About Bella

Rural life usually moved at a slower pace, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

Night had already fallen, and all was silent. Nearly every household had put out its lights, preparing to welcome the better tomorrow they envisioned.

"Though this village isn't large, how are we supposed to find Bella's home without any clues?" Iris asked, tilting her head. "Besides, we can't even be sure Bella's home is actually in this village."

Linton pondered for a moment and was just about to speak when a sudden call interrupted him.

"Sir!"

All three of them looked toward the source of the voice.

A burly middle-aged man was hurrying toward them, continuously shouting, "Sir, I finally found you!"

He stopped before Linton, panting lightly as he pulled several glittering gold coins from his coarse linen clothes.

"Sir, my mother found several gold coins on the floor while clearing the table. One look and she knew they must have been yours. She was terribly worried you'd be frantically searching everywhere for them, so she had me wait for you at the village entrance. You were far too careless. How could you not keep gold coins somewhere safe? Or did your money pouch tear? Hurry and check. It would be terrible if you lost too much."

Iris's expression immediately turned somewhat surprised.

She knew Linton had a special way of storing items, and there was no way something could fall out of it through a hole like it could from a pocket. Clearly, Linton had done this on purpose.

Yet the other man clearly did not see it that way. He had even waited at the village entrance for so long, simply to return the money to its owner.

This really was... Unlike the doll girl's complicated thoughts, Linton merely felt somewhat helpless.

He smiled gently. "Thank you."

"Put them away quickly."

The middle-aged man stuffed the coins into Linton's hand, then sized the two of them up and glanced at the sky. "It's so late. Do you have somewhere to stay? If not, there's an empty room at my house. It's usually used for storing miscellaneous things, so it may be a little messy, but my mother likes things clean and tidies it often, so it definitely isn't dirty. If you don't mind..."

Linton considered it briefly.

What they were doing was no secret. Traveling on such a dark night was indeed inconvenient, and having somewhere to safely wait until daylight would be nice.

He looked at Iris again.

The doll girl expressed no opinion. "You decide."

"All right." Linton bowed slightly. "Sorry to trouble you."

"Sure thing."

The burly man chuckled and walked ahead to lead the way.

He seemed to be quite talkative, chattering with Linton the entire way.

"Sir, where are you from?"

"Blackwater Village. It's a little far from here."

"Uh... I don't know. The only place outside I know is Falasong..."

"Only Falasong? Have the people in your village always stayed here? Has no one ever gone out?"

"Not exactly. My father said that when my grandfather was young, the whole village moved here together. It's probably only been a few decades." The man said, "As for leaving... Grandfather's and Father's generations chose to move here themselves, so naturally they never wanted to leave. A few people from my generation were full of ambition and wanted to go out and make something of themselves, but they came back not long after, saying they couldn't find a way out of the mountains. I don't even know how you managed to find this place. Hardly anyone came here before."

Linton narrowed his eyes slightly. "Hardly anyone came before... Does that mean more people have come to the village in recent years?"

"Yeah." The man thought for a moment. "About ten years ago, a man who looked like a merchant came to our village. I was still young then. When I heard an outsider had come, I immediately dropped what I was doing to take a look. He even gave me something round and said it was... candy? I can't remember what it tasted like, but I think it was pretty good."

Linton nodded, then abruptly changed the subject. "May I ask if you're familiar with the people in the village? I'd like to ask about someone."

"Ha!" The man suddenly burst into hearty laughter. "The village is so small that if someone puts their pants on backward, the whole village will know immediately. You're actually asking whether I know people here? Hahaha."

"Go ahead, tell me the name. Even if they're from my grandfather's generation, I can find them for you!"

"Thank you very much. I'd like to ask about a girl named Bella. Is she from this village?"

"Bella..." The man thought for a moment. "That name is quite common in our village. Our names are basically inherited from our grandfathers or maternal grandfathers, so there are plenty of people with the same name. Do you have any other information?"

Linton recalled what the girl had said when they first met. "She should be a girl who likes flowers very much, and her home should have quite a few flowers growing there."

"I've got it!" The man clapped his hands, as though he had remembered something, but his eyes looked somewhat puzzled. "I do remember a household that grows lots of flowers. They have a girl named Bella, born around the same time as my boy. But the problem is... that child doesn't seem to like flowers much?"

"I heard that little girl hated flowers terribly. Whenever she saw one, she'd pluck it."

"Impossible!!" Bella, who had become unexpectedly quiet after entering the village, suddenly refuted him loudly. "I love flowers the most!!"

Linton and Iris both looked at Bella, but the man seemed not to notice the girl's shout at all. He continued, "I guess she might be sensitive to flowers because of some physical condition. That's considered rather strange in the village, so I remember it quite clearly. Is she the person you're looking for?"

"No! That definitely isn't me! I love flowers the most!" Bella looked at Linton through tear-filled eyes, her voice trembling slightly. "Big brother, I really, really love flowers. So do Mom and Dad. He's lying! He's a bad man!"

Linton's grip on Bella's hand tightened slightly. He gave her a gentle smile, then said to the man, "There's still too little information. I need to confirm a few more things. Do you know where that household lives?"

"Mm." The man nodded. "It's beside Old Hamp's house. Just keep going down this road. When you reach the house with a pile of grain outside its door, turn left. Turn left again after passing two houses. The one with the courtyard is where they used to live."

"Used to?"

"Yeah." The man sighed. "That little girl apparently wanted to go out and seek her fortune too, just like those people from my generation. But they came back because they couldn't find the way. That little girl, unfortunately, ran into bandits."

"Her parents were too anxious. They went into the mountains to look for her without telling us, and the result was... they never came back."