Chapter 10: Ella is a cat that only hisses.

Being dragged by her ear, Ella was forced to stand up from the corner. Her body instinctively tilted in the direction her ear was being pulled, her hands waving randomly in the air as she tried to grab onto something to steady herself.

“You! You—!”

She wanted to find a word to describe Yiwen, but her vocabulary seemed to have been wiped clean at this moment. All the viciousness, all the arrogance, all the brutality turned into something powerless, childish, and completely unfit for her status.

“Failure!”

Yiwen did not turn around. She simply continued dragging Ella by the ear as she walked forward.

“Yes, yes, yes. I am a failure. So what’s the problem with a failure taking a disobedient creator to take a bath?”

Ella was dragged through the corridor, passing one door after another. Her gaze swept across the unfamiliar cabins, unfamiliar passages, and unfamiliar corners, trying to memorize every route, every possible exit, and every spot that could be used for escape or counterattack.

But her ear hurt too much.

It hurt so much that only one thought remained in her mind.

When I get the chance.

When I get the chance.

I will definitely turn the person who dragged my ear into—

The lowest-level worker insect.

She will stay in the deepest corner of the insect nest, day after day carrying condensed matter, until her fingers are ground down to bone, until her bones are ground into powder, until her powder merges with the walls of the nest!

Never to rise again for all eternity!

“We’re here.”

Yiwen released her hand.

Ella covered her ear, which had been pinched red, and looked up. She saw a half-open door.

Warm steam leaked through the gap, carrying a faint scent that resembled a mix of sea salt and some kind of herbal plant.

Behind the door was a bathroom.

It was not large, but it was clean. Water had already been drawn in the bathtub, with a few unknown plant leaves floating on the surface. Steam slowly rose from the water.

Ella looked at the bathtub, at the pool of warm water, and at her own blurry reflection on the water’s surface — silver hair, red pupils, face covered in bloodstains, looking utterly disheveled.

Her throat moved slightly.

“I’ll wash myself.”

Her voice suddenly became very low, almost a murmur.

Yiwen looked at her. A faint, almost imperceptible smile flashed in her red pupils.

“Alright.”

She took a step back and stood outside the door.

“I’ll wait at the door. If you need anything—”

“Get lost.”

Ella did not look at her. She walked straight into the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a backhand motion.

Bang.

She leaned her back against the door, listening as Yiwen’s footsteps moved a few steps away and then stopped — not far outside the door, close enough to hear any sounds from inside the bathroom, yet not intruding on her bath.

Ella closed her eyes.

The warm steam wrapped around her cheeks, melting the dried blood scabs on her skin and bringing a long-lost, unfamiliar warmth that almost made her want to cry.

She slowly walked to the side of the bathtub and reached out, dipping her fingertips into the water.

The water temperature was just right.

She took off the wrinkled black robe, revealing the body beneath covered in wounds and scars. Her silver hair fell over her shoulders, collarbones, chest, and waist. She looked at her current body.

Slender waist, delicate collarbones, skin so fair it was almost transparent, covered with red marks from the chains and dried bloodstains.

Her gaze lingered on that body for a long time. It felt somewhat familiar?

Then she stepped into the bathtub.

Warm water flowed over her ankles, calves, knees, thighs, and waist, until her entire body was enveloped by the pool of warm water.

She leaned against the edge of the bathtub. Her silver hair spread out on the water’s surface like a flower blooming in water, its petals stained red with blood.

Her eyes were open, staring at a certain corner of the ceiling.

The tentacle rose above the water. The dents at the tip were still there. Those four deep marks left by the spider legs were now slightly swollen in the warm water, tinged with a faint pink.

She reached out and gently touched those dents.

It hurts~

She closed her eyes.

In this small, warm space filled with steam, in this moment without Butterfly Wing, without Zhuluo, and without Yiwen, in this instant where she could finally temporarily let go of all her guard, all her pretense, all her arrogance and brutality.

Her lips trembled slightly.

And then there was nothing more.

On the surface of the water, a single drop slid down from her chin and mixed into the bathwater, making it impossible to tell whether it was bathwater or something else.

She opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed all her emotions back into that dark corner deep in her chest — a place she did not know when she had learned to use.

Then she began to wash away the bloodstains on her body.

“Hey, you’re finally here, my creator.”

“Huh? It’s you?!”

Ella turned her head sharply and only then realized that Butterfly Wing had been hiding in the bathtub the whole time, seemingly having held her breath underwater for quite a while.