On the other hand, Lily, who was being led by James Parker, felt a mix of confusion and sweetness inside. Although she was only thirteen, she had already reached the age when feelings of first love begin to stir. Every time she recalled what James Parker had just said, her small hands and cheeks felt burning hot. However, with her mind wandering in all directions, her worry about being kidnapped by the bandits was greatly reduced. Thinking of the confidence and composure in James Parker’s voice when he said “It’s okay,” the little girl truly felt that as long as she was with James Parker, nothing bad would happen and there was nothing to be afraid of.

Among the five people, the two bandits kept urging them to hurry up. Emily gradually lost her strength, but she still forced herself to keep up. James Parker and Lily ran for exercise every day, so they actually had better stamina than most adults when it came to walking this mountain path. If they wanted someone to rescue them, they should have walked slower to delay time. But James Parker didn’t count on the police at all, so he just followed along at a steady pace. Later on, the two bandits even started to admire him a little. Occasionally, when they asked him some questions, James Parker would naturally put on a timid look, sometimes even answering with a hint of tears in his voice.

“Hey, he’s still just a kid after all.” As evening fell, the man with the triangular eyes said, “But even though he’s scared, he still kept up. If my son had this kind of courage, I’d be satisfied. Don’t worry, we’re just after money. As long as we can get away, we won’t kill anyone.”

James Parker thought to himself, Well, you can be satisfied slowly—your son is about to become an orphan. But he said aloud, “If you want money, why don’t you just go straight to Emily’s family? Her family is the Zhangs of Jianghai, they’re really rich. Tens of thousands of yuan is nothing to them.”

As soon as he said this, both bandits were stunned, and Emily Bolton turned around, her face deathly pale. James Parker frantically waved his hand, pretending he had misspoken: “Ah, I... I... I just said it without thinking, it’s not... it’s not...”

“Ha, I didn’t expect we’d caught a big shot!” The man with the triangular eyes looked at Emily Bolton, his eyes shining.

Scarface nodded, then turned and asked, “From what you said, she’s not your real sister?”

James Parker only replied, “God-sister.” A huge clap of thunder rolled across the sky, and then, raindrops as big as beans poured down in torrents.

Section 9: Purely Accidental (Part 1)

The night was as dark as ink. In the darkness, heavy rain poured down madly from the sky, the sound of rain on the tent crackling like firecrackers. From a distance, it was impossible to hear people talking. However, not far away, through the curtain of rain, the sounds of chaos could still be faintly heard.

“Ah... let go... don’t...”

“Damn it... don’t move, or I’ll kill you...”

“Brother Dao, don’t do this, her family...”

“What about her family? I...”

“It’s not safe today... let’s wait a couple of days...”

Carefully shifting her body, Lily pressed close to James Parker, trembling slightly. In the pitch darkness, rainwater seeped in under the tent, and even though it was summer, it still felt cold.

“James Parker, what are they going to do to Emily?”

“Uh.” James Parker thought for a moment, then shook his head and played dumb. “I don’t know... don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

Now, the two children were sitting in this tent with no tools at all, their hands and feet tied with rope. At least for now, they could only sit close together in this position. Testing the strength of the ropes, James Parker narrowed his eyes.

These ropes would actually be easy to break free from. But if he rushed out now, their hands would still be like having another hostage, and he had no weapon, nor was his body strong enough, so it was better to keep a low profile for now. He could only hope that what he said earlier would really work, otherwise...

He glanced at the little girl beside him. In the darkness, he could feel her looking back at him. He lowered his head and gently touched her forehead with his, repeating once more, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

If that guy really tried to go through with it, even if it was scary, he’d have to try at least once—at the very least, he couldn’t let Lily be left with any bad memories.

James Parker had already made up his mind. Fortunately, a moment later, the man with the triangular eyes came over with Emily Bolton, whose hands were tied. It seemed Scarface had finally been persuaded by him. After all, they’d only been in the forest for a day, and although the heavy rain had covered many of their tracks, there was still a high chance of being caught. In this situation, they still wanted to leave themselves a way out.

With things like this, these two could only be considered ordinary thugs—it would be easy to deal with them. The problem was, how to avoid arousing their suspicion...

“Get in! I just saved you once...” The man with the triangular eyes shone his flashlight into the tent, then pushed Emily Bolton inside. The rain outside was so heavy that even the short distance between the two tents left both of them soaked. Especially Emily Bolton, who must have struggled on the ground for a long time earlier—her hair was a mess, her clothes disheveled, and she looked very bedraggled. The corners of James Parker’s mouth curled into a smile. Emily glared fiercely at him, then was pushed to sit down inside the tent.