I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 192 France, Initiation!
Because he had to travel abroad to handle many matters, Mikhail did not intend to stay at the general's house for too long. After staying for about seven or eight days, Mikhail had to return to St. Petersburg to make final preparations before leaving the country.

During his stay at the general's house, Mikhail felt that things were generally going quite smoothly. Even though he had bragged in a rather suggestive way to the general that night, the general did not make things difficult for him for the time being. In fact, the general was quite lenient with him in some ways.

Just like Mikhail and Nadya's daily communication and interaction, generally speaking, as long as the interaction between the two is carried out in accordance with etiquette, there will be no obstacles. In fact, the communication between the two is sometimes carried out entirely under the supervision of Nadya's mother.

Madame Danilevskaya looked at the two of them, who were putting on a serious act, and said, "..."

However, to be fair, Mrs. Danilevskaya found that the young man spoke very vividly about many things, and he was indeed very knowledgeable; some of the things he said would surprise even someone like her from a distinguished family.

Therefore, even though the purpose was to keep an eye on the two and prevent them from doing anything out of line, sometimes, as she listened, Madame Danilevskaya would actually become engrossed in what she was hearing.
In addition, because of the general's words, Mrs. Danilevskaya's mindset has changed somewhat. Simply put, she is trying to look at Mikhail from a different perspective. After observing him, Mrs. Danilevskaya found that the young man seemed to lack nothing except for his respectable family background.

He was good-looking, skilled in shooting, horseback riding, and hunting, and had a high level of cultural literacy. Even at the card table, he made one noble youth after another lose and turn pale. As a result, many noble youths hurriedly bid farewell to his family, including several of whom were originally considered good candidates by Madame Danilevskaya.

Looking at it this way, Mrs. Danilevskaya felt that the general's decision seemed to make some sense.
Mikhail could naturally guess that the general had played a role in this change. However, to Mikhail's surprise, the general did not intend to duel with Mikhail. Instead, he behaved much the same as before, at most occasionally taking Mikhail hunting in the nearby forest or playing cards and chatting in the evening.

However, it's worth mentioning that, perhaps because he and Mikhail had such a pleasant hunting experience working together, the general's confidence in hunting had greatly increased, to the point that he patted Mikhail on the shoulder and laughed heartily:
“Mikhail, let’s go bear hunting together! You lock its front paws so it can’t move, and I’ll take the opportunity to punch it hard and knock it to the ground!”

Mikhail: “???”

Then it will be very full.
Of course, although the general acted as if nothing was wrong, given his current position and power, he must have weighed and considered the realities of the situation. Mikhail estimated that the current calm was probably related to his social status and achievements; without these, it would likely be a different story.

Therefore, after feeling that he had stayed long enough, Mikhail, despite feeling a little regretful and reluctant to leave, finally found a suitable time to bid farewell to the general's family.

When Mikhail brought this up, while the others were still processing it, Nadya's brother jumped out first and said rather urgently, "Mr. Mikhail, why are you leaving so soon? I haven't even learned your 'Intuitive Shooting Method' and 'Lucky Card Playing Method' yet!"

Mikhail: “?”

Both of these are actually made up by me.
"Alright, let's talk about these things another time."

Although he had been having a pleasant time these past few days, after glancing at his youngest son and making him sit down obediently, the general said to Mikhail with a thoughtful expression, "You're going abroad next, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm ready to get started on what I've been talking about."

After glancing at Nadya, Mikhail nodded and replied, "My trip will allow more people to get to know me."

"In that case, I won't keep you any longer."

The general nodded slightly. Although he wanted to appear serious, after thinking about what had happened these past few days, he couldn't help but smile and say, "Then I hope that when we meet next time, you will have already turned some of what you said into reality."

"I will."

After finishing his story, Mikhail didn't linger. He quickly packed his luggage and some gifts from the general, and then the general escorted him to the main gate of the mansion.

When the general saw him off, Mikhail removed his hat and bowed in return. He then nimbly mounted his horse and, with a higher vantage point, spotted Nadya, who was not at the door but perched on the railing of his bedroom window, watching him.

Just as their eyes met in the sunlight, a seemingly noisy wind suddenly blew up, shaking the tulips and irises in the garden, and also the golden hair of the seventeen-year-old girl. Before the wind stopped, the girl waved vigorously at him from the high-rise building.

The horse lingered in place for several circles, and only when the wind picked up did it gallop off into the distance as if it had made up its mind.

Even after it completely disappeared from the girl's sight, the wind seemed unable to stop, continuing to blow relentlessly along some trajectory, crossing mountains and skimming over flocks of birds at sea, settling into the streets and alleys of Paris, until it stirred the newspapers in people's hands. And that newspaper, *Le Château d'Étoile*, prominently displayed a news item on its most prominent page:
Mr. Mikhail's latest work is about to begin serialization, and it's yet another brand-new 'science fiction' story you've never seen before!

Parisian readers who saw this news had different reactions. Many still remembered the amazing experience that the story had given them, so they immediately remembered the next serialization date and prepared to spend a small amount of money to buy a copy of the newspaper or borrow it from someone else to read.

Furthermore, two letters from Mikhail were indeed published in the newspapers some time ago, causing quite a stir in Paris:
"Oh? This Mr. Mikhail is the Russian author whose novel was serialized in the newspaper before?"

"I remember him! I've already bought all the volumes of that novel, so it's great to have a new work." "It's strange, why is he releasing new works so slowly? Can't he learn from Mr. Dumas? Mr. Dumas was publishing one book after another without any breaks, and sometimes he even serialized several books at the same time!"

"He's still not quite there yet! But what he writes is really interesting; I've never seen a book like this before. By the way, did you read those two letters he published in the newspaper the other day, 'A Letter to Scientists' and 'A Letter to Readers'? They're really well-written. This Russian writer is indeed very talented, but does he really value science that much?"

The phrase, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," is indeed a poetic description, but he placed too much emphasis on science. Where were the king and those noble gentlemen?

"Perhaps he's preparing to write something more to convey his message! It's really strange, is he really just a commoner? I read his self-introduction in the letter, how could he achieve such success in that barbaric country full of slaves?! Could it be that Russia isn't actually that barbaric, but rather a country with a rich culture?"

"I doubt it! Perhaps he's still hiding his identity; he definitely has pure French blood! But the fact that he's serializing a novel in Russia makes me really curious to see it!"

In addition, some Parisian readers were not so interested in the news. After all, Mikhail's "Around the World in Eighty Days" sold very well in the Parisian book market, so after the book appeared, many pirated copies and new science fiction novels imitating the novel quickly appeared in the Parisian market.

Some less sophisticated authors simply use a bait-and-switch tactic, creating a novel called "Around the World in Eighty Days: The Sequel" to piggyback on the fame of the original work, but in reality, the content has little to do with the original.

Others use traveling the world as a gimmick, producing shows like "Around the World in Sixty Days" and "Around the World in Thirty Days," telling stories of protagonists using a magical power to travel the world, doing good deeds, sometimes arriving in England where the British are worshipped, and other times successfully helping France conquer yet another colony.

It's even said that some people did take the risk for profit and did a Frenchman's round-the-world trip, which included a lot of erotic descriptions, so much so that it had to be sold on the streets of Paris as "underground literature".

It is worth mentioning that the French were also ahead of their time in writing erotic books, with such works already existing as early as the late 18th century. Some of these works were even extremely challenging to people's psychological endurance.

Then there are other copycat works, which are simply written as fantasy novels, set in the future, one or two hundred years from now, and containing all sorts of strange and bizarre things. Even though some people who have read these works will find them quite lacking, these people still made some money because of the previous popularity.

In short, the literary market in Paris is indeed that complex, and because of the long distance and some mishaps along the way, the manuscript sent by Mikhail arrived in Paris quite late, and thus was inevitably affected by these bandwagon trends.

Since Mikhail was far away in Russia, he was naturally not fully aware of these things, but the newspaper "The Century" was very troubled by the absence of Mikhail's works, the most obvious consequence of which was the decline in sales.

This is actually a normal phenomenon, but perhaps because the novel "Around the World in Eighty Days" brought too much novelty to readers, and the novel that was serialized after it was of relatively poor quality, after a comparison, the Century Newspaper suddenly received many letters expressing dissatisfaction.

At the worst point in the situation, the slightly agitated owner of the Century newspaper said directly to Giladan, "Giladan, I order you to go to Russia and bring that Russian author back to me!"

Jiladan: "?"

If I go to a place like that, won't I be captured and turned into a serf as soon as I get there?

Fortunately, not long after, Mikhail sent them a reply and two letters to be published in the newspaper. Although they were not formal articles, the two letters were well-written, so the newspaper quickly published them.

After these two letters were published, many scientists in Paris were deeply moved, perhaps because the letter to scientists mentioned the sky and celestial bodies. In any case, a mathematician and celestial physicist named Hubert Jean-Joseph Le Verrier wrote a letter in which he enthusiastically mentioned:

"I agree with this gentleman's point of view. The combination of science and literature would be a great one! I look forward to seeing more novels in this area. I must say, this gentleman's letter has given me even more confidence in my future work!"

For Le Soir, the letter was nothing special; it was simply from a fairly well-known astrophysicist, but such a person was hardly a big shot in Paris. What remarkable status or power did he have? So why should they care?

That's what they thought, but if Mikhail were to see this gentleman's name next, he would probably just smile knowingly and then look up at the boundless sky.

The work of this gentleman named Le Verrier was indeed nothing special. In 1845, he was commissioned by the Paris Observatory to study the anomaly in the orbit of Uranus. On September 23, 1846, he sent a letter to the Berlin Observatory in which he predicted a new celestial object in Capricorn and precisely described its position and brightness characteristics.

This new celestial body was later named Neptune.

Besides this letter, another letter, "A Letter to Readers," further fueled Parisians' curiosity about the Russian writer, to the point that newspapers published articles specifically discussing his identity and lineage.
It is amidst this commotion that Mikhail will soon arrive in this bustling city.

(End of this chapter)