Ch 94: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

Liang household.

“The range has narrowed.” Fu Chen’s fingers flew across the keyboard, lines of code flashing on the screen and vanishing just as quickly. He remained calm and focused as he confirmed the area. “Xinglin Road, Jinjiang Garden—currently locked in on apartment buildings 102 through 107.”

Another police tech glanced at Fu Chen’s algorithm and gave him a thumbs-up. “Impressive. Young and capable.”

While Fu Chen spoke with the Liang family, the captain who had stayed behind confirmed with his own people that Fu Chen’s results checked out. Without hesitation, he passed the information along to the team searching location B.

Then he personally led a team toward Xinglin Road to prepare for a hostage rescue.

“No, Feifei, we’re going too. I’m scared something will happen to Chacha,” Wei Jiao said as she dragged Ruan Zhengfei out the door. Normally laid-back, the two moved so fast it stunned everyone into inaction—no one had time to stop them.

“Auntie, Uncle, wait!” Fu Chen stopped typing, pointing quickly at the updated map of South City. “There’s been an accident on the main road to Xinglin Road—it’s completely jammed. You’ll need to take a different route, or you’ll get stuck halfway.”

As he spoke, Fu Chen grabbed his coat and headed for the door. “I already informed Captain Lu about the accident—they should be rerouting. Let’s hurry.”

Everyone from the Liang family: “…”

A group of adults, and yet, other than anxiously waiting for the police, they’d done less than young Fu Chen.

With Fu Chen, Ruan Zhengfei, and Wei Jiao taking the lead, the rest of the Liang family couldn’t sit still any longer. They all rushed to Jinjiang Garden by car.

If Yu Zheng really had other demands, they’d rather take the hit themselves than let Chacha be harmed.

Fu Chen was right—there had just been a traffic accident on the main road to Xinglin Road. A long line of vehicles was now stuck on the overpass, unable to move forward or back.

The accident had happened so recently that news of it hadn’t yet spread.

If they hadn’t been paying attention and had headed straight for the main road, they might’ve wasted two to three extra hours getting to Jinjiang Garden.

—

As Fu Chen narrowed the GPS signal using the chip in the hair clip, the confrontation between Ruan Cha and Yu Zheng was once again laid bare.

“No explosion, Mr. Yu Zheng. Surprised?”

Yu Zheng stared heavily at Ruan Cha, eyes narrowed. He had placed micro-bombs at that location—if anyone entered, they were supposed to detonate immediately.

So how did Ruan Cha know?

Unless—

Ruan Cha had used her system to disable the bomb and saved those people.

After working through the logic, Yu Zheng sneered, “You had the system help them? But didn’t you notice? Your system didn’t come back.”

He laughed, but in his heart, he now viewed Ruan Cha with more caution. Clearly, her bond with the system was deeper than he’d expected.

Before making his move, Yu Zheng had carefully planted fake locations for the police and even orchestrated a traffic accident on the main road. But the one thing he hadn’t accounted for—was what might happen while the system’s connection to Ruan Cha was severed.

And now, reality had slapped his overconfidence hard across the face.

Ruan Cha flinched at his words, cautiously stepping back and avoiding a red string on the floor with golden bells tied to it. “That’s impossible. It spoke to me just now.”

“If it had really returned, you wouldn’t have said that.” Yu Zheng calmly replied, then casually sat on the edge of the bed, staring straight at her. “You’re clever—figured out the GPS chip in your clothing while still in the car, and got 1128 to set an ambush there.”

“When I rigged the bomb, it was just on a whim—one that even 1128 couldn’t remotely override. Seems like that whim was worth it.”

He glanced at her current position, gesturing toward the red string and talismans on the floor. “Looks like you learned about the life-for-life forbidden spell from 1128. Not bad, you even accessed the database. Must’ve completed quite a few tasks.”

Ruan Cha glanced at the clock on the wall, pretending not to be afraid. “Mr. Yu Zheng, I’m guessing you’re not like those talkative villains in TV shows who die because they monologue too much. You’re stalling for time for the forbidden ritual, aren’t you?”

She paused, then asked curiously, “Does the second forbidden ritual also have time restrictions in addition to who can be used for the exchange?”

Yu Zheng smiled gently. “That’s right. In about ten more minutes, you’ll be leaving this wicked world. Look out the window—beautiful view, isn’t it? Who knows, maybe 1128’s data stream is trapped just outside, watching you.”

He had cast a formation over the entire apartment. With Ruan Cha inside, even 1128—still linked to her—was confined within. But just earlier, 1128 had left to save lives.

There was only one possibility: before Ruan Cha entered the apartment, 1128 had temporarily detached. And when it returned—it found it could no longer reconnect with its host.

Yu Zheng had never doubted the effectiveness of severing the system’s link. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t prepared backups.

The system came from a high-tech plane, and its store offered countless unpredictable items. No matter how confident or arrogant he was, Yu Zheng would never face it with just one plan.

“In another thirty minutes, the drug you’ve taken will kick in. But you probably haven’t experienced much suffering in your sixteen years. Aside from physical agony, you won’t get much mental torment.”

Lightly stroking his chin, Yu Zheng casually asked the cruelest question, “So tell me, what would I have to do… to make you want to die?”

Back when Old Man Ruan interrupted his ritual, Yu Zheng swore he would make him pay in blood. But he hadn’t expected that the person who fit all the criteria turned out to be Ruan Cha.

And when he looked deeper, he discovered Ruan Cha had a grandfather no one ever saw—none other than the very man who had ruined his ritual.

Ruan Cha ignored his words and calmly asked, “Mr. Yu Zheng, I’m curious—if you wanted me to trade lives for your lover, why set up formations in the Liang home through Liang Qianling? Why send Jiang Yuxing to target my family?”

“Because—” Yu Zheng’s smile faded, and his gaze turned cold and venomous, “because you were born blessed by the heavens. Not only is your fate extraordinarily rare, it also protects your family. Only when your loved ones are hurt will that divine favor slowly fade.”

Just like Ren Qingqing—without help from a high-level system, she wouldn’t have been able to do anything to Ruan Cha.

He burst into laughter after speaking, shaking the bells into a frantic jingle. Then, shedding his fake gentlemanly facade, he glared coldly at her. “When I saw your fate, could you even imagine the resentment I felt? Why are some people born noble, while others are born as rejects—forced to die again and again, never seeing a future?”

“You could never understand!”

“I can.”

Ruan Cha’s calm response brought Yu Zheng to a sudden halt, as if frozen mid-rage. He hadn’t expected her to answer so lightly.

He was just about to mock her—how could someone who had never experienced it say they understood?

But before he could speak, Ruan Cha cut him off, “Watch Happy Death Day a few times and you’ll get it. Or Triangle, if that’s more your style. Drama reflects real life—guess that saying suits you pretty well, Mr. Yu Zheng.”

Was she surprised?

Of course. Anyone hearing someone talk about dying over and over in front of them would be shocked—even creeped out.

But Ruan Cha kept her expression under control, showing nothing, and even fired back calmly, “Still, hoping someone will empathize with you is a bit unrealistic. After all, what happened to you is a one-in-a-billion scenario. Only you would end up living it.”

Yu Zheng: “…”

Indeed, just like that damned old man surnamed Ruan—cut from the same cloth.

He had once imagined what kind of expressions people would have when they learned his past: disbelief, horror, shock. But none of them compared to Ruan Cha’s.

Her gaze was calm, like watching a play unfold.

Yu Zheng exhaled deeply, trying to steady himself. He brushed imaginary dust from his clothes and glanced at the clock. “Almost time. Come now. If you behave, I’ll let you suffer a little less. Without your system, you can’t do anything.”

On the way to the apartment, he had only taken Ruan Cha’s phone and backpack. Though he hadn’t searched her, Yu Zheng didn’t believe she had anything hidden on her that could threaten him.

Besides, the drug he had prepared was already working. Her earlier behavior showed she had lost all strength.

Yu Zheng never wasted energy on someone with amateurish tricks.

The only reason he’d invested so much time in Ruan Cha was because of her rare fate and the unexpected connection of the 1128 system—formerly bound to Ren Qingqing—now attached to her.

As a former system host, no one knew better than Yu Zheng what the system was capable of.

Truth be told, he wasn’t satisfied with the series of events earlier in the day. He blamed that meddling old Shen; otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to use so many high-tech tricks to get through.

Playing with the bloodstained red string in his hand, Yu Zheng looked at Ruan Cha like she was already dead. “Soon, you’ll keep reliving your worst fears. If you don’t want to suffer, I suggest you start thinking about ending it yourself. Got it?”

“Mr. Yu Zheng, can I ask you something?” Ruan Cha’s legs wobbled as she leaned weakly against the wall, staring as he walked toward her with the red string. “You love her so much. You waited for her for over a decade. Why didn’t you offer your own life in the first life-for-life ritual?”

She looked genuinely puzzled. “If you truly love someone, isn’t just seeing them alive enough to bring joy?”

“You don’t understand at all—”

“I don’t understand your selfishness, that’s what,” Ruan Cha cut him off coldly. “You use the excuse of love to commit monstrous acts. And when she wakes up and sees what you’ve done, she won’t even be able to speak out against you.”

She glanced at the clock. “Because the moment she does, you’ll righteously tell her, ‘I did it all for you!’ You’re disgusting.”

Yu Zheng’s hand trembled with rage, the red string nearly slipping from his grasp. She had ripped away the only shred of justification he had left. He was livid. “Ruan Cha!”

Year after year, only Yi Rou’s presence had dragged him out of the abyss of repeated death. He had to save her. No one could stop him!

Almost before the words left his mouth, Yu Zheng lunged, trying to bind Ruan Cha with the red string—truly tying her life to his lover’s.

A drugged, powerless girl. A girl without her system. It should’ve been effortless.

But in the next moment, Yu Zheng’s vision blurred. His surroundings wavered, and a roaring filled his ears.

Suddenly, the drug meant for Ruan Cha began affecting him instead.

He hadn’t even touched her directly at the school’s back gate!

Watching him falter, Ruan Cha’s smile grew brighter.

Without giving Yu Zheng time to react, she swiftly grabbed the red string and wrapped it around his wrist. Then, with all her strength, she kicked him hard in the knee.

“Disgusting.”

Even if the second life-for-life ritual had strict requirements and binding Yu Zheng might not work, Ruan Cha didn’t mind letting him taste the pain of his own formation.

Yu Zheng, already disoriented, collapsed as his knee buckled. He slammed against the edge of the bed, spine crashing into the wood with a heavy thud.

Without hesitation, Ruan Cha stepped forward and landed a brutal kick to his stomach—a blow for her family.

“Mr. Yu Zheng,” she said coolly, “about what you said earlier—there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to correct.” She glanced at a small white virtual panel hovering beside her, then met Yu Zheng’s bloodshot, hate-filled eyes. “Actually, I was never connected to the system at all.”

In the car, she hadn’t thought about using the system to trace her GPS. It was only when she saw the large screen in Yu Zheng’s apartment that she realized what he was planning.

After connecting with the system, she immediately instructed it to take control of the bomb.

Yu Zheng had built his formation using his knowledge of the 1128 system—but he hadn’t accounted for the antivirus program.

Yes, Ruan Cha was trapped—but the antivirus program wasn’t. And the 1128 system resided within that antivirus framework.

So when Yu Zheng confidently declared the system couldn’t return, the mochi-shaped system was rolling back and forth right in front of his face.

Ruan Cha had kept chatting to stall for time and uncover Yu Zheng’s motives against the Liang family. She was also waiting for the drug she had slipped into him to take effect.

Truth be told, Yu Zheng had been very cautious. Since the school incident, he hadn’t laid a finger on her himself—he’d always used hired hands.

And seeing that his men weren’t harmed by system backlash when they drugged her, he was convinced Ruan Cha had been dosed.

Especially with how she acted afterward—it all lined up with the symptoms.

What he didn’t know was, she’d never been drugged.

He had.

When Yu Zheng heard her say she’d never connected to the system, his eyes widened. The drug’s effects were hitting him full force now, muddling his senses, blurring reality and illusion.

Still, he instinctively protested, “Impossible. If you weren’t linked to the system, how did it handle the virus in Jiang Yuxing? Without a host, the system can’t even be stored!”

Ruan Cha tilted her head, looking thoughtful. “Maybe… I’m just too cute?”

Yu Zheng: “……”

1128: 【……】

Ruan Cha crouched down to look him in the eyes. His pupils had already lost focus. Soon, he’d experience the full horror of the drug he’d created himself.

Sure enough, within seconds, Yu Zheng was trembling uncontrollably, writhing on the ground like a huge silkworm cocoon, completely stripped of his former fake elegance.

【Ruan Cha, it’s lucky we submitted that nervous system report earlier. Otherwise, we couldn’t have given him a taste of his own medicine.】

She hadn’t expected Yu Zheng to ambush her at the school’s back gate. And she still lacked the power to attack his mental domain directly—until she smelled the drug on her.

Then, a plan formed.

Thanks to that report, she had studied several neurotoxic agents and immediately identified the components in the drug.

She quickly bought the antidote from the system store and took it. At the same time, she discreetly took the rest of the drug powder from the man who had tried to drug her.

Yu Zheng’s men were busy fighting off the bodyguards the Liang family had secretly sent to protect her—no one noticed what she did.

Yu Zheng’s spiritual defenses were too strong for the system to drug him silently.

But Ruan Cha believed she could do it herself—if she waited for the right moment, when he let his guard down.

After all, Yu Zheng didn’t have a protection field that deflected damage.

And it worked.

While he was distracted taping her mouth shut in the car, she slipped the drug into him with ease.

The one thing Ruan Cha hadn’t anticipated was that the high-tech methods Yu Zheng used didn’t just block GPS tracking—they also cut off the signal output from the 1128 system, preventing her from contacting her family and letting them know she was safe.

“Ah—!”

Yu Zheng was completely unraveling—clutching his head in agony one moment, cowering under a shelf the next, then frantically slapping his body, writhing on the floor as if consumed by fire.

He was trapped in an endless loop of suffering—drowning, being crushed by falling debris, burning alive. Again and again, without reprieve. Every nerve, every part of his soul was being tortured.

He bit his lower lip until it bled, but even so, not a shred of the desire to die emerged. Only endless resentment and hate. Why was the world so unfair to him?

He had already used one person after another to replace the fate that should’ve been his—so why still… still nothing?

In the midst of his screams, Yu Zheng suddenly quieted. His unfocused eyes stared blankly into a corner of the room, and he murmured, “Yi Rou… Yi Rou… as long as you’re alive, I’ll be fine. You must live…”

Watching the pitiful figure before her, Ruan Cha’s voice remained steady.

“What he fears most isn’t the death of his lover—but his own death, over and over again.”

Yu Zheng had a past that bordered on the absurd.

Ruan Cha had once considered the possibility that he was born twisted—or that he would do anything, even sacrifice countless lives, to bring back someone he loved.

But in the end, all of it, everything, was still for himself.

That lover lying on the bed… if she meant anything at all, it was only as a cover.

【Ruan Cha, all databases in this system have now been fully unlocked. It turns out that when I first arrived in this plane, I activated earlier than scheduled and bound to Yu Zheng. The root cause was due to his abnormal mental fluctuations.】

The 1128 system finally understood why Yu Zheng had always been so anxious during their connection, how he could predict which stocks would rise and what industries to invest in—

He had already experienced it all multiple times.

Back then, 1128 had witnessed how deeply Yu Zheng valued Mu Yirou, even logging that affection as “love” in its data. But looking back now, it must’ve been because Mu Yirou’s presence had broken his death cycle—he cherished her for that reason alone.

“How much more energy do you need to attack Yu Zheng’s spiritual domain?” Ruan Cha asked.

【327 more units, and I’ll be able to launch an attack.】

A pause.

【But… with Yu Zheng already like this, do we really need to waste the energy?】

Ruan Cha didn’t hesitate. “Of course. Haven’t you heard the saying? ‘Evil lives a thousand years.’ The drug only lasts three hours. Make sure to dose him again every two hours. While the drug is active, his mind won’t be able to resist you.”

Whether Yu Zheng died or not, Ruan Cha wasn’t worried. Ironically, thanks to his own meticulous planning, the drug he had overseen developing was designed to be torturous—but not fatal.

What he didn’t expect was that the same drug he once had crafted for others would one day be used against him.

“Bang!”

Just as Ruan Cha finished speaking, the entire apartment trembled like an earthquake. The golden bells hanging in the room jingled violently, the sound briefly drowning out Yu Zheng’s screams.

The door—sealed tight by the formation—creaked and shifted.

When the bells fell silent, the door slowly began to open. The entire space was no longer sealed.

Ruan Cha whipped around and saw a massive crowd gathered outside the building.

Among them were her family, Fu Chen, Grandpa Shen, and an elderly lady in a qipao she didn’t recognize, along with uniformed police officers.

Inside Jinjiang Garden, they had been trapped in a confusing maze, unable to find apartment 105—until Old Master Shen took action.

Now that the apartment had finally appeared, the people outside still couldn’t see inside through the windows. They only worked in tense, methodical coordination, fearing that breaking the formation might drive Yu Zheng to harm Ruan Cha.

Seeing that the formation had broken, Ruan Cha quickly recovered her phone from Yu Zheng’s pocket. After instructing the system to watch him, she ran toward the exit while calling her dad.

The call connected, and Ruan Zhengfei’s choked voice came through immediately. “Yu Zheng! If you have demands, just say them—we’ll agree to anything. Just don’t hurt Chacha. She’s only 17. She’s just a kid…”

Wei Jiao rushed to the phone too. “That’s right! My life’s way more worthless than Chacha’s. Why would you hurt her?”

Ruan Cha paused with her hand on the apartment door, taking several deep breaths before finally speaking.

“Dad, Mom…”

Before they could respond, the apartment door swung open.

Everyone outside had prepared themselves for the worst—Ruan Cha held hostage, injured, maybe bleeding, maybe worse.

But—

“Mom, Dad. I’m okay.”

Her crisp voice sliced through the air and struck everyone’s ears. For a second, they wondered if they were hearing things.

Ruan Cha stepped through the open door, perfectly intact, and smiled as she looked at them.

“Not hurt at all.”