Chapter 394

Chapter 394: Chapter 394

A cold, mocking voice cut through the air directly behind Suzy. Startled, Suzy turned around at once, but the person who had spoken was already gone.

A hypocritical snob?

Was that directed at Rina?

Whoever spoke clearly held a deep-seated grudge against her.

Suzy looked around again, but the owner of the voice remained nowhere to be seen, having apparently slipped away. Only then did she turn back.

By now, the four Hummers had completely disappeared from view.

The crowd around her was growing noisier as conversations picked up:

"So that was Rina... She’s even prettier than the rumors say."

"Who was that guy sitting next to her?"

"One of her close confidants, I hear. He’s almost always with her."

"A striking pair like that—honestly, they’re just a treat to look at."

"Must be nice."

Full of envy, the crowd watched the direction where Rina had gone.

To live so comfortably in the apocalypse, accompanied by good-looking men—it sounded like a dream.

"Hah. Confidant? He’s just one of her boy toys."

That same passive-aggressive voice rang out once more. The tone and timbre were identical to the voice that had just called Rina a fake.

Suzy turned around yet again and spotted the speaker: a young girl around fifteen or sixteen. She was thin and wore an oversized long-sleeved shirt that drowned her frame, along with a black baseball cap pulled low, leaving only the lower half of her face visible.

Noticing Suzy’s gaze, the girl raised her head slightly, her dark, jet-black eyes fixing directly on her.

"What are you looking at?" she spat, her tone laced with a sharp warning.

Ignoring the threat, Suzy merely offered her a faint smile.

The girl blinked in surprise, instinctively taking a step back before ducking her head again.

Taking the opportunity, Suzy closed the distance between them with quick, quiet steps. "I heard what you just said," she said under her breath. "You know Rina?"

At the mention of Rina’s name, the girl snapped her head back up, her eyes full of suspicion. "What’s it to you?"

"Nothing bad," Suzy replied gently. "I just noticed your take on her is quite different from everyone else’s."

"So? What are you driving at?" The girl’s brows furrowed as she glared at her warily.

"I just want to ask you a few things about her." Suzy reached into her pocket, pulled out a box of chocolate biscuits, and held it out toward the girl. "Here."

The girl stared at the chocolate box, instinctively swallowing her saliva. A glint of hesitation flickered in her eyes.

She hadn’t eaten a thing in three days and was starving. To her, the treat in Suzy’s hand was an irresistible temptation.

After mere seconds of inner conflict, the girl snatched the chocolate, shoved it straight into her oversized pocket, and grunted, "Follow me."

She scanned their surroundings, searching for a quiet spot to talk.

"How about over there?" Suzy pointed toward her RV.

Her vehicle was parked in a quiet corner with virtually no foot traffic around—an ideal spot to trade information.

The girl eyed the location, evaluated the surroundings for a moment, and finally nodded. "Fine. There."

The two walked one behind the other until they reached the rear of the RV.

Seeing that no one was around, the girl pulled the chocolate out of her pocket, tore the packaging open impatiently, and popped a stick into her mouth.

The moment her teeth crunched down, her eyes fluttered shut in sheer bliss.

"What do you want to know?" she asked, her voice muffled by the food.

"Everything about Rina," Suzy said.

The girl gave her a slightly surprised look, but without probing into why she wanted to know, she began laying out what she knew about Rina in a relaxed tone.

"Rina is the base commander’s daughter and the designated heir to the base. Her status in the base is as high as it gets."

With that, the girl fell silent.

Suzy’s lips twitched. "That’s it?"

That’s all?

She had already gathered that much just by listening to the crowd idle chatting outside!

"Yep," the girl replied offhandedly. Seeing the displeased look on Suzy’s face, she added, "Tell you what, just ask me whatever you specifically want to know. If I know the answer, I’ll tell you."

Suzy took a deep breath. That’s more like it.

"I heard Rina is getting married?" Suzy asked.

"You know about that too?" The girl threw her a surprised look. "Rina getting married is something only people inside our base know about."

"A friend of mine is in your base, so I heard it from her," Suzy lied smoothly. "So it’s true?"

"Yeah," the girl confirmed.

"Who’s the groom?" Suzy asked, already knowing the answer.

"Some guy named Adam. You wouldn’t know him. He hadn’t been in the base long before Rina set her eyes on him," the girl said with a curl of her lip.

Suzy remained silent for a moment before pressing on. "Earlier, you said the guy sitting next to Rina was one of her boy toys?"

"Yeah. That woman keeps a whole harem—four of them, to be exact." A flash of disgust twisted the girl’s face as she spoke.

"She has that many lovers and she’s still getting married? Is her fiancé really okay with that?"

The girl looked at Suzy as if she were a clueless bumpkin.

"Look at the world we live in now. Who says you can’t get married just because you have boy toys? Besides, Rina is the future leader of the base. No one can stop her if she wants a harem, and those guys are more than happy to play along anyway."

At the last part, the girl sounded thoroughly exasperated by their lack of backbone.

She then addressed Suzy’s final question:

"Though... whether her fiancé is fine with it or not, I can’t say for sure."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because that man doesn’t like Rina at all. In fact, he was completely against her. Rina had her eyes on him way back, but he kept turning her down flat."

Pausing for a beat, the girl continued, "Then a while ago, the guy vanished for a bit. When he came back, he suddenly agreed to marry her. You could beat me to death and I still wouldn’t believe there wasn’t something shady going on behind the scenes."

Hearing this, Suzy felt her heart tighten painfully.

He refused at first... but agreed after disappearing for a while?

What on earth happened to Adam during that time?

"Why are you asking all this?" The girl stared closely at Suzy. "Do you know him?"