Chapter 6

"One more." Rino compared the number of people present with his data, "The registered name is Ricky. Let's wait another five minutes. In five minutes, I'll call him and ask what happened."

Steve lowered his head as Rino mentioned Ricky's name while he was lost in thought. Ricko is the name of his childhood friend. He died of a heart attack three years ago, and when Steve rushed back home, Ricky had long since been cremated. So he couldn't even see him one more time. So it was likely someone with the same name. After all, Ricky wasn't an unusual name.

Steve turned his head and started to check his things. Before he could finish his inspection, a hand touched his shoulder. Steve subconsciously nudged the person who let out a muffled snort behind him in a familiar voice.

Surprised, he turned his head. He saw the person behind him was touching his own chest with a bitter face, and then immediately after seeing Steve turn to him, he fixed his facial expression to a smile and waved at Steve, "Surprise."

"Ricky?" Asked Steve with an expression of disbelief.

Steve couldn't believe his eyes, but the person in front of him was undoubtedly Ricky. He still likes to wear black clothes as usual, has strong feelings of pain and weakness, and his face, which is described as handsome, is extraordinarily conspicuous when he smiles.

"Hey, Steve. It's me, I'm back now." Ricky smiled at Steve with his hands on his back folded, "This is the first time I've seen this kind of expression on your face since our first meeting."

Steve glanced sideways, Rino had boarded the bus and was explaining to tourists what and where they should pay attention to. There are only two people here, Steve and Ricky.

"You're a Survivor? But I remember that your family said you died of a heart attack." said Steve confusedly.

"They just don't want to find me. After all, a patient with congenital heart disease would only burden them, so they might think how good it would be if I just died." Ricky said in a very unconcerned tone, as if he wasn't talking about himself, his black eyes showing a hint of ridicule as he said that, "Now that I've come out of that hell hole, their first reaction is still wanting to kick me out. Wouldn't the lies they tell be exposed if I was alive?"

Steve became a little silent for a while, Ricky's parents were indeed capable of doing such a thing.

Ricky suffers from congenital heart disease. The hospital says that he will not be able to live for eighteen years. After being diagnosed like that, his family did not try to help Ricky to find a cure to cure him but instead took their time to give birth to a second child. Since then, Ricky has become an outcast in the family and has always been left out.

Because of his heart problem, Ricky grew up to be a weak and sick person. He didn't even go to school. Steve is the one who taught Ricky to read and write and helped him to get rid of the children who bullied him.

More than once, Steve saw Ricky's parents pointing at Ricky and telling him to just die and go to hell, but in those days, Ricky was still smiling, even laughing at the swearing his parents said, and when they left, Ricky dragged Steve, still laughing, to teach him to read.

When Steve received the news that Ricky had died of a heart attack three years ago, Steve thought, 'He is finally free'.

But it turns out that the news was just a lie spread by Ricky's parents.

"Your heart condition..." Steve let his sentence hang.

"My heart condition isn't improving, but it's not coming back that often either." Ricky put his hands in his pants pockets and cleared his throat, "How do you think they are feeling right now? I didn't die, but got supernatural powers too. Maybe they will be afraid of me. Will they be so scared that they can't sleep when they are sleeping at night?" Riko continued with a grin.

Steve didn't answer, just at that moment, Rino poked his head out of the bus, "Hey, are you guys ready? It's time to go."

"Well, thank you little brother for giving me time to talk to Steve." Ricky smiled and waved at Steve as he boarded the bus.

Steve silently stood watching Ricky get onto the bus. Teddy clicked his tongue twice next to Steve, "How does it feel to be reunited with an old friend?" Teddy asked teasingly.

"It feels really great, like when a toy accidentally disappears when you are a child, then after we grow up, during the transfer it reappears under the bed. Although it feels very shocking, you are no longer there, at an age where you care about toys." Steve in a light tone.

Teddy thought about it, "You mean... you weren't actually that surprised?"

"Possible." Steve grabbed his backpack and slung it over his back, "Come on, there's a group at noon and it will be night when we come back." Steve changed the topic of conversation.

After all, the main objective was actually the mountain forest, which was quite dangerous, so having not climbed half of the mountain, the young people who looked very excited earlier had already become very lethargic as they gasped for air and asked them if they could rest first. Steve had witnessed this more than once, the road to the top of the mountain had several resting points, and now was indeed the time to rest.

The time allotted for rest was fifteen minutes, and Steve opened the water bottle cap to drink a full gulp of water. He reached for a few sheets of tissue to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw Ricky's figure among the young people not far from his place.