Chapter 1

June 16, 3018!

Seven months until the apocalypse.

It was also Hannah Young’s third day back after her rebirth.

"Miss Young, the drinks you ordered for this afternoon are in your trunk."

Wayne Dean carried three large crates of drinks into the trunk of the white SUV outside the shop. He slammed the trunk shut, then spoke to Hannah as she came out.

"Great, thanks! You can leave early today. I saw your girlfriend waiting over there."

Hannah patted Wayne’s shoulder, then winked at the young woman seated in the shop's corner.

"Hehe, thanks, Miss Young."

Wayne scratched his head sheepishly.

Hannah drove away from the juice bar and parked beneath a roadside tree.

She got out of the driver’s seat, opened a rear door, and leaned inside.

She reached out and touched one of the crates.

All three crates, with 120 drinks inside, instantly vanished from the trunk!

Drinks like these tasted best fresh.

She needed to put them in her storage space as soon as possible to preserve their flavor.

The drinks she’d just stored were too tempting.

Hannah took a cup of orange juice back out of her storage space.

She took a sip through the straw.

The orange juice was icy cold, sweet, and a little tart. One sip left Hannah feeling refreshed from head to toe.

Hannah was a dance student.

In her previous life, she watched her figure so carefully that she barely allowed herself an extra bite of anything high in calories, let alone sweet drinks or desserts.

Now, keeping her figure was no longer a priority.

Her only dream in this life was to survive the apocalypse and live well.

She would enjoy everything she could while she was alive. Everything else could go to hell.

Despite the respectful way Wayne addressed her, Hannah was actually two years younger than him.

She was only twenty-one, a sophomore in college.

Hannah owned a juice bar, which she opened almost a year ago.

She opened it near the college district during the second semester of her freshman year, and business was decent.

One reason she chose a juice bar was that it was easy to get started and required little technical expertise.

The college district provided a steady stream of customers, so earning enough to cover her living expenses was no problem.

Another reason was the substantial inheritance her parents left her. She wanted to use some of that money to earn an income instead of gradually spending it all.

After her rebirth, Hannah kept the shop open and even hired four more college students to work part-time. Otherwise, the staff simply couldn’t keep up.

The shop still served customers, but she disabled all delivery orders.

Whenever the six employees weren’t serving customers in the shop, they devoted all their time to preparing assorted drinks.

They made one batch in the morning and another in the afternoon, with an evening batch if time allowed. The daily total depended on how much time they had.

Even so, they usually managed at least four or five hundred drinks a day.

The apocalypse was still seven months away. Even if she couldn’t stock up every day, the total would be considerable.

Hannah drove over to collect every batch herself.

She didn’t even need an excuse. She owned the shop.

Once she started asking the staff to prepare drinks in bulk every day, Hannah doubled everyone’s pay.

They were delighted and asked no questions. They simply assumed their boss secured a large client herself.

Before she left, Hannah specifically told the other employees to prepare another batch that evening if they had time.

She would be back to collect it that night.

It was almost evening now.

Her aunt called that morning and invited her home for dinner since it was Sunday.

Hannah remembered the same invitation from her previous life. She accepted it then and ended up buying Miles Warren a tablet.

He wanted a tablet?

In his dreams!

Hannah drove steadily, and traffic was light, so she reached Crownview Apartments in half an hour.

She parked in the underground garage.

Hannah sat in the car for two minutes and carefully buried her hatred for May Shaw’s family, along with her urge to kill them.

Only then did she open the door and get out.

Hannah lived in Unit 503, Building 6.

She walked straight from the garage to Building 6’s elevator.

By the time she pressed the button for the fifth floor, she felt calm again.

She even wore a faint smile.

At Unit 503, Hannah unlocked the front door with her key.

The door swung open with a clang.

Inside, Sherry Warren and her younger brother, Miles, sprawled across the living room sofa without a care in the world.

They ate chips, watched television, and scattered trash everywhere.

They acted as if the place belonged to them!

"Hannah, you’re back! Mom keeps talking about you. She says you’re on break, but you never come home."

Miles sprang off the sofa as soon as he saw her.

He ran over and greeted her sweetly.

May heard him and poked her head out of the kitchen.

"Why didn’t you ring the bell? You went to all the trouble of opening the door yourself!"

"Why would I ring the bell to enter my own home? Or do you think I’m a guest, Aunt May?"

Hannah still smiled, but the smile never reached her eyes. Anyone who looked closely could have seen the chill beneath it.

May froze at Hannah’s words and did not answer right away.

Jeremy Warren came out of the bathroom just then. He heard Hannah from the entryway and immediately demanded, for reasons she could not fathom.

"Hannah, is that any way to speak to your aunt? She does so much for you. She treats you just as well as Sherry and Miles. Has someone been filling your head with gossip?"

Gossip?

If they had done nothing to wrong her, why were they so afraid of what someone might say?

And he made it sound as though Hannah had nowhere to live and came begging for a place in their home. They were the ones living in hers!

How could she have been so foolish in her previous life?

The signs of their greed were there all along.

After she lost her parents, she let her aunt’s affection blind her to them.

Hannah watched Jeremy walk toward her and clenched the hand she kept in her pocket.

Her nails dug into her palm, but she barely noticed.

"Uncle Jeremy, it’s been a long time. What have you been busy with lately?"

Hannah still smiled, and her voice remained gentle. She sounded just like her usual self.

Yet something about the way she looked at Jeremy made his skin crawl. He could not say why.

"I was away on business, so I haven’t been home in a while. Don’t change the subject, Hannah. Did someone tell you something that made you speak to your aunt like that? Apologize to her!"

Jeremy strode toward her.

From his accusing tone, anyone would think Hannah wronged his entire family.

Jeremy always behaved this way.

At home, he treated everyone as beneath him and acted like the head of the household.

In the past, May always stepped in to smooth things over.

Only after the apocalypse did Hannah realize the two of them were just alike. One played the good cop, the other the bad cop, and together they made a fool of her.

May was busy playing her part too!

She tugged at Jeremy’s sleeve and said, "It’s all right. We’re family."

At the same time, she gave Hannah a wounded look, as though Hannah truly did something to hurt her.