Louis-Alphonse's plan was actually not complicated: turn the premiere of "The Choir" into a joke that no one applauded!
Let Lionel and the celebrities who admired him face an empty auditorium!
After speaking, Louis-Alphonse stepped aside and began to observe Sophia's expression.
He wasn't confident that Sophia would accept this seemingly absurd plan—after all, the cost and resources required were too great.
But Sophia merely thought for a moment, then gritted her teeth and spat out one word:
"Good!"
Even Louis-Alphonse was flustered; he hadn't expected Sophia to agree so readily.
He had completely underestimated the importance of "getting revenge on Lionel" in Sophia's heart.
For Sophia, punishing Lionel was originally just one of her goals in coming to Paris.
If she had successfully humiliated Lionel during that "oral exam" at the Sorbonne annual examination, she would have dismissed him like a piece of trash and no longer paid him any mind.
After all, establishing herself, her mother, and the Sherbatov family in Paris was her ultimate ambition.
With Russia's increasingly volatile situation and the growing number of revolutionaries, even the top-tier Sherbatov family had to consider a fallback plan.
This mission should have been fulfilled by her mother, Baroness Alekseevna.
But with that unforgettable masquerade ball, Baroness Alekseevna was almost certainly destined not to be accepted into Parisian high society.
Sophia, as the eldest daughter in the family most skilled at "salon games," was urgently summoned to Paris.
Both she and her mother most hoped to see a Russian noblewoman, leveraging her beauty and intellect, navigating the grand salons of Paris.
Not someone who constantly bickered with a rising star of French literature.
But as her deliberate difficulties for Lionel backfired again and again, that name eventually became an obsession in her heart.
Precisely because the "sunk cost" was getting higher and higher, Sophia's "additional investment" also increased, ultimately causing her to gradually lose her rationality.
Sophia stood up, poured Louis-Alphonse a glass of red wine, and then threw him a seductive glance:
"Tell me, what should we do?"
Louis-Alphonse was utterly captivated; his previous concerns were tossed to the winds as he began to seriously analyze the situation for Sophia—
Directly buying all the box seats wouldn't work.
A certain number of box seats in Paris's major theaters were long-term leased by prominent families; they were symbols of identity and status, and these seats would certainly not circulate on the market.
At the same time, the theater would never allow anyone to extensively purchase the remaining retail box seats to hoard them, as that would offend the entire upper class simultaneously.
Therefore, the most suitable targets were the ordinary seats in the parterre and balcony of the Comédie-Française.
During the Christmas season, theater ticket prices were already inflated, with parterre tickets averaging 15-20 francs and balcony tickets 8-10 francs.
Louis-Alphonse estimated that to create an empty house effect, most—at least 70%—of the ordinary seats would have to be bought, requiring roughly 8,000 to 10,000 francs.
"8,000 francs?"
This amount wasn't small money for Sophia, but it wasn't a huge sum either.
She could get it just by charming her mother, Baroness Alekseevna.
Sophia walked up to Louis-Alphonse, leaned down, and stared intently into his eyes:
"Are you sure this will work?"
Louis-Alphonse looked at the two mounds of snowy white exposed beneath Sophia's low-cut collar, swallowed, and painstakingly averted his gaze:
"It... it definitely will.
Sophia, think about it, without the applause and cheers from those ordinary seats, what play can succeed based solely on the audience in the boxes?
Believe me, many of those in the boxes don't even care what's happening on stage; they're interested in having fun with their lovers..."
Sophia straightened up, her expression improving slightly, and she smiled:
"Alright then, you handle this matter..."
Louis-Alphonse was flattered:
"As you wish! Sophia!"
——————
To avoid alerting the theater, Louis-Alphonse adopted a human-wave tactic.
He secretly hired hundreds of poor and unemployed people from the streets of Paris, giving each a few francs for their legwork.
He had them go in batches to the Comédie-Française ticket counter, each buying only one or two tickets for "The Choir"'s premiere at a time.
"The Choir" was a new play by a newcomer; although it had stirred some controversy in several newspapers, the main force for buying parterre and balcony seats—the middle class—had limited budgets and would surely prioritize tickets for plays by Racine, Corneille, Hugo, and others.
Only if they had money left over, or couldn't get tickets for other plays, would they consider "The Choir."
So, with Louis-Alphonse's dispersed buying strategy, the premiere tickets for "The Choir" flowed in like trickles into the sea, making it difficult to detect any anomaly.
The plan proceeded unexpectedly smoothly.
Within a few days, a large number of ordinary seats for "The Choir"'s premiere date quietly ended up in Sophia's hands.
When Louis-Alphonse handed her the small box full of theater tickets, Sophia's face showed a cruel and triumphant smile.
The time was ripe, Sophia decided to strike Lionel the most fatal blow in the most public setting, letting him taste failure and humiliation in advance.
The literature theory class had just ended that day, and students were preparing to leave the classroom.
Sophia suddenly stood up from her seat, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
She spoke in a drawn-out, sarcastic tone,
"Monsieur Sorel, I hear your great work, 'The Choir,' is about to be staged at the Comédie-Française?
That's truly... surprising."
Lionel's hand, arranging his books, paused.
He looked up, calmly at her, without responding.
Sophia savored the feeling of being watched by the entire room.
She raised her voice, as if announcing important news:
"To show 'support' for a classmate's 'outstanding achievement,' I specifically... hmm, prepared a small Christmas gift for you in advance."
She deliberately paused, glancing around at the curious and puzzled classmates, then pulled a theater ticket from her pocket before slowly saying:
"The ticket for 'The Choir' premiere at the Comédie-Française on the evening of the 26th. How many do you guess I have?"
A malicious yet brilliant smile bloomed on her face:
"Don't worry, I will definitely be there to show my support. At that time, I'll be able to fully enjoy... hmm... the elegant reliefs on the theater walls and the magnificent sight of empty seats.
That will surely be an unforgettable performance, don't you think? Perhaps even more spectacular than your script itself."
The classroom erupted in an uproar!
Students stared in shock at Sophia, then at Lionel.
Although Sophia didn't explicitly say it, everyone vaguely guessed what she had done.
Albert de Rohan immediately jumped up from his seat:
"You Russian bitch..."
Before he could finish, Lionel cut off Albert's impending stream of curses.
Facing this blatant provocation, not a hint of anger showed on his face; he even looked somewhat pitying.
His tone was surprisingly calm:
"Miss Sophia Ivanovna Durova-Sherbatova, thank you for your generosity.
Yesterday, the Comédie-Française told me that the premiere tickets for 'The Choir' had already sold out, which was an unexpected joy for a newcomer like me.
I never imagined it was you helping me; this camaraderie truly moves me."
His reaction completely caught Sophia off guard; not only was he not exasperated or flustered, he even began to thank her.
Sophia felt a little panicked—every time she provoked Lionel, he remained so composed and calm, and then...
Sophia shivered, but she absolutely refused to back down easily:
"I hope you'll be just as defiant on the 26th!"
With that, Sophia scoffed, put away the ticket, and strutted out of the classroom with her nose in the air.
Albert approached Lionel, a little angry:
"Lion, are you crazy? Thank her? She's trying to ruin the premiere of 'The Choir'!"
Lionel looked innocent:
"She bought all the tickets, and 3% of each ticket goes to me. Of course, I should thank her."
Albert: "...You eat your own lunchbox today! You've made me so angry!"
(End of this chapter)
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