After the flood hit, every household was running short on food. As the owner of the supermarket, I dumped all the food from my warehouse into the floodwater. In my previous life, when the flood struck, my parents and I emptied our entire supermarket inventory to help the villagers. But the village chief’s daughter, Alyssa Johnson, led the charge in slandering me: “Your family runs such a big supermarket, you must be hoarding plenty of food!” Under her constant accusations, the villagers ransacked everything in our house. When they found a few boxes of instant spaghetti in a corner, everyone went crazy. I desperately tried to explain that the food had been soaked by floodwater and was inedible, but no one would listen. A mob of villagers threw things at me to vent their anger, cursing: “The packaging isn’t even broken, how can it be inedible? This whole family of scumbags deserves to drown!” In their rage, my parents and I were tied up and thrown into the floodwater. Even as I died, I regretted why I had been kind enough to save these bastards. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the flood. I heard my mother saying: “Fiona, when will this flood recede? It seems like the neighbors are almost out of food. Do you think we should take the supplies from the warehouse and…” I snapped my eyes open, saw the warehouse full of food packaging boxes, and instantly realized I had been reborn. In my previous life, torrential rain had ravaged the area, flooding all the village roads and trapping everyone without adequate food or water. Our family ran the only supermarket in the village, so I voluntarily opened our warehouse to distribute food to help them through the crisis. At first, these people were grateful to me, but as their household supplies gradually ran out, they came knocking again. When village chief Daniel Johnson led the group demanding I donate more food, I refused. During the last food distribution, I had already given everything I could, keeping only enough food for our family to survive. I couldn’t be so selfless as to let my own family starve to death just to help others. Seeing my refusal, everyone’s expression instantly changed. The village chief’s daughter Alyssa pointed at me and cursed: “I saw with my own eyes that you received three truckloads of goods before. You only gave out that little bit during the last distribution. Your family must be hoarding food and just doesn’t want to share it with us!” Her words chilled my heart. With the village cut off by floods, I had used my own money to help them out of decades of neighborly bonds, asking for nothing in return, but this wasn’t my obligation. Yet instead of being grateful, they slandered me like this. My face instantly turned cold as I said: “I already gave out all our inventory during the last distribution. There’s nothing I can do to help you now.” As soon as I finished speaking, I received a hard slap across the face. Someone shouted: “Whether she’s lying to us or not, we’ll know if we search!” The crowd immediately became agitated, staring at the warehouse behind me like hungry wolves. Our entire family was roughly pinned to the ground, forced to watch helplessly as this mob turned our house upside down. Soon, excited voices rang out from the crowd. Seeing the few boxes of instant spaghetti dragged out from the depths of the warehouse, I panicked. Upstream from the flood was a chemical plant, and now toxic wastewater had leaked into the floodwater. Any food soaked by it was poisonous and completely inedible. I rushed forward to stop them from taking the food, explaining: “These have been soaked by floodwater – eating them will cause infectious diseases!” But no one listened, no one believed me. Alyssa grabbed my hair viciously, snarling: “Stop trying to scare us! The packaging isn’t even broken, how can it be inedible?” I endured the severe pain in my body and tried to explain about the chemical plant, but they thought I was playing tricks and lying to them. Some even punched and kicked me, and even my parents weren’t spared. A group of people surrounded us, beating and cursing: “Stop trying to frighten us! You just want to hoard goods and jack up prices! This whole family of scumbags should be drowned!” Under the villagers’ fury, our family was tied up with rope and thrown into the raging floodwater. Even as I died, I regretted why I had been kind enough to save these ungrateful people. Given a second chance at life, I absolutely will not repeat the same mistake.
The regret and resentment from my past life still churned in my heart. I took a deep breath and, ignoring my mother Beth Winston’s attempts to stop me, forcefully pushed open the warehouse door, letting the raging floodwater pour in. Watching those supplies get swept away by the current, I suddenly felt a surge of satisfaction. Since they loved eating poisonous food soaked in floodwater, I’d personally feed them their fill. This time I didn’t proactively distribute food, so within a few days the village was facing food shortages. Daniel came looking for me on his own, followed by over a dozen villagers who marched into my house in full force. I sneered inwardly. So even if I didn’t actively distribute food, they’d still come demanding it. Daniel clasped his hands behind his back, putting on an imposing air as he said: “Fiona, the village has been hit by floods now, and every household is short on food. Only your family runs a supermarket here. As a member of this village, shouldn’t you do something for the villagers?” Before I could speak, Alyssa jumped in: “If it weren’t for the villagers supporting your family’s business all these years, could you have afforded to build such a nice house? Now it’s time for your family to give back. Hurry up and bring out all the food from your warehouse!” Business transactions are supposed to be mutual agreements, but her words directly stirred up public outrage. She made it sound like I’d been forcing them to buy from my family’s store all along. But I wasn’t falling for this moral blackmail anymore. Looking at these envious people, I spread my hands and said helplessly: “My family’s out of food too. I was actually thinking of asking you all to lend us some grain.” “That’s nonsense! Such a big supermarket, and you’re saying you’re out of food? We don’t believe it!” Alyssa shrieked, and her words instantly made the villagers indignantly start arguing with me. “I saw with my own eyes a few days ago that she had three big trucks of goods delivered. She’s lying!” “Ungrateful wretch, I bet she just can’t bear to share with us!” Seeing the villagers getting worked up, Daniel raised his hand to signal for quiet, then turned to me with a fake smile and said: “Fiona, we’re all from the same village. If you’re really hoarding food and won’t share it, that’s not very appropriate, is it?” Looking at his hypocritical face, I smiled sarcastically. In my past life, I was fooled by this very facade, which led to my tragic end. In this life, I wouldn’t let them hurt me again. I readily pulled out the warehouse key and said: “If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you to see the warehouse.” Daniel and Alyssa exchanged glances, seemingly not believing I’d be so cooperative, but they still followed behind me. When we reached the warehouse entrance, everyone was stunned. The empty warehouse had only knee-deep standing water, and the shelves had been swept completely clean—nothing was left. “This… how is this possible?” Alyssa’s eyes widened in shock. I crossed my arms and said helplessly: “The flood came so suddenly a few days ago that it burst open the warehouse door. Everything got washed away, and I’ve been going hungry for two days now.” Daniel’s face darkened as he stared at me, clearly not entirely convinced by my explanation. Just then, someone outside suddenly called out: “Mr. Johnson, come look! There really are a bunch of cardboard boxes floating in the river, all full of food!” Only then did Daniel shift his gaze from my face and rush outside. In the muddy river, there were indeed quite a few cardboard boxes floating. Some had already broken apart, others were still intact, bobbing up and down with the current. Alyssa’s face turned ashen as she glared at me viciously. I gave her an innocent look and said: “I didn’t lie to you.” What followed was nothing short of a farce. The villagers scrambled to go home and get their boats, some even jumping directly into the river to grab boxes. I chuckled coldly and said to my parents: “Come on, let’s go fish for boxes too!”
On the murky river, villagers paddled small boats, scrambling to grab floating supplies. Seeing our family also coming to salvage items, everyone was filled with hostility. They seemed to blame me for not properly guarding the warehouse, otherwise they wouldn’t have had to go through the trouble of diving into the water to retrieve things. Wherever we went to salvage food, someone would deliberately block us. After two hours, all the food boxes floating on the river had been collected, but our family hadn’t managed to grab a single one. My father Evan Winston looked at Daniel, who was counting boxes, with a pleading expression and said, “Mr. Johnson, our family didn’t salvage anything. Could you spare us a box of instant noodles?” Seeing his goal achieved, Daniel fiddled with the cardboard boxes and said with feigned difficulty, “Evan, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but my family also has several mouths to feed. What we salvaged is barely enough for today and tomorrow’s meals. I really can’t spare any more.” Beth also stepped forward to plead, “Your boat is loaded with supplies. Can’t we have just one box of instant noodles?” “Who do you think you are? What business is it of yours how much we salvaged?” Alyssa paddled her small boat directly toward us, and Beth nearly lost her balance and fell. Seeing our pitiful state, she laughed arrogantly and said, “Forget about a box of instant noodles – we won’t give you even a single pack. If you want food, go salvage it yourselves.” After steadying the stumbling Beth, I stepped forward to argue, “These were originally our family’s things. We’re being generous by not asking you to return everything. Now you won’t even give us one box of instant noodles? You’re going too far!” Facing my questioning, Alyssa put her hands on her hips and laughed, “How can you prove these things belong to your family?” She then turned to shout at the villagers on the boats, “Fiona says all this food belongs to her family, but shouldn’t things floating in the river belong to whoever finds them?” Her words made the villagers holding our family’s supplies feel even more justified. They all chimed in, “Exactly! Finders keepers. If you want food, dive in and salvage it yourselves!” Evan looked at these people with heartbreak and accused them, “Last Christmas, when someone’s father died, I paid for the funeral. And before that, when someone was held for debt, I stood as guarantor to save their life. Have you all forgotten? How can you treat us like this without any conscience?” Those people were so ashamed by Evan’s words that they didn’t dare look him in the eye. As the atmosphere grew tense, Daniel hypocritically stepped in to mediate, “Evan, every household is struggling. The flood brought many river mussels. Why don’t you salvage some mussels to eat for now? When the county relief grain arrives, I’ll be the first to share with your family. How about that?” Alyssa snorted coldly and mocked with a sideways glance, “You should be grateful to have mussels to eat. Don’t be ungrateful.” Looking at these people’s hypocritical faces, Evan complained, “These river mussels are all old ones – fishy and tough, completely inedible.” Low laughter erupted from the crowd. Our family had always been prominent in the village, but now we had fallen to the point of only being able to salvage river mussels for sustenance. Unable to bear the mockery, Evan threw his salvage net on the ground and angrily went home. I suppressed the rage in my heart, pretended to nod reluctantly, and began salvaging river mussels. Before leaving, Alyssa deliberately circled over to me and mocked, “So what if you’re the only college graduate in the village? Now you’re still reduced to salvaging mussels to survive.” I ignored her and continued bending down to collect mussels until everyone had paddled away, then slowly breathed a sigh of relief. “Fiona…” Beth walked over to me, looking confused. She said, “Actually, that day, I saw you personally open the warehouse. Why did you deliberately let the flood wash away all that grain? Do we really have to live on these mussels now?” I carefully put all the river mussels into bamboo baskets, then said, “These mussels aren’t for eating – they’re treasures that will make our family rich!” “Get rich?” Beth’s eyes widened as she looked at the river mussels, her face full of disbelief. I nodded and said, “Let’s fill these two baskets first, then I’ll explain when we get home.” Back home, Evan was still fuming. Seeing that we’d actually brought back two baskets of freshwater mussels, he slammed his fist on the table: “Those bastards! We’ve always been so good to them, and now they won’t even share a pack of instant noodles with us!” Beth glanced at me quietly, wanting to say something but holding back. I said nothing and silently dragged out a waterproof container from the depths of the cabinet, opening the lid directly under my parents’ surprised gazes. Compressed crackers, instant noodle packs, and bottled water were neatly arranged inside the box. Evan asked with a trembling voice: “Wasn’t our storage room flooded? How do we still have all this food?” I closed the lid, a cold glint flashing in my eyes: “I deliberately opened the storage room door. I hid these supplies in advance—there’s enough to last us until the rescue team arrives.” Beth couldn’t help asking: “Then why did we still go catch mussels?” I locked the front door tight and took out a small knife to skillfully pry open the largest mussel. Between the pale pink mussel meat lay a smooth, round pearl. “My God, imagine how much food this could buy! Fiona, how did you know there would be pearls in the mussels?” Evan picked up the pearl, his face full of delight. I suppressed the hatred in my heart and told my parents about the tragedy from my previous life. I also told them that after the flood in my past life, someone accidentally discovered many pearls in this batch of mussels and made a fortune from it. After hearing this, fury reignited in Evan’s eyes: “Those animals are absolutely despicable!” I patted Evan’s shoulder to comfort him: “So even though I’ve been reborn, as long as we’re doing better than them, they’ll still target us. That’s why I had to dump all that food into the floodwater.” I continued: “The chemical plant upstream leaked into the flood. In my previous life, many people who ate things soaked in the floodwater got infectious diseases and suffered from various diarrhea symptoms.” Evan nodded thoughtfully: “I get it. You mean we need to act like we’re living miserably, go catch mussels every day, then come back and hide all the pearls, right?” I snapped my fingers: “Exactly!” Over the next few days, we carried baskets to the river to catch mussels during the day, then locked our doors tight at night to open the mussels and extract pearls. Whenever Evan saw other people, he’d complain about how fishy and tough the mussel meat was. This day we returned home loaded with mussels, just passing by the village chief’s house. Alyssa was leaning on her family’s second-floor balcony, eating creamy instant noodles and drinking cola. Seeing us pulling a boat full of mussels back, she smugly mocked: “Fiona, do those mussels taste good?” I looked up at her, noticing the familiar packaging in her hands, and asked back: “Does the cola taste good?” Alyssa thought I was envying her and proudly shook the bottle: “It tastes great, especially since it’s free.” Looking at the rash faintly appearing on her face, I said sarcastically: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Be careful you don’t eat yourself sick.” She was about to say something when the sound of a loudspeaker from the riverbank interrupted her. The rescue team had arrived, and villagers rushed toward the boats upon hearing the news. During the evacuation process, someone suddenly screamed: “Someone’s collapsed!” Immediately after, wails rose one after another. Alyssa didn’t care about these villagers’ lives at all and rushed onto the boat eagerly. But the next second, a rescue worker pointed at the purplish-red rash on her face and shouted sternly: “You have an infectious disease—you can’t board the boat!”
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