Mrs. Clement drew in a sharp breath and pressed her body against the door.
“Don’t come in!”
Realizing her tone was too sharp, Mrs. Clement softened it and said to the servants outside the door, “…You all go and soothe the guests first.”
The servants retreated in response, and Ye Tang completely tore open Charlotte’s dress.
Thanks to the fashion of this era that required exposing the chest area, even though Charlotte’s dress was relatively thick, Ye Tang could still find a place to tear it open.
The real trouble was the culprit behind Charlotte’s fainting: the corset.
Every part of the human body has its function.
The reason the human abdominal cavity is a bag rather than a tube is that humans need the bag to hold and protect their fragile and numerous organs. The little belly pouch on a human stomach is not ugly and useless excess fat, but a cushion that protects the organs and reduces external impacts on them.
The corset, which lifted women’s breasts and cinched their waists, was a tool that forcibly altered a woman’s figure using external force. In fact, it was tantamount to a torture device.
Imagine the abdominal cavity as a biodegradable lunchbox filled with fast food. What happens if you squeeze it with external force? Of course, the food inside gets crushed and mashed, spilling outward.
The human body was the same.
The organs squeezed by the corset were not just the “excess fat” around the waist and abdomen. The liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, uterus, left and right kidneys, large and small intestines, appendix, even the bladder in the abdominal cavity would all be compressed together.
The squeezed organs would not only shift positions but also risked atrophy. The gallbladder and liver would lose vitality, the spleen and stomach would struggle to digest food, stomach acid would reflux into the esophagus and damage it. Various mucous membranes could become sticky and necrotic. Intestines clogged with too much waste and unable to discharge it would develop diseases. The left and right kidneys could necrotize, and the bladder would constantly leak urine due to external pressure stimulation, eventually falling ill.
The most terrifying part was that many people thought having something support the waist and replace the waist muscles was good for it. Little did they know this would only lead to the degeneration of the waist muscles, making it impossible to stand straight without external support in the future.
The corset’s effects didn’t stop there. The human spine would also slowly deform under external force. If the girl wearing the corset was too young, her spine could easily be damaged by it.
Why could the girls in the salon only sit and not stand for long periods? They thought wearing a corset made them slim and beautiful, and could even control their gluttonous mouths. How could they know their slimness was a pathological state, and that bowl-mouth thin waist “beauty” was simply a symptom of chronic suicide?
The reason something as utterly harmful to women as the corset could flourish so openly was simple: women were not treated as people.
Women were demanded to be “slender and delicate,” brainwashed into believing a bowl-mouth thin waist was beauty. No one cared if wearing a corset was like wearing a torture device, or how much damage this torture device would do to their bodies.
Men appreciated women’s frail and delicate “beauty,” while capitalists reaped gold coins condensed from women’s blood.
Women could not hear the wails of the souls who died under corsets; they only chased the “beauty” defined by others, draining their last drop of life force in so-called “fashion” and “style.”
Even if someone stood up and said corsets were torture devices stained with blood, women would only throw stones at that person. Capitalists would even take the lives of those who obstructed their path to wealth.
“What are you—”
Mrs. Clement took several deep breaths before walking toward Ye Tang by the bedside.
Charlotte’s corset was tied far too tightly. Ye Tang had exerted tremendous effort to tug loose just one strap.
“Miss Charlotte’s symptoms should be acute neurogenic shock.”
“Neuro… neuro what?”
“Neurogenic shock. It’s a shock reaction that occurs when a person receives intense stimulation, such as mental trauma or severe pain. …I’m not a professional doctor, so I can’t be sure if Miss Charlotte has other heart or blood-related issues. But based on my knowledge, Miss Charlotte ended up like this because of the corset.”
As she gradually loosened the corset, Ye Tang’s hands were chafed red by the ropes on it.
Charlotte’s lower abdomen was extremely flat, the kind of flatness seen only when the internal organs had been hollowed out. Ye Tang had only seen girls with such abdomens before in countries ravaged by famine, war, and rampant plagues.
Looking at Charlotte’s face, still pale but with lips no longer as darkly purple, Ye Tang truly pitied this girl who had nearly been killed by a corset—born into a not-impoverished family, in a country without war, yet tormented to near death by a torture device at the flower of her youth…
“Corset…”
Ye Tang nodded, covered Charlotte’s body with the blanket, then opened the window and drew the curtains.
“Miss Charlotte’s organs have already severely shifted… Her stomach, spleen, liver, kidneys, uterus, bladder, intestines… they should all have varying degrees of functional damage. Madam can call a doctor to give Miss Charlotte a thorough examination.”
“But why today? Why specifically today?”
Mrs. Clement stroked Charlotte’s face with tears welling up. Her eyelashes trembled, and tears directly dripped onto Charlotte’s cheek.
“It’s probably due to stress. She was already forcing herself to go out and meet people despite feeling unwell. The guests were all unfamiliar, strangers. Miss Charlotte surely didn’t want to embarrass Madam, so no matter how uncomfortable, she endured and endured…”
Until she collapsed.
Don’t say the child was too foolish, suffering in silence without speaking up despite having a mouth.
With just one look from a loved one, a child craving affection and love would try to hold on an extra second even if they were missing hands or feet.
Charlotte was just like that.
Thump thump thump—
Mrs. Clement still had more questions for Ye Tang when a knock sounded at the door.
A maid outside said, “Madam, Dr. Banner has arrived.”
“Please let the doctor in!”
“Then, Madam, I shall take my leave.”
Ye Tang said as she stood, lifted her skirt, and curtsied to Mrs. Clement.
The one who could decide Charlotte’s fate was never Ye Tang. Mrs. Clement was the one who needed to make the choice.
Ye Tang went downstairs.
Downstairs, the singing and dancing continued peacefully. It seemed Mrs. Clement’s servants were indeed well-trained. The knife hadn’t stabbed themselves, and Charlotte was just an obscure little figure. The guests truly didn’t care about the life or death of such a girl.
Even worse, some were already whispering about how they would comfort the poor Mrs. Clement at Charlotte’s funeral if something happened to her.
Claudia was listless, worried about her mother and annoyed by the men around her holding forth grandly.
“—Queen Mary was just a usurping bitch! A woman daring to call herself the Great…”
The man’s words grew more outrageous, and Claudia couldn’t help but mentally refute him.
Mary the Great was clearly one of the rare wise rulers! Without her, Osnabrock never would have survived the great plague era of the thirteenth century!
“She not only killed her husband’s lover, but murdered her own husband and even killed her biological son for power—”
Claudia felt a string snap in her mind.
With a flick of her hair adorned with the spring-loaded gold drill, Claudia straightened her back. Fury made her lift her head and declare loudly, “Mary the Great did not usurp the throne! She was originally a princess of Tartafu and had the legitimate right to inherit the throne! At that time, her husband Otis II was bedridden with syphilis, and her son Otis III had contracted smallpox! In Osnabrock’s royal family, only Mary the Great had the legal right to inherit the throne! Without the Great Emperor’s active efforts to eradicate smallpox, Osnabrock would have vanished from the map long ago! Who are you people to insult Mary the Great!”
The man rebutted by Claudia was first stunned, then flushed red with anger, showing an expression of humiliated fury. “You! Who do you think you are!? Do you know who I am?! How dare you speak to me like this!!”
Gloria had been stunned by her sister’s sudden outburst the second before. The next second, she felt anger at her sister being threatened.
Unexpectedly, something she had casually read suddenly proved useful. Gloria stood by her sister’s side and declared firmly, “I don’t know who you are. But I know Article 11 of Osnabrock law: ‘Publicly slandering royal family members is punishable by death at most!’”
The two little sisters glared fiercely, their already aggressively beautiful faces now flowing with a vivid, radiant charm.
Kim Hora stepped back a few paces, wishing she could pretend not to know Claudia and Gloria. Seeking benefit and avoiding harm was human nature, wasn’t it?
But in retreating, she bumped into someone—a handsome man around twenty years old, fist to lips, chuckling lowly. In his eyes, the two Hedelin sisters were like two chubby little golden leopards, baring their teeth and claws at people.
“Mocking ladies is not the behavior of a gentleman.”
Beside the gorgeously handsome youth stood a tall man with a resolute face and masculine air all over. Hands clasped behind his back holding his gloves, the tall man reminded his companion in a deep bass voice. Like his companion, he was very handsome, but his face was like an iceberg, making people feel chilled just looking at him.
Kim Hora’s eyes stuck to the two men and couldn’t be pried away. They gave her the illusion of stumbling onto an idol drama set.
Being stared at so directly by Kim Hora using her body to ogle other men, Cinderella felt mortified to death. Fortunately, wresting control of the body from the dazed Kim Hora wasn’t too hard. Cinderella quickly withdrew her gaze and ran toward her sisters.
“Aish—! Can’t you see those two are stirring up trouble!? Rushing up like this is just asking to die!?”
Cinderella ignored Kim Hora’s shouts and resolutely dashed toward Claudia and Gloria.
Just then, Ye Tang also came down from upstairs.
Against the light, Ye Tang’s face blurred for an instant. Those who looked toward the stairs following the sound of her descent saw, in that moment, not Mrs. Hedelin with her sharp features, but a poised noblewoman whose every movement carried elegance.
“Dia, Lia, Rela, time to go home.”
Ye Tang’s original goal had been to get acquainted with Mrs. Clement, ideally winning her support for the express delivery industry—in Ye Tang’s view, Mrs. Clement was a shrewd investor. If she spotted the potential value in express delivery, she could certainly calculate the profits.
However, with Charlotte’s accident today, Mrs. Clement surely had no mood for socializing or business.
To put it pragmatically, Ye Tang didn’t want to waste time or effort on inconsequential people. The goal of befriending Mrs. Clement had been achieved unexpectedly, but promoting express delivery to her could not. Thus, there was no need for Ye Tang to stay at the salon.
The little noblewoman Emily Theodore had long vanished. Ye Tang couldn’t even bid her farewell.
“Please convey my thanks to Mrs. Clement. Today’s gathering was truly eye-opening.”
Taking the coat handed by the maid and putting it on, Ye Tang said to the maid before her.
The maid hurriedly curtsied and escorted Ye Tang’s family to the door.
Watching Ye Tang’s family board the carriage, the gorgeously handsome youth and his tall companion withdrew their gazes from the window.
“They’re not nobles?”
Visible surprise appeared on the tall man’s icy face.
He found it hard to believe that a woman who wasn’t nobility actually knew Mary the Great’s life story clearly and understood Osnabrock’s laws. ……No, even among noble women, few would know these things.
“When I was sent by the Grand Duke……by ‘That One’, I wasn’t too happy about it, but I didn’t expect to actually see something interesting! ‘That One’ will definitely want to hear about today’s events!”
“……‘That One’ wants to know about Mrs. Clement’s situation. Don’t report irrelevant things to That One all the time.”
The gorgeously handsome youth laughed upon hearing this: “How can this be considered irrelevant? You saw that scene just now, right? The mother of those two girls was holding Mrs. Clement’s nie——niece as she went upstairs! Does she look like a doctor? She doesn’t. But did you see who sent her off? That was Mrs. Clement’s personal maid. Without the master’s instructions, a personal maid wouldn’t do something like greeting and seeing off guests.”
In terms of meticulousness, he ultimately couldn’t match the person before him. The tall man fell silent. In the end, he could only sigh: “You report, I’ll supplement.”