“Ah, it hurts.”
Excruciating pain tore through her back and buttocks. The wooden plank fell again and again, splitting skin and flesh, leaving her a bloody mess.
Nearby, a strange man’s desperate pleas for mercy buzzed incessantly, grating on her nerves until her head felt ready to burst.
“Young Marquis, spare me! This servant was drugged! That slut, that slut seduced this servant! This servant knew nothing!”
The man, wearing only his undergarments, knelt on the ground kowtowing repeatedly. His triangular eyes glared viciously at the unconscious woman sprawled across the long bench, pointing at her with an outstretched finger.
“Young Marquis, it was all that slut! She seduced this servant time and again. After this servant sternly refused, who would have thought she would drug this servant…”
Jiang Wanyue’s head felt like it was splitting apart. The coarse voice made her unbearably irritable.
“Shut up, or I’ll kill you!”
A gun materialized instantly in her hand, its dark muzzle aimed toward the voice.
Bang…
Jiang Wanyue tumbled from the bench. Her mangled back pressed against the ground, sending piercing agony through her scalp.
She spat viciously to the side: “Damn Li Zheng, I’ll kill you sooner or later…”
Before she could finish, Jiang Wanyue froze.
Her voice… why was it so delicate and soft?
After two years in the apocalypse, her throat had long since ruined, sounding worse than a crow’s caw.
Instinctively, she reached for her chest—no bloody hole. All the pain came from her back and buttocks.
Her eyes snapped open, sharp and piercing as a hawk’s, radiating an icy aura like an unsheathed sword ready to claim a life.
Facing the blinding sunlight, she raised her hand to shield her eyes—and froze again.
These hands, pale and tender, soft and slender, like fine white jade.
These weren’t her hands!
Her hands were broad and rough, covered with thick calluses from years of fighting Zombies, the skin dark and cracked. She had once killed a bear with a single punch.
An enraged voice thundered like lightning in her ears.
“Jiang Wanyue, you slut! Daring to seduce my man, I’ll fight you to the death!”
Who? Seduce whose man?
She turned her head and froze completely.
Ancient-style architecture surrounded her. A woman in a gray Ruqun was wailing and lunging toward her.
Guards swiftly pinned the woman to the ground, and only then did the matron remember where she was. Fear flickered in her eyes, yet her gaze remained venomous, fixed on Jiang Wanyue with murderous intensity.
Jiang Wanyue curled her lip. The last person who had looked at her like that now had grass a meter high on their grave.
She glared back without yielding.
Keep looking, and I’ll shoot you.
She slowly raised the gun in her hand, finger moving toward the trigger, when her brain seemed to be assaulted. Foreign memories forcibly flooded her mind, splitting her skull with pain.
The agony behind her made her entire body convulse and tremble.
Through narrowed eyes, she caught a glimpse of a tall, slender man standing not far away, backlit like an immortal descended to earth, cold and ethereal.
“Jiang Wanyue. Consorting with an outsider—you should be beaten to death. Considering your years of service to my mother and your life-saving sacrifice, I shall spare your life. However, the Marquis Manor can no longer keep you…”
His voice was beautiful too, magnetic and pleasant, like a clear mountain spring flowing into one’s heart.
Jiang Wanyue’s trembling lips parted, but she lacked even the strength to speak, let alone fire the gun.
Damn it!
Before losing consciousness, she saw a Letter of Divorce thrown at her face against the light.
The next day
She seemed to have experienced an endlessly long dream, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Jiang Wanyue, fifteen years old, the most insignificant speck of dust in the Tianqi Dynasty.
At seven, her grandmother sold her to a human trafficker. After much hardship, she arrived at the Marquis Manor as a Maid Servant. By chance, she took an assassin’s blade for the Old Madam, becoming a Senior Maid thereafter.
The girl had ambitious dreams. Relying on her looks, she wanted to become a Concubine. But the Young Marquis had no interest in her whatsoever, so she drugged his soup.
Yet even with her clothes stripped bare, the Young Marquis somehow restrained himself from touching her.
After this incident, the original owner’s reputation was ruined. The Old Madam, remembering her life-saving grace, arranged for her to be elevated to Concubine. She was fourteen then, having just passed her Year of Coming of Age.
Then this fool… manipulated by petty people, she resented the Young Marquis for never touching her in the past year. She tried to make him jealous by sleeping with another man, only to ruin herself instead. Fortunately, her innocence remained.
Thirty strokes of the cane, and her life was extinguished.
Tsk tsk tsk, what an idiot.
She was Jiang Wanyue from the apocalypse.
Dual abilities: Spatial and Ice.
She and her teammates had fought through hordes of Zombies, slaughtered mutated beasts, entered the Devil Forest, and after narrowly escaping death, finally destroyed an Arsenal. Before they could celebrate, her vice-captain stabbed her.
Dead.
In her ears, Li Zheng’s manic laughter still echoed.
“Hahaha, Jiang Wanyue, didn’t expect this, did you? I’ve awakened Spatial Ability too. You’re useless now.”
He leaned so close his eyeballs seemed ready to pop out, then frantically grabbed her collar.
“Jiang Wanyue, you clearly never touched those weapons, so how did you instantly store them in your space? How did you do it? Spit them out!!”
He gnashed his teeth as if wanting to devour her: “Jiang Wanyue! Spit out the weapons!”
He pulled out a military knife and stabbed her chest again and again, screaming madly: “Doesn’t matter. Once you die, your space will have no vessel, and all supplies will burst out. Then, everything will still be…”
Not long after, Li Zheng began to frenzy. His bloodshot eyes bulged as he roared.
“Why, why didn’t you drop any equipment? Why…!!”
Nearby was the timed bomb she had planted in advance.
Bang…
After the gunpowder smoke cleared, everything returned to stillness.
Jiang Wanyue blinked, the corners of her mouth rising into uncontrollable euphoria.
She had been reborn!
Here, there were no Zombies, no mutated beasts, no bloody slaughter!
Simply wonderful.
She extended her hand, looking at the circular birthmark on her wrist, speaking softly.
“Li Zheng, you were wrong. My space isn’t an ability. Even in death, it won’t drop equipment.”
It was a bracelet-shaped birthmark, once a silver bracelet that became a birthmark after blood recognition.
Unexpectedly, the space was actually soul-bound, and it had followed her here.
She extended one finger, trying to activate her ability. Only when cold sweat beaded on her forehead did a faint layer of frost finally form.
Jiang Wanyue broke into a wide grin.
Both her space and abilities remained.
Unfortunately, her abilities had regressed to their newly-awakened state. And with no Zombie Crystal Cores in ancient times, how was she supposed to advance?
With a creak, the door opened.
She turned to see a furtive little maid, about seven or eight years old, her baby-fat cheeks adorably plump.
Meeting Jiang Wanyue’s gaze, her eyes lit up.
“Concubine, you’re awake?”
Facing outward, she knelt and kowtowed: “Thank heaven for its protection.”
Then she pulled out a steaming hot bun from inside her clothes.
“Concubine, I stole this from the small kitchen. For you to eat.”
Jiang Wanyue was indeed starving. She took the offered bun and devoured it in large mouthfuls.
It was so delicious tears streamed down her face. It had been so, so long since she’d eaten a fragrant, soft white bun.
The little maid cried too: “Concubine, you’re so kind, you must have been wronged. I believe you.”
Jiang Wanyue said nothing, continuing to gnaw on the bun.