[The Phantom of the Opera] The Beast and the Canary

It's time for me to audition.

Like a child babbling, I repeated each word in a low voice, then nodded, and stood up with the armrest of the chair.I thought that after half an hour, the impact of Christine's words would have weakened a lot, but I didn't expect that the moment I stood up, I almost collapsed to the ground.

The person I was talking to immediately helped me up: "Are you all right, Miss Giri?"

I waved my hand: "...it's okay."

"If you are not in good shape, you should take a break first. The order of auditions can be adjusted."

"Really? That's going to trouble you." My mind was running extremely slowly, and I was speaking entirely by instinct.

"You're welcome." After saying this, he hesitated and asked, "By the way, Miss Geary, are you free tomorrow? I would like to treat you to a cup of afternoon tea."

I slowly looked up at him.

He smiled at me, with a very typical appearance of a male ballerina—a thin face, a high nose bridge, light hair and pupils, and the corner of his jaw was cut off in half so narrow that it is enviable.I stared at his face for a long time before I remembered that he seemed to have performed a ballet with me, in which he played the fool rich man who was so fascinated by me.

There are many vague eyes cast around.He looked at me confidently, as if he was sure that I would not refuse.What a boring little trick.Generally speaking, men don't ask women out in public, because they want to save face and are afraid of being rejected.Once invited, either he really likes that woman, or he wants to use the pressure of public opinion to reduce the chance of being rejected.

Normally, I would have refused.But at this moment, my thoughts are slow, and I really can't think of beautiful words to refuse people, so I just nodded and agreed.Anyway, I have something to go out of the theater tomorrow, so it's okay to have a cup of tea by the way.

He showed a satisfied smile, raised the back of my hand, and pretended to kiss: "Then I will be your male partner later, okay? We have partnered before, you know my level, and I will never let you get into embarrassment on stage circumstances."

To be honest, my mind is full of phantoms now, and I have no intention of auditioning. No matter who I partner with, it will be very embarrassing in the end.Just about to refuse, he suddenly threw away my hand.I looked at him suspiciously: "What's wrong?"

The smile on his face gradually froze, and he even trembled: "No, it's nothing...Mr. Hurst glanced at me just now...Maybe it was my illusion, his eyes seemed to be burning...It's too scary... "

I followed his terrified gaze towards the stage, and saw Hester's expression as usual, especially his eyes, which were as deep and unwavering as a glacial lake.Hearst's eyes sometimes give people the illusion of burning, but his eyes today are clearly exceptionally calm.

Thinking of this, I looked at the man again, but seeing that his face was pale, he turned his head and ran away.

Me: "..." The agreed afternoon tea is here.

At this time, there was a round of applause, and the person who switched the order of the audition with me came on stage, and it turned out to be the diamond red actress.She took off her wide-brimmed hat and whalebone skirt for a smoky tutu and stepped to center stage, nodding slightly to the conductor of the orchestra.

Music plays.When she took the first dance step, many people in the audience sighed in disappointment-like other actors, she also flirted with a few male partners at the beginning of her performance.Some people are booing, thinking that her performance is not worthy of the high price.

Meanwhile, the violin fades away and the harpsichord is about to play its solo.

The newspaper said that this solo was equivalent to the aria of the heroine.Hearst chose the harpsichord to replace the heroine's voice. He wanted to use this extravagant instrument to satirize the heroine's treachery and clinging to the powerful. Therefore, during this solo, some actors will deliberately make hugs with their male partners. The action creates a sense of debauchery and absurdity.

Everyone felt that Diamond Red would handle this solo in the same way, at least not too far away.Unexpectedly, in the next second, she raised her hand and severely slapped one of the male companions in the side.

There were exclamations everywhere, and everyone was dumbfounded.The male companion covered his face with his hands, and stood there stupidly, and the sound of the violin also stagnated for a moment.

The only thing that hasn't changed is Hearst's piano sound.As if he had expected Hong Ling's movements long ago, he staggered his hands up and down, quickly changed the stop, and lowered the tone of the whole song in the blink of an eye, perfectly concealing the astonished reaction of his male partner.

Hong Ling rotated to the other side of the stage and began to dance solo.This solo dance added a lot to her performance, but her behavior of slapping her face without consulting her partner is really hard to comment.There were whispers in the audience, but Hearst did not stop, and the performance had to continue.

Suddenly, a voice came softly from behind me: "Her name is Margaret. She is a popular actress held by Mr. Hurst. She is very talented in singing, but her bass and alto are a little hoarse. One stage performance was so perfect that Hearst cut out all the parts of his opera that required the diva's bass singing. The newspapers called it 'Confessions without Bass.'"

On the stage, Hirst played faster and faster with both hands, and the vibration frequency of the keys was like a gust of wind and rain.In fact, I don't really appreciate the metallic tone of the harpsichord. For a while, my ears were buzzing, and I didn't even realize that those words were addressed to me.By the time I recovered, she had finished speaking.

"What do you want to say?" I turned my head and saw the girl with red lips who slandered me in the morning.

"What I want to say is that your seduction plan is going to fail." She said quietly, "Others don't know your hypocritical face, but I know that you deliberately let the nails cut your clothes that day, so that Hester Isn’t it just to get the heroine of “The Shepherdess” by taking you back to your room and letting Mrs. Geary arrange you to travel together? Unfortunately, the heroine of this opera is destined to be Margaret’s.”

I said absently, "Oh, yes."

"What are you pretending, I know you must be panicking. Hearst wrote many operas to confess to her, and "The Shepherdess" is just one of them. You don't really think that this opera is to satirize women. The protagonist, right? No, no, if it’s really a satirical heroine, why did Hearst use an expensive instrument like a harpsichord to replace her singing?”

Speaking of this, her tone became extremely brisk, and she was so fast that she had some malicious intentions: "See? So far, regardless of whether the auditioner's level is good or bad, Hearst insists on playing it himself. Do you know why? Because the actor’s libretto in the second act is, “Since the light of the soul cannot lead you to me, I can only cut off your golden feather, put you in a cage, and force you to submit.” Blonde, golden feather, Harpsichord, tell me, how passionate his love for Marguerite must be to write an opera so suggestive?"

From what she said, I found that the way Hester played the harpsichord was indeed not as cold as usual—his browbones protruded a bit, his eye sockets were extremely deep, and when he looked from behind, his outline was like a skeleton Sen was frighteningly cold, but when he put his fingers on the wooden keys, that frightening feeling disappeared, and his brows and eyes revealed a deep-seated tenderness, as if he had been smudged with the warm colors of late spring by a paintbrush.

No wonder his attitude towards me is always inexplicably good and bad, probably because I have too many similarities with Margaret—not only the same hair color, but also the same body shape and voice.Although I don't know much about the pornographic news in the upper class, I also know that Margaret is a very well-known high-level courtesan, and has private contacts with the Duke and Marquis.

Thinking of this, when I contacted the plot of "Shepherdess", I suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment.

Just in time, when the performance on the stage was over, Hearst changed the stop to its original position, tilted his chin towards the audience, and said in a cold voice: "Go down." His eyes full of disgust and the first time he saw me were almost exactly the same.

My sense of enlightenment grew stronger.