After Miss Miller finished her conclusion, seeing Jenkins' confused face, she immediately showed a slightly surprised expression. Jenkins blinked, and took out a £10 note and three silver coins from his pocket.
Although I have a lot of savings now, there will always be a time when the money will be spent. His current fixed income is 5 pounds and 10 pence per week, of which 4 pounds is the salary provided by the church to the giver, 1 pound is the apprentice salary given to him by his father, and 10 pence is the salary for teaching in the church at night.
Calculated in this way, the income for 52 weeks a year is about 281 pounds. Of course, this is just a fixed income, and the business of the antique shop will have a commission, and the sales share of "The Stranger's Stories Collection" is also a large income.
Cooperating with foreign publishers means that Jenkins can get much less money, which is not only related to the tax system, but also related to certain hidden rules of export sales. Therefore, after the hottest stage of domestic book sales has ended, the money he can get in one year may not be enough to add up to the amount he got from Mr. Bro in the previous three times. What "Strange Stories" can bring to Jenkins is more reputation.
"The total legal income for a year is probably only about 1,000 pounds, and besides the church's salary, everything else has to be taxed!"
Jenkins figured this out a long time ago, and if he was an ordinary man, he could, as a modest bachelor, be able to rely on such an income, employ three maids (for the chocolates) and a coachman And a groom, one or two horses and a carriage at the same time.
This is already the treatment that the highest-income groups in the middle class can get. If the annual salary is several times higher, it can be called the real upper class.
But his expenses are also not small. The hired Mrs. Mahart pays her salary once a week and lives alone. She has to pay for her own meals, steam, seasonal clothing, and house maintenance. Not to mention, as a benefactor, a ceremony of learning ability is enough for Jenkins to invest all of his income for a year.
He still remembers how shocked he was when he learned the number of gemstones needed for [Astral Perception].
Therefore, before the savings in his hands were spent, he vowed to find a legal way to get rich.
The old man told him that marrying a noble girl with a prominent family background would soon achieve his goal. But Jenkins still wanted some face, and he suspected that the purpose of Dad's attention was to bring the conversation to social and marriage.
Jenkins quickly got the information Miss Miller wanted and handed it to her. He wondered what kind of model would be needed to figure out the pattern of this kind of strange thing that appeared randomly, but then he thought that Miss Miller might have some special ability or item, a prop that combined arithmetic and divination.
On Saturday morning, Dad had something to go out, so he gave Jenkins the day off. He got up early, and when he went downstairs to get the newspaper, he happened to meet the young milkman.
The young man enthusiastically sold him a brand-new flavor of milk, but Jenkins politely declined because he had to pay 5 pence more per week.
When he came out of the bathroom with the newspaper, Jenkins remembered that Eldron's reply letter was about to arrive. Of course he couldn't write his address on the letter. The address to receive the letter was the Pig's Head Bar, one of the entrances to the black market.
That remote bar has many functions such as black market, firearms trading, dangerous goods trading, and intelligence selling. After donning a black robe and disguise, Jenkins asked the bartender at the bar if they could take the mail for him.
The bartender grinned, saying that as long as he has money, the address is a real and verifiable apartment address.
"An old stout."
Jenkins, still in disguise, tapped on the bar table.
"Five pence."
The bartender didn't even raise his head. Although it was morning, the bar's business was pretty good. There were quite a few people sitting in front of the bar. On the left of Jenkins was a middle-aged man wearing glasses. His clothes were a bit shabby. The strong smell of tobacco made Jenkins dare not breathe.
Jenkins handed over a crumpled note, the bartender held it in his hand, saw a series of numbers written in pencil on it, and nodded to him.
Jenkins turned around and sat down at a remote single table. After a while, the waiter brought the beer. When he left, Jenkins had a black leather bag beside his leg.
"Wouldn't all the 2 pounds I spent be used to buy a bag?"
he thought suspiciously.
Originally, I wanted to use these letters to test who was at No. 13, Luyin Avenue, Eldron City, but now that the church has also known about it, these letters are useless.
But in line with the principle that money cannot be spent in vain, he still checked some of the replies a little.
A total of 50 letters were sent, and that was 4 days ago. If there is still no reply, then there really will be no reply.
After counting, 37 people sent back the questionnaires, and the most important one was also there. This is undoubtedly the paper money in the letter played a role.
Jenkins sat on a chair in the dining room, opened the letter from Green Avenue in Eldron, and answered the questionnaire carefully, not perfunctory. If what is said here is the truth, then the person who filled out the questionnaire should be a single, unmarried 27-year-old man with an annual income of about 300 pounds and an ordinary clerical job.
"Are all scammers this honest?"
Jenkins felt that it was abnormal for things to go smoothly, so he suspected that the person who received the letter had a high level of lying, so he didn't see the flaws in it.
It should have ended with Jenkins burning the responses, and that never happened. But he shook the envelope, and found that the respondent at No. 13 Luyin Avenue actually wrote a short message. The message was written on a neat slip of paper in an ugly, but spelling-free error:
[Dear Miss Fabbri:
I am very fortunate to be able to participate in your social survey, and thank you for your generosity. I will look forward to your continued letters and hope to get the latest news about your graduation project.
Hunter Bell]
"Ah, trouble."
Jenkins covered his head and whispered.
According to the judgment of the church, it can be basically confirmed that No. 12 is the residence of the followers of [Prince of Lies]. However, it has not been confirmed that this is just a transit address, or that it is hiding a real cultist. If Jenkins does not reply, the possible cultists may become suspicious, suspect being tempted, and then run away...
"Am I thinking too much?"
PS: In this chapter, the annual income of 1,000 pounds is enough for a bachelor to do this, and it is not written randomly.