Chapter 90 – Don’t Worry, He’s Still Alive

Chen Zhenguo, male, 47 years old.

A native of Jiangzhou.

No children of his own—just a girlfriend who had a beautiful daughter.

The girlfriend liked him.

The daughter didn’t.

That, he knew.

But he didn’t care.

From beginning to end, he had only one goal:

To find a way to get his name on that property deed. That way, his future would be secure.

But his girlfriend kept refusing.

Said the house was for her daughter.

That always made Chen Zhenguo angry.

Her daughter was so pretty—would she even need that house for security in the future?

Just a wave of her hand and plenty of men would be lining up to take care of her.

And then there was that time they talked about money.

There had been such a great opportunity right in front of them, and that woman Tian Cuilan actually turned it down—claiming it was for her daughter’s college tuition.

Thinking of this, Chen Zhenguo couldn’t help but fume.

But that was all in the past now.

As Chen Zhenguo stared at the 500 yuan cashback that had just hit his bank card, he was already picturing himself as a millionaire in his mind.

When the time came, he’d kick that woman Tian Cuilan to the curb and find a young, beautiful woman to wait on him hand and foot.

No—one wasn’t enough. He’d need at least three.

One on the left, one on the right, and one in front of him.

Each one had to be fair-skinned, pretty-faced, and long-legged.

And if that woman Tian Cuilan dared come crawling back—

He’d kick her away without hesitation.

Wait. No. Maybe let her come back…

Let her bring her daughter—

A certain image popped into Chen Zhenguo’s head, and he couldn’t stop the fantasy from playing out.

A strange, smug smile slowly crept across his face.

Suddenly—

A loud voice snapped him out of his daydream.

“Chen Zhenguo!! What the hell are you spacing out for?!”

“Can’t you see the production line’s still running!?”

“You trying to get your pay docked or something!?”

The furious shout startled Chen Zhenguo, making him instinctively shrink back.

He hurried to adjust the chalk on the production line.

Meanwhile…

In the conference room of the Qinghu District Patrol Bureau—

The captains of the four major units—Public Security, Criminal Investigation, Anti-Control, and Urban Control—were seated together with several coordination departments, all gathered under the leadership of Yao Qirong, who sat at the head of the table.

Everyone sat in silence, as if waiting for something.

After a while—

A red phone on the conference table suddenly rang.

The Public Security captain, seated closest, looked toward Yao Qirong.

Receiving a nod, the captain—who appeared to be in his forties—picked up the phone, listened for a moment, then handed the receiver to Yao Qirong.

Moments later—

Yao Qirong put down the handset.

He paused in deep thought.

When he opened his eyes again, a sharp coldness glinted in them.

“Operation Capture the Goose!”

“Begin!”

At his command—

The four squad captains instantly stood up.

“Yes, sir!!”

At that same moment…

Having just finished the early shift, Chen Zhenguo was hurrying back to his company without pause.

He didn’t even respond to his coworkers greeting him at the factory gate.

Right now, all that filled his mind was recruiting more people to make money.

Today was the company’s weekly meeting.

At these meetings, not only would instructors give lectures and share theoretical knowledge…

More importantly, they’d announce last week’s performance results.

If you hit the target, you could even get promoted to manager on the spot.

Chen Zhenguo believed his performance last week had been excellent.

If nothing went wrong, he’d be promoted to assistant manager this week.

Just the thought of being one step closer to becoming a millionaire had him all pumped up.

Back at the company—

There were plenty of others with the same ambition as Chen Zhenguo.

Everyone wore bright, eager smiles.

Addressing each other with flattering titles like “Boss” and “Manager.”

People warmly called Chen Zhenguo “President Chen,” which had his grin stretching from ear to ear.

Time passed in a flood of compliments and praises, until the meeting was about to begin.

But strangely—

Today’s speaker was running late.

Maybe something urgent came up.

Chen Zhenguo and the people around him exchanged that explanation.

But as more time passed—

A strange sense of unease began to creep through the room.

Even someone as thick-skinned as Chen Zhenguo felt something was off.

Just then—

The doors of the assembly hall burst open.

A group of fully armed officers suddenly stormed in from outside.

In the blink of an eye, every exit was sealed off.

The scene threw the entire hall into chaos.

Screams and shouts erupted.

But then—

A loudspeaker silenced the commotion.

“This is the Qinghu District Special Task Force—this is an active operation. Everyone, line up and come with us!”

“Repeat: This is the Qinghu District Special Task Force. Everyone, line up and come with us!”

Meanwhile—

On the other side of the city—

On a hill known to Jiangzhou locals as Bodhisattva Mountain.

Jiang Ning, dressed in a snowy white wool coat and tight-fitting jeans, was slowly walking up the slope with her mother.

The path was a bit slippery—the Christmas snow still hadn’t fully melted.

Cracks between the stones were still laced with shards of ice.

Because of that, Jiang Ning climbed with extra care.

Even so, her pace was still much faster than Tian Cuilan’s.

“Ningning, slow down a little, wait for Mom.”

“Okay.”

Jiang Ning turned back and took her mother’s arm, the two walking together up the mountain.

Before long, the mother and daughter arrived at the top.

Unlike the crowds from her past life—

Though it was New Year’s Day, not many visitors had come.

The few temples were far from grand, even looking somewhat rundown.

Seeing this—

Jiang Ning didn’t mind.

She entered the main hall alongside her mother.

Inside the temple hall, the atmosphere was solemn. Every incense-offering visitor who walked in instinctively lowered their voices—or simply fell silent.

As if only by doing so could they show proper respect to the Bodhisattva.

Tian Cuilan was the same.

She tiptoed over to the statue of the Bodhisattva.

Kneeling on a prayer cushion, she reverently bowed three times.

After finishing, she tugged on her daughter’s sleeve.

When she saw her girl still staring blankly at the Bodhisattva with her head raised, she lightly tapped her arm.

“Don’t space out. Come and pay your respects.”

“Oh, okay.”

Jiang Ning responded and stepped up to the prayer cushion, kneeling down.

Suddenly—

Her thoughts scattered wildly.

She thought about the past life she had lived.

After a quiet pause,

She offered a prayer in a voice no one could hear:

“Thank you, Heaven, for giving me this second chance.”

“I’ll cherish it well.”

Then,

She gently knocked her head against the floor in a kowtow.

At that very moment—

Chen Zhenguo, who was lining up to exit the temple, was suddenly stopped by a female officer.

She checked the photo in her hand.

“Chen Zhenguo?”

Hearing his name, Chen Zhenguo instinctively nodded.

The next second,

The female officer turned to the special-duty personnel beside her.

“That’s him.”

“Take him away.”

——————

Jiang Ning found out about Chen Zhenguo being taken away by inspectors the very moment she picked up her phone after returning home.

She stared at the message on her screen—those four bold words: 【Just This Once】.

Jiang Ning gave a silent smile.

She didn’t care and casually deleted the text.

And just like that, the three-day New Year’s holiday passed.

The strange thing was—

That bastard Chen Zhenguo got arrested, but not a single sound was heard about it.

Her mom was still working at the factory with no time off and no emotional change at all.

If Jiang Ning didn’t know for a fact that the bastard was still being held in the detention center, she would’ve thought nothing had ever happened.

——————

The first day back after the holiday.

Jiang Ning, as usual, arrived in class right on the dot.

She had just sat down when she heard Luo Shanshan grumbling nearby.

“Jiang Jiang, ugh! I can’t believe I forgot to do the geography homework!”

Hearing that, Jiang Ning blinked.

“There was geography homework?”

Then she quickly leaned over next to Luo Shanshan, eyes glued to the paper she was copying from.

When she realized Luo Shanshan really was doing the geography homework—

Jiang Ning started to panic a little too.

“When did they assign it?! Why didn’t I know?!”

“Last Thursday. The geography teacher had something on Friday, so she gave it out early,” came Sun Qian’s gloating voice from behind.

“Oh right, you were out that day on leave or something.”

Last Thursday?

Leave?

Crap.

Wasn’t that the day she took off for the shop’s Christmas Eve event?!

Jiang Ning was suddenly overwhelmed with anxiety and began rummaging through her drawer.

At last, under a pink envelope, she found the assignment paper.

She quickly pulled it out and took the worksheet that Zhu Hui handed her from behind.

Head down, she got to work!

Fortunately, it wasn’t a long worksheet.

Just one morning self-study period later, “Old Jiang” had finished engraving her answers on the geography paper.

After handing it in, she gave a quick thanks to the class geography rep.

Then—she was summoned by Teacher Yang Mei.

She immediately walked to the office.

“Knock knock knock…”

“Come in.”

Jiang Ning pushed the door open, closed it behind her, and walked up to Teacher Yang Mei.

Seeing her flipping through some documents, Jiang Ning softly asked:

“Boss, what’s up?”

Hearing that address, Yang Mei let out a helpless sigh.

This girl was getting more and more unruly.

She was about to scold her a little, but then remembered how capable the girl was—and ended up not knowing what to say.

So, she simply pulled out a box from her drawer and placed it on the desk.

What’s this?

Jiang Ning looked curiously at the navy blue box and muttered:

“Boss, my birthday already passed not long ago…”

“Is this a belated gift or something…”

“It’s not a gift,” Yang Mei closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“This is the gold medal for winning first prize in the city math olympiad.”

Then she pulled out an envelope from the drawer.

“This is the prize money.”

When she saw the cash—Jiang Ning’s clear eyes immediately curved like crescent moons. She reached out, took the envelope, and pulled out the bills inside.

With a flick—Ten red banknotes spread out like a fan in front of the money-hungry Jiang.

Then—She suddenly remembered her boss was still sitting right there.

Some unknown nerve misfired in her brain.

She pulled out two of the bills and offered them to Teacher Yang Mei.

“Just a token, don’t mind…”

Oh crap!

Mid-sentence, Jiang Ning realized what she was doing and quickly shoved the money back into her pocket.

Then, hugging the box tightly, she turned and ran.

While running, she frantically shouted:

“Sorry, sorry—!”

“Sorry, sorry—!!”

By the time Yang Mei snapped out of it,

The girl had already vanished from the office, leaving behind only a faint scent of gardenia.

“This girl, really…”

——————

Back in the classroom.

Math class was in session.

“Reporting!” A voice rang out, and everyone turned to look at the graceful figure at the door.

Math teacher Ma Hongwei was a man who loved making a scene.

When he saw the box in Jiang Ning’s hands, his interest instantly peaked.

“Classmates!”

“Let’s all congratulate Jiang Ning for winning First Prize in the City Math Olympiad!”

“Woooow!!!”

In that moment—Most of the class was stunned by the news.

They all turned toward the girl at the door with stiff smile, casting all kinds of complex looks her way.

“Applaud!”

Under Ma Hongwei’s rallying call, Class 3, Grade 10, erupted in thunderous applause.

Even the teacher next door in Class 4 looked over, wondering where all that noise came from.

Once the applause died down, Ma Hongwei finally gave Jiang Ning a satisfied nod.

“Come in!”

Back at her seat, the box in Jiang Ning’s hands was immediately snatched by Luo Shanshan.

She opened it and pulled out a bronze medal.

“Wow, it’s gold!” some idiot from X High School exclaimed in amazement.

Right after that—

The “King of Tablets” sitting in the back poked the person in front of him.

“Quick, let me see!”

“I’ve never seen such a big piece of gold before!”

Gold?

Gold your ass.

Jiang Ning rolled her eyes and decided to ignore these two gold-obsessed idiots.

After a while—

Under Ma Hongwei’s scolding, those two finally quieted down.

But the medal still didn’t make its way back to Jiang Ning.

She turned around and saw that it had already been passed to Li Duoyong in the back row.

Fine.

As long as you’re all happy.

After class, Ma Hongwei called Jiang Ning outside.

He first praised her for a bit, then reminded her to prepare well for the provincial Olympiad next semester.

To be honest—

Jiang Ning hadn’t planned on putting too much effort into this field.

But for some reason—

When she solved each Olympiad problem using different methods, that sudden rush of clarity…

It actually made her feel kind of happy.

The only thing that annoyed her a bit was that she still scored 95 on the last test.

Why?

Turns out there was a question she answered using college-level calculus.

The answer was right, but the method went against the intended spirit of the Olympiad, so they deducted five points.

Jiang Ning was left a bit dumbfounded.

If she ever ran into the person who wrote that exam again, she’d definitely ask them—

“Ever heard the saying, ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat’?”

After evening self-study—

Jiang Ning said goodbye to her dear consorts, then rode home in the cold wind.

When she got home, no one was in sight.

But the shoes at the door told her that her mom was back.

That made Jiang Ning frown slightly.

She set down her bag, closed the door, and casually grabbed an umbrella.

“Mom?”

“You back? Mom!”

“Ma—”

Before she could finish calling, Jiang Ning saw her mother curled up in a small chair on the balcony.

“Mom?”

Jiang Ning put down the umbrella and walked over to the balcony, asking softly with a puzzled look:

“What’s wrong?”

That one question—like sudden concern.

In an instant—

Her mother turned around, face full of tears, and threw herself into Jiang Ning’s arms, choking up:

“Ning, Ningning! Do you know?! He—he was arrested!”

Ah, so it was that.

I thought we’d been robbed or something.

Hearing that, Jiang Ning felt half of her tension melt away. After a brief pause, she gently comforted her:

“Arrested?”

“Oh, don’t worry.”

“He’s just been taken in—that means he’s still alive.”

(End of Chapter)