"Brother, do you think she's really dead?"
"Yes. Father said that no breathe, no life."
"That's great! Then brother and I won't be sold."
Before Su Ying could open her eyes, she heard two young voices.
She struggled, pulled her eyelids open a slit, and saw two dirty and thin children. They were so thin, that the beautiful phoenix eyes on their tiny faces looked huge.
What was going on? Did she survive the explosion of her battleship?
While she was wondering, her head suddenly throbbed with pain. A memory that did not belong to her suddenly entered her mind.
Su Ying had never expected that the explosion of the battleship would force her into a space-time gap, allowing her spirit body to transmigrate to an alien country – Chu, in a parallel dimension.
And she was now on the road to exile.
Su Ying opened her eyes fully and saw the two children jumping and running away in fear.
"Waah! Save me, father! The evil woman has woken up again."
"Don't be afraid, sister. I'll protect you."
Su Ying was speechless.
In her memory, she learned that the original owner of the body, also named Su Ying, was the eldest daughter, born of the original wife of Chu's Prime Minister. She was raised by her stepmother into a fool over the years and was deceived by a scumbag man. As a result, her husband and twins were exiled to the northern wilderness.
On the road to exile, the silver that the body's original owner smuggled had been used up. The woman couldn't stand the hunger anymore and wanted to sell her two children for money. However, when she went to take the children, she was pushed down during the struggle. Her head hit the ground, and she died.
Su Ying spat on the ground and cursed in her heart: "Served her right."
Su Ying stood up. Whenever she was in an unfamiliar environment, she habitually observed the domain first. She was surrounded by exiled prisoners and a few bailiffs who were eating dried meat not far off.
The prisoners could only stare at the food. They only had one meal a day, and the dry food ration was so hard it was difficult to bite. Even so, a fist-sized piece was enough to make the hungry prisoners' eyes shine.
"Erh."
She felt a sharp pain in her head. She reached out and wiped the back of her head. Her palm was wet, but the bleeding had stopped. It was not a big issue for the time being.
The injuries she had endured on the battlefield in the past were much more severe than this. Su Ying didn't pay much attention. She tore a piece of cloth from her clothing and wrapped the wound up.
Su Ying saw the two children hiding under a big tree. A man lied there too. She could not tell if he was dead or alive.
She walked over, and the children trembled in fear at the sight of her. Their tiny faces were pale as they tightly clutched the man's sleeve.
"You… you evil woman. Don't come over." The elder son, Ji, showed extreme determination on his small, dirty face. His tiny body shielded in front of his sister, Ling. Even though he was petrified, he showed no intention of backing down.
The younger child Ling was so afraid that her voice choked: "Father… father, wake up quickly. The evil woman is going to harm us."
Scenes of how the body's original owner treated the two children harshly kept flashing through Su Ying's mind. The children should have grown up in luxury and ease, but they were treated inhumanely.
The body's original owner planned to sell the two children for two taels of silver. Where they were, one tael of silver could be exchanged for three days' worth of dry food ration from the bailiffs. In this circumstance, why would others want to exchange a few days' worths of food for two children?
Su Ying saw a man who was staring at her from not far away. The blood at the corner of his mouth was still visible. The child who had been with him two days ago was not seen.
Children were swapped and eaten.
She had been in a military camp during the apocalypse and was used to bloody and brutal fighting. But she did not expect to encounter such a situation here.
Su Ying looked at the fear and determination in the children's eyes and felt touched. They reminded her of herself when she was young and was thrown into the ruthless refinery.
"I won't sell you."
"You are lying! You said that before and then you almost sold my sister!
Su Ying suddenly remembered the scene: The day before yesterday when the body's original owner tricked her younger daughter into going under a tree with half a piece of dry food and was about to hand her over to a man.
Su Ying had had enough and couldn't even be bothered to despise the body host.
She looked down at the man on the ground. He was her cheap husband, Prince Qi of Chu, Xiao Jin.
His long hair was a mess, covering a pair of long brows, twisted into a deep frown. Without his eyes opening, Su Ying could imagine how deep his eyes were under those thin eyelids. His lips were tightly pursed under his tall nose, indicating he was in great pain.
Who would have thought that Prince Qi, who had great military exploits, would end up in such a wretched state?
Su Ying squatted down and realized that his legs were the most severely injured. They were a bloody mess, releasing a rotten smell from under his dirty and torn clothes.
She stretched her hand out and was about to check on his injuries but was grabbed tightly by two small hands.
It was the elder child, Ji.
"What are you going to do to father? Don't you dare touch father!"
The battle in the apocalypse required speed, which shaped her impatient temper. Her eyebrows twitched. But when she was met with tears in those big eyes, the fire in her heart was instantly extinguished.
"I wanted to check the injuries in his body. He will die if he is not treated in time."
Although the two children were young, they had experienced more than their peers. Along the road of exile, they gained a deep understanding of what death meant.
"I don't want father to die. Father can't die." Ling's sounded like she was crying.
"Don't cry. I won't let him die." Su Ying tried her best to sound gentle, but the children wouldn't believe her.
"It was all because of you, you evil woman. If it weren't for you, father wouldn't have been injured." Ling held back her tears. Her big eyes were full of accusations.
Su Ying blushed with shame. When Xiao Jin was seriously injured and lost consciousness on the battlefield, 'she' had taken advantage of that time to hide the false evidence slandering Xiao Jin for cooperation with the enemy in his study, where they were found right away. If not for that, Xiao Jin wouldn't have been wrongly imprisoned.
It was useless to think about those now. The most important thing at present was to deal with Xiao Jin's injuries. Otherwise, he would meet with ghosts soon.
Su Ying broke free from those tiny hands and started to check the wounds in Xiao Jin's legs.
The children stared at Su Ying warily in case she would do anything to harm their father.
Su Ying lifted the rag on Xiao Jin's legs and realized that the injuries were more severe than they looked. While the fatal wounds were in the legs, there were other damages of various sizes in his body.
When examining, Su Ying suddenly felt heat on her wrist. She looked down and found a wooden bangle with a strange totem suddenly appearing on her empty wrist. She widened her eyes in shock. Wasn't this her storage space?
In the post-apocalyptic world, a lot of resources were extremely scarce. Except for the strong development of medicine, food was mainly in short supply. Therefore, she would store necessary items in the storage space when she had nothing to do in preparation for an emergency. She did not expect that this thing would follow her into this world.
Su Ying looked around and walked behind a tree. Then she triggered the mechanism in her bracelet and entered the space.
A white light flashed, and the space appeared in front of her. There were all kinds of things on the neatly arranged shelves. She walked around the shelves and opened another door, which stored medical supplies.
She took out some medicine and gauze from a small drawer, came out, and took two pieces of compressed biscuits that looked like dry food ration from the shelf before leaving.
When she came out, she didn't see the two children. She didn't think much about it and first treated Xiao Jin's injuries.
Su Ying was about to make a move when she felt a murderous gaze on her. She raised her head warily and met a pair of deep, dark eyes.