Chapter 44 Settling Down

Never in Elena's wildest dreams did she expect that climbing to the mountaintop with anticipation, would lead to this outcome.

In order to take a shortcut, she bumped her knee against a rock, scraped her arm and neck with tree leaves along the way. With one hand tightly holding onto the cake to prevent it from getting deformed, she endured the pain throughout the journey. There were moments when she nearly lost her balance and fell.

But the sight of William's joyful smile made her forget all the hardships.

Did anyone tell her why everything she saw was so different from what she had imagined?

"Bang!"

A loud noise resonated as fireworks exploded at the foot of the mountain, ascending into the night sky. The dazzling fireworks instantaneously formed several sparkling letters.

"Wishing William a Happy Birthday!"

The radiant fireworks illuminated Chloe's young and proud face as she excitedly clapped her hands.

"See, William? Isn't the gift I gave you today unique?"

Spencer just smiled gently as Chloe turned around and suddenly reached out her hands, passionately kissing William's neck.

Fireworks... at the same time, Elena's small face was illuminated, covered in sweat and dirt, terribly pale.

She stood frozen in place like a soulless corpse, unaware of anything.

The fireworks continued to burn, while her heart turned to ashes, sinking and crumbling in the invisible darkness.

Something was slowly cracking, melting, and collapsing...

A meteor shower! What a stupid meteor shower!! She didn't want to watch.

Elena turned around in pain, despairingly lowered her head, and bitter tears welled up in her eyes.

In the darkness, she didn't know who pushed her, and she let out a low scream as her whole body rolled down the slope.

Her scream was masked by the sound of fireworks, and Elena felt a dizzy spell from losing her balance and rolling down. Her small hand still tightly grasped the box of Leo constellation crystals, as if it were more important than her own life.

"Bang!" Her head hit something, and everything went black before she lost consciousness.

On the astronomical observatory, William forcefully pushed Chloe away...

"Chloe, don't act like this anymore in the future!"

"William are you angry? Don't you like the fireworks gift I gave you?"

William slightly furrowed his handsome brows and deeply sighed, "Chloe, I understand your intentions. Celebrating birthdays is better done at home; don't come this far in the future. It's dangerous in the dark with strong winds."

"Mhm, I heard there would be a meteor shower at 9:30, and it's been half an hour already. It's strange if there's none."

"Astronomical forecasts are not always accurate, and besides, meteors are something we can only hope to encounter."

William suddenly turned around, "Chloe, wait here for a moment. I'll go and check over there."

"Oh, alright. I'll wait here for you!"

William's figure gradually moved away, and a dark figure squeezed next to Chloe.

"Chloe, it's done!"

"Yes, not a whisper of it leaked."

"Yes, Miss!"

That dark figure blended back into the crowd as Chloe smirked, her eyes filled with arrogance.

After a while, William's figure returned.

"William, what were you looking for?"

William smiled faintly, "Nothing really. I just felt like I saw a familiar figure."

Chloe's heart instantly tensed, and the smile on her face seemed a bit forced.

"But I was mistaken. I just went to confirm, and I recognized the wrong person."

William smiled calmly. For some reason, he always felt like Elena was nearby, but he couldn't find her.

At that moment, the other people who came to watch the meteor shower patiently waited...

For several hours, there were no shooting stars in sight, and people started to retreat in small groups. They cursed the astronomical observatory for its inaccurate prediction.

Chloe quickly covered her stomach and pouted, "My stomach hurts... William, could you help me down the mountain?"

William supported Chloe as they descended the mountain. Chloe, using her foot pain as an excuse, relied on William for support, leaning almost half of her body on him.

In the late hours, Elena gradually regained consciousness.

Her head was pounding! Her whole body felt like it had been shattered, rendering her unable to move. In the pitch darkness, Elena struggled to sit up and, through the hazy starlight, discovered that she was stuck on a cliff.

A protruding rock had caught her, and only a crooked pine tree beside her prevented her from falling to the bottom of the cliff.

Looking down, it was pitch black and bottomless.

Looking up, the astronomical observatory was deserted.

The steep cliff was impossible to climb, and what was even more frightening was that she couldn't move properly. Her leg was injured, and any movement caused excruciating pain.

Both palms were covered in blood...

"Help! Help!" Elena shouted at the top of her lungs, but only her own echo responded to her.

This is bad! What should I do?

Stuck on this mountainside, with no way up or down.

Is getting stuck here a deliberate attempt to kill her?

In distress, a glimmer of hope appeared in her line of sight—her backpack was hanging on a branch behind her. She carefully moved forward, enduring the intense pain in her palms, and pulled the backpack back.

This action caused the pebbles around her to fall towards the cliff.

Elena was frightened. If this rock couldn't bear her weight, she would plunge into the abyss again. She didn't dare to breathe heavily and maintained her posture with bated breath. Clinging to the branch, she sat quietly for a long time, until she no longer heard the sound of falling stones. Only then did she slowly open the backpack and took out her phone.

Thank goodness, the phone wasn't damaged.

To avoid Hassan's harassment, she had intentionally turned off her phone.

That dominant, bad man... If he knew she had come here to celebrate William's birthday, he would definitely beat her up badly.

However, at this critical moment, she couldn't think of anyone else besides him.

She opened her phone, and a bunch of message notifications appeared.

Elena didn't have time to read the messages now. Just by looking at the numbers, most of them were from Noura and Hassan...

With trembling fingers, Elena pressed Hassan's number.

Almost instantly after dialing, he answered the phone with a deep, seductive voice.

"Who is this?"

Elena couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness and amusement. Did this man value his pride so much?

She could imagine that he must have been staring at his phone all this time; otherwise, how could he answer so quickly? What's even more annoying is that he intentionally asked who it was, even though he knew it was her phone number.

At this moment, Elena didn't want to provoke him any further.

"It's me! Please, can you come and save me? I'm stuck..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the other person rudely interrupted her, "Who are you?" His tone was cold and heartless.

Elena was almost choked by his words. After a moment of silence, she said with a sense of disappointment, "I am Elena."

"I don't know you!"

He cut her off bluntly with three words and hung up the phone.

What an heartless bastard he was!

Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!

If he didn't come to rescue her, she would have no choice but to call the police. But who would be willing to come and rescue her in the middle of the night?

Just a minute later, the phone rang again.

"Elena... Listen carefully, if you ever dare to run off again, watch how I won't care about you anymore..." The voice was angrily roaring, trembling Elena's ears. She squeezed her small face in frustration.

"Okay, I was wrong! I won't do it again."

"Where are you?"

"Flower Hill... Observatory, I fell from a cliff..." Elena cautiously downplayed her situation.

"A cliff!! Elena, you're quite audacious, thinking you're a fairy? Listen, don't turn off your phone. I'm coming to save you right away..."

For some reason, hearing his anger-filled voice, Elena didn't feel any grievances. Instead, there was a sour and faint warmth in her heart.

Twenty minutes later, a helicopter hovered above the observatory.

Elena shouted loudly, "I'm here, I'm here!!"

Hassan sat in the helicopter, looking down from a high position under the intense searchlight.

Elena sat on a stone wall less than a meter wide and four to five meters long, at risk of falling any moment, instantly making his heart skip a beat.

"Stop shouting, sit down and wait for me to come..." Hassan shouted through the loudspeaker.

Has this woman lost her mind? No contact all day, and she actually came here to play rock climbing without any equipment. Is she tired of living?

Elena sat quietly, looking up at the sky. The helicopter's rotor stirred up a strong airflow, blowing leaves and dust everywhere. Elena could barely keep her eyes open.

"Master, it's dangerous down there. Let me go and get her!"

Nabil suggested, but Hassan gave him a glare and said, "She's mine, you can't hold her!" Nabil immediately fell speechless.

After a while, a rope ladder slowly descended from the helicopter. Hassan's tall figure agilely climbed down step by step along the ladder.

When he jumped onto the rocks, the rocks seemed to loosen, making a rustling sound like flowing sand.

"Where are you injured? Let me take a look!"

Hassan's bossy tone was mixed with a peculiar tenderness.

Elena sat on the ground and said softly, feeling guilty, "I twisted my ankle!"

"You're really something. Why did you come to such a dangerous place?"

"I.. I wanted to see the meteor shower..." Elena clearly lacked confidence.

Hassan took a steel wire and fastened it around her waist.

He tied her up, then leaned against the bottom of the ladder, lifting her up skillfully and swiftly.

"How do you feel? Does it hurt?"

"Well, it doesn't hurt..."

Hassan grabbed her small hand and turned it over, then immediately exclaimed, "You're so injured and you say it doesn't hurt? Are you kidding me?"

Elena forced a laugh.

"Don't use your hand to catch it, I'll hold you instead..." Hassan dominantly wrapped his arms around her waist, preparing to leave.

Under the spotlight, a flash caught Elena's attention as she turned her head.

It was the crystal from the Constellation of Leo, wedged between rocks and a big tree, quite a distance from the ladder.

"Stop, stop, my crystal fell somewhere over there..." Elena frantically untied her waist band and prepared to retrieve the crystal.

Hassan quickly stopped her and helped her secure the belt again. He warned, "Don't move, I'll get it."

Hassan untied his own belt, cautiously walked over, and just as his big hand reached for the crystal...

The rocks suddenly loosened, causing the entire boulder to fall down.

Hassan had not tied himself with a wire, and with his loss of balance, he rolled down towards the mountaintop along with the stone, leaving Elena stunned.