Chapter 99 She climbed to power by stepping on her dead best friend…
Feng Qian clutched her clothes tightly to her chest, her lowered eyelashes trembling slightly.
"His soul has already been scattered, and I guess mine will be soon..."
After feeling sad for a while, she finally remembered to ask the two people.
"What do you want with Wu Chen?"
She stared at Chu Ci for a while, then her dull eyes suddenly brightened slightly.
"Are you Sir Wu's daughter in the mortal world?"
She instinctively tried to move closer to Chu Ci, "I've heard your mother talk about you! She was always worried about you before she was reincarnated, but she also felt that your aunt would definitely take care of you..."
She originally wanted to ask on behalf of Wu Chen and his wife how their child had been doing all these years.
But realizing that the other party had already arrived, his slightly bright eyes dimmed again.
"Were you... also targeted for revenge by that group?"
Before Chu Ci could answer, her hand, which was covering her chest, began to tremble slightly.
From a slight tremor to violent heaving of the chest, and then to a surge of black energy throughout the body.
Her originally gentle and mild voice suddenly became shrill and hoarse.
"Those people... went too far!"
"For money, they've already harmed so many people, it's not enough for them, they want to wipe them all out!"
As the black resentment swirled around her, the stunned ghosts scattered and fled.
The female ghost who was with Chu Ci widened her eyes and quickly grabbed Chu Ci.
"Master, we have to make her stop. If we send other ghost messengers, she'll definitely be beaten to a pulp!"
Chu Ci's eyes turned serious. He quickly threw the Soul-Hooking Rope from his waist and wrapped it around Feng Qian's neck.
"Feng Qian, calm down! I'm not Wu Chen and his wife's daughter!"
The moment the Soul-Snatching Rope wrapped around her neck, Feng Qian cried out in pain, and the surging resentment within her instantly subsided.
She gripped the noose around her neck with her hands, her palms making a hissing sound.
"You're not a ghost, you're a ghost messenger?"
She lowered her hands from the Soul-Hooking Rope, staring intently at Chu Ci, her hands appearing ulcerated as if burned.
A hint of wariness appeared in her eyes: "How do you know about Inspector Wu? What do you want with him?"
"Over the years, Officer Wu has handled many cases and saved many lives."
"He couldn't have made anything serious... Why are you looking for him?"
She thought Chu Ci was going to take Wu Chen to the eighteenth level of hell to settle scores with the ghost messengers, and her eyes were full of terror as she kept trying to hide among the ghosts.
But the ghosts were also frightened and all moved far away from her, quickly forming a vacuum around her.
Fearing it would cause a disturbance, Chu Ci led the Soul-Hook to a secluded corner.
Once they were far away from the ghosts, she put away the soul-snatching rope and began to comfort Feng Qian:
“I know Wu Chen’s daughter. She has been searching for the truth about your and Wu Chen’s deaths for many years.”
"I've come to you this time to find out exactly what happened when you died."
Feng Qian: "..."
She stared blankly at Chu Ci, her pupils reflecting Chu Ci's face.
After a long while, she pursed her lips and asked in a trembling voice, "You... came from up there?"
Seeing Chu Ci nod, Feng Qian suddenly became excited.
She suddenly grabbed Chu Ci's hand and asked, "Do you know Sun Lingyan?"
"She used to be a star, and she was very famous! Do you know her? How is she doing now?"
Chu Ci looked at Feng Qian's pale hands.
Her hands were icy cold and trembling violently.
After staring at those hands for a few seconds, Chu Ci looked up and asked her.
What is your relationship with Sun Lingyan?
Feng Qian said firmly, "We are friends, very, very good friends!"
However, before she could finish speaking, the female ghost following Chu Ci suddenly spoke up.
"You and Sun Lingyan are friends? That's impossible! She's been using you to climb up the ladder all along!"
Feng Qian paused for two seconds, then frowned and shook her head.
"Impossible! Ah-Yan and I grew up together, we're very close!"
"If I die, she will definitely avenge me. How could she possibly climb to the top by stepping on me?"
She examined the female ghost's face closely.
"You are... Lan Momo?"
Chu Ci looked at the female ghost following her.
She remembered that Ji Jingtong had mentioned to her that the female ghost who went to the police station to report the case was indeed surnamed Lan.
The female ghost named "Lan Momo" nodded, met Chu Ci's gaze, and quickly explained:
"Before Feng Qian died, I was famous for my fashion design for a short period of time and I worked with her on an entertainment program."
Chu Ci nodded and looked at Feng Qian again.
Feng Qian continued to stare intently at Lan Momo's face, her eyes stubborn and persistent.
"No, you must have misunderstood."
“I know Ah Yan’s temperament very well. She is definitely not the kind of person who climbs up by stepping on others.”
Especially since that person is her who is dead, how could Ah-Yan possibly climb over her to get ahead?
Lan Momo dislikes Sun Lingyan, who climbed to the top by stepping on her deceased best friend.
He looked at Sun Qian with pity in his eyes.
"After you died, Sun Lingyan quickly took your place and became the mainstay of the entertainment company. Many of your previous roles also became hers, and it seems that your boyfriend is also dating her."
"Last year, when her relationship with the company boss was exposed, she held a press conference and used you as a negative example, saying that she wouldn't be as shameless as you..."
Seeing Feng Qian's increasingly unpleasant expression, Lan Momo's voice grew softer and softer.
"She...you..."
"No, stop talking."
Feng Qian sat on the ground, covering her face with her hands.
Her voice was muffled, and her firm tone contained a barely perceptible wavering.
"I believe in Ayan. Ayan must have her own reasons. She... she couldn't possibly be with our company's boss."
"She knows who those people are; perhaps she just has her own plans. Yes, she has her own plans!"
"She could never be with the person who killed me..."
"Wait!" Chu Ci's eyes sharpened. "You mean, you were killed by the boss of Sun Lingyan's company?"
"..." Lan Momo stared in surprise.
Looking at Feng Qian's unsightly profile, she bit her lip slightly.
She didn't intend to say anything more to provoke Feng Qian, but Feng Qian insisted on getting to the bottom of it.
"You said my boyfriend... is dating Ah-Yan, is that true?"
Lan Momo hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting around, unsure whether to answer.
But seeing that Feng Qian was much paler than a typical ghost, and that her figure seemed like it might be scattered at any moment, she frowned.
Between deceiving her and letting her know the truth, Lan Momo chose the latter.
"These were all leaked by paparazzi, and I'm not sure if they're true."
"However, I've worked with Sun Lingyan before, and I did see her getting quite close to your boyfriend..."
After she finished speaking, she quickly added another sentence.
"But they broke up a long time ago, and I heard it was a very ugly fight. They still can't stand each other to this day."
"Later, your boyfriend often went to your grave to celebrate your birthday, and he even retired from the entertainment industry. I think your boyfriend still loves you very much."
"love me?"
Feng Qian kept her head down, expressionless, and suddenly let out a sneer.
“If he truly loved me, he wouldn’t have been entangled with my sisters after I died.”
Lan Momo: "..."
She pursed her lips tightly and looked at Chu Ci.
He spoke softly, "I just didn't want her to leave with regrets..."
Chu Ci withdrew his gaze and looked at Feng Qian again.
She also noticed Feng Qian's increasingly faint figure.
"Feng Qian, you just said that Boss Sun Lingyan killed you. Can you tell me what happened?"
Feng Qian lowered her head and remained silent for a long time.
Suddenly, the black aura around her vanished, and even her soul seemed to lighten considerably.
"Forget it, let bygones be bygones in the world."
Her voice was dry, but with a hint of relief.
"After waiting for so many years, I don't even know what I've been persisting in all these years."
She stood up blankly, walked past Chu Ci and Lan Momo, and walked towards the River of Oblivion like a walking corpse.
"Those ghost messengers are right. Once a person is dead, they should no longer have any contact with the living world."
"So many years have passed, I should have been reincarnated long ago."
"The living don't care about worldly affairs anymore, so the dead have even less reason to care..."
She walked to a small boat that still had a seat and sat down.
This time, the ferry did not sink.
She numbly raised her head, her lifeless eyes staring at Lan Momo and Chu Ci on the shore.
Her gaze swept over Lan Momo, and her eyes flickered.
"Thank you for telling me so much."
"Actually, reincarnation is a good thing. It's better to be reincarnated than to be stuck here forever."
It's unclear whether this was said to Lan Momo, to oneself, or both.
She looked at Chu Ci again, her lips moved, but she hesitated to speak.
Just as the ferry was about to leave, she stood up from the boat.
"People are dead, and those who were meant to leave have already left. The dead don't care, so the living have even less reason to care."
"Stop investigating. There's no point in continuing. Let's just leave it at that."
The ferryman, wearing a straw raincoat, slowly rowed the boat and gestured for Feng Qian to sit down.
Feng Qian and the other souls squeezed into the small boat, no longer looking at Chu Ci and Lan Momo on the shore.
The small boat, laden with the souls of the departed, slowly sailed toward the center of the River of Oblivion, shrouded in thick smoke.
On the opposite bank of the turbulent Yellow River, a huge stone bridge, suspended in mid-air, stands silently.
That is the end point for all souls.
Lan Momo gazed at the stone bridge suspended in mid-air, a strange feeling welling up inside her.
Perhaps it was because she had been there for so long, but she had developed a strange longing for that bridge.
But a soul too attached to its own desires cannot cross this river.
"master……"
She looked at Chu Ci with guilt in her eyes.
"I didn't know that saying those things would make Feng Qian choose to reincarnate. My intention was to help you, but..."
Chu Ci shook her head, "It's alright."
At least she now knows who the murderer is.
She stared at the enormous stone bridge in mid-air, feeling as if she were watching a Chinese-style cyberpunk game.
Such a large stone bridge, hanging in the pale yellow mist, is both eerie and magnificent.
She stared at the stone bridge for a while, then heard someone calling her.
"Aci, Aci?"
"Why are you sleeping here again, child?"
It was Grandma's voice.
"Lan Momo".
Her eyes widened in panic, and she quickly called out, "Lan Momo!"
Lan Momo reluctantly withdrew her gaze from the stone bridge.
"master?"
Chu Ci hurriedly turned around: "I have to go back. I'll go find your mother to deliver that bank card in a little while. Wait for my news tonight."
Lan Momo's face lit up with surprise for a moment, but then she felt a pang of guilt when she thought of Feng Qian, who had already been reincarnated.
"I'm so sorry, Master. I was too talkative about Feng Qian's matter..."
She felt that a mere verbal apology was far too weak.
But what can a ghost possibly offer as compensation?
Thinking of the 500,000 yuan she had left for her mother, her eyes lit up. She thought of having her mother pay Chu Ci as compensation.
But before she could speak, Chu Ci waved his hand.
"It's good that Feng Qian is reincarnated. She has a chance to start over, which is better than waiting here for her soul to be scattered."
After she finished speaking, she felt her body begin to sway uncontrollably from side to side.
On the other hand, her grandmother, who couldn't wake her up, had started shaking her.
"Aci? Aci, are you alright?"
Grandma's voice grew increasingly panicked, "Aci..."
Her voice suddenly rose in pitch.
"Aci, why aren't you breathing?!"
Chu Ci knew he couldn't delay any longer, so he pointed to the ground beneath his feet.
"Wait for me here tonight, I'll come find you."
Seeing that she was about to leave, Lan Momo quickly said, "Thank you, Master! Thank you!"
The moment Chu Ci opened her eyes, she saw herself lying on the ground.
Grandma frantically grabbed her by the feet and was desperately pulling her out.
While straining, she cried and screamed:
"Help! Help! Call an ambulance!"
The Liang couple, who ran a newspaper stand outside, heard the shouts and quickly ran over.
"Grandma Chu! What's wrong? Why are you calling an ambulance?"
Grandma pointed to Chu Ci on the ground and cried uncontrollably.
"Something has happened to our Aci!"
The Liang couple, looking at Chu Ci who was trying to turn over on the ground, exclaimed, "Huh?"
Before Grandma could say anything more, she suddenly felt her hand being grasped.
My granddaughter's familiar voice rang in my ears:
"Grandma, where are you dragging me to?"
Grandma turned her head to look at her.
Seeing her open her sleepy eyes, tears instantly welled up and flowed freely.
She slapped Chu Ci on the shoulder and burst into tears.
"You wretched girl! I called you so many times, and you didn't say a word!"
I thought you were dead!
She hugged Chu Ci and cried loudly, as if she had found him again after losing him.
A light slap landed on Chu Ci's back as she cried and cursed at her.
"Grandma is so old, if you're gone, how will she live?"
The couple who received the newspaper glanced at the grandmother and grandson and quickly went over to help them up.
"It's alright, it's alright, it was just a false alarm!"
The newspaper's good wife, Ahua, quickly changed the subject:
"Our Ah Yong has recently developed a new kind of sweet soup! Would you like to try it?"
Before Chu Ci and Grandma could answer, she patted her husband on the shoulder.
"Hurry up and have Ah Yong make two bowls of fresh sweet soup and send them over!"
"Okay!"
The newspaper reporter hurriedly went to his son's dessert stall to buy some dessert.
Grandma's emotions gradually calmed down.
With red and swollen eyes, she looked at Chu Ci and said, "You really scared Grandma to death..."
Chu Ci held Grandma's shoulders, and could vaguely guess why Grandma was so scared.
The original owner still left. If she also leaves, Grandma will truly be all alone.
She held her grandmother's hand and said, "Grandma, I won't leave."
Grandma looked into her eyes with her slightly cloudy eyes, and slowly tightened her grip on her hand.
“You are Grandma’s only remaining hope, you can’t leave me…”
Newspaper Liang and his son Wei Yong soon came in carrying two bowls of sweet soup.
Wei Yong talked on and on about how much effort he had put into researching this sweet soup, making his grandmother laugh.
The little incident in the morning passed quickly.
After breakfast, Chu Ci prepared breakfast for the two girls who stayed at her shop.
Incense sticks were stuck in the bowl, and several kinds of breakfast were laid out on the table. The two little devils kept sighing as they ate.
"I haven't had breakfast in ages, breakfast is so delicious!"
Xiaomin had no memory of it and just nodded in agreement.
"It's delicious! I like it too!"
Li Lecan appeared somewhat saddened.
Stirring the seafood porridge in the bowl with a spoon, I thought of my mother.
“My mom used to always make me get up and eat breakfast, saying that breakfast is the most nutritious meal.”
"But I always want to sleep a little longer, or I want to keep up with the trend and go to breakfast shops near school with my classmates, and I never go with her..."
Some things we take for granted, we only regret when we lose them.
She stared sadly at the bowl of seafood porridge, while Xiaomin comforted her by eating sticky rice chicken.
"Sister Can, at least you have parents. I don't even know if I have parents. You're already very lucky!"
Li Lecan glanced at her and smiled with narrowed eyes.
"Let's not talk about that anymore!"
"Although I am dead now, it's good that I have you, Xiaomin, with me."
Chu Ci was folding gold ingots on the side.
Judging from Li Lecan's appearance, I think she's probably one of those people who couldn't be reincarnated.
Rather than letting her wait on the shore like Feng Qian, it's better to help her fulfill her obsession and let her be reincarnated properly.
So when she planned to go out to find Lan Momo's mother in the morning, she brought a black umbrella.
"Li Lecan, come out with me for a bit."
Li Lecan exclaimed "Ah!" and Xiao Min grabbed her hand tightly.
She asked cautiously, "Master, may I go with Sister Can?"
They now know that Chu Ci's identity in the mortal world is that of a spiritual medium.
Li Lecan also held Xiaomin's hand tightly, "I want to be with Xiaomin!"
Seeing the two girls huddled together, encouraging each other, Chu Ci nodded.
"Bringing one is the same as bringing two, so come on in."
As she opened the umbrella, Li Lecan and Xiaomin's souls were instantly sucked into it.
She took an umbrella to the police station, intending to ask Ji Jingtong, who was in charge of the case, for the address of Lan Momo's mother and the address of Lan Momo's rented apartment.
Ji Jingtong's dark circles under her eyes hadn't disappeared yet, and hearing what she said, she felt she had spent a lot of money.
Grab your notebook.
“Miss Chu, I’ll go with you. I happen to have some things I’d like to discuss with Miss Lan’s mother again.”
They hitched a ride with Ji Jingtong and headed together to Lan Momo's mother's residence.
In contrast to Lan Momo's glamorous identity, her mother lives in a dark and gloomy small residential building.
The small residential building is quite old, and there are tangled wires everywhere inside.
The walls were covered with unknown grime in varying shades, as well as graffiti drawn by children with pencils and crayons.
Ji Jingtong led her upstairs, where the stairwells on both sides were covered with small advertisements.
"Just climb two more floors and you'll reach it."
Just as Ji Jing and his group climbed to the third floor, they suddenly heard a loud bang coming from a room upstairs.
With the sound of the door slamming against the wall, a woman's angry roar followed:
"Take your filthy money away! I don't need your money!"
"Do you think you can disregard human life just because you have a few stinking coins? Even if I starve to death or die of illness, I will never exchange my daughter's life for money!"
"You bunch of bastards who aid and abet evil, get out of my house right now!"
The woman's shouts were mixed with sobs, and she seemed to be grabbing something and trying to shoo people out the door.
Chu Ci and Ji Jingtong exchanged a glance and quickly ran upstairs.
"You old fool, don't be so stubborn! Mrs. Wang and her family are just taking pity on you and are willing to give you money."
"Once the verdict is handed down, forget about money, we'll make you regret it!"
Two burly men stood in the narrow stairwell outside the door, protecting the elegantly dressed middle-aged lady behind them.
Across from them stood a middle-aged woman with disheveled hair and tear-streaked face.
The middle-aged woman spat angrily when she heard the man's shameless words.
"Pah! It must be your son who's going to jail. If it weren't for your son going to jail, would people like you, who look down on everyone else, even come to me?"
"Take your filthy money away, and I'll make sure your son goes to jail! I'll make sure he spends the rest of his life in jail, so that everyone in Hong Kong knows how despicable your Wang family is!"
"Your family used to look down on my Momo, saying the most awful things and humiliating her in every way!"
"I'd like to see if your son, who's been to jail, can still find a good family to marry into, just like before!"
Upon hearing her curse, the elegantly dressed lady clutched her chest, as if she were quite angry.
She curled her lips in a sarcastic smile, her disdainful gaze sweeping over Lan's mother's clothes.
"So you and your daughter knew I looked down on your family, yet you still let your daughter try to get close to my son."
"You yourself are a gold digger. Twenty years ago, you gave yourself to a foreigner and had a bastard child. Now you want your bastard child to give yourself to my son?"
"This is your family business. If you can't run it yourself, then let your daughter do it!"
"You bitch!" Mother Lan's eyes widened in fury as she lunged forward to scratch the wealthy woman's face. "You're not allowed to talk about my daughter like that!"
But before she could even touch the noblewoman, she was stopped by two burly men standing in front of her.
Two burly men shoved her aside, and one of them turned to ask the lady for her opinion.
"Madam, I heard that this old hag has no relatives here, so perhaps we should..."
He made a throat-cutting gesture with his hand, and the lady of the house thought about it seriously.
Just as I was about to nod, a male voice suddenly came from behind me: "How about something else?"
Ji Jingtong walked up the stairs and stood in front of Lan's mother.
He glanced coldly at the two burly men and the wealthy woman, "Ms. Lan has no family, so what?"
"What do you two want to do?"
The lady's face fell, and she forced a dry laugh as she curled her lips.
"Inspector Ji, what brings you here?"
This is Inspector Kei from the Serious Crimes Unit, who is in charge of her son's case. Naturally, the wealthy lady recognizes him.
Ji Jingtong helped Lan's mother up after she was pushed to the ground.
"Luckily I came, otherwise I wouldn't have seen this good show."
"What is Mrs. Wang planning to do? Why don't you discuss it with me?"
Mrs. Wang was embarrassed by his words, so she waved to the two burly men, intending to take them away.
Before they even went downstairs, they heard Ji Jingtong's voice, which contained a veiled warning.
"Mrs. Wang, I saw what happened today, so I can't pretend I didn't know."
"If anything happens to Ms. Lan one day, I will notify Mr. Wang immediately."
Mrs. Wang's back stiffened as she heard the policeman ask:
"You don't want Mr. Wang to lose face, do you?"
Mrs. Wang: "..."
She cursed Ji Jingtong in her heart, but had to smile and apologize to him.
“You’re right, Sir. I’ll be careful.”
There was nothing she could do; she had neither power nor money, and her husband had a bunch of illegitimate children outside the marriage.
Her son's actions have already angered her husband enough; if something else happens to her, he'll definitely abandon their son.
Ji Jingtong smiled in response: "Then I hope Mrs. Wang will stop bothering Ms. Lan."
As Mrs. Wang stormed off in her high heels, Ji Jingtong and Chu Ci helped Lan's mother into the room.
As soon as Mrs. Wang left, Lan's mother's tears fell, and she couldn't wipe them away.
She sat on the sofa, tears falling steadily onto her legs.
“My Momo isn’t that kind of person. She’s a strong-willed girl who wants to rely on herself for everything. She’s not the kind of person who would give herself away!”
She covered her face and sobbed.
"I told you long ago that the Wang family's son is stubborn, short-tempered, and not a good man."
"Besides, the Wang family looks down on her, and she and the Wang family's son won't have a good ending, but she just won't listen to me!"
"I didn't listen to my parents back then and insisted on giving birth to her, which is why my life has turned out like this! I don't want her to follow in my footsteps!"
"That brat just won't listen!"
After blaming Lan Momo, she started blaming herself.
"It's all my fault. I made her lose her father at birth and was called a bastard for more than 20 years."
"If I had insisted on stopping her from associating with the Wang family's son, she wouldn't have died."
"It's all my fault..."
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