Halfway up the mountain, inside a dimly lit basement of a villa.
A frail, thin girl lay curled up on a single steel-wire bed in the corner.
Her hair was disheveled, her skin deathly pale, and one hand—covered in dried blood—was shackled with chains, making it impossible to tell if she was alive or dead.
BANG!
The heavy iron door swung open as two sets of heavy footsteps entered one after the other.
"Brother Song, won't keeping her locked up like this just invite trouble? I was thinking—if she still refuses to give up the bank card password and renounce the inheritance, why don't we just—" The speaker was a young man in his early twenties, gesturing a slashing motion across his throat.
"Her? Just a fragile morning glory that can be crushed with a pinch—nothing to fear! Besides, it's only the first day. It's normal for her to resist now. Wait another three months and see!" The cold, mocking voice belonged to a middle-aged man in his forties.
His hands and face were wrapped in bandages, making his already sinister features appear even more grotesque.
"Oh, Brother Song, what about that jade bracelet on her wrist? Why not take it off and give it to my sister? I heard Li Meizhen bought it at Christie's—top-grade old mine jade, an antique worth at least a small fortune!"
"She's been wearing that bracelet for years. Her hands have grown since then. We've tried soapy water and everything—it won't come off."
A flash of madness crossed the young man's eyes. "Then it's simple—just cut it off!"
"..." The middle-aged man hesitated briefly before replying, "That could work. I just gave her a hypnosis needle—she won't feel a thing even if you kill her now. Go to the kitchen and get the cleaver—the thickest one—and bring the heaviest wooden chopping board. I'll go to the bathroom first."
"Got it!"
The iron door slammed shut with another BANG.
Huddled in fear, Jiang Yan instinctively flinched at the vicious conversation between her stepfather Song Deming and Zhang Kai—but then her heart jolted in shock!
Wasn't this the exact scene from May 9th, three months before the apocalypse, when Song Deming and Zhang Kai—the younger brother of his mistress—locked her in the villa's basement?
But she distinctly remembered losing a hand and later dying by Song Deming's blade in the apocalypse, only to be devoured by him and his mistress's family...
So… had she been reborn?!
Jiang Yan's father, Jiang Yukang, and mother, Li Meizhen, were both orphans.
Starting from delivering packages, they built their way up from nothing, eventually establishing the largest courier company in Anming City and amassing billions in wealth.
Song Deming, originally the company's youngest and most promising vice president, was ten years younger than Li Meizhen and had long coveted her family's fortune.
After Jiang Yukang died in a car accident one year, Song Deming used every trick in the book to gain Li Meizhen's trust and successfully married into the Li family.
Under his manipulation, Li Meizhen soon sold the company—valued at billions—for a fraction of its worth to the nation's leading courier giant.
Despite her immense wealth, the self-made Li Meizhen only gave him this villa and some stocks worth tens of millions.
It wasn't until one drunken night that Li Meizhen accidentally revealed she had already drafted a will and notarized all her assets—with Jiang Yan as the sole heir.
From that moment, Song Deming's simmering resentment turned into outright hatred.
A week ago, Song Deming lured Jiang Yan's mother to Country L under the pretext of celebrating their wedding anniversary, where he murdered her. He then reported to the police that they had been attacked by a shark while deep-sea diving, claiming his mother had tragically perished in the shark's belly.
By the time the authorities in Country L arrived, not a trace of Jiang Yan's mother remained. Song Deming, though covered in wounds himself, was eventually cleared of all charges after investigation.
Upon returning home, he deceitfully brought the then-naive Jiang Yan to collect her mother's belongings, only to knock her unconscious with Zhang Kai's help and lock her in the basement.
At that time, Jiang Yan had already graduated from university for over a year. Free from financial burdens, she had become a travel and food blogger, jet-setting around the world.
Upon receiving the devastating news of her mother's death, she immediately rushed back from abroad.
The mysterious circumstances surrounding her mother's demise dealt her a crushing blow. In her grief-stricken state, she fell right into Song Deming's trap and was imprisoned in the basement, cut off from the world.
However, Song Deming—who, along with Zhang Kai, had severed one of Jiang Yan's hands—never obtained her signed declaration relinquishing her inheritance.
Three months later, the apocalypse arrived without warning.
Some claimed it was due to global climate change and humanity's reckless destruction of the ecosystem. Others blamed it on an island nation's willful discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean.
Regardless, nature's retribution came swiftly and without mercy.
On August 8th, the apocalypse began with scorching heatwaves.
Then came torrential rains, extreme cold, floods, droughts, earthquakes, insect plagues—one disaster after another.
When the apocalypse struck, Song Deming naturally converted this secluded hillside villa into his personal safehouse, brazenly moving in his mistress Zhang Qiqi and their illegitimate son Song Xiaofei.
It was only then that Jiang Yan learned Song Deming had been secretly involved with Zhang Qiqi for years, and that the latter had masterminded everything behind the scenes.
Song Deming believed that once they survived the extreme heat, he would smoothly inherit Li Meizhen's vast fortune.
But he never expected the relentless onslaught of disasters—torrential rains, freezing temperatures, and more.
Trapped with dwindling supplies, he and his mistress's family eventually turned their knives on the barely alive Jiang Yan.
The memories of her past life flashed through Jiang Yan's mind like frames of a film. After reliving the agony, she took a deep breath.
The murder of her mother, the loss of her hand, the cannibalistic cruelty—no punishment, not even flaying Song Deming and Zhang Qiqi alive, would be enough.
She longed to devour their flesh! Drink their blood! Sever their tendons!
Moreover, there were still three months until the apocalypse.
Given this second chance at life, her priorities were clear: revenge against Song Deming and his accomplices, and thorough preparations to survive—for her murdered mother, and for herself, who had already died once.
She would live. Truly, fiercely live!
But first, escaping this man-made prison was her immediate task.
In her previous life, she had carefully observed the basement. Song Deming had reinforced it with steel plates and massive boulders—no windows, no exits.
The only way out was through a solid, windowless iron door, tightly sealed.
Unless she killed Song Deming unnoticed and took his keys, escape was impossible.
[Ding! You have activated All-elemental ability: Vines. Carnivorous flower!]
A ethereal mechanical voice suddenly rang out by Jiang Yan's ear.
Her brow furrowed slightly, thinking she had imagined it.
But as warmth pooled in her palm, a line of text appeared in her vision:
[Ability Name: Vines.Carnivorous Flower]
[Current Level: Level 0, Number of Carnivorous Flowers: 1, Carnivorous Flower Vines: 1 (Main Vine) + 2 (Lateral Vines) = 3]
[Currently Unlocked Skill 1: Devour; Other Skills Pending Upgrade)]
[Functions and Uses:
1. Can mentally control directional tracking to devour living targets;
2. Current monthly devouring limit for living creatures: 1;
3. Using mental control, vines can transform into various forms such as gold, wood, water, fire, earth, air, etc.]
Jiang Yan: "?!"
Was this the so-called cheat ability from novels after rebirth?
But hers seemed… a little unusual.
Still, there was no time to dwell on it. She decided to test it quickly before those two scumbags returned!
(End of Chapter)