Corinne grabbed Jeremy’s arm firmly and shook him. “Mister! Hey! Wake up! Don’t scare me like
that…”
The man closed his eyes to calm himself and was silent for about a minute before he opened his mouth
again. “Why didn’t you continue what you just did?”
‘What I just did…? Corinne immediately understood what he meant, and her lips twitched as she
looked at him with disdain. “Tch, all men are like this! Don’t try to take advantage of me!”
Corinne was very upset when she realized he tried to trick her. She shoved the remaining glass of
water to him and said angrily, “Drink it yourself! I took a lot of effort to bring the water back for you, and
it’ll leak out if you don’t drink it quicker!”
Jeremy was not thirsty, but he decided to drink it nonetheless because it was rare for her to be so
conscientious. He opened his handsome eyes, reached out to take the leaf cup handed to him, and
raised his head to drink the water that remained inside.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThen, he seemed to have a sudden realization as he stared at the empty cup made of reed leaves. His
dark pupils contracted as he asked pensively, “Have we met somewhere before?”
Corinne was hugging her knees as she sat to one side, and his question made her feel that he was
trying to tease her again. She rolled her eyes at him and said, “Don’t act like you’ve lost your memory!
It’s hardly the time and place for that.”
Jeremy’s expression remained stern. “What I mean by that is, have we met somewhere a very long
time ago?”
Corinne could hear the seriousness in his tone, which was unlike what she would have expected if he
was trying to tease her. She then eyed him strangely and said, “Probably not. I lived in a remote place
before I turned eighteen. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet a rich man like you.”
Jeremy narrowed his eyes slightly and had a complicated expression. Ten years ago, he went to the
countryside to inspect the poverty alleviation projects that the company had planned for certain
poverty–stricken areas, but his enemies plotted against him and injured him severely while he was on
the way to the site.
In those dire circumstances, he hid in the forest of a small mountain village and waited for his
subordinates to come and get him. While waiting in the forest, he lost consciousness due to excessive
blood loss, and the smell of blood lured in a venomous snake that bit him.
He nearly died that day, but a little girl passed by and saved him. The girl was small–perhaps about ten
years old–but she was calm, mature, and methodical. She tied his arm with a hair tie to stop the toxin
from spreading along his blood vessels. Then, she sucked out the venomous blood for him with her
mouth and spat it out. Lastly, she found an herb in the surrounding grass and chewed it before applying
it to his bite.
The girl told him that the herb, known as broadleaf plantain, grew in areas that were known to harbor
snakes and could remove the effectiveness of most snake venoms.
After that, she took out her handkerchief and helped him bandage another wound on his body.
Since there were traces of snake venom left in his body, his eyes were blinded temporarily, and he
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmcould not see what her face looked like the entire time.
For the next three days, the girl would visit him with a bun, and she poured a glass of water from her
water bottle for him to drink too.
She also folded a makeshift cup out of reed leaves to contain that water.
On the day that her subordinates found him, the girl had not come yet, and he did not have time to wait
for her because he had to rush back to deal with something urgent. He therefore left one of his
subordinates there to wait for her. He then left a string of beads–which his mother gave himn as a lucky
charm–with that subordinate and instructed him to give it to the girl who saved his life as a keepsake.
The girl was also told that she could visit the Holdens‘ estate in the city and look. for him if she was in
any trouble.
Jeremy, on the other hand, took her makeshift leaf cup as his keepsake.
Not long later, a girl came to the Holdens‘ estate to look for him with the string of beads. That was when
he found out that the girl who saved him was the Riveras‘ second daughter, Anya, who happened to be
recuperating in the summer resort in the countryside a few days prior.