Chapter 261 Getting Hurt Again
Rachel frowned. Continuing to ignore the man, she picked up another tent pole, asking, “Victor, which side 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 to this first.”
Reaching the end of her patience, Rachel immediately tossed the tent pole aside. The tent pole produced a dull sound as it dropped to the ground and bounced back up. “Since you’re so good at it, do it yourself. I’ll go gather some firewood,” she said. Then, she turned around and left the campsite without looking back.
At first, Victor wanted to go after Rachel, but Justin grabbed him before he could do so. “What are you doing, 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 as you please.”
“In your dreams!” Victor immediately decided to stay. “I’m gonna keep a close eye on you even if I won’t get to sleep tonight. Don’t you dare think about taking advantage of Rachel! You can fool her about what the hell 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’m telling 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 of men protecting her, eh?” Including Victor, there are already three men revolving around Rachel at present. All of them are reckless and courageous men who itch to risk their lives fighting me for Rachel’s sake, he thought.
“Rachel can marry anyone, but there’s no way she’ll marry you again,” Victor said coldly after hammering the tent peg into the ground. “There’s no way I’m gonna sit by and watch what has happened back then happen again.”
Justin was totally uninterested in what had happened back then. Seeing Victor hammering the tent peg busily 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 many dead branches on the ground, so she didn’t have much trouble gathering them. In the blink of an eye, the back 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 time to play hide-and-seek with you two right now. Just be good and go back to the campsite and go to Victor after 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, I can’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 the mountains, so she brought lots of nuts with her. You were quarreling with Justin just now, so she ran away 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, she looked 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 help search for her.”
“Okay,” Samuel replied. As soon as he promised Rachel, Justin emerged from behind the ancient tree behind 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 was darkening at the moment. If Charlotte went deep into the mountains by mistake, even if there weren’t any wild 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 of Charlotte. “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 a distance. “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. “Are there any squirrels on this mountain?” For a moment, she couldn’t care less about the old scores between 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 gone missing, she headed into the mountain woods while calling Charlotte’s name along the way. “Where could 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 there are snakes on the mountain?”
Seeing how worried Rachel looked, Justin suddenly regretted having gone along with Samuel’s plan to trick her in such a way. However, what was done was done. If he were to confess to it at this very moment, 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’t dare 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 only that, but Rachel happened to step on some moss. When Justin grabbed her, she slipped and fell backward 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 fell right on top of him. “Mmph…”
Rachel instantly came to her senses when she heard a groan beneath her instead of feeling hurt as she had 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.
“Did the wound open up? Let me take a look.” Rachel was at a loss for what to do. The wound on Justin’s back hadn’t healed completely yet. Don’t tell me he’s got another injury on top of the preexisting one 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 school doctor 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, “Are you really okay?”
“My foot hurts a little.”
“Sprained your ankle?” Rachel crouched right in front of Justin while rolling up his trouser leg. “Which part of your foot hurts? Is it this part?”
Immediately, Justin played along by letting out a gasp. “Uh-huh.”
