The Sweet Rival (Mango Shen and Nathaniel Ye)

Chapter 267

Everyone in the room, including Mango, became nervous. It seemed that those women were looking at her helplessly for guidance.

For Mango, arriving at this place was already a huge coincidence, let alone meeting all these unfortunate women. However, could she just ignore their plight?

Mango' s conscience immediately denied that possibility.

No matter who was the true mastermind behind Nanny Zhang, Mango would not assist in this sort of immoral sale of human life.

Fortunately, the two men only did a cursory search of the area before they quickly retreated, as if they were afraid of Nanny Zhang's return.

How powerful was Nanny Zhang?

Was she so powerful that even the agents on the base were afraid of her?

Or did Nanny Zhang have agents here ever since this base was established?

Mango wasn't sure about the answer, but she kept deliberating this question in her mind.

After the footsteps outside faded away, Mango turned and spoke to those women behind her, "I'll lead all of you outside, but I can't guarantee your escape. After this, everyone should scatter instead of running together, got it?"

Then, everyone nodded.

To the women, their best hope was for Mango to free them from their prison.

Then, Mango pushed open the wooden door. She felt it was so silent outside that it was unnerving.

Mango left the room first and she looked around. Later, she gestured for the women behind her to leave after she realized that there was no one outside.

She remembered the way she came in, so Mango quickly led the women in the direction of the exit.

The sky was slowly becoming brighter as time passed and there would be cameras nearby.

Mango observed her surroundings and she noticed a camera nearby. Then, she hurriedly picked up something to cover it.

"Once I do this, it won't be long until they realize that something is wrong here. When it's time, everyone has to go their separate ways, and then it' s all in God’s hands whether or not you manage to escape."

"Thank you, miss."

In the end, someone broke down with tears of joy.

Although they had not managed to escape yet, at least they now had a glimmer of hope.

However, Mango dared not accept their gratitude yet as this was just the first step to their escape.

After she explained the escape route to the women, Mango quickly blocked the camera before she immediately ran outside.

Then, a teenaged girl around eighteen years old of medium build ran after Mango at the same time when Mango rushed outside.

Everyone scattered as no one wanted to stay here except for that young girl who kept following Mango.

At first, Mango had not noticed the girl's presence, but she then felt rather conflicted after she noticed the girl was following her.

"Hey girl, you can't follow me."

Mango was afraid of implicating the younger girl in her problems, but the other girl just shook her head and refused to speak.

It was still quite dark around them so Mango was unable to see the girl's face clearly, alas she couldn' t do anything about the girl’s stubborn attitude.

"I have other things to attend to, so I can't have you along with me.”

Right now, Mango was in a great deal of danger as everyone on the base was looking for her. Also, she had to evade Zack while she attempted to contact Merle and the others. With all that was happening, Mango could very likely end up hurting the girl that was following her right now.

However, the young girl shook her head and she adamantly refused to leave.

Now, Mango couldn't find it in herself to just leave the girl on her own.

After that, she sighed and said, "If we happen to run into more people later, you have to run away. Never come back for me, okay?"

The girl nodded and her bright eyes were striking in the early morning light.

Mango figured that the young girl must have a pair of very beautiful eyes.

This time, Mango could no longer ignore the other girl. Then, she had the younger girl followed her closely as they both ran towards the beach.

There was still hope for rescue as long as they could reach the ocean.

"Can you swim?"

The little girl shook her head.

At that, Mango became rather somber.

How could they leave if the girl could not swim? Property © 2024 N0(v)elDrama.Org.

Right at that moment, Mango realized that a lot of people were headed their way.

The beach was her only way to escape. So if she were Zack, Mango would definitely have guessed that she had gone to the beach right after the camera was blocked.

What should she do now?

Was she going to surrender to Zack willingly?

Or was she going to escape deeper into the mountains while she formulated a new plan?

Mango didn't know the answer to that and she felt like every path she took only led to more difficult decisions.

When she was with Nathaniel in the past, all she had to do was follow his lead. However, what should Mango do now that she was in this dire situation?

Mango and the girl both stopped in their tracks.

Right now, a large horde of people was already running towards the beach.

The open ocean represented hope for them and even if they risked dying at sea, it was a far better fate than being sold to someone else overseas.

Mango’s sudden stop caused the girl behind her to stumble and she nearly collided with Mango, but thankfully she managed to catch herself in time.

"Are you afraid? Will you still follow me even if I turn and run back the way we came?”

As she said this, Mango looked at the young girl.

Now, this did not just concern Mango herself because the survival of this girl with her depended on Mango as well. Even if everyone had their own paths to walk, Mango still felt a sense of responsibility for the girl that kept following her.

The girl blinked her eyes at Mango as if she understood what Mango was saying. She nodded steadfastly despite the doubt flashing in her eyes.

"I’ll follow!"

Her voice carried the innocence of youth, but it was also filled with determination.

Then, Mango sighed and said, "I can't guarantee we’ II be safe if we run back because the person that they're actually looking for is me. Frankly, you have a higher chance of survival if you escape with the others instead of me and it's going to be very dangerous if you keep following me. Are you sure you still want to be with me?"

The little girl nodded again.

In the end, Mango had no choice and she tugged on the girl's hand. They ran into the woods next to them and they escaped deeper into the mountains before Zack and his men arrived.

The little girl’s hand was cold and clammy.

At that, Mango was reminded of her own daughter Rita.

If she failed to escape and passed away here, what would happen to Rita and Zion then?

Right now, she started to regret her earlier rashness. Wouldn't it be better if she had gone home to see Rita in the first place?

However, when Mango thought of what Nanny Zhang said just now as well as the situation that she and Rita were in, Mango realized that she didn't have much of a choice.

In fact, Mango had always been confused as to why she was constantly being hunted down just because she loved a man like Nathaniel.

Was it in their nature to be so evil?

Nanny Zhang knew that Rita was her own granddaughter, but she still refused to spare the unfortunate girl. Thus, Mango wondered if Nanny Zhang was capable of basic human compassion.

Mango brought the girl with her into the mountains as those thoughts ran through her mind.

Meanwhile, the sound of car engines hummed behind them as Zack’s men had finally arrived.

The sound of splashing water reached Mango’s ears. Frankly, she wasn’t sure if it was from a fight or people jumping into the ocean to escape, but it sounded like a mess regardless.

Right now, Mango was incapable of caring about what happened to the other people.

After a while, Mango started to realize that she was lost as she brought the girl with her into the mountains.

This was a very deep rainforest, but it did not cover a large area as Nathaniel didn't want it to be too big when he initially bought this plot of land. Thus, Mango knew that they would reach the edges of the camp eventually even though they had been running for a long time.

Moreover, they seemed to be walking increasingly further and they could only go forward as there seemed to be footsteps following behind them.

However, what would Mango do if the path in front of her was a dead end?

It would've been fine if Mango was alone, but now she had no idea what to do when this innocent girl was with her.

The girl looked at Mango and whispered, "My name is Edolie Wright."

"My name is Mango Shen.”

Mango's voice was faint, but there was a trace of a smile on her face.

As Mango looked at Edolie, she reckoned that this girl was in her late teens at most as she looked very young and she had a pair of striking eyes. Perhaps Mango wouldn't have been introduced to Edolie if it wasn't for the situation they were in.

"Edolie, I have to tell you that this forest does have a boundary, but unfortunately I'm not familiar with the lay of the land here. If we end up at the boundary of the forest but fail to escape, you and I might have to stay here."

Mango hadn't intended to say this at first as it seemed rather cruel to reveal that to a teenaged girl.

As a child generally, Edolie might have started crying, but surprisingly she did not become upset. Instead, she spoke faintly, "Our lives are in God’s hands now, and I won’t blame you if we do end up failing to escape as I was the one who insisted on following you. I won't hold you responsible for what happens to me."

On the other hand, Mango never expected a child to say this to her and she felt rather upset.

"I will try my best to protect you."

"Why are you so kind to me?"

There was a shadow of doubt in Edolie's eyes at Mango's words. Perhaps to Edolie, it didn't matter how Mango treated her because they were essentially strangers to one another.

Meanwhile, Mango seemed to sense something off in Edolie's gaze and pain flared inexplicably in her chest as she said, “After all, I was the one who led you on this path.”

"It has nothing to do with you as I’m the one who insisted on following you."

Edolie did not have a frail personality like most other girls, but her laidback attitude caused Mango to become conflicted.

It would've been better if Edolie hadn't followed her in the first place, but it was too late to say anything now.

"I'll say it again. If we happen to be surrounded later, you need to run away when the opportunity presents itself. Don't bother about what happens to me, okay?"

However, Edolie just looked at Mango wordlessly.

Well, Mango figured that they had agreed on it either way.

The sounds outside were quickly becoming a cacophony of noise and it seemed like quite a lot of people had started to surround the area.

At that, Mango's palms were drenched in a nervous sweat.

With the paltry amount of skill that she had learned here, Mango could barely protect herself, let alone Edolie as well.

To make matters worse, both of them were hungry, thirsty, and tired. Hence, they shivered when the wind blew on their dew-soaked clothes.

Then, Mango immediately took off her jacket without hesitation as she noticed Edolie's lips became pale.

"Put it on."

Edolie glanced at Mango and seemed surprised. She frowned slightly when she saw that Mango only had a thin sweater underneath her jacket. Then, she deliberated for a moment before she took Mango's jacket and put it on.

Mango immediately felt very cold, but she was reminded of Rita when she saw Edolie, who was trying to keep warm.

Well, Mango guessed that she could treat Edolie like Rita for now.

Mango tugged on Edolie's hand as they ran in one direction, however, she felt like they were running closer to the noise instead.

Did they run directly towards Zack's men?

The doubt in Mango's heart was becoming much more prominent with every passing second.

Suddenly, a hand reached out from nowhere and it grabbed Mango. It was scaring her so much that she almost screamed. However, the hand had covered her mouth tightly before she could do that.