[Phantom of the Opera] Devil's Beauty

The sunlight shone through the blinds on Gaston's eyelids, causing him to wake up suddenly. In his dream, he was still being beaten by Blanche.The moment he saw the light gold bed curtain, he almost cried with joy, he was saved, he was finally saved!

He escaped from Blanche's clutches!

Thinking of Blanche, he was terrified for a while.Who would have thought that such a delicate and soft girl would be as fierce as a she-wolf when fighting.Fortunately, she was not with her. If she really fell in love with him, but found out that he has a wife and the father of three children, she might use some means to punish him, and he has always treated beautiful women disrespectfully. Fortify...then the real hope for help will be there!

Gaston was overjoyed, and at the same time complacent about his excellent luck, he could bump into kind-hearted noblemen on any climb.How do you say something?If one survives, there will be future fortunes.

He looked at the furnishings in the room, and was about to turn over and get out of bed, take a good look, and take two valuable but inconspicuous small items by the way, when he heard two light knocks on the door from outside.

Benedict, Benedict.

Gaston quickly covered the quilt, rubbed his pale lips vigorously, trying to make his complexion look rosier.He closed his eyes, and sincerely hoped that the person who came was the nobleman's maid, of course, it would be even better if it was his sister.Anyway, as long as it is a woman, then he can fully display his charm, make the other party love and fall in love with him, and then smoothly develop a relationship with that noble person.

He imagined it wonderfully, and it seemed that God really heard his request—the visitor was indeed a woman, and she was a woman of high status, and she exuded a light but noble girlish fragrance.She must have been very thin and light, her footsteps landing almost silently.Gaston could almost picture her lithe and flowery figure.The fragrance is getting closer, getting closer, and it lingers in front of his nose.How would he open his eyes without disturbing her?

Gaston turned his head halfway, deliberately suppressed his voice in his throat, and moaned in a low and hoarse voice, trying to create an ambiguous atmosphere.The woman's footsteps paused.He managed to get her attention.

Sure enough, no woman could escape his charm.Gaston raised the corners of his lips, opened his eyes, and was about to give the woman a weak but beautiful smile when he met Bai Lanzhi's big watery eyes.

The smile on his face froze immediately, wishing he could turn over and hide under the bed immediately, everything that happened before was still vivid in his memory.He saw with his own eyes that she swung a wooden club and beat those rascals to their knees.How did she appear here?Is she a human or a ghost, a spirit from the ancient castle in the forest, or the embodiment of his nightmare?

For a moment, Gaston was sweating profusely, his hands and feet were cold, his forehead and abdomen began to ache, and he recalled Bai Lanzhi's violent beating again.He couldn't help covering his stomach, and roared with a broken expression: "Bai Lanzhi, can't you let me go? I've become like this, why are you so vicious!"

Bai Lanzhi was still angry at Mr. OG's domineering style, when she heard this, she crossed her arms and reasoned seriously: "Obviously you pestered me first."

Seeing her raising her hand, Gaston hugged her head reflexively, but the punches and kicks he expected didn't land on him, he couldn't help blushing in embarrassment: "Then I won't pester you in the future, how long did you let me go?" I will roll as far as I want, and I will never appear in front of you again... As long as you don't hit me, I will do whatever you say!"

His words reminded Bai Lanzhi: "Exactly, there is one thing I want you to do."

Gaston wiped his cold sweat, and replied flatteringly, "Say it, say it, I will do it."

"Stop beating your wife, can you?"

Gaston was stunned, unable to believe that it was so simple: "That's it, no more?"

"Can't it be done?"

"Yes, it can be done! Of course!" Gaston said hastily.

Bai Lanzhi thought for a while, "You can't beat your child either."

Gaston thought that she was going to blackmail her or make a few unattainable demands, but he didn't know that it was just such a small condition, so he agreed with all his heart: "I won't beat them, I won't beat them again , I live in No. 43 of the poorhouse, if you don’t believe me, you can visit me at any time! I will change my mind, behave myself, and give them a happy family!”

Blanche nodded, she could only help Gaston's poor wife get here.

The next day, Gaston was sent back to the workhouse. Mr. OG seemed very busy and left after only staying one night in the small theater.Before leaving, he slapped the people in the small theater with a cold face, and the rumors about Blanche and Gaston disappeared immediately.The turmoil passed like this, and nothing seemed to be left except that Bai Lanzhi found that her strength was not inferior to that of a man.

Although she has a clear understanding of her own strength, she is also more at a loss for the future.

What is the use of great strength?

She still has to live a woman's life step by step, dressing herself up like a doll every day, keeping her back straight, and maintaining an elegant and beautiful figure.But is this really what she should do?Besides these, what else can she do?

She remembered that when she was driven out of the manor, she clearly had the strength to resist the frivolous insults of the drunks, but she was still crushed by them on the icy snow.

Was she not strong enough at the time?

No.

It was at that time that she thought she could not resist.

Gaston is just a waste whose bones have been eaten away by alcohol and beauty, and has neither gnarled muscles nor a strong physique. Why is his wife still trembling after being beaten by him?Are you really unable to resist, or do you simply not know how to fight back?

The more she thought, the more she felt that her brain was not enough.The next day, she simply hired a carriage and went to the largest bookstore near Concorde Square to find the answer.

The owner of the bookstore is a middle-aged man with a mustache and wearing a gold monocle. After hearing her description, although he couldn't hide his contempt and ridicule, he climbed up the escalator to help her find a few related books: "This kind of book can only coax you girls who worship Audrey. In my grandfather's time, it was considered a sin for women to write. I advise you to read less of these liar books and read more etiquette books. A good wife is what you should learn."

Bai Lanzhi smiled without saying a word, and was about to pay the money and turn to leave when suddenly a newspaper caught her attention.

In the middle of the front page of the newspaper is a black and white satirical cartoon: a demon woman with bat wings and goat horns on her head is pushing ladies and ladies into the fire pit one by one, with a line of bloody characters next to it: "' The Odile Phenomenon', or become a poison that entraps women!"

Below that is small print: "When will women return to normal?"

The author satirizes Audrey's fame bitterly, and the words are full of resentment that "there is no hero in the time, so a woman becomes famous", and also mentions that a lady who lives near the Bridge of Concorde has gone crazy since her husband died. She sold all her property and threatened to establish a secular nunnery so that all homeless women could have a "Garden of Eden" to live in. She also hoped that Odile could help her.

Finally, the author reminded, never leave your property to your wife or daughter, you can never imagine how they will ruin your hard work.Fortunately, Odell is self-aware, knowing that everything about her comes from men's gifts, so she rejected her request, otherwise the world would really be crazy.A secular nunnery?No woman can live without being attached to a man.Didn't even that lady have the confidence to go crazy by selling her husband's property?

Bai Lanzhi looked at this newspaper for a long time, and after a while she made up her mind, she finally knew what she should do!

She was very mobile, and she did what she said. After returning to the small theater, she dug out the suitcase and prepared to send all the jewelry to the pawnshop.She was very cautious this time, knowing that she had been targeted by an unknown person, she deliberately found Mr. OG's manservant and asked him to go with her.

When the manservant heard that she was going to pawn all the jewelry, he thought she had lost her mind because of her disappointment in love, and quickly persuaded her, "Miss Bai Lanzhi, the pawn shop is run by unscrupulous people, and your jewelry can only be sold at the original price." One tenth, sending it to the pawn shop is really not worth it, if you are short of money, you can ask Mr. OG for help, or you can directly mortgage it to Mr. OG!"

Bai Lanzhi is not very temperamental, and the little friction last time was quickly forgotten by her. It would be best if Mr. OG is willing to help, and it’s okay if he doesn’t want to. Then when will he come to the small theater?"

The valet hesitated for a moment: "Uh, this... By the way, Mr. Eric will go to the small theater to prepare a new play in a week. It's the same if you ask him for help! He is a distant relative of Mr. OG."

Hearing Eric's name, Bai Lanzhi's ears blushed slightly.

Obviously, I haven't seen him for a long time, but when I recall his figure again, it is still as vivid as yesterday... no, as vivid as the last second.His eyelashes, his breathing, his fingers, and the faint smell of perfume on the back of his neck seemed to still surround her side, as if as long as he turned around, he could bump into his ruthless gaze and see him. Thin sharp jaw.

It's so strange, obviously he and Mr. OG have the same personality, but she likes her a hundred times, a thousand times more than Mr. OG.

Bai Lanzhi iced her hot cheeks with the back of her hand, and replied in a low voice: "...Well, then I'll ask Eric for help."

Prepare for a tirade to convince her of Eric's valet: ?

What Blanche wanted to do was not a whim.In the evening, she lit a lamp and wrote a long letter, frankly telling the other party about her age, property, and the process of changing her mind, and said that she would pawn all her jewelry, support her in founding a secular female convent, and finally attached a small theater The address of a nearby bakery.The next day, she went to the Xiehe Bridge to inquire about the address of the noble lady. Fortunately, the lady was very "famous" in the local area, and she found her mailbox in a short while, and the delivery was successful.

She thought it would take half a month to receive a reply, but she did not expect that she would receive a letter from the lady the next morning.The other party was very surprised and grateful for her support, saying that this was the warmest letter she had seen in the past three months, but advised her not to act recklessly.Her original words were, "Except for Audrey, no woman can challenge the authority of men."

She told Blanche that now she has become the object of ridicule in the streets, everyone can ridicule her, and the only way to help her reverse the situation is to let Audrey publicly fund her.

Bai Lanzhi didn't want to hurt her, but she knew better than anyone else that with Audrey's personality, it was impossible to openly support noble ladies.

But this seems to be the only thought of the noble lady. If she smashed it rashly, will the other party be sad and give up her persistence all the time?

Besides, why should the other party believe her?

Bai Lanzhi hesitated a lot.

She hesitated whether to tell the other party Odell's true face, and she hesitated until she finished writing a letter, but she couldn't make up her mind.

In a blink of an eye, a week has passed.

The lady insisted that one day Odile would realize the plight of women and openly contribute to help her.Blanche also became a long-term pen pal with her, and knew her name was Anna Adelaide.

On this day, just as Bai Lanzhi opened Anna's letter, she heard waves of noise coming from the dance studio.

While reading the letter, she walked over.When she read the last few lines, she was stunned and wrote: "Lancy, you are my lucky star! Thanks to your encouragement, I persisted without being defeated by rumors. Just yesterday, O Dale found me and said she agreed to openly fund me. Lanxie, you can’t imagine how happy I was at that time, and my persistence finally paid off! Of course, your encouragement and care are also very important to me, you are my A light in the past, I will never forget you. You and Audrey are my nobles." Lanxi is Bai Lanzhi's pseudonym.

At the same time, Linde trotted over with the newspaper, and asked anxiously: "Blanche, what's going on? Odell published an article publicly criticizing you and Eric. She said that Eric plagiarized Forget about her songs, "Nightingale" is indeed very similar to her previous songs. But why did she say that she knows your dirty and despicable past better than anyone else? She also said that you are a rotten filth under the feudal system Thing... filth, how can she use this word to describe you! What's more frightening is that this woman didn't know what kind of ecstasy soup had been poured into Duke Clayton, and the Duke actually publicly agreed with her opinion. She said that she would see you tomorrow Publish an article to disclose your life experience..."

Bai Lanzhi couldn't hear what was said next.She clutched the letter paper, her mind went blank, and the deep sense of loneliness was like the extremely cold wind and snow, which surrounded her body and froze her nerves.She moved her lips, but she couldn't utter a word to refute what was written in the newspaper.

After interacting with Anna for so long, she also read a lot of books, and gradually realized that female pets and ballerinas are like whores in the eyes of the world.She doesn't care about the views of the world, but it doesn't mean that she is willing to disclose her past, put her former identity under the eyes of the public, and let them ridicule and discuss it.

Only then did she understand the pressure Anna had suffered before.

What will others say about her?

How should she refute?

Can she still make Odell pay for the original malice?Or, does she still have the qualifications to be compared with Audrey?

... Will Eric hate her and stay away from her?

Countless questions popped up and then sank down, Bai Lanzhi's mind was in turmoil, and her heartbeat was as heavy as a boulder.

At this moment, a slender hand took away the newspaper in Linde's hand, and Eric stood behind them, with long eyelashes drooping, reading Odell's article with a peaceful expression.

His eyes remained unmoved from beginning to end, as if Odell's sharp words were just a speck of insignificant dust that could be blown away without a trace with just one breath.

Bai Lanzhi's various negative emotions suddenly calmed down.

The author has something to say: =3=

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!