“Come on! Let’s die together! Hahaha…”
The laughter jolted Alan awake. Raising its head, the dog’s shiny black eyes blinked in momentary confusion as it watched the person on the bed making strange sounds. Alan leaped onto the bed and nudged the sleeping figure with its furry head, seemingly trying to wake its owner up.
Mu Yining felt something pressing down on her head, making it difficult to breathe. Her eyelids felt heavy and glued shut, but after struggling to take a few deep breaths, she suddenly sat straight up.
The first thing that met her eyes was a dog’s head zoomed in right in front of her, tilting its head as it stared at her. Beneath her was a wide, massive, incredibly comfortable bed. On the floor lay a soft white carpet, a plush settee, and over by the window sat a soft cushion for a dog to sleep on… Wait! A window? What was that outside the window—a fountain?! Who on earth was being so wasteful? People didn’t even have water to drink, yet they were running a fountain…
“Woof, woof…” Alan let out a low, aggrieved whine upon being ignored.
Her train of thought interrupted, Mu Yining snapped back to reality. She remembered using every ounce of her remaining strength, her sheer willpower telling her that she had to drag those two scumbags down to hell with her. The moment the explosion hit and her power crystal was on the verge of detonating, she couldn’t hold on any longer. By all rights, she should have been dead by now. Where was this? Heaven?
The setup looked identical to her former bedroom, and even Alan, who had died long ago, had come to find her. But this was fine too—at least Heaven was clean, and she was free! Besides, she had taken two down with her. This trip was well worth it.
Mu Yining flipped out of bed and walked over to the window. Looking out, the world outside was pristine and clean. The sky was still blue, with a few birds flying by on occasion. It didn’t look like the apocalypse at all, where every place you looked was a living hell.
“I see your monsters, I see your pain, Tell me your problems, I’ll chase them away…”
The singing interrupted Mu Yining’s thoughts. She noticed her phone ringing on the desk. She hadn’t touched a smartphone in five years, and now it didn’t seem all that enticing anymore. Feeling somewhat dazed, she picked up the phone and answered.
“Hello? Hi, is this Miss Mu Yining?”
“…Speaking,” Mu Yining replied subconsciously upon hearing the unfamiliar female voice on the other end.
“It’s like this: yesterday you dined at our hotel, and when paying the bill, you left your jacket behind. May I ask when you might be free to come by and pick it up?”
A scene flashed through Mu Yining’s mind in an instant. This exact setting and scenario—wasn’t this five years ago? While dining, she had received a call from Shen Mingxuan, paid the bill in a hurry, and rushed off. Later, the hotel called to inform her about the jacket…
“Miss Mu, are you still there?”
“Is this the Lanting Hotel?”
“Yes, it is.”
…
Mu Yining felt it was utterly mind-boggling. After hanging up, she remained in a daze. Just as she was about to put her phone down, her eyes suddenly caught the date displayed on the screen: August 10, 2023!
Time had turned back! At that moment, she finally realized that time had truly rewound. Five years in the apocalypse—no one knew better than her what kind of life she had lived back then; every single day had felt like a year. As she calmed down, she realized it wasn’t time turning back on its own, but rather her—she had returned. She couldn’t wrap her head around it, but perhaps Heaven saw how miserable her fate had been and decided to give her a chance to start over.
Since that was the case, she was going to live a proper, magnificent life!
“I, Mu Yining, am back! Shen Mingxuan, Qiao Weier… you two better get ready.”
Collecting her emotions, Mu Yining pondered the timing of the apocalypse’s outbreak. Back then, she and Shen Mingxuan were at the bank processing a wire transfer. Just like Mu Yining, Shen Mingxuan had no living parents at the time. Mu Yining’s parents had been famous local architectural designers, and her family possessed immense wealth. The Mu family’s ancestors had also built their fortune in architecture, accumulating wealth generation after generation, so by the time Mu Yining was born, she was a genuine wealthy heiress.
However, when Mu Yining was twenty years old, her parents suffered a fatal accident while vacationing abroad. Both loved skiing, but unfortunately, they met with disaster in the snowy mountains and never returned.
Her parents had been gone for four years, and Mu Yining had gradually grown accustomed to a life alone. It wasn’t until she met Shen Mingxuan that her peaceful life was shattered. Shen Mingxuan was gentle and considerate of her in every way. In just one short month, he made Mu Yining entertain the idea of settling down and building a life with someone.
This time around, Shen Mingxuan had claimed he wanted to start a company and needed twenty million in startup capital. Having nothing to his name, the bank naturally wouldn’t grant him a loan. That was why he had turned to Mu Yining to borrow the money. Back then, Mu Yining had been foolish enough to believe him, rushing over in a hurry to comfort him and offering her own money to help him through the crisis.