Lin Wenwen traveled to a few places in a row and purchased over a thousand kilograms of catmint. Every time, she asked someone to drive her and the catmint to a remote area, then secretly put it into her space. Apart from the catmint, she had also bought quite some seeds to plant in her sister's space when she got back to the future. Her own space was only able to store things, as there was no water and soil for plants to grow.
As she asked, Dong Lijia didn't let the bodyguards follow her. It would be inconvenient for her to put things into her space with the bodyguards following her everywhere. Therefore, the guards were all sent back to the family's mansion.
A few days later, Lin Wenwen returned to Dong Family. The apocalypse would come in less than seventy days. After coming home, she continued losing weight for Dong Xinxin's body. After the training that she had done in the past tens of days, she now felt that her body had grown some muscles. Her body was no longer as soft and weak as the first day.
Recently, she had dreams every night. What she saw in her dreams were mostly the post-apocalyptic scenes. She saw sands all over the sky, deserted, empty cities, dark, cloudy sky, broken, messy buildings and streets. She also saw zombies with twisted faces and rotten skins slowly wandering all over the world, and the mutated beasts flashing across mutated woods by the roadsides.
Countless images that were familiar and strange to her at the same time overlapped in her mind. Because of those, she woke up upset every single morning. Normally, only in the afternoon would she feel slightly better.
"What's happening to you lately? You seem more and more upset since you came back…" During lunch, Dong Lijia looked at Lin Wenwen and couldn't help but ask her.
"Yeah. You look sallow these days. I… something wrong with Xinxin's body?" Hearing Dong Lijia's question, Mrs. Dong dropped her chopsticks and looked at her daughter too.
Earlier, Mr. and Mrs. Dong were told that another soul was existing in Dong Xinxin's body. After spending so many days processing that, they finally managed to accept it. Facing a totally strange person who wore their daughter's skin, Mr. and Mrs. Dong felt utterly weird. However, they still cared for her. That was their daughter's body after all.
To them, Lin Wenwen was like another personality of their daughter. They could not ignore her completely.
"Em, I'm fine. I haven't been sleeping well lately. Xinxin is fine. She's healthy. Oh, she asked me to tell you guys that she's much better now. She might be able to take turns with me to control this body soon. Your daughter will come back to you," Lin Wenwen, who was eating in a daze, spend a few seconds to realize that the questions were for her.
"So… Are you going to leave soon?" Mr. Dong looked at her and asked.
"I'm not sure," Lin Wenwen shook her head and said, "I haven't even figured out what happened to me yet. Maybe I'll have to wait longer."
Dong Lijia and his parents looked at each other, then nodded and continued eating their food.
After lunch, Lin Wenwen spent a short while strolling in the backyard. While she was walking, everything suddenly turned black, and then she felt the world turning upside down. The two bodyguards who were following not far away behind her both rushed up to her when she fell.
"Miss. Dong!" They found Dong Xinxin passed out with her eyes closed tight.
Lin Wenwen felt being dazzled, and then she saw a room. The room had no window or door. The walls, floor, and ceiling all had a weird texture, not like something often seen at all. The room was only tens of meters square, completely empty. A woman was lying in the middle of the room.
The moment Lin Wenwen saw the woman, she felt a suction force coming from her. In the next second, she was pulled into the woman's body.
It was her own body; that was the first thought that popped in her mind.
However, after entering her own body, she still couldn't wake up. She sensed energy waves from her brain, then felt as if something was trying to surge out of her head. Only letting that something out might make her feel better.
Eh? Was she upgrading?
That feeling wasn't strange to her; that was a sign of upgrading. However, in order to make the breakthrough, she needed a good amount of energy coming from the outside. Therefore, she immediately took a level-three beast nucleus out of her space and held it to absorb it.
Dong Xinxin woke up to find the ceiling that she was looking different from before. It was no longer blurry, but so clear. Before, she saw the world like how people saw a 3D movie without the glasses. The things she saw were flat, blurry, unreal. But now, everything she saw was so clear and real.
What did that mean?
Dong Xinxin's eyes instantly glowed. In the next second, she felt her body and limbs. She turned and looked at her parents and brother, then hurriedly sat up.
The three were looking at her nervously. Seeing her wake up, they said to her with concern, "How are you feeling? Are you alright…?"
Before they could finish, Dong Lijia suddenly sat up and put her arms around Dong Lijia, who was right by the bedside, and burst in tears, "Brother! I'm back! Ah…"
Dong Lijia was startled by her sudden movement and loud cry. But then, upon hearing her words and sensing her tone, he stopped short and lowered his head to look at Dong Xinxin with surprise.
"Xi-Xinxin?"
Dong Xinxin raised her head to look at him with tearful eyes as she bit her lip and nodded quickly. Seeing that look on her face which couldn't be more familiar to him, Dong Lijia got a little choked up as well.
Mr. and Mrs. Dong glanced at each other with surprise, then realized what had happened.
After giving Dong Lijia a hug, Dong Xinxin pushed him away, then lifted the blanket and got off the bed to hug her mother.
"Mom, it's me. I'm back… This is so great. I can finally hold you guys. You are all alive…"
Mrs. Dong automatically held her. She had been affected by Dong Xinxin's strong emotions. She patted her daughter's back and comforted her, "There, there, don't cry. What do you mean that we're all alive? Haven't we all been fine?"
At that point, Dong Xinxin finally calmed down a little. She realized that she was a little too emotional. She adjusted herself and wiped the tears off her face, then sobbed and said, "Em, no… You… You died after the apocalypse. Everyone else died… Only Luo Yuanjun and I survived at last…"