The Sweet Rival (Mango Shen and Nathaniel Ye)

Chapter 268

Meanwhile, Edolie was so frightened that she immediately turned and frantically beat the person that approached them.

She wasn't trained in any particular martial art, but it was clear that she had been in more than her fair share of fights. As the other person’s arm reached out to her, Edolie immediately gripped her jacket before she swung it at the other person's face.

There was a zip on the jacket and it was accurately aimed at the attacker's face.

Hence, the other party paused for a moment due to Edolie's attack and Mango took the opportunity to free herself. Then, she was about to attack the person when she heard him speak in a low voice, "Mango, it's me."

The familiar voice stunned Mango and she unconsciously stopped Edolie from attacking further.

"Edolie, he's with us."

At that, Edolie quickly stopped.

Mango looked at Nathaniel who was standing in front of her with some disbelief.

His clothes were soaked with dew, and it was much wetter than her own clothes.

"What happened to you?"

"I swam back here after I jumped off the boat. Follow me, as now's not the time for talking."

Meanwhile, suspicion flashed in Nathaniel's eyes as he glanced at Edolie.

Then, Mango hurriedly explained, "I rescued this girl from Nanny Zhang's cave, along with many other women who were kidnapped by Nanny Zhang to sell as slaves. I set them free, but they

haven't found a way to escape. She is Edolie, and she has been following me ever since then."

"Well, let’s go then!"

Nathaniel refrained from saying anything else for Mango's sake, but it was obvious that he allowed Edolie to join them.

Mango nodded at Edolie before they followed Nathaniel as they ran in another direction.

"Can we escape from here?"

"Escaping is not really feasible right now, but we can wait."

Nathaniel noticed that Mango's hand was rather cold and he understood after he turned around to look behind him.

The jacket that Edolie used to hit him with was Mango’s jacket.

If he assumed correctly, Mango was silly enough to give her jacket to this girl named Edolie.

Edolie was not tall as she only reached Mango’s shoulders in terms of height. Thus, Nathaniel wasn't sure if her short stature was due to her youth or malnourishment, but it was the look in her eyes that interested him.

It was surprising that a child as young as Edolie could have such expressionless eyes. Although Mango had saved her, it didn't seem like Edolie would feel indebted to Mango because of that.

For now, this was Nathaniel's only opinion.

"Are you cold?"

Nathaniel had taken Mango on a winding path through the forest and Mango could feel her teeth chattering from the cold. However, she didn’t want to trouble Nathaniel further so she just said, "I'm fine"

"Just hold on for a while longer, we'll be there soon"

Nevertheless, Mango couldn't hear what Nathaniel said nor did she understand what he meant by 'we'll be there soon', but she felt much better when Nathaniel was here.

She followed Nathaniel closely, but she still glanced back at Edolie from time to time.

Nathaniel ran rather quickly, so Edolie had to work very hard to keep up as her legs were short.

At first, Mango wanted Nathaniel to slow down, but it might put all of them in danger so she could only use her eyes to signal for Edolie to keep up.

Fortunately, Edolie had a lot of stamina for such a small-bodied girl. Although it was very taxing for her to follow them, she still managed to keep up but she seemed to reach the limits of her strength.

Mango ran after Nathaniel for a long time and just as she was about to collapse from exhaustion, Nathaniel suddenly jumped straight off the cliff in front of them.

In fact, he didn't even warn Mango earlier. So, she was so frightened that she screamed as Nathaniel dragged her over the cliff as well.

Behind them, Edolie hesitated for a moment before she gritted her teeth and jumped down as well.

On the way down, the wind whipped in their ears.

Mango had no clue what would happen after they jumped off the cliff, but she was not worried at all because she trusted Nathaniel. However, what about Edolie?

Then, Mango wanted to turn and see how Edolie was doing but the wind was so strong that it prevented her from opening her eyes. Ultimately, Mango could only pray that Edolie was all right.

Mango landed in a sitting position when they reached the ground, but instead of feeling pain, Mango felt an uncomfortable wet sensation on her rear end.

"It’s all right, you can stand up now.”

Nathaniel's voice rang out.

Only then did Mango open her eyes.

There was a vast grassland in front of them, and the grass that Mango sat on was extremely soft. Furthermore, they had jumped down a waterfall earlier and despite its lack of water, Mango was certain that it was a waterfall.

"Ahem!"

Coughing sounds came from behind them.

Mango hurriedly turned around to find that Edolie had jumped down together with them, but unfortunately, Edolie had fallen face down onto the ground as no one was holding on to her.

At first, Mango wanted to laugh but she felt that it was rude, so she quickly helped Edolie up when Nathaniel said, "You are nothing more than a burden to us right now, so from now on you have to take care of yourself as we don't have the time to take care of you, got it?"

Nathaniel had always been cold and he never really felt the need to care about other people except for Mango.

Furthermore, Nathaniel thought that it was already very generous of him to let Edolie come with them for Mango's sake.

Plus, he had no idea about the girl's background. Nathaniel felt that Edolie was different from the other girls even though she was locked up with them.

During this dire situation, this girl was actually a danger to them instead.

On the other hand, Mango felt that he was being unreasonable. So, she gently tugged on his sleeve to tell him to be more gentle with his words, but Nathaniel seemed to ignore it and he said coldly, "From now on, I can feed and shelter you but you must follow our commands. If you can't do that, then you may leave at any time."

Perhaps Edolie had not thought that Nathaniel could be so cold.

Edolie initially thought that Nathaniel was a compassionate person, but she did not think that was the case any longer.

However, her surprise was only momentary as she quickly schooled her features before she nodded.

Nathaniel's eyes widened when he saw how easily Edolie was able to control her emotions and this did not make him feel at ease at all.

It seemed that Edolie was not as simple as she looked.

Meanwhile, Mango yawned and she said, "It’s really cold, will we be safe here?"

"Well be fine for the time being. After all, this island belongs to me so I know the terrain more than anyone and it would be hard for them to find us here. Meanwhile, we can rest here for now as I’ve contacted Merle and Zion, perhaps they may surprise us later."

After he finished speaking, Nathaniel immediately swept Mango up in his arms.

If it was just the two of them, Mango would have felt that this arrangement was just fine but now she felt somewhat embarrassed as Edolie was here.

"Hey, put me down, I can walk by myself."

'Tm carrying you because I want to, any issue?"

Mango was rendered speechless when Nathaniel said this.

Would Mango even dare to voice out her embarrassment? Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

Frankly, she had no time to argue with Nathaniel now since they were in such a dangerous situation.

As she was carried by Nathaniel, Mango looked over his shoulder to see Edolie struggled in following them. Right now, the girl was limping and it seemed that she hurt her foot when she jumped off the waterfall, but Edolie just gritted her teeth and carried on without a single complaint.

Mango was very surprised by Eddie’s resilience, but she still felt distressed anyway.

"Don't you think she looks like Rita?"

"Our Rita is only four years old."

Nathaniel's tone was plain, and he obviously meant something different than what Mango intended.

Then, Mango sighed and said, "Why don’t you have an ounce of sympathy for other people?"

"You're nearly frozen to death, but you still consider whether or not others are cold. Aren't you too sympathetic towards others?"

Nathaniel's meaning was very clear in his words, but Mango didn't get it as she was cold and hungry. Furthermore, she felt her nose start to itch as she laid in Nathaniel’s warm embrace.

"Achoo!"

Mango sneezed involuntarily.

Nathaniel looked at her red nose and he said with some distress in his voice, "You're already an adult, so when will you learn to take care of yourself? I'm starting to wonder how you survived the last five years when I wasn't around."

Mango chuckled sheepishly as she said, "Isn’t this an accident? Coach Ye, please do give me some tips as it’s my first time trying to survive in the wild."

"I reckon that you' re just fine since you' re so talkative."

Although he spoke casually, Nathaniel dared not dawdle and he arrived at a green colored tent after he strode further forward.

The place was not obvious at all since the color of the tent blended into the surrounding grass.

Mango was rather surprised as Nathaniel carried her into the tent.

Fortunately, it was much warmer inside the tent compared to the outside.

Mango was freezing, but she just endured it the whole time.

Meanwhile, Edolie was a little hesitant but she still followed them inside the tent.

Nathaniel placed Mango on a bed before he went to find two sets of clean clothes and he handed them to Mango and Edolie.

"Change out of your wet clothes first."

After that, he left the tent.

If Mango was alone, he wouldn't have left the tent but he felt rather encumbered now that Edolie was around. Furthermore, his expression was quite foul since he felt that Edolie had intruded into his personal space with Mango.

After Nathaniel left, Mango tried to cheer up and she smiled at Edolie before she said, “Don’t mind him, he's always like that."

"Who's he to you?"

Edolie asked flatly.

Mango was stunned for a moment before she smiled and said, "He is my husband.”

"I see."

Edolie said nothing more and she turned around to change her clothes.

In fact, Mango was very uncomfortable and she wanted nothing more than to take a hot shower. However in this environment, it was already a luxury to have clean clothes, let alone a hot shower.

Her head ached until Mango felt exhausted, but she insisted on changing out of her clothes. That was when she realized that she had sustained a cut on her calf but the blood had already coagulated and it had started to sting.

Currently, Mango felt like she was useless.

Even a young girl like Edolie could take care of herself, and that put Mango to shame.

Then, Mango sighed and she quickly straightened herself out.

After that, Nathaniel reentered the tent and he brought a thermos with him that contained some hot water.

Then, he poured some hot water into a cup before he handed it to Mango as he muttered, "Have some hot water to warm yourself up, I don't want you catching a cold."

As soon as Nathaniel spoke, Mango sneezed right on cue and unfortunately, it was directly into Nathaniel's face.