Chapter Two: Rebirth from the Ashes

The young girl, curled up in sleep on a clean and elegant European-style bed, was drenched in cold sweat, disturbed by nightmares, murmuring incessantly.

“No! Xiao Nuo!”

Qin Sheng suddenly woke, sitting upright and gasping for air. As she surveyed the familiar furnishings around her, confusion overtook her.

Hadn’t she perished together with Qin Mengchun in the laboratory?

How could she be in the old Qin family mansion?

Her gaze finally settled on her phone, charging on the table. She scrambled over and unlocked it. The suspicion in her heart was confirmed at that moment.

She... had been reborn... She had returned to two months before the apocalypse!

Qin Sheng bit her lip, her eyes instantly bloodshot. The bedsheet clenched in her hands was left crumpled and wrinkled.

Heaven had granted her another chance at life. She must survive the inferno of the apocalypse. Only by staying alive could she uncover the truth behind her grandfather and brother’s disappearance, and take her revenge!

Swiftly, she rose and went to the full-length mirror, hesitating not at all as she cut her long hair again. The reflection gradually overlapped with her past self, leaving her momentarily dazed. She lifted her hand and gently touched the mirror.

A white jade bracelet slid from her wrist. Qin Sheng frowned slightly. The bracelet was not of good quality, but she had worn it since childhood and never replaced it. Yet Qin Mengchun had persistently tried to take it from her, time and again. Could this bracelet be different from others?

Doubts flooded her mind, but she could find no answers and set them aside for now. With her powers yet to awaken, she was nothing but a frail human. She could handle low-level zombies, but anything stronger would mean certain death. For now, she could only prepare for the dangers ahead, such as selling some properties.

After confirming she was alone, Qin Sheng slipped into her grandfather Qin Zhongming’s study. Closing the door behind her, she realized this was her own home, a mix of helplessness and relief washing over her.

Half an hour later, her gaze lingered on a battered old cabinet. She had searched the entire room; this cabinet was the only likely candidate.

Opening it, she was greeted by dust. Inside were old books, leaving her disappointed. When she closed the cabinet, she used too much force, and a splinter scratched her pale wrist, blood dripping eagerly and staining the flawless white jade bracelet.

Before she could tend to the wound, she felt the bracelet heat up. She hurried to remove it, but it clung tightly to her wrist, as if marking her.

Suddenly, a fierce light burst from the bracelet. Qin Sheng shut her eyes, fear rising in her chest. She forced herself to open them, but she felt herself being sucked into a whirlpool, sapped of strength.

She didn’t know how much time had passed before she adapted and slowly opened her eyes again. The environment was unbelievable—a sealed space the size of twenty football fields!

“What is this...?” she whispered, certain that this place did not truly exist. The bracelet had brought her here.

Quickly, she raised her right hand. The bracelet, stained with blood moments ago, had reverted to its pristine white, as if nothing had happened. She examined her wrist and noticed, for the first time, a small phoenix mark had appeared.

Qin Sheng’s heart swirled with questions. The phoenix mark seemed to beckon her. Unconsciously, she touched it, closed her eyes, and silently recited something in her heart. Soon, she was back in the study.

Was this... a space?

Just as she suspected, at first entering required touching the phoenix; after a few experiments, she could simply recite it mentally to return. Qin Sheng found it hard to believe that scenes from a novel were happening to her. At this moment, storing supplies was urgent—the sudden appearance of a space was a godsend.

Recalling the apocalypse, Qin Sheng, like many others, awakened powers after a period. Only Qin Mengchun showed no sign of ability. Then, one day, Qin Mengchun offered to keep the nuclei safe, and Qin Sheng thought her powers had awakened.

Now, it was clear: it wasn’t an awakening, but Qin Mengchun had discovered the secret of the bracelet!

Qin Sheng’s eyes were chilling, and the phoenix on her wrist seemed to glow redder. She lowered her gaze and removed the now ordinary white jade bracelet, a slyness flickering in her eyes.

After leaving the space, she rummaged through the cabinet and found only a long-sealed notebook.

Dusting it off, Qin Sheng opened it with curiosity. The pages meticulously recorded her grandfather’s years of medical research. She leafed through it, her heart heavy.

Only on the last page did her calm face show a hint of emotion. Just one line, but it made her eyes sting.

“To be reborn through death is to march forward through fire.”

To be reborn through death—wasn’t that her own experience?

As for marching forward through fire, Qin Sheng glanced at the phoenix on her wrist, her mind riddled with questions.

Did her grandfather know everything?

Everything was a mystery to her. She didn’t know where her grandfather had gone, nor whether he was still alive.

She placed the notebook in the space, along with all the herbs from the pharmacy. Whether they would be useful or not, it was better to have them.

With the apocalypse imminent, Qin Sheng had a plan. Without hesitation, she strode to her grandfather’s room and emerged with a property deed in hand.

She dismissed all staff working at the old mansion, gifting each a generous severance payment. There was no other way; she had to sell the old house.

By noon, only Qin Sheng remained in the mansion. After packing her belongings, she took a taxi directly to the largest exchange in the capital.

“Hello, after appraisal, the highest market price for this property is thirty million. If you’re in urgent need, the price may be slightly lower.” The staff had never seen someone so young selling such an expensive property. She must be extraordinary, and they did their best to assist her.

Qin Sheng considered briefly and nodded.

Half an hour later, she received the funds from the sale. In less than an hour, she became a multimillionaire. Excitement simmered in her heart, but she was already planning how to allocate the money.

To avoid attracting attention, she rented dozens of large warehouses under the pretense of opening a new supermarket.

With the space at her disposal, she wished she could buy everything. She divided her purchasing strategy into two categories: online shopping and local farms.

She bought out dozens of farm stores online—rice, millet, corn, all brands, five hundred bags each. Potatoes, sweet and purple yams, taro—every tuber, instant, raw, dried, hundreds of boxes. Red beans, black beans, green beans, yellow beans, peanuts—she stored plenty of grains. Flours of all kinds, hundreds of bags. Oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, scallions, ginger, garlic—dozens of boxes of anything available on the market.

For vegetables, fruits, and meats, she had already arranged with several nearby farms. Fresh beef, lamb, and pork—vacuum-packed and delivered daily to the warehouses. Chicken and duck—besides vacuum-packed, there were batches of marinated and roasted sent to the warehouses. Qin Sheng bought a giant aquarium, raising not only fish but shrimp, crab, scallops, oysters—even dozens of king crabs.

To test whether the space’s air affected food preservation, she placed several slabs of beef inside for days. To her delight, not only did the food not spoil, it seemed even fresher. This was excellent news!

Her stockpiling became even more indulgent.

She contacted bakeries and snack factories near the capital. Massive shipments arrived, but the warehouses never filled—the space swallowed everything she brought.

Initially, her food choices were simple, worried about space, but when she realized her supplies occupied less than a fifth of the space, she diversified.

She found several wilderness stores online, bought a hundred tents, sleeping bags, hammocks, walkie-talkies, compasses, flashlights, drones—hundreds of each. Solar panels, automatic generators, tablets, power banks—hundreds of each. She even bought ice makers, coffee machines, ice cream makers, water heaters, induction stoves.

She bought thousands of barrels of bottled water from every brand, as well as sodas—Coke, Sprite, Fanta. Any instant food, self-heating, boilable, or ready-to-eat, she bought them all. She even contracted dozens of convenience stores, having their products delivered to her warehouses daily for two months.

She sought out clothing factories, buying batches of practical, simple clothes. Shoes, mainly in black, white, and gray. The apocalypse demanded practicality, not style. She also bought plenty of outdoor jackets from archaeological and adventure shops, cleaning out their inventories.

Of course, to prevent accidents, she purchased a large stock of medical supplies—bandages, ointments, alcohol, anything necessary, without hesitation. She also prepared mosquito repellents, cooling patches, and other small items.

As she watched her space fill up, Qin Sheng felt gradually satisfied. Warehouses and factories formed a steady supply chain; she no longer needed to monitor them daily, freeing time to train herself. Aside from collecting and replenishing supplies, she devoted all her time to training.

She needed to bring forth the lessons learned from blood and sweat in her previous life!