Ch 93: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

The Liang household was in chaos after receiving a call from Fu Chen. Both Liang Zongqi and Liang Cunhuai, who had originally been at the company, had rushed back home.

Ruan Zhengfei and Wei Jiao were filled with guilt. “We had already taken over the bookstore near the back gate of No. 2 High School, and yet we still failed to protect Chacha.”

Ruan Zhengfei had felt uneasy when Ruan Cha left the house that morning, but figured nothing would happen since she was with seven or eight classmates. Letting his guard down, the two of them left for school a little later, only to receive the news halfway there that Ruan Cha had been abducted by Yu Zheng. The shock nearly caused Ruan Zhengfei to crash into the car in front of him.

Old Master Liang shook his head. “I arranged for bodyguards at the back gate. They were all drugged and lost consciousness. Even if you two had been there, you wouldn’t have been able to protect Chacha.”

Fu Chen shifted his gaze from the computer screen to Ruan Zhengfei and Wei Jiao. “Uncle, Auntie, Grandpa Liang is right. It’s not your fault. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I let my guard down and let Chacha go to the back gate alone, falling into the trap.”

They had all expected Yu Zheng to make a move during commuting hours, but no one had thought he’d strike when Chacha was surrounded by the most people.

Based on the tactics Yu Zheng had shown, acting during commute hours would’ve been faster. But instead, he chose to put on a show in front of a crowd, flaunting his skills while mocking everyone else’s incompetence.

After speaking, Fu Chen turned the laptop toward the others. On the screen was a city-wide map of South City. Blue lines connected various circles, each one representing the location of someone being tracked—one large, one small.

“The GPS chip hidden in Chacha’s uniform button has been located,” Fu Chen pointed at one of the circles, which was about an hour’s drive from No. 2 High School.

He then circled a rough area on the screen with a pen. “But the tracking program in Uncle Ruan’s phone shows a location in the opposite direction. And the location it gives isn’t precise—just a rough area.”

While the police searched for the van, Fu Chen and the tech department at the police station had been working to track Ruan Cha’s GPS signal.

They encountered interference—the chip’s signal had been disrupted.

Fu Chen had previously helped set up firewalls for his family and the Liang family, which blocked Yu Zheng’s attempts. His technical skills were top-notch, and once he detected the interference, he immediately began decoding it.

The GPS chip embedded in Ruan Cha’s uniform button had been added just two days ago, out of concern from the Liang family.

Seconds after Fu Chen spoke, the police techs reached the same conclusion. One technician showed his screen to the team captain, sighed, and said to himself that he was getting too old—he couldn’t even match a high school student in tech.

The captain uploaded the map onto the team’s devices and ordered, “Lao Wang, take a squad to the western district and check location A. Dacheng, Jingzi, take people and sweep the area around location B. We need to narrow it down as quickly as possible.”

“Understood!”

While comforting Wei Jiao and trying to stay calm, Ruan Zhengfei stared intently at the laptop. “Chacha’s grandpa said the GPS chip in the hair clip is precise enough to pinpoint even the floor and room in a building.”

Old Master Ruan had given Ruan Zhengfei a simple lesson on GPS capabilities.

Growing up, Ruan Zhengfei always thought his father was a bit stubborn and elusive, constantly busy and hard to find. But deep down, he trusted what his old man said.

Back when he first got married, the old man had said, “If I can have a beautiful daughter, you’ll have Chacha.” And it came true.

Old Master Shen, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly stood up and looked at Ruan Zhengfei. “The GPS in the hair clip—your dad gave it to Chacha?” He had assumed Ruan Zhengfei had prepared it, but if it was from Old Ruan, then the tech was probably very advanced.

Could it be that Yu Zheng had used a formation?

Thinking of their last confrontation, Old Master Shen furrowed his brows. Was Yu Zheng truly that reckless?

Ruan Zhengfei had seen Old Master Shen at the Liang household before and knew of his expertise in metaphysics. Although he found it curious that Old Master Shen seemed to know his dad, he nodded. “Yes, the hair clip was prepared by Chacha’s grandpa. He’s always been at odds with Yu Zheng and feared something might happen to her.”

Even Ruan Zhengfei found it strange. The old man was rarely seen, yet he seemed to know everything going on in the family. Ruan Zhengfei and Wei Jiao had only just learned of Yu Zheng’s plans from Chacha’s grandpa, and the old man had already made preparations and given Chacha the hair clip.

Old Master Shen fell into brief contemplation. “I’ll need to check area B.”

“I’m going too!”

Everyone turned toward the voice and saw an elegant woman in a qipao standing at the doorway. Her hair was completely white, neatly pinned with a single pearl hairpin.

Gu Mingrui didn’t come in. She simply leaned on the doorframe and looked straight at Old Master Shen. “Lao Shen, let’s go together. If Yu Zheng really went all out and set something up, you won’t be able to handle it alone.”

She glanced at Ruan Zhengfei and Wei Jiao with a soft smile. “To be honest, I helped Old Ruan make the hair clip for Chacha. The GPS inside is extremely precise—it shouldn’t be giving just a general range.”

Other than the captain, the police officers were all confused—they had no idea who Shen and Gu really were.

Among everyone present, only the captain had received some internal information. Both Shen and Gu were consultants in a special department.

Old Master Shen nodded. “Alright, let’s go.” Every minute wasted meant Chacha was in more danger.

After the two left, Fu Chen stared at the blinking screen, then began typing on the keyboard again. Since the GPS was precise, there had to be a way to narrow the area further.

Besides—

His expression dimmed slightly. At the moment, there was only one thing he could do.

—

While the Liang family was discussing, Ruan Cha, trapped in a black business van, noticed they might’ve entered an underground garage.

Sure enough, the car came to a stop. The door was pulled open, and a faint sliver of light seeped in. The layout outside was too vague to see clearly.

Yu Zheng let out a long breath, clearly in high spirits. He extended his hand with fake gentlemanly grace. “Come on, Ruan Cha. Believe me, the last view you’ll ever see in this world is going to be breathtaking.”

Before getting out, Ruan Cha’s mouth was taped shut. Seeing Yu Zheng’s performance, she rolled her eyes coldly—pure scum.

Her calm demeanor throughout unsettled Yu Zheng, but also intrigued him. He wanted to see what made this second host—besides himself—so special that those from the high-tech realm would take notice.

That’s right—second.

To Yu Zheng, neither Ren Qingqing nor Jiang Yuxing fit the system’s criteria. He saw potential in Jiang Yuxing, while Ren Qingqing was forcibly bound to the system by the erratic Virus X.

What a waste of a system.

Yu Zheng’s third site for performing the forbidden ritual wasn’t an open villa in the hills or a suburban townhouse. Instead, it was a standalone apartment in a bustling commercial district—a location no one would suspect.

In fact, this third site had been ready all along, even earlier than the other two discovered by the police and Old Master Shen.

After all, he didn’t want Yi Rou to sleep peacefully.

Ruan Cha glanced at the unconscious driver in the front seat. She didn’t feel even the slightest pity. Anyone who partnered with a madman had to be ready to be betrayed by one.

Upon arriving at the apartment, knowing it was completely sealed with formations and no one could hear screams, Yu Zheng thoughtfully ripped off the tape from her mouth. His movements were almost absurdly gentle, as if handling a delicate treasure.

Someone favored by the world, someone who could trade lives for Yi Rou—there was no room for carelessness.

“Ruan Cha,” Yu Zheng said as he led her into the apartment, his eyes behind his glasses dark and cold, his words hissing like a venomous snake in her ear, “I advise you to behave and stay quiet. Forget the drug you’ve already taken—without a system, you won’t be able to resist at all. As for the special drug I prepared just for you, it doesn’t just cause pain—”

Ruan Cha, for once, looked up at him and broke her silence. “Your drug… has other effects?”

“Oh, it does.” Yu Zheng pressed a control button, and all the lights in the apartment flared on, painfully bright. He chuckled to himself after speaking. “But you’ll have to experience it for yourself.”

Ruan Cha: “…”

You’re seriously sick.

“…”

And I mean, truly sick.

As if people wouldn’t figure it out just because you didn’t say it.

The door opened, and the room’s layout came into view. Ruan Cha immediately noticed the thin woman lying on the bed, so pale she made even Yu Zhiyan the first time they met look healthy by comparison—it was hard to believe the woman was even alive.

When Yu Zheng noticed that Ruan Cha wasn’t surprised by the talismans and red string decorating the room, a dark gleam flickered in his eyes. He seemed to grow more confident—the girl clearly knew quite a lot about what was really going on.

The apartment was set to a comfortable 26 degrees, but as soon as Ruan Cha stepped inside, she felt a damp chill creeping in. The kind that seeped through your skin, flowed through your bloodstream, and settled in your bones, like the cold of a tomb.

Yu Zheng glanced at the woman on the bed, then turned back to Ruan Cha, his gaze darkening. “You didn’t scream, didn’t struggle, cooperated the whole way. Got some other plan?”

As he spoke, a large screen suddenly lit up on the wall, displaying live surveillance footage of a villa in the western district. Yu Zheng’s smile twisted with madness and pride. “But what plan could you possibly have? Think that staying quiet means you won’t suffer? Think if you stall long enough, they’ll track you through the GPS signal?”

When he first captured her, Yu Zheng had planned to have his men inject her with an anesthetic. But Ruan Cha had been so calm—after realizing she couldn’t escape, she’d simply stopped resisting. Her quiet obedience was almost pleasing.

Since the girl was so sensible, there was no need to waste the effort. Yu Zheng knew from experience that the system would protect its host from excessive harm, and he didn’t want to lose a man unnecessarily.

He wasn’t worried at all that Ruan Cha would escape from a place covered in formations. That old bastard had once hidden Ruan Cha’s family so carefully, and in the end, hadn’t they still returned to the Liang household?

A smug smile crept onto his face as he led Ruan Cha to look at the wall screen. “See that? Those idiots are searching the wrong place. Any minute now, they’ll be treated to a fireworks show I prepared just for them.”

1 second.

10 seconds.

30 seconds…

The smile on Yu Zheng’s face froze. He stared at the screen in disbelief, watching as the police began withdrawing from the villa—empty-handed.

In his original plan, the explosion would be the grand finale. Amid mass panic, he would complete his life’s greatest masterpiece—welcoming Yi Rou’s awakening beneath a sky full of brilliant fire.

“Boom!”

Yu Zheng turned sharply—only to see the always-calm Ruan Cha smiling sweetly at him. The “boom” had clearly come from her.

Ruan Cha tilted her head and grinned, her voice crisp and clear. “No explosion, Mr. Yu Zheng. Surprise—aren’t you thrilled?”