Chapter 1 – Reborn Before the Apocalypse

Halfway up the mountain, in a dim underground basement of a villa.

On a narrow steel-framed bed in the corner curled up a frail, thin girl.

Her hair was disheveled, her face pale, and one blood-crusted hand was chained up, so still it was hard to tell if she was alive or dead.

Bang!

The heavy iron door swung open, and two sets of heavy footsteps entered one after another.

“Brother Song, keeping her locked up like this… won’t it drag things out? I mean, if she still refuses to give up her bank card password and the inheritance rights, why don’t we just—” A young man in his early twenties spoke, making a throat-slitting gesture.

“She? Just a little morning-glory that could be crushed between my fingers, hardly worth worrying about. Besides, this is only the first day. It’s normal for her to show a little backbone. Wait three months and see again!” The cold sneer came from a man in his early forties.

His hands and face were wrapped in layers of gauze, making his already sinister features appear even more grotesque and terrifying.

“Oh right, Brother Song, about that jade bracelet on her wrist—why not take it off and give it to my sister? I heard it was something Li Meizhen bought years ago at Christie’s, top-grade old pit jade, an antique too. Worth at least a tidy fortune!”

“That bracelet has been on her wrist for years. Now her hand’s grown, we tried soap water and everything else, it just won’t come off.”

A crazed gleam flashed in the young man’s eyes. “That’s easy then—just cut it off and you can take it down!”

“…” The older man hesitated a moment, then said, “Not impossible. I just gave her a shot of sedative. Kill her now and she won’t even flinch. Do this—go to the kitchen, get the cleaver and the thickest chopping board. I’ll wash up first, then we’ll start.”

“Got it!”

The iron door slammed shut.

Listening to the venomous words of her stepfather Song Deming and his accomplice Zhang Kai, Jiang Yan instinctively shivered—but then her heart jolted.

Wasn’t this exactly May 9th, three months before the apocalypse, when Song Deming and his mistress’s younger brother Zhang Kai locked her in the basement?

But she clearly remembered—she had lost a hand, and later in the apocalypse, she had died under Song Deming’s blade, becoming food for him and that family of parasites.

So… she had been reborn?!

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Her father, Jiang Yukang, and mother, Li Meizhen, were both orphans.

They started from scratch, delivering parcels, and eventually built the largest courier company in Quan’anming City, amassing a fortune worth billions.

Song Deming was once the company’s youngest, most promising vice president—ten years younger than Li Meizhen—and had coveted her wealth for a long time.

After her father died in a car accident, he schemed endlessly, gained her mother’s trust, and wormed his way into the Li family by marriage.

Swayed by him, her mother sold the courier company to the national industry leader at a cheap valuation of just over ten billion.

Even so, Li Meizhen only left him this villa and a few tens of millions in stocks.

One night, after drinking, her mother let slip that she had long since prepared a notarized will—leaving all her assets to her beloved daughter Jiang Yan.

Song Deming’s resentment turned into hatred.

A week ago, he lured Li Meizhen overseas under the pretense of a wedding anniversary trip, killed her in country L, and fabricated a story that she had been killed in a shark attack while diving.

When the local police arrived, there was no trace of her body. Song Deming himself bore wounds all over, and after investigation he was released without charges.

After returning home, he tricked the naive Jiang Yan into coming here to collect her mother’s belongings, drugged her, and locked her in this basement with Zhang Kai’s help.

At that time, Jiang Yan had graduated college and was working as a travel and food blogger, carefree and successful.

Her mother’s strange death devastated her, and while in grief she walked right into Song Deming’s trap.

Later, Song Deming and Zhang Kai cut off one of her hands. But they never got the inheritance renunciation they wanted.

Because three months later, the apocalypse came.

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No warning, no signs.

Some said it was due to global climate change and environmental destruction.

Others blamed it on nuclear wastewater discharge by a certain island nation.

Regardless, nature’s revenge came fast and merciless.

On August 8th, the apocalypse began with extreme heat.

Then came torrential rains, deadly cold, floods, droughts, earthquakes, insect plagues—disasters one after another.

After doomsday struck, Song Deming naturally used this remote mountainside villa as his safehouse, openly bringing in his mistress Zhang Qiqi and their illegitimate son Song Xiaofei.

It was then Jiang Yan learned that Song Deming and Zhang Qiqi had been secretly together for years, and that Zhang Qiqi had instigated much of the evil.

Song Deming thought if he endured the scorching heat, he would inherit Li Meizhen’s vast fortune.

But then came endless torrential rain and glacial cold.

Trapped with food running out, Song Deming and his mistress’s family finally turned their knives toward the dying Jiang Yan.

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All those memories flashed before her eyes like rapid film reels.

Hatred surged in her chest.

The blood feud of her murdered mother, the torment of her severed hand, the agony of being eaten alive—Song Deming and Zhang Qiqi deserved to be torn to shreds!

She wanted to eat their flesh, drink their blood, snap their bones!

And now—three months still remained before the apocalypse.

Since she had been reborn, she would not only have her revenge, but also prepare well in advance—for her dead mother, and for the self who had already died once—she would live on!

Truly live on!!

But for now, escaping this man-made prison was the first task.

She remembered clearly from her last life—this basement had been specially reinforced by Song Deming, surrounded by steel plates and boulders, without a single window.

The only exit was that tightly sealed iron door.

Unless she killed Song Deming and stole the key, there was no way to escape.

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【Ding! You have activated the universal ability: Vines – Man-Eating Flower!】

A cold, mechanical chime suddenly rang in Jiang Yan’s ears.

Her brows furrowed slightly—was she hallucinating?

But warmth spread from her palm, and glowing text appeared before her eyes:

【Ability Name: Vines – Man-Eating Flower】
【Current Level: 0】
【Man-Eating Flower Count: 1】
【Vines: 1 (main vine) + 2 (branch vines) = 3】
【Unlocked Skill 1: Devour】
【Other skills: locked, unlock with level up】

【Functions and Uses:】

1. Can be controlled by willpower to track and devour living targets.
2. Current monthly devour limit: 1 living creature.
3. Vines can be transformed by willpower into forms of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, air, etc.

Jiang Yan: “?!”

Was this… the legendary golden cheat of rebirth stories?

Though, her golden finger seemed a bit unusual…

But there was no time to think it through.

Before those two scumbags returned, she had to test it out!

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Author’s Note:
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