Chapter 48
When Elise woke up again, she noticed that her surroundings were pitch black. She slowly sat up and realized that her hands were tied with ropes, so she couldn’t move.
“Is anyone there?!” Elise shouted hoarsely to her surroundings, yet the only answer she got was her own echo.
Roughly guessing the situation she was currently in, she struggled with all her might. Not even hesitating to jerk her wrists so violently that the ropes cut against them, she managed to break free in the end.
Already adapted to the darkness, she looked around and found that it was a shabby hut. Then, she got up and walked to the door to open it. As the frosty wind of the dark night whistled by and froze her cheeks, accompanied by the howling of some wild animals coming from afar, Elise’s heart sank. “When I find out who did this, I’ll kill them!”
Suddenly, she saw two tall men coming toward her, so she hurriedly closed the door and retreated, feigning that she was still tied up.
“It’s tough to stay on this mountain even for a few days.”
“It’s okay. When we finish this, we can take a good rest for a while. Hold on a little longer; it’s only two or three days more. It will soon pass.”
Elise listened to their conversation, which got louder as they got closer to the hut. Then, the door was opened, and as the harsh light hit Elise, she subconsciously stretched out her hand to shield.
“You’re awake.” One of the men spoke, then threw a cold bun he brought in front of Elise.
“Eat it; don’t starve to death.”
Elise did not look at the bun on the ground but raised her eyes to look at the two men and said, “Why did you kidnap me here?”
The man did not answer her words but just said, “Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask. We only did it for the money, so we don’t know anything else.”
Elise lowered her eyes and said, “If you let me go now, I can give you a large sum of money.”
The two men laughed at the same time when they heard that. “Girl, do you think we’re such untrustworthy people? You’d better stay here and shut it; don’t think that what little you have can help you.”
“How about 1 million?” Elise felt that once she said this, the two men would have an instant shift in attitude.
They exchanged a look with each other and then said, “You’re teasing us! A million? In rocks, right?”
“No, real money! As long as you release me, I will leave you alone, and I will even give you 1 million in cash.”
The man who was head of the group was already interested, but looking at Elise’s cunning look, he thought better of it. “Don’t brag. You have a million? I’m not interested. Just stay here, and when the time is up, we will naturally let you go back.”
When Elise saw that this trick did not work, she thought of nothing more. Since the other party did not look like they wanted to hurt her, she decided to be patient and did not say anything more.
About an hour later, the two people guarding her went to the door.
“Hey, do you think what that girl said about the 1 million is true?”
The other man chided, “What? How can you take a little girl’s words seriously? Stop thinking nonsense; we should wait until the completion of all this.”
“Okay, then I’ll guard this place for the first half of the night, and then you come to replace me later.”
With that, one of them went to rest. As Elise listened to one set of footsteps walking away, her spirits lifted a little. If there was only one person watching her, then her chances of escaping were much better.
For safety’s sake, she still contacted Jamie first.
She took off the bracelet she wore and sent an SOS signal to Jamie. After sending it,
she put the bracelet away, and only then she seriously surveyed the surroundings. Waiting until the man outside could not stay awake and was feeling utterly sleepy, Elise found a thick wooden stick and held it behind her. Then, she quietly slipped out of the wooden hut, found the man, and smashed him with the wooden stick ruthlessly.
It was an unexpected move, so the man simply did not have time to react and so he flopped to the ground directly. Without the slightest delay, Elise ran down the hill to escape.
At the foot of the mountain, Alexander and Danny led their men in preparation to go up the mountain. On the way here, Alexander had studied the terrain of Silvermoon Mountain and knew that there were only two roads that could reach the top of the mountain, one was the wider road that circled around the mountain, and the other was the smaller path at the back of the mountain.
“Danny, you go up along the wider road, and I’ll go up along the trail; we will meet at the top of the mountain. If something unexpected happens in the middle of our journey, use the fire signal, as there is no communication signal in this mountain.”
“Okay, Alex. Be careful.”
With that, the two of them launched into action separately.
The night in the mountains was extraordinarily cold, but while Elise shivered and shook, she never stopped running down the mountain. As she was too anxious to escape, she did not pay attention and tripped over some rocks, causing her to lurch forward and fall down. Rolling along the steep road, she finally hit a large tree and stopped, luckily managing to avoid falling off the cliff.
Gasping, Elise lay on the ground, looking at the bright moon overhead. Then, she was just about to get up when she vaguely heard footsteps gradually approaching. As her heart thumped fast, she hurriedly held her breath, not daring to make any sound.
“Young Master Griffith, the night is cold. Put this jacket on.” A subordinate handed over the jacket, but Alexander refused.
“I’m fine, and you guys should layer more on. How far do we have to go before we reach the top of the mountain?”.
“We have already done two-thirds of the journey, so there is still only a little way left.
But the more we ascend up the mountain, the more difficult the road is, so we have to be careful.”
“Got it; tell everyone to pay attention to safety.”
Alexander had just finished speaking when someone suddenly rushed over. “Young Master Griffith, there is a discovery ahead.”
Hearing this, Alexander took a big step forward and rushed over.
“Young Master Griffith, look, there’s a shoe here. It looks like Miss Sinclair’s.”
Hurriedly, Alexander picked the shoe up and looked at it. It was indeed Elise’s. “Quick, check if there is anything else of note around.”
“Young Master Griffith, look here. It seems that someone fell; could it be Miss Sinclair?”
In a daze, Elise seemed to hear someone calling her name. She thought she had fallen and was hallucinating until a tall figure appeared in front of her and called out to her in a familiar tone, “Elise?”
Only then did Elise open her eyes and see Alexander’s face. “Alexander, why are you here? I’m not hallucinating, right?”
When Alexander saw that he had found Elise, the weight in his heart lifted, and he promptly helped Elise up from the ground. “Are you okay?”
Elise subconsciously shook her head at Alexander.
“I’ll help you up.”
Elise nodded, and she was just about to stand up when she stumbled, and her body lurched forward. At once, Alexander caught her and said, “Are you all right?”
The two of them were so close that Elise could clearly hear his heartbeat. She hurriedly pushed him away and replied, “Yes, it’s just that my leg hurt a little from the fall, so I didn’t manage to hold my balance just now.”
After hearing this, Alexander hesitated for a second and then squatted down and picked her up into his arms.
