NovelEnglish
Chapter 438 Past Experience
Noah stared at the photo on his phone, lost in thought. His mind drifted to more than ten years ago
when he was only six years old.
Back then, his kind uncle had taken him to a seaside resort for a vacation. Once they entered the
village, his uncle disappeared on the pretext of handling official business. Hence, Noah wandered
alone on the beach as his bodyguards had disappeared. He encountered a group of children from the
village who, for some reason, chose to attack him. They encircled him and began punching and kicking
him violently.
When Noah had no strength to fight back, they dug a deep hole in the sand and buried him alive. The
suffocating feeling of imminent death remained vivid in his mind. Just when he thought he was about to
die, a pair of small hands scraped away the sand and pulled him out of the pit.
"Huh? Is it you? You're not my Little Flower." The girl looked at him with a momentary surprise, then a
bit of disappointment.
Noah sat weakly beside the pit, staring at the calm sea. The little girl continued, "Little Flower is my
dog; I thought they buried her too. Nathan and the others are so wicked. I don't know where they hid
my dog. Will you come with me to find her?"
Without waiting for Noah's agreement, she took his hand and led him forward. The boy was worried the
village children would do something nasty to him again. However, he had no choice but to follow the
little girl as she held his hand tightly, and he could not break free.
Fortunately, the little girl seemed to be familiar with the resort, and she led Noah to some hidden but
beautiful places. She wore a polaroid camera around her neck and took pictures of whatever caught
her eye.
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"Why did you take a picture of this ugly thing?" Noah pointed to the frog-like lump on the ground and
asked in confusion.
The little girl smiled and replied, "It's not ugly; it's as good-looking as you."
Noah was rendered speechless by her reply. However, he kept silent as he suddenly remembered the
bruises on his face.
The duo then went to the beach, played in the woods, caught crabs, and picked seaweed. Soon, Noah
forgot the unhappiness from before. That was also a rare happy time during his short six years of life.
Finally, Charles and his men found them behind the reefs. The little girl was scared by the group of
bodyguards and stood far away from him.
Noah walked to the little girl and said, "You can follow me home."
She tilted her head and asked, "Is your house fun?"
"Nope," the boy answered honestly.
The little girl pouted her lips. "I'm not interested in going to your house then. Are you leaving?"
After Noah nodded, she immediately picked up the Polaroid camera on her chest and ran a short
distance away from him. She took a photo and, after the photo was developed, she held onto it and
shook it for a while before handing the film over to him.
"I took a picture of the stone behind us. If you miss me, come here and find me," the little girl said as
she blinked her gem-like eyes.
Noah nodded and promised, "I'll visit you every year,"
Unfortunately, when his grandfather learned about his near-accident, he scolded his uncle severely and
never allowed him to go to unfamiliar places alone again.
Later, as he grew up, Noah mistook Angie for his savior and completely forgot about the little girl who
had accompanied him all day at the beach. He did not know whether she eventually found Little Flower.
The man's gaze suddenly hardened. He had already investigated and found out that Angie was not the
one who saved him back then. The real savior was Madeline. And now, Madeline was looking at the
photo in a trance. Did that mean that both times he was saved by Madeline alone?
At this thought, Noah became somewhat excited and immediately dialed Madeline's phone, but there
was no answer on the other end. The woman was shocked by the photo, and many childhood
memories gradually became clear to her. However, her memories were slightly different from Noah's.
During the Lantern Festival, Madeline remembered Suzette taking Angie to see the lanterns, and she
wanted to go too. However, Suzette threw a pile of dirty clothes at her and made her wash them with
her hands. She also said that if she didn't wash them well before they came back, she wouldn't be
allowed to sleep in her room that night.
Back then, Madeline was afraid of them and could only sit obediently in the laundry room washing
clothes. Later, an old servant in the house gave her two hundred dollars and asked her to go out and
have fun.
Afraid of being seen by Suzette and the others, the old servant put a rabbit mask on Madeline. The girl
did not know that Suzette had sent the old servant to lure her out, and then have the human traffickers
kidnap her. She was very grateful to the old servant at the time and said she would bring her some
delicious food when she returned. Then, Madeline happily bounced out the door but was soon caught
by the human traffickers and locked up.
Noah was also locked up with her in a rundown room by the traffickers. They were given a bun to eat
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Noah disliked the things they gave him because they were dirty. Also, he looked after Madeline, who
was younger than him, so he often saved half a steamed bun for her to eat. The girl was particularly
moved by this. After noticing that they always beat Noah particularly hard, she would sometimes rush
over and bite their legs, and sometimes stand in front of him to take the beating. However, Noah didn't
like to talk and would scold her with a stern face, telling her not to interfere.
When Madeline was frightened, she would cry loudly, annoying those people who would then beat
them. After that, Noah dared not say anything to her again. The two children gradually formed a deep
friendship because of their common experiences of hunger and beatings.
Later, the traffickers transferred Noah and Madeline to a truck, like the one used for transporting live
animals, with steel wire mesh on both sides.
Madeline and Noah were placed in a box and mixed in with the instant noodles. While they were
getting off to eat halfway through the journey, the girl crawled out of the box. Then she freed Noah too.
"Shall we jump off from here? Do you dare?" Madeline cleaned his dirty little face and asked.
Noah frowned and replied, "You jump first; I can't make it."
He estimated the width of the steel wire mesh and thought that Madeline, who was petite, might be
able to crawl out, but he definitely could not.
Madeline stared at him for a moment, then pulled him to the edge of the truck and said, "You crawl out
first, and I'll kick your butt from behind. I can kick you out."
Noah thought the plan was feasible because he had lost a lot of weight during this period. Hence, he
listened to Madeline's instructions and struggled to get his head out of the truck, followed by his upper
body. Now all that was left was his bottom, and as long as it could pass, he could get out.
"Here we go!" Madeline whispered. Before Noah could answer, she gave him a hard kick.
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