Bella was completely flattered for a moment. "No need, no need! Thank you for the tip, miss, but please don't spend any more money on me."
"It's fine. The brand sent a variety of styles, and some of them should suit you. Knowing my daughter's personality, she never likes to wear these frilly nightgowns. They just take up space at home, and it would be a pity to throw them away."
Hearing her say this, Bella felt her guilt over accepting an unearned reward ease considerably.
She pursed her lips, stopped declining, and typed her height and measurements into the chat box.
"The cuts of the nightgowns vary quite a bit, so just looking at the measurements might not be accurate. How about this: you send over a close-fitting piece of clothing, and I'll have the brand compare it to pick out a few that fit perfectly. Then, I'll mail them back to you along with your own clothes."
Bella thought for a moment, not completely letting her guard down. She searched the address the other party gave on Degao Maps: Yunshang Garden, a wealthy neighborhood in City S.
People who could afford to live there shouldn't have any interest in her worthless clothes.
"In the same city? What a coincidence," Bella muttered to herself.
She still kept her wits about her, choosing not to write down her exact apartment number, but instead providing the address of a different residential complex nearby. She went to her closet and picked out a nightdress she had only tried on once and washed thoroughly.
She planned to mail it out after school tomorrow.
After finishing her drawing, she checked the other messages in her inbox.
Even though she had only drawn a few pieces in total, her follower count had quietly surpassed a thousand.
Excluding the generous wealthy lady who threw in thirty thousand, the other scattered tips added up to about two hundred yuan.
For her current situation, this was already a very good start.
She wasn't in a hurry to cash out.
The most important thing right now was to build a sufficiently impressive fan base without letting it interfere with her studies.
Only when her wings were fully grown could she use this as a bargaining chip to talk to Shen Wenjing's brother about the comic collaboration for that audio drama.
Moreover, she was still a minor right now.
Bella glanced at the ID card the system had given her earlier: October 1st.
It was exactly the same as her birthday in reality. In just over twenty days, she would celebrate her eighteenth birthday in this world.
For now, she could only wait. After all, being a minor came with many restrictions when it came to withdrawing funds from the platform or negotiating business collaborations.
After her birthday, whether it was that audio drama or other jobs, she would be able to legitimately take over.
After school the next day, Ye Jinzhi's figure did not appear at the school gates.
Not seeing him, Bella's anxious heart relaxed a little.
Ultimately, this broken system had previously arranged for her to have physical contact with the male lead, but to her, Ye Jinzhi was a complete stranger.
If it wasn't to complete the mission, she really didn't want to have any interaction with a yandere like him.
Although she had been drugged at the bar before, and the other party had indeed helped soothe her body, leading to very intimate contact between them, it was limited to just that; they hadn't gone all the way.
Meeting him the next day, she still felt awkward.
During their close interactions over the following two nights, Bella had tried her best to adjust her mindset. However, the looks he cast her way were filled with a paranoid, burning possessiveness, as if he wanted to devour her whole.
It always made her feel a bit uncomfortable. She wasn't some possession with his exclusive label stuck to her.
He was handsome, yes, but he wasn't normal, and she didn't have the guts to make a move on him.
She just didn't know if the rehabilitation would be successful, and after that...
Bella pondered the possibility of her succeeding in correcting his path.
And then there was that broken system, online one moment and playing dead the next.
One moment it threw her into Ye Jinzhi's childhood, and by nightfall, it unexpectedly sent her to the bedroom where she woke up after being drugged that day.
During the day, she was once again a resentful high school senior.
Even though her grades were excellent in reality, who would want to suffer through the torment of senior year all over again in a book's world?
She seriously suspected that this broken system would sooner or later throw her into some other period of Ye Jinzhi's life.
Along the way, Bella reviewed the clues she knew, even beginning to doubt whether she could ever return to reality.
Wait!
A scene flashed through her mind like lightning.
"That monk!" Bella stopped dead in her tracks.
But in the next second, her face fell.
"But, which temple was he in again?"
She tapped the search box with her finger and typed in "National Temple List."
Looking at the densely packed search results that popped up on the page, Bella's vision went dark, and she nearly fainted on the curb right then and there.
There were over thirty thousand registered temples nationwide, not to mention those small shrines hidden deep in the mountains and old forests that couldn't even be found on a map.
Staring at the screen, wanting to cry but having no tears left, she dragged her exhausted body home. After mailing the package with the nightdress, she skipped dinner and went straight to sleep.
Little did she know that just two short minutes after handing the package to the courier, it appeared directly in a certain someone's hands.
"Young Master."
Ye Yi, wearing pure white gloves, presented the unopened package to the backseat.
After completing the handover, he silently retreated.
The black luxury car continued to drive forward.
Ye Jinzhi lowered his eyes to look at the package printed with Bella's address. He patiently tore open the plastic bag through his gloves, only taking them off after all the plastic sealing had been sliced open.
His well-defined hand slowly reached into the soft fabric.
He brought the clothes close to his nose. It was Bella's scent.
A faint fragrance of roses mixed with her unique scent, exactly the same as the smell he breathed in when he held her in his arms yesterday.
It was confirmed.
The next second, as if completely tearing off his usual disguise of aloofness, he buried his face deeply into the nightdress, greedily and morbidly absorbing the lingering warmth.
Even though his face and fingertips had already touched the fabric, he still felt it wasn't enough, far from enough.
He slowly gathered the thin nightdress into his arms, tightening his embrace. At that moment, it was as if he wasn't holding a piece of clothing, but tightly imprisoning the young girl who vainly attempted to escape him.
He closed his eyes, his cold profile sinking into the soft folds of the nightdress, and finally buried his entire face into it once more.
His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he let out an almost addicted groan: "Bella..."
The young man repeatedly rubbed against the piece of fabric that would touch her neck, sniffing it obsessively, as if trying to kiss her warm skin through this layer.
The luxury car had long since arrived at its destination, the engine turned off and parked for a long time.
Ye Yi stood outside the car door, his hanging fingertips a bit stiff. He looked at his watch, thought about the message he had received, and repeatedly weighed whether he should speak up and interrupt at this moment.
Finally, just as he was about to knock on the car door under immense psychological pressure, the door opened.
He saw his usually noble young master now had a piece of thin material wrapped around his neck.
When Ye Jinzhi drew closer, he finally saw clearly that it didn't look like a silk scarf. The fabric was quite long, and it was directly stuffed into the collar of the young master's black T-shirt.
Following the young man's collarbone downwards, one could clearly see something stuffed beneath the black T-shirt.
Ye Jinzhi walked straight into the company expressionlessly, his steps swift like the wind.
At 12:30 AM, the last light in the office went out.
Having finally dealt with a mountain of work, Ye Jinzhi leaned back against the car seat, resting his eyes as the driver pulled up to Bella's apartment building.
After a long moment, he simply said,
"You may leave."
"Yes, Young Master."
As the hum of the car engine faded into the distance, Ye Jinzhi's silhouette was entirely swallowed by the shadows.
He made his way up the stairs, a metal key twirling between his fingers before he smoothly slid it into the lock.
With a faint click of the tumblers, the front door swung open effortlessly before him.
He didn't turn on the lights. As if he had rehearsed this countless times in this very apartment, he navigated the darkness with unerring precision, finding his way straight to Bella's bedroom door.
His long, elegant fingers wrapped around the cold metal doorknob, applying a gentle pressure.
Click.
With a soft push, the door opened.
