Cold rain lashed against her face, and Xia Nuan slowly pried her heavy eyelids open.
When she saw the courtyard—at once intimately familiar and jarringly strange—she was instantly plunged into a state of bewildered shock.
Wasn’t she already dead?
In the third year of the Apocalypse, Lu Zhaozhao’s new boyfriend had complimented Xia Nuan on her beauty. Fearing that Xia Nuan would block his biological daughter’s path to a wealthy marriage, Lu Jiancheng took advantage of Xia Nuan being gravely injured and made the executive decision to sell her to the black market.
“Do you know how your parents and brother died? I intentionally leaked information telling them you’d been kidnapped by black market thugs, then gave them a fake address. Those three idiots were so frantic they didn’t even bother to verify anything before rushing to save you. By now, they’ve probably been riddled with bullets like sieves.”
She had been sold to a deviant who found pleasure in torture and murder.
The flesh was carved from her body piece by piece—death by a thousand cuts—and fed to wild dogs.
Medicine, incredibly precious during the Apocalypse, was used by that pervert to prolong her agony, forcibly keeping her hanging on by a thread.
Finally, the deviant turned her into a Human Pig and stuffed her into a vat.
It wasn’t until cold wine was poured into the vat, completely submerging her and flooding her nose and mouth, that she finally drew her last breath.
Xia Nuan thought she had finally found release.
So how was it that in the blink of an eye, she was back at the entrance of her residence from before the Apocalypse?
Click.
The luxurious front door suddenly swung open, and a middle-aged man in a sharp suit with an imposing aura stepped out.
He looked down at Xia Nuan from his superior height and barked a sharp reprimand.
“Xia Nuan, Zhaozhao has only just returned home, yet you’re tripping her up and giving her attitude at every turn. How can you be so malicious? Making you kneel here today is so you can properly reflect on yourself. If you remain unrepentant and continue to make things difficult for Zhaozhao, then you can crawl back to wherever it is you came from!”
Hearing these familiar words, Xia Nuan’s mind felt stiff. It took her a long moment to pull the corresponding memory from a corner of her mind.
A month before the Apocalypse, Xia Nuan was suddenly informed by her adoptive parents that she wasn’t their biological child; she was the “fake” young lady who had been taken by mistake.
A nurse had mixed up their wristbands when she and the “true” young lady were born. The two families had raised the wrong children by a twist of fate, and the blunder was only discovered when the true daughter came looking for her biological parents.
After the true daughter, Lu Zhaozhao, returned, she had constantly viewed Xia Nuan as an enemy. On the surface, she acted weak and unable to care for herself, but in private, she used poisonous words to provoke Xia Nuan, doing everything in her power to get her kicked out of the house.
In her memory, today was the day Lu Zhaozhao had shattered a gift given by their adoptive mother and framed Xia Nuan for it. Their adoptive father, without distinguishing right from wrong, had punished her by making her kneel outside to reflect.
It had been drizzling then, just as it was now. She had knelt all night, and by the next day, she had a high fever that nearly killed her.
Xia Nuan raised a hand to touch her forehead, which was already starting to feel hot.
The physical sensation was real, and the scene was identical to her memory.
Had she been reborn?
Shock was followed by a wave of intense ecstasy.
In her previous life, to garner sympathy, Lu Zhaozhao had constantly complained about how miserable her life had been before her return, claiming her family favored boys over girls and that she had suffered endless hardships.
Xia Nuan had believed her. Fearing she would face the same life if she returned to her biological parents, and unable to let go of twenty years of affection for her adoptive parents, she had shamelessly stayed in the Lu household.
After the Apocalypse began, her biological parents came looking for her several times, but she had ignored them, treating them like a plague.
Yet in the end, it was her biological parents who died trying to save her, while the adoptive parents she had always been filial to and relied upon sold her to a monster to be tortured.
Recalling the images of her death, Xia Nuan’s fists clenched involuntarily.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself up and stood with her back ramrod straight.
She stared intently at her adoptive father, Lu Jiancheng, her gaze sharp and icy, like a predator about to devour its prey, brimming with a fierce light.
“I can go back to wherever I came from, but before that, you must return what belongs to me.”
Xia Nuan struggled to calm the surging hatred in her heart.
She slightly loosened her clenched fists.
She couldn’t kill him yet. The true Apocalypse wouldn’t begin for another month. Right now, social order was still intact, and it wasn’t worth getting into trouble for murder.
She would let this family of animals live a little longer. Once the Apocalypse arrived, she wouldn’t miss a single one of their past debts.
“We raised you all these years, and every cent you spent on food and clothes came from us. What in this house belongs to you? If you behave, apologize to Zhaozhao, and promise never to defy your parents and sister again, I might consider changing your surname back so you can remain a daughter of the Lu family.”
Lu Jiancheng’s eyes were filled with mockery as he looked down at Xia Nuan.
His tone was exactly like someone tossing a scrap to a stray dog.
“That won’t be necessary. I have no interest in being kin to trash. Give back the bracelet Lu Zhaozhao swindled from my parents. Let’s return things to their rightful owners and go our separate ways.”
Xia Nuan tilted her head to meet Lu Jiancheng’s gaze. Her posture was as upright as a pine tree; though she was soaked to the bone like a drowned rat, she didn’t look pathetic in the slightest.
She was like a cypress tree that refused to bend even in a storm.
“Heh, you really are an irredeemable, low-life ingrate! You bully your sister first, then treat an apology like it’s a death sentence. Now you dare speak to me like this? Do you really think you’re something? If you leave the Lu family, you can forget about having a future!”
No matter how composed Lu Jiancheng usually tried to be, he was nearly sent reeling with rage by her words.
Xia Nuan let out a nonchalant sneer.
The world was ending; what damn use was a “future”?
If Lu Jiancheng hadn’t brought it up, she would have almost forgotten she was once a competitive archer.
She had won the national championship at thirteen, earning a reputation across the country as a genius archer girl. Later, she won title after title in world-class competitions. The Lu family had used her fame and prestige as a springboard to enter the sports industry, causing their assets to multiply many times over.
If one really crunched the numbers, the Lu family hadn’t been supporting her financially; she had been supporting the Lu family. If she announced her separation from them and spoke ill of them, their business—stripped of the “family of a champion” halo—would certainly take a hit.
In her past life, she had been blinded. Her adoptive father would punish her in a rage, and her adoptive mother would comfort her afterward. She had thought Lu Zhaozhao was just manipulative and had them fooled.
Looking back now, they were just playing “good cop, bad cop,” acting together to brainwash her!
They talked about kicking her out to keep her in a state of fear, but in reality, they were the ones who least wanted her to leave.
“Old man, you and I both know exactly how the Lu family has expanded over the last few years. Don’t play dumb with me. I don’t want the ‘future’ anymore; do whatever you like. But if you don’t want your stock price to fluctuate, you’d better hurry up and give me my family’s bracelet along with ten million to send me on my way. Otherwise, there’s no telling what this mouth of mine might say.”
Xia Nuan knew how to threaten people too. Not only that, she was going to hike up the price.
She needed to prepare supplies next, and that was impossible without money. It just so happened the old man had walked right into her sights; it would be a waste not to take the opportunity to fleece him.
“Oh? Surely not? The great Lu family wouldn’t actually be so greedy as to keep a tiny bracelet, would they? Surely they can afford a mere ten million in hush money? Don’t tell me the Lu family is going to hold a press conference tomorrow to announce their bankruptcy?”
Seeing Lu Jiancheng’s lips trembling with rage, unable to squeeze out a word for a long time, Xia Nuan continued her snide remarks.
The old man valued his reputation above all else. Being taunted like this would definitely provoke him into throwing the money and the item at her out of spite.
Sure enough, Lu Jiancheng couldn’t stomach the mockery. He turned and stormed back into the house. Fifteen minutes later, he reappeared with a bank card and a bracelet in his hand.
He flung the two items at Xia Nuan.
Xia Nuan was quick, catching the bracelet and the card in her arms. Just then, Lu Zhaozhao came rushing out, her eyes bulging as she stared at the bracelet in Xia Nuan’s hands, her voice nearly cracking with urgency.
“Dad! That’s my thing! How could you give it to her?”
“It’s just some junk she brought from that destitute family. What’s there to cherish? I’ll buy you something better tomorrow. Xia Nuan, you have your things, now get lost! I want to see just how well you can survive without the protection of the Lu family!”
Lu Jiancheng grabbed his daughter to stop her from lunging forward and turned back into the house without another word, slamming the front door shut.
Only Xia Nuan remained in the courtyard.
The wind was biting, and the rain continued to wash over her body. She felt as miserable as if she were soaking in a furnace, but the exhilaration in her heart far outweighed the physical discomfort.
Clutching the two items tightly, she left the courtyard without hesitation, her steps light like a bird that had finally escaped its cage.
The family that truly loved her was waiting for her.
Soon. Very soon, they would be reunited.