Standing Before Love (Myra and Sean) novel Chapter 709

The two of them shared uncomfortable looks, for they’d never faced a situation as awkward as this. What could they do now, though? Meanwhile, Heather noticed the old woman’s resentment toward them as well, so she pulled Leon to the side immediately. It seemed like they’d run into quite an ancient village today.

“I don’t think we’re welcomed here, Leon.” Heather lowered her voice since she wasn’t sure if the villagers could understand them.

Leon blinked a few times; he was unsure as well, but he had a feeling that the villagers were extremely unfriendly toward them. Leon tried to think of a way to solve the issue at hand, but he couldn’t come up with any good ideas even after racking his brains.

“Do you have any solutions in mind?” Heather assumed that Leon had already found an answer, for his eyes were darting left and right.

“No, but why don’t we go deeper inside?” Leon felt that it wouldn’t help to keep being surrounded by these groups of people, and it’d be better to continue the search themselves.

“Okay.” Since they didn’t have better ideas at the moment, they could only go with this one.

Heather and Leon continued walking under the unfriendly gaze of the villages. The two of them didn’t know where they’d find more signs of human life, but nothing could go wrong if they followed the hillside path.

Right now, they weren’t anywhere near the depths of the mountains or forest, so why were these people acting like they’d never seen any forms of modern civilization? Heather was constantly troubled by this doubt, and it seemed as though this place had been completely cut off from the outside world.

Was this why the old physician had decided to reside here? After all, he was indeed known as someone with pure intentions to help the sick. Heather studied the faces of the surrounding people and noticed the dull and spiritless look in their eyes—she had a feeling that there was something not quite right with these villagers.

Soon, the duo finally let out a breath of relief after leaving the village. However, they had now entered a forest. Just then, a strange and inexplicable fragrance wafted from the trees; the faint yet notable scent surprised both Heather and Leon.

She took a deep breath and turned to Leon. “Do you smell that?”

Leon followed suit and took a deep breath as well, inhaling a huge gulp of the mysterious fragrance into his lungs. After that, he felt uncomfortable all of a sudden; there was something unusual about the scent.

“Something’s definitely wrong.” Leon was confident about it.

“This fragrance is indeed suspicious,” Heather expressed her doubts. Why would there be a lingering floral scent in the middle of winter? It doesn’t smell like plum blossoms, so what is it?

“You took such a huge breath of it earlier, Heather. Aren’t you feeling dizzy?” Leon narrowed his eyes at her, for it seemed like Heather wasn’t feeling any aftereffects at all.

“No.” Heather shook her head. She wasn’t dizzy, but Leon didn’t look so good on the other hand.

“Could it be a poisonous gas?” Heather guessed. At the same time, panic rose on Leon’s face as soon as he heard that.

He looked at Heather in disbelief and terror—why would there be poisonous gas in the middle of an ordinary forest?

“Don’t scare me, Heather. We’ve been here for some time now; how could we still be alive if we’ve really inhaled poison?” Leon was a little worried about himself, for he didn’t want to sacrifice his life in a place like this.

Heather shielded Leon behind herself and said to him in a strict tone, “Anything is possible in a place like this.” She wasn’t trying to scare him, but since this was the famed physician’s chosen residential spot, there was bound to be something special about this place.

“What do we do, then?” Leon wanted nothing but to leave this forest as soon as possible. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know what to do if they were really poisoned to death here.

“Why don’t we turn back? Maybe they’ll help us if you pretend to pass out.” At that moment, Heather thought of an idea.

Healers were supposed to believe in equality for all lives; since the renowned physician was kind-hearted with pure intentions, he would definitely lend a helping hand to any sick person. If that happened, wouldn’t they be able to find the doctor effortlessly?

With that thought in mind, Heather let out a silent chuckle of glee—her idea was not bad indeed and it seemed reliable. However, Leon wasn’t too happy with her suggestion. He didn’t want to pretend to be sick, but he was actually feeling quite dizzy.

“Are you sure it’s going to work, Heather? They looked so disgusted earlier; will they really help us?” Leon was a little concerned, and his heart shuddered at the thought of the old woman’s terrifying glare.

Heather put on a confident smile and said, “I don’t think they’d leave us to die. All right, then. I’ll be counting on your performance later. Considering your outstanding acting skills, I know you’ll win their pity for sure.”

Leon stared at the ominous grin on Heather’s face. Why does her plan feel so unreliable? That peculiar village didn’t feel safe at all.

Snippets of horror films appeared in Leon’s mind. The storyline they were experiencing was precisely a common occurrence in such a genre—they’d first arrive at an uncivilized village, and that would lead to many bizarre incidents.

Right now, Leon was more than eager to leave this place; even the way their car had descended into a pithole seemed straight out of a horror movie. At the thought of that, Leon was instantly covered in cold sweat.

This didn’t feel like a journey to find a doctor at all! Instead, what a strange experience this was—he felt like they were on a treasure hunt. They couldn’t have been tricked by the group of scary old people, right?

While Leon was still immersed in his wild imagination, they had already exited the forest. In truth, they hadn’t gone very deep inside it, so it would only take a short walk before they reached the strange village again. With that, Heather turned to Leon—it would soon be his time to shine.

However, Leon clearly still hadn’t snapped out of his trance. Heather coughed loudly to gain his attention but to no avail, so she could only slap his shoulder hard to wake him up.