"Sometimes, rebirth is not a blessing—it's a warning."
They say when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.
Mine didn't.
All I saw were the cold, merciless faces of the people I trusted most—Zhou Han and Liu Yaqing.
Their eyes held no hesitation, no guilt, only selfish relief as they shoved me into the tide of zombies.
The tearing of my flesh.
The gnawing of rotten teeth.
The grotesque stench of decay filling my nostrils.
The agony of being ripped apart alive—every second etched into my soul.
That was how I died.
And yet, death was not the end.
When I opened my eyes again… there were no zombies. No blood. No screams.
Instead, I was greeted by the faint sound of a television playing in the background. The walls around me were old but familiar. The soft quilt covering me carried the faint fragrance of sun-dried laundry.
The warmth of home wrapped around me like a dream I had once begged Heaven for—yet could never reach again.
I shot up in bed, my body trembling violently. My throat was raw, as though the echo of screams still lingered there.
"Xiao Lan," I rasped, my voice cracking like broken glass, "can you… can you turn down the movie?"
The girl sitting cross-legged at the foot of my bed blinked in confusion, her round eyes wide.
"Jiejie? What's wrong? You're scaring me."
My heart stopped.
Feng Lan.
My little sister. Her cheeks still full, her eyes still bright with innocence. Alive. Breathing. Complaining like she always did.
But she had died so tragically in my last life. Sick and starved, too weak to even cry. I had dug her grave with my own hands, my tears falling into the cold earth as I buried her frail body.
And yet here she was.
Alive. Whole. Smiling.
Tears blurred my vision, spilling hot and fast down my cheeks. My lips trembled as I whispered, "I'm back… I'm really back."
The words clawed their way out of my throat, growing louder and louder until they tore into the silence like thunder.
"I'M BACK!"
Feng Lan's little hands fumbled with the blanket, her face paling. In a panic, she scrambled toward the door.
"Father! Mother! Jiejie has gone crazy!"
The door creaked open.
And there they were.
Feng Weiguo, my father—broad-shouldered, upright, his face stern but kind, the weight of responsibility carved into the lines at the corners of his eyes.
Li Hua, my mother—gentle as water, her hands calloused from endless work, her eyes soft yet sharp enough to see through my lies.
Alive. Both of them alive.
The sight broke me.
"Xinyue?" My father's voice was steady, though beneath it I heard the faint tremor of worry. "What happened? You've been shouting since you woke up."
I couldn't answer. My chest rose and fell rapidly, as though I had just sprinted across mountains. My eyes drank them in greedily, afraid they would vanish if I so much as blinked.
I reached out with shaking fingers, almost afraid that if I touched them, they would crumble into dust like a cruel illusion.
Finally, with great effort, I forced myself to speak.
"I'm fine, Dad. Just… give me a moment. I'll explain later."
I climbed down from the bed on unsteady legs, my knees trembling as if they no longer belonged to me. But my fists clenched tight, nails biting into my palms until pain grounded me in reality.
I was back. This was real.
Heaven… you've given me another chance.
In my past life, I was naive. I trusted too easily. I loved blindly. And I paid the price with my life and the lives of those dearest to me.
But this time, things would be different.
This time, I would not watch my family die one by one.
This time, I would not bow my head before betrayal.
This time, anyone who dared to harm us would pay with their life—blood for blood, tooth for tooth.
And most of all, this time… I carried a secret they didn't.
I knew the future.
The apocalypse would come in one month.
My name is Feng Xinyue.
And from this moment on—
I will seize fate by the throat.
I will carve my own path, no matter how much blood it takes.
I will live.
And I will make sure my family lives with me.