Chapter 16: Guarding the Naive Sweetheart (1)

Besides, it always seemed to her that the "fated" female leads in romance novels were like energy packs for the Heavenly Way’s upgrades, while the "protagonist of an upgrade arc" was akin to antivirus software. As for the so-called counterattackers, male or female, they were like special viruses targeting either the energy pack or the antivirus. Naturally, her mission was to eliminate the viruses.

Her complaints aside, Mu Yin still took her duties seriously. According to the mission’s briefing, the current situation of this world was as follows: a transmigrator had appeared—a girl named He Huan, the daughter of an old family friend of the male lead, Guo Yuhao. She was the classic rich and beautiful type.

This was the legendary childhood sweethearts, a perfect match by social standards. However, unlike in novels, there was no engagement between them. Mu Yin breathed a sigh of relief; at least the Heavenly Way hadn’t stooped to such a cliché.

But in the transmigrator’s eyes, the original Mu Yin had liked Guo Yuhao, and with their families often joking about marriage, the original Mu Yin had accidentally discovered Tian Ya dating Guo Yuhao. Heartbroken, she got into a car accident, and thus, the transmigrator arrived.

After transmigrating, He Huan only received partial memories and concluded that Tian Ya took Guo Yuhao away, causing the original’s death. Thus, she began targeting Tian Ya. Her methods escalated from childish to merciless, evolving drastically until, in the end, Tian Ya died a miserable death filled with resentment, and an unknown force seized that energy.

Mu Yin entered the timeline after the transmigrator had arrived. At first, He Huan’s actions were quite ordinary—she merely tried to seduce Guo Yuhao, aiming to fulfill what she believed to be the original’s wish, all the while scheming to ruin Tian Ya’s reputation and career.

However, Guo Yuhao was Tian Ya’s destined lover, a match engineered by the Heavenly Way—not someone so easily swayed. He showed no interest in the transmigrator, which infuriated her. In the beginning, her tactics were limited to persuading her loving foster parents to target Guo’s company; she didn’t even consider crueler means.

Then, one day, she seemed to awaken to a new level of cunning. She orchestrated tampering with Guo Yuhao’s car, causing an accident that left him disabled, bribed Guo family employees to leak secrets, and drove the company to bankruptcy through failed investments.

As for Tian Ya, the transmigrator arranged for her to be kidnapped, humiliated, and abused, ultimately dying a harrowing death—her soul even vanished without a trace.

After reviewing the mission, Mu Yin found this transmigrator highly suspicious. At first, she seemed quite normal, using only simple methods, but she later became unexpectedly ruthless, almost as if she had become a different person.

Rather than believing the transmigrator was the virus, Mu Yin was more inclined to suspect the later influence behind her was the true virus she needed to eliminate.

When accepting the task, Mu Yin never intended to guard Tian Ya until she died a natural death—it was far too time-consuming. She preferred to directly unearth the mastermind and resolve everything in one fell swoop.

At present, Mu Yin’s identity was closely linked to Tian Ya's—they both worked as executive assistants at Guo Yuhao’s company, Royal Sky Entertainment.

Guo Yuhao was the company president and his family held the largest share. Royal Sky Entertainment was among the top entertainment companies in the country, and Guo Yuhao was an outstanding second-generation heir, even among the elite.

Still, in this world and this country, he wasn't at the very top of the pyramid—at best, he was upper-middle. Yet, for Tian Ya, who came from the bottom, he was an excellent prospect.

After all, this wasn’t a novel, and while it felt as if the Heavenly Way had borrowed from a novel template to create a happy life for Tian Ya, it wasn’t as exaggerated as fiction.

But none of this was the main issue. Tian Ya and Guo Yuhao’s relationship was irrelevant to Mu Yin; what she cared about was the force behind the transmigrator. However, to draw out this force, she needed to become close to Tian Ya.

The original Mu Yin died accidentally in a car crash three days later, having only an ordinary colleague relationship with Tian Ya. Now, Mu Yin needed to become her friend.

Not just any friend, but one who could become her emotional support when Tian Ya was fired and disgraced. Only then would she become a target in the transmigrator’s eyes and potentially come into contact with that hidden energy. Fortunately, she had entered early enough; the transmigrator had only just arrived and hadn’t figured out the social web yet.

After checking the time, Mu Yin got up, washed, dressed, opened her timed rice cooker, and had some porridge with side dishes before heading downstairs to ride her bike to work.

Mu Yin had never worked as an assistant before. Her background was in biology, and back on Blue Star, most organisms had already mutated due to environmental pollution, twisting much like creatures after nuclear radiation. Even humans had developed various diseases, so scientists focused on genetic modification to help life adapt. Theoretically, this was feasible, and there had been breakthroughs before the apocalypse, but research halted when the world ended.

So, though Mu Yin had excelled in the field before the apocalypse, she was ultimately still a student and had never participated in such projects—none of this helped with her current job. Luckily, she had the original’s memories.

Though awkward at first, Mu Yin adapted quickly. As a former psychic, her mental strength was considerable. Her powers were gone, but her spiritual strength—an attribute of the soul—remained.

Her memory was exceptional. The original’s recollections, though somewhat superficial, were all there.

In the process, she also got a taste of what it meant to be a "naive, sweet, and silly" protagonist. In all honesty, such a person was just rather scatterbrained, careless, and clumsy—just like Tian Ya.

She was always knocking over cups while organizing things, prone to tripping on flat ground, and bumping into people was routine. If scolded, she'd be downcast for a few minutes but soon return to her cheerful self—a true optimist. Fortunately, her professional skills were strong, or she’d have been dismissed long ago.

Feeling she now had a sense of direction, Mu Yin began to approach Tian Ya with subtlety, occasionally offering help, though often with a sharp tongue.

For example, she’d catch her when Tian Ya stumbled over a chair, saying, “Tsk, with balance like that, it’s a miracle you’ve survived this long.”

Or she’d pick up Tian Ya’s wallet and call out, “Hey, you dropped your wallet and didn’t even notice?”