His Excellency the Count of Grandet

If the May in Paris is the grace and luxury of a noble lady, the May in Eperna is the freshness and refinement of a country girl.When the grapes are in bloom, the aroma of the clusters of small flowers of the same color hidden behind layers of green leaves is simply fascinating.

This more or less relieved everyone's emotions.Although everyone has their own little abacus in mind, the closer to the critical moment, the more patience is needed, and the less hasty it is.

So at the customary reception, everyone put on the best appearance they could have.No matter whether they are Parisians, Londoners or provincials, everyone seems to be friendly and lively.

Holding a champagne glass, Charles circled among various guests.He is wearing a slim-fit tuxedo jacket today. The gold thread on the snow-white ruffled lapel collar falls like gold, and it is paired with embroidered breeches of the same color as the jacket, which looks elegant and upright.What's more, he also has a lovable face and a sufficiently valuable identity, which is simply outstanding and attracts the attention of the crowd.

"Our dear Lord Earl has a face that can easily confuse people." Nathan observed Charles from a distance, dangling the wine glass unconsciously in his hand, and his slightly frowned brows revealed his thoughts. "If he's what he looks like, it's going to be easy for us to do."

James stood aside, feeling that he should have the right to speak in this regard—if it was simple, it wouldn't be delayed until now! "This young Grandet seems to be only in charge of business matters, at most he is in charge of machines and personnel. No matter how many places, such as when dealing with the government, Lafitte usually pre-arranges them. "

"Their partnership seems to be a tacit understanding." Nathan came to a conclusion that was not good for them. "They made twenty million francs last year?"

"Yes, and most of them are recorded under Mr. Grandet's name." James frowned while speaking, obviously finding this matter puzzling: "But I feel that their actual relationship seems to be Closer than they would make it out money-wise."

"This is contrary to the usual situation." Nathan's brows frowned even tighter.

A convention, understood by Rothschild, is, of course, that monetary relations come before personal ones.The relationship between Charles and Victor hints at the difficulties they will face; if they are both money supremacists, wouldn't it be...

Nathan shook his head slightly, throwing out his own thoughts.It looked as if they had hit a snag this time, as the huge difference in identity made any of their approaches seem impotent.

James didn't refute, because he thought so too.But they must not give up the big cake of Paris; it is not one of the family rules to give up easily.The final solution they want is to list Ciel as one of the objects that can kneel down, but before that, they must make sure that there is no other way to go...

etc?There is one more place they forgot to consider!

James immediately dragged his third brother to a secluded corner. "I remembered something," he said cautiously, "maybe it can be used as a new breakthrough."

"What is it?" Nathan demanded. There is nothing more alluring than a new road right now.

"I heard that Faraday, who has done a lot of work on the machine, is an Englishman, and His Excellency the Earl personally invited him from London. But I also heard that Faraday left England because of some incidents." Then James simply skipped over the reasons, thinking that this might be a dead horse as a living horse doctor.

Nathan's eyebrows raised quickly, then slowly fell flat. "This Faraday, where is it now?"

You must know that Shire's factory is an assembly line system, and each worker only knows a certain link in the process, so it is difficult to make up the correct process, not to mention the confidentiality agreement.

But someone like Faraday who is responsible for a key part of the technology must be different from the workers.He knows what to do, where things might go wrong, and where he can improve efficiency—

He doesn't care how Faraday came to France, he only cares about how to get Faraday back to England!If this can be successful, wouldn't it be much better than working with the French?

"It's in Eperna." James replied quickly. "He stayed in the western port of La Rochelle with His Excellency the Earl for a long time, and then arrived in Epernay in the past few days. I think he must know that Charles is here, so..."

Nathan didn't care one bit about Faraday's reasons for being in Eperna, he cared only about the results. "Find him, we need to talk to him! Ask him out first, and I'll set the price myself!" As long as this thing can be done, it will be worthwhile for him to invest—because the follow-up income does not know how many times it will be multiplied!

James immediately took orders to do it.

At this time, Charles was also discussing Faraday, but he didn't know that someone was already planning to poach his corner. "...Let Michael do whatever he wants. Didn't I ask you to reserve a pilot workshop for him?"

The social activities came to an end temporarily, so he found Alphonse to discuss the matter of the textile factory together.There is a branch factory and technical renovation. It is conceivable that the second half of the year will be quite busy.

"Of course, once he's in he can't get out." Alphonse shrugged. "Compared with other possibilities, I think he is more likely to exhaust himself or starve to death in it."

As soon as Charles heard this, he knew that Alphonse had actually taken care of Faraday, otherwise he would never have dared to speak like this. "Michael came here on purpose because he knew I was coming here. Because he didn't plan to go back to Paris, which was later than I started from Port La Rochelle. My personal thinking is that if we are more efficient, we can be in Paris. After the British left, the results of the pilot test were widely used.”

Speaking of the factory, Alphonse immediately became serious. "Sounds great, I'll see!"

The words were about to hit the floor, and Charles couldn't help looking up and down at his old friend.According to visual inspection, Alphonse stayed in Épernay for two years, and the original Parisian atmosphere of idleness is much less, and the whole person's temperament is calm.But having said that, it's a bit late for this calm time, isn't it?

"Why are you so honest today?" Charles became curious, and deliberately teased Alphonse, "The scene is too big, are you nervous?"

Alphonse couldn't help rolling his eyes. "It's nothing," he grumbled and complained, "I was just scared, and I haven't calmed down." As soon as he said this, he revealed his true colors and completely opened up the chatterbox, "I just found out that you don't know what to say." My sister's family is a multi-millionaire! Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"Is this important?" Charles didn't understand.After consulting with his uncle, he wrote and sent the preliminary decision, in order to prepare Alphonse.But his good friend's reaction is too strange, isn't it?The point is not this at all!

"Very, very, very, quite!" Alphonse used several degree modifiers in a row, as if this was the only way to express his excitement.

Charles saw something was wrong inside.The fact that Eugenie is his cousin is enough for Alphonse to take good care of her, and it has nothing to do with money; now that Eugenie's family is not poor, and even has a lot of gold, shouldn't Alphonse be happy? "If I remember correctly, I said she is not poor. But what's wrong with you?" He asked suspiciously, "What's weird..."

Alphonse wanted to roll his eyes again, but this time he managed to hold back.

What do you want him to say?He had no interest in the country girl at first, but later he gradually discovered the innocence and gentleness of the country girl. Did the two fall in love?He has already thought that it doesn't matter if Eugenie's family is poor. After he has worked for two more years and saved enough money, he will be able to marry Eugenie in a prosperous way!

Old Jacques knew this too.Because Alphonse had the guts to tell him that while he was waiting in fear for his father's scolding, old Jacques praised him for the first time, saying that he finally had a vision—of course not a vision for making money, But look at people's eyes!

As a result, he is very embarrassed now that he has made such a move!Who knew that Shire's endlessness was such a cruel definition?You know, he really has no idea of ​​marrying his daughter for a dowry!

"You too, and Eugenie too!" He complained angrily, "Don't say anything, just keep me in the dark!"

"...'Eugenie too'?" Charles keenly captured this endearment.He raised his eyebrows, getting higher and higher, and then burst out laughing. "Then I congratulate you in advance, you are probably about to marry into a wealthy family!"

"Charles!" Alphonse yelled, but immediately realized that the timing was not right—everyone around him looked over.He had no choice but to drag Charles into a corner, and then he continued viciously: "Try to say what you said just now? Believe it or not, I will beat you up too?"

Charles couldn't help laughing.

He had planned from the beginning to match his cousin and Alphonse, but he hadn't found the opportunity, thinking that there was nothing to sing.Unexpectedly, planting flowers intentionally but not blooming, unintentionally planting willows and willows into shade, good things always take a long time!

Looking back now, it was a great good thing that he didn't succeed then.Because his thought at that time was that Alphonse was still good in nature, which could completely prevent him from being entangled by the best cousin-in-law.But now... Naturally, there is nothing better than being happy with each other!

Alphonse gritted his teeth, but he really couldn't do anything to Charles. "Still laughing! Give me an idea!"

Charles finally had enough of laughing, and finally stopped. "What do you want? Marriage proposal?" He blinked his eyes and said, "Then I suggest you make a pure gold eucharist and give it to my dear cousin as a dowry. In the later years, this can also be saved!"

Alphonse's expression suddenly changed from angry to bewildered.What's not right?Although he didn't mind making a pure gold eugenie for Eugenie, and he didn't plan for Eugenie's future inheritance, why should he pay the dowry?Isn't it the father-in-law he hasn't met yet?