She was starving so badly that her lips had split open from dryness. Opening the water jar, she took a small sip.
Her mind was completely overtaken by hunger. Ye Qing thought about the crayfish she had just brought back to her room in her previous life, the luosifen (snail rice noodles), and the fresh shrimp wontons downstairs. No—plain steamed buns would do too, please, anything would be fine!
At this point, she felt like she could eat an entire cow—if only there were a cow in front of her to bite into!
Night had fallen. Liuye Village lay in utter silence, not even a trace of insects could be heard. It felt as if she was the only living thing left in the world.
Looking up, the dark ink-like sky was filled with stars, each one shining so brightly it hurt the eyes.
Ye Qing stared at them blankly. A sudden wave of emptiness rose in her heart. She wondered if, among all those stars, there was even one that belonged to her.
She let out a soft sigh.
Forget it. Why think about such things?
In her past life or this one, she had never been someone who mattered anyway.
In her previous life, she had been abandoned at an orphanage gate right after birth. At age three, she was adopted by a kind couple.
They lived on the outskirts of the city, farming a few acres of land. Though not wealthy, her adoptive parents treated her well. She was sensible early on and helped with farm work and house chores.
Those good days didn’t last long. When she was ten, her adoptive mother became pregnant and, after giving birth to her own child, began to pick on Ye Qing in every way.
At fifteen, her adoptive parents died in a car accident while traveling.
Her aunt seized their house and savings, pointing at Ye Qing and calling her a jinx who had killed her uncle’s family, driving her out of the home.
【It’s fine. If you want something, just take it. There’s no need to slap more false accusations onto me. What—does that make you feel better? Does that make you feel justified?】
With no financial support, she dropped out of school and worked at a boxing gym owned by her adoptive father’s friend.
She learned boxing from the coaches there for three years and even won a few small competitions. Dealing with two or three street thugs was nothing difficult for her.
Every time she saw the children in training—bright and happy, surrounded by loving families—she couldn’t help but feel envious.
Back then, she often prayed to the heavens: if she could start over, she didn’t want wealth or luxury. She only wanted a warm family, parents who protected her, and people who cared about her.
And in the end? The heavens did hear her prayer—but only the first half.
They let her be reborn… and conveniently became selectively deaf to the rest.
She drifted through her thoughts all night, exhausted and starving, and eventually tilted her head and fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke again, it was because of the heat.
Only a few mouthfuls of water were left in the clay jar. She didn’t dare drink it all—only dipped a finger in to moisten her cracked lips.
She decided that once the afternoon cooled down, she would go try her luck near the riverbed where the original body often fetched water. The river had only dried up recently—maybe there was still a damp spot where she could dig and find water.
For now, there was nothing else she could do but lie still.
She drifted in and out of sleep again, and by the time she woke it was already late afternoon. She pushed herself up against the wall. Her body was still weak, but not as unbearable as when she first woke.
Fearing that fleeing travelers might pass through the village and harm her, she took the last bit of water and staggered toward the riverbed.
The Ye family home wasn’t far from the river. But when she arrived, what she saw made her freeze.
Everything in sight was scorched yellow earth. Not a trace of green remained.
The distant mountains that once were lush and green now looked like burnt, lifeless silhouettes—like giant beasts collapsed on the ground, completely drained of vitality.
Her mind buzzed.
According to the original owner’s memory, it hadn’t snowed even once last winter.
A place like theirs, deep in the mountains, had already turned into this state of drought—then the plains outside must be even worse, and affected even earlier.
Her thoughts automatically replayed documentary footage she had once seen about climate change in the East African Rift Valley: cracked earth, withered vegetation—exactly like what lay before her now.
She had always loved geography. She memorized textbooks effortlessly. While others chased shows and gossip after school, she preferred documentaries like Survival in the Wild, The Wonders of Meteorology, and Planet Earth.
Over time, reading the sky and land felt like reading a familiar book. Cloud shapes, wind direction, soil moisture—all of it corresponded to known climate patterns in her mind.
This was clearly an abnormal subtropical high pressure system, lingering over this region for too long, blocking moist ocean air and even altering monsoon routes.
She quickly pieced everything together: the persistent drought caused snowless winters and scorching summers. Rivers and lakes dried up day by day, crops failed completely.
Villagers resorted to digging wells, but soon even groundwater would be exhausted. Soil would turn to powder, and winds would carry yellow sand everywhere.
This kind of prolonged drought would trigger a chain of disasters—any one of which could kill her.
She had to prepare early.
Her anxiety grew. She licked her cracked lips and tasted a faint metallic bitterness.
She walked along the cracked riverbed, stumbling step by step, and finally chose a shaded area where a few withered reeds still stood. Based on her limited knowledge, underground water might be more likely there.
She raised the hoe and struck down.
The impact numbed her palm.
She paused, caught her breath, then struck again from another angle.
She was starving—so hungry it hurt.
Her stomach growled like thunder. Weak and exhausted, she collapsed onto the dry riverbed, staring at the hollow channel that had once been a river. Tears nearly came out—but there was no moisture left in her body.
What kind of place was this?!
Ever since she came here, she hadn’t had a single proper meal. Now even water had become a luxury. She wanted to cry, but she was too dehydrated to even produce tears.
Where was the explosive strength the original body supposedly had? Why couldn’t she use it now?
Looking down at her body—thin arms, thin legs, almost no flesh—she looked worse than a famine victim.
Why?
Other transmigrators became princesses or noble daughters, surrounded by servants and luxury.
But her? She became a fourteen-year-old girl sharing the same name, poor and starving.
And worse—no golden finger, no space, no spirit spring, nothing. Not even a single cheat.
Fine. Enough complaining.
She stood up again, marked a circle on the ground with a stone, knelt down, and began digging along the line inch by inch.
Sweat soaked her ragged clothes. Her vision blurred. Her arms went numb.
But she couldn’t stop.
One strike. Two strikes. Ten. Fifty…
Just as she dug down about a foot—
click.