Chapter 2

As my thoughts came back to me, I saw Ralph whip me three hard times, then throw the cane aside, spent.

When I still didn't react, his anger turned into a laugh.

"Jean Henson, you're really making something of yourself. You take a beating and you can just play dead without making a sound! You think that gives you a hold over me?"

He clenched his fists tight, his voice trembling slightly. "You like playing dead, huh! Then don't you ever get up again, and you'd better really be dead! Otherwise, even if you kneel in front of me, I will never forgive you!"

With that, Ralph walked off without looking back.

Samuel took a deep breath and said to me patiently, "Jean, stop making a scene and get up!"

"It's about to rain. We have to head down the mountain once we've finished paying our respects to Grandma. Otherwise the path will be slippery and steep in the rain, and it'll be dangerous for everyone. You can't keep acting up."

Even after he finished, I stayed completely still.

Seeing that I was past shame, like a dead pig that doesn't fear boiling water, Samuel couldn't hold back any longer and threw out one last cruel line. "Jean Henson! You really disappoint me! Want to play dead? Then go ahead and die for real!"

With that, he kicked a rock down hard, grabbed Cassandra, and left.

The rock struck the back of my head, and blood trickled out.

Luckily I was already dead, so I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

Disheartened, I wanted to leave then and there, but I found my soul was being pulled by some unknown force, unable to leave their side.

Ralph walked ahead, his face still carrying undisguised anger.

Cassandra hurried to catch up, her face full of worry. "Ralph, is it dangerous for Jean to be up there all alone? You hit her so hard just now, I'm afraid her heart can't take it. What if—"

"There's no 'what if'!"

Ralph raised a hand to cut her off.

"How could she possibly be in danger? Her parents both died in a car accident when she was five, and she survived it. She's got a tough life in her!"

"Besides, her heart surgery went very well, and she took her medication before we left home. There's no way a little upset like this could put her life at risk."

"We've spoiled her rotten since she was little, which is exactly why she doesn't even feel guilty about causing Grandma's death! If I don't teach her a proper lesson, she'll never learn her place!"

With that, Ralph kept walking, and Samuel followed, soothing him.

"Never mind her. She's the one who played dead to fool us, so she deserves to suffer a bit."

"Besides, knowing Jean, by now she's already gone down the mountain and back home, waiting for us to come coax her!"

Looking at those two familiar figures ahead of me, a bitter ache rose in my chest.

Ralph, have you forgotten? The medicine you told Cassandra to give me—she just left it on the table and never gave it to me at all.

If he had only spared me a single glance just now, he would have known I wasn't faking death, that I really was having a heart attack.

Unfortunately, not one of them was willing to believe me.

Suddenly thunder crashed across the sky, and a storm was about to break.

The group quickened their pace, and when they reached Grandma's headstone, the sight before them left them speechless.