On the Day I Was Kicked Out of the Wealthy Family, I Had a Flash Marriage with a Tycoon-Chapter 92: Heartache and Warmth

In reality, Chloe Sterling was just making it up. There were only wolves deep in the mountains; they didn’t usually appear near the village.

Jean Kensington looked stunned. "Huh? There are wolves? For real?"

The bodyguard said, "That’s what Madam said."

Jean looked at Chloe. "The wolves won’t come into the house, will they?"

Chloe cleared her throat. "Don’t worry, they won’t."

Jean swallowed hard. "In that case, we should let them come with us."

The bodyguards followed Jean out, while Chloe went off on her own.

Chloe stopped in a small, humble courtyard. This was where she had lived for ten years, a place filled with memories both bitter and warm.

If it weren’t for that woman—sometimes lucid, sometimes lost in madness—she had no idea where she would have ended up.

She closed her eyes and could almost see her figure again. Whether lucid or mad, the woman always did the same things: she was good to Chloe, protected her, and never let anyone bully her.

She didn’t know how long she’d been standing there when Chase Langdon appeared beside her. "Auntie Rhodes was a good person," he said softly. "She must have been reincarnated into a good family and is living a happy life now."

Chloe opened her eyes, a film of moisture misting over their reddish rims.

She rarely cried, not even when she was bullied as a child. But in the days after her adoptive mother passed away, it felt as if she had cried all her tears.

She whispered, "She will. She definitely will."

"It’s getting dark. Let’s go back," Chase said.

"I’m going to take a look inside."

With that, Chloe stepped into the house. It wasn’t large and was a bit dilapidated, but it held all the memories of her childhood.

The two of them stayed for quite a while before leaving.

When they returned to the Langdon family’s house, Jean was sitting alone in the courtyard.

"Where’s the baby?" Chloe asked.

Jean said, "He was worn out after a long day. He ate a little and fell asleep." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

There was no internet at the foot of the mountain, and the cell signal wasn’t great either, so they all went to bed early.

「Crestfall, The Lockwood Residence.」

Jasper Lockwood frowned slightly as he held his phone. He had called Chloe Sterling several times since getting back that evening, but not a single call had gone through. The bodyguards’ phones were unreachable as well.

Seeing this, Henry Chamberlain said, "Second Master, Madam and the others are in the mountains. They probably don’t have a signal."

Jasper, of course, knew it was because of the lack of signal—he’d called several times. He just kept trying on the off chance a call might connect.

But in the end, he didn’t get his wish. The call never connected.

Jasper’s expression grew colder. There was no signal in the mountains, but there had been a signal in the town they passed through on the way. A bodyguard had even called him to report their location.

But Chloe hadn’t sent a single call or text. ’She hasn’t thought about me at all.’

He thought about what Silas Coldwell had said yesterday, thought about how Chloe didn’t seem to care about him that much. A knot of frustration tightened in Jasper’s chest, leaving him breathless, and his expression grew even darker.

Henry flinched at the sight. ’Did I say the wrong thing?’

’But...the signal really is bad in the mountains. It’s not like Madam is ignoring his calls on purpose.’

Just as he was puzzling over it, Jasper’s cold voice cut in. "You can leave. No need to stay here."

Henry nodded slightly and turned to leave.

Jasper picked up the glass of wine on the table and drained it in one gulp.

It wasn’t that Chloe wasn’t thinking about Jasper. As she lay quietly in bed, her mind was filled with him. She wondered what he was doing right now, and whether he was thinking of her.

She picked up her signal-less phone and shook it, as if trying to shake a signal out of it to call or text Jasper. But alas, a signal couldn’t be produced by shaking.

Finally, she had no choice but to put her phone down and close her eyes to sleep.

「The next morning.」

After eating something, the group gathered their gear and headed up the mountain.

It was Jean and the baby’s first time in the mountains, and they found it incredibly novel.

Chloe said, "You two should just play around the edge here. Don’t go deep into the forest, it can be dangerous. Also, don’t randomly pick any flowers or plants you don’t recognize."

Jean nodded. "Okay, got it. Are you guys going deep into the forest?"

Chloe answered with a single word. "Yes."

Jean: "..."

The thing Chloe was looking for could only be found deep in the forest.

After entering the forest for just two or three hundred meters, where the houses below were still visible, Chloe had Jean and the baby stop and play, telling them not to go any further in.

Jean had never been to a place like this and knew nothing about it, so she listened to everything Chloe said.

Leaving two bodyguards to stay with them, Chloe continued deeper into the woods with the other two bodyguards and Chase.

They walked for quite some time, searching all the while, when a bodyguard suddenly said, "Madam, is that it? The round, black fruit?"

Chloe followed his gaze. Amidst a tangled mess of vines were two black, fist-sized fruits. It was the Black Fruit.

"That’s it." Chloe immediately walked over.

"Wait!" Chase suddenly grabbed her arm, frowning. "Didn’t you see what’s around it?"

Although his own skills in medicine and pharmacology were lacking, he had often gone up the mountains with their master to gather herbs, so he knew a thing or two about poisonous plants.

The dense vines surrounding the Black Fruit were covered in thorns, and these thorns were highly poisonous. The slightest scratch to the skin would result in being poisoned.

"I saw them," Chloe said flatly. "It’s fine."

"What do you mean, ’it’s fine’? Put on your gloves first."

"I can’t wear gloves."

"Why not?" This, Chase didn’t know.

"The Black Fruit is extremely soft and easily damaged. I can’t control my strength properly with gloves on. If it breaks, all the juice inside will spill out, and it will all be for nothing."

"But you can’t let yourself get poisoned!"

A bodyguard immediately said, "Madam, this is too dangerous. Let us do it. I’ll wear gloves and try to be gentle."

’If anything happens to Madam, the Second Master will skin us alive.’

Chloe said, "You’d be even worse. You’d definitely damage it."

The bodyguard said, "Then how about we look for another one?"

"These poisonous vines are the roots of the Black Fruit. It’ll be the same no matter where we look." After a pause, Chloe took a small bottle out of her bag and removed a pill.

Recognizing the Antidote Pill, Chase held out his hand. "Give it to me. I’ll pick it."

But Chloe popped the pill directly into her own mouth and swallowed. "You can’t do it either."

With that, she walked to the vines, crouched down, and reached into the tangled mass to retrieve the Black Fruit.

The thorns scraped across the back of her hand, leaving behind a series of bloody scratches.

Chase frowned. ’She’s always like this,’ he thought, ’never considering her own safety.’

Chloe carefully retrieved the two Black Fruits and placed them into separate bags to prevent them from being crushed or damaged.

"Alright, let’s go. We’ll take the Black Fruit back first and come back for the other herbs this afternoon. And..." Chloe looked at the three of them and instructed, "You are not to mention what just happened to Jean, and you are absolutely not to tell Jasper Lockwood."

Chase didn’t say anything.

After a moment’s hesitation, the two bodyguards nodded.

Chloe looked at Chase and called out, "Senior Brother."

Chase huffed. "I know."

The three of them then headed back. Soon after, they emerged from the deep woods and met up with Jean and the baby at the edge of the forest.

"Chloe, you’re back! Did you find that thing?"

Chloe smiled faintly. "Yes."

Jean looked down happily, but as she saw the Black Fruit in the bag, she also saw Chloe’s hand, which was covered in scratches.

The cuts weren’t deep, but the skin was broken.

She immediately took Chloe’s hand. "What happened to your hand?"

Chloe said dismissively, "I just scraped it a little. It’s nothing."