In the past, Matthew had gotten trained by Wesley in wilderness survival. This went on for three years, once a month. He replied in a strained voice, because she was trying his patience.

"First of all, spiders are not ‘bugs, ‘ they're arachnids. Secondly, your dad and I lived in the wilderness for a week. We only had three days worth of food, and had to figure how to find more. Know how old you were then?"

‘Well...' No one knew better than Erica how cruel this training was.

She had once gone there with her father and brother, but she ate the last of their rations. She woke up hungry the next morning, and was in agony from having to wait for her next meal.

At lunchtime, Gifford placed a spit-roasted snake in front of her as if he were presenting her with a precious treasure. Erica ran away from there as fast as she could.

Wesley couldn't catch up with her.

She figured that going camping like that was ridiculous. Could they just train there on the army base? Why did they have to go into the woods and eat those frogs and snakes, anyway? They even dug up grubs and trapped insects. Ew! She might Like looking at them, but she never thought of popping them in her mouth.

She looked suspiciously at the thin man.

"So did you get through it?"

Matthew looked into her eyes and said, “Of course. As long as I set my mind to it, there's nothing I can't do."

Erica took another bite of the rice noodles. She found it more and more interesting to chat with Matthew sometimes.

"Now that you're among the richest men in the world, what else do you want to do besides earning more money?"

“Sleep with you."

“Ahem, ahem, ahem!" Erica was choked by the soup. She couldn't help but cough a few times as the soup was hot with pepper, and she sucked it down the wrong pipe.

While coughing, she reached out her hand to Matthew.

“Water... Help!" she said, hoarsely.

Matthew fetched a glass of warm water for Erica and handed it to her.

“That was dumb. What did you do that for?"

Erica felt like she was going to explode. She had no mood to argue with him. She drank a glass of warm water. She felt better, but it still hurt to breathe.

She used the tissues one by one, and the trash can was almost full.

Matthew took another glass of water and set it beside her. He patted her back gently and said, “Sorry, it's my fault."

“What?" She stared at him with her big tearful eyes.

Matthew explained, “I shouldn't have tried to talk to you while you were eating. I'll pay more attention next time."

"That's not the point..." She paused as she coughed again.

"The point is that I... Ahem, ahem, ahem... God, I can't catch my breath!" She didn't want to die yet!