[Phantom of the Opera] Devil's Beauty

It was another afternoon.

Late spring and early summer.

After surviving the slightly cold spring day, brocade and moonlight flowers grow wildly, weaving into a green and white fishing net, trying to catch the golden sunshine like fine sand.

Bai Lanzhi was leaning on the sofa under the pillar, holding a book, the more she read it, the more impetuous she became.

After staying at home for such a long time, it would be a lie to say that it is not boring. I want to go out to see the situation of the secular female convent, but I am afraid of stirring up new public opinion disputes, attracting the attention of Duke Clayton, and causing unnecessary trouble .It is said that he instructed several investigators to track down the whereabouts of the theater ghost, and it is bound to bring the ghost to justice.

Thinking of this, she sighed and continued to read.This is a travelogue, which tells the personal experience of a traveler in various countries, and the plot is bizarre and exciting.Seeing it, Bai Lanzhi was so moved that she wanted to experience it for herself.

"looking at what?"

Two bony fingers pulled away the travel note, Eric stood beside her, lowered his eyes, flipped through two pages casually, and read aloud as if inadvertently: "'I saw a nightmare scene, the baby came from The mother's arms fell down and fell into a wine barrel, but the mother turned a blind eye and was still smoking snuff in a daze; an old man was starving and emaciated, and was fighting for food with the dogs. You must not believe it, there are coffin shops everywhere, Because people die at any moment, and not from starvation, but from all sorts of strange causes--like now, a gentleman who doesn't know that his stick has impaled a baby who fell from a building... This is the East End of London, hell The terrible East End. I left here that night.'" He closed his travel notes and smiled lightly, "He probably hasn't been to London."

Bai Lanzhi was stunned: "Really? But he wrote so realistically, the details are lifelike."

"What he described was not his own personal experience, but the picture of Hogarth's engraving "Gin Alley". The painting was from the last century, when gin was rampant in Britain." Eric said calmly He replied, without showing off in his tone.

But Bai Lanzhi heard his subtext and couldn't help laughing: "It's my husband who knows better."

"If you want to know about Britain, you can ask me."

Bai Lanzhi shook her head: "I would rather go to England with you."

Eric was silent for a while, then threw the travel notes on the small table, knelt down on one knee in front of her, and held her hand: "When I finish the matter, I will accompany you wherever you want to go." The wedding that I promised you will also be held as scheduled. It's just..." His voice suddenly became extremely low and astringent, "I am a person who does not exist in France, and I can only marry you with a false identity."

"Whether it's true or not, it's just you. You know, I don't care about that."

He put his face in her palm, half closed his eyes, and said in a low voice for a long time, "...I'm sorry."

Bai Lanzhi rubbed his hair and changed the subject: "I haven't heard you play the piano for a long time. Play me a tune, anything you want."

"it is good."

He stood up, walked to the piano and sat down, raised his wrist and tested the sound.The timbre is precise and pure, and the thick and rich resonance inside the keys can be heard even when playing with one hand.

Different from Liszt's virtuoso playing method, which is highly praised nowadays, Eric did not mobilize his whole body's strength to touch the keys, but played them lightly and without thinking, as if those black and white keys had been integrated into his blood and became a part of his body.

He played "Nightingale", the first piece of music they met after they met.

When the chorus was approaching, he suddenly lowered his head, stepped on the pedal, raised his wrist at the same time, and landed heavily and powerfully, switching to Beethoven's "Symphony of Destiny" without a pause. When it dissipated into the air, the four-note improvisation he had created at the Audelle Salon sounded again. The high-pitched notes buzzed like a bell. In seconds, a dance song with a strong aggressive color took its end.Almost instantly, Blanche recalled the drunken tango with him and their first kiss.

I saw his hands alternate, and the speed of his fingers was incredible. It was the symphony played by the band at the masquerade ball. I don’t know how he handled this tune, but he used the piano to perfectly reproduce the brilliance and shock of the symphony orchestra; finally, a symphony Fiery but sad music covered the symphony, which was "Don Juan's Triumph" sung by Odile at the masquerade ball. Thinking of Eric's singing, Bai Lanzhi couldn't help but feel her ears turn red.

He was asked to play a piece of music at will, but he played all the pieces after meeting her... Sometimes this person is surprisingly slow, and sometimes he is so romantic that it makes people want to cry.

I thought that this piece of music was over, and his playing would also be over, but I didn’t expect that he was still hitting the keys. It is a piece that is more passionate, sadder, and more desperate than Audrey’s "Triumph of Don Juan". Every note is like a raging flame in hell, trying to devour the souls of the world.

This should be... "The Triumph of Don Juan" by him.

Bai Lanzhi looked at his back with complicated eyes.

The style is so gloomy and dark, I don't know what kind of mood he wrote it.

After the song was over, Bai Lanzhi walked behind him, wrapped his arms around his neck from behind, and pressed it against his ear: "I will always be with you."

She has said this sentence many times, but she still feels that it is not enough... As long as it can avoid the darkness and loneliness in this person's bones, she is willing to say it until the end of her life.

The hot air of midsummer passed through the colonnade.

Moonlight flowers are pure white wind chimes shaking silently.

Eric was silent for a moment, took her left hand, and pushed a gold ring onto her ring finger.

"Blanzhi, marry me."

-

In the blink of an eye, summer is here.

Duke Clayton finally gave up investigating the whereabouts of the theater ghost, and the scope of Blanche's activities expanded from a suburban villa to a secular nunnery.

Now Beth is in charge of the secular nunnery. I haven't seen her for a few months. She has changed amazingly. Before, she only wore layers of skirts and lace gloves, but now she is dressed in a rather masculine way. White shirt, striped vest and olive trousers, and leather ankle boots on the feet.Even though she was dressed like this, the makeup on her face was intact: thin curved eyebrows, black eyeliner, red lips, and two sparkling diamond earrings pinned to her earlobes.

A gentleman wearing a top hat beside her was looking at her attentively: "Miss Beth, are you free tonight? I have reserved a seat at the Leeds Hotel."

"No time, I'm busy."

"What about tomorrow?" The gentleman carefully observed Beth's expression. "Not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow. I know the manager of the hotel, and the seats can be reserved for us for a week."

"No time." Beth thought for a while and smiled, "Mr. Ward, Leeds Hotel costs a hundred francs for two people. If you think the money is too hot to keep, you can consider donating it to our secular female convent." .These poor orphans and widows are still in their spring clothes."

Mr. Ward looked at Beth's lily-like side profile, then at the little girls playing in the yard, and gritted his teeth for a while: "I donate!"

Ten minutes later, Mr. Ward clutched his wallet and left with pain in his face.At this time, Blanche got down from the carriage, stood in front of the gate of the convent, and called out with a smile, "Beth."

Beth was taken aback, and turned her head: "Why are you here? Duke Clayton is still looking for you. The women around him now look very similar to you. You'd better be careful, I'll take care of you here By the way—" She looked around suspiciously, "Where's the musician? Why isn't he by your side to protect you?"

"He's busy."

The two walked around the secular female monastery. Compared with the original, the place has changed a lot. The lawn has been trimmed neatly, and the peeling walls have taken on a new look.Bai Lanzhi did not expect that she could do so well, and was a little surprised.Beth said shyly: "I don't believe that I can do this. When you disappeared, I was terrified. The newspaper said that you were captured by a ghost, but how can there be ghosts in this world? Then the musician came to me," she still refused to admit that Eric was Blanche's husband, "and asked me to help you take care of the secular convent. At first I was terrified, and I couldn't even keep track of the accounts. There are frequent mistakes in the calculations, and you know the French are not the material for calculations. For a while, I felt that I was far inferior to you and completely unqualified for the job."

"and then?"

Beth's eyes began to look confident: "Do you still remember the woman who scolded you when we came to the secular nunnery together?"

Bai Lanzhi didn't remember at all: "Who?"

"At that time, she kept calling you the duke's mistress, yelling loudly, saying that she would never invest money in the secular nunnery funded by the mistress. It was very dramatic that the day after you disappeared, she She came to the secular female monastery for help in a panic. She was cheated by her husband and left the house. The judge ruled that her husband does not need to pay her alimony. She has no other place to go, so she can only come to us for help "Beth breathed a sigh of relief, "Until then, I realized that the life I used to be was really boring. Why did I always secretly compare myself to you? Even if I grow up to be Venus and can't control my own destiny, everything will be in vain. It's empty talk."

The scene of being flooded by hungry refugees in her dream flashed through her mind.

Blanche looked at Beth quietly: "You are quite right."

After visiting the secular women's monastery, Blanche stayed and had dinner with everyone before going back to the villa in the suburbs by carriage.Before leaving, she took out her checkbook and wrote Beth a check giving her the rest of her savings.

"I'll leave it to you here."

Beth clutched the check, her chest heaved violently a few times, her eyes turned red suddenly, she sobbed and said, "I'm sorry... I sold you to Odile for an apartment before... I'm really sorry, you are a good girl , I shouldn't have misunderstood you like that before..."

"You are also a good girl." Bai Lanzhi laughed, "Besides, you have never been loyal to me before, so there is no such thing as 'betrayal'."

Beth sniffed, her eyes determined: "But from now on, I will be loyal to you and help you take care of this place. Don't worry, I will do my best to make this place a formal charity house and help these people go on the right path. I will never use this money indiscriminately, and I will send you a bill every month for you to look over. Blanche," she smiled with red eyes, and paused every word, "Odelle saved my life, You brought me back to life."

After bidding farewell to Beth, Blanche stepped into the carriage and started on her way home.

She hadn't seen Eric all day, and she missed it so badly that her heart ached.

Halfway through the carriage, at the same position and in the same way, she was stopped by Odell.

I haven't seen her for a few months, and Odell's dress is becoming more and more strange and dark. She is wearing a black cloak with a hood hanging down, covering most of her face, revealing a pair of blood-red lips.

She raised the curtain, and the first thing she said when she saw Blanche was: "Do you want to know Eric's past life?"