Janet shook her hands in denial when she heard him. She then boldly put her hands on her hips and kept on running.
But, after another one kilometers, she dropped out exhausted again.
Janet was too tired to run and now stood still, gasping for breath. She stared at the enigmatic Brian, and asked him, "Why are you following me? Do you want to make fun of me again?
... Upon hearing this, Brian suddenly didn"t know what to say next. Was he being spiteful in any way towards her?
He squatted down to her, and said, "Let me carry you."
She then suddenly stopped gasping for breath and looked at the man in front of her aghast, and said, "What are you doing?"
Brian looked back, and replied, "If you don"t hurry up a bit, there won"t be anymore breakfast left for you."
"No, no. I can do it." Janet shook her head in dismay. She was afraid that if her colleagues saw Brian carrying her, they might then look down upon her.
But, nonetheless, Brian lifted Janet up and ran with her forward.
"No, Brian, stop! I forgive you for the push-ups you asked me to do. Put me down, now!" Janet"s face flushed bright red. She wanted to push Brian away, but didn"t know where to put her hands first.
"Easy now. I"ll put you down if someone spots us, " said Brian.
Janet fell silent; he seemed to know what she was thinking all the time. Was she that obvious?
But she didn"t want Brian to carry her. "Brian, you don"t have to carry me. You"ll get tired, too. Please, put me down, now!"
"It"s OK. Marching for five kilometers is a piece of cake for me. I can carry you and run for tens of kilometers more."
Janet became more and more anxious by each pa.s.sing moment when Brian refused to put her down. She wanted to struggle and escape, but found that her legs were tightly buckled under her and that she was also deprived of any strength to do this.
Finally, what she feared most, happened.
One of Janet"s colleagues saw Brian carrying her...
Brian put her down immediately, and Janet found she had regained her strength again. Seeing her colleague staring at them in shock, Janet knew she was unable to wash herself clean this time.
Janet didn"t know how to explain all of this, and so instead she ran away quickly.
The farther she ran,
"Do you know what you did wrong? It"s alright if you just wanted to own me. But you should not have helped Molly leave me!"
When Brian learns the truth, there is no chance for Hannah to win his heart.
Molly, who wants to run away from Brian, seems to be the only one to blame for Hannah"s misfortune...
was singing, and was unable to hear her.
Janet now had to turn her back around and report it to Brian instead, "Sir, I need to go the washroom."
Brian nodded and then Janet quickly ran to her tent.
She took something with her out of it and then ran to the washroom.
"See, Janet again sought personal privileges. She didn"t report to Zed, but directly reported to the colonel instead."
"I knew it! I don"t understand how a good man like Samuel Shao could have a shameless daughter like her."
A tall figure was now standing behind the two colleagues who were gossiping, and they lowered their heads. It was Brian.
After Janet came back, she saw that two of her colleagues were doing push-ups.
She was confused, but didn"t think much of it and returned back to her place.
She had to endure the next couple of days and not to be a deserter.
Except for Janet, who felt more and more depressed, the rest of her colleagues spent the next three days in happiness and joy.
They weren"t trained at night, and there were no places to charge their phones. So they just sat around the bonfire, chatting and laughing.
After Janet went out of the washroom one night, she saw some fireflies, not that far away from her.
She shook off the drops of water from her hands and went towards the fireflies, ignoring her aching body.
But just when she arrived, they flew away.
She sat on a rock and felt morose. Seeing the fireflies flying round and round, she suddenly remembered of someone.