Female Novel
Chapter 261
Chapter 261
Rachel frowned. Continuing to ignore the man, she picked up another tent pole, asking, “Victor, whichside
should this belong to?”
Victor replied, “Over there. Just put it through.”
“No, you can’t put it through directly.” Justin dug out a connector from the bag next to him. “Connect it tothis
first.”
Reaching the end of her patience, Rachel immediately tossed the tent pole aside. The tent poleproduced a dull sound as it dropped to the ground and bounced back up. “Since you’re so good at it, doit yourself. I’ll go gather some firewood,” she said. Then, she turned around and left the campsite withoutlooking back.
At first, Victor wanted to go after Rachel, but Justin grabbed him before he could do so. “What are youdoing, Mr. Wade? Come and teach me how to pitch the tent.”
Victor shook him off peevishly. “Don’t you know how to do it yourself?”
“I’ll only pitch one tent. If you can bear the sight of me sharing a tent with Rachel tonight, then leave asyou please.”
“In your dreams!” Victor immediately decided to stay. “I’m gonna keep a close eye on you even if I won’tget to
sleep tonight. Don’t you dare think about taking advantage of Rachel! You can fool her about what thehell you’re coming for, but you can’t fool me!”
Justin confessed right away, “Indeed, I came for Rachel, and I’m not denying it. Why would I fool you?”
“Bah!” Victor gave him a scornful look. “You think Rachel’s gonna fall for you? You and whose army? I’mtelling you, Justin-Rachel will never choose a scumbag like you again even if she’s blind!”
Justin retorted, “Who else is Rachel gonna choose if she won’t choose me? You? She’s got quite a lot ofmen protecting her, eh?” Including Victor, there are already three men revolving around Rachel atpresent. All of them are reckless and courageous men who itch to risk their lives fighting me for Rachel’ssake, he thought.
“Rachel can marry anyone, but there’s no way she’ll marry you again,” Victor said coldly after hammeringthe tent peg into the ground. “There’s no way I’m gonna sit by and watch what has happened back thenhappen again.”
Justin was totally uninterested in what had happened back then. Seeing Victor hammering the tent pegbusily with his head down, he looked around and left quietly.
Meanwhile, Rachel went to gather firewood alone in the mountains. In the dry weather, there were manydead branches on the ground, so she didn’t have much trouble gathering them. In the blink of an eye, theback basket behind her was full.
“Mommy!” Just then, Samuel trotted up to her. “Mommy! Charlotte is missing!”
Rachel was startled. For a moment, she thought Samuel was joking with her. “Samuel, I don’t have timeto play hide-and-seek with you two right now. Just be good and go back to the campsite and go to Victorafter playing on your own for a while, okay?”
“It’s true! Mommy, Charlotte really is missing!” Samuel looked very anxious. “Charlotte ran away just now,saying she wanted to see if there’s any squirrels in the mountains, but she hasn’t returned yet. Also, Ican’t reach her by phone anymore!”
Rachel finally stopped gathering the firewood. She asked Samuel what had happened at the time,saying, “How much time has passed since then?”
Samuel replied, “It’s been a long time. When Charlotte came, she heard there were little squirrels in themountains, so she brought lots of nuts with her. You were quarreling with Justin just now, so she ranaway on her own since nobody was watching over her.”
“That girl is simply reckless!” Rachel put down her back basket right away. After running a few steps, shelooked back and asked, “Which way did she go?”
Samuel hesitated for a moment before pointing in a direction up the mountain. “That way.”
“I’ll go there right away. Samuel, go back to the campsite at once and ask the other teachers to helpsearch for her.”
“Okay,” Samuel replied. As soon as he promised Rachel, Justin emerged from behind the ancient treebehind him; the man and the boy gave each other a knowing high-five.
Having given Samuel the instructions, Rachel immediately went searching for Charlotte. The sky wasdarkening at the moment. If Charlotte went deep into the mountains by mistake, even if there weren’t anywild animals around, she might get killed by a snakebite.
Rachel went all the way up the mountain, heading in the direction Samual had pointed to in search ofCharlotte. “Charlotte! Charlotte!” she shouted. Just then, she heard a rustling sound behind her.
“Charlotte?” She looked back, only to frown at once when she saw a tall figure catching up to her from adistance. “Why are you here?”
“Samuel told me that Charlotte had run out here.”
“Yeah, he said she had gone this way in search of squirrels or something.” Rachel looked around. “Arethere any squirrels on this mountain?” For a moment, she couldn’t care less about the old scoresbetween her and Justin. The more people there were searching for a kid, the better, of course.
Justin replied, “Squirrels are probably in the woods on the mountain. Let’s look for her in the woods.”
“That makes sense.” Rachel immediately turned to go deeper into the woods.
“Give me your back basket.”
“No, it’s not necessary.”
Justin snatched the back basket from her without allowing her to say no. “Let’s go.”
Rachel had no time to argue with him either. Worried sick at the thought of Charlotte having gonemissing, she headed into the mountain woods while calling Charlotte’s name along the way. “Wherecould she have gone? Can’t she hear us calling for her?”
“That girl is smart. Perhaps she couldn’t find any squirrels and has gone back on her own.”
“Why aren’t you worried at all? Charlotte’s so little; what if anything bad happens to her? What if thereare snakes on the mountain?”
Seeing how worried Rachel looked, Justin suddenly regretted having gone along with Samuel’s plan totrick her in such a way. However, what was done was done. If he were to confess to it at this verymoment, the consequences would be unthinkable. As a consequence, he could only try to divert the
subject by consoling her, saying, “Charlotte isn’t that plucky, and she’s not strong either. She wouldn’tdare to go too far, so don’t worry.”
However, Rachel knew very well how time was of the essence when a kid got lost in the mountains. “No,that won’t do. I’ve got to go back to the campsite and ask the others to help search for her.”
“Rachel!” Justin grabbed her at once.
The two were standing on a mountain slope, so their footing wasn’t steady in the first place. Not onlythat, but Rachel happened to step on some moss. When Justin grabbed her, she slipped and fellbackward with a cry of alarm.
Justin failed to hold Rachel steady in time, so he ended up becoming a cushion for the latter as she fellright
on top of him. “Mmph…”
Rachel instantly came to her senses when she heard a groan beneath her instead of feeling hurt as shehad expected. She hurriedly picked herself up, asking, “Are you alright?”
Lying perfectly still on the ground with deep furrows in his brow, Justin looked like he was in agony.novelbin
“Did the wound open up? Let me take a look.” Rachel was at a loss for what to do. The wound onJustin’s back hadn’t healed completely yet. Don’t tell me he’s got another injury on top of the preexistingone at the moment, she thought.
“No, you don’t have to. I’m fine.”
“Don’t play the tough guy. The school has brought the school doctor here with us. Let me call the schooldoctor over.”
“Rachel!” Justin stopped her. “I’m fine, really. Just help me up.”
Rachel dared not exert too much strength on the man either. She carefully helped him up, asking, “Areyou really okay?”
“My foot hurts a little.”
“Sprained your ankle?” Rachel crouched right in front of Justin while rolling up his trouser leg. “Whichpart of your foot hurts? Is it this part?”
Immediately, Justin played along by letting out a gasp. “Uh-huh.”