Reborn with Nothing but My Farm and Vengeance in the Apocalypse

Let’s start with the contextual analysis:

Literary genre: This appears to be a suspense/thriller/mystery web novel set in a modern or near-future dystopian world after some catastrophic event called "the Long Night." It has elements of crime fiction.

Language style: The original text uses contemporary Chinese with dialogue and narration elements typical of web novels.

Tone: The tone is serious and somber, describing distressing situations including terrorism, child abuse, and criminal activities.

Plot keywords: Terror attack, community management, police investigation, child abuse, spy/mole discovered

Characters:

- Melody Summers (夏时歌): Female protagonist

- Winnie Summers (夏慧茵): Female, Melody’s mother

- Roman Rhodes (周泓): Male, police officer who was injured

- Officer Rhodes/Mr. Rhodes (周老爷子): Male, older relative of Roman, possibly his father

- Dr. Walsh (吴煜): Male, a doctor who seems to care about Melody

- Zara Walsh (吴灼): Female, Dr. Walsh’s sister

- Sophie Thorne (唐诗琪): Female, Melody’s friend

- Tristan Tanner (谈臻): Male, police officer

- Spencer Price/Officer Sean Pierce (郑信/郑信警官): Male, police officer

- Miss Lowell (刘奶奶): Female, elderly woman

- Kenneth Adler (赵坤泰): Male, seems to be an antagonist

- Hollis (小何): Gender unclear, works with Winnie in property management

Context: The story takes place in The Metropolis Residences in Anworth City. There was a terrorist attack the previous night. Roman Rhodes was injured and hospitalized. The community is trying to recover from the attack. During home visits to check on residents, Melody’s mother discovers two abused children who were being held captive by a security guard who is also discovered to be a spy for the "Adler Family" and a thief in the community.

Now, I’ll proceed with the translation while applying all the rules:

Line by line translation with integrated polishing:

First paragraph: Melody has just left home and is walking toward Sophie’s house when her phone rings.

Second paragraph: Melody takes out her phone and sees it’s a call from Dr. Walsh.

Third paragraph: Melody is confused but answers the call. Dr. Walsh immediately speaks with an anxious voice: "Melody, I heard there was a terrorist attack at The Metropolis Residences last night. Are you okay?"

And so on...

Let me continue with the full translation, applying all the rules and making sure to use the glossary terms correctly.

Melody Summers had just left home and was walking toward Sophie’s house when her phone suddenly rang.

Melody took out her phone and saw it was a call from Yuri Walsh.

Melody hesitated for a moment, then answered with some confusion. Yuri’s slightly anxious voice immediately came through: "Melody, I heard there was a terrorist attack at The Metropolis Residences last night. Are you alright?"

Melody was puzzled but still replied, "I’m fine now, thank you for your concern."

Hearing Melody’s response, Yuri breathed a sigh of relief on the other end of the call.

Yesterday, he and his sister Zara had gone to their parents’ home for dinner. Around midnight, they received news that Mr. Rhodes had fainted from shock, possibly due to a heart attack.

Yuri was quite familiar with Mr. Rhodes’s medical condition, so upon hearing the news, he rushed over immediately.

Mr. Rhodes had clearly suffered a shock and remained extremely agitated. It wasn’t until around five o’clock when news came that Roman Rhodes had regained consciousness that Mr. Rhodes’s condition improved.

After being up all night, Yuri was physically and mentally exhausted. The Rhodes Family’s butler quickly prepared a room for him to rest, suggesting he sleep before heading home.

At that point, Yuri still didn’t know what had happened and simply fell asleep in the room arranged for him.

He slept until the afternoon. When he woke up and checked the community chat group for The Metropolis Residences, he finally learned about the terrorist attack! The number of casualties was frighteningly high!

Yuri couldn’t describe his feelings at that moment. His first thought was: could Melody be hurt?

Without time to think, he anxiously called Melody.

Upon hearing that Melody was safe, Yuri finally relaxed.

Hearing the silence on the other end of the line, Yuri realized his actions had been somewhat impulsive and didn’t know what to say next.

Melody, hearing nothing from the other end, was also confused, but then suddenly understood. "Dr. Walsh, I know what you want to say."

On the other end of the call, Yuri’s heart skipped a beat when he heard Melody’s words—he felt his heart was beating faster now than during Mr. Rhodes’s medical emergency yesterday.

Then Melody continued, "Don’t worry, your home is fine! The terrorists were stopped in the residential area before they could reach the villa section. Your house is perfectly intact, so you don’t need to worry!"

Yuri: "..."

Melody was walking to Sophie’s house while on the phone, and now she had reached Sophie’s living room.

Seeing Sophie looking over curiously, Melody said into the phone, "Dr. Walsh, if there’s nothing else, I need to go now."

Hearing the dial tone, Yuri sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Sophie asked curiously, "Who was that?"

Melody answered, "It was Dr. Walsh. He called to ask if his house was okay. He must have heard about yesterday’s terrorist attack and was worried about his home."

Sophie was momentarily stunned, then looked at Melody’s face thoughtfully, nodding without saying anything more.

Seeing Melody return, Miss Lowell and her grandmother immediately asked with concern about Roman’s condition.

Melody reassured the two elderly women, "Officer Rhodes is fine, don’t worry. He ate all the food we brought him."

Grandmother and Miss Lowell finally relaxed upon hearing this.

Being able to eat was a good sign; it meant his body was recovering.

Melody thought to herself, ’The effectiveness of the Far Sea Secret Medicine is undeniable—it can even heal ruptured internal organs. Officer Rhodes should recover quickly.’

******

When Winnie Summers returned home tonight, she looked unusually tired, with a hint of weariness between her brows.

Seeing this, Melody was startled and quickly grabbed her arm asking, "Mom, what’s wrong?"

Winnie first took a few sips of milk from the table, then explained what had happened that afternoon.

After distributing the sand vine cakes in the afternoon, considering the impact of yesterday’s terrorist attack, the emergency management office decided to organize door-to-door visits starting today to comfort residents and stabilize their emotions.

Winnie and Hollis from property management were responsible for Building 2, Unit 1, starting with apartment 2-101 and visiting each home one by one.

But when they reached apartment 2-801, they noticed something unusual.

Winnie continued, "When the resident opened the door, his eyes kept shifting nervously. He told us he was a security guard from our complex and tried to get friendly, saying we were ’on the same team’ and asking us to leave."

"He looked extremely nervous, which we found strange, so we asked him a few more questions. He claimed he lived alone, but there were sounds coming from his room, including faint whimpering..."

At that moment, Winnie and Hollis tactfully didn’t alert the suspect. They said a few comforting words and left.

Then they quickly contacted Officer Tanner to check on the situation.

Officer Tanner arrived shortly after. He broke down the door, and after the three of them subdued the resident, they searched the apartment and discovered two children tied up in the second bedroom!

The children, a boy and a girl both around ten years old, were skeletal thin with signs of abuse all over their bodies.

The ropes binding them had cut into their skin, causing many bloodied areas that had scabbed over.

When the police untied them, the ropes practically tore away skin and flesh.

Yet even then, neither child cried.

They just stared blankly ahead, as if they had become completely numb.

Melody was shocked as she listened. Winnie continued, "These two children came from the disaster area near Skyfire Volcano, seeking their distant cousin in Anworth City—the resident of apartment 2-801."

"Their mother died from heat-related complications while fleeing. She only had time to tell them the address of The Metropolis Residences."

"They thought they would find refuge with their relative after reaching The Metropolis Residences, but they never expected this relative would be a monster..."

"He took the family assets the children brought with them. At first, he was somewhat polite to them, but over these two months, his true nature emerged, and he began torturing and abusing the children..."

Officer Tanner then tied up the resident of 2-801 and took him to the emergency management office. After investigation, they discovered he really was a security guard for the complex!

Who could have imagined that as a security guard and member of The Metropolis Residences emergency management team, he was collecting government welfare benefits while secretly abusing two young children at home!

But that wasn’t the most outrageous part.

While investigating the child abuse case, Officer Tanner pulled at one thread and unraveled the whole ball—he found many things in the man’s phone chat history—

Among them were messages showing his contact with Kenneth Adler’s subordinates and evidence that he had been tipping off Kenneth Adler. There were also messages boasting to friends about thefts he had committed in the complex at the beginning of the Long Night, before the security cameras were replaced...

Seeing all this, Officers Tanner and Sean Pierce, who were investigating the case, broke out in a cold sweat.

They never expected the Adler Family’s spy was hiding among the emergency management team members!

And he had been committing thefts in the complex!

Melody grew increasingly shocked as she listened, murmuring, "No wonder... no wonder the thief stopped operating after we replaced the security cameras in the complex..."

So the thief was actually a member of the emergency management team.

He knew about the camera replacement—he had probably even participated in the installation work. That’s why he hadn’t stolen anything since then.

The emergency management team members actually enjoyed quite good treatment, occasionally receiving rice, flour, and other welfare items. At a time when others could only eat sand vine cakes, these benefits were quite valuable.

She couldn’t believe he would do such things despite having those advantages. Now he had not only lost his job but might also lose his life...

Melody sighed and asked, "What about the two rescued children? How are they doing? Do they have somewhere to go?"