Chapter 03
“Why don’t you listen to some music to rest your mind? Iâll call you when we arrive.” Sensing that the atmosphere had grown a bit too quiet, Lu Yuan turned on the car audio system.
A gothic prelude began to play. The moment the lyrics started, Liang Yuxuan instantly recognized the songâ
The first gunshot on a snowy night sinks the moon Illuminating the opening of Adolphe Adamâs melody The young girl wears pure white organza, her jet-black hair tied up Her bare feet wading through the flawless moonlight Her soft red lips lack a taste of sweet talk Then grant her a beautiful dream to wander in Let the boundless tremors nourish her Teach her to raise her swan-like neck And express herself honestly and passionately Then call her Rosabella Let shackles lock her inside the Tower of Babel If anyone asks of her whereabouts Say she is being Godâs rose flower…
This was Rosabella, the very song mentioned in the top-voted comment on Weibo today, for which netizens claimed to have found the real-life muse. It was a song Bian Xu had released three years ago.
The song had been given to a tier-two male singer at the time. Because the musical style was niche, it wasn’t widely popular, but it held a somewhat unique place among Bian Xuâs works.
Aside from composing, Bian Xu rarely participated in writing lyrics. Although the lyrics for this song were also penned by a professional lyricist, according to her, she had merely used poetic language to refine Bian Xuâs original concept. This story, tinged with medieval Western fantasy, actually belonged to Bian Xu.
The story goes: on a moonlit night after a snowfall, God accidentally glimpses a young girl dancing in the mortal world. He teaches her, as pure white as a blank sheet of paper, to experience love and desire, dominating her passions. In the end, He imprisons her inside the biblical Tower of Babel, making her his rose forever.
Following Bian Xuâs wishes, the song was also named after the female protagonist, Rosabellaâtransliterated as “Luo Sha Bei La”âwhich means “beautiful rose.”
Many fans had gossiped about this song in the past. Underneath todayâs top-voted comment, the gossip-loving netizens had dissected the lyrics word by word, much like literary critics overanalyzing why an author described a curtain as blue:
[Fun fact: Adolphe Adam was a 19th-century French Romantic composer whose most widely circulated work is the ballet “Giselle.” Combined with the tulle dress, updo, and swan neck in the lyrics, it proves the female lead dances ballet.]
[I remember Bei Ying mentioning that she learned ballet when she was a child?!]
[Is there anyone who still doesn’t know that the full name of Bei Ying’s girl group, ROF, stands for Rose Fever?]
[Rose Fever, Rosabella, Bei Ying, Luo Sha Bei La… Read between the lines! Just think about it!]
Every single word from those onlookers felt like a sharp thorn piercing Liang Yuxuan’s eyes.
With such “ironclad evidence,” they confidently swore that the male protagonist in the song was Bian Xuâs self-projection, and Bei Ying was his Rosabella.
Liang Yuxuan didn’t remember when she eventually fell asleep.
After being physically and mentally exhausted for the entire day, the sedative and sleep-inducing effects of the motion sickness pill she had taken on the yacht finally kicked in, making her drop into an exceptionally deep slumber.
When she woke up again, she felt a stream of warm, moist breath winding around the base of her ear. Something soft brushed across her earlobe, sending a sharp, tingling sensation straight to her heart.
Liang Yuxuan was too tired to open her eyes. Feeling a fluffy tail brush against her forearm, she figured the Border Collie on the island was acting up again.
Even though Bian Xu insisted on raising a dog whose breed shared his own surname (“Border” in Chinese is Bian), that Border Collie got along so poorly with Bian Xu that they practically loathed the sight of each other. Instead, it was very fond of getting close to Liang Yuxuan.
Knowing she couldn’t take it out on a dog, Liang Yuxuan covered her ears and turned her body to dodge it.
Yet in the next second, she heard the dog speak in human words right by her ear: “You’re awake.”
Liang Yuxuan abruptly opened her eyes. Turning her head, she saw a familiar face.
High brow arches, deep-set eye sockets, a narrow, straight bridge, and a prominent nose. Beneath eyelashes as thick as crow feathers, those narrow eyes were currently half-closed, the outer corners tinged with a slight flush.
It was precisely this pair of eyesâwhich always swelled with a crimson tide whenever he was arousedâthat constantly made people mistakenly believe he was deeply in love.
While Liang Yuxuan was still in a daze, the arm Bian Xu had used to prop himself up beside her began to slide downward.
The hem of her knee-length dress was quickly pushed up to the root of her thighs.
Liang Yuxuanâs consciousness snapped back. Pushing his hand away, her eyes flickered slightly. “I’m on my period.”
Bian Xuâs movements paused, and he looked up at her.
After staring fixedly for a few seconds, he smoothed down the hem of her skirt with a look of regret. He walked over to the sofa by the bed, raised his hand to undo a button on his shirt, and lifted his eyelids slightly. “Then why did you come over?”
If it weren’t for the fact that his voice was still raspy, his tone made it seem as though the intimacy from a moment ago had entirely been a figment of her imagination.
Liang Yuxuan couldn’t help but think that this mouth of his truly possessed a magical powerâit always managed to choke back the few words she originally intended to say right into her throat.
Yet, every single time, he didn’t look like he was deliberately trying to snap at her.
For instance, right now, he was sitting on the sofa, deliberately pouring ice water from a glass pitcher. He glanced at her every now and then as he waited for her to speak, likely feeling a genuine sense of curiosity: Since you didn’t come here to have sex, could it be that you just came as a guest?
From the bottom of his heart, he probably felt that aside from that, there was absolutely no need for them to meet.
Because he took it for granted, he made no effort to hide it.
Liang Yuxuanâs lips pressed into a flat line. She sat up from the bed and straightened her crumpled collar.
The Border Collie, which had been crouching by the bed wagging its tail, propped its paws on the edge of the mattress to nudge her.
She squeezed its paws, her tone turning cold. “Iâm returning to China now that the tour is over. I came to say goodbye to it.”
“You came all this way in the dead of night just for a dog?” The Adam’s apple in Bian Xuâs throat bobbed as he downed half a glass of ice water. Pushing himself up by his knees, he left a curt “Then take your time saying goodbye” before entering the bathroom.
Liang Yuxuan’s hands froze in the middle of hugging the dog.
In the next moment, the solid wooden doorâutterly lacking any capacity for empathyâshut with a blunt, heavy thud.
The sheer curtains blocked out the moonlight from outside. The bedroom, decorated in cool tones, was lit by only a single, lonely nightlight. The sound of running water coming from the bathroom only served to make the empty room feel even more desolate and quiet.
Liang Yuxuan lowered her eyes, cradling the dog in her arms, mechanically running her fingers through its fur coat after coat.
From the bustling square of Amsterdam to this remote, isolated island in the middle of the vast ocean, all the turbulent emotions had settled into a pool of stagnant water, leaving behind nothing but a thickness of exhaustion that couldn’t be dissolved.
She was just falling into another drowsy doze when she finally heard the bathroom door open.
Bian Xu walked out completely bare, using a towel to dry his hair.
