While cooking the fish, Flora said to Natalia beamingly, "The fish in the pond are all bred by me. The meat is delicious. Tonight, I'll treat you to my best dish."
Natalia smiled and thanked her out of courtesy. She helped her get the fish ready, then lit the fire and began to cook.
But she had never cooked with fire before, and she was not good at controlling the fire.
Thus, Flora spared her from these chores. Yet, seeing that Natalia was eager to help, she told her to wash the vegetables instead.
As Natalia was on the task, she heard Flora ask, "By the way, how come you and your friend ended up here? I forgot to ask you yesterday."
Natalia puckered her lips and put the freshly washed vegetables on a basket on the side.
Seconds later, she replied, "We came here for sightseeing. Our car turned over in an accident and we fell out."
Flora turned around and looked at her in surprise.
"Geez! How dangerous that was!"
Natalia just smiled.
"But I saw you were carrying a parachute that day."
Natalia froze.
She felt perturbed.
"Oh, how poor my memory is! Why could I forget that?" she thought in annoyance.
She lied again, "Well, we were going to do skydiving that day. That's why we drove toward the mountaintop. But we had an accident on our way."
As if frightened by that thought, Flora clamped a hand over her chest.
"Good Lord! Young people like you are too reckless with their lives. Why do you love such a dangerous and thrilling sports event?"
Moments later, she asked, "So you came here only with your friend? Do you have other companies?"
Gazing at Flora, Natalia instinctively lied. "We also came with a man. But I don't know where he is at the moment."
"A man?"
"Yes."
Flora then fell silent.
Her brows knitted slightly. Natalia couldn't figure out what she was thinking about.
She had no idea why Flora asked her so many questions. But since she was in a strange place and had been hunted by some killers, she had to put her guard up.
She knew lying to her lifesaver was not what a person of integrity should do.
Even so, she was aware that she should never relax vigilance against evildoers. Plus, she was in a foreign place that she knew nothing about. To protect herself, she had to resort to lies.
A long while later, Flora forced a smile and said, "If your friend is still alive, she must also be looking for you. Do you want us to help you look for her?"
Natalia smiled faintly and said, "That would be good."
After that, Flora posed a ton of questions.
She asked about her friend's appearance, her job, age, and family members.
The more detailed her questions were, somehow, the more uneasy Natalia became.
As a result, she subconsciously lied about her life.
She told her only half of the truth.
Flora seemed astonished when she learned that Natalia was already a mother of two.
"You're already a mother?"
Natalia nodded. "Yeah. Can't you tell?"
She thought it was a given.
Flora frowned a little and clicked her tongue. Shaking her head, she said, "No, you don't look like a mother at all."
Then, she remarked with emotion, "Girls in big cities like you don't age as fast as we do. Those who are approaching 30 may still look like 18-year-old girls. If you didn't speak, I'd thought you just graduated from college."
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