“Not here?” Harry scratched his head, completely oblivious to the gravity of the situation. “But that can’t be. I got up before dawn, but I did not see Mr. Burton coming out.”
“Where’s Frankie?” Rachel was like a cat on hot bricks and as soon as she finished speaking, the door at the side of the yard opened. With a toothbrush in hand, Frankie walked out while replying, “You’re looking for me, President Hudson?”
At his sight, she immediately walked up to him. and said, “President Burton is missing.” “President Burton?!” Frankie was stunned, then subconsciously glanced behind him.
“I dozed off last night and forgot to remove his infusion needle. Did something happen to him? Don’t hide anything from me.” Before Rachel finished talking, the curtains behind Frankie were drawn aside to reveal a gigantic figure within.
It was none other than Justin. As their gazes met each other, Rachel was dumbfounded. Frankie coughed and explained awkwardly, “Um, President Hudson, calm down first.
President Burton slept at my place last night.”
Justin was still confused, so Frankie told him, “President Hudson thought something happened to you because the infusion needle wasn’t removed…”
Rachel wanted more than anything to just disappear on the spot as she glared at Frankie. Couldn’t he have omitted that part? Frankie wasn’t too ignorant, for he hastily escaped with his toothbrush, leaving the two to stare at each other.
“How did you end up at Frankie’s place?” There were hints of anger in Rachel’s tone, for she was terribly shocked early in the morning. Justin said, “You fell asleep last night.”
“You could have woken me up. I was waiting to remove the infusion needle for you!” “I did try…” Justin hesitated for a while. “But you didn’t wake up.”
It was Rachel’s turn to feel awkward. After all, she had spent the day in a car traveling from. Baybrook City yesterday, so she was exhausted at night. She didn’t even know when she lay down to rest, so Justin’s words were quite believable.
“Hey, who built this snowman?” Suddenly, Harry exclaimed from a distance away. “This roly-poly actually looks kind of nice!”
Looking in the direction the voice came from, Rachel saw the snowman in front of her house’s entrance, which was as tall as half a person. Its head and body were both round and chubby, and it even had two branches for arms. Rachel immediately looked toward Justin. “You built this?”
He replied, “As compensation for the one that was ruined last night. Is this enough?” At the mention of the snowman last night, she instantly went red in the face. “What is wrong with you?”
Then, she was pissed as she added, “Do you even value your life anymore? You still had a fever, but you went outside in the middle of the night to build a snowman? What were you thinking?”
“The fever’s gone.” Justin’s voice was small and lukewarm, with hints of a smile inside it.
Even though Rachel was furious about him. making fun of her, when she saw the snowman in the distance, she still couldn’t help herself as she ran over to it. The longer she looked at it, the sillier it looked. She had never seen anyone build a snowman this rotund.
“Wow.” She turned around and said to Justin, “You should do this in Riverdale too. Charlotte will be pleased to see it.”
He replied, “Got it.” Over at the well, Harry and Frankie crouched together as they brushed their teeth. From the corner of his eye, Harry watched Justin and Rachel chatting away happily as they stood around the snowman, mumbling to himself, “I can’t believe Mr. Burton has this side to him.”
Frankie glanced at him. “You just didn’t know him long enough. When you’ve spent enough time with him, you’d know that President Burton shows every side of him when he’s around President Hudson.”
“In the future, Mr. Burton will probably turn into the type of husband who fears his wife.” “You don’t even have to wait for the future; he’s already like this right now.” Frankie gargled and spat out the water in his mouth as he said confidently.
After breakfast, the villagers came to the community hall bearing gifts. “Assistant Beckham, we know that Mr. Burton doesn’t like making a fuss, so we’re the representatives sent here to give him some of our local specialties as a gift. We hope Mr. Burton will like it.”
“Of course, he will. However, he really isn’t here right now.” Frankie looked at the mountains in the distance. “Right after he had breakfast, he went into the mountains with President Hudson.”
Meanwhile, in the mountains, the snow hadn’t melted yet. Holding onto Justin’s shoulder for support, Rachel navigated a slope. She was steadily supported all the way until she stepped onto the turf.
“The villagers here depend on the mountains for their livelihood. The snow closed off the mountains some time ago, so they couldn’t enter. After they had finished their rations, they were completely helpless. People also died from the collapsed houses, so it caused quite a panic.”
Hearing Justin’s words, Rachel nodded. When she came here yesterday, she could see that there were some houses in the village with white clothes hung at the entrance. They seemed to be holding a funeral, but because of the severity of the situation, they could only mourn in the simplest way possible. She asked, “Now that you’re done with helping the village, what do you want to do when you go back?”
“I’ll check all the donations for the cause, after which I’ll hold an appreciation banquet.” “Will you be inviting the Burton Group?” Rachel wasn’t one to beat around the bush.
“Burton Group was the one who sent the third shipment of supplies to Greensborough, so of course they’ll be on the invitation list.”
“Don’t you think it’s too late for them to do that?” “I don’t care either way. It’s enough to know that the supplies have arrived.”
She frowned. “But at the time when Greensborough needed those supplies the most, Burton Group didn’t send them anything. I think you know better than me what happened with the transporters.”
She believed that Justin would be able to find out the same things she found out herself, so he should have known that someone had meddled with the supplies. It wasn’t difficult to link it to Julian either.
Justin, however, remained calm as usual. “Let’s not dig deeper for now. I’ll find some time to talk to Julian after we return to Riverdale.” Julian has changed so much.”
“Maybe he has his reasons.” Rachel stood in front of a tree, turning around to look at the small village at the foot of the mountains. “Actually, all of us have changed a lot. Change isn’t scary; the scariest thing is to blur the lines between good and evil.
I know Julian is your family, and blood is thicker than water, but it’s only natural to be punished if one does something wrong. If criminals can get away, it would only stoke the fire even more. The real way to help Julian isn’t to just leave him be, you have to give him due retribution.”
Her words were reasonable since she regarded the crime instead of the person. Be it Justin or Julian, they would be in the right if they did something right, and they would be in the wrong if they committed any crimes. This standard shouldn’t change based on any person.
Justin said, “If I split Burton Group in half, do you think he’d come to his senses and repent?” “Split Burton Group in half?” Rachel was stunned as she asked in disbelief, “What are you trying to do?” If she remembered correctly, he didn’t own too much of Burton Group, including the shares.
“It’s not that difficult to start over, but I still think there can only be one Burton Group. I don’t have any plans to create a competitor, so after I return to Riverdale and am done with all this, can Hudson Realty partner up with me?” Justin’s tone and gaze were both completely sincere.
Slightly retracting her fingers by her sides, Rachel asked in bewilderment, “Are you sure? Are you using half of Burton Group to partner with Hudson Realty? If you can do that, you should have better choices.”
“I feel that if you agree to this, this will be the best choice.”
