[Phantom of the Opera] Devil's Beauty

Hearing this, Audrey didn't care about her manners, snatched the newspaper from Bai Lanzhi's hand, browsed it carefully, and after confirming that she couldn't find any moral flaws, she asked almost angrily: "What do you say?" Look, where am I contradicting myself? Just because I didn't see the suffering of those prostitutes, is it necessary to deny me everything?"

She looked around with red eyes, gritted her teeth and asked: "Dare to ask, before this, do you all know what kind of life prostitutes live? Don't you all sympathize with them? If so, why didn't you publish an article on me?" Then speak up? Is it too late to reprimand me for being sympathetic and pushing those women into the abyss? Or, you are all reeds who can’t think, and you just believe what Bai Lanzhi says, a little Don’t you have the ability to think independently?”

Odell really wanted to win back the city, wanted to restore her rapidly passing reputation, just found a loophole, and questioned it back like a cannonball, completely ignoring the face of those famous scholars. Seeing their stiff faces, she He thought that his questioning was very sharp, and they were rendered speechless.

She secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and continued to ask forcefully: "I want to ask you, if one day, women can contribute in society like men, no one will discriminate against them, and their status is completely equal to that of men. Will there still be prostitutes?" Without waiting for everyone to answer, she first gave a positive judgment, "The answer is yes. Although women are weak, not all women have a clear mind. Some people think about getting something for nothing. May I ask, is it wrong for me to condemn these people who get something for nothing? Should they be sympathized because they are weak and get something for nothing?"

"Also, isn't the downturn in the ballet industry a result of more and more opportunistic people? Do you dare to say that Mrs. Grissie, who was the first to dance in pointe shoes, was opportunistic? Do you dare say that Mrs. Grahn, who performed "Nymphs" Are you opportunistic? Do you dare to say that Fanny Eisler, Marie Tarrioni, Julius Perrault(1)...these ballet masters are opportunistic?" She listed the names of several well-known dancers in one breath , "Even though the dance industry is in such a slump, there are still so many shining dancers emerging. Therefore, the downturn in the ballet industry is not at all a fig leaf for those girls to be taken care of by the nobles!"

Bai Lanzhi picked up the newspaper she threw on the ground and flattened the folds on it: "Don't worry, Ms. Odell, I'll explain to you one by one, where are the contradictions in your declaration. First, you say I'm good at hype, in fact there were singing and dancing ballerinas as early as 100 years ago, but if you forget, the newspapers say that I may be the first soprano to wear pointe shoes. Ballet The history of pointe shoes is nearly 300 years, but the pointe shoes were created by Mrs. Grisi, and Mrs. Grisi is only in her 50s now... Excuse me, which sentence did I hype? Moreover, the headline of that newspaper was not written by me " She smiled shallowly, "I'm just a little pet girl, and I don't have the power to control the newspaper. So, I don't recognize this. This is the first place where you contradict yourself."

A very strong panic suddenly surged from the depths of Audrey's heart, and her intuition told her that she could not let Bai Lanzhi continue talking, and she should apologize immediately to stop the loss, but her supercilious self-esteem did not allow her to bow her head to Bai Lanzhi.

"The second point of contradiction is that while you say that women are born free and have equal status with men, you also regard men as the head of the family. You swear that women should be independent and work hard in society like men, but Never considered their real situation."

Odell was in an extremely contradictory state. She wanted to run away, but she also didn't want to be at a disadvantage in front of Bai Lanzhi. She gritted her teeth and asked unwillingly, "Why didn't I consider their situation?" Much weaker, no more confidence.

"Is that so?" Bai Lanzhi replied indifferently, "Then how many educated men are there in the country? How many are educated women? You use painters and composers as examples, but do you know that there are How many women have the conditions to become painters? How many women have the conditions to become composers? Women and men are equal, what a light sentence, it seems that women can't win equal status because they don't work hard. Then you know, if A family has both sons and daughters. What is the probability that sons and daughters are educated together? What is the probability that daughters are valued more than sons? You can’t answer these questions, but you are brazenly advocating that women should be as independent as men... ..." At the end, her words gradually became sharper, "How dare you, how embarrassed are you?"

This series of questions resulted in dozens of consecutive slaps slamming on Odell's face.For a moment, she only felt that her face was swollen and painful, as if she had been slapped dozens of times.Until now, she finally felt a little remorse and dared not confront Bai Lanzhi again.

Looking around at the eyes that were no longer obsessed, admired, or respected, she was swept away by boundless remorse.She is so careless!Bai Lanzhi dared to go to her salon to debate with her, she must have come prepared, maybe even analyzed her article word by word in private.Who said there is no loophole?If you really want to say it sentence by sentence, there are contradictions in the remarks of many celebrities.If I had known this earlier, I would have taken a step back.It's all because she is too competitive, so now she can't advance or retreat, and her whole body feels as uncomfortable as being flipped on a grill.

Odell wanted to admit defeat, but when she thought that the object of surrender was Bai Lanzhi, she couldn't hold back her face and couldn't make a decision.She used to be so high above, with a look and a word, Bai Lanzhi could instantly lose her support and have nowhere to go.The gap between them is so big, she still has an omnipotent system, but she is still forced into such an embarrassing situation by Bai Lanzhi.Audrey was not reconciled, really not.

But no matter how unwilling she was, she still lost and had to apologize to Bai Lanzhi.

Audrey closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, lowered her head and said, "Miss Blanche, you are right." She clenched her teeth tightly and tried to relax her throat. Even so, the words seemed to come from her heart As if scraped off from the top, shed blood unwillingly, "The manifesto in my newspaper was really ill-considered. I am just a musician, and I don't have a solid foundation in writing, so the articles I write will inevitably contain contradictions." ,I hope you understand."

Seeing that Bai Lanzhi didn't say a word, with tears of humiliation, she continued: "I don't understand the plight you are facing, so I rashly accused you of clinging to men and dignitaries... I'm really sorry, please forgive my ignorance , I will speak with absolute caution in the future, and will never make the same mistake again.”

After finishing speaking, she shed two lines of tears of incomparable grievance. She was really reluctant to apologize to Bai Lanzhi!Except for her appearance, she was better than Bai Lanzhi in everything.She used to stand on a high ground overlooking the other party's existence, but now she has to bow her proud head and admit her mistakes in a humble way. She is really unwilling, too unwilling!

Maybe it was the tears when they saw Odell for the first time, or maybe it was because they recalled the love and pursuit not long ago, many people felt sympathy for Audrey.

A lady wearing a pearl necklace with two circles looked around for a moment and stood up.It was the first time for her to participate in a salon of this scale, fearing that she would not dress up gracefully and luxuriously, and piled jewelry on her body like decorating a Christmas tree.

Christmas Tree walked to Blanche and carefully persuaded: "Ms. Odell's manifesto for women does have limitations, but her heart to help women is true. In the past month, I have been wanting to create a A secular female monastery, a place for those poor homeless women, but it was shelved because it could not raise enough funds, and finally Ms. Odell funded me..."

Christmas Tree met Bai Lanzhi's eyes, and felt guilty for some reason: "If she really wants to push those women into the abyss, why should she support me? She has already apologized, so please forgive her. She was right in the first place. The female pet is indeed a dross existence, although it is not to the extent of filth, but it is not worth promoting... Right? Although Ms. Odell is a well-known female musician, in the final analysis, she is just a little girl in her early twenties. It’s just a girl. There’s no little girl who doesn’t make mistakes, so let’s stop here, don’t push me any more, okay?”

Looking at the Christmas tree, Bai Lanzhi asked abruptly, "I know you. Before Ms. Odell, is there really no one willing to fund you to open a secular female convent? No one?"

Christmas Tree hesitated for a moment, then looked at Audrey who was full of misery, and shook his head lightly as if making up his mind for a while, saying: "No, only Ms. She, all I received was abuse, slander, and slander... and some people said that I was a poisonous widow, and my husband died, so I wanted all the women in the world to have no husbands."

Getting this answer, Bai Lanzhi was somewhat surprised, but also not surprised.She smiled softly. This is the person she really wanted to help, the person she wanted to comfort day and night, and the "friend" she always liked and kept in touch with.

Blanche stopped looking at her, and instead glanced at Eric beside her. He was looking at her. He was like a cool, clear spring, washing away all the sadness, sadness, and regret in her heart. .What about losing a friend?As long as he was by her side, she felt extremely lucky.

"Anna, Adelaide, you are lying." Bai Lanzhi said her name, "I once wanted to sell all the jewelry to support you, but you don't want to, you said you need Odile's fame to turn around, I understand you I didn’t object. What I didn’t expect was that while you said in your letter that I was a light from your dark past, you denied my existence. Well, from today onwards, we are no longer friends, so please take care of yourself. "

The Christmas tree was stiff, and it never occurred to her that Blanche was the pen pal named "Lancy".She didn't lie, "Lancy" was indeed a ray of light in her dark past, much more important than Odell, but after the question and answer just now, she couldn't explain it clearly anyway.Sweat dripped from her temples, tears of guilt filled her eyes, she looked at Bai Lanzhi frequently, hoping that she could look back at the regret in her eyes, but the other party didn't look at her again.

Odell had a mouthful of old blood stuck in her throat. She never expected that Bai Lanzhi was so well prepared and contacted Adelaide before her. This was her last hole card to save her reputation!

For a moment, she wanted to vomit blood or faint on the spot, anyway, as long as she had a reason to leave here, but her daily food and clothing were extremely fine, and a highly skilled family doctor would check her body every month, so she was angry It burned all over the body, and he couldn't vomit the old blood as he wished.

Suddenly, she remembered something.Before, she seemed to have invited a reporter to interview a man who had a very close relationship with Blanche.That reporter only told the truth and only reported facts, and his style of writing was humorous but fierce. He was well-known in the upper class. Although some newspapers didn't like his character, they were very willing to accept his articles.I don't know how his interview is going?We should have found out about Blanche's scandal, right?That man has a wife and children, food, drinking, prostitution, gambling, everything, except for his good looks, he is useless... As long as the scandal between him and Bai Lanzhi is exposed, she will still have room to turn around, and she will be able to win over the people around her worship and admiration.

For a moment, Odell's eyes burst out with strong hope, and the eyes were so bright that it was frightening.She couldn't care less about other people's strange eyes, she wanted to stand up and return to the top.

Beckoning for the waiter, Odell almost sternly urged him to find her maid.

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, not knowing what she was going to do.

The rustling discussions in the hall have never stopped, and from time to time, regretful eyes glanced at Odell.If a few minutes ago, she must have become angry and furious, but now she can't control it so much. After being pressed and rubbed on the ground for so long, she finally thought of a way to turn over, she can't let it go!

Soon, her maid was found, the one who gave Gaston the gold that day.Odell dragged her over, lowered her voice and asked eagerly, "How are you doing with what I asked you to do that day? Where's the newspaper, is it out? Where is it? Did you bring it with you?"

The maid's eyes flickered, and she didn't dare to look at Odile: "Newspaper, newspaper... the newspaper is out, it's just... that reporter didn't speak for us..."

"How is it possible?!" Odell raised her voice in disbelief, "Didn't that reporter claim to only tell the truth? I have carefully investigated Gaston's identity, and he is indeed a liar!"

Facing Odell's almost distorted gaze, the maid tremblingly took out a crumpled newspaper from her inner pocket: "You, read it yourself..."

Odell snatched the newspaper, her eyes were darkened, she couldn't lift it up in one breath, and the waistband kept oppressing her internal organs, she rolled her eyes, and finally passed out in the arms of the maid as she wished.

After she fainted, the newspaper fell to the ground along her powerless hands, and a line in capital letters and bold came into everyone's eyes:

"What is the truth: Bai Lanzhi, a lowly but kind woman like an angel

——Thinking about the unannounced visit to No. 43 of the poorhouse"

******

Because Audrey's salon only invited celebrities and scholars, this disqualification incident did not spread to the common people.In the eyes of ordinary people, Audrey is still the talented female musician and the pride of all women; Blanche is still the object of being spurned, abused and ridiculed.When they passed the gate of the small theater, they would gossip, roll their eyes, and spit.

David is the breadwinner of the family, but recently he has been unable to hold his head up. It was he who first proposed the bad idea of ​​"printing the portrait of Blanche on the snuff bottle". He thought he could make a lot of money, but he lost everything. Unable to take it out, the whole family can only eat bread to survive.

Seeing his wife's face getting thinner day by day, David's heart was flooded with guilt.But he really didn't want to understand, he was always accurate in seeing people and things, how could it not work for Bai Lanzhi?At the beginning, he really thought that she would be a big hit. Where did his vision go wrong?

"Not a single rabbit!" Old David strode into the house, hung the gun on the wall, took out the snuff bottle and sniffed one mouthful after another.The wife looked at the beautiful portrait of Bai Lanzhi above, and said with resentment: "Dad, can you stop smoking? I feel sick when I see this woman now, and you are still walking around in front of me with her. I am really feeling sick." died."

David couldn't help but said: "We can't blame Miss Bailanzhi for losing money in business. It was wrong for us to use her portrait without authorization, and it is very common to lose money in business. We can just make it back next time. There is no need to do this Blame God and others."

It's okay if he doesn't speak for Bai Lanzhi. With such a group, his wife can no longer hold back the jealousy and resentment in her heart: "In the final analysis, it's all your fault! If you weren't attracted by this woman's beauty, how could you do this?" For making such a stupid and mindless decision, Ms. Odell is right, she is indeed a virus, a virus that can destroy families!"

His wife's words slapped David's face loudly and heavily. While his face was flushed with embarrassment, he felt ashamed at the same time.The three people in the room looked at each other, and they all saw suppressed resentment in each other's eyes. Just as the atmosphere in the room became more and more dignified and tense, a burst of dense and hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the room, which was like a natural disaster. Come to the general battle.

The three just complained to each other and had no intention of going to hell together.David woke up and opened the blinds. He saw many people walking towards the intersection, not knowing what happened.

He opened the door to ask, and a woman wrapped in a blue scarf replied: "There is a poor woman kneeling at the crossroads, and she is confessing to God... She bares her arms and thighs, and she shows her wounds whenever she sees anyone. It's so weird, everyone ran to see it, if you want to see it, go and see it, and you won't be able to see it when the police officer arrives later!"

David's curiosity was aroused, and he wanted to go to have a look, but he was afraid that his wife would be unhappy. He was about to turn his head to ask his wife's opinion, but saw that his wife had followed the woman away curiously.

David: "..."

David reluctantly followed.He considered himself a gentleman, and he didn't have any distracting thoughts in his mind. He just wanted to see what happened, which made the woman so desperate that she prayed on the street.

Thinking of this, David and a group of people walked to the crossroads, and sure enough, they saw a woman in her 20s kneeling there.She was wearing the cheapest coarse sarong, a kind of fabric that even maids from wealthy families would not wear, because it was neither breathable nor warm, and after wearing it for a long time, she would get a rash all over her body.

It was deep winter, and her hands and feet were covered with cracked chilblains.Although the houses on this street are not very well-to-do, but let alone three meals a day, they can also wear breathable fabrics.People's hearts are fleshy. Although everyone felt that she was grandstanding by showing her arms and thighs, they still felt sympathy for her when they saw her miserable state.

A woman carrying a vegetable basket couldn't help but stepped forward and handed her a half-broken piece of bread: "What kind of difficulties do you encounter? If you have difficulties, you can find a workhouse. There is really no need for this." She pointed to no A few homeless men dodged in the distance, "They're all staring at you."

The woman shook her head and whispered thank you.Seeing more and more people in front of her, she struggled to move out a few wooden boards behind her, put them on the ground one by one, and put them together in order.

The people around took a look and saw that the first board was written in charcoal: Hello everyone, I am the woman who was beaten at No. 43 of the workhouse.My husband is a jerk, a liar, a villain who makes a living out of money from innocent girls.I thought he would wake up and turn around, so I didn't expose him to anyone, but the fact is not what I imagined. Not only did he not wake up, but he got worse. Every day after drinking, he would punch and kick me.

The woman lifted her sleeves and skirt, revealing bruises and bruises on her arms and thighs, and even cigarette burns.

The second board read: These days almost everyone is saying that Miss Blanche is a dross, a virus, and a rotten filth.I too have been misled by these statements.Until one day, my husband personally told me that only Miss Blanche cared about my life and asked him not to beat me again.My husband once approached Miss Blanche on purpose, intending to defraud her of her property and insult her innocence. Fortunately, Miss Blanche was clever and quick-witted, and was not harmed by him.In those days, I really didn’t get beaten by my husband again. It’s ridiculous. I thought he had changed his mind and wanted to live with me. I didn’t think he was just afraid of being exposed about his assault on Miss Blanche.

The third board: He said that good people in this world have no future.Miss Blanche thought about me and spoke out for me, but I spoke ill of her behind my back with my neighbors without knowing who she was.Just thinking about it these days makes me ashamed.Here, I hope everyone can calm down and stop spreading rumors like me.

The fourth board: I hope everyone can give my scumbag husband a strong fight back. I want to tell him that there are still many good people in this world.A disgusting villain like him has no right to laugh at a good guy!

After the people around looked at the four boards, you looked at me, I looked at you, and then fell into extreme silence.

At the same time, as if inspired by a woman, poets, painters, composers, philosophers, and writers who had participated in the Audrey Salon all published articles one after another, restoring what was clarified twice at the Audell Salon. process.They did not mention Odile's gaffe and fainting, but only stated the results of Eric and Blanche's confrontation with Odell.Despite this, the whole of Paris was shocked. This is the first time that the public has witnessed the disqualification of a hugely influential celebrity!

Like a spring that is pressed to the bottom and will rebound suddenly, under the deliberate guidance of those celebrities, Blanche's reputation has also bottomed out and rebounded!

The snuff bottles in the warehouse of David's family were all robbed. Not only did they not have to worry about the cost of buying vegetables, but they also didn't have to worry about the cost of food and clothing for next year!Now his wife only complains why he doesn't order more snuff bottles, and the factory-printed list of portraits of Blanche is no longer available to them.

The front of the small theater was still full of spectators, but they stopped cursing and ridiculing. The fans who had lost their fans before came back in despair, asking with a shy face when Miss Blanche's new work would be released.

The manager of the theater, Darroja, looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help crying: who would have thought that it took less than a month for Blanche to bring the small theater back to life.That person also took the initiative to stay and write new works for her, not even going to the Paris Opera House.It's really strange, obviously before asking him and Bai Lanzhi to practice the repertoire he was unwilling, but now he couldn't even drive him away.

******

Odell repelled the servants, huddled in a corner of the bedroom and wept.Just yesterday, the progress of the system has skyrocketed again, directly to 45%, and two new functions have appeared: appearance fine-tuning, and the world famous book library.In the past, she must have been ecstatic, but now she is full of doubts, wishing to get this system out of her mind: what a broken system, her face is almost torn off by Bai Lanzhi and used as an insole, and she has even upgraded, is it possible? Her existence was slapped in the face by Bai Lanzhi?

Thinking of this, she even became resentful and disgusted with the system, and no longer took the initiative to check the system panel. However, after curling up in the bedroom all day, she still couldn't help but look at the function of fine-tuning the appearance.As long as you are a woman, you will be interested in how to maintain your appearance.She closed her eyes and checked the interface in her mind, only seeing a progress bar, the current upper limit is 5%.

It means that you can improve your appearance by 5%?Thinking this way, she tentatively increased the adjustment by 1%. Soon, she heard the sound of her own blood gurgling, but she was not afraid or panicked. She even had a sense of comfort as she used to do skin care in a beauty salon...

After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly opened her eyes, feeling that the improvement of her appearance was over, she walked off the bed with bare feet, and came to an oval floor-to-ceiling mirror.

I saw the woman in the mirror with thick and smooth hair, delicate and fair skin, red lips like gorgeous roses dripping with blood, and perfect curves from shoulders and neck to waist and hips, all of which are confusing...

Odell covered her cheeks in surprise, tears of joy leaked from between her fingers.

The system finally figured out a reliable function!

The author has something to say: Note (1): These ballerinas are indeed real in history.