The heat in mid-September was intense. Nina had only been outside for a short while, but it felt as if she was near a hot charcoal grill.
She didn't know how long John had been standing in the scorching sun.
In the morning, John had told her not to surf the Internet. Later that day, the entire network of Scher Mountain went offline. Then, she saw John standing in the sun, his lips dry.
Nina thought that something must have happened. 'Why is everybody trying to keep me off the internet? There must be something there that they don't want me to see, ' she wondered.
"Your Highness..." Rebecca called out to her, rushing over with the servants.
Nina turned around and walked towards her. "What happened this morning? Where is John?"
Rebecca motioned for a servant to hold an umbrella over Nina. She had already made up an excuse.
"Her Majesty invited Mr. Shi to have dinner with you tonight."
"Do you think I'm stupid? He almost passed out. What kind of invitation is this?" Nina said angrily.
Respectfully, Rebecca lowered her eyes away from Nina's gaze. "Your Highness, you misunderstood it," she answered calmly.
Nina was growing more and more worried about John.
She didn't really want to talk to Rebecca anymore.
"Tell me where he is now."
Rebecca looked up and answered, "I don't know either." She really didn't know.
With a fake smile, Nina gritted her teeth and declared, "Well then, if no one here knows where he is, I'll look for him myself. I'll search everywhere if I have to."
With a look of concern, Rebecca stood in front of her and said, "But it's hot outside. You might get heatstroke. Let's come back inside."
Ignoring Rebecca's plea, Nina continued to walk on another road. Rebecca signaled to the guards to block all paths.
"Your Highness, please go back," Rebecca pleaded again.
'They're quite determined to stop me. It's no good forcing my way out now. I'll concede for the time being, '
Nina thought. Raising her chin proudly, she turned around and went back.
At this moment, Vicente called out from a distance, "Nina, wait!"
"Vicente?" Nina turned around and saw Vicente walking towards her.
"Count Nangong," Rebecca and the others said respectfully.
"Queen Anne asked me to bring Princess Nina over," Vicente declared. No one would dare to question what she said, even if it was fake. She took the umbrella from the servant and stood beside Nina.
Rebecca examined Vicente's face for a while and thought that she wasn't lying. She signaled to the servants to follow her, and they left Vicente and Nina alone.
Nina narrowed her eyes and asked, "Did my mother really ask you to call me over?"
"Of course not,"
Vicente answered. "You didn't call back or sent a message after I sent you some messages. I haven't received any messages from John either since this morning, either. I knew something must have happened. Come with me quickly so I can show you where they took him."
Vicente recalled the look on John's face when she saw him being taken away. John must have been tortured.
"I saw that he didn't look too well. It was as if he had heatstroke and couldn't stand on his own feet. I came to you so we could get him out of trouble. It turns out that you were trapped here," Vicente said, glancing at her.
"Okay." Nina knew that she had no time to lose. She walked faster, her heart pounding in her chest.
'John came here in the morning, and now it's two o'clock in the afternoon. He's been out in the sun for a couple of hours now.
How could he stand it?
And why didn't I find out about this earlier?'
As Nina's pace got faster and faster, Vicente felt that she had to jog to catch up. 'Strange! My legs are longer than Nina's.'
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