Chapter 279

Drowning in Guilt

“Estie, is that you?”

The cries that Rosalie had heard grew clearer. Her expectations grew as well.

Estie stopped crying after hearing the pretty aunt’s voice. “A-Aunt?” Rosalie let out a sigh of relief after
hearing her voice. She quickly walked in the direction of Estie’s voice.

She had just taken a few steps forward when she slipped. Rosalie’s heart lurched as she held onto a
nearby tree for support. She managed to stabilize herself.

She lowered her head and caught sight of a deep pit covered by grass and some logs. Estie was curled
up at the bottom of the pit. “Estie?” Rosalie’s heart hurt when she saw the little girl.

A ray of light shone from above the crater. Estie raised her head and looked up. The pretty aunt was
looking at her with a look of relief on her face.

“It’s alright, I’m here.” Rosalie felt guiltier when she got a clear view of Estie’s face. However, she did
not dare to express her guilt as she did not want Estie to feel afraid.

Estie’s face was red from crying. Even her eyes and nose were all red and swollen. Her face was full of
mud stains that were left behind when she wiped her tears off. She looked just like a dirty kitten. Her
head was lowered in fear. She looked terribly pitiful.

“Aunt” After some time, the pretty aunt had finally come to rescue her. It took Estie a while to come to a
realization. She then started crying even harder.

Estie was out of breath from crying. Rosalie felt extremely panicked. “Estie, don’t cry. I’ll find something
that I can use to pull you up.”



While she spoke, she tried looking for something that she could use to pull Estie up in her
surroundings.

She comforted Estie with a gentle voice while looking for any items that she could use. However, Estie
kept crying loudly. She could not listen to her at all. Rosalie finally managed to find a long tree branch.
She took it over to try it out. Estie could reach it if she got on her tiptoes.

“Estie, stop crying. Come on, grab onto this tree branch. I’ll pull you up.” Rosalie’s throat was extremely
hoarse. She cleared her throat before speaking up louder.

Estie raised her head to glance at the branch. She wiped her tears away and got on her tiptoes to
reach the branch.

However, she could only touch the branch. The branch had to be closer to her before she could grab
onto it.

Rosalie frowned and crawled forward. She then handed the branch over to Estie.

Estie grabbed onto the tree branch. Rosalie gritted her teeth and exerted all her energy when Estie
held onto the branch. She tried pulling her up. However, she did not have much energy since she did
not have dinner. Besides, she had been walking in the mountains for such a long time. Estie was
entirely out of energy as well. Both of them exerted as much energy as they could, but Estie did not
budge at all. However, Rosalie slipped as she got dragged forward. Half of her body was suspended
above the pit. Estie immediately let go of the branch when she saw Rosalie in such a state. She then
ran to the side in a hurry. “Aunt!” Rosalie tried her best to grab onto the roots of the tree by the side.
She smiled at Estie comfortingly. “I’m alright. Don’t be afraid, Estie.” While speaking, she tried her best
to climb up.

Pained cries rang out from the bottom of the pit.



Rosalie’s heart hurt as she turned around and noticed the little girl sobbing while sitting on the ground.

Her cries gradually weakened. The rate at which Estie’s chest was heaving slowed down as well.

Rosalie’s chest tightened. She loosened her grip on the branch for a moment, which made her fall to
the bottom of the pit as well.

Estie cried and jumped into Rosalie’s arms when she noticed that she had fallen down as well. Rosalie
wrapped her in her arms. Estie felt extremely cold in her arms. She almost drowned in guilt.

If only she had brought Estie with her in the evening… If only she had managed to find her earlier


62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda