When Ruyi suspiciously examined the item handed to her by the store clerk, she was stunned.
Wasn't this the same jade bracelet that had shattered? Now, it was seamlessly repaired, with delicate gold filigree barely visible along the cracks. The original colors had been striking, but the added gold lent it a new elegance, making it even more stunning.
After the bracelet had broken that day, she had immediately thrown herself from the building. When she woke up, four months had already passed. Yet the clerk claimed she had brought it in for repair?
Could it have been the original "Ji Ruyi" who brought it in after her failed jump? No, that didn't make sense. In the story, the original Ruyi would never have bothered to repair a shattered bracelet after being humiliated; she'd more likely have discarded it entirely.
Then where was she during those four missing months?
Ruyi pondered for a long while, eventually concluding that the "storyline" must have auto-corrected the gap. Her four-month absence was a non-event to the plot, so it "filled in the blanks" as if nothing unusual had happened. None of the characters, including Xinyu, would realize they'd effectively skipped over a block of time.
From the start, the story's setting had cast Xinyu and the others as college students, with memories of their childhoods conveniently inserted by the plot itself. They weren't born from cells; their lives began with the opening line of the first chapter. So, what did that make her?
The more she thought about it, the worse her headache grew. Enough of this, she told herself, realizing that even if she understood it as a novel, she was still bound to the pain and sensations of this world. Whatever happened to her here, she would still feel it.
Once back in her room, she locked the door and eagerly pricked her finger, determined to test the bracelet. Aware that she had already tried before, she didn't want to waste any more blood. But this time, as the first drop seeped into the jade, an overwhelming force began pulling her blood from her body.
She felt her blood surge like a living entity, drawn to the wound, streaming in a continuous line into the bracelet. The vibrant purple of the jade slowly turned crimson, absorbing the blood greedily.
As blood loss fogged her vision and the cold crept over her, Ruyi tried to scream, but no sound came. Her entire body grew colder, her head heavier, until finally, she slipped into unconsciousness.
The next day, as soon as she woke, she sold all the jewelry she had scavenged from Xinyu, along with every branded item in her room, all at rock-bottom prices. She also managed to wrangle a bit of cash out of Qiao Huixin, scraping together a total of over 800,000 yuan.
With funds and the space now in her possession, she wasted no time. She traveled to a flour mill in the suburbs and bought ten thousand bags of flour, then proceeded to empty warehouses at wholesale markets for grains, oils, vegetables, and snacks. She avoided supermarkets, as her experience with hard times taught her to shop frugally—wholesale prices were a fraction of retail. She had no way to raise more money soon, so every cent counted.
Next were clothes for every season, hygiene supplies, cleaning products... By the time she only had two coins left, she took a bus home.
When she entered the hall, she was startled to see Lian Zichen, who hadn't been around since she arrived.
She was already weak from blood loss, and her long day of errands had left her completely drained. Seeing Lian Zichen's smugly indifferent expression, she lacked even the energy to roll her eyes, instead shuffling past him towards the stairs.
Curiously, Lian Zichen watched her, surprised that she didn't throw herself at him as usual. He could still recall all too well her previous, nauseating eagerness.
He found himself taking a second look.
For all her flaws, Ji Ruyi did have a certain beauty about her. She was striking, but her loud, gaudy style did nothing to flatter her appearance. Everything about her practically screamed for attention, resulting in an unfortunate descent into tackiness.
Today, however, she was casually dressed in a simple black-and-white tracksuit, her once-perfectly styled waves pulled into a haphazard ponytail that fell loosely down her back.
Her face, pale and bloodless, held a distant, dazed expression, giving her normally intense features a touch of cold elegance. In an instant, she had transformed from garish to something fierce and captivating.
"Ruyi?" Lian Zichen hesitated before calling out to her.
Ruyi paused at the stairs, looking back with a frown.
Lian Zichen hadn't expected her to look at him with such unmasked impatience, and he faltered.
After waiting a moment, only to find him staring blankly at her, Ruyi muttered, "What's wrong with you?" before turning away to leave.
"Wait—your face looks so pale. Are you ill?" he asked, a faint note of concern in his voice.
Ruyi was taken aback, staring at him in disbelief. Was this guy...worried about her? Was he on something?
Could he have been swapped out?
The thought made her shudder. Given the choice, she actually preferred the original "Lian Zichen" from the novel. At least he wasn't clingy.
"Isn't that strange! Even birth control pills are sold out these days," Qiao Huixin's voice chirped brightly as she walked through the doorway. "I was at the hospital, and a nurse told me all the hospitals and pharmacies in the city are completely out of stock. Has some 'expert' declared them a new health tonic or something?"
Ruyi and Lian Zichen both turned to look at Qiao Huixin in mild surprise.
"What's going on?" Wen Xinyu asked as she entered behind her mother, her tone laced with suspicion as she took in the scene in the hall.
Ruyi gave a dismissive smirk, turned, and headed up the stairs without a word.
Once she reached her room and locked the door, a sudden wave of dizziness overcame her, and when she came to, she was lying in a blood-colored space.
The ground beneath her feet was a shade of blackish red, and the sky above her was a deep, crimson red, with clouds like thick, dark blood pressing down low. Even the air was filled with a faint, metallic scent of blood.
Being here would make anyone feel like they'd just won the lottery and their lover had immediately eloped with someone else.
"Ji Ruyi, the first-level trial will begin in sixty seconds," a cold, monotonous voice suddenly rang out.
Ruyi jumped up in shock. "Are you kidding me? You almost bled me dry yesterday, and now you're dragging me in here to torture me again? Look at the state I'm in—I can barely stand! Trial, my *ss!"
"Verbal disrespect toward the Sovereign. First-level trial duration extended by twofold," the icy voice replied, utterly devoid of any emotion.
"Sovereign, my foot! Dream on, you egotistical jerk! I'll—curse your name, your entire lineage, you lowlife…"
All the frustration she'd been holding in exploded in a torrent of obscenities. Years of street life had given her a vast lexicon of curses, and she unleashed every single one of them without stopping.
Don't talk to me. Don't mess with me. I'm on the verge of snapping here, she thought, words flashing in her mind like a burning billboard. To hell with this storyline! In the heroine's hands, this bracelet would have been a miraculous space, bound to its owner, capable of growing fields, producing spring water, fighting monsters, and leveling up. But in her hands? She was stuck with some egomaniac "Sovereign" who first nearly drained her blood dry and then forced her into trials. And, as if that wasn't enough, it refused to leave, determined to haunt her until she went insane.
And so Ruyi ranted and raged like a madwoman, screaming curses until her weakened body could no longer hold up. She collapsed onto the blackish-red earth, panting like a dog on its last legs.
"Disrespectful language toward the Sovereign. Failure to cooperate with the trial. First-level trial duration extended and difficulty increased to two stars."
Ruyi: "…"