Chapter 1: Rebirth and Return
Xia Sisi suddenly woke up, struggling fiercely and hurled whatever was within her grasp.
A penetrating terror consumed her mind, the terror of being hung up and drained of blood.
But the sight before her made her momentarily stupefied.
Incredibly, this was the bathroom back in her home before the apocalypse!
The apocalypse was supposed to have begun ten years ago, and Xia Sisi had long left City H. How did she end up back in her home's bathroom?
"Turning my back and walking away, unable to voice my thoughts..."
Following the song, her attention was drawn to the phone at the side of the sink. There was a picture of her and Lin Yi as a couple on the pink phone case.
Wasn't the phone unusable long ago? Wasn't she... being bled to death and fed upon?
The fear brought about by the cut on her skin, the dripping blood flowing from her fingertips, the despair of life steadily slipping away, all these feelings still lingered.
And that bastard Lin Yi! Just seeing this face now made her feel repulsive!
In disbelief, Xia Sisi picked up the phone, feeling her hand tremble.
The date displayed was the 26th of January, 5023, exactly three months until the apocalypse.
Could it be... she had been reborn?
She fiddled with it for a while before remembering how to use a cellphone.
Xia Sisi switched off the music on her phone, stood up in front of the mirror, and looked at her reflection.
Her black, brilliant shoulder-length hair, slightly upturned peach-blossom eyes, high-bridged nose, and fair delicate face were all unmarred save for a scar on her thigh from a bicycle accident when she was ten.
After the apocalypse, to avoid being preyed upon by men with unwanted intentions, Xia Sisi had shaved her own head. But in the lawless world, those men were like rabid overwild dogs.
Ultimately, with no other choice, Xia Sisi had to disfigure her own face. Three curved scars went from her chin all the way up to the center of her brows, causing excruciating pain.
Suddenly, she thought of something, put on her clothes and started searching.
Soon, she found the ring she put on her dressing table.
It was an ancient ring, with a top-quality jade embedded on aged silver, the color of fresh spring, the size of a dove's egg.
It was given to her by Lin Yi.
But before that, it was a token of friendship from Xia Sisi's grandfather to the Lin family! It originally belonged to the Xia family!
Xia Sisi quickly used the fruit knife beside her to cut her fingertip and dripped her blood onto the ring.
The jade face, originally a lush green, absorbed the blood droplet and instantly turned a vivid red.
Suddenly, a spacious area appeared in Xia Sisi's mind. The space was approx the size of three football fields, with thick white fog at the edges.
She tried to use her thoughts to store the cup on the table into that space. Sure enough, the cup on the table disappeared, replaced by a small smiling cup in the corner of the space in her mind.
With a smile curling up at the corner of her mouth, Xia Sisi had discovered the space inside this ring in her previous life.
However, after Lin Yi wanted this ring, he never gave Xia Sisi any benefits. In fact, it was he who sent her to bleed out!
Her phone rang again at this moment, Xia Sisi frowned upon seeing the two characters “Lin Yi” on the screen, her eyebrows deeply knitted together. After reincarnating, just seeing these two characters was enough to make Xia Sisi sick.
On second thought, the Lin family still owed her, Xia Sisi, tens of millions of stocks and funds!
Now the space was in her hands, but she didn't have a lot of money, not enough to stock up on goods.
She had to get back the stocks and funds!
The corners of her mouth slightly raised, Xia Sisi sent a breakup text and blocked him, all in one go.
Xia Sisi knew Lin Yi's temperament. At that time, she and Lin Yi were about to get engaged. Her actions would surely make Lin Yi panic.
So, taking advantage of the chaos, she would get back the stocks and funds worth tens of millions that the Lin family owed her!
Thinking of the impending crisis, Xia Sisi hurriedly took out her phone and immediately contacted a known food wholesaler.
She first placed an order for a shipment of rice, flour, coarse grains, and peanut oil.
She had met this wholesaler before when she was making an introduction for someone, and his details were always in her phone.
Although the variety and quantity of goods the wholesaler had was not much, the price was about thirty percent lower than the market price, which made Xia Sisi quite satisfied.
Because Xia Sisi had previously introduced a big deal for him, the wholesaler even gave her two boxes of various seasonings as bonus gifts.
Like white pepper, star anise, Sichuan pepper, black pepper powder, and so on.
Now, the amount of money in Xia Sisi's bank account was not much, just a few hundred thousand, and some of her savings required some formalities to withdraw.
After buying the essentials from the wholesaler, Xia Sisi purchased a big batch of daily necessities online.
Sanitary pads, toilet paper, ointment, toothbrushes, shampoo, shower gel, and so on.
All these things were being bought at wholesale prices. After determining the quantity, she would haggle with the seller in the background.
She happened to catch a promotion on an e-commerce platform, offering a 30 discount for every 200 spent. After some calculation, it was a great deal.
With this purchase, the money in Xia Sisi's hands was mostly used up, leaving her with only tens of thousands left. Still, it was comforting.
After some thought, she decided to make more money and stock up on supplies in the future!
The most important thing now was...
She stared at the storage ring in her hand, got dressed, and headed straight to a jewelry processing shop near the antique market.
In her past life, she had used a piece of jade she unearthed to make a necklace there.
"I want to have a piece of jewelry made by Master Chen as soon as possible, the price is not a problem,” she said directly upon entering the shop.
The ring was inconvenient to store. This space could be said to be the essential guarantee for Xia Sisi's survival in the apocalypse. Master Chen was the best craftsman here, his jewelry was sturdy, durable, and attractive.
After examining Xia Sisi's ring for a while, Master Chen asked in disbelief, "This jadeite ring... It's an antique, and this red jadeite is quite valuable. Are you sure you want it disassembled and turned into a necklace?"
Xia Sisi nodded.
She wanted to turn this ring into a unique piece of jewelry.
So when the end of the world comes, it will not fall off because of intense activity, nor will it be discovered by others if hidden.
Seeing Xia Sisi's resolute attitude, Master Chen immediately removed the jadeite from the ring on the spot. He used the hardest platinum to create a shell that could be opened, and on top of the platinum casing, he arranged several chains according to Xia Sisi's requirements.
These chains will let the pendant tightly fit with her skin. They will absolutely not let the pendant fly out due to actions like running and jumping, it will be less likely to be pulled away by others, and it will not be easy to break.
Xia Sisi paid extra, and Master Chen said it would take about five hours.
Since this craftsman’s credibility was excellent and Xia Sisi had known him previously, she wasn't afraid that the craftsman would swallow her ring after she filmed a short video of his handiwork, so she left for the time being.
Next, Xia Sisi went to the bank and withdrew a sum of fixed deposit she had previously saved.
In this way, she had money in hand again.
Xia Sisi walked around the antique market nearby, and when she found a shop with the words "Antique Calligraphy and Painting", she went straight in.
The shop was managed by a young man with dyed orange hair, which didn't match the antique furnishings inside the store.
"Lady, what would you like to buy?"
Xia Sisi didn't answer, she walked directly to a landscape painting that occupied half of the wall. Knocking on the wall, the wall made a "thump, thump, thump" sound, it was hollow inside.
"I want what's inside here."
The young man was stunned for a moment. His mouth twitched, "Miss, I don't know what you are talking about."
Xia Sisi didn't waste time talking, she immediately scanned their shop's payment code and transferred 20,000 yuan.
"A friend referred me, said you have good stuff here. Don't worry, I can show you my ID. In case something happened because I said something, you can let your brother go kill me."
With that, Xia Sisi took out her ID and handed it to the young man.
Xia Sisi's series of actions left the young man bewildered, but he still took her ID card.
"Twenty-two years old? I thought you were a minor." The young man said, surprised.
Xia Sisi rolled her eyes, thinking that although she was not considered short at a height of over 1.6 meters, her baby-faced appearance could indeed be mistaken as a minor.
After the young man had scrutinized her for a while, he grudgingly said, "Fine!"
He closed the shop door, pulled down the curtains, and pressed an unknown spot. Suddenly, a wall moved to reveal a small room full of cold weapons!
"Wow, this is even cooler than my friend said." This friend Xia Sisi was referring to was someone she met after the apocalypse.
She heard that they had found this room full of "goodies" while scavenging for supplies. When they brought them back to the base at the time, it caused quite a sensation.
"How much for all these? I'll take them all." Xia Sisi watched the young man with a beaming smile.
An hour later, Xia Sisi happily watched the young man load four large boxes of cold weapons into the trunk and back seat.
When the young man left, she took out a Tibetan knife embedded with a ruby from one of the boxes.
The knife's blade was sharp and glinted with a frosty sheen. If one looked closely, they would see some green patterns on it, which made it quite unique.
This knife was the weapon she used regularly in her previous life. She had also paid a high price for it from a friend.
Her main purpose of coming here today was to find this knife.
She once met a Tibetan lad who said that this knife was a good item. She had also asked the young man about it earlier, and he said that the knife was left behind by his father and he didn’t know its origin.
With this knife and other cold weapons in her space, her odds of survival in the apocalypse will have increased a bit.