Chapter 6: The Tale of the Poor Sisters (Part II)

When Elizabeth. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info Bennet returned from shopping from the bazaar in the small town of Meriton a mile away, and when he struggled to push a small cart full of food and firewood, he slowly walked into his yard, only to see Mary pouting on the floor of the yard, constantly groping around, and beside him was a large pile of various clothes and sheets, which had been rolled in the mud and dust, and stains could be seen from afar.

- Well, I'm afraid today's clothes have been washed again...... Elizabeth. Bennet rolled his eyes helplessly, put down the cart, rolled up his sleeves and leaned over to Mary, "...... Feed! What's wrong with you? ”

Mary looked up, revealing a pair of blank eyes with tears and a red, swollen forehead, "...... Ah, I'm sorry, I was going to dry my clothes, but I tripped over and couldn't find my glasses...... Please, can you help me find it? ”

-- On the whole, the five Bennet sisters were good girls of good health and good looks, with no serious physical defects or genetic diseases. Only Mary, a book freak, broke her eyes by staying up late reading by candlelight because she read too many books and the lighting conditions in this era were relatively poor...... As a result, after the crossing, the soul age of seventy-five years old and the body age of eighteen years old Mary changed from the original presbyopia to severe deep myopia, and basically as soon as she took off her glasses, she couldn't see anything.

It's the glasses of this era, at least Mary. Bennet's myopic glasses seem to be very different from modern glasses, without two legs hooked to the ear, only two round bottle bottoms, strung together with a metal hinge, which are stuck directly on the bridge of the nose when used, which is called "nasal clip glasses". The advantage of these glasses is that they are small, easy to fold, and look cute, but the disadvantage is that they can easily fall off...... In recent times, Mary has lost or broken two pairs of glasses in quick succession, and now only the last pair remains, and there is no spare one.

So, the sisters had to look for glasses together, and a few minutes later, there was a click on the soles of Mary's feet, and her last pair of glasses was reimbursed.

“…… Oh no! Touching her shattered glasses, Mary let out a cry of despair and nearly tripped over again, for she could not see.

And Elizabeth's heart twitched: there must be an extra half-blind person in the family who could not do any work - in this day and age, of course, there could not be an opticians in a small village like Longborn, and there was no one in the nearby town of Meriton, and if you wanted to get glasses, you had to go to London......

But she had to comfort Mary anyway, stumbling her up the stairs, and telling her not to leave the bedroom out of sight. Then go back to the yard and put the clothes and sheets that have fallen on the floor into a large wooden basin and prepare to wash them again in the afternoon. Finally, he pushed the cart full of food and firewood again and went around the kitchen door in the backyard.

“…… Kitty! Lydia! Everything has been bought! Come over and help sort it out! ”

Then, from behind the kitchen door, two small faces covered with ashes appeared...... Next, the three of them worked together to put into the kitchen in batches the refined flour, bacon, salted fish, sausages, butter, potatoes, onions, salt, sugar, and two large bundles of dry firewood that Elizabeth had just bought from the town. Finally, Elizabeth looked up at the stove and saw that the main course of her lunch was a large pot of potatoes and salted meat, with some onions. The staple food is gnocchi and bread...... Although this meal seems to be very simple, if it were for her to cook it, I am afraid that it may not be able to make it.

-- For modern city dwellers who have become accustomed to induction cookers, microwave ovens, and gas stoves, using the kitchen stoves of the past to chop wood to make fires is a very new thing. When Jane and Elizabeth first confidently stepped into the kitchen, the end result was that they couldn't light the fire for two hours, and the third hour filled the entire kitchen with black smoke, making it look like it was on fire......

After all, their cooking skills have long degenerated into "microwave children", and even dumplings can only be eaten quick-frozen, and they can't wrap them at all.

Fortunately, among the five Bennet sisters, in addition to Jane and Elizabeth, two modern urban women, there are also three old ladies dressed in girl's skin, relatively speaking, they also know some life experience of the backward era, so they later took over the kitchen work...... However, although they had experienced those difficult years of planned economy, because they were urban households, they only had experience in briquette stoves, and they did not know how to use velvet and flint to light fires - the earliest friction matches were not invented until the early 19th century. So every time they cooked, it was still an arduous battle, and just lighting the fire and blowing the wind almost made them tired and broken. And the dishes can only be simple because of ugliness, and they dare not engage in too complicated tricks.

But even so, it was much more palatable than the "orthodox British dishes" they had enjoyed before – there was a joke on the Internet that one of the thinnest books in the world was a recipe for traditional British cuisine. If you want to make a book "A Bite of England", as long as you have two kinds of food, fish and chips, you will be fine. Although such a statement is an exaggeration, the British cooking is indeed very simple, vegetables and fruits can be eaten raw, and no condiments are added; Many hot dishes are just cooked with ingredients, and you still have to add your own seasoning for what you need to taste.

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Washing her face and hands with water from an oak barrel with Kitty and Lydia, Elizabeth brought lunch to the table. And Jane, the eldest sister of the five. Bennet, too, carried a cheque and a small bag of gold quinis (British gold coins, the legal denomination is one quini to one pound sterling. But because it was a solid gold coin, beautifully made, it was very popular with people, and the actual purchasing power was always higher than that of the pound), back from town.

By entrusting Philip's attorney-uncle, who lives in Meritun, she has just sold the family's carriage and all the horses at a bargain.

- In the plot of Pride and Prejudice, at least Jane and Elizabeth should be able to ride horses, but unfortunately none of the five Bennet sisters know how to ride, so these delicate animals are useless. Moreover, the cost of raising horses is really large, and it is also very troublesome to serve, and you have to groom carefully every day, and if you are not careful, you will lose weight or fall ill......

For Jane and Elizabeth, who could even raise cacti to death before crossing over, serving them was a burden that life could not bear.

(When I watched "Bankrupt Sisters", I was puzzled, how could the heroines afford a horse when they were mixed up as waitresses in cheap restaurants in downtown New York?) Just half the price carrots in the supermarket? Or go to the park and nibble on the lawn? Does the screenwriter know how much a horse eats? ）

“…… A carriage and six horses, which sold for only four hundred and five pounds in total? That's a bit too little...... But there is no way to ......."

Elizabeth recorded the entry in the household book with a pen dipped in ink, and then mentally calculated, "...... Now we still have a total of ...... Five hundred and two pounds, fifteen shillings, eleven pence? It may seem like a lot, but it's still a bit tight to sustain five people......"

-- Although the five sisters had rummaged through the cabinets in their home and found more than £400, they had spent nearly £300 on the settlement of their wages when the servants were dismissed. Then the two months of living expenses were also more than expected, so the money was not as well spent as it seemed.

“…… Hey, since you don't have enough money, you should find a way to make it? As a former provincial model worker, Lydia said without thinking, "...... Chairman Mao taught us to do it ourselves and have enough food and clothing. We have hands and feet now, can we still starve to death?! ”

“…… Make hay? That's easy to say! Do you think this is our time? Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she reached out and tapped on the table, "...... What can you do in this day and age? Tutor or farming? What should I do about being decent as a young lady? ”

- Mary, Kitty, and Lydia, three old ladies dressed in girl's skin, two retired Chinese teachers, and one retired boilermaker. For the first two, do they want to teach Chinese in England at the end of the eighteenth century? What British lady would be willing to learn Chinese these days? Besides, they can't write traditional Chinese characters! And the last one, the steam engine has just been invented in this year, where did the boiler come from for her to burn?

In fact, just going out to work itself is a shameful act of self-depravity in the eyes of upper-class women of this era.

-- Britain at the beginning of the first industrial revolution was a reactionary country that retained quite a few of the decadent traditions of the feudal aristocracy, and its mainstream values were completely contrary to those of the socialist countries of the 20th century.

In this era, men wanted to revitalize their families, they could invest in business, become pastors, become lawyers, and join the military. However, the only decent way out for women is to marry a good husband. All women were taught to be humble and obedient, and young ladies were encouraged to learn only to play the harp, sing, and dance, just to be in high society. And the so-called girls' school, to put it bluntly, is just a bridal training class.

Most young ladies of high society are deliberately raised to be idle canaries who starve to death once they leave the man's offerings. Therefore, the women of the British upper class in that era, one by one, were clearly worth a lot of money, but they still kept their eyes on property, put their whole lives on the pound, and were always accustomed to measuring their happiness index by the amount of pounds. Because they can't do without extravagant and lively balls, they can't do without all kinds of fashionable and expensive clothes, shoes, and accessories, and they have a natural fear of simple life. But they will only spend money, not make money, so of course the more money is better for them, and all their minds are focused on how to catch a rich man.

Moreover, even if the Bennet sisters had the courage to go out to work despite their decency, it would be difficult for them to earn the expected minimum income.

“…… Even if we ignore the eyes of the rest of the villagers and relatives, what kind of jobs will we find when we go out? A textile mill worker who works twelve to sixteen hours a day and receives only a few pennies a day? Or the kind of bar waitress who sells herself part-time? Or a maid who serves people? Don't you look at what our housework level is like?! It's hard to take care of yourself, and you can still serve others? ”

Elizabeth summed it up sharply, "...... Don't expect to eat on words, according to the current market, even if an article is accepted, the manuscript fee is only a few shillings, and the postage and pen, pen and ink are not cheap. If you encounter several rejections, maybe you will lose money? ”

All in all, after discussion, the five sisters found that the safest way to live now is to sit back and wait for the inheritance.

To put it simply, it is to continue to live the life of rice worms for the unearned income of the decadent exploiting class...... Although this kind of life seems hard enough to them, if they let the poor people in the slums of the East End of London know, they must be sprayed in the face: with 500 pounds in cash in their hands, they can inherit at least 5,000 pounds in a few years, and they can eat and drink without working to earn money?!!

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It's a pity that the fickle fate doesn't seem to intend to let these five female traversers continue to die so lazily.

- After lunch, just as Elizabeth and Jane were about to go upstairs for a nap, while the three "little sisters" were basking in the sun while drinking strange tea in the courtyard, a dusty messenger suddenly came to visit and delivered a letter from the town of Meriton.

The person who wrote the letter was William. Collins, cousin of the five Bennet sisters and heir to the Bennet family's estate in Longborne Village.

The content of the letterhead is very common, that is, as a relative and elder, he condolences to the five cousins of the Bennet family whose parents are missing and lonely, and then says that he is ready to come to visit one day at the end of March, hoping that the cousins will be ready to receive them.

Wait a minute? Cousin Collins is coming to visit? There seems to be something wrong with this plot!

“…… My God! Darcy and Bingley haven't appeared yet, so why did Reverend Collins come first? This style of painting is obviously wrong! ”

After being stunned for a moment, Miss Jian was the first to jump, "...... Completely inconsistent with the plot of the novel "Pride and Prejudice" ......"

“…… Don't care about the plot of the novel! My poor sister, things may be more serious than you think. After pondering the letter carefully, Elizabeth changed color in shock," ...... If you look closely at the letter, does he have a sentence that says that he was ordained to the priesthood and became a pastor? ”

“…… Seems so...... Yes, he came to Longborn Village half a year earlier than in the novel, and it is likely that he has only just graduated from seminary and has not had time to become a priest. But what's wrong with that? Jane asked again as she looked at the letter.

“…… What's the problem? Big problem! This means that he will probably never go anywhere else to be a pastor again, but will not leave when he comes here! ”

Elizabeth threw her head back and sighed as she stomped on the floor under her feet, "...... Don't forget, according to the law, this Mr. Collins is the heir here! As long as the inheritance formalities are completed, he can get us out of this house whenever he is happy! ”