Chapter 184 A Date with Bellinda (2)
Della and Belinda were like-minded when it came to shopping. After having a quick brunch at a Muggle restaurant, they walked around several streets without stopping, and neither of them felt tired.
Belinda led the pace of their shopping. The route was probably designed in some way. She was dressed eye-catchingly and didn't care about other people's eyes at all. In a lingerie store, she taught Della how to choose the bra that suits her best.
She also taught Della how to walk most comfortably in high heels in the shoe store, and told Della one by one in the cosmetics stores what kind of makeup suits her and what kind of cosmetics is the best. As for clothing stores, oh, they visited too many stores and tried on too many clothes to count.
Della had a great time shopping and could see that Belinda was guiding her into a new world. Especially every time Bellinda taught her something new, she even felt a little excited.
It wasn't a love-feeling. If Della told Belinda her inner thoughts, she might even get angry, because Della found a motherly feeling in Belinda.
Being considerate of her life and celebrating her growth, she is Della's ideal friend, sister and mother.
At this time, Della no longer wanted to avoid Bellinda's restrained and slightly loving feelings towards her. She somewhat deceived herself and understood that love, which was also unadulterated, as the selfless love of an elder, and then immersed herself in it with indulgence and restraint.
From this perspective, it is obviously her who is selfish and cold in dealing with love.
Della has always had a tendency to be critical, and she quite fairly did not spare herself the criticism. Just like before, the happier she was, the more morbidly she would analyze her own mentality.
She undoubtedly wants love, and greedily wants all kinds of love, but her identity and her destiny are destined to hurt most people who are willing to love her, so she has to avoid it, no matter how much she wants it.
It’s quite ironic to think about it. Now all the people are coming towards her, but she can only kick out the love she wants and keep those who only care about interests.
But in this brief encounter with Belinda in a foreign country, as long as she kept a good distance, she could enjoy that love for a short time...
"Ah, you have a naturally slim waist," Belinda said, holding a fitted dress and gesturing in front of Della, "You should wear more clothes that show off your waist. They suit you very well."
Della, who had been lost in thought just now, obediently took the clothes from Belinda's hand. While examining the clothes, she suppressed the rare bitterness in her throat. When she spoke again, her voice was as calm and steady as usual, "You have a good eye, Belinda. I'm so glad to have a roommate like you."
"Everyone will like to be roommates with Belinda." Belinda accepted Della's compliment without hesitation, causing the men and women who had been secretly paying attention to her to look at her twice more.
Two of the handsome guys who were pretending to look at clothes in the women's clothing area seemed to have finally made up their minds to come and chat with her, but at this time, Apep mischievously raised his head and spit out red letters, stopping them in their tracks.
"This is the most relaxing shopping trip I've ever had," Belinda observed this phenomenon from the corner of her eye and whispered to Della, "I really should use the femme fatale strategy and raise a snake to scare away most of the flies."
"And those who choose to approach you even when facing wild beasts will be looked up to by you, right?" Della walked towards the locker room with Belinda holding the dress, also talking in a low voice.
"You understand me more and more, Della." Belinda smiled with her lips pursed. Even so, she did not forget to pick up a pair of leather shoes on the way to match Della's skirt. After trying them on, Della bought both the shoes and the skirt.
What ultimately stopped them from shopping was their wealth. They bought too many things and couldn't use magic directly in the Muggle world, so they had to end their shopping early. After eating a bite of bread, they carried their bags and went to the studio where Bellinda worked.
As soon as Belinda arrived at the studio, it was as if the spotlight automatically shone on her. Everyone looked at Belinda, who was dressed coolly today. They admired Belinda's beauty and greeted her enthusiastically.
"Do you want to take a rest in my dressing room, or do you want to watch me work?" Belinda, who led Della into the dressing room, gave two options, but she winked at Della when she said the second option.
Della smiled and said cooperatively that she wanted to see the glamorous job. Belinda smiled immediately. She happily pushed Della's shoulders and pressed her into the seat next to her dressing table. Then she asked the makeup artist to put makeup on her and told Della some makeup tips.
Della listened patiently, and tried it on her own face from time to time under the guidance of the two. Apep and Sadolin were all on her now, and when Della was painting her face, they rubbed it on her curiously, and their bodies were immediately covered with perfume powder.
Looking at the pink marks on the two snakes, Bellinda blinked thoughtfully, then whispered with the makeup artist sister for a while, so the two snakes were temporarily requisitioned. After confirming that Apep and Sadolin had no clear intention of resisting, Della asked them to cooperate.
"That's my friend's snake training technique." Belinda widened her eyes slightly when she saw Della speaking Parseltongue for the first time. After a brief moment of surprise, she turned to explain to the makeup artist.
"Like... that?" The makeup artist was a little skeptical, but looking at the little snakes on the dressing table allowing her to paint them, her ambition finally overcame her curiosity, and she focused on using oil paint to dress up the two snakes.
Today's theme is "Temptation". Belinda will be an innocent girl at the beginning, and then the scene will slowly be filled with bizarre things. The innocent girl will be tempted step by step, and after getting everything, she will become a new temptation.
The snakes, especially Apep, are a well-behaved black snake, which is the symbol of tempting Eve and Adam; as for Sadolin, she is also a temptation, but she will be the black snake's scarred future, because the ending of the innocent girl in this set of photos is not depravity. She will eventually get everything and control everything, including the temptation that has shaken her.
When Belinda and the photographers were talking about the suitability of the two little snakes for today's theme, Della sat beside them and listened quietly. At first, she felt that the direction of "getting everything, controlling everything" was a bit unexpected, but when she looked at Belinda, who always had a sense of pride between her brows, and remembered her words "I am the one who defines beauty", she felt that this was the ending.
Unlike the glamorous scenes in the photos, the studio was busy and boring. Della waited for a while and found that they were still preparing for the scene and lighting. Feeling a little bored, she picked up a gossip magazine next to her and started reading.
It was filled with romances, scandals, and related speculations. Della didn't know much about the entertainment and political circles in Country F, so she could only flip through it in twos and threes. But when she came across articles related to politics, she would take a closer look.
The most handsome congressman and his wife appeared at the concert
Because of the handsome guy, Della took a closer look at the photo in the article and saw that the congressman had the same amber eyes as Belinda. When she looked at the article carefully, she found that the congressman's last name was Aleta, the same as Belinda's.
Belinda's father is a Muggle MP?
Della was a little surprised. Belinda had never talked to her much about her parents. She only said when they first met that her mother was a wizard from Country Y. So Della read the article carefully. The Lady Eleta in the article was a pure F country person, even from a well-known family.
The article soon answered Della's doubts. In the second half of the article, it brought up what happened in Aleta's family. Mr. Aleta was first caught crying in the hospital while holding the body of his mistress who had died of illness. Then the existence of his illegitimate daughter was revealed. In the end, Mrs. Aleta magnanimously took the little girl who only had a father back home.
Belinda, that little girl.
Della looked at the comparison photos of Bellinda at the age of 5 and now, which were attached at the end of the article, and her right eyebrow raised slightly.
"Della, I'm going to start shooting!" The preparations in the studio were finally completed at this time. Belinda waved to Della, motioning her to come closer.
Della took the magazine, smiled and nodded to Belinda, got up and walked over there, but when she put the magazine back, she took a closer look at the date on it, which was still from the year before last.
The person who put the magazine here probably wanted to humiliate Belinda, and Della realized this, but rather than dealing with this or pitying Belinda's tortuous life experience, she was more curious about how Belinda became the Belinda she is now.
Did Bellinda, who now doesn't care about other people's opinions and no longer wants to be defined, experience a past in which she always cared about other people's opinions and was always defined?
If we figure this out, we might be able to understand Belinda better.