The sparkling summer sun shines on the calm Seine, which resembles a mirror made of sterling silver.

But Monsieur Montemar apparently did not like the imagery, and he thought of silver as soon as he thought of the silver mirror, and then of the young governor of Corsican and his damned silver company.

After Mr. Montmar and Lord Merry had left the room, they ran to the back of the dining-room, lest the conversation be overheard by the Duke of Choiseul.

The two sat on the benches, looking at the Seine in front of them, and were silent for a long time.

"Damn, is that kid playing with me! Every day, I don't know how many managers of companies that want to go public run to my office with boxes full of materials, and he just tells me empty-handed that his company is going public?! ”

As he spoke, Mr. Montmar grabbed at his wig in exasperation, and the well-groomed silver curls immediately turned into a bird's nest.

Lord Merry let out a long sigh and shook his head twice, but there was nothing to say.

"Hey, Melly, old friend, what are you talking about?"

Mr. Montemar said with his head tilted in dismay, sighing before looking at Lord Merry.

Lord Melly said with a bitter face:

"What do I have to say, the Duke of Choiseul already has an obvious meaning, which is to let us go through the formalities for the listing of that company. If I dare to say half a word... If you want to find me in the future, go to the St. Ernst nursing home, anyway, I don't have to do it as the chief of the stock exchange. ”

Hearing this, Mr. Montmar nodded helplessly, admitting that Lord Merry was right.

As a mid-level financial officer, the Duke of Choiseul wanted to remove him in a matter of words, and even if the Duke was annoyed, he might be stripped of the status of a lord he had earned all his life.

As for Mr. Montmartre, don't look at his lack of affiliation with Duke Choiseul, if you really want to offend this powerful minister, Monsieur Montmar knows very well that he has absolutely no good fruit to eat.

Seeing that Mr. Montmar was silent, Lord Melly sighed again, patted him on the back, and said:

"Think about the gains and losses, that's what you bankers are most happy to do."

"It's... You're right, disobey the Duke of Choiseul, and the worst is probably my whole life. ”

Mr. Montmar gritted his teeth and said:

"If you follow them... You can make a good relationship more or less, the Duke of Choiseul is not a person who gives what he wants, and that Bonaparte has a good reputation, maybe there will be some reward... It's the kind of thing that once it's revealed..."

Lord Melly leaned back in his chair, and he was as worried about the revelation as Mr. Montmar, but after thinking about it, he had no choice but to shake his head and say:

"You know the old saying in the financial world: if you're smart enough, you can't be dishonest, if you're honest enough, you can't be smart..."

"But you can't be unsmart and dishonest, yes, that's right."

Mr. Montemar picked up the second half of the sentence and sighed:

"We can only try to be smart people now."

Lord Melly also nodded in agreement, and smiled bitterly in relief:

"On the bright side, with the Duke of Choiseul and the Doge of Bonaparte covering us, there is little chance that this matter will leak out. We might be able to reap some benefits from that, haven't you always wanted to make an impact in politics? Isn't this a good opportunity to get a good deal with the Duke of Choiseul. ”

Mr. Montemar's eyes lit up when he heard this, and the unhappiness on his face gradually dissipated.

Capitalists like Monsieur Montmartre, even with their wealth, have a very limited influence in politics and power, which is why the Duke of Choiseul directly disparaged them as cowardly moles.

Of course, Monsieur Montmar was not content with such a situation, and made considerable efforts to this end, and even spent a great deal of money to buy himself the title of Minister of State.

However, this so-called title of Minister was only an admission to the Imperial Council of State, and more than a hundred people attending this meeting were eligible to call themselves Minister of State, so this status did not change Mr. Montmarre, but only made him a nominal nobleman.

Sensing that there was an excellent opportunity for Mr. Montemar to climb a reliable political backer, Mr. Montmartre's perceptive banker's nose immediately smelled the interest and said slowly:

"You're right, it's really worth a try. Listen, let's go in a little bit and we'll say this..."

...

And in the dining room, as Lord Merry and Mr. Montmar had left briefly, Lawrence and Duke Choiseul had also walked out of the room, standing at the window at the end of the other side of the corridor, chatting.

After all, the two didn't want their private conversation to be overheard by Mr. Montmartre's employees.

"By the way, Governor Bonaparte."

The Duke of Choiseul, who was chatting with Lawrence easily, suddenly changed his words, looked at Lawrence meaningfully and said:

"You must have said that on purpose with Montemar, right?"

"Oh? What are you talking about? ”

Lawrence looked at Duke Choiseul and said with a smile that seemed to understand.

"Hahaha, don't come with me."

The Duke of Choiseul also waved his hand and said:

"I don't believe that you left Corsica with you the reports and information about the silver mines of Ajaccio, which I bet lie in the mansion on the Champs-Élysées."

Lawrence had to smile bitterly and sigh that this Duke of Schwarcel was really not a fuel-efficient lamp, but after his little tricks were exposed, Lawrence just shrugged his shoulders and said:

"Okay, okay, you made the right bet, and luckily I didn't."

The Duke of Choiseul smiled triumphantly, and then asked with some bewilderment:

"But what are you doing on purpose? Wouldn't you like the go-to-market process to be as fast as possible? If you entrust the two of them to re-fabricate the information for you, it will take a lot of work. ”

Lawrence propped his hands on the windowsill, blowing the warm summer breeze blowing in his face, and explained:

"You can think about it, if I had brought all the documents today, wouldn't I have been able to pass the review of the two of them on the spot."

"Hmm... Isn't that a good thing? Duke Choiseul asked with a frown.

Lawrence, on the other hand, shook his head with a smile and said:

"It's a good thing, but it's not the best. If the information is complete, even if it goes through the formal review process, the national silver company has a good chance to pass. In this way, even if Mr. Montmar and Lord Merry leaked out about relaxing the review criteria for me, it would have no impact at all, after all, they would be the same whether they let out water or not, and this could only be regarded as a little public power for private use. ”

"You mean...?!"

The Duke of Choiseul came to his senses, looked at Lawrence and said:

"And if you deliberately let them completely falsify a set of information for you, the nature of such an incident will be many times more serious, and it is impossible for them to accept this kind of thing leaking out."

Lawrence smiled and nodded:

"Remember the consensus we once had? Relationships that are linked by common interests are the most stable. Now, neither we nor Mr. Montemar nor Lord Merry want this to leak out. The common good has been established, and we are in one ship. ”

The Duke of Choiseul looked at the young man in front of him in disbelief, and he didn't even know when Lawrence had planned this calculation.

Lawrence ignored the Duke of Schwartle's astonishment, and went on to explain:

"And if this leaks out, it will only be an embarrassing scandal for us, and it will bury their careers and industries for those two financiers. For that alone, they will almost do what we say. ”

Seeing that Lawrence pulled the two financiers to his side with just such a small trick, even if the Duke of Schwarcel completely looked down on the financiers, he had to admire Lawrence's methods in his heart:

"This Lawrence... I'm afraid he has a lot of things I don't know about... Luckily, he and I were on the same side, otherwise it would have been a huge nuisance..."

It took a while for the Duke of Choiseul to calm down his complicated feelings of jealousy and admiration for Lawrence, and then casually asked Lawrence:

"But what are you trying to do with these capitalists, they have nothing but to give us sponsorship."

"I think the bourgeoisie is likely to become a force to be reckoned with."

Lawrence paused and then said:

"Of course, their wealth should not be underestimated, and I like it."

...

A moment later, the four men who had just left the room returned to their seats at about the same time.

Lawrence, though he didn't know what Mr. Montmar and Lord Merry had discussed, should have made up their minds judging by the bright smiles on their faces.

Mr. Montemar was the first to speak, and he smiled and said:

"Hahaha Bonaparte, I'm really sorry to have just missed you, in fact, because of the special situation of your company, I need to work with Lord Merry to find out how I can help you."

Lawrence nodded slightly, put a piece of appetizing dessert wrapped in hawthorn sauce on a silver plate into his mouth with a fork, and said slowly:

"And what are the results of your research...?"

"Yes, since you are missing the necessary documents, we will be happy to help you by supplementing the missing documents. Rest assured, we have the most professional team to complete this figure. ”

Monsieur Montmartre spoke so confidently that he could not tell that he had made up this rhetoric just a few minutes earlier.

"That's great." Lawrence nodded in satisfaction.

Mr. Montmar breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Lawrence's satisfied expression, and then he just had to get the lunch over and get the damned silver company on the Paris Stock Exchange as soon as possible, and his task would be done.

Lord Melly, who was on the side, also leaned back in his chair in the same way, and now that they had decided to cling to Duke Choiseul, it was clear what they had to do.

As for the so-called National Silver Company itself, Monsieur Montmar and Lord Merry did not care at all, for in their eyes such a company, even if it were listed, would become a veritable junk stock, and wondered why the Governor of Bonaparte was so attached to a company that had not yet been established.

After all, no Parisian investor would put his money in the mountains of Corsica, thousands of miles away.

Just when Mr. Montmartre felt a lot more relaxed, he heard Lawrence suddenly say:

"Oh yes, Monsieur Montmartre, when it comes to company information, I have the most important report here, the Ajaccio silver mine."

With that, Lawrence handed Mr. Montmar the report that Academician Gaita had given him in the morning.

"Thankfully, it made our supplements a lot easier."

Mr. Montemar took the report and thanked him casually, then threw it directly to a financial analyst and motioned for him to read it.

Mr. Montemare himself, on the other hand, was not interested in the report at all, for it seemed to him to be a small silver mine in a ravine, and no amount of fancy writing could change its essence.

The financial analyst who had taken the report quickly read it carefully, and it was evident that he seemed to have been educated in mineralogy, which must have been the reason why Mr. Montmartre had brought him here.

Just when several people were chatting without nutrition, I heard the financial analyst suddenly exclaim, covering his mouth and shouting in disbelief:

"Oh my God, this can't be, can it?! This..."

Seeing this, Mr. Montemar hastened to slap the employee on the back of the head, and scolded mercilessly:

"Damn it, what's it called!"

"I'm sorry sir, but..."

The analyst hesitated to hand the report to Mr. Montemar and whispered:

"But this silver mine is simply incredible, with proven reserves almost five times that of the silver mines in Lyon! Not to mention the unproven reserves. ”

"Seven times?!"

Hearing this, the eyes of everyone present except Lawrence, Academician Guetta, and Lavoisier could not help but widen, and even the Duke of Choiseul was a little unconvinced that the silver reserves of that Corsica could reach seven times that of Lyon.

And Monsieur Montmartre, who was stunned, had no regard for any etiquette, and asked his analyst directly in front of Lawrence:

"Are you sure? There won't be fakes, right?! ”

"It's... I don't see any falsification, there's no conflict between the data, and you see the signatures, they're all well-known geologists... Oh my goodness, my tutor at the University of Paris even signed it! ”

The analyst showed the last signed page to Monsieur Montmartre, and swore at the same time.

After receiving the assurances from his subordinates, before Mr. Montmartre's shocked expression recovered, he quickly turned his head to look at Lawrence, took a breath of cool air, and asked cautiously:

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, this silver mine... Is there really such a reserve? ”

"I think it's very clear in the report, and as you can see, it's been certified by many well-known scholars, and I don't have any reason to doubt it."

Lawrence said with a shrug.

Mr. Montmar swallowed, and the look of contempt in his eyes disappeared without a trace, replaced by a visibly visible greed, as if the report on the table was made of gold:

"An untapped silver mine! There are such amazing reserves, and the investment in this is definitely a sure bet! ”

Lawrence, on the other hand, took in Mr. Montmar's greed, shook his head, and said silently in his heart:

"It looks like the first fish got hooked."