The roosters in the yard started cock-a-doodle-dooing before sunrise.

Gu Yan slowly opened her eyes and looked at the paper mâché ceiling made with newspapers and old calendars.¹ Her eyes were still bleary.

Zhang Lan lifted the curtain door and whacked Gu Yan, who was still lying in the heatable-brick bed, with a feather duster.

"Gu Yan, you damn girl. You're still not up and making breakfast? Are you trying to starve the entire family to death?!"

Gu Yan avoided the feather duster subconsciously.

She moved her body and became wide-awake. She remembered that she had been reborn.

Reborned at the time when she was eighteen and hurt her leg in a fall.

Leg…

Gu Yan gently moved her leg under the blanket. To her surprise, she realized that her knee didn't hurt at all.

Her leg could really move freely?!

Zhang Lan grew angrier when she saw her still lying in bed, hemming and hawing, still not going to make breakfast.

She lifted the blanket and cursed, "Damned girl,don't think for a second that you can slack off just because you hurt your leg. You only hurt your leg; you didn't break it. Hurry up and work for me right now!"

Gu Yan lowered her eyes and answered quietly.

She put on a pair of washed-out army green trousers and a faded T-shirt.

Her movements were slow. She walked with a limp after she climbed out of bed.

Zhang Lan snorted after Gu Yan stepped outside.

That woke Gu Moli up, who was still in dreamland on the heatable brick bed. She complained, "Mom, why are you yelling so early in the morning? So annoying; I can't even sleep."

"My sweet Moli, sleep a little more. Mom will call you once breakfast is ready."

"Okay, okay. It must be my terrible luck sleeping in the same room as Gu Yan!"

Gu Moli muttered something and rolled over to the other side of the bed. She covered her body with a blanket and dozed off again.

The corners of Gu Yan's lips turned upwards mockingly as she overheard their conversation in the room.

In her previous life, she never understood why Zhang Lan's entire family never treated her right. No love from either one of her parents, ostracized by her younger sister, and bullied by her older brother.

Gu Yan finally understood at the time of her death. It was all because she was not Zhang Lan and Gu Dagang's biological daughter!

No wonder Zhang Lan was so great at abusing another person's child!

Gu Yan stopped thinking and gathered a bundle of corn stalks in front of the brick fire pit.

She quickly cooked up some food in the wok. The flames in the fire pit toasted her delicate face.

Gu Yan was extremely curious. How come my leg healed so fast?

She remembered that in her previous life, her leg took almost two months to heal, and that left a bad lingering effect.

Although her bones were fine, she still hit her knees very hard and damaged the periosteum.

Later on, Gu Yan became a military doctor and learned that this kind of damage was irreversible.

But now… why doesn't it hurt at all?

As she pondered, a burning sensation came from her chest, which made Gu Yan take out the jade pendant on a red string that she always wore around her neck.

The jade pendant was droplet-shaped, pointy on top and round on the bottom. The size was twice the size as a thumbnail, and Gu Yan wore it since she was little. Because it was so plain and dull-looking, it looked like it was worth no more than a few yuan, so Zhang Lan and her family never really wanted anything to do with this jade pendant.

Gu Yan didn't even know where this jade pendant came from. The only thing she knew was that she had been wearing this jade pendant ever since she was a little girl.

Gu Yan remembered that she seemed to have seen this jade pendant right before she died in her previous life!

But that shouldn't be. Every single one of her belongings had been taken away when she was thrown in jail.

Gu Yan lowered her head and studied it carefully. She vaguely saw a dim light flickering in this plain and pristine jade pendant, as if there was a creature moving inside. It felt like a seedling was about to emerge from the soil.

Gu Yan rubbed her eyes and looked at it again. Nothing was there anymore. It returned to an ordinary, simple jade pendant.

How bizarre!

Just then, a figure dashed to Gu Yan's side and screamed.

It scared Gu Yan so much that she almost jumped!