Finding nothing, Avery got into the carriage and went back, unable to ask for the slightest useful information from Belloc's mouth, as if he had deliberately concealed it. Why would Leonard Press leave a good piece of literature in the dust? Avery pondered, and it occurred to him that the Leonard Prize-winning work was "Wild Rose" by a member of the Elroy family, and if the two works were put together, it would definitely be a high judgment.

"It's a pity that I gave up a good work in order to tie up the Elroy family."

Avery sighed, but knew that he would make that choice if he were placed in Belloc's place. However, as a reader, as a person attracted by the story of "The Count of Monte Cristo", he hopes that the novel will continue. When he returned to the mansion, his face showed obvious displeasure, and without waiting for the maid to open the door, he pushed the door straight in, and came to the luxurious study and sat down, no matter what, he was still uneasy.

He picked up the phone on the desk and turned the number wheel on it to call a friend's phone and tell him the bad news.

A friend's joking voice came out of the earpiece: "Oh, of course I know that's the case, in fact, I visited Leonard Press personally when they decided to present the award for Wild Rose, and the result is not much different from what happened to you. ”

Aifuri's slightly obese body leaned against the sofa and said helplessly: "Isn't there any way to contact the author directly?" Even if Leonard doesn't plan to publish this novel, I'm sure many people, including me, would be willing to fund it. ”

"As far as I know, the author's contact information is well preserved by Leonard Press, and there is no news about it from the outside world for the time being."

Avery patted his forehead and speculated: "Judging from the content of The Count of Monte Cristo, shouldn't the author be a rigid character, or he doesn't seek fame and fortune at all?" Now that the novel has been released, it is impossible to go without news..."

"Haha, are you free next Saturday, I'll have a little dinner that night, and I'll discuss the Count of Monte Cristo by the way."

"Next Saturday... It was true that there was no arrangement that day, but it was a fuss to hold a dinner party to discuss a novel. ”

"You haven't personally gone to Leonard's publishing house, in fact, this dinner is to discuss the publication of "The Count of Monte Cristo", a few days ago a freelance reviewer came to me, saying that he is a reviewer of "The Count of Monte Cristo", and he is currently forced to publish at his own expense because of his bad relationship with Leonard Press, and he needs some sponsorship."

"What!"

Aifuri's eyes widened, and after reacting, he held the phone in one hand and suddenly realized: "Oh! That's why you recommended The Count of Monte Cristo to me. ”

His friend on the other end of the phone laughed and replied, "You are the biggest jeweler in the city of Elroy, you have money, and I am just a poor scholar." ”

"Why didn't you tell me earlier! Well, I admit that your sinister calculations have succeeded, and I would gladly fund a good piece of literature. Avery's questioning voice was full of surprise and relaxation, and he could finally look forward to the ending of that strange novel.

······

On Harvey's side, the reviewer Pullan personally came to inform him of the situation, saying that the investors wanted to meet Harvey, and Harvey himself postponed the time until next week, when the first half of "The Count of Monte Cristo" was completed.

Rather than meeting and talking, it is the real sincerity to bring out the finished product.

Harvey put aside his studies on magic for a moment and threw himself into the novel. Diana can even find fault with the content of the novels she has serialized before, especially in terms of word choice and sentence construction, every time Harvey copied words on the earth and thought it would work, but Diana quoted scriptures and criticized it as a clumsy trick, Harvey had to admit that his "translation" work was not good enough.

He began to try not to be limited to the creation of novel content, in addition to the problems of word choice and sentence construction, he also introduced a perfect punctuation system belonging to the earth, and the literary system of this world itself is still using the punctuation system of hundreds of years ago, although it is enough to cope with daily sentence breaks and expressions, but it is far from rich, especially the lack of expression of emotions, for example, although this world has [?] But there is no [!] 】。

These are modest but useful, and Harvey has written a page of instructions to illustrate the meaning of these new words and punctuation marks.

His ideas were approved by Diana, especially the innovation of punctuation, which she praised as a great contribution to the development of literature, and finally did not forget to mention that if "The Count of Monte Cristo" could become a masterpiece, and only "The Count of Monte Cristo" became famous would his writing method be widely circulated.

The illustrations of the novel are nearing completion, and Shirley's drawing talent is far beyond Harvey's imagination, and she can basically perfectly draw the current style illustrations that Harvey requires. These black-and-white sketches are not necessarily more realistic and delicate than the oil paintings of this world and the carefully drawn sketches, but they are better than the incomplete real style, and the amount of information expressed by the illustrations is far greater than that of traditional paintings.

Soon, Harvey was past the first month after the crossing, and the cool climate had turned to cold, and the breeze through the streets was enough to make thinly clad pedestrians shiver. The scenery outside the window became gloomy, the sky was dark, and the trees planted by the roadside that Harvey couldn't name were withering, and the bare branches were very unsightly.

Winter in the city of Elroy is snowing, and this time of year is also known as the long sleep season for the city's poor residents, because every year the poor people who are unclothed quietly freeze to death on the roadside.

Harvey changed into a thick black trench coat, similar in style to a tuxedo, and his posture was more slender. In this era, men's clothing is the complete opposite of women's, and every dress of women is dazzlingly gorgeous, with more colorful colors than flowers blooming in the wild. Men will always have only a few styles, and white shirts, black old-fashioned suits, and high hats are the standard for a man to dress appropriately.

Obviously, the warmth of this coat is not very good, there is no down technology in this world for the time being, and Harvey can feel a chill through his clothes at home.

"Huhu~"

In front of the mansion, Harvey, who was rubbing his hands to keep warm, regretted a little that he didn't have a few points on his attribute panel, and he was holding a document bag in his arm, ready to go out.

"Tuk Tuk Tuk~"

Shirley hurried down the stairs in her low-heeled boots, a long scarf in her hand, and walked over to Harvey and carefully tied it around his neck, finishing his collar.

"Sir, I'm a little worried about whether those illustrations are worthy of your novels."

Seeing her sort of collar for herself and showing a wavering look, Harvey smiled and encouraged: "The illustration was done by me and you, and it was originally part of the novel. ”

Shirley began to fiddle with his top hat again, and hurriedly replied, "But it may disgrace you." ”

It was also funny to see that Shirley was completely not as calm as usual, Harvey was not that kind of character in the first place, she just didn't smile, and now was the time to verify the results of her and Harvey's hard work during this time, and nervousness was inevitable.

"That's just my own doing, I won't come back for lunch, but prepare as much as possible for dinner, um~ make something you like to eat, don't forget that you also have a part in writing this novel." Harvey waved his hand and turned away with a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo.