Hearing footsteps, Enrico turned his head to look at her.
After the commotion on the mountain, Paige suddenly let go of the tension she had been holding, and she felt exhausted, as if she had fainted.
She took the small wooden bench next to her and sat down in the doorway.
The shack had been built a long time ago, and at this moment, it was as if the door or the walls were creaking and groaning, as if they would collapse at any moment.
“This is the house you lived in while you were on the island?” Enrico stood there, looking down at her.
This kind of place can’t even be considered a doghouse.
“Mm,” Paige answered wearily, and then, thinking about the jealousy he had shown today, she elaborated, “The third floor is a small rooftop I partitioned off. I live on the second floor, the teacher lives on the first floor, and Kevin also lived on the first floor when he was on the island, sleeping on the floor.”
She pointed to the house next door and said, “That’s the house of Alfredo’s brother, and Uncle Artie, Bastion and the others… There were originally two families living at the end, but I didn’t see any of them this time. I heard that last year a family of three all jumped into the sea.”
Her voice was very faint, revealing extreme tiredness.
She raised her hand and placed it on her forehead, silently looking at a piece of land in front of her.
She lowered her eyes, and a pair of black shoes slowly entered her field of vision as Enrico half-squatted in front of her.
Paige lifted her eyes and looked at the faint redness on his shoulders again, her gaze darkening.
The bloodstains on her face had not been wiped away, and they were stuck under her eyes, like a seductive paint job or as if they had been branded with his mark.
Enrico reached out and picked up her chin, his eyes staring deeply at her, “Say it again, I won’t die.”
“…” Paige’s long, dense eyelashes moved, and she looked at him without saying a word.
“You’re such a restless woman. If I die, you’ll still have to find someone to fill your harem. Do you think I’ll let you get away with that, hmm?”
Enrico pinched her chin, his fingertips lightly stroking her face. His voice was sexy and reckless.
Hearing this, Paige’s eyes became watery. She looked at his flawless face and slowly raised her hand, wrapping it around his neck. She rested her head on the side of his body that wasn’t injured.
The warmth of his body fell upon her.
It was real.
And it was reassuring.
Paige listened to the heartbeat of the two people almost pressed together, and her arms wrapped around him a little tighter. Her voice was muffled, “I don’t want you to die, I don’t want you to get sick, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I don’t want anything.
“Okay, no dying, no getting sick, no getting hurt.”
Enrico crouched on the ground and hugged her, reached out and patted her back soothingly, and followed her words.
Just the way she looked like she was possessed today, he really wanted to die and think about it.
“…”
Paige listened, leaning against his shoulder without saying a word, just feeling the warmth of his body.
“Paige,” he whispered her name.
“Hm,” she said, still muffled.
“Tonight we’ll sleep in your room,” he said.
Hearing this, Paige froze for a moment, releasing him to look at his face. Seeing that he wasn’t joking, she couldn’t help but say, “This place is uninhabitable, a dangerous building in a dangerous place, with unknown germs…”
“You can live here, so why can’t I?”
Enrico interrupted her and stared straight at her, “I’m spending the night here.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” The tent was already set up.
“It makes sense. It’s like I was there for those three years,” he said softly.
Paige’s heart trembled as she listened, unable to resist his tenderness.
After being looked at for a long time, Paige finally nodded.
Enrico pulled her up from the wooden bench, and Paige took out her flashlight and turned it on, shining it on the dark wooden door and walking in.
The characteristic of the shack is that it is short and small. Enrico even stooped his back to barely fit in. Once inside, his head almost grazed the wooden ceiling above.
This room at the bottom is relatively large, filled with the atmosphere of a backward lifestyle. A wooden bed is covered with what looks like a rotten quilt. The color has been washed until it is grayish white, and the original pattern is no longer visible. There are two cabinets made of wood on the side, with things on them that Paige doesn’t know what they are for.
Paige knew at a glance that master Chris had had a hard time over the past three years.
“Where are the stairs?” Enrico asked, as her room was on the second floor.
Paige glanced at him and led him back, where the so-called stairs were a bamboo ladder, still in use and old, with a cold color.
Enrico looked at it, let go of her hand, and stepped up the bamboo ladder.
“Be careful, I haven’t been back in three years,” Paige said, shining her flashlight at him.
Enrico quickly reached the upstairs.
Paige grabbed the creaking bamboo ladder and walked up, Enrico handed her his hand from above, and Paige held his hand and went up.
The second floor was even shorter than the first floor, and Enrico could no longer stand upright.
Paige stood next to him, shining the flashlight over, and she was stunned.
Compared to the slightly chaotic traces of life downstairs, this upstairs is much tidier and fresher. A complete set of furniture made of bamboo, from the bamboo bed to the bamboo cabinet and bamboo chair, even the cups and other utensils are also made of bamboo. There is also a hanging bamboo wind chime on the ceiling.
It adds a little life to the poverty.
It’s just that these bamboo products have lost their original green color and are very old.
Paige was not surprised by this, but she hadn’t been back for three years, and it was obvious that someone had been taking care of this room, which was spotless despite the general mess of the shack.
“Your room is a bit nicer than I expected,” Enrico said quietly. The shacks outside were really terrible, and they smelled all kinds of bad odors.
“Wind Island is an isolated island with many dangers. There is a bamboo forest deep in the jungle, and there are a lot of snakes, insects, and rodents. I once ventured in and cut some bamboo back.”
Paige sat down on the bamboo bed next to her and looked at the familiar things in the room. She said, “Uncle Artie knew some ways to make furniture, so I learned from him and built a set of furniture that was originally meant for the teacher. The old lady refused, saying that she couldn’t sleep on a bamboo bed and she was even threatening to run away from home. So I stayed in this room.”
Once she stayed, she stayed until now.
“Did you build all of this yourself?” Enrico frowned, and with the light of the flashlight, he glanced at the surrounding bamboo furniture. He could hardly imagine how she had made so much furniture with her small hands.
She had spoken lightly, but he was afraid that it had been difficult since she returned from cutting the bamboo.
“Mm,” Paige nodded.
Enrico raised his hand and flicked the bamboo wind chime in front of him. The bamboo pieces hit each other with interesting sounds.
Suddenly, he reached out and took the flashlight from her hand, and like the last time in the cave in Country D, he hung the flashlight upside down in the center of the wind chime.
Light shone through the circle of bamboo slats, illuminating the small bedroom and shining on every piece of old furniture, which actually gave it a sense of beauty.
Paige looked at it and smiled, “At that time, I really wanted a small lamp like this hanging up there.”
The three years without light were actually terrifying.
Now that she thought about it, she didn’t know how she had survived night after night.