Lin Wan continued speaking through her tears. Scene after scene of despair from her previous life replayed before her eyes.
“And then what happened? The torrential rain kept falling. One day, suddenly, a group of hooligans smashed open our door! They stole the little food we had left! Dad and Lin Yang fought them desperately to protect us and were beaten until they coughed up blood! I… I was almost…”
Her voice choked so badly that she could hardly continue.
“If Dad hadn’t risked his life to protect me…”
She couldn’t finish the sentence. The fear was something she could never erase, even across two lifetimes.
Lin Jianguo suddenly clenched his fists tightly, his expression becoming terrifying.
Lin Yang also stopped in his tracks, staring at his sister in shock.
“Do you know who brought those hooligans there?”
Lin Wan’s voice suddenly turned sharp.
“It was Zhou Qing! It was her! One of those hooligans had known Zhou Qing before. When she chatted with him, she didn’t even bother to avoid the topic and told him everything about the food and supplies in our house.
“Later, when that hooligan found out she was alone at home, he brought several of his buddies to look for her. And she secretly told them that our Lin family still had food! She said we had hidden supplies! She traded our lives for a few days of peace for herself!”
“That… that can’t be possible!”
Li Shulan said it, but her voice had already begun to tremble.
“Impossible?”
Lin Wan let out a miserable laugh.
“After that, when the extreme cold came, we had no food and no medicine. Dad’s injuries kept getting worse… When we were freezing and starving to death…”
“She came.”
“She pretended to be kind and brought a bottle of ‘clean’ water to see us! She said she was sorry and claimed that the water was something she had finally managed to save up…”
Lin Wan’s voice became icy cold, filled with bone-deep hatred.
“That bottle of water! Mom! That bottle of ‘life-saving water’ you accepted with endless gratitude!”
“It was poisoned water!”
“It was contaminated water that hadn’t been filtered!”
“She was afraid we wouldn’t die! She thought we weren’t dying fast enough!”
“Dad, you, Little Yang, and I… we drank that water… Our stomachs hurt so badly we had no strength left to go out looking for food… In the end, we froze to death in the stairwell!”
The final words were spoken as if she had exhausted all the strength in her body.
They were accusations soaked in blood and tears.
The room fell into a deathly silence.
Only heavy, chaotic breathing could be heard.
Lin Wan leaned weakly against the cold wall, tears streaming down her face as her whole body trembled.
At that moment, Li Shulan’s voice finally came.
It was hoarse and broken, filled with overwhelming shock and disbelief—so faint it was almost inaudible.
“Wanwan… what you said… is it true? In the previous life… we…”
“Sis.”
Lin Yang rushed over with red eyes and supported Lin Wan.
Lin Jianguo’s face had turned ashen. Veins bulged at his temples, and his gaze looked terrifying enough to devour someone alive.
He forced the words out through clenched teeth, each one carrying murderous rage.
“Shulan! Listen carefully! Every word Wanwan said—I believe it!”
“Zhou Qing is the enemy of our Lin family!”
“A sworn enemy who will never coexist with us!”
“If you dare say another word in her defense, don’t blame me for turning ruthless!”
Li Shulan collapsed onto the floor.
Then suddenly, she broke down in loud, uncontrollable sobs.
Her cries were filled with piercing pain, endless fear and regret, and a heart-rending agony for everything her daughter had suffered.
The child she had loved like half a daughter…
had actually been the demon who personally pushed their entire family into hell.
And in the previous life, she had even given half of their life-saving food to that demon.
She had even scolded her daughter—who had suffered countless grievances and died miserably once already—for that very demon.
The overwhelming guilt and shock almost crushed Li Shulan completely.
“Ah—!”
“My child—!”
“Wanwan, Mom is sorry! Mom didn’t know—!”
Li Shulan cried hysterically and incoherently as she stood up and tightly hugged Lin Wan.
Hearing her mother’s unbearable sobbing, Lin Wan finally felt the resentment and grievance in her heart find an outlet.
She burst into tears as well.
Lin Jianguo watched his wife crying in agony and his daughter sobbing with years of suppressed pain. Even this iron-willed man’s eyes reddened.
He clenched his teeth so hard that the veins on the back of his fists bulged.
After a long while, when the crying gradually subsided, he spoke in an extremely hoarse voice, one word at a time.
“Shulan. Remember today’s pain. Remember who the enemy is.”
“From now on, that Zhou Qing has nothing to do with our family.”
“If she dares come near us again, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
Li Shulan sniffed as she spoke, her voice weak but extremely clear.
It carried a cold determination she had never shown before.
“…Old Lin… I understand…”
“I… I hate her!”
“I truly wish… I could kill her!”
The truth had been ripped open, bloody and cruel.
But it also bound the family together completely, leaving no more barriers between them.
Lin Jianguo looked at his tear-streaked daughter and wife, then wrapped his strong arms around both of them.
“It’s all in the past.”
“In this life, even if it costs me my own life, I will never let anyone hurt you again.”
Three days before the extreme heat arrives.
“What kind of hellish weather is this?! Are we supposed to be roasted alive?!”
Lin Yang stood shirtless, yet sweat still poured down his flushed skin like a stream. He wiped his face with a soaked T-shirt, his voice hoarse as if scorched by heat.
Just carrying the last two buckets of purified water from the stairwell at the end of the corridor to their front door—a distance of only a few meters—had left him panting as if he had just run three thousand meters.
“Stop talking nonsense! Close the door! The hot air is getting inside!”
Li Shulan urged anxiously. She held a wet towel she had just taken from an ice bucket and quickly pressed it to her forehead, letting out a long, relieved sigh.
“Ah… I’m alive again…”
Bang!
The heavy security door slammed shut, completely sealing out the suffocating heatwave outside.
Inside the apartment, it felt like another world.
All the windows were tightly covered with thick black blackout curtains, leaving not even the smallest gap.
In the center of the living room, a newly purchased air conditioner—advertised for its powerful cooling—blew out cold air.
And directly in front of its air outlet sat a large open foam cooler box.
Inside were huge blocks of ice that Lin Wan had just taken out of the Space Dimension, releasing thick white mist.
The cold air passed over the ice and was rapidly chilled further, spreading a refreshing coolness throughout the entire living room.
The thermometer showed the indoor temperature holding steady at about 28°C.
Compared to the insane world outside, this place was practically heaven.
“Luckily… luckily we moved in early…”
Li Shulan slumped into a chair beside the ice bucket, still pale as she patted her chest.
“What time is it now? Nine in the morning? It must already be fifty degrees outside! This isn’t summer anymore—this is like being thrown into a steel furnace!”
After checking the seals along the doorframe, Lin Jianguo walked over to the air conditioner and stretched out his hand to feel the icy air.
His brows were tightly furrowed.
“This isn’t right. The temperature is rising too fast. Something’s wrong.”
He looked at Lin Wan.
“Wanwan, do you remember… last time… did it start this early?”
Lin Wan was carefully taking two more ice blocks out of the Space Dimension and placing them into another foam box where the previous ice had nearly melted.
When she heard him, she paused.
Her expression turned serious as she shook her head.
“No.”
“In the previous life, the temperature didn’t start rising until three days later. And at first it was only around forty degrees—it climbed gradually.”
“But this time…”
She frowned slightly.
“It feels like everything is happening earlier.”
“And it’s much more intense.”