1968, the Rowan household.

"Mom! We're both daughters of the Rowan family, so why can Natalie marry Damian Carter and I can’t? I don’t care! I’m not marrying anyone else but Damian in this lifetime!"

"Isabella! If you want to marry into the Carter family, just tell me straight. But look what you’ve done to Natalie! How am I supposed to explain this to your dad? You’re so reckless!"

"I... It’s just that I can’t stand her clinging to Damian all the time, okay? Mom, please help me. I really like Damian!"

"Your dad listens to you the most—can’t you talk to him? Make Natalie give up on Damian for me, please?"

In the living room, the voices of two women bounced back and forth. Their chatter rushed straight into Natalie Rowan’s ears as she lay on the bed.

The noise made her head throb, her ears ache.

Was it because she hadn’t heard human voices in so long and her body just wasn’t used to it? Or was it something else entirely?

Natalie tried moving, but pain stabbed through her body.

It felt like someone had taken her apart and clumsily stitched her back together.

She could still remember the end of the world she once lived in, her spatial abilities, her wood-based powers—how everything had seemed so straightforward for her.

The whole of humanity had been wiped out, yet she had still survived. Even her pets—both the cat and dog—had died of old age, yet she was still alive.

Heaven be merciful, because it turned out that being the last one standing wasn’t something to smile about.

The whole world was a wreck, and she was the only one left, utterly alone.

No one to talk to, no one to keep her company. All she did was eat, sleep, and repeat, losing track of time entirely.

She read every book in her space, even the one on traditional Chinese medicine that was the hardest to get through.

But so what?

She crammed her head full of medical knowledge, but there was no one to treat. It was suffocatingly, mind-numbingly boring.

That’s right—she literally died of boredom.

Now, Natalie Rowan was lying in bed, her head feeling like a lead weight.

Her body ached all over, and unfamiliar memories were swirling chaotically in her mind.

After a long while, she finally made sense of what was going on.

She had transmigrated—into a book she once read, a period novel, as the cannon fodder character with the same name as hers.

This was the 1960s, a time when food and clothes were scarce, and life was tough.

But honestly, Natalie felt pretty cheerful about it.

She was no longer completely alone and had finally joined a time where there were other people.

Even if some of them were monstrous characters, she was just glad to be here. She had her space ability in hand, so no worries about going hungry. Plus, with those awful people to mess with, wasn't this just perfect?

She was practically thrilled.

Natalie Rowan wanted to jump right out of bed and burst into laughter!

But as soon as she moved, pain shot through her whole body.

Her leg was broken—thanks to the original Natalie.

The memory of the storyline came back to her. Yesterday, at the supply and marketing cooperative, the original Natalie had spotted the male lead, Damian Carter, and tried to catch up with him.

But Isabella Rowan pretended to trip and pushed her into the road, where she got hit by a passing jeep.

The original Natalie passed out on the spot, her leg broken. She was sent to the hospital for treatment.

Now, her stepmother, Marilyn Gardner, had brought her home on the excuse that hospital conditions were bad.

It was all part of their plan—to ensure her leg developed a permanent injury.

And sure enough, in the novel, the original Natalie's leg became infected from lack of proper care, leaving her crippled.

She walked with a limp and was looked down upon by the Carter family, allowing Isabella to swoop in and marry Damian.

To add insult to injury, her stepmother convinced her father to send her to the countryside.

Even then, those two didn’t stop. They hired thugs to ruin her reputation there. From then on, everyone in the brigade started calling her a loose woman, a seductress. All the village thugs came to bully her.

Later, the original Natalie Rowan was forced into marriage by one of those thugs, an old, ugly, lazy man who claimed he was being "responsible."

He treated her like a baby-making machine and a live-in maid.

In the end, she was tortured to death by that thug and his family.

Her eldest brother, Alexander Rowan, was killed during a mission after losing focus upon hearing of her death. The person who delivered the news was none other than Isabella Rowan.

After that, her second brother, Sebastian Rowan, found out the truth about his sister’s death. He exacted revenge by killing the thug and his family, even going back to take care of Marilyn Gardner.

Unfortunately, Isabella Rowan had the main character’s luck on her side. Sebastian couldn’t kill her and ended up getting shot in the head by her instead.

She claimed it was self-defense, got away with murder, and continued living her charmed life without facing any consequences.

At this moment, Marilyn Gardner and Isabella Rowan were outside chatting, leaving her alone in the room.

For now, the house only had Natalie Rowan, Marilyn Gardner, and the youngest brother, Benjamin Rowan. Benjamin Rowan was Marilyn Gardner's kid with Natalie's so-called stepdad, and he was fifteen this year, a freshman in high school. He only came home after school in the afternoons.

As for Natalie's dad, he’d been stationed at the army base for years and hardly ever showed up at home.

Her older brothers, Alexander and Sebastian Rowan, had basically given up on the family after their mom passed. They didn’t even bother finishing high school—just enlisted in the army as soon as they graduated middle school.

Thinking about it all, Natalie couldn’t help but find it ridiculously absurd.

Her two brothers had figured out what kind of woman their stepmother was ages ago.

Turned out, Marilyn was actually their dad’s first girlfriend. Isabella, the girl she brought into the family, was his biological daughter. And she was the same age as Natalie.

It wasn’t hard to connect the dots—her dad had been cheating on their mom long before she died.

Alexander and Sebastian even suspected that their stepmom had something to do with their mom’s death.

But the original Natalie just refused to believe them and let Marilyn boss her around completely.

To be fair, Natalie’s birth mom passed away when she was just three. When Marilyn married into the family, she acted so saintly in front of everyone—playing the perfect, caring mother. Even fooled everyone in the housing complex.

Back then, little Natalie had been desperate for motherly love. It made sense she saw Marilyn as her real mom.

In hindsight, it was all just a sad mess. The thing that Natalie Rowan just couldn't wrap her head around was how the original owner of this body had been so naive all these years. Seriously, how could she not see through that fake and manipulative stepmother, Marilyn Gardner?

Unbelievable.

Both her brothers, Alexander and Sebastian Rowan, had tried telling her again and again that Marilyn wasn’t a good person. Before leaving to join the army, they even planned to send her to their grandmother’s place to keep her safe.

But the original owner? Stubborn as a mule. Not only did she refuse to listen, but she even lashed out at her two brothers, yelling at them like they were enemies. The icing on the cake? She’d declared, “Say one more bad word about my mom, and we’re done as siblings!”

Heartbroken, the brothers left, practically gnashing their teeth as they went to serve in the military.

The most ridiculous part? Even in her final moments, the original owner still didn’t wake up. She adored Isabella Rowan, the very person who was the cause of her death, like a beloved little sister.

Now lying on the bed, Natalie winced as pain coursed through her body. Her broken leg wrapped in a cast? A special kind of agony. She shifted her gaze around the room, her eyes landing on the potted plant sitting by the bedside table.

—That was no innocent houseplant. Marilyn had deliberately placed a toxic plant there.

Natalie let out a cold, silent laugh. For the original owner, sure, that plant would’ve been deadly. But for her? It was just another ordinary shrub.

She reached out gingerly, brushing her fingers across the leaves. Instantly, a rush of energy surged through her, flowing through every inch of her meridians.

Just as she thought, her wood-based abilities had crossed over with her.Natalie Rowan finally felt much better; her leg didn’t hurt as much anymore.

She was curious if her precious space had come along with her. If it did, had anything changed?

With a single thought, she entered the space to check it out.

Before her appeared a two-story villa.

Sure enough, the space had followed her here.

Everything inside was intact—some supplies she had bought early on before the apocalypse, others she had outright taken.

Every room in the house was packed to the brim. Three large freezers were crammed with seafood and meat, while the shelves outside were stacked with dried food, fruit, and grains.

Everyday necessities were fully stocked—it had everything she could possibly need.

Back in the apocalypse, Natalie had relied on this space to stash anything useful she could find. She took everything, leaving nothing behind.

Her consciousness roamed through the entire villa before pausing at the rooftop garden.

The fruits and vegetables she had planted were thriving, a lively green stretching out before her. Figs and grapes were already bearing fruit, nearly ready to harvest.

Looking down from the rooftop, she spotted several vehicles in the yard: an RV, a specially modified Hummer, and an off-road vehicle.

In a corner were even two electric bikes.Outside, the open space was stacked with everything from yachts, boats, helicopters, to even an escape pod.

Lying on the bed, Natalie Rowan couldn’t help but feel pleased. With all this stuff, she could easily live a carefree life here for over a decade.

Why not for a lifetime?

Because even though things in the space wouldn’t go bad, except for the fruits and veggies growing on the rooftop, the rest of the supplies would only dwindle. After all, most of the food had been used up back in the apocalypse, leaving only about thirty percent now.

Besides, she didn’t have any money or ration tickets in this era.

If she wanted to live comfortably and keep her secrets hidden, she’d have to figure out a way to get some cash and tickets.

While Natalie was busy planning her future, the mother-daughter duo outside was hatching their own schemes.

"Now that Natalie’s leg is messed up, we’ll just have to use this as a chance to get the Carters to switch brides. A high-ranking family like the Carters would never accept a cripple as their daughter-in-law."