Chapter 395

Chapter 395: Chapter 395

Her intuition was undeniably sharp; just from the subtle shift in Suzy’s expression, she had already picked up that something was off.

"That man is a friend of mine," Suzy admitted.

A flicker of surprise crossed the girl’s face. "No wonder."

No wonder she had started off asking about Rina, only to circle around to that man in the end.

"What about you?" Suzy probed gently. "You seem to know Rina pretty well."

"Sort of." The girl’s expression shifted through a flurry of emotions. "You could say I know her well enough."

Before Suzy could press further, the girl volunteered the truth: "My brother happens to be one of Rina’s boy toys."

Her voice turned tight and bitter, her teeth visibly gritted as she spat out "boy toys."

Now it was Suzy’s turn to be stunned. "Your brother is one of her boy toys?!"

"Yes!" the girl burst out in anger. "Ever since we reached the base, I don’t know what kind of crazy bug got into my brother’s head, but he became totally obsessed with Rina! It’s like he’s possessed! There are already so many men swarming around her, yet he just had to shove his way in!"

Perhaps sensing that Suzy was in a similar predicament, or simply because she hadn’t had anyone to vent to in a long time, the moment she opened her mouth, the words came pouring out in a torrent.

Sensing that something unusual was at play here, Suzy tested the waters. "If you don’t mind, could you tell me a bit more in detail?"

She reached into her pocket once more, pulling out another box of chocolate cookies and holding it out to her.

The girl’s eyes lit up instantly at the sight of the sweet treat.

She reached out, took it, and offered Suzy her very first genuine smile. "My name’s Jenny. What’s yours?"

"Suzy."

"Alright, Suzy. Since we’ve got some time right now, let me give you the full story!"

It was as if Jenny had finally found an outlet for all her pent-up misery; once she opened the floodgates, there was no stopping her.

"My brother’s name is Luke. He’s four years older than me and really good-looking—he was the school heartthrob growing up. Tons of girls chased after him, and there were even rich older women who wanted to sponsor him, but he never gave any of them the time of day."

"After the apocalypse hit, my brother and I depended on each other to survive. He was completely normal the whole time—until we arrived at P City Base."

"At first, everything was fine and normal, too. But ever since my brother laid eyes on Rina and spoke to her just once, he was like a completely different person. He started frantically digging up information about her."

"Could it be that he fell in love at first sight?" Suzy asked tentatively.

"My brother isn’t that kind of person!" Jenny rejected the idea immediately. "My brother already had someone he loved!"

She lowered her head, folding and refolding the chocolate wrapper over and over, using the mechanical gesture to anchor her surging emotions.

"Dina... My brother has always loved Dina! She grew up with him, they were classmates in the same grade—childhood sweethearts who’d known each other for over ten years. Everyone around them thought it was only a matter of time before they got married."

"We ran into Dina on the road to the base, and we looked out for each other all the way to this base... The very day before we arrived, my brother even told me he was planning to confess to her. But after he saw Rina the next day, he never mentioned it again."

Suzy hesitated, unsure how to respond.

Noticing Suzy’s unspoken doubts, Jenny cut in fiercely, "My brother is not a scumbag!"

She kept her head down, clutching the tightly folded foil square of the wrapper in her palm, squeezing it until her knuckles turned pale.

Only after a long pause did she speak again, her voice noticeably lower than before. "He isn’t a scumbag. I’ve known him for over ten years; I know better than anyone what kind of person he is. What he felt for Dina wasn’t an act."

"Then what do you think happened?" Suzy asked quietly.

Jenny fell silent for a moment, as though gathering her thoughts.

"I’ve thought long and hard about it. Ever since that day, he’s been completely off. He used to be so steady and calm, but during that period he became strangely anxious, as if something inside him was constantly rushing him."

"And he almost never used to lie to me, but during those days he told me lie after lie... claiming he was getting familiar with the base, looking for work, or running errands for people. I believed him back then, but only later did I realize he was spending all that time hunting for opportunities to get close to Rina."

She paused again, hesitating slightly over whether to share the next part.

"And another thing... Ever since he met Rina, he seems to get exhausted unnaturally fast. Sometimes he hadn’t even done anything demanding, yet he’d come back and just sit there staring into space, looking like he’d been utterly drained. I thought he was just tired, but his energy would be perfectly fine when he left in the morning, only to return completely spent at night."

"He was never like that before. He always had incredible stamina—he used to carry me on his back for an entire day without complaining once. But after getting to the base, he was in that drained state every single day. Sometimes he couldn’t even string a full sentence together, yet he refused to admit he was exhausted, insisting he was fine..."

"There’s one more thing that felt really bizarre to me," Jenny added, lowering her voice to a whisper.

"It’s like he’s starting to lose track of his memories. Once, I asked him where Dina was living now, and he froze for a long time before saying, ’West District, I think.’ He never used to do that. Before, whenever Dina came up, he never had to pause to think."

"I’m convinced Rina used some kind of dark witchcraft to bewitch my brother," Jenny said in dead earnest. "Otherwise, there’s no way he would have changed like this."

"He used to spoil me so much. Now, if I say a single bad word about Rina, he flies into a rage and yells at me. Last time... last time he even hit me..."

Jenny’s voice choked up suddenly.

To her, it felt as though her brother had transformed into a total stranger overnight, a reality she simply couldn’t bring herself to accept.

Listening to all of this, Suzy began to piece together a clear picture in her mind.

As the atmosphere grew heavy, Suzy didn’t push the painful topic any further. Instead, she asked, "Shouldn’t you be inside the base? How come you’re out here?"

Sniffling lightly, Jenny managed to regain her composure. "My brother doesn’t care about me anymore. I came out to take on missions."

Just then, a voice called out Jenny’s name from a distance.

Jenny quickly perked up. "My friends are calling me. I’ve gotta go."

Without waiting for a response, she jogged off toward the voice.

Her slender figure gradually faded from sight.

Suzy watched her leave for a moment before turning around and climbing back into her RV.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, her mind was entirely consumed by Jenny’s words—the unsettling sequence of changes that had come over her brother.

Honestly, just listening to it was enough to set off alarm bells.

Could a person really change so drastically overnight?

Luke had fallen head over heels for Rina immediately upon seeing her, throwing away the childhood sweetheart he had loved for years without a second thought... Occurring in such a short window, it defied all common sense.

There had to be something at play here that nobody else knew about.

Could Adam’s sudden agreement to the marriage be connected to this as well?

Suzy’s thoughts tumbled into chaos once more. She didn’t even notice that the vehicle ahead had pulled forward, creating a sizeable gap between them.

It was only when an impatient blare of a horn sounded from behind that she snapped back to reality and tapped the gas to close the distance.

Then came another long, agonizing wait.

With Mark still resting in the back, Suzy leaned against her seat back, staring blankly ahead.

By now, night had fallen.

Ever since the apocalypse, the world’s climate system had broken down, resulting in extreme temperature drops between day and night.

While the daytime was scorchingly hot, the nights were bitterly cold.

Outdoors, the temperature had already plummeted into the single digits. Most people had scurried back into their vehicles to seek shelter; hardly anyone remained outside.

Draped in a thin blanket, Suzy stifled a sleepy yawn.

Just then, a sharp knock rattled against her side window.