In a small courtyard on the outskirts of Haishi, inside a storage room, a young girl lay sleeping on a cramped bed. Four people stood around her, chattering noisily.
Disturbed from her sleep, the girl furrowed her brows and casually swung her hand, delivering a slap.
A scream rang out. One person was sent flying through the air in a perfect arc, propelled by the force of her palm. With a whoosh, she crashed heavily into the opposite wall before sliding down like a dead dog.
At last, her ears were free from the noise. The girl turned over and continued sleeping.
What she didn’t know was that the three people behind her were staring at her back with wide eyes, as though they were looking at a monster. Their mouths hung open for so long that they couldn’t seem to close them.
Li Xiaolian stared at the back of Yuan Shu’s head in terror. Shock and fear were impossible to conceal on her usually gentle and composed face.
She cautiously stepped backward, hiding behind her husband, Yuan Ming.
Out of habit, Yuan Ming patted the hand his wife had wrapped around his arm, trying to comfort her. However, he didn’t realize that his own hand was trembling slightly.
Yuan Dachuan’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He reacted faster than anyone else. After glancing at his wife, Zhang Dahua, who was sliding down the wall like a dead pig and collapsing onto the ground, he hurriedly retreated several steps, staring at the girl’s back in utter disbelief.
Yuan Ming swallowed hard and helped his wife take two steps backward. Then he turned to Yuan Dachuan.
“W-what… what just happened?”
Yuan Dachuan stammered, “H-how would I know?”
After a moment, he added haltingly, “S-she’s always been an idiot…”
Yuan Shu was sleeping soundly. She hadn’t slept this deeply in a long time, and she was even dreaming.
In her dream, it seemed she had returned to the days before the apocalypse. She was lying in her own villa, surrounded by cleanliness, warmth, and safety, with no worries about food or clothing.
Back then, she had loved jewelry, luxurious clothes, and delicious food. She had been a spoiled young lady who cared deeply about appearances and vanity.
Even in her dreams, all she thought about was what to eat, what to wear, and how to have fun the next day. She would compare her looks with the daughters of wealthy families, her figure with those of high-society socialites, and her boyfriend with those of other rich young ladies.
But just as she was enjoying her beautiful dream, people kept chattering and arguing noisily beside her ears.
Who did they think Yuan Shu was?
Before the apocalypse, she had been a willful, spoiled heiress.
After the apocalypse… well, she had spent several years wandering through hardship and living in misery. But after surviving countless trials and nearly dying more times than she could count, hadn’t she stumbled upon a fortuitous opportunity that activated her spatial ability and allowed her to make a full recovery?
And later, hadn’t she relied on her own cleverness to become a powerful figure in her own territory?
With a background like hers, how could Yuan Shu possibly tolerate a swarm of flies buzzing incessantly around her ears while she was having a beautiful dream?
Therefore, before Yuan Shu even opened her eyes, her hand had already swung out.
The three people still standing looked at one another. The air suddenly fell silent until Zhang Dahua’s faint groans broke the quiet.
Like a maggot, Zhang Dahua slowly wriggled her obese body across the ground. Her voice was so weak that it was practically unheard of.
“Y-Yuan Dachuan… I…”
Her mouth opened and closed. Each time she opened it, she spat out a mouthful of blood. She tried again and spat out another. Her voice rose and fell like the wailing of a ghost, but even after a long while, she couldn’t manage to utter a single complete sentence.
Yuan Dachuan turned to look at her and raised a trembling finger.
“You—”
Before he could finish that single word, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted. His body crashed heavily to the ground, and the impact jolted him awake. He lifted his head, only to see Zhang Dahua still spitting blood. His eyes rolled back again, and he promptly fainted a second time.
Yuan Ming and Li Xiaolian stared at Zhang Dahua, who was lying on the ground spitting blood, and Yuan Dachuan, whose eyes had rolled back into his head.
Li Xiaolian’s voice trembled as she called out, “M-Ming… what… what happened?”
Yuan Ming cautiously glanced at the girl sleeping with her back turned toward them.
“W-was it her? Did she send that shrew flying with just one move?”
Li Xiaolian replied uncertainly, “I-I think so…”
She timidly stretched out a finger and pointed at the girl’s back.
“S-she… she knows martial arts?”
Yuan Ming opened his mouth, about to answer, when he suddenly felt as though something had slammed into his abdomen.
The next instant, an intense wave of pain surged through him. He instinctively bent forward, but before he could even finish bending at the waist, his body suddenly lifted into the air as though he were riding on clouds.
Yuan Ming’s hunched body slammed violently into the wall before sliding down like a dead dog. He landed right on top of Zhang Dahua, who was still writhing on the ground.
Crushed beneath his weight, Zhang Dahua’s eyes rolled back. At last, she stopped spitting blood and fainted, joining her husband, Yuan Dachuan, in unconsciousness.
Li Xiaolian was still standing there with one finger pointed forward. She stood stiffly like a zombie, unable to understand why her husband had suddenly gone flying with a whoosh just as she couldn’t understand why Zhang Dahua had been sent flying in exactly the same way.
Her body rigid, she slowly turned her head.
There, she saw her usually refined and dignified husband sprawled on top of the obese Zhang Dahua. He lifted his head and looked at her, his mouth opening and closing. Each time he opened it, he spat out a mouthful of blood. Each time he closed it, he seemed to struggle to speak, yet not a single word came out.
Li Xiaolian opened her mouth and screamed.
“Ahhh—!”
But her scream was cut short halfway through, because she, too, suddenly found herself soaring through the air as though riding on clouds.
Li Xiaolian landed on top of Yuan Ming and began spitting out mouthful after mouthful of blood.
With her weight pressing down on him, Yuan Ming’s eyes rolled back. He promptly fainted again, joining Yuan Dachuan and his wife in unconsciousness.