Ch 96: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

Along the antivirus program’s display, Ruan Cha could even see a bagua mirror on the door. As for whether there was a formation inside the room, she couldn’t tell. If she could, she wouldn’t have been trapped so long in Yu Zheng’s apartment back then.

Special Department.

While technology surged ahead, the state had also established certain classified departments unknown to most of the public. The agents of these divisions operated in the shadows, guarding people’s safety quietly from behind the scenes.

Yu Zheng stood by the window, eyes dark and fixed outside. What most couldn’t see, he could. The rock garden and the pond in the yard looked ordinary, but he knew they were precisely aligned with the core of a formation.

If he wanted to leave, he would first have to destroy those formation nodes—otherwise, he’d never find the real exit.

It had to be said—dying so many times over the years had forged in Yu Zheng a formidable mental strength.

Even after a full day of being tormented by the drug—reliving death after death, forced to face his deepest fears—when he regained consciousness, he could still calmly come up with plans that favored his survival.

Yu Zheng had always been confident in his intelligence. As long as he got out, he believed he’d find another chance to rise again.

He wasn’t just calm—he was ruthless.

The first time he reincarnated, he used future knowledge to short three companies in the stock market… only to die from a falling object.

The second time, he deceived someone, hoping to trade that person’s death for his survival—but the very night that person died, he perished in a sudden fire.

One death after another. One failure after another. It twisted his mind. It dulled his view of life. To him, killing a person was no different from stepping on an ant.

Until one accident.

On a night he should have died, Yi Rou appeared. And her presence stopped his endless cycle of death.

Yu Zheng saw Yi Rou as his lifeline. His salvation.

What he hadn’t expected was that the team he had built following the system’s instructions would end up causing an accident during drug development—one that gave Yi Rou a TS genetic defect disease.

Yu Zheng could not allow another variable in his fate.

Yi Rou had to live. No matter the cost.

The moment he thought of Ruan Cha, who was the reason he’d been captured, hatred surged up again.

He had prided himself on his cleverness, only to fall into the hands of a teenage girl barely grown!

And all because he hadn’t anticipated—Ruan Cha wasn’t even bound to the system!

“If she’s not the host, then where’s the system’s vessel?” Yu Zheng murmured, lightly rubbing the knuckle of his right middle finger, brows drawn tight.

He had once been bound to a system. He knew systems anchored themselves to hosts as vessels—symbiotic connections that couldn’t function without one another.

But if Ruan Cha wasn’t connected to the system and could still give it commands, that meant she had something serving as a vessel.

If he couldn’t find that object, then even if he escaped, he’d never be able to deal with her.

Truthfully, Yu Zheng’s obsession with Ruan Cha wasn’t just about saving Yi Rou—it was also revenge.

Years ago, Old Master Ruan had interrupted his forbidden ritual. Not only did it prevent Mu Yirou’s resurrection, but it also left Yu Zheng gravely injured for eight years—on the verge of death again.

He hated dying, yes—but he didn’t actually want to die. That time, the injury made him feel it: if he died again, he might not come back.

Yu Zheng had always been vengeful. In his mind, since Old Master Ruan was so desperate to hide his descendants in some remote forest, he was determined to wipe them out one by one.

His gaze dropped to a moth struggling at the window frame, dark with malice.

“What’s Ruan Cha hiding? Don’t tell me that old Ruan man is helping her in secret?”

Otherwise, how could she communicate with the system without being its host?

Unaware that the 1128 system had already entered the room, Yu Zheng remained lost in thought, brewing escape plans.

That was, until a sharp pain stabbed his temple.

“Ah—!”

From her bedroom, Ruan Cha watched the screen as Yu Zheng’s face twisted in agony. Veins bulged across his forehead, sweat covered his brow, and his whole body trembled violently.

The next moment, Yu Zheng seemed to go still. He slowly raised his head, eyes vacant, and looked blankly around the room. Then, like a fool, he smiled wide and dumb, lifted a hand—and yanked out a chunk of his hair, stuffing it into his mouth.

Ruan Cha: “…”

Mental domain attacks were… surprisingly crude. So crude it wasn’t even satisfying to watch.

【Ruan Cha, I’ve just withdrawn the extra mental realm I had assigned to him earlier.】 The system didn’t return to her but spoke directly in her mind.

【Honestly, letting him stay in his current delusional state might be more entertaining. He might actually be… happy now.】

Ruan Cha glanced at the screen and looked away, going back to packing her school bag. “Do you think we could really outsmart him if he were still lucid? He only got caught because he underestimated the antivirus program and assumed I was bound to you.”

“You think he’d fall for it twice?”

Even now, the memory of being thrown into a car and dragged to the apartment made her heart race. None of that had been in her plans.

If it hadn’t been for the antivirus program, she might not have been able to warn the police about the bombs at the western villa.

Without that warning, people could’ve died.

“Oh right, those people hospitalized from the traffic accident—are they okay?”

【Ruan Cha, you really do share a mind with me now.】 1128 praised itself shamelessly.

【I left the special unit and immediately went to check on them. Rest assured, they’re all out of danger.】

That first night after returning home, Ruan Cha had already told the system to check on them.

If any of the severely injured were still at risk, she planned to buy emergency medicine from the system’s store—March was the last month everything was 90% off, after all.

Hearing they were improving, Ruan Cha relaxed a little. She pulled up the shop panel.

“There’s some reputation energy in the pool. Let’s buy fifty Punishment Cards. 1128, keep track of the timing—use one on Yu Zheng every other day.”

Punishment Cards, like protective shields, fell into the shop’s hybrid tech-spiritual category. But unlike the shield’s permanent use, each card was single-use—and therefore much cheaper.

The effect?

While sleeping, the target would endure the most excruciating torture—soul and body alike.

Drowning, burning? Child’s play.

Rotting from the inside out? Repeated dismemberment? All possible.

【……】

Ruan Cha, you’re really making sure Yu Zheng has no peace in sleep or wake.

To Ruan Cha, simply making Yu Zheng “dumb” was far too merciful.

She wanted him to suffer constantly—to stack stupid on top of stupid!

She couldn’t kill him. But she sure wasn’t going to let him feel peace before his execution.

Besides, the Punishment Cards weren’t just for payback.

They were also her backup plan. What if Yu Zheng was just pretending to be mentally broken? If the system’s attack failed?

Better to cover all bases.

Let him act dumb by day and be tortured at night. Even if he was faking at first, dozens of Punishment Cards might make it real.

After all, in most cases, people diagnosed with mental illness don’t get the death penalty.

When Yu Zheng was first arrested, he acted very much like a lunatic. But after the Special Department conducted a thorough evaluation, they produced a report confirming that Yu Zheng was mentally sound.

For that, thanks had to go to the 1128 system.

Although its attack on Yu Zheng’s spiritual domain had dulled his intellect, it ensured that Yu Zheng would still test as mentally competent during official checks.

So neither Ruan Cha nor the system had any fear that Yu Zheng might escape legal punishment by feigning insanity—especially with Grandpa Shen watching from the outside.

It had to be said: when it came to spiritual domain attacks, Ruan Cha had overestimated Yu Zheng and underestimated the fully powered-up 1128 system.

—Yu Zheng really had turned into a complete fool.

The kind of fool who, in the eyes of others, looked like he was pretending—but was actually truly brainless.

The kind of fool who, every night while sleeping, was drowned, burned, and tortured again and again in his dreams.

【A tracker has been placed on Yu Zheng, Ruan Cha. Please rest assured—I’ll monitor him thoroughly and ensure he never causes harm in this dimension again.】

Looking at the dazed and ridiculous Yu Zheng on screen, Ruan Cha still felt a sense of unreality.

The man who had destroyed her entire family in the first timeline—had he really been subdued?

Taking down Yu Zheng wasn’t exactly “easy.” From her abduction to the rescue, every moment had been a near miss.

She exhaled deeply. “You worked hard, 1128.”

【It’s no trouble. The mess I made, I have to clean up myself.】 The system hesitated for a moment, then added:

【While repairing the control panel Yu Zheng dismantled, I found some abnormalities in the residual spiritual traces. I believe his repeated deaths are connected to the fact that his spirit isn’t recognized by this plane’s rules.】

It spoke a little guiltily—it hadn’t noticed anything when it first bound to Yu Zheng, not the repeated deaths, not the abnormality in his spiritual body.

Back then, it just thought Yu Zheng was brilliant—fast learner, smart investor. It had even secretly felt lucky to have such a high-IQ host.

【……】

What a hopeless fool I was.

“You probably didn’t catch the abnormalities because you were still tangled up with Virus X,” Ruan Cha said thoughtfully. Then she asked, “If Yu Zheng’s spirit isn’t recognized by the rules of this plane… does that mean he wasn’t originally from here?”

The system fell silent for a moment before replying:

【In my home plane, there exists a banned technology—unacknowledged by the Federation. It extracts spiritual bodies from individuals near death and implants them into other planes. Because the tech was abused by death row inmates, it was outlawed.】

【So my guess is—】

“Yu Zheng’s spiritual body came from a higher dimension and woke up by chance in the Yu Zheng of this world?”

The system was surprised by how calmly Ruan Cha said that. 【You’re not shocked by the existence of spirit-transfer tech? That doesn’t exist in your current plane.】

“1128, you haven’t read enough books,” Ruan Cha replied. “You’ve been with me for a while now—go read some popular web novels sometime. Check out those ones about rebirth in alternate timelines.”

After saying that, even Ruan Cha paused, stunned at her own words.

Not only could she dream of the events from her first timeline, now she had a system and an antivirus program. And now this bizarre rebirth from another world? It was hard to feel truly surprised anymore.

【I’ll remember that.】

The system made a mental note.

Although Ruan Cha’s world wasn’t technologically advanced, its imagination was rich. If it had the chance, it might bring a few novels back to its original plane—who knows, it could inspire new breakthroughs.

As for Yu Zheng—

The system had done some digging. According to its findings, Yu Zheng’s spirit wasn’t acknowledged by the rules of this plane because of a past transgression.

He had died once to “offset” his crime. After reincarnation, he should have lived quietly.

But instead, he kept killing. And dying.

The likely explanation: every time he was reborn, he hurt people—he caused deaths. That broke the rules, and thus the cycle continued endlessly.

The system thought about it and concluded:

He brought this on himself.

After finishing her school bag prep, Ruan Cha saw the mochi-like 1128 system return and poked it gently. “1128, Yu Zheng’s lover—?”

【She’s already dead.】 the system answered, showing no sorrow.

She was someone who should have died long ago. Her life had only been extended by the forbidden formation. Now, she had finally returned to the correct timeline.

【Yu Zheng had been using formations to preserve her life. But once they were broken, she couldn’t survive.】 The system paused, afraid Ruan Cha would blame herself, and quickly added:

【Even if the formation hadn’t been broken, she would’ve died within half a month anyway.】

Ruan Cha let out a soft “Mm,” pushing aside the complicated feeling that briefly surfaced in her heart.

After a long pause, she reached over and switched off the lamp. “Goodnight, 1128.”

For the one named Yi Rou…

Perhaps never waking up was the best ending after all.

The 1128 system, seeing Ruan Cha close her eyes, quietly returned to the antivirus program.

It had originally planned to ask her again if she wanted to bind with it. After all, being a host came with many perks.

But after everything that happened with Yu Zheng, the system couldn’t help but feel relieved that Ruan Cha had never agreed.

If they had been bound, Yu Zheng might’ve calculated against both of them.

After a while, a tiny stick figure appeared on the white virtual panel:

【Goodnight, Ruan Cha.】

But after a moment of stillness, the system still felt a bit unsatisfied.

So it opened the shop and selected a special Punishment Card—one that would make a body rot, regenerate, and rot all over again.

And placed it directly on Yu Zheng.

Within minutes, a sharp, blood-curdling scream echoed from one of the rooms in the Special Department.

The kind that made your scalp tingle and your heart pound.

The system watched Yu Zheng slam his body against the door, voice hoarse from screaming, no one paying him the slightest attention.

Then it erased the text on the antivirus program’s virtual panel. A new line appeared beneath it:

【Thank you, Ruan Cha.】

—Thank you, for helping me become who I was meant to be.