Ch 92: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

It had to be said—none of the students had time to react. First, they saw a student suddenly appear. Then they saw Ruan Cha dash out. Everything happened so fast, no one could process it in time.

Huang Jiajia and Xu Nan were just about to run toward the back gate to check on Ruan Cha and her father when they heard Fu Chen’s question to the boy and paused instinctively.

Fu Chen studied the student who brought the message and asked again in a low voice, “Who did you hear say that Ruan’s father was hit by a car at the back gate?”

“Huh?” The boy scratched his head and explained everything truthfully. “Zheng Wei from Class 2 told me. His class booth is set up near the back gate. He said he couldn’t leave and asked me to come and tell Ruan Cha.”

He quickly added, “Ruan Cha ran off too fast. I didn’t get to tell her, but judging from Zheng Wei’s expression, her dad should be fine.”

At that, Huang Jiajia’s expression shifted. “Zheng Wei? Isn’t he the one who smeared Cha Cha on the forum a few days ago?”

To be fair, she wasn’t judging by appearances—it was just hard to believe someone like Zheng Wei, who’d acted like that on the forum, had the character to step up and help in a crisis.

“Hey, Fu Chen—slow down!”

Snapped back to the moment by Ji Feiyang’s shout, everyone realized Fu Chen had already sprinted off. The usually calm and polite boy was now running, completely abandoning his usual composure.

Among the rest, Xu Shen and Xie Changan reacted the fastest, ditching the haunted house entirely and following Fu Chen without hesitation. Huang Jiajia and Xu Nan, deeply worried for Ruan Cha, shoved their way through the crowd, rushing toward the back gate.

“Sleepbag, hurry up! Something’s really happened!” Ji Feiyang was breaking into a sweat, tugging on his friend in panic.

But the always gentle and sleepy Xie Sui ignored him, pulled out his phone, and dialed. His voice, unusually serious, said, “Hello, Second Uncle? Not urgent yet, wait a bit—I’ll confirm right away. If anything’s wrong, send people fast. Don’t make us wait 24 hours.”

Then he grabbed Ji Feiyang’s arm and sprinted toward the back gate.

Ji Feiyang: “…”

All these childhood friends of mine… are too badass.

The school festival at No. 2 High was always a grand affair. The closed campus was open to the public for once, and people of all kinds—students, parents—came and went, filling the space with noise and movement.

Looking around, the crowd was massive and dense. It was almost impossible to find anyone quickly.

By the time Huang Jiajia and the others arrived at the back gate, the first thing they saw was… Zheng Wei, lying on the ground, pale and clutching his stomach, groaning in pain.

And the person most likely responsible—Fu Chen—was talking with a few uniformed officers, face cold and serious, his usual warmth completely gone.

“White van, license plate number—” Fu Chen spoke quickly, listing off what he’d seen when he arrived. “…Eyewitnesses? Of course there were witnesses.”

After finishing, he lowered his gaze and coldly glanced at the curled-up Zheng Wei. “Zheng Wei said he saw Ruan Cha being forced into a car.”

“I—I didn’t—mmpf!” Zheng Wei tried to defend himself, but Ji Feiyang was quicker, clapping a hand over his mouth. No matter how much he strained his voice, no one could hear what he was saying.

Unbothered, Fu Chen looked calmly at the officers and declared, “He conspired with the criminals. He’s trying to recant his statement.”

Then he turned toward Xie Sui, who was holding up his phone. A moment later, Xie Sui passed it to the lead officer.

In just a few minutes, after the superior on the phone finished giving orders, the officers sprang into action to pursue Yu Zheng and rescue Ruan Cha.

Ordinarily, the angle from the back gate was too hidden. With Zheng Wei deliberately blocking the view with a signboard, no one could see what happened after Ruan Cha exited.

When Fu Chen arrived, he had only seen a white van speeding away, already over 100 meters away. On the ground were a half-melted ice cream and a golden limited-edition voucher card.

Recognizing the suspicious situation, Fu Chen had forced a confession out of Zheng Wei, then checked the gatehouse surveillance footage. As for the gatekeeper—he’d already been knocked out inside the security office.

The police only arrived so fast because they were already in the area for another case. Once they were briefed over the phone about Yu Zheng’s crimes, they trusted Fu Chen’s account without question.

Not long ago, the Liang family had taken down Yu Zheng’s medical team, and it was highly likely that Yu Zheng would try to retaliate against the family’s younger generation.

Xu Shen watched Fu Chen handle everything from start to finish and suddenly felt his presence was useless. His only thought when rushing here was to beat up anyone who hurt Ruan Cha.

As for Zheng Wei, the one possible target…

Well, Fu Chen had already taken care of that.

Huang Jiajia and Xu Nan stood frozen in shock. At first, they thought Zheng Wei had colluded with some outside punks to mess with Ruan Cha—but now? She was actually involved in a kidnapping?!

“Fu Chen, Cha Cha—”

“She’ll be okay.” Fu Chen’s voice was both a reassurance and a vow to himself. Then he looked down again, coldly, at Zheng Wei.

Meeting Fu Chen’s icy stare, Zheng Wei trembled and hunched his shoulders tighter, terrified Fu Chen would hit him again.

But Fu Chen had no time for him. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he pulled out his phone and called the Liang family. They couldn’t possibly have predicted that something would happen to Cha Cha at school.

——

Meanwhile, on the highway, the white van had already been switched for an unmarked black SUV.

Ruan Cha stared down at her wrists, tightly bound with tape, then looked up at the man sitting across from her—Yu Zheng, smiling gently like he wasn’t a kidnapper.

Internally, she cursed him out.

On the way to the back gate, she had asked the system to activate a high-level defense shield. The malicious attacks aimed at her were all bounced back onto Yu Zheng’s men—but Yu Zheng himself, the one behind it all, was completely unharmed.

“You’re pretty bold,” Yu Zheng said as he removed his gold-rimmed glasses and carefully wiped them with a cloth. His voice was mild and polite, not at all like someone who just abducted a teenager. “I thought you’d be scared, waking up and seeing the inside of this car.”

He slid the glasses back onto his nose, narrowing his eyes as he studied Ruan Cha. “You’re not just bold. You’re hiding secrets. After meeting you, both Ren Qingqing and Jiang Yuxing ran into serious issues. I’m really curious—what did you do to them?”

Seeing she didn’t reply, Yu Zheng chuckled and continued slowly, “Jiang Yuxing wasn’t actually linked to Liang Zongqi at all, right? You have a system too. Your system corrected Jiang Yuxing’s, which fooled the control panel. Right?”

Truth be told, Yu Zheng had always chalked up Ren Qingqing’s repeated failures to her low IQ and lack of finesse.

As for Jiang Yuxing, he figured the guy was just willing to let the virus destroy him rather than complete the B mission after seeing his brother dying.

Yu Zheng never imagined that Ruan Cha might also have a system. After all, both Ren and Jiang’s systems originated from his—as a former host of System 1128.

One high-tech product in this world was already rare enough. But two? And the second just happened to land in the hands of the girl he picked for his life-swapping plan?

He didn’t buy it.

But facts were proving otherwise. Some people really were just blessed.

A few days ago, Yu Zheng had re-examined the control panel he had separated from System 1128 years ago.

During that review, he discovered a tiny bug in the data stream he’d received: Jiang Yuxing had never been linked to Liang Zongqi—but the information he’d been shown clearly said otherwise.

He’d been tricked—deceived by Jiang Yuxing and someone operating in the shadows, working together.

Aside from there being another system involved, Yu Zheng couldn’t think of any other reasonable explanation. And who else could possibly be the host of that system? Ruan Cha was, without a doubt, the most likely candidate.

As he kept digging, Yu Zheng discovered that the system correcting his data was none other than System 1128—the very one that had once been bound to him.

While Yu Zheng speculated aloud, Ruan Cha sat quietly, calm and composed from start to finish. She showed no fear and said nothing—like a complete anomaly among hostages.

The windows on both sides of the vehicle had been sealed with thick adhesive tape. She couldn’t see outside, nor guess the destination. The less said, the better.

Seeing that Ruan Cha seemed determined to play mute, Yu Zheng’s expression cooled slightly. “Ruan Cha, haven’t you noticed your system’s gone dark? You can’t reach it anymore.”

Having once bound and then unbound a system himself, Yu Zheng naturally understood how they worked. Severing the connection between a system and its host—at least temporarily—was easy.

At his words, a flicker of discomfort flashed across Ruan Cha’s eyes, but she quickly turned her head toward the window, pretending to ignore him—as if worried he might see through her.

Yu Zheng arched an eyebrow slightly. “You’d better make good use of the time you have left. And don’t waste it hoping your family will find you.”

He’d prepared a big surprise for the Liang family and the police.

From the moment Yu Zheng said that, silence fell between them. A calm, controlled look returned to his face—the kind of ease that came from believing he had everything under control and could predict the outcome.

Before, he’d been blind to the one working behind the scenes, unaware of what cards they held. But now, Ruan Cha was in his hands, and her connection to the system had been blocked. Everything was unfolding according to plan—no more interruptions to worry about.

Ruan Cha glanced at Yu Zheng briefly, then lowered her eyes calmly.

Her hair, which she’d carefully pinned up before leaving the house that morning, still hadn’t fallen loose. That meant the hair clip her grandfather gave her was still in place—it hadn’t been confiscated.

The confidence in Yu Zheng’s tone suggested he had taken specific measures to block the system’s positioning function, just like with those two hidden labs in the past.

Rather than stripping a hostage of all their possessions and tools, Yu Zheng, true to his personality, would prefer using high-tech methods that showcased his intellect to block any attempts at escape or rescue.

Whether or not the hair clip could still send a signal, this might be her one and only chance.

She had to make it count.