Chapter 715 Always Be On Guard
Aunt Anne was smiling proudly as she was cleaning the fishes and told Clarissa. "You know, I rear these fishes myself. They are all fat and delicious. Tonight, you'll get to taste."
Clarissa was helping Aunt Anne to prepare the fishes. She thanked Aunt Anne politely for the opportunity to taste the fishes. Then, she wanted to start the fire for cooking.
Unfortunately, she was not used to woodfires.
Seeing her clumsiness, Aunt Anne did not let her continue. Since she wanted to help, Aunt Anne had her wash the vegetables at the side.
While she was washing vegetables, Aunt Anne casually asked her. "By the way, I forgot to ask you yesterday. How did you get here?"
Immediately, Clarissa tensed up and slowly placed the washed vegetables in a basket next to her.
After thinking for a couple of seconds, she answered, "We're on a trip. The car flipped over and I fell out."
Aunt Anne turned and looked at her in surprise.
"Oh dear, that sounds dangerous."
Clarissa gave a sore smile.
"But that day when I saw you, clearly you were carrying a parachute on your back!"
Aunt Anne's reply shocked Clarissa.
This would be difficult to explain.
She kicked herself for forgetting about the parachute.
As she panicked, she desperately made up more details. "Well, we planned to drive to the top of the mountain and parachute down. Halfway up the mountain, the car flipped over."
Aunt Anne feigned fear and covered her chest at Clarissa's explanation. Then, she exclaimed,
"Oh my, young people like you take life for granted. You like dangerous and exciting sports."
Then, she asked, "Is it only you and your friend on this trip? Is there anyone else?"
Her prying question made Clarissa decide not to tell the truth. "There is another one, but I don't know where he is now."
"A man?"
"That's right."
Aunt Anne was silent for a moment.
She frowned in deep thought.
Clarissa did not know what was on Aunt Anne's mind. However, Clarissa was being hunted down so subconsciously she became warier of others.
Of course, she knew that what she was doing was not sincere.
However, she was in an unfamiliar place, so she must always be on her guard. To protect herself, she came up with this fib.
Finally, Aunt Anne smiled gingerly and asked. "If your friend is still alive, he will probably be looking for you. Do you want us to help you look for him?"
Clarissa tried to smile convincingly and replied. "Yes, please."
From there on, Aunt Anne asked a lot of questions.
Her questions were about Clarissa's friend's overall appearance, what Clarissa did for a living, how old Clarissa was, whether there was anyone else in her family, and so on.
As Aunt Anne delved into more details, Clarissa became more and more uneasy.
So, she purposely did not tell Aunt Anne the whole truth.
Every answer she gave was part truth and part myth.
Upon learning that she already had two children, Aunt Anne put on a suspicious look, and she began to probe further.
"You're a mother?"
Clarissa nodded in reply. "Yes. Can't you tell?"
She sounded as if she expected Aunt Anne should be able to tell she was a mother.
Aunt Anne shook her head and clicked her tongue in disbelief. "I can't tell."
Then, she let out a sigh and added, "You city folks really know how to stay young. A twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old woman still looks like a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl. If you don't tell me, I think that you are a fresh graduate!"
To Clarissa, it was a compliment, so she just smiled.
The two of them continued their question-answer conversation until they finished preparing dinner.
The sound of footsteps echoed from outside as dusk was falling.
The children were dismissed and sent home long ago.
The footsteps could only be the husband Aunt Anne mentioned.
Sure enough, when they walked out of the kitchen, they saw a dark-skinned, well-built man coming in.
"My dear, you're back!"
Aunt Anne greeted him happily. The man sighed tiredly, and his eyes stared at Clarissa.
In a flash, his eyes lit up.
"This is..."
"This is Miss Maxi. She was on a trip with friends. Their car accidentally flipped over. I happened to be there, and I saved her."
As she spoke, she eagerly helped the man to sit down at the table. While dusting off his outer coat, she said, "You must be hungry. I'll go and get dinner ready now."
The man waved his hand indifferently and said. "There's no rush. Uncle Jasper and the others are on the way here. I'll go and meet them before dinner."
When Aunt Anne heard this, she was startled and was lost in thoughts for a moment.
Then, she broke into a smile.
"Okay, okay, I understand. Then, we'll have dinner when you come back."
The man nodded, and his eyes were drawn to Clarissa again.
Perhaps, it was intuition, but Clarissa thought that his gaze was outright brazen and penetrating.
Then, she heard him laughingly said, "You're quite bold to travel here. You and your friends are lucky to meet with us. Otherwise... Hmph."
When Clarissa heard him said "your friend", she immediately became excited.
"Have you seen my friend?"
The man took out a pipe, stuffed some tobacco in, lit it up, and started smoking. He replied, "Of course, I've met her. She's such a beautiful girl. Her leg is fractured, so she's resting in Uncle Jasper's house. You two can meet again when she has recovered sufficiently."
His reassuring words boosted Clarissa's spirit.
At the same time, she felt her heart tighten with anxiety
She quickly replied. "We don't have to wait for her to recover. I can go and see her immediately."
The man narrowed his eyes and looked at her as he continued to smoke.
After a while, he shook his head slowly and explained to her.
"It's impossible. Outsiders are prohibited from entering the village there. Your friend was in an accident so it is an exception. We can't do it for the second time."
He paused for a moment and said in a low voice, "You just have to wait for a little while."
Clarissa's frustration tore into her as she knew where Nora was but could not go and meet her.
How much long must she wait?
Throwing caution to the wind, she persisted and asked, "Why are outsiders not allowed to go in? As you can see, I'm alone. So, I am no threat at all. Besides, there's no electricity and no communications here. It's impossible for me to send out any messages. What are you concerned about?"
Her unexpected tirade shocked the man.
The tobacco smouldered away in his pipe, giving out a soft sound. Apart from that, there was no other sound in the room.
It was so quiet that the sound of a pin dropped could be heard.
After pondering for a long time, he conceded. "All right then. I'll take you to see Uncle Jasper later. If he agrees, you can go there."
It was such a relief that Clarissa let out a huge sigh.
Quickly, she uttered, "Thank you."
The man did not acknowledge instead shot her a sarcastic stare.
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