Ch 81: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

In the hospital room, Jiang Yuxing stood silently, staring at Yu Zhiyan lying unconscious in bed. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hands—clenched tightly at his sides—cracked with the sound of grinding joints.

He had truly believed Yu Zheng was researching a treatment for Ah Yan’s genetic disorder. He had believed that even if he couldn’t earn enough points to buy medicine from the system’s store, as long as Yu Zheng was around, Ah Yan’s life would still be safe.

And yet?

That bastard Yu Zheng had been using Ah Yan as a test subject all along.

He made Ah Yan a living lab rat.

Jiang Yuxing had been at work when he suddenly received a text from Ruan Cha. Just one simple line: Yu Zhiyan is at the hospital, come by if you can.

And now, seeing Yu Zhiyan like this, Jiang Yuxing was forced to admit—despite having survived years in the entertainment industry, despite thinking he’d grown wise to human nature—he’d still been played for a fool by Yu Zheng.

Even worse, it was his own blood brother, someone he thought he knew inside and out, who had lied to him for years.

His fingers trembled. If they had waited any longer, they might never have seen each other again. The next time he saw Ah Yan, it could’ve been a cold, lifeless body.

He had to admit, Yu Zheng had kept the balance between them disturbingly well.

On one hand, he told Jiang Yuxing that if he completed his tasks obediently, he would treat Yu Zhiyan’s illness—and he promised not to reveal that Jiang had bound a system.

On the other hand, he told Yu Zhiyan that as long as he obediently tested new drugs, he wouldn’t use the control panel to manipulate virus y and harm Jiang Yuxing—and he wouldn’t tell Jiang about the drug trials.

Each of them thought they were protecting the other in secret, unaware they were both being used.

——

Outside the room, Yan Ruocan glanced at the scene inside, then turned to look at the quiet Ruan Cha beside her. She sensed the girl’s mood had dipped—was she worried about her friend?

“Cha Cha, aren’t you going in to check on your classmate? He’s out of critical condition now.”

Though calling it “out of danger” was still a stretch. Yesterday, for reasons unknown, Yu Zheng had hastily optimized a previously failed drug and injected it into Yu Zhiyan.

By the time Grandpa Shen and the police tracked down the lab’s location, Yu Zheng and his medical team were already gone. All the computer files had been wiped, and the empty lab was left with nothing but a barely-alive Yu Zhiyan.

It was clear Yu Zheng had abandoned him.

If they hadn’t made it to the hospital in time, they’d have had no equipment to save him on the run. Why waste resources saving someone destined to die?

Normally, new drugs should go through extensive animal testing before clinical trials. Yu Zheng hadn’t even bothered with that before experimenting on Yu Zhiyan. After all, once he lost such a genetically ideal test subject, where would he find another?

But the repeated use of various experimental drugs had already done irreversible damage to Yu Zhiyan’s body. No one expected that the “optimized” version would trigger such a severe reaction.

Yan Ruocan, who studied pharmaceuticals herself, had already cursed Yu Zheng a thousand times over in her heart. He was a disgrace to people in their profession.

There were already public misunderstandings about human clinical trials being akin to using people as lab rats. And while technically Yu Zheng hadn’t made Yu Zhiyan a literal guinea pig, tossing one new drug after another into the same human body was just as fatal.

If word got out that Yu Zhiyan had nearly gone into shock, it would set back every drug trial recruitment initiative for years.

Truthfully, Yan Ruocan being there with Ruan Cha was just a matter of timing.

After receiving a call from the police that afternoon, the whole Liang family had been shocked. They had thought Ruan Cha was simply overthinking things. After all, it was the holiday, and people traveling to rural areas could easily lose signal—missing a few messages was normal.

Until Grandpa Liang played a voicemail from an old friend at the police station.

That’s when everyone learned: Ruan Cha’s classmate’s father had been conducting illegal drug research and had repeatedly tested on his own son?

Ruan Zhengfei quietly swallowed hard and immediately hugged Wei Jiao for comfort.

That father…

Wasn’t he the academic-looking parent who tried to speak to him during the last parent-teacher conference?

My goodness.

That guy probably wanted to trick me into becoming a test subject!

After asking about the hospital, Ruan Cha insisted on going to check it out herself. The family originally wanted Ruan Zhengfei or Liang Cunhuai to go with her, but she refused. “It’s just a classmate,” she said. “No need for family to tag along.”

As for Yan Ruocan, since she planned to start working at the hospital after the Spring Festival break and was already familiar with the place, she simply went along with Ruan Cha.

Ruan Cha lowered her gaze. “No need to see him. He won’t die, anyway.”

In the first timeline, whether or not Yu Zhiyan and Jiang Yuxing had anything to do with what happened to the Liang family, she didn’t know, and she couldn’t guess. Since she couldn’t guess, she might as well treat them as proper collaborators—no personal emotions involved.

After speaking, she turned to Yan Ruocan. “Sister Cancan, has Yu Zhiyan’s illness ever shown up in medical history?”

“There have been cases,” Yan Ruocan replied. “About three globally. It’s an extremely rare condition. Currently, there’s no specific medication that can treat it. Even under hospital care, the life expectancy is around thirty to forty years old. Before twenty-five, symptoms are mostly mild—occasional coughing and physical weakness. But after twenty-five, there’s a high chance of rapid aging and widespread joint pain.”

After that, she glanced again at the unconscious Yu Zhiyan and continued gently, “His condition is more complicated. He’s taken far too many medications in the early stages. Although we’ll need lab results for a detailed picture, based on what I’ve seen, his life expectancy likely won’t reach thirty.”

Ruan Cha wasn’t surprised. Back at the Jintao Base, the 1128 system had already predicted Yu Zhiyan’s remaining lifespan to be in the low twenties.

The system had previously detected a large amount of ineffective drug residue in Yu Zhiyan’s body. Combined with Yu Zheng’s deliberate prevention of contact between Yu Zhiyan and Jiang Yuxing, Ruan Cha suspected her theory that Yu Zhiyan had been used for drug testing might actually be correct.

Also, she had failed to reach Yu Zhiyan via text, and the system had reported signal interference. The tracked location had also been in the southeastern suburbs.

Which meant—Yu Zhiyan and Yu Zheng were likely in the same place.

What if they had really managed to trap Yu Zheng?

“Ugh.”

Unfortunately, Yu Zheng had escaped too quickly. Grandpa Shen and the police hadn’t caught him.

Hearing the sigh, Yan Ruocan looked over and saw Ruan Cha with drooping lashes. She couldn’t help but worry. Gently placing a hand around Ruan Cha’s shoulder, she guided her outside.

“What are you sighing about? Something on your mind, Cha Cha?”

Because of those dreams, Yan Ruocan paid even more attention to Ruan Cha’s mental health than the rest of the Liang family or even her parents. She feared that something would trigger the signs of depression.

Such a bright, lively girl—how could she die just like that in a dream?

Ruan Cha could feel the kindness radiating from Yan Ruocan and shook her head. “Just a bit disappointed that the police didn’t catch Yu Zheng. Now he’s free to hurt someone else.”

To be honest, she hadn’t expected Grandpa Shen to be an advisor for a special department. With upper-level support, the collaboration between the metaphysical masters and the police during the operation to apprehend Yu Zheng had been unusually smooth.

Unfortunately, Yu Zheng had sensed the danger early—likely due to his expertise in tech.

“Although the only evidence of Yu Zheng’s illegal drug experimentation is a few words from Yu Zhiyan spoken in brief moments of lucidity during treatment, and there’s no solid physical or testimonial evidence yet, future regulations will definitely tighten. Yu Zheng won’t be able to harm people as easily.”

After saying this, Yan Ruocan studied Ruan Cha’s expression more closely.

“Cha Cha, you’ll be in your final year of high school after this semester. Many students struggle emotionally under that kind of pressure. If you ever run into a rough patch and want someone to talk to—a big sister you can confide in—I’d be happy to be that person, if you don’t mind.”

Originally, Yan Ruocan had wanted to advise Ruan Cha not to let her parents get involved in the entertainment world’s mess, but just earlier, she suddenly remembered who the fan of the “crazy woman” that had cyberbullied Ruan Cha’s mom had been.

Ren Qingqing.

A trainee who, in real life, had a public meltdown on the internet.

Ruan Cha looked up and met Yan Ruocan’s gaze. Her eyes were gentle and bright. A moment later, she asked, “By the way, Cancan-jie, why did you suggest my cousin graduate early?”

“Ah…” Yan Ruocan dragged the syllable a bit, thinking it over. Seeing how seriously Ruan Cha asked, she curved her lips into a smile. “I was afraid all his time would be spent on studying, and he’d miss other important things. Look, we came back before the New Year and ended up right in the middle of the whole Yu Zheng situation.”

She remembered how, in her dream, Liang Cunhuai constantly said he regretted not seeing Ruan Cha and Grandpa Liang one last time, and not helping his father uncover the company’s problems in time.

After returning to China and watching how everything had unfolded so differently from the dream, she’d started to wonder if she’d dreamed the reverse of reality. But deep down, she still felt uneasy. Since Cunhuai had regretted things in the dream, she persuaded him to come back early—to see Ruan Cha, and to start helping with the company sooner.

Ruan Cha gave a soft “mm” and didn’t ask further.

In this second timeline, compared to Yu Zhiyan—who’d initially observed from the sidelines—and Jiang Yuxing—who nearly targeted her uncle—Cancan-jie’s actions were truly something to be grateful for.

If she couldn’t hear the system, if she had become like her first-life self, then having family return to help could very well have been the thing that saved the Liang family from disaster.

After leaving the hospital, Yan Ruocan drove back to her apartment in Nanshi, while Classmate Ruan Cha took the family car back to the Liang house.

On the way, Ruan Cha looked out the car window at the fast-receding scenery and pressed her lips together.

Jiang Yuxing and Yu Zhiyan—people who might’ve been involved in what befell her family in the first life—had now all been brought into the light. At this point, her only real enemy was likely Yu Zheng.

And Yu Zheng’s plans had already been exposed. With the police and Grandpa Shen involved, he probably wouldn’t dare make any big moves in the near future.

Ruan Cha let out a breath. The heavy shadow that had hung over her heart since arriving at the Liang home seemed to have lifted a little.

【Classmate Ruan Cha, I’m so sorry. I didn’t help. I let Yu Zheng get away.】 The system appeared in the form of a glutinous rice ball and landed on her knee, looking like it had been battered by wind and rain. 【This all started with me, and I couldn’t do anything.】

The system didn’t know what happened to the Liang family in the first timeline, but in this second life, the garden, the bracelet, Ren Qingqing’s virus X, Jiang Yuxing’s virus Y, and Yu Zhiyan had all made it painfully clear how much destruction its original link to Yu Zheng had caused.

Ruan Cha reached out and poked the system, for once giving it comfort. “You didn’t expect Yu Zheng to become a total madman. And besides, with your energy pool empty, you couldn’t have helped even if you wanted to.”

【Classmate Ruan Cha qaq】

Ruan Cha, who usually disliked it, was actually comforting it now! The system nearly burst into tears. Wuwuwu, I’m too lucky!!!

Seeing this, Ruan Cha smiled. “If I submit a thorough research report on neurodegenerative diseases, I’m contributing to our country’s medical field. I remember you said you could get discounts at the system mall, right? I’ve had my eye on those neurological medicine blueprints for a while.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she “gently” poked the system again and smiled sweetly. “1128, do you need me to keep hinting?”

All said and done, weren’t the three main culprits of her downfall in the first life Yu Zheng, Ren Qingqing, and the corrupted system?

What good is an apology? Compensation’s better.

【……】

Wuwuwu… Are all humans this devious?

Seeing Ruan Cha was dead set on wringing a discount from it, the system shrank back in misery. To get a discount, it had to work customer service in the mall. A 10% discount required fifty years of service. For 50% off, it had to do a hundred years.

【Classmate Ruan Cha, I’ll go talk to the mall admin. Let’s do fifty… no, ninety percent off!】

This was its fault to begin with. No more dodging responsibility. Letting virus X in was also due to its own failure. That firewall hadn’t been strong enough.

Ruan Cha had been hoping for a modest fifty or sixty percent off. She hadn’t expected the system to go as far as 90% off. Startled, she sincerely said, “Thank you.”

Maybe because she was being gentler than usual, the system got bolder and asked, 【Classmate Ruan Cha, why do you want to study neurodegenerative diseases? I thought… after seeing Yu Zhiyan, you wanted to—】

“You mean research TS gene defects?” Ruan Cha finished the question for it. Seeing the glutinous rice ball nod, she smiled. “Yu Zhiyan has Jiang Yuxing working hard for him. Besides, TS gene defects only have three recorded cases globally. Even if I developed something, it wouldn’t help many people.”

But neurodegenerative diseases were different. Even just the ones she was familiar with—Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS—had high numbers of domestic patients.

Ruan Cha thought of how, after the fireworks festival, she’d seen her grandfather by the flower house. No matter how sturdy he seemed, he still looked thinner. His face had wrinkles. His hair was completely white.

After going upstairs, hearing the soft sounds coming from her parents’ room, Ruan Cha suddenly felt afraid—afraid of the day when she’d see her parents grow old.

Aging was something she couldn’t stop. But she could start addressing diseases common in middle-aged and elderly people. And among the people she knew, there was Cancan-jie.

Back at the hospital, the 1128 system had personally said that Cancan-jie was extremely gifted in pharmaceuticals. A future pharmaceutical powerhouse was right in front of her!

After hearing what Ruan Cha said, the system fully understood. So when Classmate Ruan Cha decided to cooperate with Jiang Yuxing, it really wasn’t just out of kindness or fear that attacking virus Y would hurt him.

A large part of the reason was that only by cooperating could Jiang Yuxing fully open up his mental domain, giving them the chance to neutralize virus Y and feed false information to Yu Zheng.

Just like now—even though Yu Zheng had escaped, for the foreseeable future, he’d likely be misled by the false intel and stay quiet, waiting for something to go wrong with the Liang Group.

From his perspective, even if Jiang Yuxing saw Yu Zhiyan nearly die, it would already be too late. Unless he committed suicide, he’d never be able to shake off the B task.

While Yu Zheng was stalled, Classmate Ruan Cha could focus on reading as many books as possible to build up knowledge energy, shortening the time they’d need to attack Yu Zheng’s mental domain.

The system shrank into itself again.

Sure enough, Classmate Ruan Cha had proven it—reading really does make you cunning.

When Ruan Cha returned home, it was just after 8 p.m. No one in the family had eaten yet. The moment she stepped through the door, they rushed up to check on her.

Part of it was genuine concern for her classmate, but another part was worry that Ruan Cha might carry a psychological burden—like wondering whether things would’ve been different if she’d discovered it earlier.

Meeting the eyes of her concerned family, Ruan Cha felt a wave of warmth. “I’m fine. From my perspective, just being able to save someone is already incredibly lucky. Cancan-jie said his condition is stable.”

“That’s good, then. That adoptive father of little Yu’s is truly heartless,” Wei Jiao stepped forward and gave Ruan Cha a hug, worried her daughter had been frightened.

Old Master Liang, thinking of what he’d heard on the phone from Father Fu earlier that evening, asked, “Is there someone taking care of your classmate? Do we need to arrange a private caregiver?”

Ruan Cha shook her head. “No need, Yu Zhiyan’s older brother is with him. Oh—his brother is someone everyone knows. He’s Jiang Yuxing, the one who came to our house during the New Year. The two of them grew up in an orphanage and were later adopted by Yu Zheng. He never imagined that Yu Zheng would use the excuse of treating an illness to test experimental drugs on Yu Zhiyan.”

Liang Cunjin was shocked. “They’re brothers? Yuxing really kept that under wraps. No one’s ever heard he had a younger brother.”

Of course, he could understand—after all, Yu Zheng’s pharmaceutical development had never received official approval. If anyone ever found out, it’d be a huge problem.

Just as he finished speaking, Liang Cunjin keenly noticed that Grandpa, Dad, and Ruan Cha all glanced at him with strangely complicated expressions.

He scratched his head and was about to ask what was going on when all three of them simultaneously looked away.

Liang Cunjin: ???

What are you three even doing?

Old Master Liang couldn’t be bothered to look at his foolish grandson any longer. That afternoon, he had received a call from Father Fu, which included new information the Fu family had uncovered about Yu Zheng.

Turned out that Second Son had known Yu Zheng for quite some time—they’d even met several times. The dossier also mentioned Yu Zheng’s involvement in metaphysical research.

Old Master Liang immediately thought of the family garden. Back when they were investigating, they’d only gotten as far as discovering Liang Qianling’s ties to a certain feng shui master. But the Fu family was different. Their investigation focused solely on Yu Zheng, and they hadn’t been distracted by the smokescreens he’d released.

Their own garden and jade bracelet situation had only just been resolved—and then during the New Year, Jiang Yuxing showed up. Old Master Liang couldn’t help but get suspicious.

After ending the call with Father Fu, he had paid a special visit to Liang Qianling to question her again about the garden’s array.

At first, when their relationship was severed, Liang Qianling had been furious with the family for being heartless and even more so with herself for being blind enough to fall for that bastard Song Yun. She had refused to admit she had anything to do with the array.

But after being injured and seeing firsthand how cold the Song family could be, something shifted in her. Not only did she come clean about the array, she also told Old Master Liang everything she knew about Yu Zheng.

Right before he left, Liang Qianling looked at him and gave a bitter smile, admitting she had known what the jade bracelet was for. In the heat of her fights with Song Yun, seeing Wei Jiao happy had driven her mad with jealousy. She hadn’t meant for Wei Jiao to die—but in the end, her scheming had backfired on herself. Karma, in a way.

As for the garden array, Liang Qianling swore to the heavens she’d thought it was just a good luck charm to improve wealth and prosperity. Back then, she had been brainwashed by Song Yun and was wholeheartedly working for the good of the Song family. No matter how foolish she had been, she would never have dared to harm Old Master Liang.

He had assumed she was asking for forgiveness. But she wasn’t. Maybe she’d seen too much indifference from others—enough to truly change her personality.

After confessing everything, Liang Qianling had only one request: for Old Master Liang to make sure Song Yun ended up in prison. As for the Song family company, if the Liang family wanted it, they could take it.

Old Master Liang looked at her for a long moment before answering in a low voice, “Alright.”

Now, not only was Grandpa Shen’s team investigating Yu Zheng, both the Fu and Liang families were, too.

But none of the three expected quick results. Yu Zheng was too capable. Even gathering a few bits of information had taken ages, and now that he was intentionally laying low, finding him would be even harder.

Ruan Cha didn’t know that Father Fu had called. She had looked at Liang Cunjin earlier only because she knew exactly why Jiang Yuxing had come to the Liang house. Even if his plan hadn’t succeeded, her second brother had still been used.

After everyone calmed down a bit, the family ate dinner together. When Ruan Cha had just finished and was about to head upstairs, Wei Jiao stopped her.

“Cha Cha, your grandpa’s gift arrived. I put it in your room,” Wei Jiao said, smiling as she caught sight of the brightness in Ruan Cha’s eyes. “Also, the three boxes of cabbage arrived too. You said your classmates wanted to buy some—tell them to send someone to pick it up.”

Ruan Cha instantly beamed and bear-hugged Wei Jiao. “Thanks, Mom! Love you, mua!”

“Mommy loves Cha Cha too! Mua!”

Watching the two being all affectionate, Ruan Zhengfei deliberately cleared his throat. But before he could speak, both mother and daughter turned to him at the same time: “Not your moment!”

Ruan Zhengfei: “…”

Good thing this house doesn’t have a pet, or I’d rank even lower than it.

He stared resentfully at Wei Jiao. Weren’t you the one calling me Fei Fei and saying how handsome I was just yesterday? Now one kiss from Cha Cha and you forget I exist?

On the sidelines, Liang Cunjin nudged Liang Cunhuai with his elbow and grinned. “Big Bro, when you get married, you’ll probably get the same treatment as Uncle Ruan.”

Liang Cunhuai’s gaze softened. “Uncle’s perfectly happy. If I get to have a daughter as cute as Cha Cha, Cancan and I will be thrilled.”

Liang Cunjin: …Okay, I’ll shut up.

In high spirits, Ruan Cha went upstairs. In the [Firework Squad] group chat, she tagged Huang Jiajia and Xie Sui to tell them that the Three Salty Fish cabbages had arrived.

She barely hit send before the two of them responded one after the other—and shockingly, Xie Sui beat Huang Jiajia to it.

Ruan Cha: Knew it. You fake-sleep all the time, don’t you?

After sorting out the pickup time with them, Ruan Cha turned her attention to the small box on her desk and lifted the lid with anticipation.

Nestled at the center was a small hairpin shaped like a planet, with a maple leaf card tucked beside it.

[This was a gift your grandfather asked an old friend to help prepare. She has excellent taste. The jewelry she makes—I’m sure you’ll like it. If you do, wear it often.]

Ruan Cha paused at the word “she.” It was odd. In the Liang home, she’d seen photos of her late maternal grandmother, but never any pictures of her grandfather—or of her paternal grandmother.

Her dad had also said that he’d never met his birth mother. As far back as he could remember, he’d only ever been raised by a grumpy old man.

Ruan Cha’s mind wandered. Could her biological grandmother have… reappeared?

【Classmate Ruan Cha, I’ve detected a very precise GPS tracking chip inside the hairpin.】

Ruan Cha picked up the delicate diamond-studded hairpin, stunned. “A GPS chip?”

【Correct. If you wear it, it could pinpoint your exact location—even down to which room you’re in. In addition, the hairpin carries a small metaphysical enhancement. In human terms: it’s a protective charm.】

After that, the system explained some technical terms. Ruan Cha didn’t feel too lost—she’d read related materials during her studies. The takeaway was this: both the craftsmanship and function of the hairpin were common in the system’s dimension, but in hers, it was incredibly rare.

Ruan Cha stared at the hairpin in her palm, falling briefly silent.

Was Grandpa worried she might get kidnapped?

GPS chip + protective charm—was this a marriage of technology and metaphysics?

【Classmate Ruan Cha, are you pondering your grandpa’s intentions, or the fusion of tech and metaphysics?】

Startled, Ruan Cha rubbed her nose guiltily. “I was just wondering… that friend who made the hairpin… is there any chance she’s the grandma I’ve never met?”

【……】

Yep. No matter the era, gossip really is human nature.