Chapter 59 - Chapter 59. Who's crying Now ?

After Blair tried to scare everyone with someone dressed in a fairly convincing cougar costume, so he could chase it away and look like a hero, a real one showed up. Kevin risked himself to lure it in another direction so everybody could get back safely to the campsite."Which one of you is willing to follow me back into the woods to find Kevin?" Lily shouted desperately.But nobody replied.Lily sat down on the ground and started to cry loudly. It looked hopeless.Just then, they heard several more shrieks coming from the mountain, but it didn't sound like it was just the cougar.Half an hour later, Officer Emmett helped Lily get up from the ground, "I. I'll go with you into the woods. Even if it's too late for Kevin, we can't leave him behind."Kelly, are you kidding?" Blair said to her, "There are cougars out there." He reached out to try to stop her."I'm a police officer. Kevin just did what I should have done," she replied sternly, "Now get out of my way!"Kelly!" Blair said angrily.He couldn't believe that Officer Emmett would take such a big risk for such a useless person."I'll go too," Phoebe said as she walked up to Lily. She was still a little unstable because of her ankle, but her brother Blake was helping to support her. "Kevin got into this because he was trying to save me."Phoebe, no!" Blake said with a worried frown."Blake, Dad taught us not to let our friends down!" Phoebe said stubbornly."Okay, I'll go with you too!" Blake said resolutely as he gritted his teeth.What he didn't know was that at that very moment, Kevin was standing over a dead timber rattlesnake."You sneaky bastard," Kevin said angrily.He looked pretty miserable. Half of his body was covered in blood. While he was fighting with the cougar, it had clawed him a couple of times.Then, after he'd chased the cougar away he sat on the ground to catch his breath. That's when a timber rattlesnake suddenly appeared by his feet. Normally he would have just walked away since they don't usually bother with humans, but it had probably been riled by his fight with the cougar and felt threatened. Even though he was pretty exhausted, Kevin was still quick enough, thanks to the herbal medicine in his system, to grab the snake before it was able to sink its teeth into him. He cracked its spine just below the head like it was a chicken.About ten minutes later, Lily, Officer Emmett and Phoebe finally convinced more than a dozen people to go into the woods to look for Kevin.Their jaws dropped when they saw him walking towards them holding a six-foot-long timber rattlesnake."I've got something for your hunting basket, Lily," Kevin said with a weary smile.Lily shouted happily and was the first to run towards Kevin. She hugged him tightly.Half an hour earlier, Lily really thought that she'd lost Kevin forever. Even though her family thought he was useless, he'd always been very good to her.It was only now that Lily understood that somehow Kevin had become so important to her and she had fallen in love with him."Don't worry, Lily, I'm okay," Kevin tried his best to comfort her. "If you keep crying, your makeup will start to run."But Lily acted like she couldn't hear him. She buried her head in Kevin's chest and cried her eyes out."Give me a hand, guys," Kevin said with a smile.None of them could believe what they were seeing. Was this the guy Jason had told everyone was such a loser?More than a hundred people stared at Kevin in disbelief."Now, Lily, if you keep crying, I'm going to start crying too," Kevin said gently as he tried to comfort her."Who. Who's crying?" Lily said as she stepped back and wiped the tears from her face."Kevin!" Officer Emmett and Phoebe shouted in unison as they walked over to him."You. Are you alright?" Phoebe asked very nervously."Look at me. Do I look alright?" Kevin asked as he opened his arms wide to show his bloody, shredded shirt, "Between that cougar and this snake, I almost didn't make it back here."Right then, a man walked up to Kevin and patted his shoulder. "Amazing! You fought with a cougar and then killed a rattlesnake with your bare hands!"Then the man suddenly turned around and faced the crowd. "Someone said that you're just trash. Nonsense!"He said this in a very loud voice, as if he didn't care if he offended anyone.To Kevin's surprise, Blair, Jason and the others didn't say a word. They just stood there in shocked silence."Hi. My name is Dalton Steele. I could certainly use a friend like you," he said. Then he held out his hand to Kevin."My name's Kevin!" he replied as they shook hands.After all the ridicule he'd put up with from the Jones family and their friends, it was nice to have someone treat him like he deserved.A lot of them were jealous to see Dalton being so friendly to Kevin.But what Kevin didn't know was that Dalton was the only heir to the Steele family business.His grandfather, Norman Steele, had arrived in Chicago 50 years before and grown his business from the ground up with all his hard work.Up until now, the Steele family's holdings included some legitimate businesses and lots of entertainment facilities. They also had a strong reputation in the Chicago underworld.Nowadays, Norman Steele no longer cared much about the family's business, so he transferred all of his authority to Dalton.Even Drake and Dominic Archer respected the man."I'm really lucky to have made friends with Dalton!" Blair muttered to himself.Nobody was a good enough cook to prepare dinner, so the Blair family had arranged for a professional chef to come to the campsite.Then Butler had a couple more chefs take the rattlesnake that Kevin had caught to cook it for everyone to taste.Soon, everyone broke into groups and started chatting with each other, but they didn't dare go back into the woods.Dalton found a place to treat Kevin's wounds. After talking for just a short time, they seemed to feel an instant connection."Kevin, what do you think of this piece of land?" Dalton suddenly asked him."Are you interested in real estate?" Kevin said with a smile."Not really. I just like this property. It's a great place to get in touch with nature. It would be a shame to develop it and put up mansions," Dalton said with some regret."I agree. You could put a nature preserve here," Kevin replied as his eyes swept across the clearing and the forest. "Such a large forest, it would be a pity to cut it down for development."Dalton's wife Miranda interrupted them to say that she wanted to take a walk along the river."Kevin, I'm going to take a stroll with my wife. Let's chat some more when I get back," Dalton said as he put his arm around his wife's shoulder and walked off."Okay!" Kevin agreed with a smile.Miranda also gave Kevin a friendly nod as she turned around and left.She was wearing a simple white top and a green dragon tattoo was faintly visible on her back. She walked with an air of confidence.None of the men dared to look at Miranda Steele as she walked to the river with her husband. They didn't have the guts to risk getting Dalton mad.Officer Emmett and Phoebe followed Lily to Kevin's side."Kevin, please tell us, how did you drive that ferocious cougar away?" Phoebe asked curiously, "And how did you kill that timber rattlesnake? It was humongous!"Lily and Officer Emmett were also very curious to know. They knew that no ordinary person could do what he did.And no one there knew Kevin better than Officer Emmett. She knew that he'd gotten a lot stronger and more focused thanks to the herbal medicine he'd been experimenting with, but it still couldn't have been easy to fight both of those wild animals one after the other."I was just lucky," Kevin said modestly, "After that cougar chased me into the forest, the rattlesnake came out of nowhere. The two of them started fighting and I just picked up the scraps."Some people overheard this and decided Kevin wasn't that heroic after all. They went back to mocking him and laughing out loud.Blair glared at Kevin. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly heard a cry of surprise."Everyone, come and look! Something just happened!"As soon as he finished speaking, Kevin saw Dalton running toward them carrying Miranda in his arms."Is there a doctor here?" he asked anxiously. "Hurry up and get over here!" Miranda was lifeless and kept spitting up saliva. She was having trouble breathing and her body was trembling."What the hell is going on?" Dalton asked.A group formed around them trying to figure out what was happening.Just then, a man stepped out of the crowd and knelt down next to Dalton. He introduced himself, "Hello, Mr. Steele. My name is Ivan Daniels. I graduated from medical school."I don't need your life's story. Hurry up!" Dalton interrupted him. "Can you help her? What's going on?"Hearing this, Ivan's expression immediately showed his irritation. But he would never dare to provoke Dalton Steele. On top of that, he wanted to curry favor with the Steele family, so he just smiled and continued checking Miranda's vitals.Finally, Ivan shook his head, "Mr. Steele, your wife's condition is very serious. I don't think she has more than an hour to live."Bullshit! If you don't know what you're doing, then get the hell out of here!" Dalton shouted at the young doctor."But Mr. Steele, I'm telling you the truth. There's nothing I can do!" Ivan reluctantly told him.Dalton looked over at Blair and asked him, "What the hell are you guys going to do? Didn't you make arrangements for an ambulance?"Sherwin Blair broke out in a cold sweat."Mr. Steele, don't be upset. I'll call for an ambulance right away," he stammered.Blair was usually very arrogant and he always had a nasty look on his face, but in front of someone as important as Dalton Steele, he could kiss butt as well as anyone.Kevin suddenly squeezed through the crowd, "Don't waste your time. This place is too far away from the nearest hospital. She'd be gone before an ambulance even got here."Kevin, what do you mean by that? Can you save my wife?" Dalton said hopefully.Before Kevin could say anything, Lily grabbed him by the arm and quickly pulled him back."Mr. Steele, please don't misunderstand. Kevin doesn't have any medical training," Lily said in a panic.She was worried that Dalton would ask Kevin to save his wife.Lily had been married to Kevin for three years, and she still didn't know him that well. But she knew that she had never seen Kevin treat anyone.More importantly, Miranda was Dalton's wife. They couldn't risk ticking off the Steele family."Dalton, don't worry." Kevin started to say.But Lily interrupted him, "Kevin, don't be silly." Lily was getting angry with her husband."Don't worry, Lily. I know what I'm doing," Kevin said as he calmly patted her hand.Then, Kevin walked over to the man and asked him, "Dalton, tell me, did Miranda eat anything in the woods?"Kevin had clearly noticed something yellow around Miranda's mouth."Did she eat something?" Dalton asked, "Let me think…" He scratched the back of his head while he tried to remember. Then he said, "Just now, while we were walking along the river, I found a pear on a tree, so I plucked it for her."After hearing Dalton's answer, Kevin nearly laughed out loud. He had also noticed that tree. It wasn't a pear, but it was a fruit that was very important in concocting herbal medications.Kevin remembered reading about it in his herbal guides. It was very similar to what some people call the apple of death because it's so poisonous. What was surprising was that they shouldn't even be growing this far north."I can help you, Dalton," Kevin said. Then he turned to the doctor and said, "Didn't you notice that she'd eaten something poisonous? I saw some roots growing by the woods that could help her. In the meantime, you need to wash her skin thoroughly and give her an antihistamine."Before Dalton could say anything, the bystanders started doubting Kevin and they began to warn him not to listen to Kevin.Butler and Blair were the worst of them. Now Dalton wasn't sure what to do, so he turned to Ivan Daniels and asked him, "So, does this make sense to you?"They all waited to hear what the doctor had to say.