Church bells rang in the distance. The fog gradually disappeared to reveal the church in the mountains.
Joy ducked her head to look at the stone path underneath her feet as she continued upward.
“What’s this?”
Suddenly, a voice interrupted her thoughts. She looked up and saw Yelena standing before a tree as she observed the prayer ribbons tied on it.
“May Joy always be happy and successful in life. Samuel.
“May Joy always be successful and be filled with hope. Samuel.
“May Joy be blessed, and may no misfortune befall her. May the people she meet be kind. Samuel.
“May Joy always be safe.”
Yelena kept reading, and her jealousy grew.
As Joy stared at the prayer ribbons, her composure cracked, and her thoughts drifted.
Due to the earthquake, she had always been sickly and often fell ill.
In order for her to get better sooner, Samuel came over to the church every week to hang prayer ribbons for her so that she would be safe.
She never expected Samuel to have tied so many prayer ribbons to the tree over the years.
The ribbons were still on the tree, but things would no longer be the way they were between her and Samuel.
“Your relationship is so good. It makes me feel like I’m a third wheel.” Yelena stopped reading. With a long face, she turned around to leave.
Samuel hurriedly grabbed her and patiently tried to calm her down. “Don’t get angry now. You’re not a third wheel. You’re my wife, and she’s just my sister. If you don’t like it, I’ll have someone remove the ribbons.”
With that said, Samuel had the church attendant remove all the ribbons on the tree.
The ribbons were removed one by one and stepped all over. They were stained with mud.
Soon, new ribbons were tied to the tree, all containing Samuel’s love for Yelena.
Yelena finally smiled, and she gave Joy a smug look, but she pretended to be worried. “Won’t Joy be mad if you do this?”
Samuel just smiled. “My sister can’t possibly be more important than my wife. You’re not mad at me anymore, are you?”
Perhaps Yelena was happy because of what Samuel did because she stuck herself to Samuel’s side when they returned to the city.
Joy sat in the back with her eyes shut. Just when she wanted to rest, the car suddenly sped up.
She opened her eyes and wanted to ask what had happened when she suddenly heard a loud bang.
The car suddenly broke down, breaking through the barricade before spinning a few times. In the end, it got stuck in the mountain valley.
Her head was slammed back against her seat, and it knocked her out. When she regained consciousness, she found that she was pinned to her seat. A tree branch had stabbed through her arm, and blood was flowing everywhere.
