“Waaah—!”
“You’re called Bella?
Bella, I’ll come back for you. You have to wait for me, okay?”
Young Tan Yanli was dragged away by his father, crying hysterically, his nose red, his curly golden hair a complete mess.
On the other side stood Ye Jinzhi, a black-haired boy, his expression calm.
He didn’t spare even a single glance at the loudly sobbing Tan Yanli. Instead, he swiftly took the soaking wet Bella from him.
He didn’t hold her gently in his arms. He grabbed her like she was a prisoner who had committed a crime, his thumb and forefinger clamping tightly around Bella’s slender neck.
Bella was choked so hard she nearly performed a hanging act for him.
Through her blurred vision, Bella saw Ye Jinzhi carry her down a long corridor. After several twists and turns, they entered a dimly lit room.
A sharp “click” sounded. The door was locked from the inside.
“Bella, I’m going to punish you.”
Ye Jinzhi’s voice was still crisp and pleasant, but his words made her blood run cold.
Bella thought: Punish me?
What did I do?
That curly-haired brat kidnapped me, and now I’m the one you’re taking your anger out on?
Before she could straighten out the logic, her body suddenly lost its balance.
“Thump!”
Bella plunged into icy water once again.
The faucet above was turned to maximum, and a torrent of water crashed down with a roaring “whoosh.”
“You smell like him, Bella. Wash it off.”
Expressionless, he stretched out a single finger and pressed it lightly against Bella’s chest, preventing her from floating up.
The boy bent down slightly, his pretty face looking especially gloomy in the watery mist. His pitch-black eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Bella in the water, the surface reflecting his childish face.
He tilted his head, his voice low and soft, as if talking to himself or like an abandoned kitten whining:
“Bella, if I hadn’t come, would you have gone with him?”
“You promised to stay with me only… How dare you abandon me?”
His fingers tightened slowly beneath the water. Through the cold current, his voice came through muffled and dull:
“Why… are you so unwilling to stay by my side?
“Bella… you lied to me.
If you had really gone with him, I would never have found you again… So I will never let you leave.”
Ye Jinzhi had already fallen into his own spiral of twisted logic. Somewhat crazed, he reached out his other hand and placed it on Bella’s neck, his gaze gradually turning vacant:
“What does he have that attracts you?
That crybaby who’s always sniffling—is he really worth you shedding tears for him?”
The faucet kept running without stop, and the water level had already risen past Bella’s mouth.
Almost immediately, water poured into her nostrils and eyes without any gap, flooding in.
She couldn’t breathe. A heavy, suffocating feeling crashed over her like a tidal wave.
“Since you like running outside so much,” he murmured softly, a touch of cruel amusement creeping into his voice,
“I’ll just lock you in here. That way, you can’t go anywhere.”
【Ugh, it hurts so much. I can hardly breathe anymore.】
Bella’s consciousness flickered wildly on the edge of suffocation.
She no longer cared about being discovered. Primal survival instinct drove her to struggle.
Splash, splash.
At first, the boy was still lost in his own world, his fingertips pressing down mechanically.
But as Bella’s struggles grew more violent, she began flailing and splashing water, showering his face with icy drops.
Ye Jinzhi snapped back to reality.
Only then did he realize that his hand was clamped tightly around Bella’s slender neck.
Startled, the boy tried to pull her out, but before he could act, those sapphire-like eyes actually fluttered and blinked right in front of him.
His Bella…
had blinked.
Ye Jinzhi’s breath caught in his throat. His pupils contracted instantly.
It was as if he had been frozen in place, his entire body immobile beside the sink.
Was it a trick of the light?
Or was he so desperate for her to stay that he had conjured up this absurd hallucination?
Trembling, he instinctively twisted the faucet shut.
The roaring water abruptly stopped. In the sink, the soaked, pale blue dress spread out like seaweed in the cold water.
Apart from a few faint, tiny bubbles rising from around Bella’s mouth and nose, she seemed to show no other change.
Bella felt as though her body had lost all support, sinking heavily inch by inch toward the bottom.
Had that desperate, vivid struggle just now been nothing but an illusion?
The boy stared intently at the figure at the bottom—the one that had briefly come to life and then quickly returned to stillness.
“…Bella?”
In an instant, his pupils dilated unnaturally from extreme excitement, taking up most of his eye sockets.
Staring at the doll lying quietly in the water, the corners of his mouth gradually curled into a strange, satisfied smile.
The boy leaned down again, his nose nearly touching the icy water’s surface.
“Bella, you can’t fool me.”
The room was very quiet. So quiet that only the boy’s slightly rapid breathing from excitement could be heard.
He extended a small, cool hand, gently lifting Bella out of the water with soft movements. He grabbed a cashmere towel and slowly, inch by inch, blotted the water from the ends of her hair and the hem of her dress.
“Bella, let’s change into another dress, okay? Staying wet will make you catch a cold.”
He muttered to himself, as if he had completely forgotten what had just happened. Smiling, he pulled dresses out from a nearby wardrobe one after another.
“Bella, how about we wear this French lace dress? The collar has your favorite diamond chips.”
He carefully unfastened the buttons at her back, his fingertips brushing against her cold spine with a faint touch.
Bella remained stiff, letting him do as he pleased, but inside she was screaming:
【You little brat, you nearly drowned me. Just you wait!】
“Bella, we’re going to do a princess bun today.
I’ll braid your hair into a pretty plait and clip on the ruby-bow accessory.”
He took a small golden comb and patiently untangled Bella’s messy hair. After every stroke, he tilted his head to observe the result until the doll in the mirror looked flawless. Only then did he show a satisfied, childish smile.
“Bella, today we’re wearing these ballet shoes, okay? They just arrived yesterday, I’m sure you’ll love them.”
He crouched down like a most loyal little knight, but as he fussed with the ribbons, he suddenly tightened them hard. His pitch-black eyes reflected Bella’s delicate but lifeless face.
【What incredible self-control.】
Ye Jinzhi secretly admired it.
“You’ve been disobedient.
So, Bella, I’m going to punish you by making you skip dinner.
You’ll have to stay hungry tonight.”
The boy’s tone carried pity, but his words made Bella so angry she nearly jumped up.
His fingers lifted her chin, his fingertips lightly, almost teasingly, tracing her pale cheek.
His gaze locked onto her eyes, trying to dredge up even a single spark of anger or pleading.
But Bella simply let him do as he pleased.
Her eyes were empty, as if they had lost all light. They stared past the boy’s shoulder and sank into nothingness.
