Priceless Baby: 101 Bedside Stories

She did not have any worries and was extremely happy. Her temper gradually improved, and she was no longer rash nor violent. She became a gentle and cute young lady. She suddenly understood that the anxiety, violence, and trickery from before were only to attract the attention of those cold, indifferent people, like how the only way for ignorant children to attract the attention of adults was to cry loudly.

The good times did not last long. She was destined to bring ill fortune. Happiness always seemed so far away from her. Even though Fate chose the wrong path and would bless her with luck sometimes, when Fate regained her senses, she would take the blessings back. A fire changed her life completely.

Ye Chu caressed her face. That burning temperature seemed to linger on her cheek. Her picture from when she was eight years old looked entirely different from the girl in her dreams. The only similarity they shared was a pair of big, black eyes. But why was the pain so clear?

That day, she had been trapped in the fire. The tongues of the fire licked her clothes, and they started burning. She was so painful that she rolled on the floor, crying out for her Nanny and mother. The moment she opened her mouth, she had been choked by the thick smog. She laid on the ground, using her hands, which were too horrible to look at, to pat away the fire on her body. She then heard a familiar voice.

Emma… Emma…

Her mother was yelling her name crazily from the outside. She was crying and wanted to respond to her, but her entire body was on fire. The fire had reached her hair and burned them away rapidly. It crawled onto her face and her eyes. She clutched her face and screamed, blood and flesh mingling in her hands.

The skin on her face was gradually burned red by the fire. With immense difficulty, she climbed towards the door like a little fireman, but she could not yell a single word. Afterward, the door was smashed open by something. She could no longer see, but she could hear the voices of a man and a woman. Her mother’s voice and a familiar male voice. Her godfather.

They barged in. Her mother pounced over, but nothing she did could extinguish the fire on her body. Her godfather took a pail of water and poured it over her, dousing the fire that entangled her body. Her body had been so burned that it looked unrecognizable.

Her mother’s face was filled with tears. Another surge of fire came rushing and toppled them over. Her mother used her back to shield the fire that was rushing towards them.

The room that had been burning for a long time could no longer resist the persistent harassing of the fire. It gave out a warning that it was going to collapse. Her godfather carried her up and had just reached the door when the roof collapsed. Her mother pushed her and her godfather out of the door. A pillar that had caught on fire fell down, separating both of them, separating life and death apart.

…

Ye Chu shivered. The gentleman Mu Yuan turned the air-conditioner off. “Cold?”

“Yes.” Her eyes were tearing up, and she curled herself up into a little shrimp, her back facing away from Mu Yuan. She grabbed the blanket that was draped over her body. Was this her memory, or was it the round-faced girl’s memory, or was it a bystander’s memory? She had merely played a small trick on her Nanny, but she ran away like she had seen a ghost. Was this memory hers?

The continuous dreams had almost linked the pieces of her childhood together. In the dreams, she had been badly burned. Her legs, face, and hands were so burned that they were unrecognizable. Her beautiful black hair had all been burned away. The once beautiful round-faced girl became as ugly as a monster. However, when she woke up on the boat, she had short-hair. She was completely new, except for a few scars on her body and a different skin color.

However, for people living on the ocean, it was normal to have a different skin color. When they were exposed to the sea breeze, their skin would turn darker easily.. At places where the sea breeze did not blow, their skin would be paler.