Chapter 4

Sophie felt a pang of sorrow upon remembering the past.

Jean was both kind and morally upstanding, but she had to suffer the same misfortune of meeting the wrong guy and meeting a tragic end.

That was why Sophie must give her a little push this time…

Nonetheless, she received a notification of a wire transfer worth ten grand just then, and Yorick's text came quickly after.

[I got you the money, babe—had to get a loan from my buddies. Remember, I gotta pay them back right after!]

Sophie simply smiled coolly and blocked him.

If anything, Yorick owed her far more than just ten grand, but they lived in a law-abiding society, and murder was punishable by death.

So she would spare his life for now, but she would definitely have her revenge when the apocalypse came!

However, Yorick did inspire her—since she needed a lot of money and quick, she could simply borrow some.

It was the apocalypse—all forms of currency would fail, and loans would be null anyway.

And so, Sophie started taking out loans from every platform she could think of, eventually cashing out over thirty grand.

Credit limits were always kept low for students, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Locking up her warehouse, she drove back to Stockton and went straight to another restaurant, ordering a large plate of spicy creamy jalapeno pasta.

She also ordered two plates of every other pasta on the menu, ranging from everything from beef to vegetables and macaroni to spaghetti, amounting to a total of thirty servings.

Her excuse was that the other girls from her faculty were having a movie night and needed some snacks, while the owner could barely hide his smile as the kitchen staff went to work.

Stockton was a populous city with its universities, and even such late orders were really no issue. The kitchen staff also worked fast, and by the time Sophie finished her pasta, the rest of the food was ready and waiting.

She had been a frequent guest here, as the pasta dishes were well known for their rich flavor and generous portions, earning high praise from the students.

Still, thirty servings of pasta were too much to carry, so Sophie neatly stacked the food boxes into two huge carton boxes to move them.

As she worked, she felt as if her honed physique from her past life extended to this life—she felt much stronger and had better reflexes than she used to have at this juncture of her previous life.

Still, as she pretended to put the boxes in the van, she quietly sneaked them into a void pocket.

To avoid attracting attention, she headed to every restaurant, including the one she had dined at in the afternoon, ordering everything from dessert to whole chickens.

As she took trips loading the food into the van, she would sneak some of it into her void pocket.

The food bill cost her almost three grand, but she kept going, withdrawing more money while hitting the grocery store to buy sugar.

She then finally checked the time and saw that it was already well past nine at night.

However, as she was ready to drive back to her rented apartment, she noticed a couple walking side by side out of a rundown motel in front of her van.

In the dim light, Sophie saw that it was none other than Yorick and Susan!

Still, she stayed calm and smirked—so they had hooked up already?

As it was dark, and the van was unremarkable and old, neither Yorick nor Susan thought to look or expected Sophie to be sitting inside and watching them.

Yorick had his arm around Susan's shoulder and gave her a peck on the cheek as he sighed, "Oh, Susan. You're such a wonderful gal, not at all like that spinster Sophie. There are no men who won't like your softness!"

"Oh, please!" Susan smiled in feigned exasperation. "I will never measure up to Fi, who is loved by her parents and showered with money. She's an overachiever on top of that. Meanwhile, I'm just a leech with no one to love me…"

"Hah! She doesn't hold a candle to you at all." Yorick scoffed, his tone full of disdain. "Just having to see that hag every day makes me sick—thank god it's over now. Once her parents get me that Audi, I'll definitely dump her and make you my official girlfriend!"

"Really? That's wonderful!" Susan chirped.

In the van, Sophie raised a brow.

If she hadn't heard it with her own ears, she would never have known that Yorick had already considered her a spinster and a hag.

As for Susan?

After her parents' divorce, they had passed her around like a ball, until she eventually gave up and stayed with her elderly grandmother, who raised her by relying on meager savings.

After getting Susan into university, Susan was assigned to the same dorm as Sophie.

Since then, she was virtually glued to Sophie, hugging her arm and affectionately calling her 'Fi' like her parents did. They were always together for classes, lunch, shopping, and movies.

And because of the birthmark on her face, Sophie had never had any close friends growing up.

She therefore felt flattered by Susan's enthusiasm and friendliness, especially since Susan was quite the pretty face. She therefore quickly considered Susan her best friend and confidante, generously paying for anything when Sophie was short on money without ever asking for repayment.

Whenever Susan said she liked Sophie's skincare products or clothes, Sophie would give them to her without hesitation. Then, Susan would hug her happily and say they were friends for life, that they would never separate!

The irony wasn't lost on her looking back now.

In Sophie's past life, she was as blind in the eyes as she was blind in the heart, never discerning the true nature of those around her. That was why she had been so easily manipulated by those two!

Still, she took a deep breath to calm down, quietly saved the video she had just recorded, and then drove back to the apartment.

After a bath, she threw herself onto the soft bed, utterly exhausted but not going to sleep just yet.

With less than two weeks until the apocalypse, she needed to seize every moment to stockpile everything she could, so she browsed Amazon again.

Picking a reputable seller, she browsed for puffer jackets.

The seller claimed that their merchandise was designed for the polar winter, capable of withstanding extremely cold temperatures, ranging from over a hundred to a few hundred dollars each.

Sophie once again remembered her previous life, when the Deep Freeze struck. Temperatures were dropping to as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit, and people were frozen to death in their own beds.

She had managed to reach the shelter before the worst of it, giving away the supplies she had stockpiled along the way so that she could be allowed inside the shelter's warm converted factory buildings.

It was divided into four zones, with each housing nearly five thousand people—each person had only about thirty square feet to themselves. Moreover, the air circulation was poor, and it was extremely crowded and incredibly noisy.

However, it at least kept people like Sophie, who didn't even have a jacket and had never stepped out of the shelter for two years, alive.

Just remembering those days was suffocating…

Sighing, Sophie cleared her mind and ordered nine adult-sized puffer jackets, three each for herself and her parents.

Billy was just eight, so she selected three jackets of different sizes and also picked out twelve pairs of thick down pants, along with four warm down comforters from a seller offering home textiles.

Meanwhile, she ordered three types of different tents and six warm sleeping bags from another seller offering outdoor activity goods.

She also bought essential equipment for outdoor activity and exploration, including flashlights, ropes, binoculars, utility knives, backpacks, first aid kits, and everything else, enough for herself and her family. That included eighty boxes each with a hundred hand warmers inside, enough to last four people for two years.

She wasn't going to buy too much despite knowing about the Deep Freeze, only getting the most basic necessities. As the barter system arrived in full swing after the apocalypse, the hand warmers would hold better value over anything they would want to trade for.