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It was already night, the sun had set, but the moon had not yet risen, and only the stars were left. The noisy streets of the day have fallen silent, and there are no pedestrians on the streets, only the gas lamps on the side of the road are still shining in the dim light.

In this era before the electric revolution, the nightlife at night was always monotonous, and the wealthier people might light candles, gather around the table and chat, or let the dignified hostess read a passage of a book, sometimes a Bible, sometimes a novel.

And for those who don't have money, at night, there is basically only one thing to do, and that is to go to bed. Scrooge's house was somewhere in between, and they were not rich enough to light a whole hall with a silver candlestick of seven candles, nor would they be like the poorest of the poor, who could not afford to light even an oil lamp. So, after dark, they would also light an oil lamp, and Joseph Sr. would continue to do something by the light, which Scrooge used to use to read books and do his homework, and his eldest brother would use the light to read books—sometimes a Bible (which almost everyone had in their house), and sometimes novels he had borrowed from his former classmate, Mr. Tár's son, Peter.

Mr. Tarr was a long-time patron of Scrooge's family, and he was a kind big man, and in Scrooge's words, Mr. Tarr was a good-natured brown bear. His wife died young, leaving him with two sons and a young daughter. Mr. Tarr runs a small company specializing in cotton trading, and although he is not a wealthy man, he is also a middle-class family, so he has a large collection of books. His eldest son, Peter, was Carroll's classmate, and the two had a good relationship, so Carroll was often able to borrow books from their house to read.

Now, the youngest child in the family has also graduated, and it stands to reason that the lights can no longer be lit at night, but the habits formed in the past few years still cannot be changed for a while. So, now, every night, the activity at home is to have Carol or Scrooge read a novel to everyone, and tonight it is Carol's turn to read a novel to everyone.

At first, Marius thought it was another daughter of the same man, roughly the sister of the previous one. But when the usual habit of walking led him to the bench for the second time, he looked at her and realized that she was still the same one. In six months, the little girl has become a girl, and that's it. This phenomenon is extremely common. There was a moment when the girls seemed to be buds that suddenly burst out, and in the blink of an eye, they became roses. Yesterday people ignored them as children, but when we see them again today, I already feel that they are confused......"

This is a story that Scrooge is very familiar with, and this is the part of "Les Miserables" where Marius meets Cosette. When he was in college in his previous life, Scrooge used to love Hugo's works and dreamed of meeting a fairy-like girl at the end of a secluded path in a park. But as I grew older, I gradually realized that the world was not what Hugo wrote, that there were not so many good and great people in the world, and that most of the good people were also very weak, just like Balzac portrayed in "The Human Comedy". So later, Balzac became his favorite writer. But apparently, the eldest brother likes Hugo very much.

Hearing Carroll's recitation today, Scrooge suddenly remembered Mr. Tarr's daughter Anne, whom he met when he went to Mr. Tarr's house with his eldest brother to borrow books two days ago. Anne is three years younger than Carol, and now she is just fifteen, which is her prime. You can see the brilliance of youth constantly jumping in her flaxen-colored head and big green eyes, really like a rose that suddenly reveals its fragrance. Scrooge was there at the time, and the eldest brother had his tongue knotted when he was talking to her. Today, the eldest brother suddenly read this paragraph again, and it seems that ......

Just when Scrooge was irresponsibly guessing the relationship between his eldest brother and Anne, he suddenly heard a knock on the door. It's already night, and it's unusual for someone to knock on the door at this time.

Carol put down the book and said, "I'll take a look." Then he asked in a loud voice, "Who is it?" ”

"It's me, I'm John? Rockefeller. Is Scrooge at home? "John came from outside the door? Rockefeller's voice.

"I'll come." Scrooge said as he stood up to open the door.

Scrooge opened the door and saw John standing in the doorway, looking as if he had walked a long way, still panting slightly.

"Is there anything wrong, John?" Scrooge said, seeing that John was still gasping for breath, and added, "Come in and talk about it." ”

John? Rockefeller nodded and followed Scrooge into the door. At this time, Carol had already put away the copy of "Les Miserables", and everyone looked at John who walked in with Scrooge? Rockefeller.

"John, have you found a job?" Joseph asked. Some time ago, John? Rockefeller often came to lecture to Scrooge, and Joseph and Carroll often went along. So now the Scrooges and John? Rockefeller was already very familiar with it.

"Yes, Uncle Joseph, I got a job, right today!" John? The joy on Rockefeller's face was hard to hide.

"Ah, it's not easy, congratulations! Which company is it? "Carol is happy for him, too.

"It's Hewitt-Tuttle." John? Rockefeller replied, and then he looked at the expressions on everyone's faces, and knew that everyone was not familiar with the company, so he explained, "It's a company that does ore and agricultural products, and it's not very large, but it's not a bad show now......"

"John, you can't be wrong." Joseph said, "Carol, take out my half bottle of brandy, and I'm going to have a drink with John." ”

"Okay." Carol immediately got up and went to get the brandy and glass.

"John, tell me about the treatment that company gave you?" Scrooge asked.

John? Rockefeller sat down in his chair and said, "The probationary period is three months, during which there is no pay." In addition to bookkeeping, I am also responsible for debt collection, and there may be other business as well. ”

Scrooge, who was particularly attentive to the rules of the market in this era, now knew that the probationary period lasted for a quarter, and that this naked exploitation without pay during the period was the norm at this time. "This is really a golden age of capitalists," Scrooge thought silently, but said to Rockefeller, "Three months is very fast." As long as you make achievements, you will definitely be able to sign a formal contract. By that time, you will be able to have a stable income. ”

"Thank you for your encouragement, Scrooge!" John? Rockefeller said, "And thank you especially for the idea." In addition, I have something to discuss with you today. ”

"What's the matter?" Scrooge asked.

"I took a serious look at the company's accounts today, and now the company has a lot of arrears that have not been recovered. I asked my colleagues, and they told me that some of them owed a small amount of money, and it didn't seem good to collect them for such a small amount of money, and some of the arrears were the company's old customers, which were not easy to offend...... I want to know, what do you think. ”

"I'd like to hear what you think first." Scrooge smiled, but replied.

John? Rockefeller thought for a moment, and then said, "I think that when the boss offered me this opportunity again, he specifically proposed that I should take on some debt collection work. Therefore, the boss is very eager to be able to recover the money, even if each of these arrears does not seem to be much, but the accumulation of small amounts of sand into a tower. The owner would naturally be happy if he wanted to come back. A lot of this money is owed by old customers, and it is not convenient for the boss to ask for it himself for the sake of the relationship - this is not good for both parties - so it is much more convenient to let a person with very little seniority, who is not even a member of the company, go to them and ask them for this money. Even if something happens, it won't really affect the relationship between the two parties. If the old customer is really angry, the boss can fire me to vent his anger. Therefore, I think that I must be able to recover this money, but I can't make too much trouble, and I must grasp the proportions. ”

Scrooge noticed that Rockefeller was a little hesitant at first when he said these words, but later he became more and more fluent. Obviously, he is quite confident in his opinion. Moreover, Scrooge also noticed that from the beginning, he analyzed the problem from the perspective of the boss!

"I agree with you, John. I think the most important issue now is to figure out how much we can do. Scrooge thought for a moment and said, "I think that depending on the situation of arrears, we need to take into account various situations and corresponding countermeasures. Consider the worst-case scenario first, that is, the attitude of the party who owes the money is that if it can not be repaid, it will not be repaid, and if it can be repaid tomorrow morning, it will never be repaid tonight. In other words, he is completely maliciously defaulting. So how can we get them to pay back? We must prove to them that we have the means to do them more damage than they would not have been able to get by owing money - mind you, just to prove it to them, there is no need to actually do it, and of course, if they don't go on the road, then once we start doing it, we have to throw away a scruple and hurt him! Such a person, even if he is an old customer, is not too important to the company because he is obviously malicious. Getting rid of such guys is not a bad thing for the boss. ”

"Then what kind of means do we have to inflict such damage on him, by the courts? Scrooge, the efficiency of the court is very low, and it is not uncommon for a case to drag on for several years. Rockefeller said

"You don't have to worry about this, I have a solution." Scrooge said with a smile that although he had never worked in a debt collection agency or anything like that, he knew a lot about the methods commonly used in this kind of business.