novelsmap Chapter 1 Rebirth
Chapter 1 Rebirth
"Is it still not fixed, Joey?"
Laurie sat atop the massive tractor, her blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the barn, making her appear lively and energetic.
Beyond the worn denim shorts were a pair of round, firm thighs, on which a black and white spotted Catahoula hogdog lay whimpering boredly. Laurie was currently using the ends of her simply tied ponytail to brush against the dog's nose, teasing the poor hound into burrowing into her broad bosom.
"You've been fixing this for almost two hours already! If this keeps up, it'll be dawn soon!"
"The sun hasn't even set yet!" Joey's muffled voice came from below the harvester. "I'm not some professional mechanical engineer; figuring out these pipes is already an extraordinary achievement... Done!"
Joey used both hands to push himself out from under the car, then let out a gasp:
"Cough, you almost stepped on my head!"
It turned out that Laurie had just shooed the dog out of her arms and jumped off the car seat, her two worn-out cowboy boots barely missing Joey's face as she landed.
Joey turned her head to the side, adjusted her black-rimmed glasses, and quickly stood up: "I should go back."
It has been sixteen years since Joey was carried out of the crashed spaceship by his adoptive parents.
This world is essentially a strange world, with superheroes and supervillains, but not a single person I am familiar with.
There is no Bruce Wayne, no Barry Allen, and no Diana Prince, only himself... and a bunch of "superheroes" he doesn't recognize at all.
In this unfamiliar world, his new life, while not exactly spectacular, was at least unremarkable.
For sixteen years, he went to school in an orderly fashion, went home in an orderly fashion, helped his parents manage the farm in an orderly fashion, and less orderly helped his classmate and neighbor, Laurie, repair her large agricultural machine, which was said to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
God knows what Laurie was thinking. Hearing that I knew some mechanical knowledge, she insisted on dragging me to her house to repair that tractor, making me spend half an hour searching for the manufacturer's repair manual in the garbage dump of parts in the barn. In the end, I found that if a professional had come, they could probably have fixed these problems in five minutes!
"Okay, Mom, it's fixed now~ I'll be home for dinner, I'll definitely be back in thirty minutes, no, within an hour."
Joey was following Laurie toward the big house at the other end of the farm, about to grab his coat and head home, when he received a phone call from home. He took the opportunity to make a wish about what he wanted to eat that evening:
"No, don't want that. The pie we left over from the day before yesterday really should be thrown away. I don't even need to look to know that the bacteria levels in it are way too high. The venison burger is okay, but we can't keep eating it..."
Yes, tell my dad not to drink too much beer. Tomorrow is Sunday, so we can get up early and dig up the mouse holes in the ground again... I'm hanging up now, love you, Mom, see you later, mua~”
"Do you need me to take you home, Xiao Qiao?"
Laurie's father, Old Arthur, was lying on the sofa opposite the TV, wiping the beer foam off his stubble. Although he was polite, his eyes never left the TV screen, and his body was rooted to the sofa, not moving at all.
This man was never a good parent, but since his divorce from his wife, he has become Laurie's only family member to rely on.
"Thank you, I can walk back myself." Joey slung her coat over her shoulder and prepared to leave.
"I can take you home!" Laurie pulled out the key to her pickup truck from her pocket, waved it in front of Joey, and then pulled Joey out the door.
Although both rural America and rural areas in Joey's previous life's home country are rural areas, they are fundamentally two completely different things.
For example, although he and Laurie were neighbors, they were not the kind of neighbors who lived within earshot of each other. There were at least 300 acres of vast farmland between their two houses. It wasn't that far, but it was still a bit of a distance to walk there. So it was reasonable for Laurie to want to drive him back.
"Reasonable my ass!" Old Arthur, who had just been nestled on the sofa, appeared like a ghost in front of Joey and pressed down on the car door. A Kentucky rifle, probably about the same age as his grandfather, hung from his protruding beer belly.
"Joey Joseph Kent—let me put it this way, kid," old Arthur gripped his rifle at his chest, "if I don't hear from you home in ten minutes, your head's blown off; if my daughter isn't home in twenty minutes, your head's blown off, understand?"
Joey nodded repeatedly in agreement—even if his head could withstand a .40 bullet, there was no need to provoke an old Kansas farmer who was always ready to fight him to the death, was there?
"Old Deng, what do you take Joey for? He's a well-known model student in class; he wouldn't have any of those kinds of thoughts!" Laurie pushed her father aside, pulled Joey into the passenger seat, and then climbed into the driver's seat to start the car. "Love you, Dad, goodbye!"
Joey sat quietly in the passenger seat the whole way, watching the dark green cornfields rush past the window, trying to figure out how far she was from home. Then she heard a "click" sound, turned her head and saw that her neighbor girl had turned on the car radio and was taking out a can of fermented wheat juice from somewhere and drinking it.
"Isn't this illegal?"
Joey casually fastened his seatbelt. Even without deliberately researching, he knew that Kansas, as a core agricultural state in the United States, had mostly traditional American rednecks in its rural areas, and the people were known for their simple and honest nature. The state was not as strict about underage driving as other states. However, he felt that underage driving under the influence of alcohol should not be considered legal in any state.
"Don't worry, this is rural Kansas, no police will pull us over."
Laurie tilted her head back, emptied the entire can of wheat juice, and then, without slowing down, took both hands off the steering wheel and casually opened another can. "If there really is any, that would be troublesome, since I haven't gotten my driver's license yet."
Joey broke out in a cold sweat when he saw this – something's wrong with this car, I need to get off!
With a hiss, as if hearing Joey's thoughts, the pickup truck, which had been speeding along the country road, slowly came to a stop.
"Hehe~" Laurie finished her second can of wheat juice in the driver's seat. With a little effort, the aluminum can was like a lump of clay, easily transformed into a flattened metal sheet between her slender fingers.
She moved closer to Joey, her cheeks flushed, so close that Joey could smell the earthy, sun-kissed scent emanating from her. Joey looked up and saw a dangerous glint in Laurie's deep blue eyes:
"There's something wrong with the car, and it looks like we're stuck here."
Laurie's eyes sparkled with excitement and nervousness. She reached out and ran her fingers through Joey's slightly wavy black hair, gently stroking it. Then she touched Joey's angular face, which resembled David's, and pulled her closer, a pull that exceeded the limits of any ordinary farm girl.
"Joey, your face... let me see..."
I never imagined that this ordinary and unrestrained country girl, whom I talked about every day on the school bus about the slugs in the fields, the rampant wild boars, and the cows on the neighboring farm, would be a superhuman. I never expected that she would use her hidden superpowers for such outrageous behavior. Where did this girl come from? Is this still the extremely conservative Kansas?