Chapter 1

“Third Aunt, that’s the breakfast Grandma left for my mom. You can’t eat it! If you eat it, my mom will go hungry!”

That childish voice—filled with the innocence of a child, one that Gu Zhenqi had felt guilty about for half her life, and missed for the other half—rang in her ears.

“Get out of my way! So what if it’s left for your mom? Is there a note on it or something? Or can it answer when you call it? If it could, I wouldn’t even want it anymore!”

Another voice followed—sharp, overbearing—the voice of the woman Gu Zhenqi had hated and resented for half her life.

Was this a dream?

She’d been having this dream for half a year already. In anticipation, she had stockpiled all the food from her global green organic food bases and chain stores into a space she had accidentally activated.

She planted crops, vegetables, fruits inside the space and raised tens of thousands of animals—chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, sheep, cows… anything edible. It was all there.

In the center of the space, in a lake, she kept various kinds of aquatic life from around the world.

Relying on nearly fifty years of memories—from the 1970s to the 2020s—she stocked up on all kinds of goods that would become valuable during the economic reforms.

Out of guilt, she also gathered supplies, food, and items for children aged 0 to 16 from around the globe…

What she lacked least was money. She had sold off all her assets, converting them into materials stored in her space. It’s no exaggeration to say that her space was like a self-sufficient miniature society—everything one could eat, wear, or use was there.

Her longtime friends, business partners, and even acquaintances all thought she’d gone mad.

Living in the resource-rich 21st century—where anything could be delivered to your door—she was hoarding like crazy.

Her best friend even joked, “Are you preparing for a famine or something?”

She wanted to reply: Yes!
Because if she hadn’t done this, she really would have gone crazy!

For thirty years, she lived every day in overwhelming regret, pain, and guilt—on the verge of collapse.

Every morning, the first thing she wanted to do was grab a knife and stab herself in the heart.

She thought that maybe then the piercing pain that haunted her every second would finally stop.

Ever since she began having that dream—a dream where she went back decades in time—she had seen her lovely children again, her kind mother-in-law, her loving parents, and her doting older brothers.

And him—the man who let her live like a widow for three years while he was away, but still sent his allowance home without fail each month. He wrote a letter every three months, always ending with:

“Comrade Gu Zhenqi, you’ve worked hard!”

She desperately longed for the dream to be real. She wished she could return to the past, to the time before she caused all the tragedy with her own hands—before she doomed herself to a lifetime of remorse.

But…

This time, something felt different about the dream. It felt too real. So real it might actually be real.

At that thought, Gu Zhenqi forced her eyes open and saw the source of the tragedy she had lived with for decades.

She didn’t know where the strength came from, but she rushed forward and shielded Ruiduo—her sweet, considerate daughter who was like spring sunshine, smiling like an angel—from slamming her head into the stone mill.

She and Ruiduo collided just in time. Ruiduo landed in her embrace while Gu Zhenqi’s lower back hit the stone mill.

The intense pain she expected didn’t come. Instead, the warmth in her arms soothed the pain that had haunted her for thirty years.

Her tears gushed out like a broken dam. She trembled as she touched her daughter’s rough, yellowed hair, crawling with lice.

That moment of touch confirmed the truth—this wasn’t a dream.

She had really been reborn!
She had returned to the very moment before the tragedy struck.

She clutched her daughter tightly and broke into uncontrollable sobs, deeply shaken. Thankfully, she had woken up in time to prevent the tragedy.

In her previous life, the same thing had happened. Chen Yue, in a fit of greed, had tried to steal her breakfast and shoved Ruiduo hard.

Ruiduo had hit her head on the wall. It had only been a cut. In the 1970s, kids getting bumps and bruises was normal. She didn’t take it seriously. As a selfish mother, she didn’t even care. She hadn’t said a single comforting word.

Annoyed by Ruiduo’s crying, she left home to escape the noise, hiding at her parents’ place.

Ten days later, Wang Guiying came running to say that Ruiduo had turned into a “fool.”

She hadn’t felt heartbroken—only thought about how a mentally disabled child would be a burden for life. She didn’t want to go back.

Eventually, with her parents’ and brothers’ persuasion, Wang Guiying agreed to the divorce. Only then did she reluctantly return to the Chen family.

By then, Ruiduo had completely turned into a simpleton. Dirty and unkempt, she rolled in the muddy yard after the rain. But when she saw her mother return, she jumped up joyfully and called out “Mom,” running toward her.

Wang Guiying said warmly, “Ruiduo still loves her mom most. She forgot everything else but still remembers what her mother looks like. She’s been crying every day, asking for you.”

Chen Yue mocked cruelly while holding her own son:
“What good is it to miss a mother like that? She doesn’t care about her kids at all. She only cares about herself. Ruiduo and Feian were born to suffer.”

Wang Guiying had worked hard to bring Gu Zhenqi back for the children’s sake and wasn’t about to let her third daughter stir things up again.

She scolded, “Shut up! Don’t keep running back to your parents’ house. You’re married. Zhenqi is your third sister-in-law—show some respect!”

Chen Yue flared up:
“Mom, you’re biased! Just look at her—dressed up like a pampered miss while her kids look like beggars. Ruiduo and Feian have lice crawling on their heads. She only knows how to give birth, not raise them. She’s selfish and heartless. Honestly, those kids are unlucky to have a mom like her!”

Gu Zhenqi had never liked returning to the Chen household. She couldn’t stand the chaos. When provoked, she didn’t hold back:

“Pfft! You think I married into a gold mine? If it weren’t for comparing with Qian Mei, would I have married Chen Kuo and lived like a widow? You like the kids? Take them! You’re their aunt—raise them yourself!”

Chen Yue spat back:
“Shameless! You gave birth to them, and I should raise them? You only married my brother for some hidden agenda—so gross! Qian Mei married a college student and is moving to Beijing. You’ll never compare! You’ll always just be a peasant woman!”

That completely enraged Gu Zhenqi. Her pride flared up, and she snapped:

“From today on, I sever all ties with the Chen family. You forced me to have those kids—now you raise them! They’re your burden now!”

She stormed out and returned to her parents’ home. Taking all her family’s savings and a document from the local committee, she boarded a train to Beijing.

She didn’t need a man to succeed like Qian Mei—she’d rely on herself!

Gu Zhenqi had a natural business mind and caught the tide of reform. In the 1980s, she earned her first fortune, building a commercial empire. Before her rebirth, her name was already on the global billionaire list.

Her organic food brand had become a global leader.

After leaving without a word, five years later, she returned home to take her parents and brothers to the city—only to learn that Ruiduo had drowned while searching for her. Feian had jumped in to save his sister but failed. He was pulled out by villagers but died days later from a high fever.

She had caused both of her children’s deaths.

Though she had thought she didn’t care when she left, when she learned the truth, her soul shattered. Despite all her cruelty, her children had loved her unconditionally.

She ran to their tiny graves and cried until she collapsed, not eating or drinking for three days.

When she woke up, she finally understood—she had lost the most precious things in her life.

From that day on, she lived in endless pain.

Now, holding her daughter again, Gu Zhenqi relived her entire ridiculous past life in less than a minute.

Her final verdict on her former self:

“I threw away treasure… and spent a lifetime chasing trash.”