Chapter 1: Rebirth

In 1955, in Xinyang County, Liulin Brigade, China.

“I’m not dead? I’m still alive?”

Liu Shuxin murmured as she looked at the thatched roof overhead, trying to calm the excitement of being reborn, then turned to survey the small room she was in.

The house was not big; the walls were made of yellow mud mixed with straw, and a few pieces of clothing, in muted shades of blue and gray with several patches, hung on the walls.

In one corner stood a large wardrobe, and across from it was a short-legged cabinet, one of whose legs was broken and propped up with stones.

By the entrance, there was a wooden rack with a chipped wooden basin on it, and underneath the basin were two pairs of black cloth shoes.

After taking in her surroundings, she realized there was nothing else in the room except for the bed beneath her. Though it wasn’t exactly a bed, it resembled a kang (a traditional heated bed) that she had seen in books from her previous life.

Liu Shuxin was born after the apocalypse and possessed both wood and dual abilities. Her father had super strength, while her mother’s background was unknown. She inherited her father’s power ability and also awakened her wood ability.

According to her hot-tempered father, her mother was an ordinary person who had submitted to him for survival and died during childbirth.

She boldly speculated that her wood abilities might come from her ordinary mother.

In the early days of the apocalypse, some people with weak constitutions couldn’t trigger their abilities. However, later on, some could awaken their powers through training.

Her father often claimed he raised her through thick and thin.

However, she had been following their mission team since she could walk, and the uncles and aunties in the team had invested time and effort in her upbringing.

In the apocalypse, children were precious. Although she could have grown up healthily without him, she accepted her father as the one who had raised her.

Every day in the apocalypse was a struggle for survival, battling for food and drink, with dangers lurking everywhere.

So, when her father and the uncles and aunties never returned after a mission when she was fifteen, it was to be expected.

But Shuxin knew that in this cannibalistic world, she was no longer a child protected by others; she would have to fight and live on her own.

Thus, Shuxin numbly struggled to survive in the apocalypse, occasionally reminiscing about the warm days with her hot-tempered father—those were some of her rare moments of happiness.

At twenty-two, Shuxin died during a mission while saving a teammate. She hadn’t initially possessed such awareness, but there were children in the team. Young ones were precious, just like she used to be, and she wanted them to live.

Now, she was called Liu Shuxin, the same as her previous name, just with a different fate, currently a child of about three or four years old.

From her faint memories, she recognized that the time she was in now resembled the 1960s and 70s depicted in the books she had read before.

Whether the specific circumstances were different, she didn’t know, nor did she wish to delve deeper.

All she knew was that there was no apocalypse here, no zombies or mutant beasts, and as tough as conditions might be, as long as she worked hard, she could fill her stomach.

Thinking about it, she felt quite lucky!

Knowing that this world was relatively safe, Shuxin planned to sleep peacefully for a while. After all, she was still a child, and after the upheaval of rebirth, she needed to recover her spirits in this newfound safety.

Sleep was blissful, and everything else could wait until she woke up. With these thoughts, Shuxin drifted off to sleep, and soon soft snores filled the room.

In the afternoon, as the sun slanted to the west, our protagonist awoke.

Shuxin opened her eyes, yawned lightly, and stretched as she sat up.

After a few seconds of daze, she realized this was the most peaceful sleep she had ever had. There were no zombies lurking, no treacherous companions, and no deadly mutant beasts.

Carefully climbing out of bed, she put on her shoes and walked toward the door. It was time to step outside and explore this new world.

As she opened the door, her eyes brightened. The sun was setting in the west but had not yet dipped below the horizon, casting warm, gentle rays that were soothing but not blinding.
Following the sunlight, she spotted a tall persimmon tree, its lush leaves full of small green fruits still in the early stages of growth.

Shuxin swallowed hard, recalling the taste of last year’s persimmons from her memory. They were absolutely delicious!

In the apocalypse, let alone fruits, just having dry rations was considered lucky. Fruits were something she could only taste in dreams!

She thought about how it would be a month or two before she could eat them and felt her appetite rise—ah, no! She suppressed the drool.

Uh… if one ignored her wiping her mouth, maybe she would seem more convincing.

After wiping her mouth, she surveyed the yard she was in. Like the room she had just left, the walls were made of yellow mud, though this yard had a more refined appearance.

In the center were three large houses, with two rooms on the left side, adjacent to a small room that served as a storage area.

On the right side was the room she had just exited, mirroring the layout on the left.

The yard was clean, occasionally adorned with fallen persimmon leaves that added a touch of green.

There was no one in the yard. From her memory, she knew the adults had gone to work, and the children had gone out to play.

She had caught a cold earlier, and since she had just recovered, her parents had left her at home to rest.

Shuxin found a small stool and sat at the entrance of the yard, waiting for the adults to return while sorting out her thoughts.

Being a young child, her memories were not extensive, making it easy to piece together the situation.

The family had a small number of members, and the relationships weren’t too complex. Her grandfather was Liu Dalin, and her grandmother was Yang Ya. They had two sons and three daughters.

The eldest son, Liu Tiezhu, married Lin Hong and had a son and a daughter. The second son, Liu Shizhu, married Yang Yue and also had a son and a daughter.

The three daughters of the old couple were all married to nearby villages, making visitation convenient.

In her generation, there were Liu Jianjun and Liu Shulan from the eldest branch, Liu Jianguo from the second branch, and herself, Liu Shuxin.

Liu Jianjun, the eldest, was seven years old, followed by her biological older brother, who was six. Then came her five-year-old cousin, Liu Shulan, born to her uncle, who was currently pregnant again.

Her mother had a somewhat weak constitution and only conceived her three years after her older brother was born. She had suffered complications while giving birth to her, which resulted in her not being able to have more children thereafter.

Among them, her parents were Liu Shizhu and Yang Yue, and her mother was actually her grandmother’s niece. Therefore, her grandmother favored her mother even more than her aunt.

However, that didn’t mean her grandmother disliked her aunt. In fact, her aunt was chosen carefully as a daughter-in-law, but since Shuxin’s mother was her niece, she had a closer bond. Overall, both daughters-in-law were treated equally, and the family dynamics were quite balanced.

As for why she was so familiar with calling her parents without any psychological barriers, it was due to the adversity in the post-apocalyptic world. Many children were orphaned or grew up without one or both parents. If it weren’t for the support of the state, many children would hardly survive. It was rare for someone like her to have her biological father’s protection until the age of fifteen; she truly had a fortunate life.

Though her father was hot-tempered and careless, she never doubted his love for her. If he knew he had raised her in a peaceful era, he would likely be overjoyed. It wasn’t about calling someone else “Dad”; even calling him “ancestor” would suffice—as long as she could live safely, that was a father’s beautiful wish for his daughter.

While her current family members had their flaws, she acknowledged that they treated her well. Even her grandmother, though traditionally favoring sons over daughters, was not harsh or abusive towards her, unlike many other families.

Nobody is perfect! For Shuxin, those were trivial matters; from now on, they were her family, and she could be tolerant of them. Even the things hard to accept could be adjusted, especially after surviving over twenty years in the apocalypse. That wasn’t just talk.