Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Dead?

  Dead!

  This piece of news struck her like a bolt of lightning on a clear summer’s day. She suddenly felt that she could no longer hear anything around her. Her lips trembled as she was about to say something, but she found that she couldn’t.

  She raised her head and looked at the people around her, but they all seemed flustered. Even Si Zhengting looked as though he didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, despite trying her best to do so.

  Then she felt her arm being tugged by someone. She followed Si Zhengting and walked out.

  The car had already been prepared and it sped along toward the riverbank.

  Kentucky was beautiful at night. There was a countless number of stars in the sky, and the air was a lot clearer than the smog in Beijing. However, no one was paying attention to the view at the moment. They were all staring in front of them anxiously.

  Gu Deshou was telling the driver to hurry, and Zhuang Nainai sat in the backseat, still staring into space.

  They sped past a whole stretch of Western fast-food restaurants. However, Zhuang Nainai didn’t marvel at how different and strange her surroundings were. All she could think about was how her mother couldn’t die, couldn’t die!

  Her body was trembling violently, and she felt as though she couldn’t deal with this emotional stress.

  She even had a mild stomachache. There was not one part of her body that felt fine.

  The car quickly reached the riverbank. Gu Deshou was the first person who hurriedly got off the car. However, Zhuang Nainai was a little nervous and afraid in that moment. She didn’t dare look, nor believe that her mother was really dead.

  She swallowed and was about to alight, but once she attempted to do so, her legs grew weak and she fell back onto the seat.

  At this moment, strong fingers wound themselves tightly around her arm. Zhuang Nainai turned around to see who they belonged to, and her eyes met Si Zhengting’s deep ones. She felt a strange urge to cry.

  She had been unable to hear whatever was happening around her for a while, but she suddenly heard his deep voice clearly. “Nainai, toughen up. Perhaps it won’t be as bad as we think it is.”


  Toughen up, that’s right. She had to toughen up!

  Zhuang Nainai allowed herself to be supported by Si Zhengting and staggered as she alighted from the car. She walked toward the riverbank, growing more anxious and impatient as she inched closer.

  When she finally reached the riverbank, she heard Gu Deshou’s anguished cries!

  Zhuang Nainai’s heart lurched. She suddenly felt a rush of power course through her as she pushed Si Zhengting away and jostled her way into the crowd!

  What was he crying about? Perhaps……

  She had only just pushed past the crowd, her emotions in a twisted jumble, when her gaze landed on the body. The corpse was a little deformed after having absorbed some of the water from the river. However, she could clearly tell that the corpse was not that of her mother’s.

  She suddenly felt relief surging through her. Then she turned around, noticing that Gu Deshou was still sobbing away. “It’s not her, it’s not her…… thank god, it’s not her!”


  At that moment, all her repressed feelings were suddenly unleashed. Her eyes grew red. She didn’t know what she was thinking, but she suddenly turned back and hugged Si Zhengting, who had been following her all this while. She choked, “It’s not Mother, Si Zhengting, it’s not my mother!”


  After she said this, she clung desperately to him, as though she was a drowning man clinging on tightly to his last connection with the shore. “Si Zhengting, Mother has disappeared. I’m so frightened. Si Zhengting, you’re the only person I’m left with now……”


  The world was such a huge place, bustling with people and life, but she was so lonely.