“What is… going on?” Gu Mengmeng asked timidly.
Elvis took two deep breaths before slowly speaking. “Why didn’t you flee then?”
“Huh?” Gu Mengmeng stared at Elvis in confusion.
Flee? When? To where?
Lea continued Elvis’ line of inquiry. “Wabei told us that after we were trapped in the vine chrysalis, you had the opportunity to escape but you chose to dive right towards the vines…”
Lea’s tone was gentler than Elvis’, but his voice was still full of reproach.
This gave Gu Mengmeng the false impression that she hadn’t stayed on to rescue them, but to just charge in without thinking…
Wasn’t their attitude the right opposite of how they were supposed to be behaving?
Shouldn’t they be feeling extremely touched and be kissing and hugging and holding her up high?
Why were they acting like she had an affair and they were going to divorce her?
“Xiao Meng, you promised us that you will always protect yourself first in any situation.” Elvis sounded as if every single word he uttered was like a knife digging into his heart. Gu Mengmeng’s own heart ached just by listening to his pain.
“I remember.” Gu Mengmeng’s voice softened. She furrowed her brows but didn’t look repentant. Instead, she said stubbornly, “But this was a special circumstance. If I didn’t do anything, you and Lea would die.”
Why didn’t Elvis understand that Gu Mengmeng had risked herself to save them?
It was not right to say he wasn’t moved. He was so touched that he wanted to dig out his own heart and mash it to bits, just so the turmoil in his chest would stop.
But…
“It is my honor to die for you.” He gnashed his jaws, slowly grinding down all the anxiety and worries that had enveloped him over the past three days when Gu Mengmeng was unconscious. He tried to verbalize the intensity of his pain. “If anything happened to you, we would have died in grievance.”
Lea had said something like that to her before.
They were still at the Snake King valley then, and Snake was still alive.
She had used her own body to shield Elvis, to prevent Snake from using his snake tail to lash at him. In the end, Elvis had flipped her around and covered her in his embrace, directly enduring Snake’s attack.
At that time, she had wanted Lea to quickly go save Elvis, but Lea held onto her shoulder instead and said,
If anything happened to you, we would die in grievance. If we mean anything to you at all, promise me, protect yourself first in any situation.
She had promised them. She remembered.
But to just watch on as Elvis and Lea died, while she escaped unharmed—this was something she could not do.
Gu Mengmeng looked up with red-rimmed eyes. “Let me tell you, I take back my promise! In the future, no matter how many times, as long as you and Lea are in danger, I will just charge in to save you guys! If you both died, I cannot bear to live alone.”
“Xiao Meng!” This was the first time Elvis had shouted at her like that.
Previously, no matter what she did, no matter how willfully she behaved, Elvis had never hollered at her.
Gu Mengmeng stiffened her neck as tears streamed down her face. She refused to yield and shouted back, “You can shout all you want, it’s useless. I cannot be without the two of you. I can’t go on living without you two. So what?! Bite me if you dare!”
Elvis’ and Lea’s chests shuddered painfully on hearing Gu Mengmeng’s angry provocation.
For the first time in their lives, they really wished Gu Mengmeng didn’t love them so much…
