Chapter 1

“Sisi, Chunni has suffered so much. Can you understand where I’m coming from?”

My adoptive mother, Song Yan, held my hand and spoke with complete sincerity.

Two days ago, the Shen family’s biological daughter, Shen Chunni, had arrived with a paternity test and announced that she was the real heiress.

She claimed that her adoptive mother—my biological mother, Zhang Pingping—had abused her for years in the countryside.

My adoptive parents had raised me for eighteen years. They had some affection for me, at least, and had not decided what to do with me yet.

But Shen Chunni knew how to put on a show. She said that every time she saw me, she thought of the life that had been stolen from her and became inconsolable. Yesterday, she had even produced a forged diagnosis for depression.

That was why Song Yan had said all this to me.

I smiled faintly. “Fine. Give me a little time to pack.”

Shen Chunni rushed out. “You can’t take anything! All of it belongs to me!”

Even Song Yan felt that was too much. “Chunni, don’t behave like that.”

Shen Chunni burst into hysterical tears. “I never had a single decent dress growing up! How could I not be upset when I see her living like this?”

I finally lost my patience. “Shen Chunni, my mom never wronged you. She wasn’t rich, but she gave you everything she could.”

Clutching her head, Shen Chunni collapsed against Song Yan. “Mom, my head hurts so much…”

Song Yan assumed she was having an episode. Her heart ached for her biological daughter, and she snapped at me, “Sisi, apologize to Chunni right now!”

“And what gives you the right to demand an apology from my daughter?”

I spun around. A country woman in a plaid shirt strode into the room.

My eyes filled with tears.

The truth was, I had been reborn.

In my previous life, not long after Zhang Pingping took me home, an ancient virus released by melting glaciers swept across the world. The apocalypse began, and we were all confined to our homes.

Conditions in the countryside were far better. We had a plot of land and could have survived for quite some time. The Shen family, meanwhile, had nothing but numbers in their bank accounts. By the later stages of the apocalypse, they were utterly ruined.

Zhang Pingping could not stop worrying about Shen Chunni, the girl she had raised for eighteen years. She risked going out to bring her food—and never came back.

Zhang Pingping was a plainspoken, capable country woman with a fiery temper. She immediately pulled me behind her, then fixed Shen Chunni with a long, searching look.

That one look made my heart leap.

I thought she had been reborn too.

Shen Chunni shrank back in fear, looking at her as though she were a stranger.

“Mom, I’m scared. I’m scared she’ll hit me again.”

Song Yan wrapped an arm around Shen Chunni. “It’s all right. I’m here. She wouldn’t dare touch you.”

I curled my lip. “What a performance.”

Song Yan rounded on me. “I wasted eighteen years raising you!”

Zhang Pingping lunged to tear into her, but I held her back.

I was almost giddy with happiness. “Mom, you’ve finally seen her for what she is. Let’s go.”

Zhang Pingping gripped my hand and spat at the Shen family.

“Just you wait. You’d better never come begging me for anything!”

The whole family laughed.

They were the wealthy Shens. What could they ever need from a country woman like her?

I took nothing with me when I left the Shen house with Zhang Pingping. She cursed under her breath the entire way.

I tested the waters. “Mom, where did you go before? Why didn’t you come back?”

Zhang Pingping stared at me. “Girl, something’s not right with you.”

I snickered. “Something’s not right with you either, Mom.”

When we first met in my previous life, we had not been nearly this close. Just as she had still cared about Shen Chunni, I had still cared somewhat about my adoptive parents. It was only after we survived more than a year of the apocalypse together that our bond slowly deepened.

One look at my face, and Zhang Pingping understood. She was just as excited as I was.

“This time, I swear I’ll take good care of you!”

I realized she was avoiding the question of why she had never returned in our previous life, but she quickly distracted me.

“Sisi, do you remember how many days we have until it starts?” she asked.

I thought for a moment. “One week.”

Zhang Pingping exclaimed, “Good heavens! Young people really do have better memories!”

Then she dragged me onto a train. It took four transfers before we finally reached Zhangjia Village.