Chapter 1
Rebirth
The hovercar stopped in front of the Imperial University dormitory building. The police had knocked on the door more than ten times, but Guo Miao didn’t respond.
The leading police officer violently tore down the door of Guo Miao’s house, and Guo Miao was lying lifelessly on the sofa in the living room. The room was filled with the smell of charcoal.
The pride of the Empire had chosen to commit suicide in the year 9980.
“Guo Miao, the woman who went from being an orphan to the greatest scientist, chemist, and inventor in our Empire. He chose to end his own life after the completion of his latest research.”
The news broadcaster reported the news with grief.
“She is a hero of our Empire. The drugs she developed became the exports that saved the Empire’s economy. It was she who gave our generation of young people the courage to continue fighting forward from an economic downturn. She is the faith of all of us.
“All citizens of the Empire, let us observe three minutes of silence for the passing of our faith.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing. The soldiers stationed on the planet, the primary school students who were studying via AI, the office workers sitting in the hovercars, and even the criminals working on the old-fashioned sewing machines all lowered their heads and mourned the hero’s departure.
And their hero was watching all of this in the form of a soul.
She looked at the place where she had worked and the orphanage where she had woken up. It had long become a Memorial Hall and was filled with stories of her life.
What they didn’t know was that Guo Miao wasn’t from this world. She was a soul that had transmigrated.
She had lost everything in her previous life, and it was already very fortunate that she got a second chance to live. When she transmigrated and became an orphan of the Empire, she vowed to do everything she can to live on.
The reason why she chose to commit suicide was that she had nobody left in this world.
She had no family, no lover, and no friends. The experiment she cared about the most had finally come to a conclusion, and she no longer had any attachment to this world.
Guo Miao closed her eyes and felt her consciousness dissipating. But at a certain moment, it regathered and traveled back a thousand years ago through the Time Tunnel.
His small hand hovered near her face as if he was trying to check if she was breathing.
The hand seemed to belong to a child who was still sobbing.
“It’s my fault. I asked Sister to climb the tree to pick the jujubes for me. Otherwise, Sister wouldn’t have fallen and fainted. Sister, don’t sleep anymore. Xuxu doesn’t want to eat jujubes anymore.”
‘Xuxu?’
Guo Miao’s consciousness gathered. She opened her eyes and looked at the child in front of her in disbelief.
She saw a small round face, almond-shaped eyes, and a small mole under one eye. Wasn’t this her brother, Guo Min?
Was she back in her previous life?
“Child, you’re awake?” Guo Fu walked over and gave the medicine to Guo Miao.
“Dad brewed the medicine for you. The old Chinese doctor in town said that you’re fine and that you’ve just been frightened. You’ll be fine after drinking the medicine. Hurry up and drink it.”
Guo Fu looked at Guo Miao, his eyes bloodshot.
In her previous life, Guo Miao had fallen from a tree while picking jujubes for her brother and had become unconscious for a day. Guo Fu had stayed by her side all night.
Thinking of the events of her previous life, Guo Miao shed tears.
“Dad, thank you.” This was all she could bring herself to say despite the thousands of words that came to her mind. The joy of being reborn in her previous life and the guilt she felt for her father made her cry.
“What’s there to thank me for? We’re family.” Guo Fu looked at her affectionately.
They were a family.
Guo Miao’s heart skipped a beat. She and Guo Fu were not really related.
She was the daughter of the richest man in Haicheng, the Guo family. Back then, Mrs. Guo, Cheng Yu, had been recuperating at the Dongyang Seaside Resort near Dongyang Village. When she went into labor the position of the fetus was not right, so she was brought to Dongyang County Hospital for surgery. On the same day, Guo Fu’s wife had also given birth in the Dongyang County Hospital.
The hospital facilities were shabby, and the nurses were careless. When the two children were bathing in the hospital, they were accidentally switched.
The current Guo family’s young miss, Guo Lin, was a fake, while she, Guo Miao, was the real young miss.
In her previous life, the Guo family had invested in a genetic testing program and conducted a genetic test on everyone in the family.
Several medical scientists found that Guo Lin’s genes were vastly different from the rest of the family, so they told the Guo family. Only then did they realize that the girl they had raised for so many years was not their biological daughter.
The Guo family mobilized all their forces and finally found Guo Miao in Dongyang.
Guo Miao’s father, Guo Fu, wanted his daughter to live a good life, so he agreed to let her return to the Guo family. He didn’t even take a single cent from the Guo family as compensation.
Just like that, Guo Miao returned to the rich and magnificent Guo family, bringing with her the simple and honest atmosphere of her hometown and her bookworm personality.
The fake daughter, Guo Lin, was different. She had been brought up in the Guo family all these years. She was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Other than her poor academic results, she was good at everything else. She could be considered the “first daughter” in Haicheng.
The Guo family looked at their smart and beautiful fake daughter. Compared to the country bumpkin’s real daughter, they were all biased toward the former.
Guo Miao was not valued in the Guo family and was ostracized by her classmates at school because of Guo Lin’s schemes. Her grades plummeted, and later, Guo Lin framed her for murder. In the end, she died in prison before she was 25 years old.
When she was in prison, only her adoptive father had come to visit her. However, because of her predicament, her adoptive father had fallen into depression and passed away early.
Guo Miao hated her life. When she woke up again as an orphan of the Empire, she would do everything she could to fight, work hard, and finally become the light of the Empire.
All these years seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye, but the pain and despair were deeply engraved in Guo Miao’s bones.
Perhaps the heavens had eyes and allowed her to return to this dilapidated seaside village to make up for all her regrets and eliminate all her bloody hatred.
She took the medicine and drank it in one gulp, ignoring the bitterness.
This time, she had to protect the ones she wanted and let those from the Guo family get the punishment they deserved.
On the other hand, the Guo family of Haicheng was in a different situation.
There were all kinds of exotic delicacies as well as exquisite desserts on the table. The young girl sitting in the main seat stared at the desserts on the table in a daze, her eyes filled with tears.
“Lin, don’t be sad. Mom won’t send you back to that poor and remote place in Dongyang. You are my daughter. How can I not want you?”
Guo Lin raised her eyes and looked at Cheng Yu, tears rolling down her face at that moment.
The young girl’s face was slightly red, and her eyes flickered. With such a sorrowful look, even a cold heart would be melted, let alone the parents and her brother of the Guo family who loved her.
“I know, Mom. I’ve made you worry, but I’m too embarrassed to stay at home. What right do I have to be your daughter?”