Chapter 2: Situation

Leng Hui finished paying at the payment window and walked toward the operating room, enduring a wave of dizziness.

The area outside the operating room was empty. Leng Hui didn't bother to check where Leng Yongkang and the old woman, Mother Leng, had gone; she simply walked over to the bench against the wall and sat down.

The surgery would likely take quite some time. Sitting alone in the waiting area, Leng Hui finally had a moment to reflect on her current situation.

Having spent seven or eight years struggling to survive in the apocalypse, she had fallen asleep on a cold, hungry night, only to wake up inexplicably in this world. According to the laws of transmigration, her post-apocalyptic self had likely already perished.

But she had been with her mother at the time.

She wondered how her mother was doing. Had she also been reborn here?

The original owner of this body shared her name, and coincidentally, her mother shared the same name as the original owner's mother. With both pairs of mother and daughter meeting with accidents at the same time, Leng Hui couldn't help but overthink it.

——

Tang Lin felt as though she had been in a particularly deep sleep. How many years had it been since she’d had a good night’s sleep since the apocalypse began?

She couldn't remember.

This quality of sleep made her want to sink deeper, unwilling to wake up.

But the vigilance honed in the apocalypse forced her to wake up the moment she heard movement nearby.

"Awake, Ms. Tang Lin?"

Tang Lin raised a hand to rub her head, trying to prop herself up. But the moment her upper body lifted slightly, she felt a tearing pain in her abdomen. She let out a muffled groan and fell back onto the bed.

"I'm injured?"

Pain makes one clear-headed.

As Tang Lin fell back, she noticed the change in her surroundings, then turned her head to look at Leng Hui.

Meeting Leng Hui’s half-smiling gaze, her pupils trembled. "You, you, you..."

That familiar look—there was no mistake. It was her mischievous daughter, Leng Hui.

It was just that her appearance had changed; she looked seventy percent similar to Leng Hui, but her face was much more youthful.

"What time is it? How long have I been unconscious? Why do you look like this?"

Leng Hui glanced down at the urine bag hanging by the bed. It was only about a quarter full; it didn't need changing yet.

She leaned close to her ear and whispered, "It’s the seventies of the last century. I don't think I need to say much; you should be able to guess what happened to us."

Transmigration?

Rebirth?

Tang Lin touched her own face. "This is incredible!"

Survival in the apocalypse was difficult, and the only solace for the mother and daughter was reading novels.

Every time they returned from a mission, they would hide in their cramped rental room and immerse themselves in the worlds of novels, allowing them to temporarily forget the hardships of apocalyptic life.

Transmigration, rebirth, and "golden fingers" were not unfamiliar concepts to them.

They just never expected such a one-in-a-million miracle to happen to them.

It was truly unbelievable!

Leng Hui let out a silent sigh of relief. Her mother had transmigrated with her.

"Resources are scarce in this era, and technology is backward. I hope you're mentally prepared."

Tang Lin stared at the ceiling, a look of relief appearing on her face. "No matter how harsh the conditions or how bad the environment, it's still better than the apocalypse."

Yes, it was better than the apocalypse.

In the apocalypse, viruses ran rampant, the climate was extreme, resources were scarce, and the environment was even more hostile.

"What's the situation with this original body of mine?" Tang Lin asked again.

"You didn't inherit the original owner's memories?"

Tang Lin shook her head.

During the time Tang Lin was unconscious, Leng Hui had already sorted out their current situation, so she gave a rough summary of the original owner's circumstances.

She focused primarily on the situation of the Leng family.

Mother Leng had two sons and one daughter. Her husband had passed away early. The original owner's father, Leng Yongkang, was the eldest, with a younger brother and sister below him.

The reason Tang Lin and her daughter had ended up in this accident was that Leng Yongkang’s younger sister had given birth, and Mother Leng had sent Tang Lin to visit the new mother and infant, which led to the accident.

The Leng family might look like city dwellers, but their financial situation was poor.

A family of ten lived together, but there were only three jobs—meaning three people had to earn enough to support ten.

In an era where everything was rationed, one could imagine that every aspect of life had to be calculated down to the last cent.

"This father of your original body..."

Tang Lin got a headache just thinking about being a wife to a stranger.

Right now, she desperately wished she had transmigrated as a widow or a single mother.

As for the original owner's father, Leng Hui really found him hard to describe.

"He came to see you once when you came out of surgery, then went back, saying he’d bring us food tonight."

Tang Lin looked out the window. It was already dark; no wonder her stomach was growling.

"I hope he doesn't bring dinner as a midnight snack."

"Even if he does, you can't eat it. The doctor said you have to pass gas before you can have some rice water," Leng Hui said, crushing her hopes without mercy.

Tang Lin glared at her. "Unfilial daughter!"

Angry as she was, Tang Lin closed her eyes and tried to sense her wood-element ability, but she couldn't find a trace of it.

The joy of rebirth was now like a bucket of cold water poured over her head.

"Huihui, hurry and check if your space ability is still there!"

In the apocalypse, Tang Lin had awakened the wood-element ability, and Leng Hui had awakened the space ability.

The space wasn't huge—about a hundred square meters.

"It's here. The items that were originally in the space all came with us. Some of the useless things in the space might be able to be traded for money in this era."

The space had been piled with items collected during their outings, like furniture, cabinets, bowls, dishes, kitchenware, and vehicles. These things were basically useless in the apocalypse.

There was no gasoline, no way to charge the cars, and they already had enough daily necessities like tableware and furniture. Anything extra was just piled in the corner of the space by Leng Hui.

Tang Lin looked anxious. "Your space came with us, so why did my ability disappear?"

Leng Hui comforted her, "There's no danger in this world, so it doesn't matter if the ability is gone. Besides, my ability transmigrated with me. Wood-element abilities have healing properties; maybe it's because you were severely injured and underwent major surgery that you can't feel it for now. Once you recover and your body heals, maybe the ability will return too."

Tang Lin’s eyes lit up, feeling comforted. "That makes sense. Let's wait and see."

——

When Leng Yongkang walked into the ward carrying a lunchbox, it was already nearly nine o'clock in the evening.

It was an ordinary aluminum lunchbox. Leng Hui opened it and saw the thin, watery porridge inside; her mouth couldn't help but twitch.

She had been starving for a long time. Could this half-bowl of rice water, clear enough to see one's reflection in, actually fill her up?

Leng Yongkang noticed Leng Hui’s look of despair and hurriedly pulled an oil-paper parcel from his trouser pocket. "There's also a sorghum cake here."

Leng Hui took the parcel and opened it. Inside was a sorghum cake not even the size of her palm.

She took a sip of the rice water to moisten her throat, then took a bite of the sorghum cake. The sorghum was ground quite finely, making it easy to swallow, and the taste wasn't bad.

"Is this what everyone at home ate tonight? No stir-fried dishes?" Tang Lin watched as Leng Hui bit off a third of the sorghum cake and asked Leng Yongkang irritably, "Huihui is a grown girl, right at the age where she needs to eat to grow. You only brought this little bit? It’s not even enough to fill the gaps in her teeth."

Leng Yongkang sat down by the bed. "According to you, Huihui’s tooth gaps must be big enough for a mouse to crawl through."

Leng Hui, her mouth stuffed with sorghum cake: "!"

"Leng Yongkang, how dare you talk back?"

Tang Lin couldn't move, so she could only glare at him.