Two Pieces of Candy
By the time Sang Yinyin woke up again, it was already evening.
She was lying in her familiar room, a damp towel resting across her forehead.
“Well, look who finally decided to wake up—our family’s precious young miss.”
A slightly sarcastic voice sounded beside her, and Sang Yinyin quickly came fully awake.
Her voice was a little hoarse. “Second Brother, you’re back?”
Her second brother, Sang Huai, was only two years older than her and was still in university. After summer break started, he had gone to the city to work a summer job and had originally said he wouldn’t be back until next month.
Sang Huai said irritably, “If I didn’t come back, who knows how badly you’d keep bullying Big Brother? Aren’t you capable? Your wings have hardened so much you even dare hit people now. Come on, try hitting me too.”
Sang Yinyin: “…”
Knowing she was in the wrong, she rubbed her still slightly dizzy head and didn’t mind his harsh tone.
“Second Brother, what happened to me earlier?”
As she spoke, Sang Yinyin reached into the pocket of her dress.
Her fingertips touched a small card with a row of numbers embossed in the lower-right corner.
The money was still there.
Sang Yinyin immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Sang Huai said, “You ran off to town with Lu Chengyi early this morning. Somehow, you fainted in the street around noon. Mom and I went to the hospital this afternoon and brought you home.”
The doctor had given Sang Yinyin a full examination and confirmed that she had only fainted temporarily from the summer heat and had no other problems. He prescribed some Huoxiang Zhengqi liquid and sent them home.
The hospital beds in town were already tight, so there wasn’t one to spare for her anyway.
However…
Sang Huai glanced at the object his sister was still clutching to her chest as though it were a treasure and raised an eyebrow.
“You really have terrible taste in men.”
Sang Yinyin gave him a look that clearly said, *I have no idea what you’re talking about.*
Sang Huai was speechless.
“Can’t you feel what you’re holding?”
Only then did Sang Yinyin notice that she had been hugging something cold and hard against herself the entire time. Her arms were even starting to ache from being wrapped around it.
She lowered her head.
It was a belt—
Black leather, with several fierce-looking fingernail marks still gouged into the edges.
Sang Yinyin instantly remembered how, right before losing consciousness, she had clung desperately to that tall man’s belt while crying for him to save her.
“…”
She looked down at her own uneven, scraped fingernails.
Her fingertips suddenly seemed to ache.
Her cheeks heated up as well.
Seeing her reaction only irritated Sang Huai further. He couldn’t be bothered saying anything else.
“I’m too lazy to deal with you. Dinner will be ready soon. Think about how you’re going to explain yourself to Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and Dad.”
A young woman chasing after a man all day long, then practically eloping with him and ending up in the hospital—
Their parents had nearly died from anger.
Sang Huai had no idea what exactly Sang Yinyin had been doing over the past month to manage to hurt every single person in the family so badly.
The door closed behind him.
Thinking of her family, Sang Yinyin’s face immediately crumpled.
She placed the man’s belt to one side, got out of bed, locked the door, then whispered,
“System? System, are you there?”
“I’m here.”
021’s electronic voice sounded.
Sang Yinyin asked, “Is there any way to turn back time and send me back to before I sold the house?”
“Yinyin, we haven’t actually bound yet.”
021 awkwardly explained what had happened.
Sang Yinyin’s expression gradually became rather complicated.
So the reason she had fainted from the pain earlier wasn’t because she was binding with 021.
It was because the system that had already been bound to her soul was violently resisting.
021 had been shocked too.
It had only recently been created and was still an intern system. Sang Yinyin was the very first host it had selected.
021 hadn’t expected another system to already exist inside her.
The two systems had unexpectedly encountered each other inside Sang Yinyin’s soul—
and immediately started fighting.
021 said guiltily, “The situation was dangerous at the time. If it continued too long, it could have damaged Host’s soul, so I had no choice but to use unconventional means to imprison that system.”
“There are now two systems available. Host may freely choose which one to bind with.”
“I’m sorry. I crippled the Devoted Supporting Female Character System that was inside you.”
Sang Yinyin: “…”
Good job!
Without the slightest hesitation, she said, “I choose you.”
A *Devoted Cannon-Fodder Supporting Female Character System*—
just hearing the name told her it couldn’t possibly be anything good.
The moment Sang Yinyin finished speaking, an ear-piercing scream erupted inside her mind.
“Yinyin! You actually didn’t choose me! You vicious woman! Were all these years of feelings between us fake?!”
Sang Yinyin: “…”
Years of feelings?
Did it mean the feelings created by controlling her body for eighteen years??
Sang Yinyin was temporarily rendered speechless.
021, meanwhile, immediately began the binding process.
Something seemed to be expelled from her body.
A cool, refreshing sensation spread through Sang Yinyin from head to toe, as though a layer of fog that had covered her eyes for eighteen years had finally dispersed.
Even the world seemed clearer.
Once the binding finished, a small round object appeared in her palm, cool to the touch.
Sang Yinyin lowered her head.
It was a silver metallic sphere.
The moment she squeezed it, she could hear the Devoted Cannon-Fodder Supporting Female Character System screaming from inside.
“You actually dared imprison me!”
“021, open the data gate!”
“You have the guts to seduce my host but not the guts to let me out?! Let me out! Come on, let me out!”
Expressionless, Sang Yinyin tossed the little silver ball straight into the fish tank on her desk.
021 felt somewhat guilty after being cursed at.
Strictly speaking, according to the system world’s rule of first come, first served, what it had done was basically equivalent to a thug forcibly stealing someone else’s database.
But since it had already “seduced” Sang Yinyin away, it might as well go all the way.
Besides, the Devoted Cannon-Fodder Supporting Female Character System had illegally occupied the host’s body.
021 was already preparing to report it and have it dragged before the System Realm Court.
Sang Yinyin was still thinking about her earlier question.
She asked again whether it was possible to turn back time to before the house was sold.
021 quickly answered, “It requires ten thousand points.”
“How many points do I have now?”
021 replied, “Yinyin, your starting balance is one hundred points. You also have one bonus beginner’s lottery gift pack.”
Sang Yinyin: “Forget I asked.”
She sat blankly on the kang bed, clutching the bank card.
In her head, she came up with several possible excuses, trying to figure out how she could explain herself later without dying too miserably.
021 waited and waited.
But Sang Yinyin still didn’t ask anything about missions.
Growing anxious, it finally couldn’t help saying,
“Yinyin, don’t you want to look at your missions? Completing missions can earn you lots and lots of points!”
Something suddenly occurred to Sang Yinyin.
“Can points be exchanged for money?”
021 said, “One point can be exchanged for one hundred yuan.”
Sang Yinyin: !
Her interest immediately shot up.
“What missions?”
The Sang family was poor.
Very poor.
That small house in town represented the savings of two generations of the Sang family.
That was precisely why Sang Yinyin had no idea how to tell Father Sang and Mother Sang that the house was gone.
The money was still in her hands, but there was only 260,000 yuan on the card.
That house had a market value of at least 300,000 yuan.
And because its location was very good, buying it back would probably cost around 350,000 yuan.
Lu Chengyi had wanted the money as quickly as possible, so he had coaxed “her” into selling it below market value.
“Yinyin, please wait.”
This was also 021’s first time issuing a mission.
It sounded excited.
But very quickly, its electronic voice weakened.
It forcibly suppressed its panic.
“Yinyin… I transmigrated into the wrong book. The missions have changed.”
Hearing how flustered it sounded, Sang Yinyin actually found it a little amusing.
“What book did you enter by mistake?”
021 replied, “I was originally supposed to enter a C-rank world called *Billion-Yuan Sweet Marriage: The Wealthy Young Emperor Only Dotes on Me*.”
“But the world you’re currently in is called *Spiritual Spring Space: Returning to the Apocalypse as a Big Shot*.”
“It’s an S-rank apocalypse world.”
Sang Yinyin: “?”
What rank?
What apocalypse?
Sang Yinyin’s face instantly went several shades paler.
Although she had possessed some cultivation in her previous life, that had been in her last lifetime.
Right now, she was merely an ordinary mortal.
A rather physically weak one, at that.
Forget surviving the apocalypse—she could barely tolerate slightly hotter weather in summer.
And the Sang family had two elderly people as well.
“Yinyin, don’t panic. I’ve already checked. There are still plenty of useful things you can buy with one hundred points.”
“You also have the beginner’s lottery gift pack. If you’re lucky, you might even draw a spiritual-spring space.”
Sang Yinyin calmed slightly.
First, she changed the PIN on the bank card.
Then she opened the synopsis 021 had transmitted to her.
…
**Natural disasters descend. Only the strong survive.**
In his previous life, Lu Chengyi struggled through ten miserable years of the apocalypse. After enduring countless hardships, he finally unlocked the ancestral spiritual-spring space.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
His parents, his beloved, and his beautiful confidantes all died one after another because of him.
In the end, he himself died miserably beneath a tide of mutated beasts.
But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that he had returned to two months before the apocalypse began—
and the spiritual-spring space that had already recognised him as its master had returned with him!
Looking at the clear sky before the apocalypse descended, a confident smile appeared on Lu Chengyi’s handsome face.
Earthquakes.
Severe drought.
Plague.
Famine.
Floods.
Insect disasters.
The Ice Age.
Polar night.
Spiritual energy resurgence…
Knowing the sequence in which every catastrophe would arrive, and with his space in hand, in this life he would not only become the strongest ability-user in the entire world—
he would also protect the family members who mattered most to him.
**In the apocalypse, only the strong survive!**
**Tags:** Beautiful confidantes, wish-fulfilment, apocalypse, spatial ability, sweet romance.
**P.P.S. Special author reminder: I’ll say it again—Sang Yinyin, that idiot, is NOT the female lead. She’s only a substitute! Nie Gen, that terrifying villain, will DEFINITELY die later on! Sang Yinyin DOES NOT like Nie Gen!!!**
…
Sang Yinyin: “…”
She stared at the “special author reminder” several times.
Then silently memorised the villain’s name.
The male lead, Lu Chengyi, clearly wasn’t a good person.
So the major villain was probably even more twisted.
Just as she was thinking this, someone knocked on her bedroom door.
Her eldest brother’s somewhat subdued voice came from outside.
“Yinyin, dinner.”
Sang Yinyin quickly responded and stuffed the bank card into her pocket.
…
Dinner was quite good.
There was white rice porridge, stir-fried vegetables, braised pork, and Mother Sang had also cooked flatbreads on the kang.
But because of the matter involving her and Lu Chengyi, the atmosphere at the table was extremely tense.
Since no one in the family brought it up first, Sang Yinyin didn’t explain either.
If this were peacetime, she would have immediately confessed everything and apologised.
But the apocalypse was about to arrive.
She had been the family’s little fool for eighteen years.
Even if she told them the apocalypse was coming, they would probably think she was joking.
Her parents might not blame her for being tricked into selling the house, but they certainly wouldn’t let her freely control the remaining money either.
They might even take her back to the hospital to get her brain checked again.
That would waste too much time.
It was better not to mention it for now.
After dinner, Lu Lingyue pulled Sang Yinyin aside and handed her a basket of free-range eggs.
“Take this basket of eggs to Nie Gen’s house.”
Sang Yinyin: “?”
Lu Lingyue glared at her irritably and shoved the basket into her arms.
“He saved you. Aren’t you going to thank him?”
“Do you have any idea how embarrassing you were?”
“When Mom went to pick you up from the hospital, she was afraid you’d get stuffy on the way home, so she specifically rented your Uncle Li Dagou’s ox cart.”
“And then you insisted on hugging Nie Gen’s belt the entire way and refused to let go no matter what anyone did.”
“Li Dagou’s wife recognised the belt as Nie Gen’s.”
“She said her son saw Nie Gen return to the village today with nothing but a piece of straw rope tied around his waist.”
“She also said several young women supposedly died because of him before he moved to our village, and that maybe you’re next.”
“It made me furious.”
Angry or not, Nie Gen had still helped her daughter.
And rumours weren’t necessarily true.
A thank-you gift still had to be given.
Besides, Lu Lingyue refused to believe Nie Gen could possibly be worse than Lu Chengyi.
If this incident somehow made her daughter switch targets, she would honestly be delighted.
Lu Lingyue said, “Hurry up and go. Be back before dark.”
…
Carrying a basket of eggs in one hand and a belt in the other, Sang Yinyin walked along the ridge between the fields with a complicated expression.
She had only just managed to temporarily escape the male lead.
And now she was about to run straight into the villain.
She wasn’t exactly confident.
Still, since he had saved her, he probably wasn’t a bad person.
She simply didn’t know why his reputation was so terrible.
Sang Yinyin decided she would only return the belt, say nothing unnecessary, do nothing unnecessary, and try her best not to attract his attention.
Only then did she feel slightly more relaxed.
Nie Gen hadn’t moved into the village very long ago either.
His house was closer to the mountain and kept a certain distance from most of the other village homes.
But it wasn’t too isolated.
Living too far away would make getting water and electricity inconvenient.
As Sang Yinyin headed toward his house, she listened to 021 formulate a supply-purchasing plan in her mind.
When she passed the large evergreen tree in the centre of the village, several naked little boys came running toward her, laughing.
A grey-and-white wolfdog puppy followed behind them.
“Woof!”
The puppy was soaking wet.
At first it had been chasing the children.
But the moment it saw Sang Yinyin, it slammed on the brakes.
Its tail wagged like a tornado.
Then it tried to bite her shoelaces.
One of the children noticed the belt in Sang Yinyin’s hand and blinked curiously.
“Sister Yinyin, is that Brother Nie’s belt?”
Sang Yinyin couldn’t exactly say yes.
But saying no felt equally awkward.
The child giggled.
“You’re looking for Brother Nie? He’s not home. He’s catching fish by the river.”
“Little Grey belongs to him. It smelled Brother Nie’s scent on you.”
Sang Yinyin: “He’s catching fish now?”
It was already almost six in the evening.
Although summer nights came late in the countryside, very few people went fishing at this hour.
“Yeah. He said it was too hot today and he was feeling restless.”
Sang Yinyin thought for a moment.
Then she followed Little Grey to the riverbank.
At a glance, she spotted the man standing in the river.
He was still wearing those faded, washed-out jeans, with only a piece of straw rope tied around his waist.
His upper body was bare.
Strong, beautifully defined bronze muscles shifted beneath the sparkling river water, reflecting fragments of golden light so brightly they almost dazzled the eyes.
Nie Gen held a sharpened wooden spear in one hand.
There were already so many fish skewered onto it that there was barely room for another.
Seeing that he hadn’t noticed her, Sang Yinyin called out.
The man, who had been preparing to come ashore, paused.
His long eyelashes trembled.
Then he raised his eyes and glanced toward the young woman standing on the riverbank.
Sang Yinyin smiled at him and waved the belt in her hand.
“Brother Nie Gen, I came to return your belt.”
The instant Nie Gen spotted the obvious red marks on her fair arms, his eyelid twitched.
Then—
he abruptly dove straight back into the river.
Sang Yinyin: “?”
…
**Author’s Note:**
**[P.P.S. Special author reminder: Sang Yinyin DOES NOT like Nie Gen!!!]**
Nie Gen: Isn’t she about to start liking me any minute now?
*The editor said there was a lot in the previous version that couldn’t be written, so I changed it, qaq.*
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