Jiang Li had always been vengeful, and for the littlest grievances suffered, he would not hesitate demanding an arm or leg from the offender to pacify his raging heart. He let Gu Mochou jump, or more appropriately put, he influenced the woman to jump off since he had no plans to waste time on the Maoshan disciples. At that time, he also did not want to fight the villainess since Zhan Rong was around. He wanted no more harm to befall onto her.
But when Zhan Rong was back to safety, he set out to settle the score.
Since he was now a ghost, he thought it would be excusable to execute a sneak attack.
When Gu Mochou fell into a coma, he dragged the dull spirit of the woman from her body. Jiang Li did so with no whatsoever hesitation as if he was really an experienced messenger of h.e.l.l. He was also emotionless faced with a pitiful-looking and vulnerable soul that had not yet recovered from the blast.
Probably because the system deemed his actions too inconsiderate and ungentlemanly, its mechanical voice rang.
"Host. Warning." It repeated this line three times.
"No matter the circ.u.mstances, you are not allowed to take the lives of the male lead, the female lead, the villainess. Especially the last one! Remember your mission."
"Failure to comply warrants immediate death!"
The warning that sounded more like a threat because the system spoke in a serious manner using an automated voice.
It made Jiang Li laugh.
Fearsome! What kind of death? Was it scarier than dying as a b.a.s.t.a.r.d loser who later turned into a mindless flesh-eating monster? In his recollection, it said immediate. Immediate death meant no suffering, no pain, no prolonged agony. How fearsome could that be?
While giggling, he asked, "System. Are you really threatening somebody who has already died and then lived for more than a thousand years?"
"Are you really insulting my knowledge of death even after making me go through it over fifteen times already?
If Jiang Li could only do so, he would have glanced disdainfully at the system already to hint it properly of how much he was doubting its computational ability.
"Lastly, are people in a comatose state considered dead for you to meddle forcibly? That machine voice, it is only supposed to activate when there"s an important announcement to make while you are in a muted state."
The system could not give a reply. What could it say as a reb.u.t.tal anyway? It was the truth that Gu Mochou was still technically alive, so he was not violating any rules. Also, it could not say directly why it was nervous because its host looked like he was seriously considering slaying the villainess.
The system could only repeat. "No matter what, don"t kill the villainess."
Jiang Li snorted before ignoring the idiotic mechanical voice that rang in his head.
Behind him, the deafening siren signaled an ambulance"s arrival. It came for an injured civilian near Fortune Dragon Restaurant. The villainess was lucky since paramedics pa.s.sed by for her rescue. It would only take five minutes for the villainess to arrive at a proper healthcare facility. At worst, ten minutes, if the ambulance first gets the injured person a hundred meters away in front.
In his calculations, if a timely measure was done, and it left no physical ailments untreated in her body, then Gu Mochou had a great chance of surviving. In fact, it could not get higher because Jiang Li would secure her soul until the mission was over.
Right, he would make sure at least she would not die.
The ghost did not notice how strange his glacial smile looked like just now as he flew back to the apartment behind the restaurant.
…
Miles away from his current position, Zhan Rong was still awake, holding the telephone in one hand as she dialed numbers after numbers and spoke with a few people. Half an hour later, she looked outside, waiting for somebody to come even though it was almost wee hours in the morning. But when ten minutes pa.s.sed, and no one showed up, the girl moved her gaze away.
Zhan Rong also hung up after speaking with a housekeeper from the An family. The young master of that house, An Ming, was not at home and was most likely partying somewhere that was why he couldn"t be reached by cellular phone too. But despite not being able to talk to that guy, the girl did not look disappointed. She stopped phoning people, calmly walking back to her room.
The system"s panel floated before her, displaying the latest missions and messages she had received. A minute later, when she sat cross-legged on the bed, a frown could be seen in her face and she looked so displeased at the displayed rows of texts.
She finally realized, everything about it looked so rough and illogical. Finally, Zhan Rong doubted whether this crude thing truly captured a powerful ghost and made it docile to her.
….
In an unlit room in an unknown realm.
A few hours after her soul got pulled out from her body, Gu Mochou finally "woke up". That meant the dull eyes of the villainess slowly regained their l.u.s.ter after a few hours of looking like eyes of a dead fish, with absolutely no brilliance.
Wisdom had seemingly returned to her. The shock of the accident had subsided and now she was once again capable of smooth thinking processes, simply unlike earlier when her spirit was in a "coma" and she could not even form a word in her subconscious.
"Where is this…?" That was the first thing that came to mind.
Confusion was not the only thing that could be peered into from her eyes after she swept a glance at the surrounding. She was alarmed. Since her brain had resumed functioning, naturally she could now recall where she was supposed to be.
It was not at this place.
In her memories, she was in her car, no, a stolen car. She should be driving slowly towards the condo again, wanting to arrive there to witness the fight at nearly its end.
Countless thoughts and calculations were swirling in her mind when the bug"s boyfriend, Fan Zheng, came to view looking like someone about to join a war. This was when the vehicle was about to cross an intersection. The traffic light was about to turn into red. The cars on the lane were several meters away from one another.
In short, she should be in the middle of the street.
So why was she suddenly in such a bleak place?
The question came to her after being done with her preliminary observation, which did not take long upon realizing everywhere looked the same.
Moments pa.s.sed.
Gu Mochou"s heart dropped a bit because it was pure darkness all around her and there was no sign of activity apart from hers. There was no whatsoever sound to be heard… When her hand went to her chest, Gu Mochou s.h.i.+vered and unconsciously looked down.
Then again, her vision was almost as good as having no vision at all since she saw nothing but darkness there.
She felt no heartbeat too. There was also no temperature. And actually, she could not even hear herself breathing. What was going on? Was her brain not yet functioning as effectively as she thought?
The girl took a deep breath even though a strange feeling of emptiness and a sense of futility a.s.saulted her shortly.
"Anyone?!" Gu Mochou found her voice trembling a bit.
There was no joy in her chest despite verifying that at least her mouth and ears were okay. Her anxious, unconfident voice echoed back to her in a while, which gave her the hint that she was most likely confined in a small chamber. It was so confusing and alarming… Who did it to her? Where was she? Was she truly alone here? No… What happened after she saw Fan Zheng?
The villainess tried to calm her racing heart and her brain that seemed to hurt from overthinking. Thankfully, it seemed to have worked on her.
With the lack of distraction, her mind regained more clarity. Images finally popped up in her head.
First, she remembered that she was in the car because she was initially fleeing from a h.e.l.l envoy.
Later, she turned back after realizing the h.e.l.l envoy was a fraud. It was merely the enemy ghost king playing on her, most likely to buy them some time and create a point of a breakthrough for their escape.
Afterward… What happened?