Chapter 358

“I won’t,” Zinnia said, her voice cold and unyielding.

Nathan tugged at her sleeve. “I’m sorry.”

Zinnia averted her gaze, afraid his sickly pale face would weaken her resolve. “You never change, even when you know you’re wrong,” she said coldly.

This time, Zinnia would never back down. ‘Nathan knows damn well how to save him, but he chooses to keep it from me. He wants me to just stand by and watch him die,’ she thought.

Nathan let out a weary sigh. “How can I earn your forgiveness?”

“Tell me how to save you.” Zinnia looked down at him.

Zinnia was certain that Nathan had to know how to make the Florivive sprout.

Nathan fell silent, his jaw tight.

“Fine. Keep your secrets. I’ll stake my life on you. Since you gamble with your life, I’ll gamble with mine. If you die, I probably won’t survive either."

“So, I might as well keep you company in the afterlife, right?” As she finished, her pale lips twisted into a stubborn smile.

‘If Nathan refuses to tell me, I will start self–destructing. Let’s see which of us would break first,’ she wondered.

Nathan’s brows knitted together in deep concern. “Zinnia, stop talking like that,” his voice was frantic. Nathan wouldn’t allow Zinnia to talk like that.

Nathan vowed to himself, ‘She must live a long, safe, and happy life. I won’t let anything happen to her.’

Zinnia didn’t care. She lowered her gaze, her expression hardening with fearless resolve. “If you won’t tell me,” she said, “I’ll just put myself through hell. Let’s see who burns out first.”

Zinnia thought, ‘It’s just one life, anyway. If I end up destroying myself, then so be it.’ A fanatical gleam flashed in her eyes. ‘Let’s see who outlasts who.'

“No.” Nathan clutched at her sleeve, his hand trembling from the strain.

“Then tell me.” She looked him in the eye, her voice resolute and sincere. She wanted to know how to save Nathan.

“I don’t know the solution either.” Nathan managed a faint, bitter smile, his eyes gentle as he looked at her.

Zinnia didn’t believe a word he said. “You’re lying to me,” she shot back.

Nathan’s faint smile faded as his voice grew quiet yet firm. “I’m not lying to you, Zinnia. I truly don’t know the way.”

Seeing his expression, Zinnia clenched her fists. “Since you already know my blood is useful, how could you not know how to make the seed sprout?”

Zinnia could tell that Nathan wasn’t lying. He genuinely had no idea how to make the seed sprout.

“I deduced your blood’s effect from the formula,” Nathan explained gently. “Your blood can activate the seed, but it still needs a missing catalyst before it can sprout.”

At first, Nathan hadn’t noticed anything special about the formula. It wasn’t until Zinnia pointed out how ordinary both the recipe and its ingredients were that he examined it more closely, and finally uncovered its secret.

The herbal ingredients were too common, so there must be a catalyst to activate them. Zinnia’s blood just happened to be the unique catalyst.

But even after discovering the catalytic effect of Zinnia’s blood, Nathan chose to keep it from her, because her blood could only activate the seed. But for it to sprout, there was still another catalyst missing.

However, time was running out. They just didn’t have the luxury of continuing to search for that elusive catalyst. Nathan couldn’t bear to drag her down with him any longer.

“So can you stop being mad at me, please?” Nathan pleaded.

“I was never really mad at you.” Zinnia collapsed to the ground, her eyes vacant. She thought, ‘Florivive is pure torture. Hope was right in front of us. We really believed we were about to make it.

‘But when we took that step forward, all I found was a bottomless abyss staring back at us. Hope was once again swallowed by endless darkness. There’s no way out. Nathan’s time is running out.’

Deep down, Zinnia had never truly been angry with Nathan. She was truly angry at herself.

“Zinnia,” Nathan cried out frantically upon seeing her collapse, immediately reaching out to help her up.

“Nathan?” Zinnia looked up at him, her eyes dead and numb, filled with tears.

Tears welling in her bloodshot eyes, she looked utterly helpless, like a young animal trapped in a cage.

She thrashed like a caged beast, banging her head against the walls until she was battered and bleeding. Just when freedom seemed within reach, fate seized her by the scruff and dragged her back into the cage. She had never felt so utterly helpless.

Nathan felt as if his heart had been carved out with a knife. He kept it from her because he knew she couldn’t bear it.

His voice was feather–light, so tender it might dissolve in the breeze, gentle enough to embrace all her pain. Nathan murmured, “Zinnia, don’t grieve. Don’t hurt like this.”

“Why?” Zinnia’s eyes stung as tears spilled down her cheeks. Her voice was ragged beyond recognition, choked with bottomless grief and fury.

Zinnia thought in anguish, ‘Why? Just why does the world have to treat us like this? We never did anything wrong, yet trouble just keeps finding us. All the injustices of this world come crashing down on us, merciless and relentless, like a hailstorm that shows no pity.’

It was as if God was determined to pummel their bodies bloody. They couldn’t help but wonder if they had committed some unforgivable sin to deserve such merciless punishment, leaving them battered and bleeding.

“Zinnia?” Nathan reached out to steady her, his voice thick with concern.

Zinnia collapsed against his knees, her voice thick with sobs. “Why, Nathan?” she wept uncontrollably, the sounds of her anguish filling the room.

Zinnia simply couldn’t accept this cruel twist of fate, wondering, ‘We’ve never done anything wrong, Nathan and I.

In fact, we even set up a charity foundation that supports kids in poor areas and in orphanages and welfare homes, every single year, without fail.’

She thought, ‘We even held monthly free clinics, providing medical treatment to the sick completely free of charge. All those patients kept saying what good souls Nathan and I were, that we’d live a happy life.

‘Why must every misfortune in the world target us? Isn’t it said that good people get rewarded? Why must Nathan and I suffer like this?’

After all, Zinnia was just a seventeen–year–old girl, just a kid, really.

Abandoned by her parents as a child and born with a congenital heart defect, she had several brushes with death. Even after being pulled back from the brink, her life was always hanging by a thread. She lived in constant dread.

At sixteen, someone she trusted walked out of her life. After finally making it home, her family wanted nothing to do with her.

After everything she’d been through, Zinnia’s life was finally starting to get back on track, only to suddenly learn that the person she depended on most was dying.

Her world came crashing down in an instant. An overwhelming tide of pressure crashed down upon her. Zinnia couldn’t take it anymore.

Listening to her sobs, Nathan looked down, watching as she trembled, curled up and crying against his knees. His eyes quietly reddened with unshed tears.

Outside the room, Jackson and Yannis stood frozen, listening to Zinnia’s heart–wrenching sobs from within. Each cry felt like a crushing weight on their chests, making it hard to breathe.

Yannis found himself stepping toward the door, unable to help himself. Jackson grabbed his wrist and shook his head firmly.

‘Let Zinnia cry it out,’ Jackson wondered, ‘She needs this. Let her cry her heart out. She’s been bottling up too much for too long. She’s emotionally drained. A good cry might help her feel a little better inside. She is utterly exhausted.’

Yannis clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, his eyes brimming with heart–wrenching anguish.

‘She’s still just a kid,’ Yannis thought, ‘Even an adult would find these hardships unbearable, let alone a girl her age.”