After paying at the fee window, Leng Hui endured her dizziness and walked to the outside of the operating room.
The area outside the operating room was empty. Without bothering to wonder where Leng Yongkang and Old Woman Leng had gone, Leng Hui walked over to the bench against the wall and sat down.
The surgery would likely take quite some time. Sitting alone outside, waiting idly, it was only now that she had time to think about her current situation.
After struggling through the apocalypse for seven or eight years, she had fallen into a deep sleep on a cold, hungry night. When she opened her eyes, she had inexplicably arrived in this world. According to the rules of transmigration, it was highly likely that her apocalypse self had already kicked the bucket.
But at that time, she had been with her mother.
She didn’t know how her mother was doing? Had she also been reborn here with her?
The original host shared the same name as her, and coincidentally, her mother also had the same name as the original host’s mother. Moreover, both mother and daughter had encountered accidents at the same time, which made Leng Hui inevitably speculate.
――
Tang Lin felt that she had slept exceptionally deeply. How many years had it been since she last had a good night’s sleep after the apocalypse began?
She couldn’t remember.
This kind of deep sleep was so intoxicating that she didn’t want to wake up.
But the vigilance honed in the apocalypse forced her to rouse herself when she heard movement nearby.
“Awake, Ms. Tang Lin?”
Tang Lin raised her hand to rub her head and tried to sit up. But as soon as she lifted her upper body slightly, she felt a tearing pain in her abdomen. With a soft groan, she fell back onto the bed.
“Am I injured?”
Pain brought clarity.
Only after falling back onto the bed did Tang Lin notice the change in her surroundings. She turned her head to look at Leng Hui.
Meeting Leng Hui’s half-smiling gaze, her pupils trembled slightly. “You… you, you…”
That familiar look—it was unmistakably her mischievous daughter, Leng Hui.
But her appearance had changed. She bore a seventy percent resemblance to Leng Hui, though her face was more youthful.
“What time is it? How long have I been unconscious? Why do you look like this?”
Leng Hui glanced down at the urine bag hanging by the bed. It was only about a quarter full and didn’t need changing yet.
So, she leaned close to her mother’s ear and whispered, “It’s the 1970s now. I don’t need to say more—you can probably guess what’s happened to us.”
Transmigration?
Rebirth?
Tang Lin touched her own face. “It’s unbelievable!”
Life in the apocalypse was tough. The only solace for the mother and daughter was reading novels.
Every time they returned from a mission, they would hide in their cramped rented room and lose themselves in the world of fiction, temporarily forgetting the hardships of apocalyptic life.
Transmigration, rebirth, and golden fingers were all familiar concepts to them.
They just never expected that such a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck would happen to them.
It was truly incredible!
Leng Hui silently breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother had transmigrated here with her.
“Resources are scarce in this era, and technology is backward. I hope you’re mentally prepared for that.”
Tang Lin stared at the ceiling, a relieved smile spreading across her face. “No matter how tough the conditions or how harsh the environment, it’s still better than the apocalypse.”
Yes, anything was better than the apocalypse.
In the apocalypse, viruses ran rampant, the climate was extreme, resources were scarce, and the environment was utterly hostile.
“What’s the situation with my current body?” Tang Lin asked again.
“You didn’t inherit the original host’s memories?”
Tang Lin shook her head.
During the time Tang Lin was unconscious, Leng Hui had already sorted out their current circumstances. She proceeded to give a rough overview of the original host’s situation.
The main focus was on elaborating the Leng family’s circumstances.
Old Lady Leng had given birth to two sons and one daughter. Her husband passed away early, and the original host’s father, Leng Yongkang, was the eldest, followed by a younger brother and a younger sister.
The reason Tang Lin and her daughter had encountered this accident was because Leng Yongkang’s younger sister had just given birth. Old Lady Leng had asked Tang Lin to visit the new mother and the newborn, which led to the incident.
Although the Leng family lived in the city, their financial situation was far from ideal.
With ten people in the household and only three breadwinners, three people had to support ten mouths.
In this era of rationed supplies, it was clear that every aspect of life required careful budgeting.
“Your original father…”
Tang Lin felt a headache coming on at the thought of having to act as a wife to a stranger.
Right now, she deeply wished she had transmigrated as a widow or a single mother.
As for the original host’s father, Leng Hui truly found it hard to describe him in a few words.
“He came to see you briefly after you got out of surgery, then left, saying he’d bring us dinner in the evening.”
Tang Lin glanced out the window. The sky had already darkened—no wonder her stomach was growling with hunger.
“Let’s hope he doesn’t deliver dinner as a midnight snack.”
“Even if he brings it, you can’t eat it. The doctor said you can only have some rice water after you pass gas.” Leng Hui delivered the blow without mercy.
Tang Lin glared at her. “Ungrateful daughter!”
Angry as she was, Tang Lin closed her eyes and tried to sense her wood-element ability, but found no trace of it.
The joy she had felt upon rebirth was now doused like a bucket of cold water.
“Hui Hui, quickly check if your spatial ability is still there!”
In the apocalypse, Tang Lin had awakened a wood-element ability, while Leng Hui had awakened a spatial ability.
The space wasn’t particularly large—only about a hundred square meters.
“It’s here. All the items originally in the space came along too. Some of the useless stuff from before might actually be worth some money in this era.”
The space was stocked with items collected during their outings—furniture, cabinets, dishes, kitchenware, cars, and the like. Most of these things were practically useless in the apocalypse.
Without gasoline or electricity, the cars couldn’t run. As for daily necessities like tableware and furniture, one set was enough, so the extras Leng Hui had collected were piled in a corner of the space.
Anxiety flickered in Tang Lin’s eyes. “Your space came along, so why has my ability disappeared?”
Leng Hui comforted her, “This world isn’t dangerous. It’s fine if the ability is gone. But since my ability came with me, and your wood-element ability has healing properties, maybe it’s just that you can’t sense it temporarily because of your injury and the major surgery. Once you recover and your body heals, your ability might return too.”
Tang Lin’s eyes lit up, comforted by the thought. “That makes sense. Let’s wait and see then.”
――
By the time Leng Yongkang entered the hospital room carrying a lunchbox, it was almost 9 p.m.
It was an ordinary aluminum lunchbox. When Leng Hui opened it and saw the thin, watery rice porridge inside, she couldn’t help but twitch her lips.
She was already starving—how could half a bowl of rice water, so clear you could see your reflection, possibly fill her up?
Noticing Leng Hui’s look of despair, Leng Yongkang quickly pulled a greased paper package from his pants pocket. “Here’s also a sorghum flatbread.”
Leng Hui took the package, unwrapped it, and found a sorghum flatbread inside, smaller than the palm of her hand.
She first took a sip of rice soup to moisten her throat, then bit into the sorghum flatbread. The sorghum was finely ground, making it easy to swallow, and it tasted quite good.
“Is this all we’re having for dinner tonight? No stir-fried dishes?” Tang Lin watched as Leng Hui took a bite that consumed a third of the sorghum flatbread and asked Leng Yongkang irritably, “Hui Hui is a young woman at the age where she needs to eat well, and you only brought this little food? It’s not even enough to fill the gaps between her teeth.”
Leng Yongkang walked over and sat down by the hospital bed. “If that’s the case, then Hui Hui’s teeth gaps must be big enough for a mouse to crawl through.”
Leng Hui, her mouth stuffed with sorghum flatbread: “!”
“Leng Yongkang, how dare you talk back?”
Unable to move her hands, Tang Lin could only glare at him.