A measured knock came from outside the door.
The smile on Ye Jinzhi's face vanished instantly, turning cold. He swiftly picked up Bella and gently placed her on the velvet sofa nearby.
"Be good and stay here. Don't move."
He whispered his instructions. Afraid she might get bored in the piano room, he specifically brought a tablet and tucked it into her arms.
After a moment of thought, still feeling uneasy, he grabbed several thick cushions and stacked them tightly around Bella.
Having done all this, Ye Jinzhi circled the sofa three full times. Only when he was sure that the apricot-colored hem of her dress couldn't be seen from any angle did he purse his lips and go to open the door.
Bella huddled inside her "cushion fortress," planning to binge-watch a show or play a matching game during this boring piano practice time.
She eagerly stretched out her fingertip and swiped hard across the tablet screen.
No response.
She poked it again, swiped a couple more times, and even tried rubbing her finger pad frantically against it.
However, the screen remained as black as ink, coldly reflecting her dumbfounded face.
Bella had a mental breakdown:
I forgot... I'm made of silicone. The screen can't sense my presence at all!
She let go in dejection, listening to the muffled thud of the tablet sliding onto the carpet, and let out a long sigh.
Forget it, electronic products clearly just don't mix with a fairy like me.
She simply relaxed her body, sinking into the soft sofa. Through the thick cushions, she listened to the piano music coming from nearby.
This time, the piano notes were no longer the violent roar from before. Instead, they became drawn-out and tranquil, and she could even detect a hint of tenderness.
The melody was like an invisible pair of hands, gently smoothing out Bella's previously tense nerves.
However, Bella's eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Not knowing if it was a carb coma, she gradually fell into a deep sleep amidst the lullaby-like piano music.
Zzz—zzzt—!
A sharp, ear-piercing sound of a chainsaw, as if trying to tear through her eardrums, woke Bella up. She groggily rubbed her eyes.
Sitting up with a jolt, the sight before her eyes instantly made her completely wide awake, followed by a massive sense of absurdity.
Bella covered her face and let out a helpless laugh, looking down at her own hands. People really do laugh when they are utterly speechless.
She sat there blankly for a while, feeling a bit dazed, and surveyed the room that could be taken in with a single glance.
There was a faint ring of water stains on the ceiling, who knows how long it had been there.
The wall by the window was densely covered with interwoven red and green sticky notes.
Bella leaned in for a closer look and saw that they were filled with densely packed English vocabulary words, with phonetic symbols and example sentences annotated in red pen next to them.
On the bed was a light yellow floral thin quilt. Although it was washed until it was a bit faded, it still smelled very nice, like lavender laundry detergent.
Apart from a solitary pillow, there was nothing else on the bed.
She got out of bed barefoot and looked around. The room was suffocatingly small, as if one could see the end of a lifetime of poverty at a single glance.
A single bed barely squeezed by the window, with several unfinished high school textbooks and study materials piled at the head of the bed.
Scattered on top of that stack of books were a few crumpled banknotes.
Bella counted them carefully. Bills and coins, totaling 248.5.
For a moment, she felt a bit scared. Could this be her entire life savings?!
Not far away was a simple wardrobe with its zipper half open. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be broken and dangling in mid-air.
On the desk sat half a bag of unfinished sliced bread, a cheap clip-on desk lamp, and a massive, mountain-like pile of exercise books and test papers.
The low table nearby also held a large pile of books, with an electric fan beside it.
Bella casually flipped open one of the books, and the title page clearly read: Grade 11, Class 6.
Before she could read for long, a wave of heat rolled over her.
Bella was so hot that sweat seeped from her forehead, and the fabric on her back instantly clung to her skin.
Outside the window, the ear-piercing sound of car horns drifted up from the street below.
She pushed open the window, completely ignoring the agonizing sound of the electric drill from the renovation team next door, and stared intently at the cool short sleeves and short skirts worn by the pedestrians. Phew, it was still summer.
"Why... why isn't the air conditioner turned on?"
Wiping her sweat, Bella rummaged through the drawers and cabinets until she finally found the air conditioner remote hidden under a pile of math scratch paper at the corner of the desk.
Grasping it like a lifesaver, she closed the window and pressed the buttons desperately towards the yellowing air conditioner for a long time.
No response.
Bella pried open the battery cover on the back, only to find it completely empty. There wasn't even a single rusty battery inside.
Bella: "..."
"System, System, are you there?"
Bella called out tentatively in her mind.
She hadn't harbored any hope, but to her surprise, a faint blue, translucent screen actually materialized before her eyes, mechanically flashing a few lines of cold, glowing text:
[Personal File]
Date: August 30, 2024
Location: Alley 10, Xiaba New Village, Urban Village, S City
Name: Bella
Status: Orphan (Social Relief Recipient)
New School: S City No. 1 High School (Successfully Transferred)
Goal: Become the top scorer of the 2025 S City College Entrance Examination
Afterwards, the screen turned into garbled code and vanished.
Bella didn't even have time to complain about that "top scorer" goal before she was suffocated by the pent-up summer heat in the room.
She couldn't take it anymore; she was going to faint. This was practically a sauna.
She pushed open her bedroom door, and a smell mixing cooking fumes and cheap air freshener hit her face. Realizing it was coming from next door, she closed the living room window.
So it was a shared apartment.
The living room was only slightly larger than her matchbox bedroom. A few unfolded clothes were piled messily on the old sofa, and half an open bag of potato chips and several takeout boxes were scattered across the coffee table.
The narrow balcony was completely stuffed with various t-shirts and long dresses, blocking out most of the light.
Bella couldn't care less about this right now; she was anxious to confirm who she was.
She rushed into the relatively clean shared bathroom. She thought she would see a mess, but surprisingly, everyone seemed to have a sense of boundaries.
Several small plastic baskets were arranged neatly on the sink. She leaned in closer and saw that one of them had a piece of faded tape stuck to it, with two crookedly written words: Bella.
"No way, am I nearsighted?" she muttered. Remembering the glasses case in the bedroom, she felt even more irritated.
She looked up at the mirror.
The face in the mirror was her own, looking exactly like she did in high school.
Except she had never had bangs, so when did the system turn into Edward Scissorhands and give her this haircut?
Heavy, blunt bangs covered her smooth forehead, and her large eyes shone with a clarity untouched by the harshness of society—in short, clear stupidity.
Her skin was fair. Could it be that before her soul arrived, this body had been staying up late doing practice problems? A few pimples had even popped up on her forehead.
After washing up, Bella took another look at this "home."
Through the items in the bathroom, she learned the name of another roommate: Shen Wenjing.
She just didn't know if the person was as quiet and gentle as her name suggested.
The kitchen tools were quite complete, even a bit crowded.
The refrigerator had labels for each shelf, divided clearly. Full of expectation, Bella pulled open the shelf that belonged to her.
Three lonely eggs, two shriveled cucumbers, three tomatoes, and a bundle of the cheapest dried noodles.
She picked up the noodles, thinking her eyes were playing tricks on her, but they really were just plain dried noodles.
"Ah, this..."
Refusing to give up, she yanked open the bottom freezer drawer.
The shelf belonging to Shen Wenjing was crammed with all sorts of ice cream and frozen meats, while the one belonging to Bella...
It was completely empty. Even the layer of frost was thinner than on the other shelves.
Leaning against the refrigerator door, Bella finally figured it out.
The air conditioner remote's batteries weren't dead because someone forgot to replace them; it was purely out of poverty! She was absolutely dirt poor.
Staring at those three eggs, Bella suddenly felt that the few bites of pork knuckle she had just eaten at Ye Jinzhi's house were like an illusion from a past life.
Was she still asleep? Steeling herself, Bella gave herself a hard pinch. "Hiss..."
It hurt.
