Anya took a sip and set the ss down. Then, she asked tentatively, "Mr. Lloyd, is something bothering you? Would you mind telling me?"


    Zachary felt sick as the strong liquor flowed into his stomach.


    He raised his eyes and looked at Anya, looking slightly hurt.


    "Would you like to listen to some stories?" Zachary asked softly.


    Before Anya could reply, he told her a story.


    The main character of the story was a little boy.


    He hadn''t had a father since he had been born. His mother had been focusing on work, so she hadn''t spent much time with him.


    Because of that, the little boy had be introverted and aloof. He had no friends in school.


    After some time, the bad students in his ss started targeting him and would bully him after school.


    The little boy had felt aggrieved. He had wanted to tell his mother, but he held himself back whenever he saw how tired his mother looked when she got home.


    He knew his mother had been working really hard, so he didn''t want to bring her mother more trouble. As such, he could only put up with it.


    The boy had spent his childhood being bullied just like that.


    One week before he graduated from elementary school, he had been surrounded by the bad students in his ss again.


    The boy had been ready to be bullied by his ssmates again. However, it had been worse than usual.


    One of the students had taken a rusted metal rod from somewhere and hurt him mercilessly.


    The boy had been injured terribly and barely survived, but those students hadn''t intended to stop.


    Just as the boy was in despair, a little girl in a floral dress rushed forward.


    That little girl had saved the boy. But she had been bullied by the other students, and her arm had been broken.


    Fortunately, the girl''s mother hade to look for her. She had reported it to the police, and those students had been brought to the police station.


    The boy''s mother had found out about it after the case blew up. In the end, the boy had followed his mother and had gone abroad to study.


    The boy had only returned to the country after graduating from


    ???


    nov


    college. He had gone to look for that little girl who had saved her in the past immediately.  fo


    Soon, the two had fallen in love after he pursued her for some time. They had gotten married in the end.


    However, that woman had no idea that her husband was that little boy she had saved in the past.


    After finishing the story, Zachary drank another ss of wine.


    His eyes were brimmed with tears as he looked at Anya with a smile. "Do you think the boy and the girl would live a happy life?"


    Anya wore aplicated expression.


    She stared intently at Zachary and shook her head. "No."


    Zachary tilted his head and asked in confusion, "Why?"


    Anya hesitated for a while before she replied, "Because you''re that little boy, and you''re not happy."


    "You''re right. I''m not happy."


    Zachary looked down as tears streamed down his face. He wiped his tears and put up a tough front before smiling.


    "I thought I''d live a happy life with Wendy, but I was wrong from the start. She has someone else she truly cherishes deep down.


    "One will usually be obsessed


    with the person they can''t get as time passes. I''m clearly aware of all


    this because she used to beave


    someone I truly cherished.


    1.n


    "I just didn''t expect that the person who had saved me without hesitation back then would be the one hurting me now. Maybe I shouldn''t havee back to look for her. In that case, she would always be the kind girl who saved me from the darkness in my heart."