Chapter 123 The Drug Addict

Doing business with criminals who have countless lives on their hands?

Chu Ci frowned and looked into her dark eyes.

Miss Zhong smiled, rested her chin on her hand, and looked at her calmly, without dodging or avoiding her gaze.

However, the familiar headache did not strike the moment their eyes met.

She saw nothing.

"What did you see?" Miss Zhong asked with great interest.

Chu Ci: "..."

She pursed her lips and looked over in confusion, but only saw the smile in Miss Zhong's eyes.

She touched her cheek with her hand, which was painted with deep red nail polish. The sharp nails slid across her cheek, leaving a shallow indentation.

He raised an eyebrow at Chu Ci.

"This body isn't mine, so naturally you can't tell anything."

Chu Ci: "...You took over Sun Lingyan's body?"

She thought it was a disguise or something else, but she never expected it to be a possession.

Seeing Chu Ci's expression change, Miss Zhong smiled even more happily.

"Don't worry, this is only temporary."

“My body is abroad and it’s inconvenient for me to come back, so it’s more convenient to use her body.”

She spoke so naturally, as if the body wasn't a body, but merely a piece of clothing that could be taken off and changed at will.

Noticing Chu Ci's increasingly agitated emotional state, Miss Zhong smiled and shrugged.

"Answer my question, do you want to make this deal with me?"

Chu Ci looked up and stared at her intently. "I don't help criminals."

She could probably guess who Miss Zhong was talking about, but cooperating with such a criminal was like asking a tiger for its skin.

She lifted her eyelids and glanced at the woman opposite her, who was resting her chin on her hand and had a displeased look in her eyes, then stood up:

"goodbye."

Miss Zhong's smile vanished, replaced by a cold sneer.

"Don't you want to catch those people who are still in the heroin business?"

Seeing Chu Ci stop in her tracks, a smile returned to her face.

"Ignore them, those people aren't just in the heroin business, they're going to keep harming people!"

She rested her chin on her hand, her fingers, painted with bright red nail polish, lightly tapping her face.

"Since you've already discovered the statue in Minmin's basement, I might as well tell you."

"If you don't care, those people will kill even more people in order to extend their lifespan."

"And once those people successfully extend their lifespan, they will continue to do the heroin business."

"Are you sure you want to see them go through this cycle again and again?"

Seeing that Chu Ci remained silent with a cold expression, her smile grew even more excited.

"You could have saved him, but you didn't... Tsk tsk, you're indirectly a murderer!"

Her expression was exaggerated, and she looked at Chu Ci with a gloating gaze.

Chu Ci gave her a cold look.

"You don't need to try to provoke me. I won't blame other people's deaths on myself."

Miss Zhong: "..."

Her exaggerated smile froze, and she slowly gritted her teeth.

"Yeah?"

She slammed down what she was holding, her smile laced with gritted teeth.

"Alright, we'll see!"

"I'd like to see if those lives will be attributed to you!"

After saying that, she turned around and kicked the table hard, making the plates on the table crash and clatter.

The noise clearly demonstrated the owner's displeasure.

Just as she was about to leave with heavy steps, Chu Ci suddenly asked her:

Do you know where Chung Ka Road is?

Miss Zhong stopped abruptly.

She suddenly turned her head, her long hair flying heavily across her face.

"What did you say?"

Her pupils trembled as she stared at Chu Ci, her high heels making a crisp sound as they hit the ground.

She walked quickly to Chu Ci's side, almost thinking she had misheard.

How do you know Zhong Jialu? Who told you?

Chu Ci looked up into her eyes, her blurry figure reflected in her dark pupils, trembling with her heavy breathing.

Seeing that Chu Ci remained silent, her features suddenly contorted, and she raised her voice to press him for an answer.

"How do you know Zhong Jialu? Who told you?"

She suddenly threw down the bag in her hand. The bag rolled twice on the ground, scattering its contents all over the floor.

Chu Ci stared blankly at the scattered items, her face expressionless, without saying a word.

The two remained locked in a face-to-face standoff for a long time.

Finally, Ms. Zhong took a deep breath and stepped back.

She lowered her head and retreated to the dining table, her hand supporting her forehead, her hair falling down to cover most of her face.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault just now. I shouldn't have threatened you."

“Zhong Jialu…I know, I know where Zhong Jialu is…”

"I'll take you to see it."

As she spoke, she stood up.

But as soon as he stood up, his body swayed uncontrollably. Fortunately, he managed to grab the table in time to avoid falling.

Noticing Chu Ci's gaze, Miss Zhong tossed her hair and smiled.

"The downside of using someone else's body is that if you get a little emotional, you can easily get kicked out by the body."

As she said this, instead of sitting down to relax, she pointed to a door in the distance.

"That leads to the backyard, come with me,"

She shook her head, forced herself to walk over, and pushed open the door.

Behind the door was a street.

The street retains the style of decades ago, with low bungalows on both sides.

A house with a blend of Chinese and Western styles occupies more than 90% of the area.

Ms. Zhong, leaning against the door frame, explained, "This used to be my home."

She went in first, walked along the street for a while, and pointed to the wall in front of her.

“This is Chung Ka Road, that’s the road sign.”

Chu Ci looked in the direction she was pointing and saw the gate of the building that combined Chinese and Western styles.

The main gate was a heavy, vermilion-lacquered gate, with a plaque above it bearing gold lettering on a red background:

Zhong Mansion

The main gate of the Zhong residence was open. Standing outside and looking in, one could see the front yard with its huge flower beds.

"This is the house my brother built later. My family's original house was turned into a pile of ruins long ago in the war."

Miss Zhong, who was standing behind Chu Ci, suddenly spoke up.

Chu Ci turned her head to look over, and Miss Zhong walked past her and stood in front of the house.

She turned her head to look at the roadside in the distance from the house and asked Chu Ci:

Do you know my name?

Chu Ci followed her gaze and looked at the road sign in the distance. "What's it called?"

"My name is Zhong Jia, and this road is named after me."

Chu Ci: "..."

She hadn't expected this answer.

She thought "Zhongjia Road" was the same as "Zhongjia Road".

It turns out that "嘉" refers to Miss Zhong, not the Zhong family's Jia.

But... looking at the "Zhongjia Road" sign, Chu Ci felt that something was off.

Following Miss Zhong into the house, I found it empty and without any servants, yet very clean.

Miss Zhong stopped in front of a three-story villa, and Chu Ci stopped as well.

The villa is predominantly white and gold, a color common in that era, and has a distinctly Western style.

In Mr. and Ms. Zhong's time, this was already a very fashionable architectural style.

After stopping outside the villa for a while, Miss Zhong suddenly asked her:

"This is my family ancestral hall. Would you like to go inside and take a look?"

Chu Ci: "..."

She paused for a moment, then said, "This is your family ancestral hall; it's not appropriate for outsiders to go in..."

Miss Zhong laughed out loud with great joy, laughing until tears streamed down her face.

"What's wrong with that? They've already died out, so what difference does it make who goes in?"

Chu Ci: "..."

Miss Zhong pushed open the door and walked straight in, immediately greeted by the smell of incense that had been burning for years.

The interior of the small villa was almost devoid of decoration; even the staircase was built right against the surrounding walls.

The center of the small villa was empty, with a huge three-story-high altar on it, densely filled with ancestral tablets.

Miss Zhong casually picked up a few incense sticks from the side, lit them, and inserted them into the incense burner in front of the altar.

He casually asked Chu Ci, "Do I have a lot of ancestors?"

Chu Ci stood next to Miss Zhong, keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

Looking up at the altar, which stretches upwards like steps, you can't see the frontmost memorial tablet at all.

She couldn't help but nod, "There are indeed a lot."

“What a pity,” Miss Zhong pouted, “so many ancestors, yet by the time it came to my brother and me, the family line had ended.”

Chu Ci: "..."

She looked at Miss Zhong's profile and could see her lips curving into a smile.

I have a feeling that she's actually quite happy about the fact that her family line has ended.

Miss Zhong suddenly turned her head, looked at Chu Ci's questioning eyes, and smiled as she showed her the memorial tablet on the lowest tier.

“Look here.”

The lowest tier of memorial tablets contains only one tablet with the words "Zhong Jia" written on it.

Chu Ci: "...Only your own memorial tablet?"

Miss Zhong laughed out loud, "I thought you were going to ask why someone would set up a memorial tablet for themselves before they're even dead."

After laughing, she wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes.

"Yes, only my own memorial tablet."

She casually wiped her own memorial tablet, removing non-existent dust.

Staring at the prepared memorial tablet, he slowly said:

"My father couldn't have children, so my brother was adopted to carry on the Zhong family line."

"My father never expected that not long after my brother was adopted, he would have me as his daughter."

She lowered her eyes, a smile still playing on her lips, her eyes, hidden behind her eyelashes, remaining dark and unfathomable.

"So he is nominally my brother, but in other words, he is the child groom that my father raised for me."

Chu Ci: "..."

Her eyes widened suddenly.

Looking at Zhong Jia's smiling face, I finally understood where that awkwardness came from.

"you……"

“Yes, just like you think.” Zhong Jia raised an eyebrow and nodded.

But the smile on her face quickly faded. "It's a pity he died too young, leaving me a widow so soon."

Chu Ci was speechless for a moment. Thinking about what this young lady had done, he couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark:

"From what you're saying, it sounds like you still miss him a lot."

"If you miss him so much, why don't you go find him?"

How do you know I didn't contact him?

Zhong Jia's smile vanished, and she retorted without even thinking.

Chu Ci paused for a moment, then exclaimed "Ah!"

She looked Zhong Jia up and down.

But she was using Sun Lingyan's body, so she couldn't tell anything.

Zhong Jia snorted, casually found a place to sit down in the ancestral hall, and lit a cigarette.

Gray smoke rose slowly, and upon smelling it, Chu Ci's eyes widened in shock.

She quickly covered her mouth and nose, took a few steps back, and her eyes turned cold.

What are you inhaling?

Zhong Jia ignored her, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and exhaled a white-gray smoke.

Seeing Chu Ci's eagerness to avoid her, she smiled and curled her lips.

Looking down at the object in his hand, he said, "You actually recognize this treasure?"

"baby?!"

Chu Ci almost cursed out loud.

She tightened her grip on the Soul-Hooking Rope around her waist and stared coldly at Zhong Jia.

Before she could even move, Zhong Jia scoffed.

"Your chain is indeed useful, but it's not very effective against me."

She smiled and pointed to her head, her eyes filled with coldness.

"You can try to take my soul, but who will come out of this body is another matter."

Chu Ci: "..."

Seeing that Chu Ci had stopped moving, Zhong Jia took a deep drag on his cigarette.

With one puff, most of the smoke quickly disappeared.

She exhaled a puff of smoke, watching the gray smoke drift into the sky, and squinted her eyes slightly in enjoyment.

“I asked my brother to use this thing…”

Her squinting eyes began to blur her vision, and her thoughts seemed to drift far away.

"Ever since I started using this thing, I can see my brother every day..."

Chu Ci covered her mouth and nose, rolled her eyes, and stared coldly at Zhong Jia, who was puffing away on a cigarette, her eyes full of disgust.

"Using this to find your brother? Are you looking for your brother, or just your emotional comfort?"

Zhong Jia: "..."

She opened her eyes, tilted her head to look at Chu Ci a few more times, and suddenly smiled.

She wasn't angry at Chu Ci's sarcasm; she just shook off the gray ash from the cigarette that had burned out.

He sighed, "I didn't expect you to see things more clearly than I did."

She held the cigarette in her hand, watching the flickering embers, her eyes lowered.

“You’re right, I was a coward. I was afraid to die, but I wanted to see him, so I used this thing…”

"At the time, I really thought it was a treasure."

She stared down at the flames on the smoke until she was burned, which brought her back to her senses.

Looking at her hands, which were scalded red, her eyes gradually went blank.

"My brother is a very good businessman. He has a good personality and is also very smart."

"With my dad backing him up, he quickly made a lot of money."

"I don't know if he knew he was going to die, so he planned ahead for me and used the money to help many people."

"When he passed away, he left me a lot of money and a lot of connections."

“When he died, society was still in turmoil, but thanks to the money and connections he left behind, I didn’t suffer much…”

Chu Ci frowned as she thought of Mr. Zhong, who had been waiting in the underworld.

"I heard he was a philanthropist, which is why he gave money to help people."

Zhong Jia snapped out of her reverie and looked at her in surprise.

She was stunned for a long while, her eyes filled with complex emotions. "Really?"

Chu Ci nodded.

Zhong Jia remained silent for a while, but still insisted on her own idea.

"No, I know him better than any of you. He did this for me."

Chu Ci looked at the sweet smile on her lips and remained silent.

A gentleman judges by actions, not intentions. Regardless of what Mr. Zhong was thinking at the time, he did indeed help many people.

Chu Ci looked at her dazed profile and asked, "This stuff can cause hallucinations. You want to see your brother, so you've been taking this stuff?"

The cigarette she was smoking wasn't an ordinary cigarette, but a contraband opium poppy.

It produces hallucinations, extreme excitement, and is highly addictive.

At the same time, it continuously raises the threshold of excitement in the human brain; once a person gets involved with this stuff, they're doomed.

Zhong Jia pulled another cigarette out of his pocket. "Yeah, this is the only way I can see my brother."

Seeing that she was about to light another cigarette, Chu Ci snatched the cigarette from her hand.

He glanced at her with disgust: "You're using someone else's body right now, can't you stop hurting people?"

"Harmful?" Zhong Jia tilted his head and looked at her.

His eyes were filled with doubt. "How could I possibly harm her?"

She pointed to the body's face, her smile innocent.

"Ten years ago, when her best friend Feng Qian died, she cried her heart out."

"At that time, I felt that she was a bit like me in the past, which is why I spared her life."

"Over the years, I've seen all her little tricks."

"She's determined to avenge her best friend. Since she misses her best friend so much, what's wrong with me helping her meet with her best friend?"

"Do you think you're helping her?" Chu Ci frowned and stared at her, asking each word clearly.

“Of course, I’m helping her,” Zhong Jia said matter-of-factly.

Chu Ci clenched his fists tightly, barely managing to hold back from slapping her.

"Zhong Jia, you've ruined your brain with all that sucking."

Zhong Jia does not deny this.

She nodded, stood up from the ground, and stretched at the entrance of the ancestral hall.

"Yes, you're right."

She stepped over the cigarette that Chu Ci had thrown away and chuckled.

"My brother left me a lot of money, enough for me to live a carefree life for many years."

"So in two or three years, this thing will be of no use to me."

Chu Ci thought of her drug business and glanced at her coldly.

Sensing Chu Ci's smoke, Zhong Jia laughed and continued:

Fortunately, there are many people in this world who want to take shortcuts, and soon something better will come along to fill the gap.

"And as time goes by, even better things are created."

She smiled and turned to look at Chu Ci: "You've never lost someone you love, so you don't know how hard it is to go without seeing them."

"I sell this to help people like me, to help them see the people they want to see in their illusions."

"In my opinion, the bad guys are those who force them to be like normal people."

“We’re just ruining our own bodies, what does that have to do with you people?”

"What gives you the right to demand that we live the way you do?"

She covered her forehead and frowned, as if Chu Ci and the others were the ones who were guilty of countless crimes.

Her finger, painted with bright red nail polish, pointed at Chu Ci, and she spoke slowly and deliberately:

"You are hypocrites who love to exaggerate; you are the ones who should be thrown in jail!"

Chu Ci sneered inwardly.

"Who said you only ruin your own bodies?"

"What you're selling will ruin people; there's no turning back."

"By the time those who want to turn back do so, their bodies have already broken down."

"Moreover, once your addiction kicks in, you people have no reason at all; you're worse than animals."

"Every year, there are armed robberies in order to get money to buy things."

"Don't think you're innocent; you're just a poisonous insect that harms people."

It seemed like the first time Zhong Jia had been described as an insect. His expression went blank for a moment, but he quickly waved his hand dismissively.

"Forget it, there's no point in talking to someone we don't click with."

"I still have the same question: help me find my brother. I'll give you the list I have, and I can even help you catch them all in one fell swoop."

"This business will only benefit you; would you like to cooperate with me?"

Chu Ci: "..."

Such conditions are indeed tempting, but they are tantamount to asking a tiger for its skin, and one must be vigilant.

"Aren't you alive and well? You can even see your brother in your hallucinations, so why would you want to cooperate with me?"

Zhong Jia: "..."

She had her back to Chu Ci and did not answer for a moment.

Outside the high wall, the shadows of trees sway, birds fly back and forth, disappearing in the instant they disappear into the canopy.

She pursed her lips and suddenly asked Chu Ci:

"Do you think I'm still human after living all these years?"

"Of course not." Chu Ci replied without hesitation. "What kind of good person would eat someone?"

“I think so too.” Zhong Jia stared at the birds flying in the distance.

She touched her cheek, lowered her eyes, and gave a self-deprecating smile.

"When I first started using that stuff, I felt pretty good. Although I felt drowsy and uncomfortable every day, I could see my brother every day."

"Until one day, I saw my own face in the mirror."

She touched the corner of her eye, her brows furrowed.

"I suddenly realized that thing was about to destroy me."

"In just a few years, I seem to have aged twenty years, with several more wrinkles on my face."

"But the brother I can see is still the same as he was before he died, full of vigor and youthful spirit."

"From that day on, I wanted to keep looking young, so that I wouldn't look out of place standing next to my brother."

"I've tried all the normal methods to stay young. But as long as I'm human, I'll still get old."

"As long as I am human, I cannot escape birth, aging, sickness and death."

Perhaps it was her cowardly and greedy nature that erupted once again, or perhaps it was her yearning for immortality, but after trying all the normal methods, she began to explore unorthodox and unorthodox practices.

"As it turns out, my choice was right."

"That thing really can help me stay young forever. As long as I sacrifice enough living people to it, it can keep me young forever."

"No matter how much I smoke, my body and my face will always be at their best."

Her voice was excited, but after she finished speaking, it suddenly dropped.

"However, although I have remained young and beautiful, I feel more and more like a monster."

Her hand moved from the corner of her eye to her lips, her palm pressed against her cheek, her eyes fixed on the ground.

"A while ago, I went out shopping and saw a young mother holding her child and sunbathing."

"The moment I brushed past that young mother, my only thought was that her child must be delicious."

"That's terrifying, absolutely terrifying..."

She suddenly turned her head to look at Chu Ci.

"I'm like a monster in human skin; the moment I see a person, my first thought is how to eat them..."

Having become neither human nor ghost, is she still the same kind of person as her brother?

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she was startled by herself.

"So from that time on, I decided not to continue living that kind of life."

She looked at Chu Ci and said solemnly, "I want to see my brother one more time, and then die a normal death like a human being."

...

After returning from Zhong Jia's place, Chu Ci felt her head buzzing.

When she returned to the shop, Li Lecan and Lu Qing had already been reincarnated.

Grandma and He Lihua are preparing to open their shop and are currently busy handing out flyers everywhere to generate buzz for the opening day.

The store was eerily quiet.

She slammed herself heavily onto the psychic chair, then lay face down on the table and closed her eyes.

I couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

She received a form from Zhong Jia; it was half a list of members of a heroin syndicate.

But only half.

The remaining half will only be given to Zhong Jia by Zhong Jia after she helps Zhong Jia meet with her brother.

The first name on the list is Mo Xinwu, the principal of Mingguang Middle School.

Looking at the names on the list, some familiar and some unfamiliar, she was about to call Wu Jiangxue when the shop door suddenly opened.

The fat monk saw her and stomped his foot in frustration.

"Hey, you! It's not like you're incapable of making money. If you have money, why don't you buy a mobile phone so you can stay in touch?!"

He ran over, grabbed Chu Ci's hand, and tried to pull her away.

"Do you remember what happened at Mingguang Middle School? This matter has blown up, and many masters have joined forces to exorcise evil spirits from Mingguang Middle School."

"Quick, quick, let's go join the fun!"