From the bus stop to the pawnshop, it was a ten-minute walk. Lin Xi followed her navigation while listening to Lin Duxi recount his life before his unexpected journey through time and space.
Lin Duxi was an orphan who relied on government grants to attend university. Despite his financial struggles, he excelled academically and spent most of his free time working part-time jobs. While student loans covered his tuition, he had to earn his own living expenses.
His ex-girlfriend was a literature major at the same university. They met through student council work, where she fell for him at first sight and pursued him relentlessly. Under her ardent advances, they quickly became a couple. From then on, Lin Duxi worked even harder—now that he had a girlfriend, he couldn’t let her pay for their dates, could he?
Between classes, his dorm, and work, his life became a rigid routine, with any spare time devoted to his girlfriend. His efforts paid off—by his senior year, while others scrambled for internships, Lin Duxi had already secured a position at a Fortune 500 company with a starting salary of over 10,000 yuan.
His girlfriend, meanwhile, became a freelance writer for a public account, earning around 2,000 yuan a month. Lin Duxi gave her 80% of his salary, using the rest to repay his student loans. She had expensive tastes, and often, he had to borrow from coworkers to keep up with her spending. But he accepted this as the price of building a life together. The pressure only made him work harder—while his peers took six months to become full-time employees, he achieved it in just three.
For a while, Lin Duxi believed this was happiness—until the night his team wrapped up a project early. Returning home at midnight, he discovered irrefutable proof of her infidelity.
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: As an orphan, I’ve always longed for a family. She was my first love, and we shared many sweet moments. I dreamed of building a life with her and worked tirelessly toward that future. In hindsight, her leaving wasn’t entirely unexpected.]
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: I could have accepted a breakup and fought to win her back. But when her lover drove his car into me—that was his character flaw. What I could never forgive was her urging him to hit me again.]
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: Without that second impact, I might have survived.]
Now, Lin Duxi stood in a desolate wasteland, surrounded by barren mountains and swirling dust. He pulled his hood up against the wind.
At his side rested a cloth-wrapped broadsword, while in his hand, he gripped a revolver. Behind him sat a dilapidated, near-decrepit minibus, its shadow sheltering a group of ragged survivors.
In this post-apocalyptic world—where resources had dwindled, water was scarce, and plant life nearly extinct—the tenth year of the catastrophe had arrived. Lin Duxi had been stranded here for two.
Some days, he wished he had died instead. Whenever survival seemed impossible, he tormented himself with what-ifs: What if he had never confronted her? What if those two had shown mercy and let him live?
These thoughts gnawed at him relentlessly—until, a month ago, a mysterious group chat named "Dimensional Travelers" appeared on his revolver. For the first time, his hatred found solace.
He wasn’t alone. Others had crossed worlds too—he was just unlucky enough to land in this hellscape.
For a month, the group had chatted daily, carefully avoiding personal details but finding comfort in their shared plight. Lin Duxi had begun to feel less isolated—until he learned Lin Xi was still on Earth.
The revelation reignited his fury like oil poured on flames.
Trembling with rage, he sent his messages.
Reading them, Lin Xi paused mid-step and replied: [Earth Girl Lin Xi: Got it. Send me the address, and I’ll check when I have time.]
Lin Duxi shared the location of his ex-girlfriend’s lover. To Lin Xi’s surprise, Fang Qianqian also lived in the capital—just three hours away in Miyou District.
[I’m off Wednesday. Today’s Tuesday, so I’ll go then,] Lin Xi responded.
In the service industry, weekends were peak business, leaving Wednesday as her only free day.
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: No rush. Whenever you can is fine.]
Another message followed: [We’re heading out on a mission. Might take three days. Just update me when you find anything.]
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: There’s a "cross-dimensional transfer" option in the chat. I’ll send the gene-mod serum and instructions now—just in case I don’t make it back. Don’t want you working for nothing.]
[Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi: Thank you. Talking to someone from Earth means more than you know. Goodbye, Lin Xi—if we ever meet again.]
His messages came rapid-fire. Lin Xi quickly typed back a warning to stay safe, but he didn’t respond.
Then, a system notification popped up in the Dimensional Travelers chat:
[System Alert: Earth Girl Lin Xi has accepted Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Lin Duxi’s mission. Reward—Gene-Mod Serum—has been delivered in advance. Due to its liquid form, the reward has been sent directly to Earth Girl Lin Xi’s bag. Please adhere to group rules and act in good faith.]
Lin Xi opened her bag. The golden peanut she’d tucked away earlier sat neatly in the middle compartment. Her bag was always meticulously organized—cosmetics and tissues on one side, power bank and wallet on the other. Now, beside her wallet, lay a small glass vial.
Inside, a faint green liquid shimmered—no more than five milliliters.
As she picked it up, information flooded her mind:
[Gene-Mod Serum: A refined formula from the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Enhances physical capabilities and repairs aged or damaged organs. Note: Dosage must be adjusted for dimensional differences.]
Repairing damaged organs? Lin Xi’s heart raced with excitement.
If she hadn’t been on the bus, she would have immediately taken out her phone to call her grandmother. Her grandmother was seventy-five this year. In her youth, to earn more work points, she had been a fearless pioneer, always rushing to the front whenever there was a task. One year, when their village was building a reservoir, they dug while water kept surging up, working waist-deep in the icy water.
Pushing herself too hard in her younger years meant suffering in old age. Over the years, her health had deteriorated, especially her legs, which now ached so badly she could barely walk.
Lin Xi had taken her to every major hospital, both within and outside the province, but nothing helped. Many doctors even warned that, at most, within two years, her grandmother would be bedridden.
Because of this, Lin Xi worked harder than ever to earn money. Her father had left to find work when she was just two years old and never returned. Her mother waited for him for two years, searched for him for two years, but with no news, she eventually remarried. Her grandfather had died in a car accident four years ago, leaving her grandmother as the only family she truly cared about.
Lin Xi’s original plan was to work until next May, then return to her grandmother’s side when spring was in full bloom. Their home was close to a tourist area, and she dreamed of opening a small shop there.
But now, with the golden peanuts gifted by Xu Huanhuan from the time-traveler group chat, Lin Xi was already itching to go home. And with the arrival of the gene-modification serum, her resolve was set—she would use it on her grandmother.
Getting off at the bus stop near the pawnshop, the first thing Lin Xi did was send a message of gratitude to Lin Duxi. Overwhelmed with emotion, she typed out a long, heartfelt thank-you note. Then she headed to the pawnshop and exchanged all the golden peanuts for cash at the midday rate.
She had saved up over the years, and with today’s windfall of 200,000 yuan, her total savings now amounted to 230,000. She stood there, dazed, as if in a dream.
On the bus back to her rented apartment, she still couldn’t believe it.
When she reached the intersection near her place, she took out her phone and called her grandmother.
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered, and then her grandmother’s warm, gentle voice came through the receiver.
"Xixi, are you off work? Have you eaten yet?"
"Just got off, Grandma. Have you eaten? Do you still have your medicine?"
"Yes, yes, plenty left..."
The conversation between grandmother and granddaughter flowed back and forth, lasting a good ten minutes before winding down. With a sudden windfall in her pocket, Lin Xi decided to treat herself. Instead of going straight home, she stopped at a nearby street-side hotpot stall.
In the capital, street-style hotpot was served around a communal pot, with meat and vegetables simmering in the center until tender. Lin Xi scooped sesame paste, scallions, and chili oil into a plastic-lined stainless steel plate, plucked a skewer of meat, and savored every bite with deep satisfaction.
Good food was something everyone loved, and Lin Xi was no exception—she just hadn’t allowed herself such indulgences before.
Full and content, she returned home, only to receive another pleasant surprise—a potential client’s call. Before heading inside, she phoned her third aunt, asked for her bank details, and immediately transferred the money via online banking.
It wasn’t much—just 15,000 yuan—the remaining balance of a debt she had already partially repaid.
When her grandfather’s accident happened, it had been sudden, and her family had no savings. The emergency surgeries, followed by two weeks in the ICU, drained money like water.
Most of those funds had been pooled together by relatives. Her third aunt’s family were simple farmers, but when they got her call back then, they brought every penny they had earned from selling pomegranates that year—30,000 yuan in total.
It might not sound like much, but it had been their entire annual income.
Lin Xi never forgot their kindness. Over the years, she worked tirelessly, repaying each relative in the order they had lent her money. Everyone understood her situation, so unless it was urgent, they rarely pressed her.
She repaid one or two families each month, and after two years, most debts were cleared—but a few remained.
Sitting at the modest desk in her rented room, Lin Xi pulled out a notebook from her suitcase. Starting from the first page, she cross-referenced her repayment records and settled every outstanding debt, from a few hundred to tens of thousands.
As she transferred the money, she sent messages or made calls to inform them. By the time she reached the last name, more than half of today’s 200,000 yuan was gone. Her bank account now held just 30,000, plus another 30,000 she had saved for emergencies—60,000 in total.
Two-thirds of her family’s debts were now settled. The remaining were owed to elderly relatives who didn’t use mobile banking or trust banks with their money.
She would repay them in person when she returned home soon.
By the time she finished, it was past ten. She took a shower and slipped under the electric blanket, replying to every message in the time-traveler group chat before bed.
Before turning in, she glanced once more at Lin Duxi’s chat window—no matter how many times she refreshed, no new messages appeared. It still felt surreal. Such incredible fortune, such a miraculous stroke of luck… why had it fallen into her lap?
At twenty-two, Lin Xi had shouldered nearly 500,000 yuan in debt. Two years later, she was finally close to clearing it all, with emergency savings to spare. For the first time in years, the tension in her nerves eased.
She didn’t know why this time-traveler group chat had appeared on her phone, and these past two days, she had deliberately avoided dwelling on it.
But no matter the reason, she was grateful for its existence.
Because of it, the weight on her shoulders had lightened, and her future now held endless possibilities.
And just as she drifted into sleep, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Lin Duxi was fighting for his life once again.
