In Love, Never Say Never

In Love, Never Say Never Chapter 641-642-643-644-645

In love, never say never chapter 641

“Let’s go that way!” Nora called to us. She spotted Tabitha and Laurel just climbing out of the hole. “What’s up, you two? If you’ve had a good rest, let’s move on!”

The two women nodded as they dusted the dirt and grime off their wrinkly clothes. They glanced at Tessa, who was still immersed in her prayers. Tabitha mumbled, “She’s so pious. Do you think God with really bless her?”

Nora shrugged. “Let’s go!”

The forest was rather humid in the morning. The soil had become loose. One could hear the soft crunching of the earth just by stepping on it.

“Ah!” Laurel screamed. Then, she squatted on the spot she had previously stepped on and began to scrape at the ground.

Very soon, we saw what had been hiding underneath the earth. It was a cluster of yellowish-white fungi. Some of them had been crushed under her feet.

Only a few short and stout ones were spared.

“Mushrooms!” Tessa, who had been reciting her prayers the whole time, promptly came forward and started digging up the plants from under the fertile soil. She wiped the dirt off and began to swallow them a few pieces at a time.

Laurel, looking equal parts terrified and worried, wondered, “Do we… eat them raw? Just like that?”

Tabitha turned around and, indeed, managed to find other mushrooms of the same variety under some rotten leaves.

She passed some of them to us. “Yes, this kind of mushrooms can be eaten raw. There used to be plenty at my place and we did this all the time. Sure, they won’t satisfy our hunger, but it’ll have to do for now. Let’s eat!”

They dug in. The rest of us, having barely eaten anything for a day, followed suit.

Nora helped herself to some mushrooms. A while later, she looked at Tabitha, a question on her mind. “Are you sure we won’t have any hallucinations after eating these? Once, I watched the news about poison testers in the south. They usually do that come May and June. Those who really did get poisoned are said to be able to ‘transcend reality’.”

Tabitha chuckled. “Well, if you know which ones to eat and which ones to avoid, basically you won’t have any hallucinations.”

Laurel found many other kinds of mushrooms in the soil. She turned around to ask the expert, “What about these?”

Tabitha nodded. “Sure, but we’ll need to cook them. If not, we’ll see things that aren’t there.”

“That’s a pity. None of us have a lighter, otherwise, we could have made ourselves a feast supplied by Mother Nature herself,” Nora sighed as she stuffed more mushrooms into her mouth.

“Ah!” Tessa shouted all of a sudden, prompting everyone else to look towards her, surprise hanging on our faces.

“What? Has your God decided to show Himself?” Nora spoke in annoyance.

Tessa’s face turned pale, her body stiffened, as she muttered, “B-B-Bamboo snake…”

All of us followed her gaze simultaneously. There was a tiny green snake, about fifty centimetres in length, hanging around the leaves of the tree next to her.

We would not have noticed it if we had not been paying attention. The snake spat out its forked tongue. It looked like it was preparing an attack.

“This snake is venomous. We have to be careful!” Tabitha yelled, her face pale and haggard.

I scanned the surroundings from the corner of my eyes. There was a branch that must have been snapped in half by the wind. One of its ends seemed rather sharp.

“What now! What now! I’m going crazy just looking at that ugly thing! Ah, it’s giving me goosebumps!” Nora stood close to me. Driven by anxiety and fright, she clung tightly onto me as if her life depended on it.

I wanted to comfort her, but I was scared too. The creature was inches away from us, equipped with venom!

“Is it not too late if we run now?” Nora muttered, already backing away.

“It’s too late!” Tessa said, her voice trembling. “This is a bamboo snake. It’ll come after us.”

“Damn it! But we can’t just stay here like this!”

Laurel was so scared that she was shaking uncontrollably, her face completely drained of color.

“Kill it!” Tabitha proposed. Despite being scrawny, she dared to glare at the reptile hiding among the leaves with a wicked glint in her dark eyes.

Tessa was closest to the snake. Any careless movements and the snake could latch onto her and sink its fangs on her neck.

But she was too frightened at the moment to do anything. Her body kept shaking. “Don’t provoke it, you guys. I’m scared.”

“What are you scared of? You recite your prayers all the time, right? Your God will protect you. Go on,” Nora said, with great irony.

In a situation like this, no one could afford to be distracted.

Tabitha turned to instruct Tessa. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll count to three. You get ready to dodge. I will throw a rock and see if I can hit it.”

What?

Tessa was on the verge of tears. “You can’t possibly hit it! The chances are slim. What if you hit me instead? I’ll die!”

“Do you have other ideas?” Tabitha asked a rhetorical question. Tessa shook her head in despair.

“It’s a gamble then!” With that said, Tabitha slowly bent down and picked up a stone.

Tessa was really having a breakdown, but time was running out and we had no other choice. We had to take our chances.

“One, two, three… Duck!” As if on cue, Tessa promptly moved away.

Tabitha flung the stone towards the bamboo snake hiding among the leaves.

Wild animals often had faster reflexes than humans.

The bamboo snake evaded Tabitha’s attack. Angered, it made its advance on Tessa, who had just barely got out of its way.

In love, never say never chapter 642

A reactionary creature like this was even more fearful when it sprang into action.

It’s going to get Tessa! I hastily picked up the branch I’d spotted earlier on the ground and jabbed its sharp side at the snake.

Thankfully, that single thrust pierced through the snake’s mid-section and successfully pinned it down.

Its head and tail, however, remained wriggling furiously.

Tessa was still recovering from her fright. Anger and shock coursed through her, forming a volatile mix of emotions.

flung away earlier, then brought it crashing

the snake seemed to be caught in a daze. Without hesitation, Tessa vehemently crushed it with

Tessa only stopped, satisfied, when the snake had been utterly reduced

Nora gulped, then quickly

a lot of mushrooms. The forested mountain

down to eat and drink. No matter what else happened to us, at least we knew we

journey, we spotted a red fruit, resembling an apple, growing on

those apples?” Nora panted. The near-constant rate of trekking had left her face flushed

It’s not very

belongings. She’d eaten quite a lot of mushrooms along the way and was no longer as concerned about getting

Being rather plump and short, however, climbing naturally posed a rather insurmountable challenge

Laurel was resigned to waiting on the ground below, picking up

ate any fruits she’d managed to pluck, blissfully indulging in the fruits of

a clear head. She’d sensibly warned, “Look out for

surroundings, then took another huge bite of the apple in

throwing fruits down. Laurel continued picking them up in

“What is that woman doing? She’s been fumbling with her things ever since we got here! Did killing

merely shrugged

of you talking about? Let’s be quick! Once we’re done picking the fruits, we should hurry along,” I

girls can be so flippant about things sometimes! I fumed

the entire tree. We even took the few that weren’t yet ripe to be consumed later on our

aggressive one we encountered. The rest of the way, though bumpy, contained nothing as treacherous as

water, fruits, and a side of mushrooms, we considered ourselves rather fortunate

the night, however. Nora grew visibly anxious, insisting, “Let’s keep going forward. I saw a couple of manmade paths along the trail, which means there must be a village or two nearby. If we walk on, we’ll surely meet someone! We’ll be

viable solution for now. The other

be home soon,” we urged each other. Our spirits

crossed another peak and indeed saw flares of light ahead of us in the

I’ll surely take myself out for a good foie gras and a seafood buffet. Besides, I’ll treat

too, joined in. “I’ll take everyone out

declared exaggeratedly, popping the rest of the stash

lucky to make it

statement rather dampened our cheeriness. Exchanging glances, the rest

say

to go home this time around, what would you

want? That question lingered in my mind

concluded, “I want to see the person I miss most, give him a hug, and apologize to

curiously pressed, “Is it

faint smile but declined

saw signs of human life. The village we’d arrived at was located in quite a rural

in the dark, there were probably thirty to forty households scattered throughout the

to hunker down for the night,” Nora suggested, already making her way towards the

the yard and began sounding the alert

was leashed to a

owner of the cottage had evidently heard the ruckus. Out stepped a

trying to say. After a while, Tabitha gasped. “We

made, crossing peak after peak, hadn’t brought us any closer to home. We’d even gone

owner of the cottage seemed to further mistake our intentions.

woman, approximately sixteen years of age, ran out of the cottage just then. She tugged at

He then grew noticeably calmer and lowered the axe in his

Tabitha made a few hesitant motions with her hands in return, trying

couldn’t tell if he understood. He did, however,

a dismal sight and stripped down within. Its clay walls were caked with soot, doubtless from the fire that was burning in

filament lamp hung from the ceiling, the sort that farming villages would have used decades ago. The lamp burned dimly at a bare fifty watts, probably

and utensils in a neat stack in a corner. The roof of the cottage was, in fact, a tent stitched together out of gunny sacks. There

blackened dirt that covered the

out two bowls from a cabinet and

language barrier, the man continued to gesture furiously. He seemed to be

food was steeped

I think it’s supposed to be a starting dish. Shall we try it?” Tabitha exclaimed rather adventurously. She

gratefully. The flavor of the pickled onions, spicy with

days since we’d really tasted anything. The pickled onions

man and his daughter squatted in a corner. They gazed at us

persisted in her attempts to communicate with them. Along with her hand signals, she deliberately spoke a few basic

to understand that

however, by what

help from his fellow villagers. Until then, we’d have to take shelter in this battered cottage. Compared to spending a night out in the open mountains,

morning, the man was

basket, picking up the soft fruits he’d accidentally let

she’d beam a smile in our direction. It was as if she was eagerly trying to transmit her simple joy

doesn’t it?” Tabitha mused, looking rather wistful. She looked almost

frame. “Why? Are you thinking of something

turn of events, and I feel as if I’ve been enlightened.

aligned with the philosophical tendencies she’d been harboring all

massaged her temple, groaning, “Can we

marched straight out into the yard and began

words but smiles and gestures seemed to suffice

say

desperation to head home, Nora hauled me along into the village in

we knocked on the door of the next cottage, however, Nora’s hand signals asking for

remained futile.

returned to find them sitting side by side, disconsolate. Laurel was the first to speak. “If we can’t get any results here, we should try moving further in. Perhaps we’ll

probability of that will be really low though. We don’t know how much longer the road up ahead is. If we aren’t careful, we may be mistaken for thieves and locked up,” Nora countered.

knows a little more than the average villager. If we manage to

local police, they

we’d had. We cheered up instantly at the thought and launching into a feverish discussion

there’s even a functional police station around here? I wondered

she shouldn’t participate in any criminal act, regardless

“Leave it to us!” they cried

up to one of the villager’s yards under the pretense of borrowing something. They then grabbed a bundle of

with fruit, fully expecting the police to be

the two girls’ theft. However, on account of Nora and Tabitha being foreigners, the villager

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