A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 176

Hearing the very familiar voice from behind, Cassandra couldn't believe her ears.

The voice was low yet sweet, the sexy laziness on it was so persistent that it lingered through Cassandra's senses. It was the voice that would melt her heart every time she heard it.

Longing to see the face that bore the voice, Cassandra slowly turned around and saw Rufus standing behind her. Her eyes betrayed the mix of emotions she felt upon seeing him, she suddenly felt excited and wanted to wrap him around her arms.

"Ru... Rufus... Why are you here?"

Cassandra could hear her voice trembled as she asked Rufus. He was so unpredictable and she was not expecting him to be here, thus she didn't know what to say or how to react.

'How could it be possible? Hasn't he been staying in G City all this time? Is he supposed to be mad with me after assuming that Dylon and I had an intimate relationship?

Haven't we already broke up by the misunderstanding? Are we in a cold war because neither of us would speak first? Why did he suddenly show up?' These questions baffled Cassandra. She wanted to ask Rufus for answers so as to clear her heavy head, however, looking at his face, she deemed it wise to just stay silent.

Driving on her way to A City, whenever she saw a miserable scene caused by the tragic earthquake, Cassandra was relieved to think that Rufus was not with her to witness all of these.

For some reasons, she didn't want Rufus to see such incidents because it would break Rufus's heart seeing so many innocent people suffering. Cassandra knew that despite his strong personality Rufus had a soft spot for victims of calamities like this.

There were too many casualties reported around the earthquake-affected region. People were gnashing and weeping along the streets, mourning for the loss of their loved ones. When one saw too many deaths, he would be miserable at first but would become gradually insensitive in the end. Cassandra could take it all but she didn't want Rufus to withstand any of it, not at all.

Cassandra knew that Rufus was a much deeper person compared to her. She didn't want him to see any scene of suffering, anything miserable.

"You don't have to go in. You can stay outside and give us instructions on what to do with the help of the real-time cameras."

The rescuers immediately handed the communication devices to Cassandra when they heard that Cassandra could help them rescue the survivors.

"This is the headset. This one is the walkie-talkie. And with this, you can view our exploration in real time on the screen. You can tell us the way through the walkie-talkie until we find the survivors trapped inside the building."

The rescuer talked a-mile-a-minute in giving instructions to Cassandra and looked at her with a stern face when he finished. He assumed that she followed him along the way.

"Did you get it? Again, we thank you and appreciate your help! It really matters to the people here."

With that, the rescuers turned around and walked inside the building. Cassandra looked down at the devices on her hand. She put on the headset, checked on the walkie-talkie and wiped off the dusty screen of the hand-held monitor.

"Walk to the left. There is a weak spot on the right. It will collapse easily. The path to the left will take you a little longer but it is safer.

This is a corridor. The security room should be on the edge of the corridor. Go straight!"

Cassandra fixed her gaze at the screen. With the weak light in the building, she guided the rescuers inside from time to time.

On the screen of the device in her hand, the rescuers slowly approached the security room. The door had been distorted. When they kicked the door open, they found a man inside the room, he was unconscious and his legs had been trapped and pressed by a heavy cabinet.

"Great! We found him!" Cassandra exclaimed in joy. "Now, Dylon, it's your turn."

Cassandra immediately handed the monitor, the walkie-talkie and the headset to Dylon, and winked at him.

"After you pulled him out, cover his eyes with a cloth because the sudden dazzling light will hurt his eyes when he went out of the darkness."

Dylon said as he put on the headset. He started to teach the rescuers how to perform basic first-aid. After that, they carried the man out.

Cassandra turned to look at Rufus who had fixed his eyes on her all this time when the rescuing commenced. He seemed to be mesmerized at the turn of events. However, realizing that Cassandra was now looking at him, Rufus slowly raised the corners of his lips and smiled.

"I'm glad you are here!"

Such a simple sentence seemed to pass through every obstacle between them. The day before yesterday, they were separated by a long distance but now they were just feet apart and appeared to be pulled closer.

"Hey, you! How could you do this to yourself?"

Rufus narrowed his eyes and gazed at Cassandra's innocent yet tired face. "Don't you know how dangerous it is in there," he added in a voice full of concern for her.

He had no idea that she was so bold to bring her staff to A City and volunteered to help with the rescue mission.

Learning about what Cassandra had done, Rufus didn't sleep at all and made his way to A City. He started looking for her the moment he got here. Now when he finally found her, she was planning to go rescue people who were trapped inside a fallen building. 'What did she think of her life? How could she not treasure her own life?" Rufus asked himself in disbelief.

Cassandra, however, just stuck out her tongue. She definitely knew what Rufus meant but was not taking it seriously.

Such a cute response to counter his anger immediately melted the coldness of Rufus's heart. He suddenly reached out to seize Cassandra's arm and pulled her against his chest. For a moment he was grateful that she was safe and held her even tighter.

Cassandra was caught off guard. She wanted to protest but was held silent as soon as her face touched his firm chest.

Once again, she heard his heartbeats. They were as loud as thumping drumbeats and as fast as rushing river waters. Cassandra knew that his heart beat faster this time because of her. She had worried him and angered him for not telling him of her plan of helping people at A City.

Cassandra let out a sigh that was almost unnoticeable and wished that Rufus would not end the embrace. She just stood against his chest, silently.

At that moment, it seemed that nothing could disturb the two of them, not even the earthquake. They both wished that they could be hugging each other like right now till death parted them away from each other's arms.