She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 368

“I don’t know who’s behind it,” Loyce said coldly, “but the threat is real. Leave now if you don’t want to die.”

“You’re lying!” Cyrilla’s voice turned shrill and piercing. She pointed a trembling finger at Loyce. “Loyce! What are you trying to do? Are you making up something this outrageous just to scare us? To stop us from finding the supply drop? Or… or do you think this will make you look impressive in front of Lucian? What gives you the right to order us around?!”

Cyrilla grew more agitated, her voice rising to a scream. “Lucian arranged everything perfectly! There’s no way there’s a bear here! I think you’re just jealous! Jealous that I get to be in this program! Jealous of how much Lucian cares for me! You’re just trying to ruin it!”

“Cyrilla, maybe Loyce is telling the truth…” Marnie began, her stomach fluttering with unease at the terrifying look on Loyce’s face. She tried to calm her friend, who seemed to have lost her mind.

“Shut up!” Cyrilla snapped, cutting her off with a look of paranoid madness. “Don’t let her fool you! She just wants to take all the credit or sabotage our event! Let’s go! The supply drop is right up ahead. We’ll prove her wrong!”

“Weren’t you just saying you weren’t interested?” one of the boys muttered under his breath. He was thinking, *What is wrong with this woman? She was dead quiet the whole way, and the second she sees Loyce, she turns into this terrifying shrew. So much for being a refined lady.*

“Are you all really going to believe her?!” Cyrilla stubbornly turned and marched toward the deep woods. “Fine, I’ll go myself! I’ll expose her lies! I’ll be the first one to get the highest score!”

With that, Cyrilla shot a final look away from Loyce. As if to prove her own “bravery” and “correctness”—or perhaps to escape the oppressive weight of Loyce’s presence and her unsettling “lies”—she spun around and charged recklessly toward the hollow she was convinced held the “treasure.”

“Cyrilla! Wait!” Marnie, though scared, was more afraid of what would happen to her family’s business if Cyrilla got hurt, and she instinctively ran after her.

The other students exchanged uncertain glances. Some were frozen by Loyce’s warning, while others were swayed by Cyrilla’s determination and, after a moment’s hesitation, followed.

Just as Cyrilla’s figure was about to vanish into the shadow cast by a massive boulder—

“I found it!”

Her triumphant cry died in her throat. What she’d found was a broken glass bottle, half-buried in a pile of dirt, its accumulated water catching a sliver of sunlight that filtered through the leaves.

As Cyrilla stared at the bottle, the forest seemed to fall silent in tandem with her own subsiding excitement. And in that silence, all the dangers she had ignored became terrifyingly clear with each heavy, panting breath she heard just above her.

Her body froze. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. With a stiff, robotic motion, she slowly tilted her head up. Filling her vision was a gigantic brown bear, its fangs bared, its breath reeking of rot, and its crimson eyes fixed on her with ravenous greed.