14
Mount Serenity.
Ilagged far behind the group
I picked a wildflower and started plucking its petals, resent
A bottle of water suddenly appeared in my line of sight.
I looked up.
Daniel’s skin was fair, his forehead dotted with beads of sweat that sparkled in the
His face was cold, but he couldn’t hide his concern.
“What’s wrong?”
My voice softened as I pleaded with him.
“Daniel, I can’t walk anymore.”
“Can I just rest in that pavilion up ahead and wait for you guys to come down?”
Mount Serenity wasn’t high, only a few hundred meters.
I felt a little guilty.
Daniel was stunned.
We had been fighting so much lately, we hadn’t had a proper conversation in a long time.
Seeing my softer attitude, his expression eased.
He squatted down in front of me.
His voice was firm. “Get on ”
Chapter 2
I took a step back in fright.
When I didn’t move, he turned his head and frowned at me.
“You used to always get tired when we went hiking. I always carried you up.”
I was speechless.
Daniel was so good to me.
Since we were kids, whatever I wanted, all I had to do was ask, and he would give it to me.
Whenever I made a mistake, he was always the one to protect me.
I really had been spoiled by him.
That’s why I became so obsessed with his affection.
We reached the flat ground at the top of the mountain.
Everyone was busy setting up tents and barbecue grills.
I quietly moved away from the crowd, planning to take a walk by myself.
entered a dense forest, the trees tall and the undergrowth thick.
Only then did I realize Hannah had followed me.
She didn’t look happy to see me, but she handed me a bottle of insect repellent.
“Wandering off by yourself will only cause trouble for everyone.”
1 was a little surprised, but I took it.
“Thanks.”
“Daniel’s busy setting up the tent,” she said sharply. “He asked me to come and keep an eye on you.”
“If there’s nothing else, I’m going back.”
She turned, then stopped.
“Daniel and I have already discussed it. We’re going our separate ways after graduation.”
“You don’t have to see me as your rival.”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
It felt like an electric current shot through my nerves.
The pain was unbearable, my anxiety growing.
Even Hannah’s words now sounded like a boast.
As if driven by some unseen force, I reached out, wanting to grab the corner of her shirt.
We were surrounded by a canopy of trees, the ground at our feet a steep slope.
One push, and she would fall.
By the time Daniel found her, her body might already be cold.
But I…
I didn’t want to.
I steeled myself, closed my eyes, and shifted my weight, letting myself fall.
My body hit the ground hard, then started to roll.
I heard Hannah’s cry of alarm.
The sharp pain cleared my head a little.
I was finally free from that feeling of being controlled.
But the dizziness of rolling and the pain of my skin being scraped and bruised pulled at my nerves, making me grit my teeth and see stars.
When my body was finally stopped by something, I passed out from the pain
When I woke up, I was in a warm embrace
I opened my eyes and saw Daniel’s face, terrifyingly dark.
told you, it had nothing to do with me.”
09:23
Chapter 2
“I told you, it had nothing to do with me.”
Hannah’s face was stubborn as she confronted him.
And I was pitiful and weak.
It was as if our roles in the story had been reversed.
Attempted murder had become a setup.
Daniel’s face was icy.
“I don’t have time to talk to you right now.”
“But Hannah, I warned you. If you have a problem, you can come to me. I will give you satisfactory compensation.”
“Don’t touch her.”
Hannah took a deep, angry breath.
“You’re being unreasonable.”
I endured the pain all over my body.
Daniel,” I said weakly.
He looked down at me, his eyes red, a mixture of anger and heartache in them.
“I fell on my own.”
I whispered in his ear, my voice soft.
“I tried to push her, but I missed, and I fell by accident.”
Daniel’s dark pupils constricted.
“See? This is how much I hate you both.”
“So, stay away from me.”
It hurt so much.
In the haze of my consciousness, I remembered when I was six.
Daniel was holding a book, his face deliberately stern, pretending to be a little teach
“See good as if you can never attain it; see evil as if you are testing boiling water.”
To be good. That was the first lesson Daniel ever taught me.
Tears streamed from the corners of my eyes, burning my heart and lungs.
