Rebirth in Famine: She Thrives by Lucky Space

Ever since she crossed over, nothing had made her comfortable, but today she finally let out the pent-up anger in her heart.

Previously, she would see a black and skinny classmate who was slightly less attractive than her (in her own opinion, though her classmate had found a boyfriend in college while she remained single), yet this person was carefree. She used to wonder, why was she so confident?

Now she finally understood that living without regard for anything was indeed liberating.

Thinking about her past life brought tears to her eyes. She hailed from a rural village in the North, where her parents had given birth to her at eighteen. Dreaming of life elsewhere, they left to work in the South when she was just a hundred days old.

Jiang Xinyu’s parents were quite good-looking; her mother was the epitome of a girl-next-door beauty, while her dad, despite his average looks, had a tall and well-built physique. However, Jiang Xinyu turned out to be an anomaly.

Jiang Xinyu looked at her grandmother sitting opposite her, who bore an eighty-percent resemblance to herself, and realized she had inherited her traits from a generation skipping her parents.

When she was one, her parents divorced, mainly because they couldn’t resist external temptations at such a young age, and both cheated.

Her dad fared slightly better, as a wealthy woman around her grandmother’s age took him in, mainly because of his physical endurance.

Her mom got involved with a big boss who was old enough to be her grandfather.

The two reached a mutual agreement and swiftly divorced. Initially, her mom would still send milk powder and money monthly to little Jiang Xinyu.

But when her mom returned ”in glory” when Jiang Xinyu was two and saw the daughter she hadn’t envisioned, she went silent thereafter.

Her dad was even more lax; he’d send money when he had it, but there could be gaps of two or three months without word.

Thus, Jiang Xinyu grew until she was three. The village kids didn’t want to play with her, calling her ugly, and even then, Jiang Xinyu felt a sense of inferiority.

She’d stay inside all day as her grandparents went to the mountains and fields, locking her at home.

At that time, Jiang Xinyu was black and skinny; if seen at night, she might scare someone. So, nobody liked her or wanted to play with her. Her uncles and aunts treated her as if she were air.

The family children bullied her, but perhaps because she never complained due to her inferiority complex, they felt bullying her wasn’t fun. So, they copied the adults and ignored her.

Supposedly, she resembled her grandmother, so her grandmother should have liked her, but in reality, it was the opposite; her grandmother disliked seeing her mirror reflection.

By age six, it was time for her to start elementary school. Her dad finally came through once, specifically calling to ensure Jiang Xinyu went to school.

In the rural elementary school, there was a class of over thirty kids. She was the odd one out, and nobody wanted to look at her. The girl next to her was so frightened she had nightmares, and her family demanded the teacher change her seat.

Thus, six-year-old Jiang Xinyu began six years of occupying a double desk all alone.

Her grades were decent and usually among the top because she couldn’t be distracted to the point of going astray.

These were minor issues, just childhood tests, but what was most unbearable was when she entered middle school; bad luck, misfortune sought her out.

From small incidents like tripping and spraining her ankle, choking on food, and coughing after drinking water, to major ones like cars losing control or street fights.

In her three years of middle school, Jiang Xinyu was on edge every day without fail. Because she was always anxious, her grades didn’t match her elementary school performance but were still okay – ranking within the top fifty of a class of 560.

Yet, she never became class monitor, a Youth League member, or a ’Three Good’ student – nobody ever elected her.

By the time she graduated middle school at fifteen, Jiang Xinyu had already become a young lady, though at home she was invisible. Her grandparents didn’t like her, though they didn’t skimp on her food.

So, at fifteen, Jiang Xinyu was already 165 cm tall, inheriting her mother’s figure, with a girl’s curves starting to form.

Her self-consciousness kept her head down, making her slightly slouched, which detracted significantly from her physique.

She got into the city’s First High School, earning her family’s attention. Her dad was thrilled, even though he hadn’t graduated elementary school, because his daughter’s grades were so good he asked his boss for leave to see her.

But misfortune struck – on his return trip, her biological dad got into a car accident, spending six months in the hospital.

Thus, any chance of competing for favor was gone, so he resented Jiang Xinyu, thinking she was the cause, destined to harm him.

Therefore, in front of the family, he severed ties with Jiang Xinyu.

At the time, Jiang Xinyu stood in front of her dad’s hospital bed with her head down, neither begging nor explaining.

Seeing his child like that only made Mr. Jiang angrier, so he genuinely cut off all financial support.

Jiang Xinyu had long anticipated this outcome, but when it truly arrived, she was rather calm.

She spent twenty yuan on an ice cream cooler box, rode her bike peddling ice cream. She refused to let lack of funds stop her schooling.

Though she was a dark-skinned girl, the wind and sun had darkened her skin even more.

Her grandmother, unable to watch anymore, said that after raising a cat or dog for so many years, she had developed feelings.

So, she told Jiang Xinyu not to go sell ice cream but stay home to study, promising to finance her education.

Jiang Xinyu only shook her head and declined. Though still reliant on her grandmother’s help, she wanted to be self-reliant.

Maybe bad luck forgot her, as she didn’t encounter any misfortune during those two summer months.

She earned two thousand yuan in two months. It wasn’t a small sum; it was enough for a year’s living expenses, tuition, and book fees.

The One High School required boarding, and Jiang Xinyu couldn’t be happier, eager for a new environment.

But this time, fate’s malice was even more apparent. Jiang Xinyu never had smooth sailing; as long as there was bad luck, she’d be in its midst.

Her grades were average, slightly better than typical girls, due to lack of external temptation.

She was still the odd one out in class with no friends; even her male deskmate disliked her.

Yet to Jiang Xinyu, these weren’t problems; she’d already become immune to such malice.

On holidays, she didn’t return home, working in the city, washing dishes, handing out flyers, cleaning – anything that paid.

She slogged through three years of high school. Though she didn’t get into a top school like 985 or 211, she was admitted to a good Southern college.

College also required tuition, but by then Jiang Xinyu no longer worried, having saved up ten thousand yuan.