Chapter 3: The Superpowers Followed

After Lu Yichen left, Luo Qiao lay alone on the kang, thinking how great it would be to have her superpowers back. She could recover quickly and stop relying on others for everything. The thought of being helpless and dependent was frustrating. She needed to get well soon to solve her household registration issue. She wondered if Qingshan Village would allow her to register her household there.

Reflecting on the melodramatic plot of the book, she figured it was now spring of 1980. Fifteen years ago, Zhao Pulin and his wife Gao Suhua from the Zhao family in Qingshan Village went to the city for business. Unexpectedly, the pregnant Gao Suhua went into labor.

Upon giving birth to yet another daughter, Gao Suhua cried endlessly under the covers. Thinking that she had given birth to four and five daughters before, she knew without thinking that her in-law would definitely not like this girl.

Seeing the other woman in the same hospital room, dressed unusually well, Gao Suhua had a wicked thought. She switched the two baby girls while no one else was in the room. Just after committing the deed, the other woman’s family arrived and transferred her to another hospital.

The melodrama escalated when, right after the switch, a couple who had just moved in offered to swap children with Gao Suhua and her husband. They wanted a son, and the couple desired a “sweet little daughter.” Gao Suhua was overjoyed, and after discussing with her husband, they agreed.

Zhao Pulin and Gao Suhua never expected that the son they cherished and raised for fifteen years would leave without hesitation to be with his biological parents in the city. The second branch of the Zhao family became the laughingstock of Qingshan Village.

The Zhao family’s second household already had six daughters to support, so they were unwilling to acknowledge Luo Qiao, who had been sent back to them. Moreover, Gao Suhua knew that Luo Qiao wasn’t her biological daughter.

What the Zhao family didn’t know was that the Luo couple only wanted to give their newly born son a better identity to spare him from the hardships they would face on a reeducation farm. Now that they had been exonerated and returned to the city, they wanted to reclaim their son and raise him properly. They never favored Luo Qiao, who grew up with them, and thus they sent her back to her biological parents.

However, the Luo couple was unaware that Luo Qiao wasn’t actually the Zhao family’s daughter. They were focused on setting things right and returning everyone to their rightful families.

The poor original Luo Qiao was knocked over during the Zhao and Luo families’ dispute over their son. Her head hit the steps, causing severe bleeding. When she awoke, she had become the new Luo Qiao with a different soul.

Luo Qiao sighed, recalling the scant affection from her previous life. Her parents were always busy and only provided money, never attention. She had constantly enrolled in various classes, believing that being exceptional would earn her their recognition. Instead, the apocalypse came before she could achieve that.

In this new life, she decided to abandon such elusive hopes and focus on living freely and happily on her own.

Turning over, she saw a grain of millet in the crack of the kang. It was likely a leftover from drying last year’s harvest. She instinctively picked it up and, lost in thought, thinking about her own worries, triggered her growth ability.

When she realized what she had done, the millet had already sprouted two inches. Startled, she quickly destroyed the evidence. After the initial shock, she was delighted to discover that her superpower had followed her into this life.

She began to explore her new body, faintly sensing the familiar power within. Unfortunately, it was very weak, only at the second level, sufficient for growing plants but inadequate for much else.