Chapter 359
He quickly straightened his face, adopting a serious tone once more. "I’m only telling you guys this, so make sure not a word leaks out, or I’m in deep trouble."
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, we get it," the others promised in unison, their faces brimming with the deep satisfaction of having just savored a prime piece of gossip.
Before long, the conversation circled right back to Adam and Rina’s upcoming wedding.
"So, given how much Adam clearly detests Rina, how on earth could he ever agree to marry her?! There is 100% something fishy going on!"
"I think so too. Rina has an entire collection of ’male confidants’—and Adam definitely isn’t the type of guy to tolerate that sort of thing," someone chimed in.
"’Male confidants’?" Suzy echoed, her curiosity thoroughly piqued.
Now this was a topic she was eager to hear about.
Tina looked over at her and explained, "Rina keeps a lot of close male friends around her at the base. While she calls them friends on the surface, their actual relationships are far more complex than that."
"How could they possibly be just friends? Anyone with eyes can see right through it—those guys are basically just her personal harem."
"Her... harem...?!"
The blunt revelation caught Suzy completely off guard. She never expected someone over at P City Base to be this extraordinary, actually managing to build an entire post-apocalyptic harem!
Tina paused for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Yeah, calling it a harem is pretty accurate."
From there, Suzy listened as the group spilled all the juicy details about Rina and her array of suitors, leaving her thoroughly fascinated by the sheer drama of it all.
It wasn’t until a soft drizzle began to patter down from the sky that the group was forced to wrap things up and stand up.
"It’s getting late, so I should head back now," Suzy rose to take her leave.
Without realizing it, she had been sitting and chatting with Tina’s crew for a full hour. Since Tina and her team had a mission to attend to—and that past hour had merely been their allocated break—they didn’t press her to stay any longer.
"Alright then. It’s about time for us to set off as well, so we won’t hold you up."
After exchanging their goodbyes, Suzy parted ways with the group and made her way back to her beat-up minivan.
Outside, the rain began to fall in earnest, picking up intensity until heavy drops were battering down with a relentless clatter.
The refugees who had been milling about the parking lot quickly scrambled back into their respective vehicles to escape the sudden deluge.
Suzy’s timing proved fortunate, stepping back inside her van just before the skies truly opened up.
By now, the downpour had turned blinding.
Explosive raindrops hammered against the glass, obscuring her vision entirely. She tried switching on the windshield wipers; as the blades swept across, the view cleared for a brief second before instantly blurring over once more.
Clearly, travelling in weather like this was out of the question.
Suzy decisively abandoned all plans of setting off for now. Under these conditions, staying parked safely right where she was remained her smartest move.
There was no telling when this storm would subside, and with the roads already in a wretched state, venturing out and running into a landslide or mudslide would mean absolute disaster.
Considering the sky-bastard was still actively out to get her, she figured caution was her best defense.
After locking down all doors and windows, Suzy raised a hand to touch her hair. It had caught a bit of moisture, though nothing serious. Still, to avoid catching a cold, she pulled a dry towel from her spatial domain and gently patted her damp locks dry.
After a few passes, a satellite phone materialized in her hand—another item retrieved straight from her spatial inventory.
The device was compact yet slightly thicker than a standard smartphone, featuring an extendable antenna and a screen that cast a cool white glow when lit.
She weighed it in her palm for a moment before dialing Leonard’s number.
This was her second time using the satellite phone to reach her uncle. She offered a silent prayer in her heart: Please let it go through this time!
However, the receiver produced only a brief beat of dead air, followed by a repetitive busy tone—as if the signal had been severed by an invisible barrier.
Suzy didn’t hang up immediately. She waited a few seconds longer, listening as the busy signal cut in and out before lapsing into complete silence.
Lowering the device, she checked the display. The signal indicator showed a single flicking bar, but the call log formally registered the attempt as failed.
She dialed a second time, but the busy tone lasted even less than before, quickly replaced by absolute silence.
Suzy let out a faint sigh.
She knew it would end up like this. Just like last time, the satellite phone simply couldn’t connect.
Was it because of the recent earthquake? Or was it another instance of the universe deliberately thwarting her?
Deep down, she leaned toward the latter. After all, if that unseen force could hurl her to a region over a thousand kilometers away, jamming a satellite signal was child’s play.
Still, she refused to give up so easily.
She tried dialing several other numbers in succession, but every attempt failed just the same. Thomas, Liam, Derek... none of them could be reached either.
Only after dialing each contact over ten times with zero success did she finally throw in the towel.
Forget it, forget it... let it be.
Tossing the satellite phone aside, she leaned back against the headrest in frustration, staring blankly out at the torrential rain pounding against the glass.
Before long, a realization struck her. She pulled up the offline navigation map and typed two characters into the search bar: P City.
Zooming out, she watched the map scale shrink.
A quick glance revealed that P City lay directly along her route back to A City. In fact, P City sat conveniently sandwiched right between X City and A City.
Recalling everything Tina and her crew had discussed earlier, a subtle resolve took root in Suzy’s heart. She decided she would make a pit stop in P City when she passed through.
She would visit P City Base and check up on Adam in person.
If he and that Rina girl were truly in love...
At that moment, a chaotic flurry of thoughts flooded her mind once more.
She forcibly suppressed them, refusing to dwell on it any longer.