Detective Mary

Chapter 55

In spite of her words to Wickham, Mary did not go to Meryton the next day to spread the news. She didn't want to push the man so far that Wickham would jump to his feet and make it public that Miss Georgiana Darcy had made an appointment to run away with him, and then Miss Darcy's reputation would be ruined.

Mary gave him three days.

On the third day, Wickham finds a magnificent excuse - he stays in the regiment, but in fact, he stays in the regiment in order to attend the wedding of Jane and Mr. Bentley, so that he can bless them in person. When the wedding takes place, the sight of the two happy couples and the smiles on their faces awakens Wickham's love, and he realizes that he is still deeply in love with the wealthy Miss King.

In order to find his love, he decides to leave the militia to pursue his love.

When these words reached Mary's ears, she laughed out loud, almost without thinking.

The rumor that he had really gone in search of the golden lady who had moved away from Meryton rather put Mary's mind at ease. It was better that he did not die, and that Wickham did not die, so that the other ignorant ladies might be a little safer.

Mary, on the other hand, had already made arrangements to move ahead to the northern town of Milton.

Mary didn't want to take any of her relatives, especially Lydia, if she could help it.

Catherine, on the other hand, had been so excited to hear that Mary had been commissioned by Mr. Holmes to go to Milton to follow up on the case that she had asked Mary to take her with her without her having to ask her to do so.

As for Lydia ......

Mrs. Bennet was furious at her youngest daughter's behavior, and wished that she would not be in front of her eyes, and immediately agreed to Mary's proposal, as if she hoped that Lydia would never come back in her life.

Mr. Bennet, on the other hand, was much calmer.

In the original, Lydia had actually eloped, and her absurdity had finally made Mr. Bennet understand the necessity of disciplining his children. But now Lydia has failed to confess her love, and Mr. Bennet is even a little pleased to see Lydia, who has become more and more frivolous lately and is being held up by several officers, in a state of despair.

Still, he gave Mary's opinion serious consideration, and eventually agreed to let Lydia go to Milton.

Father's reasoning was also simple: it would be best to tell her to stay away from the officers of the militia regiment in the meantime, lest she do anything foolish again.

It was just that for Lydia, such an outcome seemed as terrible as if the sky had fallen.

--Overnight confession was rejected, but also by the parents "banished to the north", the home of the much-loved little daughter who has never suffered this kind of aggression?

Lydia has been in tears for the past few days, crying until her eyes are swollen and still won't stop.

She had tried to get angry with Mary several times, but could not find a reason for it - the confession had been her own decision, and Mary had proved that she had not been wrong about the man's nature by poking at Wickham's debt. Left and right Lydia was in no position to accuse Mary, so she took her anger out on her mother, saying she wouldn't go to Milton for anything.

Still hadn't learned to use her head too well, it seemed. That's what she Mary thought every time she saw Lydia get angry.

If she really didn't want to go to Milton, and acted a little sad and low, perhaps her mother would let her stay if she was distressed. Little did she know that the more she made such a fuss, the angrier Mrs. Bennet became, and on the contrary, the more certain she was that it was the right thing to let her leave Longbourn for a time, and go to Milton to visit her family.

Half a month later, Elizabeth traveled to London to join her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, at Mr. Darcy's invitation to visit Pemberley Hall.

And no matter how much Lydia resisted, the fact that she was to be forcibly pressed by her mother and father to accompany Mary and Catherine to Milton to visit their relatives was already a foregone conclusion.

On the day of the journey Mr. Bennet himself took the three daughters to the railway station in the nearby town.

In the original Pride and Prejudice, because the book was written a whole era before the Victorian era, the railroad system was not yet perfect, so going out was a luxury and trouble. A rich, single lady who wanted to see the world had to be accompanied by a relative or an elder, more or less.

But the Victorian period was much better, the railroads were well connected, and traveling was no longer such a difficult task. Miss Margaret Hale, the heroine of North and South, was able to travel by train from Milton to London.

Besides, Mary had two sisters with her.

"When we get to Milton," said Mr. Bennet, "your uncle, Mr. Hale, will be there to meet you personally."

"Okay dad," Mary nodded, "I'll take care of Katie and Lydia."

"Don't read on the train, it hurts your eyes."

"I won't."

"Yeah?"

Mr. Bennett teasingly gestured to the overflowing mailbag in Mary's arms, "Can you resist unpacking it on the spot?"

Mary gave her father a big smile back.

When she arrived at the train station, the first thing Mary did was to go straight to the local post office and collect the package that Editor-in-Chief Hall had sent over.

The new issue of Seaside Magazine had been sent out long ago, and the next issues were all in the layout stage. Thus the second issue of Serial Killer Chess Game feedback arrived as promised.

"I won't be reading it at night," Mary promised, "try to finish it during the day!"

When she finished, she gave her father a big hug and said goodbye to Mr. Bennet where he was.

But in the end, it was her father who knew Mary, and by the time the train moved slowly and left the station, Mary immediately pressed on and opened the package that Editor-in-Chief Hall had sent.

"What are these," asked Catherine curiously, "so many letters?"

"It's the feedback that Editor-in-Chief Hall put together in response to Serial Chess Killer." Mary replied.

"Wow."

Catherine's eyes widened in surprise.

She didn't read many books or newspapers in her day, and with Longbourn being so far away from London, she naturally never expected readers in the city to be so idle as to write to magazines.

"May I see it?!" Catherine spoke with immense anticipation.

"Of course."

Mary was worried about the inefficiency of reading it by herself, "Feel free to open it and hand it to me if you find it interesting."

Catherine raised a smile, "Sure, sure."

Lydia: "Hmph, boring."

Seeing that Catherine, who had always followed her, had become a "traitor", Lydia was angry and jealous at the same time.

She looked at the letter in Mary's mailbag and was surprised.

It was one thing to know that Mary's novels were in magazines, it was quite another to see with her own eyes that so many people were writing because of her serials.

Lydia hung out with the officers all day long, the red uniforms in the militia came and went, often moving around because of assignments and commissions, and the young men who left would always write to Lydia, but in reality she never received many letters at all.

The original Lydia did not care whether the letters came or not, after all, the old does not go the new does not come, after Mr. Wickham came she is the other officers are left behind, which young man can be more handsome than Mr. Wickham?

But Mr. Wickham refused her.

Lydia wanted to cry again at this thought, especially as she thought that Mr. Wickham would never write to her.

And Mary had so many, so many people who cared for her.

Is writing a novel ...... so popular?

Watching Mary's gleeful unwrapping of the package, Lydia's mood became extremely complicated.

As for Mary, she didn't care what Lydia thought, what else was more important than her own letters?

The first thing she noticed from the large parcel of letters were the two letters labeled with Editor-in-Chief Hall's name. These two letters were addressed to Editor-in-Chief Hall himself and had been torn open, obviously read by the editor-in-chief beforehand.

It couldn't be that he had packed them in on a whim, could it? Mary took out the two letters, scanned them hastily, and immediately understood Editor-in-Chief Hall's intentions.

The two letters were not from readers: one from a reporter at The Times, and one from a rather famous literary critic in London.

-that is, it was from a professional in response to Mary's serialization.

Geez, it's only the second installment!

Mary can't believe her eyes, only 50,000 words of serialization, published two issues but less than 30,000 public, and there are already professionals back?

Was she that successful?

But before Mary could swell with pride, her eyes had scanned the beginning of the first letter. The contents of it called to Mary to calm down quickly.

The first letter was from a critic, and he was not praising her.

The letter was sent to Editor-in-Chief Hall, but the letter was addressed to Mary - or rather, the author of the signed Serial Killer Chess Game, Philip Luther. So Editor-in-Chief Hall read the letter and then simply put the manuscript paper back together and sent it to Mary.

The reviewer's words were rather unkind, beginning with "Philip Luther's" motives for writing the book - the words were full of details of demonic behavior and the author's smug attitude, the handwriting that flaunted the evil deeds was really disgusting.

Mary raised an eyebrow as she read it.

She didn't need to read the next words to guess the general idea. It was nothing more than an overly detailed description of the modus operandi, the murderer's attitude was arrogant and proud, not at all what an arrested criminal should be, and so on.

At the end of the letter, the reviewer threw out his summary: the story was written too generationally, so the impact was extremely bad. What if someone learns the details of the crime and kills for fun?

Mary's thoughts on this, on the other hand, were that it was true that regardless of the era, humans looked the same when they were worrying about things.

It's the same kind of verbal abuse that Editor-in-Chief Hall is worried about, and that's why Mary has heavily redacted the details of the Edmund Campbell case; she's already deflated a lot of the process, but she can't help but receive negative feedback.

To her, this is similarly ridiculous to President Trump in the twenty-first century blasting violent games such as Grand Theft Auto as contributing to juvenile delinquency. Teenagers don't just love violent games, they also love "Reverse Referee" and "Real Soccer", but substituting a lawyer, Ryuichi Narubudo, didn't make teenagers become lawyers, and substituting a club manager for Real Madrid didn't make teenagers become talented soccer players.

It's really cheap to blame legitimate literature or other entertainment industries for the crimes of individuals. Besides, this kind of comment was completely expected by Mary, so she wasn't discouraged at all, she just put down the critic's letter and picked up another one.

The letter from the Times reporter, on the other hand, was addressed solidly to Editor-in-Chief Hall.

Editor Hall slipped a note in the envelope to the effect that he was on good terms with the reporter and had obtained his permission to forward the letter to Mary, so there was no question of privacy.

In fact, without the editor-in-chief Hall said, Mary can see that Mr. reporter and his relationship is very shallow, the reporter in the letter in the word is very casual, completely treating the attitude of an old friend.

The reporter's perspective was different from that of a literary critic.

He first jokingly asked the editor-in-chief where he found the treasure to write such appetizing words, and if the next serialization is still submitted to Seaside Magazine, he should mention the manuscript fee, so as not to be scooped up by other competitors.

Then the reporter threw out the most critical question - is Philip Luther a real person?

"It is not the author's real name that I am asking," the reporter wrote in his letter, "it doesn't matter at all whether he is a detective or not, or whether he goes by that name or not. Rather, the point of entry in this case is quite sharp. There are so many authors of speculative fiction, and very few of them really touch on the lives and thoughts of workers. Philip Luther's writing made me feel that he was describing real people, as if I had met Edmund himself."

That ...... couldn't be wrong, could it, Mary sweated. After all, she did pay attention to the beginning and end of the Edmund Campbell case, because she was doubly interested in suspenseful reasoning, and read a lot of books and related documentaries, film and television adaptations.

The next words of the reporter made Mary understand why he had this question.

This was an economic news reporter, which meant that he traveled around the major cities of England from time to time, and naturally he had seen his fair share of factories, worker strikes, and the hardship of the workers.

Mary's depiction of Edmund's mental distortion and her mother's hysterical and morbid portrayal are perfectly in line with what happens when human nature is twisted under the weight of society. Contrary to the critics, the journalist does not find this unwritable, but even finds it necessary to depict "social pathologies".

"Just because a trauma stinks doesn't mean it should be covered up," the journalist writes, "and just because it is covered up doesn't mean it doesn't exist, even though it certainly meets the gentlemanly 'standards of decency'. If Dostoevsky could write dual-personality characters and sensationalized crimes, why not Philip Luther?"

Mary: "............"

She couldn't contain herself after reading the end, Mary dropped the letter and covered her face.

Catherine, who was reading letters from other readers, looked up in bewilderment, "What's wrong?"

Mary's whole face reddened, "Nothing."

This is blowing, blowing too much!!!!

To be fair, in this era Mary also belonged to the short-sighted country squire lady. She had never seen how real workers lived when she wrote her work, and relied solely on the hundred or so years of historical, literary and theoretical knowledge she had gained over the nineteenth century.

That's downright cheating for a creator! And even so, putting her pen name alongside Dostoevsky still made Mary feel all over the place.

Of course she liked to see people praise her, and that only if the name was true - comparing her work to one of Russia's great literary figures would be going too far, and not only was Mary not pleased, she was even bashful enough to hold her head up.

This kills more than critics calling her out ok!

Mary rubbed her face and took half a day's reprieve to get herself back to her normal demeanor as she looked over at Catherine and changed the subject, "Did you read any interesting letters?"

"Ah, I thought there was more than enough to be very interesting."

Catherine hurriedly handed Mary the letter in her hand, "This, this, and this tell a good story."

There were many more letters this time than last time, and Mary was not expecting so much feedback at all. Catherine passed the letters over with seven hands, Mary missed one and the papers fell to the floor.

Catherine: "Aaah!"

Mary: "It's okay."

She bends down to pick it up, and an unopened letter by her leg brushes the sleeve against the floor. Mary glances at it and moves.

It was a letter from abroad. Mary instantly recognized the French language on the postmark unlike any other letter.

From France? Seaside Magazine wasn't hot enough to be sold overseas, Mary picked up the letter and then read the name of the letter's bearer.

--Sherlock Holmes.