Wasteland World：Becoming the Queen

When her mother called for the third time to wake Olivia up for breakfast, Olivia finally lost her patience. “Mom, I said I'm not eating, okay? I was busy until 3AM last night and I'm exhausted. You're waking me up before 8. Are you kidding me? Can't I sleep a bit more?"

"Eat your breakfast first, then sleep. It's not good for your health to skip breakfast…"

"Skipping one meal won't kill me or make me sick! Stop bothering me!"

The volume and tone of her last sentence were somewhat hurtful. Ultimately, her mother didn't call her again, but Olivia was already too awake to sleep any further.

She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, pounding the mattress a couple of times, her heart filled with regret, guilt, and self-loathing. Her stress level had been rather high lately, not because she was too busy, but because she felt idle and lacking a sense of social prestige, or in simpler terms, she wasn't earning money.

Olivia was a fashion designer. She was ambitious and confident. She felt she had a real talent for design, and her work was always different from others, full of personal character. It indeed earned the recognition of her boss and some clients, but that was as far as it went.

The high expectations that she embarked with were never met with the returns she had envisioned. Her hopes were dashed time and time again, her confidence taking a hit each time. Meanwhile, those designs she looked down upon, those she perceived as ordinary and ubiquitous, were continuously hitting the jackpot. They lacked individuality and spirit, but they had money, bought cars and houses. Gradually, Olivia's mental balance began to falter, and recently, she had been unable to draw.

"Your designs are outstanding, full of vitality and character, but they aren't suitable for the demographic our company targets. Look, if you could cut out and modify this , there's really no need to…"

"Just copy those brand-name designs. Sketch them out, make a few changes – that's how the entire market operates. Why do you set such high standards for yourself? After all the hard work, you only sell a few pieces. We make profits based on the quantity of clothes we sell…”

"Your type of talent should have sought higher education at a prestigious design institute, and then applied for a job at a high-end fashion brand. Imagine if you were at Chanel, your designs would definitely be sought after. But in this small company we are in, well…"

Not everyone is blessed with a talent, and not everyone who possesses a talent has the opportunity to develop and utilize it effectively.

Olivia grew up in a poor family. As a child from the countryside, her parents worked away from home to earn money, and she lived with her grandparents. A child growing up in such conditions, even if they display any talent early on, their parents either fail to recognize it, or lack the resources to nurture it. Olivia experienced both.

Olivia showed a talent for drawing at an early age. She loved to draw beautiful girls and create lovely clothes for them to wear. By middle school, she could draw comic characters without needing a poster to copy from. Her parents would praise her when they saw her work, but that was it. She was young and didn't think much of it.

She followed the routine, finished middle school and high school, got poor grades, and ended up at a third-tier university. She muddled through until her impending graduation, worked dishearteningly for two months, until she finally realized what she wanted to do. She enrolled in a one-year fashion design training course.

She was a good student and wanted to further her studies, but she couldn't afford it. She thought about earning some money first. But, her academic qualifications were already set, making her ineligible to apply to high-end fashion companies. She could only apply to smaller firms. The companies she applied to offered low salaries but had high workloads. She was truly living the life of a workhorse—up before the rooster and bed after the dog, dealing with a stingy boss and peculiar colleagues, all draining her energy. It was difficult to find time for self-study. She looked at the tuition of the school she wanted to attend and felt hopeless.

Not long ago, the Indian film "Dangal" was released. She and her colleagues went to see it and she cried her eyes out. She envied the protagonist for having a father like that, who saw her talent from a young age and did everything he could to nurture it, helping her strive in the right direction without wasting a moment. Think about it, without such a father, Geeta and Babita's futures would probably be similar to hers, or maybe even worse.

At least she had the hindsight to realize her own talents. Some people's innate abilities might have been completely wiped out without them even realizing it.

Olivia never discussed this topic with her parents. She knew she couldn't blame them. Life was difficult for them back then and they couldn't attend to so many things. Raising this issue would seem like blaming them, making them feel upset.

She was unable to continue with her work and had to return home. She didn't give up. She planned to icipate in a national fashion design competition. She had tried to icipate in such competitions before, but her scores always fell short. The winners were either graduates from prestigious schools or people who had been working in large companies. Olivia knew she could learn more and do better, but she didn't have the money.

Now every day she stayed at home trying to draw, looking for inspiration. Every time an idea flashed through her mind, she would excitedly think "This is it!" But once she started drawing, it didn't feel right, and it would end up as another failure. Day after day, all efforts were in vain, all time was wasted.

She drew until past 3AM yesterday, and still ended up with a pile of waste paper, another day without any gains. She knew her predicament had something to do with her state of mind, but she felt helpless. No matter how she comforted herself, she just couldn't draw.

At first, she was just frustrated. Then a chain reaction followed – she had been out of work for several months and she was almost eating away her savings. The bank balance was down to just over 20 thousand yuan.

For an adult who had been working for three to four years, a bank balance of just over 20 thousand seemed incredibly low, especially for someone living in a first-tier city. She was too embarrassed to even tell her parents about it.

Her parents now ran a small snack shop. They didn't return home until after midnight and were up and out by half past six every morning, working from dawn to dusk. Olivia had tried helping out, but she didn't like that kind of life. She didn't like the greasy tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks, the constant hustle over dumplings and wontons. In fact, when she was younger and more naive, she even looked down on it a bit.

However, what difference did it make to have a seemingly respectable job and title? In the end, her parents managed to pay the down payment for a house with their hard-earned money, while she had nothing to show for herself, not even enough to save for her tuition.

Her earlier ambition to carve out a name for herself in society had been thoroughly worn away. Her confidence had been nearly depleted after repeated failures. She felt like a salted fish, dried up and lifeless.

She looked back at her life and felt as though she had accomplished nothing, with no achievements to be proud of or to commemorate. And she was at a loss for what the future held.

She heard a door open and close outside, probably her mother leaving for the shop. Lately, her parents seemed to have noticed her unease. Her mother would leave for the shop a bit later than usual, staying at home to make breakfast for her and spend some time with her. But this only made her more impatient, and realizing this only made her more agitated.

She lay in bed doing nothing, not wanting to move at all. She knew there were no interesting novels to read, she knew she shouldn't be wasting time like this, but she kept lying there, holding her phone, as still as a salted fish, even holding in her need to use the bathroom, until midday.

She got up, ate her breakfast as lunch, and while eating, she went online to watch amusing variety shows and videos. Another two to three hours slipped away just like that. The best  of the day was wasted in this manner. But what else could she do? After all, any designs she produced would end up discarded.

With this thought, she went to the balcony. The weather was nice today, sunny but not scorching, with a refreshing wind. The principal of the neighboring primary school was making an announcement over the loudspeaker, telling students running on the second-floor corridor to return to their classrooms. On the rubber track below, a man was jogging with a Golden Retriever.

Olivia thought to herself, it seems like everyone's lives are meaningful, even the dog seemed to have a better life than her. Feeling utterly hollow, and radiating an aura of defeat, Olivia decided to clear her head by taking a walk, bathing in the sun. Opening her wardrobe, there were plenty of beautiful dresses. As a fashion designer, she had a great taste in clothing. But she just didn't feel like putting on any makeup. Not blessed with innate beauty, wearing these dresses without makeup would only make her look worse than not, so she chose a sports sweatshirt she occasionally wore to bed, paired it with a short, spotted down jacket, and threw on some sneakers.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Olivia couldn't help but think how ugly and poor the reflection seemed. What was there to look forward to in her future? Was there a chance of marrying into wealth, or will she suddenly meet someone who would appreciate her and help her rise to the top? The most likely scenario, however, would be to settle down with a fairly decent-looking and average man, have a child, and live an ordinary life till the end.

Indeed, even dying alone seemed like a task too tough to handle.

Taking the bus, she reached the shopping mall she frequented after five stops. Roaming aimlessly, her mood didn't lift, no inspiration sparked, and she even ended up buying a milk tea, which did in fact lighten her mood a bit.

After finishing her milk tea, she lined up to use the restroom. Squatting in the restroom, she started to scroll on her phone again. After two minutes, she found it incredibly boring. Standing up, she suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and reached out to steady herself.

She thought it was vertigo due to standing up suddenly after squatting for a while. But what she didn't expect was a terrifyingly loud noise, as if it was coming from deep beneath the ground she stood on. Her mind was instantly filled with terror, and the sounds of panic filled her ears. She hurriedly tried to unlock the door, desperate to escape, but the next second, she felt a swift sense of weightlessness, as if she was falling from a high place. She fell to the ground, feeling as if she was falling downwards, then something hit her, everything went black, and she lost consciousness.

...

Time passed in a blur, and Olivia slowly regained consciousness.

She opened her eyes, only to be greeted by absolute darkness. She felt the cold, hard object pressing against her, the uneven ground beneath her, and a sharp pain coming from her left ankle. Olivia was initially confused, then her breaths grew shorter as fear overtook her.

It was an earthquake. Recalling the loud noise and feeling of falling before she passed out, she confirmed with absolute terror that it must have been an earthquake. And the shopping mall she was in had not only collapsed but also sunk underground.

Sunk underground... what were the chances of survival for those who were trapped underground during an earthquake? Would someone come to rescue her? How long would it take? With tears of fear streaming down her face, Olivia reached into her pocket and took out her phone.

The phone screen lit up, and Olivia screamed, as right above her was a woman hanging upside down.

After screaming for a while, Olivia finally calmed down a bit, realizing that the woman was just another victim of the earthquake. Even so, her heart was still filled with fear. For many years, she had been just an ordinary person, and the first time she encountered a dead body was under these circumstances.

As she cried, she reached out for her phone which had slipped from her hand due to the shock. The phone screen had already automatically turned off, and she couldn't find it after feeling around for a while.

"Oh God... Mom... Dad..."

Olivia tried to push the piece of concrete pressing on her, but it wouldn't budge. But she realized that she wasn't completely trapped, she still had a bit of space to move. So, she bit her lip, bearing the pain, and tried to move herself out from underneath the concrete slab.

Finally, wheezing, she managed to drag her upper body out from under the concrete slab, her back against a wall. She took a deep breath, but the sight of a female corpse hanging close by made her feel suffocated. She reached into her jacket pocket and found her phone.

This time, she didn't dare to look up, only focusing on the phone screen. As expected, there was no signal, no internet. It was March 9th, 7:24 am. She had left her house on the afternoon of the 8th, which means she had been trapped for an entire night. The rescue operation must have already begun. But she didn't know when they would find her, or if she could survive until the day of her rescue.

After crying for a while, Olivia finally started to think. She remembered the Wenchuan earthquake, and vaguely remembered a survivor who was found after being buried for 7 days. But that was the limit, and that was only if they had water... Water!

That's it, she needed water!

Olivia turned on her phone's flashlight, bit her lip, and tried her best to ignore the corpse in front of her that was still bleeding, and looked around.

The surroundings had basically collapsed and were all squeezed together. She was fortunate that the entire toilet ition was occupied by a concrete slab. The slab was heavy at the front and light at the back. There was a  of it protruding downward on the left. The heavy front  pressed on the ition door, crushing it instantly, but the door still buffered a  of its force and supported it in the end, so when it fell on Olivia, it only crushed her ankle, without smashing her entire foot into a pulp. And because of the  that was protruding on the left, it not only gave Olivia room to breathe but also blocked some of the smaller stones and debris.

She was now in a narrow trapezoidal space, with a dead body right in front of her.

Olivia thought that this cramped and confined little space was a miracle given to her by fate.

Was this a test given to her by fate, a test called: survival.

Olivia had grown somewhat accustomed to the sight of the corpse in front of her. The poor woman's body was suspended in mid-air, with the other half likely crushed into a pulp by the collapsed steel and concrete above. Olivia was more afraid that the remaining half would fall down.

She needed water. Everyone knew that in a situation like this, having water was essential to sustaining oneself until rescue arrived.

Olivia's mouth and throat felt uncomfortable due to dehydration. Her saliva was difficult to produce, but she couldn't find any water. She even looked at the broken toilet beneath her, but there was not a drop of water. In this confined space, it seemed normal not to find water.

When would rescue come? Would they discover her presence? Would someone come to save her? What was happening outside? How were her parents?

Buried in an unknown depth underground, Olivia couldn't control herself. Sometimes she sat there with a blank mind,