9 – Ancient Sword, Jade Pendant
Yu Ruanruan hadn’t been able to contact Ye Jin for several days. When she went to the residential complex near Ye Jin’s school where she usually lived, she discovered that Ye Jin had actually sold the apartment!
Yu Leyang had been investigating for a long time but couldn’t find out who had bought the shares from Ye Jin. He was starting to get anxious—if it turned out to be a business rival making a malicious move, it could jeopardize his future company plans.
He asked Yu Ruanruan to continue searching for Ye Jin and try to gauge the situation. After pestering Zhang Yiyi for quite some time, Yu Ruanruan finally found out where Ye Jin was currently living.
Seeing Yu Ruanruan standing at her doorstep, Ye Jin raised an eyebrow. “So you managed to find this place. It seems Yu Leyang is getting desperate.”
“Ye Jin, why did you sell the apartment near the school?” Yu Ruanruan said, trying to step inside as she spoke.
But Ye Jin, with her solid build, stood firmly in the doorway, not giving an inch. Yu Ruanruan felt awkward and had no choice but to remain outside.
Yu Ruanruan sensed that Ye Jin had changed, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint how.
“Xiao Chen hasn’t been well, so I sold the apartment. This place is closer to his school.”
Yu Zichen wasn’t well? And she sold the apartment? Did that mean Ye Jin was short on money?
“Ye Jin, that’s actually why I came to see you.”
Yu Ruanruan felt a surge of delight—if Ye Jin needed money, things would be easier to discuss. “After much discussion with Dad, my brother decided we shouldn’t shortchange you. He’s willing to cover your 200 million penalty and plans to transfer one of his profitable subsidiaries to you. From then on, you and Xiao Chen could live comfortably just on the dividends alone!”
Did they take her for a fool? Trying to trade a shell company for her legitimate shares? They must be dreaming!
“I appreciate the offer, but I’m not cut out for managing businesses. I think holding onto this money is enough for me and Xiao Chen to live on for the rest of our lives. I’m not interested in companies.”
With that, she moved to close the door.
Yu Ruanruan panicked. “Wait, Ye Jin! Are you only accepting cash?”
Ye Jin’s eyebrow lifted slightly. “Yes. I’m signing the transfer agreement with them tomorrow. You know how Xiao Chen’s health has been since he was little. It’d be best if you didn’t come around for a while.”
Without waiting to see Yu Ruanruan’s reaction, she slammed the door shut.
If they wanted the shares, they’d have to pay in cash.
Yu Ruanruan was just a messenger—there was no point in wasting time with her. The final decision rested with Yu Leyang.
Shut out by Ye Jin, Yu Ruanruan was left humiliated and fuming, her face flushed with anger.
That evening, as expected, Yu Leyang contacted Ye Jin personally. So he’d finally run out of patience?
At the Yu residence, Yu Leyang appeared in person with the company’s legal team to sign the transfer contract with Ye Jin. However, he didn’t have enough liquid cash and proposed paying in installments—something Ye Jin flatly refused.
In the end, they settled on paying half upfront, including the penalty for breach of contract, with the remainder to be paid gradually.
Ye Jin knew this was likely the Yu family’s financial limit. Market value was one thing, but they needed operating funds for their other ventures—they simply didn’t have that much cash on hand.
They must have dipped heavily into their private reserves to gather this much, stripping themselves to the bone. At the very least, even if Yu Leyang caught wind of something and wanted to prepare in advance, he wouldn’t have enough funds.
As soon as the money arrived, Ye Jin used all of it to stock up on supplies. Spending someone else’s money didn’t bother her in the slightest. When the apocalypse arrived, this cash would be worthless—not even as valuable as a loaf of bread.
…
Auction house.
Ye Jin remembered that in her previous life, there was an Ancient blade with immense power. During the apocalypse, it had fetched an astronomical price.She had also heard from others that this blade first appeared when it was sold at the Fu Family auction house. She had checked—the Fu Family had only held this one auction recently, and previous auction catalogs contained no blades.
Today, she came to try her luck. A good weapon could significantly boost combat effectiveness.
At the auction, the host in a qipao had already begun displaying the items. Each product was introduced in detail as it was presented.
Every piece was a rare treasure, and whenever a high-quality item appeared, wealthy merchants around would raise their paddles to drive up the price. However, she wasn’t interested in any of these things.
Half the exhibition had passed, and the item she wanted still hadn’t appeared. Ye Jin was growing restless.
She directly asked a staff member, but the attendant merely said they didn’t know and told her to wait and see.
Ordinary auction houses provided catalogs for the day’s items—only the Fu Family didn’t, maintaining an air of mystery.
Soon, a new item was brought up—a Buddhist amulet jade pendant.
Ye Jin felt a warmth from the lotus mark on her chest, and her dimension resonated. She had an instinctive urge to possess this jade pendant.
She immediately raised her paddle, but in no time, the price of the pendant had been driven up several times.
Anything that made it into the Fu Family auction house was extraordinary. By the midpoint of the auction, many attendees grew weary, so the items brought up then had to carry some weight. The host introduced it as a Ming Dynasty ancient jade, priceless and beyond market value.
Gold in turbulent times, jade in prosperous times. Many wealthy merchants enjoyed pretending to be cultured, favoring valuable antiques, ancient paintings, and jade—as if such possessions could make their families appear more profound.
Ye Jin noticed that not only were there bidders interested in the jade, but also Fu Family scalpers secretly inflating the price.
The Fu Family truly were tycoons—they were slick at this kind of scheme, making a pure profit just from this auction.
No matter what, she was determined to get this piece of jade!
In the end, Ye Jin won the bid at several times the original price. How ruthless!
She waited until all the auction items had been presented and the event concluded, and the crowd dispersed, but that ancient blade never appeared.
Ye Jin sighed, “Ah!” She couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
“Were you waiting for this?”
A cool yet familiar voice sounded.
Looking up, she saw Fu Yihao standing beside her. In his left hand was the jade plaque she had just won, while in his other hand, a gift box contained that ancient blade.
Although she had never seen what the blade looked like, she knew it was made of bronze with red patterns on the handle.
Ye Jin didn’t respond. This was her first time seeing him since her rebirth, but then again, this was the Fu Family—his presence here wasn’t strange.
Seeing Ye Jin silent, Fu Yihao called out, “Ye Jin?”
The man before her had a handsome and dignified aura, a strong nose, deep eyes, and thin lips that added a touch of aloofness.
Just looking at his face, he certainly had the charm that had attracted her and made her adore him for so long.
But now, she really wanted to slap that face. Although she didn’t know if he had anything to do with Yu Zichen’s death in her previous life, she didn’t want to lay eyes on him again.
Suppressing the urge to hit someone, she asked, “How did you know?”
Fu Yihao had noticed Ye Jin the moment she entered and had been watching her for a long time, so he naturally knew she had inquired about the blade.
“If you like it, consider this ancient blade a bonus for buying the jade pendant.” He had always been good friends with Ye Jin’s cousin, Ye Xu, and this amount of money meant nothing to him.There’s such a good thing?
“No reward without merit, name your price, I’ll buy it.” She didn’t want to owe Fu Yihao the slightest favor.
Fu Yihao frowned and said, “Your brother asked me to take good care of you. You don’t need to be like this. The price you paid for the jade pendant was already very high.”
This ancient blade was brought by the Fu Family as the finale item, and its value naturally wouldn’t be cheaper than the jade pendant. Seeing that Ye Jin liked it, Fu Yihao considered it a gift from him.
Ye Jin thought to herself, so you know your family is ruthless? In that case, why not take advantage of a freebie? Compared to the Fu Family, her money was merely that of a beggar. The Fu Family didn’t become the richest in S Province for nothing.
As for taking care of her on behalf of her elder brother, forget it. She used to think he treated her differently from others, even imagining he had some interest in her. It was all just her wishful thinking and self-inflicted suffering—she deserved it.
To be worthy of him, she had been fighting among zombies every day. No matter how strong her abilities were, hadn’t he still failed to look at her with higher regard? Wasn’t he still conquered by Yu Ruanruan’s protagonist halo?
“Alright then, I’ll accept the item.”
After saying this, Ye Jin took the item from Fu Yihao’s hand, turned around, and left without wanting to say more. What if he changed his mind? She wondered if he would regret giving away this ancient blade so much that it would eat him up inside later.
Ye Jin left extremely quickly. Fu Yihao had wanted to chat with her more but didn’t get the chance.
Fu Yihao’s expression darkened slightly. It had only been a short time since they last met, yet she had changed quite a bit. Had it been almost a month since she last sought him out?
But this time, she wasn’t even willing to exchange a few more words with him and left without even saying goodbye. Was she angry that he had been busy with his academic thesis last time and ignored her?
…
Actually, no. She had been so busy during this period that she could hardly tell which way was up. Who would remember such trivial matters?
As soon as she returned home, Ye Jin took the Buddhist amulet jade pendant and entered her dimension. The moment the jade pendant entered the dimension, it was directly absorbed by the dimension and turned to dust. After completely absorbing the jade pendant, the dimension immediately expanded significantly, which delighted her immensely.
The dimension could be upgraded! Not only did the dimension grow larger, but the spiritual spring also expanded. The original thatched cottage grew bigger as well. What surprised Ye Jin the most was that the book inside the cottage, which contained techniques to enhance special abilities, had restored many of its written characters. This indicated that as long as the dimension continued to upgrade, the techniques could be fully restored to their complete form.
During this time, Xiao Chen’s physical condition had improved quite a bit through training. Ye Jin went to find him at night.
“Xiao Chen, this water is the Spirit Spring Water from my dimension. It can perform marrow cleansing and is beneficial for your physique. However, it might be a bit painful at first after drinking it. Can you endure it?”
She wanted to perform marrow cleansing on Xiao Chen first. In the apocalypse, those with poor physiques would find it even harder to survive.
“It’s fine, sister. I’m not afraid.” As long as it was good for him, what did a little pain matter? He didn’t want to hold his sister back later.
Ye Jin had considered bringing him into the dimension for the marrow cleansing, but she had tried long ago and found that although the dimension could accommodate animals and plants, it couldn’t accommodate people. She didn’t know if it would be possible after the dimension upgraded a few more times.
As soon as Yu Zichen finished drinking the Spirit Spring Water, his entire body twisted in pain.
“Ah!” He felt as though his bones were about to crack. Yu Zichen gripped the corner of the indoor table and screamed in agony.
Ye Jin was also very anxious. She didn’t know if Xiao Chen could endure it, but she could only watch helplessly.
Aunt Chen, who was cooking outside, heard the screams and hurriedly knocked on the door: “Xiao Chen, what’s wrong with you?” Hearing that sound, could something be wrong? “Xiao Jin, open the door quickly. Has something happened to Xiao Chen?””It’s alright, Aunt Chen, wait a moment!”
Ye Jin herself was so anxious that cold sweat broke out. Fortunately, after a short while, Yu Zichen stopped shouting, and black impurities slowly seeped out from his body.
Yu Zichen only felt his entire body brimming with strength, as if he could punch through a sandbag with one blow. He said to Ye Jin, “Sis, I feel like I’m full of energy now.”
Ye Jin smiled, “It’s good that you’re fine! Go take a shower first.”
Only then did Yu Zichen realize he was covered in black, foul-smelling grime. The odor was particularly pungent. Blushing with embarrassment, he immediately rushed to the shower.
Aunt Chen, who had been waiting outside for a long time, was taken aback when she saw Yu Zichen covered head to toe in black filth and reeking. Still, she was relieved as long as nothing serious had happened.