Chapter 1

"Huff——huff——"

Each breath increasingly heavy, the flicker of flames cast the shadow of several pursuers.

An explosion rang out, nearly deafening. A wave of intense pain followed suit, and everything before her eyes seemed to be overlaid with a red filter, the world becoming hazy.

The sound of unfamiliar footsteps grew closer as a dagger sliced through the air.

She turned her head, only managing to make out the blurry outline of a slowly falling figure.

Su Junxin opened her eyes, her pupils contracting sharply, her reddened eyes still filled with lingering horror.

It took several seconds for her to compose herself, before she closed her eyes, heaving a deep breath and glancing at the alarm clock beside her bed.

The second hand ticked over a small mark. It was three minutes until six in the morning. The clock displayed a date beneath the time.

August 30, 2097.

This was the third day of Su Junxin's new life.

In the year AD 2100, the apocalypse descended, a rampant zombie virus plunged the globe into an unprecedented crisis.

She managed to survive, and ten years later she fought her way to the top to become the leader of the largest safe zone, "Cloud". Yet, on the day of her victory celebration, she stepped into a time vortex and was thrown back to three years before the apocalypse. She was reborn as a high school girl who shared her name, surname, and even her face.

It wasn't easy to become the boss, and just as she was about to enjoy her reign, she was transported several years back, having to start all over again. Su Junxin was helpless and frustrated, it took her a whole day of coping before she could accept her current situation. Then, the memories of her past life flooded into her mind.

Su Junxin was an orphan, she grew up in an orphanage, but the original owner of her current body had relatives.

However, the original owner's mother died from a serious illness when she was young, and four years ago her father also tragically died in a car accident. Now she lived with her stepmother and stepsister.

The stepmother and stepsister were not kind-hearted. After the death of her father, her stepmother, Lou Ya, started treating her harshly instead of kindly as before, she even forced her to live in a dark, moldy basement and treated her like a maid. Her stepsister, originally named Lou Yi, later took the surname Su. She was only half a year younger than Su Junxin. Though she seemed weak and cute on the outside, she was a devious person on the inside. She constantly bullied the timid original owner behind the scenes, and after the death of the original owner's father, her bullying intensified.

Upon learning about this situation, Su Junxin was dumbstruck.

She was living in a real-life version of Cinderella, how could she have ended up in such a situation???

Soon, she accepted her fate.

After all, she who possessed the strongest thunder-element powers, managed to kill a hundred zombies with one blow and became the leader of the world at the young age of twenty-nine, how could she possibly be Cinderella.

Plus, she had a very special companion.

Su Junxin sat up in bed, lightly whacking her right forearm with her forefinger.

"Xiaoyou, time to get up."

The touched skin quickly shimmered with silver light, and a muffled sound of purring filled the air, as if it was whining.

She started laughing in spite of herself, "If you don't get up now, the sun's going to get you."

As soon as she had finished speaking, a small, semi-transparent tail gradually appeared on her fair, slender forearm.

In a moment, a cute little silver dragon revealed itself.

It was less than a foot long, with silver scales covering its flexible, lean body. Two short and blunt silver-blue dragon horns sat atop its head. Its two small front paws grabbed her palm while it yawned widely, a shimmering light reflected in its golden eyes.

This little silver dragon appeared after Su Junxin awakened her superpowers. Since it always liked to wrap around her right forearm while resting, she named it "Xiaoyou".

Xiaoyou had accompanied her for ten years in the apocalypse, and now it was with her in the past.

A mischievous grin spread across Su Junxin's face. She intentionally allowed her finger to be bitten a few times by Xiaoyou who was napping, before it realized she was toying with it. It quickly spat out her fingers, stuck out its tongue, looked at her with a dumbfounded face, letting out an "arooo" sound, as if expressing confusion.

"Today's the last day of summer vacation, and those two probably will return. This is our first battle since our rebirth, we have to prepare well."

Su Junxin rubbed its head, got up, opened the door of the basement, went upstairs, turned on the light, got some hot water, and started washing up.

A girl and a dragon stood in front of the mirror. As Su Junxin brushed her teeth, Xiaoyou skillfully rolled a children's toothbrush with its tail, not contended until its long, sharp canines were sparkling clean. Then, it spat out a mouthful of water, squinted, raised its head, and let Su Junxin wipe its body clean with a wet towel. Only then did it consider itself clean.

She put on the only tracksuit available in her wardrobe. While the sun wasn't too high in the sky, Su Junxin went out for a three-kilometer jog and bought breakfast from the market. She sat down in a nearby park to eat.

The world of the apocalypse was covered in ruins and waste, the air and rivers were muddied. Compared to the current peaceful world, it seemed like an entirely different dimension.

She stretched her legs out on the lounger, revealing her smooth and slender calves.

Xiaoyou was hiding in her sleeves, chomping away at a piece of bread. Suddenly, it stopped, poked half its head out to look in a certain direction, but it only saw a black sedan driving past. After tilting its head and thinking for a while, it returned to its hiding spot, continued to munch on its bread.

Inside the sedan, a teenager with an unusually pale complexion slowly retracted his gaze. Then he lowered his eyelashes, his thin, rose-colored lips curving into a pleasant smile.

Next to him sat a seven or eight-year-old boy with brown hair, who stared wide-eyed at him, struggling to speak in Chinese.

"Little Uncle, you came yesterday, and you're here again today, are you looking at that Missy?"

Qin You's side profile was serene, he glanced at the boy, a warmth sprouting in his gaze, he hummed in response.

The boy instantly undid his seat belt and scuttled over to him, giggling and winking, "If you like her, go get her phone number, ask her out, then tell her you love her!"

Qin You raised his eyebrows slightly, his voice clear and steady, but carried a teasing undertone, "Where did you learn all this?"

"Dad said that's how he wooed Mom!" The boy announced proudly.

"..." Qin You was speechless for a moment, he picked up the boy by his collar and put him back in his seat, "Sit down, stop being a chatterbox."

"What does 'chatterbox' mean?" The boy pouted at him, "Is it like kissing?"

Qin You chuckled, bent his jade-like fingers, and lightly tapped on the boy's forehead, "Ask your dad when you get home."