Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 337: Chapter 327: So That’s How It Is

Tang Mo didn’t even need to look. She knew just how fragile this new body was.

The burning discomfort in her stomach was especially telling. ’This body probably hasn’t eaten in days...’

Tang Mo sat up, took out a mirror, and carefully observed her current body.

Short, pale, and very thin, wearing a baggy, pink, logo-free hoodie.

Tang Mo recognized the pink hoodie. She had seen it before at a street stall run by a big celebrity, but that celebrity had claimed she’d spent tens of thousands and waited three months to buy it from overseas.

’This girl must be very rich.’

Tang Mo came to a conclusion.

The girl had a timid look, like a little white rabbit.

She was pretty, but not in a way Tang Mo liked.

In the apocalypse, girls like this were usually the first to die.

She was wearing a backpack. Tang Mo opened it and found a sketchbook inside. It was filled with many drawings. Although Tang Mo didn’t know much about art, she could tell that each piece was drawn with its own unique ideas and attitude. At the very least, she could feel something more from the drawings. Each one was marked with a date and a name at the bottom.

The name on every piece was Qiao Jin.

’Looks like this girl was an art student named Qiao Jin,’ Tang Mo thought.

Besides the sketchbook and a box of colored pencils, the bag also contained some miscellaneous items, mostly typical girlish things.

Tang Mo also found a phone in the bag. She turned it on. The WeChat screen showed only a single chat window, labeled ”Dad.”

Tang Mo tapped on the message. There was only one text, sent by Xiao Jin’s father.

[Xiao Jin, your mom’s illness is acting up again. Come back quickly.]

This was all the information the body could give her. Tang Mo sighed. No matter how dissatisfied she was with this body, she had to accept it.

’My body has changed, so my physical enhancements are definitely gone. There’s no point in thinking about that. But I wonder about my attribute values...’

Tang Mo focused on her sea of consciousness.

Her sea of consciousness was still there!

Even though she had a new body, it seemed her sea of consciousness had been transported over with her.

Tang Mo’s heart leaped with joy. ’What does this mean? It means all my attribute values are here!’

’If my attribute values were gone, wouldn’t that mean I fused all those Attribute Pearls for nothing?’

Satisfied, Tang Mo used her spiritual power to form various shapes.

’The attribute values are here, but what about my Space?’

Tang Mo subconsciously touched the necklace around her neck.

’Thank goodness, the necklace is still here.’

’Huh? Wait, why isn’t this necklace a Jade Pendant anymore?’

Tang Mo looked down. The pendant in her hand was clearly not her cute little Jade Pendant. It had become a small locket. Opening it revealed a static painting the size of a fingertip.

The painting depicted a family of three, exquisitely rendered with some unknown type of paint and a miniature brush.

The little girl in the middle was smiling happily. Tang Mo could tell it was Xiao Jin.

The two people beside her must have been Xiao Jin’s father and mother.

Xiao Jin must have painted this. Judging by the expressions on their faces, the family of three was very happy.

’So where’s my pendant?’

Tang Mo started to panic. Seeing how starved this body was, she knew this apocalypse must have something to do with hunger.

Without the supplies in her Space, she’d be helpless, no matter how capable she was.

However...

As Tang Mo was looking down at the unique locket in her hand, she suddenly noticed a small tattoo below her collarbone.

’A tattoo?’

’When did I get a tattoo? I don’t remember this at all.’

Taking a closer look, wasn’t that the pattern of her own little pendant?

It wasn’t just her little pendant; even the other spatial items she had absorbed later were perfectly replicated as tattoos on her body.

’Could it be...’

Tang Mo tried to connect to her Space.

It worked!

It seemed that because she had arrived in a parallel dimension and changed bodies, her accessories had turned into tattoos on her skin.

’And you know, this little tattoo is actually pretty cute.’

Knowing her Space was still usable, Tang Mo relaxed and began to admire her new tattoo.

She had always thought that having the pendant as a necklace was too insecure. Now that it was a tattoo, she was extremely satisfied.

’But if the pendant became a tattoo, what about the ID Watch?’

’I really don’t want a watch tattooed on my wrist!’

Tang Mo glanced at her wrist. Thankfully, the girl was already wearing an Apple Watch, and the ID Watch was nowhere to be found.

”Would you like to load Qiao Jin’s memories? Countdown in three seconds. 3...”

A voice suddenly appeared in Tang Mo’s mind.

But before Tang Mo could figure out what the voice was, it had already started counting down.

”Load!”

Was there any reason to hesitate? ’I’m a fish on the chopping block right now.’ At a time like this, she had to agree no matter what it said.

Afterward, a segment of memories appeared in Tang Mo’s mind.

No, ”appeared” didn’t seem quite right. It felt more like a sealed portion of existing memories had suddenly been unlocked.

It turned out that Qiao Jin was a ”rich second-generation” heir. Her family was extremely well-off, powerful and influential in their local area, and they were also very close-knit and happy.

Originally, Qiao Jin had been a cheerful and lively little girl who loved to laugh and play, but she was unfortunately kidnapped when she was seven years old.

Although she was later successfully rescued, those three dark days left the little girl with a deep psychological scar. From then on, the child became quiet and withdrawn, preferring to hole up in her room and draw. She would only smile when she was with her parents.

To protect their precious daughter, Mr. Qiao and Mrs. Qiao decided to have her hide her identity as much as possible from then on.

However, her education was a major issue. After overthinking it, Mr. Qiao and Mrs. Qiao made the wrong decision.

They sent Qiao Jin to an ultra-elite school. Given her family’s status, it should have been a perfect fit; few students there could have outranked her.

But under her disguise, Qiao Jin couldn’t reveal her family background, and she wasn’t the type to show off anyway.

How would a child from an ordinary family be treated in a school for the elite?

Tang Mo had seen it all before in teen idol dramas, especially for a girl like Qiao Jin, who didn’t smile, didn’t talk, and only knew how to draw.

Later, she suffered countless grievances at that school, things she could never speak of to outsiders.

The last straw, and the only time Qiao Jin truly cared, was when a girl pretending to be her friend secretly copied a painting she had spent a long time conceptualizing and won an award with it.

As a result, when the unsuspecting Qiao Jin submitted her painting, it became a joke.

Even though her artistic skill was superior, the two paintings had identical patterns, color schemes, and compositions, turning Qiao Jin into a laughingstock for everyone.