1 Piece of Candy
The blazing sun hung high in the sky, its vicious heat scorching the earth.
The cicadas in the trees shrieked with all their might, perfectly reflecting Sang Yinyin’s current state of mind.
She was standing outside a somewhat run-down Agricultural Bank, clutching a thin green bank card in her hand. In front of her stood a handsome young man.
“Yinyin, thank you so much this time.”
Despite the sweltering weather, the young man was dressed in black trousers and a white shirt. Beads of sweat covered his forehead, yet he still maintained a gentlemanly smile.
One arm rested casually on the handlebars of his bicycle as he smiled at Sang Yinyin. “If it weren’t for you, I really wouldn’t know what to do.”
As he spoke, he reached for the bank card in Sang Yinyin’s hand.
—Don’t take my family’s money!
Sang Yinyin’s ten slender, pale fingers clutched the card tightly. She resisted with every ounce of strength she possessed, from her soul to the tips of her hair, yet her body seemed to be controlled by some invisible force and refused to move.
The card was slowly pulled from her grasp, and the light in Sang Yinyin’s eyes gradually died.
She had transmigrated into this world eighteen years ago, and for all eighteen of those years, she had existed in this strange state—fully conscious, yet completely unable to control her own body.
Fortunately, she had a happy family in this world. Her parents and relatives doted on her. They assumed her sluggish reactions were because she was somewhat intellectually impaired, so they always took especially good care of her. Sang Yinyin had never suffered much.
For most people, being unable to control their own body year after year would probably have driven them insane long ago.
But Sang Yinyin was a salted fish through and through.
Eating, drinking, playing around, and enjoying a peaceful village life while being cared for by her family wasn’t torture to her at all. If anything, she rather enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, that comfortable salted-fish existence had been completely shattered a month ago by the young man standing in front of her—a man who had quit his job in the big city and returned home to farm.
His name was Lu Chengyi.
To Sang Yinyin, he was like a walking bug in the system.
The moment she saw Lu Chengyi, her body would start behaving completely out of control.
The very first time they met, she confessed her love to him. After that, she followed him around every single day, calling him “Brother Yi” this and “Brother Yi” that. She woke before dawn and worked until dark helping him with farm work, cutting pigweed, feeding chickens and ducks, and even cleaning the pit toilet.
Dirty work, exhausting work, disgusting work—she fought to do all of it.
It was as if she had completely lost her mind.
Sang Yinyin’s eldest brother couldn’t stand watching Lu Chengyi use his little sister like a tool and tried to drag her home.
But instead, she slapped her brother twice and declared that she belonged to Brother Yi in life and would be Brother Yi’s ghost in death!
Even now, Sang Yinyin could still remember the hurt and shock in her eldest brother’s eyes.
She had nearly died from anger.
But there was nothing she could do.
She could only watch helplessly as “she” repeatedly courted disaster and hurt her family, successfully throwing herself at Lu Chengyi so relentlessly that in less than a month, she had practically become his unofficial little wife.
And today, she had done something even more outrageous.
Lu Chengyi said he urgently needed money, so she stole her family’s household registration booklet and property deed. Before dawn, she secretly followed him into town, sold a house belonging to the family that was registered under her name, and now intended to transfer the entire sum—more than two hundred thousand yuan—to him.
Why?
Why the hell did she have to treat this man, whose every expression practically screamed disdain and calculation, so well?
Because he was shameless?
Sang Yinyin tensed her fingertips and stiffened her back, gripping the card with all her strength.
Just as the thin little card was about to be completely pulled from her hand by Lu Chengyi, a soft, adorable electronic voice suddenly sounded inside her mind.
“Ding—Hello, Host. I am Intern System 021 from the Supporting Female Character Counterattack Department under the Transmigration Administration. Strong feelings of unwillingness have been detected. Would you like to bind with this system, defy fate, change your destiny, and create a glorious life of your own?”
Sang Yinyin: !!!
Sang Yinyin: YES!
“Understood, Host. Binding now.”
As soon as the cute electronic voice faded, Sang Yinyin felt an intense, electric pain explode inside her head.
It was as if someone had taken a hammer and started smashing it directly into her brain.
Her face instantly turned deathly pale, and sweat poured from her body.
Her consciousness rapidly blurred.
Yet it was precisely because of that inexplicable burst of agony that, for the first time before losing consciousness, she gained control over her own body.
Sang Yinyin snatched the bank card back from Lu Chengyi’s hand.
Under his stunned gaze, she turned and ran.
Only a few minutes earlier, “she” had already told Lu Chengyi the card’s PIN, and Lu Chengyi had even written her an IOU.
If she didn’t run now, then once she fainted, Lu Chengyi could still transfer the money.
And if he spent it all and then stubbornly refused to repay her, Sang Yinyin genuinely wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
Sang Yinyin stumbled desperately toward a crowded area.
Lu Chengyi quickly came back to his senses.
A trace of hesitation first crossed his handsome face, followed immediately by ruthlessness.
The apocalypse would arrive in less than ten days.
He urgently needed a large amount of money to purchase supplies.
He had no idea why Sang Yinyin had suddenly changed her mind, but the more than two hundred thousand yuan from selling the house was money he absolutely had to obtain!
Without hesitation, Lu Chengyi chased after her.
“Yinyin! Yinyin, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
As he chased her, he explained to the scattered pedestrians nearby, “Sorry, sorry, please make way. She’s my girlfriend. We just had an argument and she’s throwing a tantrum.”
Through the haze of pain, Sang Yinyin vaguely heard what he said and nearly fainted from rage.
This bastard had acted like some fiercely chaste man back in the village, refusing to admit she was his girlfriend no matter what.
Now that he was about to lose the money, suddenly she was his girlfriend?
Seeing the expressions on the surrounding people’s faces—those looks of *ah, I understand, better not interfere in a couple’s argument*—Sang Yinyin desperately wanted to ask for help.
Unfortunately, the electric hammer in her head had left her dizzy and half-blind with pain. Her entire body was trembling.
The fact that she could still force herself to run at all was already a testament to her sheer willpower.
“Yinyin, don’t be angry. It’s all my fault. I’ll apologise, okay?”
Lu Chengyi’s voice drew closer and closer.
Sang Yinyin desperately ran out of the sparsely populated street.
Suddenly, a tall figure flashed into her path.
Before she could react, she slammed straight into him.
Her soft nose collided with the man’s solid chest.
Sang Yinyin hadn’t cried even when the electric pain had made her whole body shake, but now tears immediately sprang from her eyes.
She looked up through watery eyes.
All she could see was a sharply defined jawline.
Crystal-clear beads of sweat slid down from the black hair at the man’s temple and gathered in the hollow above his prominent collarbone, gleaming against his wheat-toned, slightly bronze skin.
“Yinyin!”
Lu Chengyi’s voice came from behind her.
The pain in her head intensified.
Before losing consciousness, Sang Yinyin only had time to clutch tightly at the belt of the man’s jeans.
Her little face pale, she whimpered softly,
“…Save me.”
…
The girl’s soft body sagged bonelessly against him.
Tears and sweat streamed down her beautiful, pale face in continuous trails, droplets falling one after another.
The man raised an eyebrow and stepped backward.
Then, with one large hand, he grabbed the back of Sang Yinyin’s dress by the collar and effortlessly lifted her upright.
His dark eyes swept over the bank card clutched tightly in her hand.
Lu Chengyi finally caught up, panting heavily.
The moment his gaze met the man’s intensely oppressive eyes, his voice unconsciously weakened.
“Brother, she’s my girlfriend. We just had an argument. Her health isn’t very good, and it’s hot today, so she probably fainted from getting worked up. Give her to me. I’ll take her to the hospital.”
After saying that, Lu Chengyi even smiled at him.
He was good-looking, fair-skinned, and refined, the sort of appearance that easily inspired goodwill and trust.
Sang Yinyin, on the other hand, wore the most ordinary floral dress and cloth shoes common in the countryside, with her hair braided into two unfashionable plaits.
Yet her skin was fair, her waist slender, and her features exceptionally beautiful.
At first glance, she looked strikingly gorgeous and faintly seductive—the complete opposite of what people would consider a quiet, well-behaved village girl.
Combined with Sang Yinyin’s strange behaviour just now, Lu Chengyi’s explanation sounded extremely convincing.
That was also why none of the people earlier had stepped in to help.
But to Lu Chengyi’s surprise, after hearing him out, the man did not hand Sang Yinyin over.
Instead, he clicked his tongue impatiently.
One long arm, hard as iron, wrapped around Sang Yinyin’s waist.
Then he lifted her horizontally into his arms and strode away.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
Lu Chengyi immediately became furious.
It was true that his heart belonged to someone else and that he didn’t like Sang Yinyin.
But for the past month, this beautiful girl had followed him everywhere, constantly calling him “Brother Yi.”
Without realising it, he had already begun treating her as something that belonged to him.
There were too many eyes in the village, so he had never dared do much with Sang Yinyin. Forget wrapping an arm around her waist—the most he had ever done was hold her hand.
Now, seeing a strange man being so physically intimate with her naturally made him uncomfortable.
But after following them for a short distance, Lu Chengyi turned a corner and saw two police cars parked not far away.
He immediately stopped.
Their town was small. The property management office, the bank, and the police station were all on the same street.
The apocalypse had not arrived yet.
Order had not collapsed.
If he really followed them over there, he would only create trouble for himself.
Sang Yinyin had two older brothers, and both Father Sang and Grandpa Sang were still strong and healthy.
If they discovered that he, Lu Chengyi, had tricked their precious daughter into selling the family house, he probably wouldn’t have a single peaceful day for quite some time.
Forget it.
Buying supplies was more important.
Once the apocalypse arrived, he would have his spiritual-spring space anyway.
He would have plenty of ways to get revenge.
Lu Chengyi gritted his teeth and glared viciously at the tall man’s retreating back.
He would remember this grudge!
…
“Brother Nie, what brings you here?”
Nie Gen hadn’t even entered the police station when a round-faced young auxiliary police officer came out to greet him.
The moment he saw Sang Yinyin curled up like a kitten in Nie Gen’s arms, his expression became as though he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
“Holy shit, Brother Nie, you…”
He looked Nie Gen up and down suspiciously, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
Nie Gen had a terrible reputation.
People said several women had died because of his inauspicious fate.
Everyone throughout the surrounding villages knew about it.
Nie Gen: “…”
He frowned impatiently.
“Picked her up on the road. Don’t know her.”
Chen Yuan approached suspiciously.
When he saw Sang Yinyin’s pale face, weak breathing, and uncontrollably trembling body, he realised it didn’t look like heatstroke.
He immediately stopped worrying about anything else.
After calling out to her several times, he prepared to take her to the hospital.
The county hospital was five or six kilometres away from the police station. Even by car, it would take more than ten minutes.
They couldn’t afford to delay.
Unexpectedly, the car was ready and they had someone to drive—but the young girl in Nie Gen’s arms stubbornly refused to release his belt.
Chen Yuan could only stare as the girl struggled in his brother’s arms.
Her soft cheek kept rubbing against his brother’s chest muscles, making his brother’s eyebrow twitch violently.
Watching Nie Gen’s complexion alternate between green and red, Chen Yuan finally said,
“Brother Nie, why don’t you just take your belt off?”
Nie Gen stared at him darkly.
Chen Yuan: “…”
Chen Yuan: “…What I mean is, the girl probably feels insecure. I’ve got a piece of straw rope. You can make do with that for now.”
…
Nie Gen walked out of the police station with a piece of straw rope tied around his waist and pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
He lit it.
Watching the police car disappear into the distance, he thought again of the little girl who had kept burrowing into his arms earlier.
His long, thick eyelashes suddenly trembled twice.
He raised the cigarette to his mouth—
and inhaled a mouthful of black smoke.
“Fuck.”
Face flushed, he threw the cigarette onto the ground and crushed it beneath his shoe.
His cheeks and chest felt scorching hot.
He had lit the cigarette from the wrong end.
He’d burned his mouth.
…
**Author’s Note:**
Dagen, do you want a wife or not?
P.S. This novel is set in a fictional rural apocalypse setting. The female lead is fundamentally a kind person and will try to help others whenever it is within her ability to do so. If you think helping others in an apocalypse is frustrating and that people should only look out for themselves, please exit now. It’ll be better for everyone.
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