Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Career on track

While Little Blink was running around town arranging company advertisements, Big Crook was often back in his shop selling goods of all calibres, and so seldom came to the office.He gradually lost faith in the success of the business he had started, and was unwilling to lose the income the store brought him.The only ones who are constantly in the office are Omniscience and Kid.In the beginning, Quan didn't know the rules and sat at the table, waiting for people to come and buy stocks.In front of him was a thick notebook with a cardboard cover and a fountain pen.In the notebook, in beautiful letters, "Income and Expenditure Book".A desk drawer is filled with stocks ready for sale.Another drawer was reserved for money from stock sales.The drawer remained empty for the time being, and as the days passed, the hope that it would ever contain money dwindled.

The little goat also guarded the door in the corridor conscientiously at the beginning, and then saw that there was no buyer, so he came to the office, sat on the soft sofa and played circles with the ignorant day by day. Gossiping all over the world.Because I had nothing to do, I didn't know that I often looked at the crooked and inexplicable painting on the wall, and always wanted to understand what was painted on it. "You, brother, you had better not look at this picture," said the kid to him. "Don't waste your brains. You can't figure out what it is anyway. All the painters around here paint like that, because rich people only buy that kind of painting. One painter paints crooked roads, another painter paints awkward ones. and a painter just pours his paint mix in a bowl and slams it in the center of the canvas. And it splashes out a big, weird, meaningless blot. You look at the idea and you can't make sense of it—literally It was a mess! But the rich men looked at it and praised it. They said: "Paintings don't need people to understand. We don't want painters to teach us anything with pictures. Rich men can understand everything without painters." But the poor should know nothing. They are poor, and should know nothing, and live in ignorance.' Look what they say! . . . When I was working for the owner of a soap factory, I hear this kind of talk a lot. There was a soap factory owner called the Dirty Man. But instead of working in his factory, I fired boilers in his house. Well, boy, I count the life of a rich man. Enough is enough! His house is very big! There are so many rooms! The stove alone needs to burn twenty-five, not counting the fireplace. Mr. Dirty Man does not want to install the heat. He said that it is better to have a fireplace in the house. Luxurious. He owns ten cars. Clothes—lots of them! He spends an hour or two thinking about what to wear before he goes out to visit. All the truth, I'm not lying! He has countless servants. Some cook , some set the tables, some washed the dishes, some vacuumed the rugs. The drivers—there were five. One drove Mr. Dirty Ghost out for a run in the car, and the other four played chess in the aisle. Dirty Ghost Every morning when the husband wakes up, he rings the bell and asks someone to bring his clothes to him. When the clothes are delivered, they have to be put on for him. He just lifts his arms and stretches his legs. Then he helps him to sit in front of the mirror, Comb his hair, put vaseline on his nose to make his complexion look better, and he just sits and blinks—that's what he does! If he's hungry, he just sits in front of the mirror and eats breakfast. He can Eat for an hour or two without moving! Then lie on the sofa for a while, then go to visit or take a car ride. At night, some male and female friends come to his house, listen to music, dance. Their tossing, tossing all the furniture Fucking the ring, smashing the piano, and then going home. And recalling afterwards; 'Ah, had a good time!'”

"Why do you want to destroy the furniture?" Quan Wu asked strangely. "Well, this is their rule. They don't know what to do with their free time, so they just tear down the furniture. The invitation card just says: 'Please come to the reception. Twelve single sofas will be smashed at the meeting, Four plush couches, two pianos, a pull-out table, and all the window panes will be broken. Guests will arrive at six o'clock sharp in the evening. Please be late.'” "Then what to do after that, sitting like that without furniture?" "You're weird! They're buying new furniture."

"It's a waste of money!" Quan said dissatisfiedly. "How good it is to give to the poor." "Beautiful for you! They don't like to give to the poor. That's no fun." "Why, is this filthy ghost just lying on the hair copy and tearing down the furniture?" Quan Wu asked. "When will he manage the factory?" "Why does he manage the factory? There is a manager who does this for him. The manager reports to him once a week. When he sees that the factory's income has decreased, he immediately removes the manager and appoints a new one. The new manager will do everything possible To increase the income: he cuts the wages of the laborers, and raises the price of soap. So the filthy man makes money by doing nothing himself. He makes millions."

"Why does the rich want so much money?" Quan Wu asked in surprise. "Could it be that the rich man spends millions on food?" "'Eat'!" the little goat snorted. "It would be better if they only eat! The rich man's stomach is full, and it's time for his vanity." "What vanity?" I don't know. "Just trying to brag in front of other people. For example, a rich man builds a big house, and another rich man sees it and says, 'Oh, you built a house like this, I'm going to build a house twice as big! ’ This one hired a cook and a servant, and the other said: ‘I will not only hire a cook and a servant, but I will also hire a porter.’ The rich man hired ten servants, and the other said: ‘I will hire twenty One, besides, hire a fireman in a helmet and let him stay under the awning in my yard.' This one buys three cars, and the other buys five. And brags: 'I'm better than him He only has three cars, but I have five.' You see? Everybody wants to show they're richer because we don't value cleverness, kindness, honesty here. We just want to show off each other's wealth. There's no end to it. Vanity's a thing you can't fill with anything. I know what a bad thing it is myself, boy. I wasn't always so poor. Of course I used to be Not rich either. I just had a regular job. I was working in a factory at the time and I was earning a decent amount of money. I even started saving money to use in tough times, just in case I suddenly lost my job again. Of course , it's hard to keep yourself from spending money. Also, people say I should buy a car. I say, 'What am I doing with a car? I can walk.' People say, 'Walking is shameful. Only poor people walk.' Well. Besides, you can pay in installments to buy a car. You pay a small deposit first, you can get a car, and then pay a little bit more every month until the car is fully paid.' Well, I will do that ...I thought, let people think I'm a rich man too. I put down my first deposit and got a car. I got in the car and drove off, but immediately fell into a ditch-ditch-ditch (The little goat is so agitated that he stutters.) Do you understand? I wrecked the car and broke a leg and four ribs. It took three months afterward. My whole I spent all my savings on the doctor. It finally healed the injury. But since then I have been anxious, and I can't say the word 's--------car', and I always say '------ — car', you see."

"Then did you fix the car later?" Quan Mo asked. "Where! When I was sick, people quit my job. It's time to pay for the car. I have no money! They said to me: "Then return the car." 'I said:'You go, go to the ditch-ditch-take it from the ditch. 'Because I broke the car, people wanted to judge me, but they stopped pestering me when they saw that they couldn't get anything out of me anyway.So, I have no car, no money. " The little goat talked a lot about such things.He had many adventures of all kinds in his life.I listened to him with great interest and didn't feel lonely at all.

Once, Quan Zhi and the little goat sat and chatted as usual.The door opened suddenly.They thought it was Little Blink, but it was a strange little man who walked into the office.He wore an old gown with holes worn out at the elbows.The gown was blue before, but it has faded and turned white, especially the shoulders, from wearing it for too long.His trousers were an inexplicable marl-gray color, with raw edges on the legs, and two oblong black patches conspicuously patched on the knees.On his head was an old straw hat, with a hole in the most obvious place, the brim of the hat was torn off, the sides seemed to have been gnawed, and the gray hair was protruding from under the brim.

Quan didn't know that he could not help smiling at the masquerade costume, but when he glanced at the face of the person who walked in, his smile disappeared immediately.It was a thin, shriveled face, as dark and swarthy as the face of a dwarf who has spent years working outdoors.The facial expression is stern.But what was particularly startling were the eyes.From under the gray eyebrows the eyes watched vigilantly, alarmedly, and at the same time dignifiedly, whether with secret pain or reproach.No, no one knows how to smile when meeting the look of those sad eyes. The little white-haired dwarf said hello to All-Ignorant and the little goat, who were watching him, put a stick full of knots in his hand to the corner of the wall, took out a neatly folded newspaper from his pocket, Opened it, looked at it and asked, "Is this your place?"

Quan Wu carefully looked at the advertisement about the establishment of the large plant joint-stock company in the newspaper, and nodded: "It's our place." The little goat moved a soft single sofa in front of the visitor and said respectfully: "Please sit on the sofa, grandpa." The visitor thanked the little goat, sat down on the edge of the sofa, and said, "So it's all true?" "What is true?" I don't know. "That is to say, is there really such a mythical seed?" "Of course it is," replied Omniscience. "But this is not the seed of myth, but the most real seed. There is no myth or fantasy here."

"If you knew what it means to us poor people, you wouldn't say that!" said the little man. "I don't...we don't..." he said excitedly. "Our whole village has come together: we want to promote this great cause, that is, to be shareholders. All of us have pooled the money. . . . Whoever pays as much as he can..." He reached into the skirt of his coat and took out a handkerchief with a bag of money wrapped in it. "How many stocks do you want to buy?" Quan Mo asked. "One, dear! Just one! We've only got one Fielding together, and it's a lot of money for our income."

"But there are very few seeds that can be allocated to a stock. Not enough for your whole village." The little goat said. "Darling, you can just give us one seed! We'll just have one big cucumber growing there! Will we eat it? We'll keep it for seed. All for seed. If If necessary, the second harvest will also be reserved, and the third harvest will also... wait a year, we are willing to wait for two, three, or four years. As long as we can have a hope, I hope that one day we can get rid of poverty. Dear Yes, life is easier when there is hope." At this time, Little Blink and Big Liar returned to the office.The little goat quietly tugged on Little Wink's sleeve, and whispered into his ear: "Here comes a buyer! I want to buy a stock." Little Blink immediately walked up to the buyer, shook his hand, and asked his name. "My name is Whitehead," said the customer. "Our village calls me white hair." "Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. White-haired," said Little Wink with seriousness. "You can't think of a better use of your capital. It's the safest, most profitable business the world has ever seen. You were the first to buy our stock, so, Allow me to take a picture of you. Tomorrow your picture will be in the paper." Little Blink immediately went to the phone to find the photographer.At this time, the visitor untied the small bag and spread a pile of steel coins on the table.The big liar ordered Quan Shu to count the money with the little goat.Quanzhi and the little goat began to count, but they couldn't count.The coins were too small: they were all one shank, two shank, half a shank, and the biggest one was three shank. The money was finally counted out, and the big liar ordered Quan Shu to give the buyer a stock.The white hair cautiously received the stock in his hand, and carefully examined it with interest.One side of the stock is painted with a big watermelon surrounded by dwarfs.Some of the dwarfs leaned a wooden ladder on the watermelon, trying to climb up.Five dwarfs have climbed to the top of the watermelon and are dancing there holding hands.In the vegetable bed ahead, the cucumbers are almost ripe.Each cucumber is the size of a dwarf.At the back are some small farmhouses, over which the large ears of wheat stand like straight, tall trees.The back of the stock has a drawing of a space rocket and a little man in a spacesuit.The purpose of establishing the joint-stock company is also printed on it.On the top, in beautiful colorful letters, read: "Large Plant AG - The Road to Wealth and Prosperity. Price: One Fielding".When the white hair looked carefully at the stocks, as if he had forgotten everything in the world, the little wink whispered something to the big liar, then counted out ten stocks, handed them to the white hair, and said: "We have decided to give ten shares to our first buyer as a reward. Please accept this gift from us. Now, you are our shareholder, and you should also help sell the stock as soon as possible. Please persuade people you know and those you don't If people come to buy our stocks, you say that anyone who buys one of our stocks will become rich in the shortest period of time." The white hair gratefully took over the stock, wrapped it neatly in a handkerchief, and put it in the lapel.At this time, the photographer came with a camera.He let the white hair sit on the sofa, crossing one leg over the other. "This way, the patch on one of your knees is covered," explained the photographer, "and I ask you to put your hat on the other patch... but not like that, so that the hat The hole in it is hidden from sight..." "Precisely not to," interjected Little Blink. "Take it so that all the patches and holes can be clearly seen in the picture. Let everyone see what poverty has done to our little people. See, even such poor people Buy our stock and they'll come to our offices like hungry wolves in no time... And you, my dear, have nothing to be ashamed of your patches. Shame on the rich! They're the ones who rob you Yes. You have worked for them all your life, but you can't even afford a decent dress." While Little Blink was speaking, the photographer took a picture, and the white hair was ready to leave. "Please tell me," Little Blink asked when saying goodbye, "how did you know about our joint stock company? What made you want to buy stocks?" "What prompted it?" The white hair thought for a while and said. "It was by chance, so to speak. It was pure chance that this little piece of newspaper you saw fell into my hands. Our village is full of poor people. No one orders newspapers, no one buys books. No one There is no money for such a thing. However, we can read newspapers sometimes. This is when someone's purchase is wrapped in a small piece of old newspaper in the store. Each of us collects this small piece of newspaper, Look, and show it to others. This time too. A man in our village bought some cheese at the store, and this newspaper wrapped it for him. So the whole village read about the mythical seeds, and then decided to chip in. It would be nice to even buy a stock. This thing is too tempting! Each of us has very little land. What we receive is not enough to live on. The rich have a lot of land. So you go to work for the rich man. work. The rich man allocates a piece of land for you. You plant wheat, radishes, or potatoes on this land. You take half of what you receive, and you have to give the other half to the rich man, because he allows you to grow on his land. Work on the land. It is good for the rich man. He divides his land into pieces, give me a piece, give you a piece, give him a piece... That is, we all work, everyone works. Half of the harvest must be sent to the rich man. In this way, the rich man does not have to work, but he can get more harvest than anyone else. The result is: some people have more money than they can count, and some people are hungry and swollen... ..." "Yes, yes," interrupted Little Blink. "That's right! Some are swollen with hunger, and some are rich beyond measure! It's very interesting what you say, but the end of your misfortunes is coming soon. Good-bye. I wish you all the best!" Little Blink slapped the white hair on the back as he spoke, and sent him outside the door.He chased after him and shouted again: "Don't forget: if anyone of your friends can get money, let them also come to us to buy stocks!"