
Wakehan, who was in debt and planned to cheat Lydia out of her dowry, of course he wouldn't say it, and the dead wouldn't say it, Yue Lingshan had always been so firm.
Wakeham's disappearance was completely unnoticed, and anyone who knew Wakeham would have thought that he had gone into debt, and no one would have thought that the merry Mr. Wakeham was buried in the ground by a girlfriend's father.
"Lydia, do you know what mistakes you made?" Yue Lingshan began to educate the children.
"I shouldn't have eloped......" Lydia bowed her head.
Mrs. Bennet and a few girls felt that Lydia's introspection was not deep enough and eloped! That's the end of the "shouldn't"? This is a major event that will cause humiliation for the whole family!
"You're still missing the point." Yue Lingshan shook her head.
"You've made at least a couple of mistakes.
First of all, you don't know how to distinguish between men. Since you want a marriage partner, then, this man should love you, think that you are more important than a qiē, consider your feelings, think about you, and if you can't do this, it means that this man doesn't actually love you.
Second, you're not thinking about the future. If you and Wakeham make it out of here, how are you going to live? Wakeham is in debt, so poor that all you have left is pants, you only have a little money in your pocket, Wakeham can't do any money-making work, and you are the same, what do you eat? Where to stay? How to make money?
Third, do things unconfidential. Elopement should be done in secret, but it was known by so many people and stopped, what other secrets can you keep?
Fourth, everything comes first. Have you ever thought about what you will face if your elopement fails? What did you prepare? ”
When the women who were listening heard the third article, they were already dumbfounded, is this education or incitement?
Lydia opened her mouth wide, she was originally ready to be scolded by Yue Lingshan, but she never expected Yue Lingshan to say these obviously wrong truths.
"A few of you are the same, staying in this small country place, only knowing the blue sky and white clouds every day, thinking that the outside is the same simple, once you come into contact with the real world, you don't know what to do." Yue Lingshan continued.
Several daughters were not convinced.
Yue Lingshan decided to take her family to learn about this dark world.
Yue Lingshan took her family to London.
"It's so beautiful." Several women are dazzled by the bustling city.
Pretty? Bustling? Yue Lingshan scoffed, but considering that this was England in 1795, Yue Lingshan remained silent.
Yue Lingshan took the women to the slums, and several women were frightened.
"Dad, this ...... The girl is only 12 years old, right? Katie asked, pointing to a young prostitute.
"Yes, there are younger than that."
"How can they do this!" Katie said angrily, "What about their parents and family? Isn't there anyone to save them? ”
"Their parents and family are waiting in the house to receive money from their clients......"
Mrs. Bennet glared at Yue Lingshan, how could she say the dirty word "prostitute" to her daughter.
“…… Then their mothers would use the money from the sale of these daughters to buy food, wine, and beautiful clothes, and their fathers would go to casinos or buy low-quality tobacco. ”
Several women, including Mrs. Bennet, were all terrified.
"Impossible, how could a parent do such a thing to their daughter!" Elizabeth was completely unconvinced.
"Really?" Yue Lingshan smiled, called the young prostitute, gave her a copper, and asked, "Child, where are your parents?" ”
"In the back room, sir, do you have something to do with them?"
The prostitute's words knocked down several of the Bennett women.
Yue Lingshan handed over another copper: "You shouldn't be here, you should enjoy your childhood in your parents' arms." ”
"Sir, I'm not like you, I have money and food and clothing, I have to support my family, my father has to drink every day, my mother is sick and needs to take medicine, I don't do it, who will support them!" The prostitute was furious at the nosy hypocrite.
Yue Lingshan sincerely apologized: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that." Take it, and hope you have a good day. Yue Lingshan handed the prostitutes a pound sterling, as well as their family's own lunch, and some of the girls' old clothes.
"You are a good person, may God bless you." The way of the young prostitute is happy.
The Bennett women burst into tears.
Happiness needs to be compared, and so is pain, and they finally find that the world is not as beautiful as they think, and their self-righteous pain is not worth mentioning in this world.
Back home, Lydia asked, "Why did their parents do this?" ”
"Because when there is no money, conscience, morality, and feelings are the things that are most likely to be lost."
Lydia's face turned pale: "Will I be like them after I elope?" ”
"Yes, kid." Yue Lingshan told the truth.
Lydia trembled and didn't leave the room for days.
Elizabeth received Darcy's letter, happy and worried, the financial situation of the Darcy family and the Bennett family was really far apart, especially the Bennett family's land could only be inherited by distant relatives.
"What kind of world, my property can't be given to my own daughter." Mrs. Bennet was indignant.
Yue Lingshan smiled: "Actually, if you want to divide the family property to your daughter, it's not impossible to do it. ”
"Really?"
"Because most of the land in England was a fief of the aristocracy, and the obligations to the feudal lord had to be assumed, the land law stipulated that no matter how the owner of the land changed, the original responsibilities and obligations of the land must be assumed. Our Bennett's land bears the obligation that a man must serve, so this land is actually a limited inheritance estate, and only a male in the family can inherit it.
Our family is all daughters and is not eligible to inherit the land. ”
The women of the Bennett family were silent, I see.
"But that's on the premise that the whole family owns the land, and if I don't care who ends up with this ancestral land, then it's just a piece of real estate that I can sell and divide the money equally among my daughters."
Will Mr. Bennet sell the land? The original Mr. Bennet would never be, because it was the foundation of the whole family.
Yue Lingshan's version of Mr. Bennett has no sense of belonging to the family and cares about the family's death.
Yue Lingshan decided to take the whole family to the United States, the humidity in Britain was unbearable, the United States had just been founded, and gold was everywhere.
Elizabeth and Jane were reluctant to go, their beloved was here.
Yue Lingshan sighed, women think that love is the most beautiful in the world, it is like this now, it was like this before, and it is still like this after hundreds of years.
Yue Lingshan left England with the rest of her daughters, leaving behind a signed document on the sale of land, and advised: "When you two are married, sell this land, and the money will be the dowry of the two of you." ”
Ten years later, Mary, Lydia, and Katie accompanied their mother back to England to visit their two sisters, and everyone was surprised when they met.
Elizabeth and Jane were amazed at the nobility of their mother and sisters, and Mrs. Bennet was surprised at how little happiness their daughters looked like.
Are Elizabeth and Jane happy? At first the marriage was happy, the couple had a harmonious relationship, drinking a glass of water was sweet, being rained was also sweet, and then, it was not so sweet, the daughter raised by a country gentleman's family, and the wealthy Darcy family and the Bentley family, there was a gap in all aspects of life, and as time passed, both husband and wife felt that no matter how hard they tried, they could not return to the feeling of being in love. Marriage has become a habit, it seems to be happy, it seems to be unhappy, it seems to be often ridiculed, and it seems that others are often mocked.
Are Lydia, Mary, Katie happy? Yue Lingshan is very good at making money, Bennett's family is already a famous and wealthy family in the United States, the three sisters have re-educated in the United States, have a different world view, and have a new understanding of life, and the three of them even manage a business each.
The queue of the three sisters who pursue them, all kinds of elites, all kinds of true feelings, all kinds of handsome men, they just need to think and do in the way they like best, only others adapt to them, they never adapt to others, they are not in a hurry to get married, their happiness is not determined by marriage, their happiness is controlled in their own hands, and when they want to get married one day, they will pick out their future husbands from among the people who adapt to what they want to do and live the life they want to live.
In the past ten years, the three sisters in the United States and the two sisters who stayed in the United Kingdom have been far from the same level in terms of knowledge, cultivation, concepts, and social rank.
Lydia, who loves vanity and spends money, still wears the latest clothes and the most delicate jewelry, but who will laugh at her shallowness? The Darcy and Bentley families would only be glad at the visit of the famous Bennett family, and would only praise Lydia's outfit with adoration.
If Lydia was still ridiculed for her vanity, would she be angry and inferior?
It is simply impossible, whether the person who judges her is richer than her, smarter than her, or poorer than her, Lydia will not care, neither rejoice in the praise nor take revenge for mockery, she will only live according to her own will, and the evaluation of others will mean nothing to her.
This is the happy life of Lydia and the three of them.
Happiness is still happy after comparison?
The two older sisters who thought they were more mature, beautiful, smart, and knowledgeable than their three younger sisters couldn't answer.
Mrs. Bennet and the three girls pulled Elizabeth and Jane by the hand: "We are going to buy a house in England this time, and it will be counted as your both's property, and we hope it will make your life better." ”
Elizabeth and Jane have mixed feelings.
They pursue love, believe in love, they don't get married because of money, and they don't want money as long as they love love, God gave them a rich and loving husband, but they are not happy because of this, the poor girl in the fairy tale lives happily after marrying the prince, but there is never such a thing in reality.
Economic asymmetry brings about inequality in the family, no discrimination, no malice, and it is so ubiquitous existence.
Elizabeth and Jane suddenly thought, what would happen if they followed Yue Lingshan to the United States back then? Maybe it's better, maybe it's bad, maybe it's the same.
There is no possibility in life, life cannot be looked back, life can only be looked forward.
Fortunately, Elizabeth and Jane have the support of their families and are eligible to reposition themselves in their marriage.