Volume One, Chapter 2: The Peach Orchard Space

Before long, sirens sounded from downstairs, followed by a rush of hurried footsteps.

After questioning the onlookers, two uniformed police officers took the parties involved in the conflict away for investigation. As for the unfortunate Lin Jiabao, an ambulance had already taken him away.

At the police station, Zhang Meifeng no longer acted timid and submissive. Knowing that Yu Yue could not attack her outright, she began hurling abuse at her.

“Yu Yue, you ungrateful little wretch! Are you trying to wipe out the Lin family line? Officers, you have to stand up for my son! Arrest her at once! She injured my son so badly—she must be sentenced to death!”

Zhang Meifeng glared at Yu Yue with a chilling look in her eyes. Malice and greed were plainly revealed across her sharp, spiteful face.

If that wretched girl were sent to prison—or sentenced to death—then all of Yu Yue’s money would belong to her and her son!

The two officers handling the case were young men. Thoroughly displeased by Zhang Meifeng’s shrewish screaming, one of them rapped the table sternly twice.

“Silence. What kind of behavior is this in a police station? According to our investigation and the surveillance footage, you and your son trespassed into a private residence and caused a disturbance. Miss Yu’s actions constitute nothing more than lawful self-defense.”

The officer stared sternly at Zhang Meifeng. He had heard that this shrew was Yu Yue’s adoptive mother, and that she had gone to threaten a girl who had only just come of age with a steel rod, demanding ten million in support payments. That was nothing short of extortion!

These two young officers, newly appointed and full of righteous indignation, could hardly tolerate such behavior.

“After investigation, we have determined that Zhang Meifeng and Lin Jiabao caused a disturbance and will each be detained for fifteen days and fined eight hundred yuan. They must also compensate Miss Yu with two thousand yuan for emotional distress.”

The moment Zhang Meifeng heard that she would not only be detained but would also have to pay Yu Yue, she exploded. She shot to her feet and lunged for Yu Yue’s hair.

“What? What right does this little—”

Before she could finish, the officers forced her back into her seat. She lost her balance and fell heavily to the floor.

A sharp pain shot up from her tailbone, making Zhang Meifeng grimace and bare her teeth. The two officers suppressed their laughter as they helped her up.

Seeing this, Yu Yue burst out laughing. “Idiot. Serves you right.”

Had the officers not been holding Zhang Meifeng down, she would have gone completely berserk again.

“Officers, she’s my daughter! How can it be trespassing when my son and I entered her home? As for what Jiabao did, it was nothing more than ordinary horseplay between siblings. Besides, it’s only natural for parents to discipline their children. Why should we have to pay money or go to jail?”

Zhang Meifeng glared viciously at Yu Yue, as though she intended to burn straight through her with her eyes.

But no matter how cleverly she argued, Zhang Meifeng could not escape the detention and fine.

Watching the officers handcuff her, Yu Yue smiled in satisfaction.

She left the station with light, unhurried steps, feeling utterly relieved.

Just wait. In this life, whether it was Zhang Meifeng, Lin Jiabao, or the Yu family members who had ultimately driven her to her death, she would not easily let a single one of them off.

When she returned home, after all the commotion, all she wanted was to take a proper bath and welcome this new life.

She entered the bathroom. The mirror above the sink reflected her shoulders.

In a daze, she reached out and touched the figure in the glass: a short, thin girl whose messy bangs concealed most of her face.

A mocking curve touched her lips. She swept the bangs aside, revealing a small, delicate face with a faintly sallow complexion.

This was the face the Yu family despised.

Whenever they saw those phoenix-shaped eyes, so strikingly similar to Yu Yue’s father’s, they were reminded that the little princess they had once cherished and spoiled was not truly a daughter of the Yu family.

Yu Jiaojiao also hated every girl who was more beautiful than herself. But how could their innocent, kind little princess say so directly to Yu Yue?

“Boo-hoo, Sister. Daddy, Mommy, and Big Brother all dislike your face. They’re only thinking of what’s best for you. Why don’t you keep your face covered from now on?”

Back then, Yu Yue had devoted herself entirely to winning the Yu family’s favor. She longed for their approval, for even the tiniest scrap of affection—just a little would have been enough.

To avoid being disliked, she kept her thick bangs over her face. How could she have known that this seemingly “unkempt” appearance would only make the Yu family despise her more?

Or rather, no matter what she did, she could never win that family’s affection.

The only princess they acknowledged was Yu Jiaojiao.

And because Yu Jiaojiao was the only person in that household who ever showed her kindness, after the apocalypse began, Yu Yue had desperately protected her whenever she awakened her rare ice-based ability.

She had believed that if she worked hard enough, she could earn the Yu family’s approval. Yet they accepted her sacrifices without the slightest hesitation and continued to repay her with nothing but cold words.

Later, she had even given up He Ci, her fiancé in name only, for Yu Jiaojiao. In the end, after sacrificing everything, all she received was Yu Jiaojiao’s slander.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Sister abandoned an entire squad to save her own life.”

Unable to defend herself, she was imprisoned in a laboratory and subjected to inhuman experiments—until this moment, when she was reborn.

As she recalled the ridiculous life she had led in her previous existence, the cold light in Yu Yue’s eyes grew deeper.

She took a step back, then suddenly noticed an intricate, diamond-shaped golden mark beneath her right collarbone.

What was this?

Her right hand rose unconsciously to cover it. She did not remember ever having a tattoo.

Her palm grew faintly warm. Then, in the blink of an eye, the scene before her changed completely.

A vast, boundless meadow stretched into the distance. A few trees stood here and there, while streams and springs flowed without any visible source or end.

At the same time, an enormous amount of information surged into Yu Yue’s mind. Only after processing it all did she understand what she was seeing.

The space before her was a fragment left behind after the destruction of a parallel cultivation world. After drifting through this world for a thousand years, it had bound itself to Yu Yue’s soul.

The reason she had been able to be reborn was also due to the laws of time contained within this space.

This place was called the Peach Garden Space. It had once been the core of that cultivation world.

Although it was now only a fragment of a world, the spiritual energy within it was extraordinarily dense. Not only was there vast land suitable for cultivation, but the spiritual spring nearby could also cleanse the body and heal injuries.

Moreover, now that Yu Yue had become the space’s master, she could adjust the flow of time within it—from complete stillness to ten times its normal speed.

In other words, she could designate one area in which time stood still, using it to gather and store supplies, while designating another area for growing crops and accelerating its passage of time tenfold.

Yu Yue slowly exhaled. She now fully understood how miraculous this space was.

With it, she had the foundation she needed not only to survive in the coming apocalypse, but to build a good life within it.