The air smelled fresh, with a hint of damp soil.
She felt a faint warmth on her cheeks, like sunlight brushing gently across her skin. Sensation slowly returned to her fingers.
It felt... oddly comforting. But wait—where was she? Hadn't she already died?
Ruby Johnson forced her eyes open.
All she could see was a dimly lit room. Sunlight struggled through the gap in the door, spilling a weak glow onto the shabby straw bed she lay on.
Apparently, it was that soft beam of light that stirred her awake.
The walls were made of exposed dirt and thatch. The few bamboo pieces of furniture in the room looked rough and worn-out.
From above, a dusty, old bamboo basket hung off the roof beam. She had no clue what was stuffed inside it.
A small oil lamp still flickered on the wooden table. Barely. The flame threatened to die out any second.
This... looked like the home of someone barely scraping by. Everything screamed poverty.
But how did she end up in a place like this?
She tried to think. It was about two months ago she’d been working in the lab with Senior Emily Pecos. After the experiment, Emily suddenly handed her a biological agent tainted with anthrax bacteria...
Even with all the medical advancements we had in the 21st century, anthrax was still deadly—it killed over 75% of its victims.
She remembered lying in the ICU, watching her life slip away, the whole thing sparked by some ridiculous misunderstanding.
She’d been a student in the School of Traditional Medicine at some university before dying of disease. What a cruel joke.
Now, somehow, she was alive again?
Suddenly her head throbbed, hard. In a rush, memories that weren’t hers slammed into her mind.
The past… the girl who used to own this body had lived in a village called Taohuacun, during the Huachao period of Longguo.
One terrible day, a plague struck. Her parents were taken by it. Not long after, she herself passed too...
And somewhere in the chaos of it all, their souls switched at a strange crossroad in the universe.
Heaven gave Ruby a new shot at life—but it came with a price: a world plagued with disease and no cure in sight.
Was that a blessing? Or just a different kind of curse?She sat frozen on the bed for a good ten minutes before a shiver shot through her. In disbelief, she scanned the shabby room again and then hurriedly tossed the thin quilt off her.
In her eyes, that blanket wasn’t just fabric anymore—it was crawling with germs.
Just as panic started to rise in her chest, the wooden door flung open. Startled, Ruby Johnson let out a sharp scream.
Two figures bolted through the doorway and ran straight at her.
“Sis! Sis!”
One boy, one girl—two kids threw their arms around her legs, shouting for their sister.
And just like that, her headache was back.
Right. In her past life, she had a younger brother and sister. They were both healthy the last time she saw them before… everything ended.
She didn’t expect to see them alive again.
Ruby quickly crouched down and wrapped them in a tight hug. The three of them clung to each other, crying without a care.
Getting a new shot at life wasn’t easy. This time around, she was going to live with purpose—dignified, strong, and on her own terms.
“We thought you were gone, Sis,” Amber Johnson sobbed, her voice trembling.
Amber, her little sister, was always the quiet and obedient sort.
Ruby wiped her tears and smiled gently. “I woke up this morning and couldn’t find either of you. Where’d you go?”
Leo Johnson’s cheeks puffed out as he looked down, frustration written all over his little face.
“We went to that mean old woman’s house to ask for food,” he mumbled, “but she just kicked us out.”
Ruby instantly knew who he meant—Mrs. Miller.
Mrs. Miller was their paternal grandmother, and things had never been warm between them. When their father married their mother—who came from a poor family—Mrs. Miller didn’t approve. But love had its way. The two of them eloped and married in secret.
Even after marriage, in the hope of being accepted posthumously into the family shrine, they’d help out at Mrs. Miller’s farm during busy seasons, always putting her needs before their own.
And yet, when they were gravely ill and went to her for help, she slammed the door on them. They died broke and sick, with no one to turn to.
“Forget her. She’s never cared about us and never will. We’re done knocking on her door,” Ruby said flatly. “What, we’re gonna starve if we don’t go to her?”
