"Let's begin."
Ye Jinzhi kept it brief and to the point. He casually pushed a stack of scratch paper and a pen across the desk toward her, then turned and walked away briskly.
Bella stared at his tall, straight back until it disappeared through the doorway, then looked down at the incredibly dull workbook on the desk.
Since he was gone, whether she studied or not... wasn't that entirely up to her?
Holding the pen, she hesitated for less than three seconds between doing math and secretly drawing before comfortably choosing the latter.
After all, she had just been tormented so miserably; she had to find a way to get her revenge.
Most importantly, it was in her nature to be rebellious.
The pen rustled against the paper. The theme Bella set this time was: the aloof disciplinary committee member and the delinquent sports student.
On the paper, the girl wasn't sitting properly, but leaning lightly against the edge of the desk.
The layers of her dark blue pleated skirt cascaded down, brazenly invading the boy's desk.
She leaned forward slightly, her long silver hair falling down, the tips brushing against the boy's shoulder.
The most ambiguous detail rested at the girl's fingertips, a part Bella deliberately enlarged:
It was a pitch-black timer, its lanyard tangled between her pale fingers.
The boy stared at the timer, remembering how it had once been covered in his sweat after training. Such an intimate object being casually played with by her exuded a silent provocation...
Bella was drawing with great enthusiasm, the lines drawn by her pen becoming increasingly bold.
She was completely immersed in her own world, entirely unaware that the air in the study had begun to freeze.
The man had returned at some point, standing silently behind her.
He lowered his eyes, his gaze landing on the overlapping figures and ambiguous actions on the scratch paper, dark currents surging in his deep pupils.
Bella, however, knew nothing of this. She was still contemplating whether to draw it even more boldly.
"Darling."
The slightly husky male voice brushed against her ear without warning, carrying a warm breath.
"Ah!"
Bella shuddered in fright, the pen in her hand leaving a glaring black mark across the paper.
Like a startled fawn, she whipped her head around. When she saw that handsome face so close at hand, her previous panic instantly turned into annoyance. She clenched her small fists and ruthlessly pounded the man's shoulder.
"Are you crazy! You nearly scared me to death..."
As she complained, she used her body as a shield and frantically tried to hide the sketch of the sports student inside the workbook.
Ye Jinzhi did not dodge, allowing those soft fists to fall on his body, a clear, indulgent smile in the depths of his dark eyes.
Only when she had vented enough did he unhurriedly reach out his large hand and hold hers.
He raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze looking past her fingers to land on the exposed corner of the scratch paper:
"Good girl... finished studying?"
Bella stiffened, unable to squeeze out a single word.
She hadn't even opened it. Feeling guilty, she lowered her head, not even daring to look at his current expression.
But on second thought, she had almost been scared to death by him just now, and they hadn't settled that score yet!
Thinking of this, as if grabbing a lifeline, she suddenly raised her head, forcing her pitiful amount of confidence to shout loudly:
"You... you scared me just now! You haven't even apologized to me yet."
She puffed out her chest, putting on a spoiled and unreasonable appearance that said if he didn't apologize, this wouldn't be over.
Looking at her fierce but cowardly appearance, Ye Jinzhi was not angry at all; instead, he let out a low chuckle.
Such a request was exactly what he wanted.
He played along, leaning down, his broad palm completely enveloping her fingertips.
His cool, thin lips lingered over her knuckles, every light kiss making Bella tremble slightly.
"Alright, it's my fault."
His voice was deep and lingering, revealing an indescribable indulgence, "I scared my darling just now. I apologize. How does my darling want to punish me?"
Looking at his humble and submissive posture, Bella's heart began to beat like a drum.
How was this accepting punishment? It was clearly demanding favors under the guise of an apology...
For a moment, she was caught in a dilemma. All the words she had prepared were blocked in her throat by his accommodating manner.
She had been careless!
Bella cried out inwardly that things were bad. As if burned by fire, she abruptly pulled her hand back from his palm.
She unnaturally covered her lips and coughed lightly twice, forcibly maintaining her crumbling confidence:
"Forget it. Since you didn't do it on purpose, I'll... be the bigger person and let it go."
She awkwardly turned around and frantically opened the workbook, pretending to be immersed in the dense formulas, trying to suppress the lingering heat on her face.
Seeing her like this, the corners of Ye Jinzhi's lips curled up slightly. That smile quietly revealed itself from the corners of his eyes, an uncontrollable playfulness in his gaze, but he truly didn't continue to tease her.
Hooking a chair with his long legs, he sat down in the empty seat next to her, opened his laptop, and began to calmly handle his official business.
Although Bella was staring at the problems, her mind was entirely on the person next to her. She held her breath and, using her long hair as a shield, stole glances at him from the corner of her eye like a vigilant little cat.
Seeing the man's slender fingers tapping on the keyboard, his expression focused as if he had truly immersed himself in busy work, Bella's hanging heart finally fell back into her chest.
For a while, only the crisp sound of the keyboard and the occasional rustling of turning pages remained in the study.
The warm yellow light cast their shadows on the wall. Ye Jinzhi quietly moved closer without showing it. The two shadows, one tall and one short, snuggled closely together and overlapped, blurring each other's boundaries and revealing an almost sticky intimacy.
Bella calculated the problem in front of her three whole times, almost tearing the scratch paper, but the result was still entirely off the mark.
She frowned. The formulas involved in this problem clearly exceeded the scope of her knowledge; they were not at all the formulas from her high school textbooks in the real world.
A heavy cough suddenly came from beside her, breaking the silence of the study.
Bella didn't pay attention at first, but out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Ye Jinzhi calmly looking at the reports on his computer.
The glorious achievements she had seen on the school's ranking board during the day suddenly popped into her mind, along with the rumors about his guaranteed admission quota.
With such a top-tier IQ, solving this kind of difficult problem should be a piece of cake, right? Even after a few years, those high school knowledge points would probably still be at his fingertips.
Bella bit her lower lip, hesitating and struggling internally for a moment before finally opening her mouth tentatively: "Are... are you busy right now?"
Hearing that soft and sweet call, a smile flashed across the corners of Ye Jinzhi's lips, so fast that it was impossible to catch.
He turned his head, his gaze falling on her: "What does my darling need me to do?"
"Do you know how to do this problem?" Bella pushed the workbook in front of him, her fingertip tapping on the tricky question.
She thought he would look down to examine the question, but unexpectedly, Ye Jinzhi didn't even spare a glance at the problem.
Those pitch-black eyes stared straight at her, filled with undisguised predatory desire.
"I do."
His voice was slightly husky, laced with a coaxing tone. "But... if I help my good girl, what is in it for me?"
"Then what do you want?"
Ye Jinzhi did not answer her. Instead, he pulled something out of his pants pocket.
Bella took a look at it. It was a pair of black sheer stockings.
