The moment Yu Yangyang finished speaking, the few people inside the little ruined temple fell silent for a moment.
Yu Jin frowned and looked at her.
“Yu Yangyang, are you crazy? Or are you trying to cause trouble again?”
Yu Yangyang looked toward the young man in the darkness. Under the hazy moonlight, she could vaguely make out his handsome yet thin face. His clothes were tattered, with patches upon patches sewn over them. It was obvious that his family was desperately poor.
Based on her memories and the original novel, Yu Yangyang quickly matched him with the character.
Yu Jin.
The second brother of this body, sixteen years old.
He was sharp-tongued and rather hot-tempered.
In the original novel, Second Brother Yu Jin was probably the person who hated the original Yu Yangyang the most.
However, Yu Jin was extremely filial. Besides, Yu Yangyang was still his younger sister, so despite hating her, he had never abandoned her.
Unfortunately, Yu Jin’s ending wasn’t a good one either.
Because most of the family’s food had gone into Yu Yangyang’s stomach, the members of the Yu family had become pale and emaciated. They were so thin and weak that they were practically dried husks of people.
Because of the original Yu Yangyang, the second branch of the Yu family had a poor relationship with the eldest branch, and even with Old Master and Old Madam Yu.
After the original Yu Yangyang died, the second branch became separated from the other villagers of Tupo Village.
Just as Yu Jin had predicted, they encountered a group of rioting, desperate refugees.
The few members of the second branch were so weak that they couldn’t even put up a fight. They died directly in the chaos.
After their deaths, their bodies were even eaten by starving refugees.
They could truly be said to have died without their bodies remaining intact.
Although the original Yu Yangyang had been spoiled, useless, and troublesome, and although everyone except her mother disliked and despised her, they had never truly abandoned her.
They had already treated her well enough.
Now that Yu Yangyang had taken over the original owner’s body, naturally, she had to shoulder the responsibilities that came with it.
Moreover, during a famine like this, someone as sickly as her couldn’t possibly survive on her own.
They would all have to live together from now on.
Under these circumstances, improving their relationship would certainly make their future life together more harmonious.
Yu Yangyang blinked and let out a pitiful little whimper.
“I almost died today, and I finally realized how outrageous I’ve been in the past.”
“I know that Dad, Mom, and everyone else have always been putting up with me. I shouldn’t have taken out my frustration on everyone just because I wasn’t feeling well.”
“Mom, can you forgive me? I’ll definitely be a good daughter from now on.”
Because she had been excessively pampered due to her poor health, her skin was pale and her figure slender and frail. With her neck slightly tilted as she softly complained, she looked pitiful and vulnerable.
Bai Lan’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
She hurriedly took her daughter’s hand.
“Of course, of course! How could your mother blame you? Our Yangyang has really grown up! Your head is still injured, so just rest properly, all right?”
Bai Lan’s voice was gentle, filled with affection and tenderness.
It was a warmth that Yu Yangyang, who had lived alone and lonely in her previous life, had never experienced before.
Combined with her splitting headache, hunger, and cold, she eventually drifted into sleep in a daze.
The next morning, Yu Yangyang woke up from hunger.
Her face was pale, and her stomach hurt from hunger.
She supported herself against the piece of torn cloth spread over the dry grass and slowly sat up.
Good grief.
Just sitting up almost killed her.
Yu Yangyang’s vision went black.
It took quite a while before she recovered.
Once her vision cleared, she carefully looked around.
The walls were cracked, and the place was filled with broken walls and ruins. The windows had long since disappeared, while only a few roof tiles remained overhead, barely enough to shelter them from the wind and rain.
Looking at it made Yu Yangyang’s heart tremble.
She was genuinely afraid that the roof above her head would collapse.
Not far away, her parents and the others were cooking breakfast in a chipped clay pot.
The youngest and least busy of the family, Yu Lan, was sitting nearby.
He was the first to notice Yu Yangyang waking up.
He nervously shuffled closer to his eldest brother, Yu Yan, leaned toward his ear, and loudly whispered his secret plan:
“Big Brother, the annoying Yu Yangyang is awake.”
Yu Yangyang: “……”
Bai Lan’s eyes lit up.
“Yangyang is awake?”
Bai Lan hurriedly walked over.
“Yangyang, how are you feeling? Does your head still hurt?”
Yu Yangyang obediently nodded.
“Mom, I’m much better. Help me over there so I can sit down. I’ll help with something too.”
Since when has our Yangyang ever been this polite?
Waaah! Our Yangyang really has changed! She knows how to care about others now. She’s so good and sensible!
Bai Lan didn’t want her daughter to help with anything.
However, the porridge they were cooking was almost ready, so if Yangyang went over there, she could have some while it was still hot.
Bai Lan quickly supported Yu Yangyang and helped her move from the makeshift bed to the fire.
Yu Yangyang sat on Bai Lan’s bundle of belongings, while the others weren’t nearly as particular and simply sat directly on the ground.
Just walking these few steps made Yu Yangyang feel somewhat exhausted.
Her breathing was weak, and she felt mentally drained.
If Bai Lan and Yu Shanghua hadn’t carried her on their backs during the journey, the original Yu Yangyang would never have made it this far.
This body really is useless!
Bai Lan had already eagerly ladled some porridge into a chipped bowl and handed it to Yu Yangyang.
“Yangyang, hurry and drink some warm porridge.”
Yu Yangyang lowered her head and looked into the chipped bowl.
It was filled with a thick mush made from corn and wild vegetables.
The corn consisted of dried kernels harvested in previous years and then crushed. It could be stored for a particularly long time.
The wild vegetables had been gathered early that morning by the two brothers, Yu Yan and Yu Jin.
During a famine, people ate whatever they could find.
There wasn’t even a speck of green left along the road anymore.
The two brothers must have searched for a long time just to find those two small handfuls of wild vegetables.
Once they were thrown into the mush and boiled, they had shrunk so much that they were practically invisible.
The bitter taste of the wild vegetables mixed with the stale aroma of the old corn kernels.
Honestly, it completely destroyed Yu Yangyang’s appetite.
But her body was screaming with hunger.
She felt that if she didn’t eat something soon, she really was going to die.
Yu Yangyang took the chipped bowl and forced down several tasteless mouthfuls.
The crushed corn kernels scratched her throat, and there was only the tiniest amount of salt in the mush.
After struggling to eat two mouthfuls and replenishing some of her energy, she simply couldn’t force herself to continue.
Yu Yangyang put down the bowl.
Bai Lan immediately asked,
“What happened? Are you feeling unwell?”
Only then did Yu Yangyang realize that her parents and the others were gulping down their porridge as though they were eating some kind of exquisite delicacy.
But in reality, their bowls contained nothing but thin, watery soup, with only a tiny amount of corn kernels at the bottom.
Yu Yangyang’s expression became complicated.
People in this era really have it so hard.
Compared with theirs, the food in her bowl was already considered excellent.
Bai Lan had given her almost half the entire pot of mush.
The others could only divide up the tiny amount remaining at the bottom, then add several bowls of water to it, deceiving themselves into thinking they now had a full bowl.
No wonder every single one of them was as thin as a dried corpse.
No.
If this continues, even if we encounter refugees with bad intentions, we’ll still end up dead!
Damn it.
If only I could have a magical space like the ones in novels, filled with everything I could possibly need.
The moment this thought crossed Yu Yangyang’s mind, she suddenly heard a clear “Ding!”
A childish, youthful voice seemed to speak right beside her.
[Congratulations, Host! You have activated the “All-Purpose System.” This system will now be bound to the Host. We hope the Host will level up frequently so that we can benefit each other!]
Yu Yangyang: “!”
She suppressed the excitement surging through her heart and couldn’t help asking,
“Why didn’t you appear when I first woke up?”
The system’s childish voice replied,
[The system needed to be activated first.]
Yu Yangyang became curious.
“What are the conditions for activation?”
Did I just do something?
The system’s childish voice replied:
[The right to interpret the activation conditions belongs to this system.]
Yu Yangyang: “……”