Those days when Dolores was ‘locked’ in the backyard, the two children almost got used to the life
there, every day after they had their meal, they'd take a stroll around the village, there were beautiful
mountains and clear water, the air was also fresh, they experienced the village life there like they were
on a vacation.
Yesterday, Simona heard an old lady said that there were wild persimmons at the west side of the
mountain, which were all ripe at that season, she was thinking about that too, she had eaten all the
fruits, but she had never gone up the mountain to pick them, that's very weird, thus she kept asking
Matthew to bring her there.
Matthew almost never refused his children’s request, so he brought the two children and bodyguard up
the mountain early in the morning after breakfast, Boyce also followed him, Armand and Theresa
stayed to defend the ‘position’
Charles didn't go up the mountains because of his ability to walk.
Dolores walked out of the back door, the front yard was really empty, Charles went to take care of the
company's business, Armand was pursuing Theresa, not sure where did he pick a bunch of wild
chrysanthemums, Theresa was squatting by the river while washing the two children's clothes, the river
water was clear, it was just a bit cold during that season, but there's no way to use washing machines
there, so she had to wash it with her hands.
Armand secretly popped his head out from her back and handed the flower to her, “Smells nice, isn't
it?”
Theresa glared at him, “Go away, can't you see that I'm washing my clothes?” she glanced at him as
she said that, she then sneered, “You're giving me chrysanthemums, are you cursing me to death?”
Usually, the flower that women wanted to receive the most would be something romantic like roses and
lilies, she had never seen someone who gave chrysanthemums to a living people.
Armand lowered his head in embarrassment, looking at the purple and pink small chrysanthemums, he
blinked, they were quite beautiful, in the mountains and at such season, there were only such flowers.
“I didn't want to curse you to death.” Armand felt wronged, he really didn't mean that.
In a fit of anger, Armand casually threw the bright colored little chrysanthemums to the river, he added
some colors to the river for nor the reason.
“Armand, you want to die?” Theresa frowned as she pointed at the river, “Such a clear water, how could
you throw things in it, isn't it pollution?”
Armand was speechless.
Damn it.
Why everything that he did was wrong?
That wasn't even harmful trash, could a few flowers be pollution?
“Pick it up.” Theresa glared at him, Armand opened his mouth widely, she was telling him to pick it up?
How?
It floated along with the water.
He looked at her hand unintentionally, because the water was too cold, her hands froze until it was so
red, Armand pulled her hands, only when he touched them he knew how cold her hands were, “I'll
warm it up for you.”
Theresa struggled, “Don't change the subject, who told you to warm it up.”
Armand stood on the rock by the river, Theresa's movement was so great that he slipped and fell into
the river with a loud sound and a huge splash of water, Theresa's body also got quite wet.
Theresa just didn't want him to do anything to her, she didn't want to push him into the river, it was
almost winter and the water was very cold.
Armand popped his head out of the river, trembling because it was freezing cold, he had goose bumps
all over as he shouted to Theresa, “You want to murder your own husband, huh?”
Froze him to death.
Theresa was actually feeling guilty, but after hearing his words, she felt much less guilty, “Armand, stop
that, we're just pretending to be in love, you know? When we're back, we'll break up and we won't have
any relationship, got it?”
Armand swam to the riverbank, hugged his arms, and realized that it was colder when he was ashore
with the wind blowing, achoo! Achoo!
He covered his mouth and nose, sniffed, “Theresa, you took advantage of me so you must be
responsible for me!”
Theresa kept silent.
“Armand can you stop being so shameless?” it was the first time Theresa had met such a shameless,
unscrupulous, and lowly person.
“I don't care...”
“What are you guys doing?” Dolores found them and saw them bickering, it was such a cold day but
Armand was soaked all over, wouldn't he catch a cold?
Theresa and Armand turned their heads at the same time, they saw Dolores standing not far from them
and they spoke in unison, “You already came out...”
They had such a tacit understanding and said the same words, they were looking at each other and
Theresa was the first one to retract her gaze, she walked over to Dolores, “Lola.”
Dolores responded to her but she kept looking at Armand, “You're taking a bath in the river?”
Achoo! Achoo! Armand bent over, he almost froze to death, taking a bath? Was he crazy?
“I'm going back first.” no, he couldn't stand it any longer, otherwise he'd catch a cold.
Dolores looked at Theresa, “You were quarreling?”
Theresa shook her head continuously, “No, he carelessly slipped into the water.”
Dolores could see that Theresa was lying, but she didn't hold on to that topic but asked instead,
“Where are Samuel and Simona?”
“Mr. Nelson brought them up the mountains to pick persimmons.” Theresa answered.
Dolores frowned, “What?”
Brought them up the mountains?
That was unlike Matthew's style, even if he was at a remote place, but he was also very busy, right?
He had the time to go up the mountains and pick persimmons?
“He went because Simona kept pestering him about it.” As if Theresa could see her doubts, she
explained.
Dolores understood, her cellphone was still in the house, she should call Matthew and tell him to come
back, Victoria was still waiting, she had no time to waste.
Right when she wanted to walk back, Armand walked over after changing his clothes, seeing how
Dolores was in a hurry, he said, “You're looking for Mr. Nelson?”
Before Dolores answered he already said, “He went up to the mountains because his dearest daughter
kept pestering him about it.”
Armand came a the right time, Dolores looked at him and said, “Call him and tell him to bring the child
back.”
Armand nodded and said yes, he took his cellphone out and called Matthew, “... Hello! The number
you're calling is not available at the moment, please try again later. Sorry! The subscriber you dialed
cannot be connected...”
“It's not connected.” Armand hung up, “Maybe the signal in this village is not that good, I'll call him once
more.”
“... Hello! The number you're calling is not available at the moment, please try again later. Sorry! The
subscriber you dialed cannot be connected...”
It was still that same sentence, he looked up at Dolores, “Maybe there's no signal up the mountain?”
He was able to make a call before that and it was the first time he had encountered such a situation.
Dolores gave it a thought, that's also possible... After all, it was in deep forest in the mountains.
“Which mountain did they go to? I'll look for them.”
“Let me guide you there, we don't know if there are wild boar or something up the mountain, I can save
you if there's a danger when I go with you, if anything happens to you, Matthew would definitely peel
my skin off.” Armand walked in front to guide her.
Dolores wanted to take the two children to the Forbis family so she had to follow him, but Armand
talked really smoothly.
They walked along the rugged path towards the west mountain top.
The path was quite slippery because of the night dew, Armand reminded her, “Slowly.”
“Yeah.” Dolores was looking at the ground, there were also vines poking out, it was really hard to walk
through.
Every step was deep and heavy.
“There are footprints, they must have entered from here.” Armand looked at the road of stepped plants
at the foot of the mountain and said, “I'll lead the way, follow me.”
After saying that, he walked up by following the footprints, Dolores didn't follow him immediately, she
glanced all around and saw two tree crotches not far from her, with the right thickness... She walked
over, broke the branch with her strength, put it on the ground to try the height, then she broke it again
at the height she considered as suitable, thus the walking stick was made. The ground on the mountain
was wet, it was easy to slip, she had something to support her which was quite stable.
She also broke the other one, she accidentally scratched her hand when breaking it there's a small
wound on her palm, she groaned out of pain.
Armand turned his head and saw that she didn't go up, he looked the blood on her hand and asked in
concern, “Are you all right?”
He immediately walked over, maybe he walked so fast that he suddenly slipped, his body tilted in an
instant, luckily there's a tree on his right side, when he was going to fall, he grabbed and got support
from that tree so he didn't fall down, “Oh my God...”
He was still shocked, he heaved a long sigh.
Dolores asked in concern, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, what are you doing?” Armand stood steadily, he wasn't sure when he saw the branch she was
holding, Dolores smiled, “You must have never climbed a mountain, you must hold on to something
when climbing such mountain.”
She handed the branch to him.
When Dolores and Jessica were young and deported overseas to a remote place with no money, they
often go up to the nearby mountain to pick ferns, the locals didn't know that it could be eaten, but
Jessica knew, there were many ferns cold dishes and it would also taste good when it was stir-fried
with meat.
When you had not much to eat and no money, probably as long as you could eat enough, everything
would taste good.
Armand broke the branch like Dolores did and walked with it.
After around half an hour, Armand saw a persimmon tree up front, the tree was very tall and big, it had
red fruits that looked like small lanterns hanging on the top of the tree, which were particularly eye-
catching in the woods, Armand saw the persimmon tree, Matthew and the others shouldn't be far from
that place, “Young Mrs.Nelson, see, there's a persimmon tree.”
The edge of Dolores' eyes twitched, who was the "Young Mrs. Nelson" that he called?
What was with that tittle?
“They should be near here.” Armand didn't notice Dolores' expression.
Only after realizing that Dolores didn't walk, he noticed her face, seemed like something was wrong,
“Young Mrs. Nelson, what's wrong?”
Armand, Boyce, and Matthew were all at the pretty much same age, Matthew was slightly older than
him and Boyce, Dolores was Matthew's wife, then, they should call her Mrs. Nelson.
Even if that was so, Dolores was 6-7 years younger than him and she seemed so young like an
university student that just graduated, she didn't look like a mother of two at all.
He felt that calling her Mrs. Nelson was a bit unsuitable so he just called her Young Mrs.Nelson.
“Who's there?” Someone walked up to them at that time.
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