Chapter 119: Extra: Xu Zhizhi’s Past Life (Parallel Universe) – Past Events

 

When Xu Zhizhi witnessed this scene, regret arose in her heart for the first time.

Bai Sheng was dead.

He had died right in front of her.

He was ‘suicidal’ to death.

To her, it was utterly terrifying.

She realized, with chilling clarity, that it was her cowardice and fear that had led to Bai Sheng’s demise.

If she hadn’t been too afraid of Chen Xu to speak up about what she had discovered, the police captain might have saved him. Bai Sheng wouldn’t have fallen from a high-rise, dying before their very eyes.

His lifeless body sprawled on the ground, blood blooming like a flower, splattering onto her face. Warm, shocking, and sorrowful—it was the first time she truly understood how fragile life was.

Looking up at the tall building, she caught sight of a figure retreating from the scene.

Xu Zhizhi trembled uncontrollably, a chill creeping up her spine. A dreadful premonition told her that she might be the next target.

Beside her, Qin Su was wound tight with tension. Like a man possessed, he charged upstairs, desperate to catch the person who had killed his father’s friend.

Xu Zhizhi, hugging herself, collapsed to her knees in front of Bai Sheng’s corpse. Tears streamed down her face, splashing onto the ground.

She didn’t know—had no idea—what to do next.

Fear gripped her as she thought of Chen Xu’s twisted games.

Chen Xu was like a terrifying monster lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike at their vulnerabilities.

Qin Su failed to find the killer and stared at Bai Sheng’s body in agony.

Xu Zhizhi was taken to the police station. According to the conflict-of-interest principle, Qin Su wasn’t allowed to question her.

With Qin Su barred from the case, her fear only deepened. She could only recount everything she knew, no matter how desperate she felt.

Chen Xu, Bai Sheng’s wife, was also brought to the station.

But she had an alibi. Even though everyone knew something was off about her, they couldn’t detain her.

Qin Su took a leave of absence to protect his family.

He didn’t know, however, that he would be the next target.

Perhaps luck was on his side. When Chen Xu made her move, Qin Su fought back with everything he had and subdued her.

Unfortunately, Qin Su was severely injured in the struggle. Although he survived, his wounds were so severe that he was left disabled, forcing him to leave the police force.

By then, the film crew had disbanded. Bai Qing, another member of the industry, continually lashed out at Xu Zhizhi.

Although Bai Sheng and Bai Qing had never seen eye to eye, Bai Qing didn’t tolerate anyone harming his brother.

Xu Zhizhi was blacklisted entirely, left with only the paycheck from her last project. While her days weren’t unbearable, she remained haunted by the nightmare of Bai Sheng’s death, unable to move on for a long time.

Perhaps it was during this time that she fell into depression.

What puzzled her was how Jiang Yuchuan, a top idol, managed to find her contact information. He reached out to her, offering comfort and encouraging her to overcome her struggles.

To her, he treated her like a fragile treasure, even singing cheerful songs he had composed himself.

He stayed by her side like family and this small kindness became her anchor, helping her climb out of her darkness and fight her way back into the entertainment industry.

The criminal assistance system had helped Xu Zhizhi immensely. She also found a way to counter Bai Qing, who had been slandering her incessantly.

Although she couldn’t yet touch the powerful heir of Popular Entertainment who supported Bai Qing, she managed to silence Bai Qing and get him reassigned to a different manager.

She could have gone further but she didn’t dare.

Every time she saw Bai Qing, she thought of Bai Sheng.

It wasn’t saintliness that held her back. She simply couldn’t bring herself to act without restraint when it came to Bai Qing.

However, Xu Zhizhi wasn’t entirely passive. She secretly exposed a lot of dirt on the ‘green tea’ rookie under Bai Qing’s management.

That rookie, who had been gaining a bit of fame in the entertainment industry, was quickly overwhelmed by scandals and forced to withdraw from the industry altogether.

Her new agent, Yun Ziwei, was a laid-back professional who rarely intervened in Xu Zhizhi’s actions. Apart from occasionally providing some information, Yun Ziwei mostly kept a low profile. Not entirely absent, though, as her appearance and steadily improving acting skills occasionally brought in work opportunities.

These jobs allowed Xu Zhizhi to stay active in the entertainment circle.

She had considered leaving the industry but Bai Qing wouldn’t stop smearing her name and Popular Entertainment’s young master wouldn’t stop attempting to exploit her.

It wasn’t just exploitation, as her Malice Points grew rapidly. She used them all to unlock hacker skills in the system.

With these skills, she uncovered all of their dirty secrets. The filth she discovered gave her a deeper understanding of the darkness in human nature.

Unfortunately, without solid evidence, exposing them was too risky. She couldn’t predict how far they would go in retaliation.

All she could do was endure, slowly building her career in the entertainment world.

The silver lining was that the entertainment industry was lucrative. Even with a moderate workload, she could support herself and Lin Yu.

Yun Ziwei, on the other hand, didn’t need her support. She had other actors under her management.

For a while, Xu Zhizhi lived a relatively peaceful life. She grew closer to Jiang Yuchuan as they spent more time together.

From fragments of conversations and a bit of hacking into Jiang Yuchuan’s background, she finally understood why he cared so much about her.

It turned out she reminded him of his sister.

This revelation gave Xu Zhizhi a sense of fate’s peculiarities and made her deeply aware of how the loss of life could ripple through others.

She didn’t delve further into Jiang Yuchuan’s past. She had only investigated him out of fear and paranoia, a lingering trauma that made her suspicious of everyone who approached her.

Once she confirmed he wasn’t a threat, she let the matter rest.

Perhaps due to her improved acting skills, she began landing roles as villainous characters in dramas.

As her Malice Points accumulated, the system evolved and became more interactive. From its initial silence, it began talking to her a lot.

The system was naïve and chatty, seemingly afraid of loneliness. Sometimes, Xu Zhizhi found it odd that a crime-oriented system would have such a personality.

However, she soon had no time to dwell on this.

Something happened to Jiang Yuchuan.

He was accused of sexual assault and detained, his name dominating the top of the trending list with a glaring ‘Explosive’ tag.

Strangers condemned him, fans hoped for his innocence, and he was bombarded with criticism.

Some fans even turned against him, joining the attacks.

Jiang Yuchuan’s career in the entertainment industry was on the verge of collapse and he himself was stuck in the hands of the police.

Xu Zhizhi investigated everything and uncovered a chilling truth.

Behind it all was Gu Lie, a renowned actor in the industry, known for his impeccable acting skills. He was the one behind the death of Jiang Yuchuan’s sister and had orchestrated the false accusations against Jiang Yuchuan.

The overwhelming evidence on her computer left Xu Zhizhi in turmoil.

She was torn, not knowing how to help Jiang Yuchuan.

Not helping him wasn’t an option. Jiang Yuchuan had shown her immense kindness and pulled her out of despair.

With gritted teeth, she used her hacking skills to send threatening messages to Gu Lie, demanding that he release Jiang Yuchuan and have the accusers retract their claims.

She sent him plenty of evidence and Gu Lie angrily questioned how she had obtained it.

Xu Zhizhi didn’t respond. She merely gave him a deadline.

In the end, Gu Lie compromised. The accusers recanted and Jiang Yuchuan was released.

However, rumors spread faster than clarifications. Despite his release, Jiang Yuchuan’s popularity and value in the entertainment industry took a significant hit. Thankfully, the police report salvaged his reputation somewhat, giving him a chance to slowly recover.

As for why she didn’t report everything to the police, Xu Zhizhi admitted it was her own cowardice. She also wanted to wait for Jiang Yuchuan to be released before discussing the next steps.

Disguised and fully armed, she went to pick up Jiang Yuchuan. She watched as fans cheered and welcomed him. He looked handsome as ever, with an air of aloofness, but his face was filled with disbelief and sadness.

The fans cried, their hearts breaking for him. To them, Jiang Yuchuan was a symbol of youthful passion and inspiration, now reduced to such a state. They followed him to his car, reluctant to leave until much later.

Xu Zhizhi watched Jiang Yuchuan leave before turning to go her own way.

But to her surprise, she realized she was being followed. She quickly deduced that Gu Lie had set his sights on her. He likely suspected her involvement in saving Jiang Yuchuan and had sent people to tail her to confirm her identity.

She took a taxi and instructed the driver to take a convoluted route to shake off the pursuers.

At the same time, Xu Zhizhi realized that Gu Lie wouldn’t be easy to deal with. She needed to act quickly.

But before she could do much, shocking news broke.

Jiang Yuchuan had been hit by a car driven by an extreme fan. The fan, believing Jiang Yuchuan to be perfect, couldn’t accept the tarnishing of his image. She deemed him ‘imperfect’ and attempted to kill him.

Jiang Yuchuan lost a leg and was rushed to the hospital.

Xu Zhizhi, overwhelmed with worry, immediately headed to the hospital to see him.

There, she encountered Jiang Yuchuan’s parents, two elderly people leaning on each other for support as they wept outside the operating room.

Her arrival drew their attention.

Xu Zhizhi explained that she was a friend. However, deep down, she suspected the incident wasn’t the work of an extreme fan but of Gu Lie.

He had likely figured out that she was the one who sent the messages.

Jiang Yuchuan didn’t have many close friends and news within the entertainment circle traveled quickly. It wasn’t surprising that Gu Lie had connected the dots.

Or worse, he simply decided to eliminate all potential threats.

Sitting outside the operating room, Xu Zhizhi found a quiet spot and quickly packaged all of Gu Lie’s incriminating evidence into a report. She submitted it to the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

Her hands trembled as she finished.

But she had underestimated Gu Lie’s shamelessness. He casually liked a post online spreading dirt about her.

His small action instantly turned Xu Zhizhi into the center of a storm.

Gossip accounts quickly followed up, claiming that she was Jiang Yuchuan’s rumored girlfriend within the entertainment industry. They posted photos of her waiting for his release and rushing to visit him after the car accident.

When pieced together, this narrative was enough to send fans into a frenzy.

The most rabid fans were often those of idols because they projected their fantasies of a boyfriend or girlfriend onto them.

If Xu Zhizhi was seen as Jiang Yuchuan’s girlfriend, then in the eyes of these fans, she was a ‘homewrecker.’

And for a ‘homewrecker,’ only the harshest words and vilest curses would suffice.

Xu Zhizhi immediately issued a clarification, but it only resulted in even more vicious insults. Some fans even confronted her in person to hurl abuse.

Her phone was bombarded with calls until it was forced to shut down. If not for Jiang Yuchuan’s agent, who brought bodyguards to protect her and issued a public statement denying that Jiang Yuchuan had a girlfriend, Xu Zhizhi might have been physically attacked.

Xu Zhizhi, however, couldn’t do much more. She was trying to find the various video files hidden by Gu Lie.

She couldn’t focus on herself; she needed to uncover all the videos Gu Lie had hidden, to prevent him from sending them out in a panic once the police found him.

At that point, those girls would be ruined.

None of them could be missed.

Not only did she need to find these but she also had to figure out a way to lock them down, ensuring only the police had access and no one else could get hold of them.

During the rare moments she could rest, she would catch a glimpse of Jiang Yuchuan’s mother, red-eyed, looking at her.

She gave her a comforting smile to soothe her grief over Jiang Yuchuan’s incident.

Inside, Xu Zhizhi felt guilty. If it weren’t for her indecisiveness, Jiang Yuchuan wouldn’t have ended up like this.

She hated herself for everything she had done.

Once she ensured Gu Lie couldn’t lash out, she logged into her Weibo and angrily confronted Gu Lie’s likes and the matter of buying off marketing accounts to smear and spread rumors.

Gu Lie quickly commented on Xu Zhizhi’s post, filled with veiled threats.

The two went back and forth online but due to their backgrounds, Xu Zhizhi’s posts were often deleted, and fans viciously attacked her.

What was gratifying, however, was that an hour later, Gu Lie was taken away from the set.

The news caused a stir across the internet. The Weibo account that had just collapsed due to Jiang Yuchuan’s incident now collapsed again.

Fans came to angrily curse Xu Zhizhi and all she replied was a simple [Heh.]

Then, she shut off private messages and comments.

Two hours later, Jiang Yuchuan came out of the operating room. Xu Zhizhi hurried to see him, and seeing him pale and groggy, she couldn’t help but shed tears out of guilt.

Back in the hospital room, she told him the entire truth and assured him that Gu Lie had been arrested and wouldn’t escape.

“If I had been more decisive, you wouldn’t have been hit…” Xu Zhizhi felt like he was her younger brother. Seeing him like this made her heart ache.

Growing up, she had only her grandmother as family, and this was the second time she had felt a sense of kinship with someone else.

Jiang Yuchuan looked at Xu Zhizhi, tears flowing down his face, shaking his head at her. “Zhizhi, you did well enough. As long as Gu Lie is punished, even if I die, I can die in peace.”

Mother Shen, standing beside them, patted her son’s shoulder and cried, asking him not to say such things.

A doctor entered the room and said that Jiang Yuchuan was out of danger. He was young, and his leg would recover completely in three to four months with proper rest.

Perhaps hearing the good news, Mrs. Shen finally looked at Xu Zhizhi, extended her hand, and tightly grasped hers. “You… you look so much like my sister when she was young…”

Xu Zhizhi was stunned and Jiang Yuchuan was equally surprised.

Then, Mrs. Shen began recounting her sister and brother-in-law’s search for their daughter. “You look just like her! You might not feel anything now but wait until I send you a photo of her when she was young; you’ll see!”

She quickly messaged her sister and after a while, a photo came through.

Mrs. Shen eagerly opened it and held her phone up to Xu Zhizhi.

“This… I… Am I Jiang Yuchuan’s cousin?” Xu Zhizhi didn’t know what to say and instead started talking about this matter.

Jiang Yuchuan’s manager, who had been standing beside him, was stunned at first, and then a look of joy appeared on his face. He had been unsure of how to explain everything, but if they were cousins, fans would never misinterpret it.

Jiang Yuchuan and Xu Zhizhi were both frozen because if Xu Zhizhi was his cousin, was that why they looked so similar?

When Xu Zhizhi saw Li Fengqing and Shen Junyu rushing back, dusty and weary, she remained seated, still processing the situation.

They had conducted a paternity test but to ease public speculation about Xu Zhizhi and Jiang Yuchuan, both had hinted at certain things on Weibo.

Jiang Yuchuan posted that he would never pursue someone who bore a 60-70% resemblance to his older sister, emphasizing that he wasn’t a pervert.

Key fan accounts subtly confirmed this, helping to quell the public uproar.

Xu Zhizhi also reiterated that there was no other kind of relationship between her and Jiang Yuchuan.

When the paternity test results came out, their official account announced their cousin relationship.

Meanwhile, the entertainment industry faced several upheavals. Director Zhou, for instance, was caught up in a scandal involving a counterfeit production group and was detained for a period. Although his movie continued filming, rumors suggested it wasn’t going well.

Xu Zhizhi paid little attention to this because Director Meng had offered her an opportunity to play a key role in his crime drama.

With her recent rise in popularity, scenes of her past villainous roles have been dug up by fans. Meng Shijun was impressed and invited her to audition for the role.

The film crew, temporarily halted due to Gu Lie’s arrest, took the chance to screen her for the role as they sought a suitable actor.

Xu Zhizhi was thrilled. Getting a role in Director Meng’s series, even as a minor character, was worth it.

She thoroughly prepared, using a crime simulator to practice multiple scenarios, studying the script, and even watching uncensored surgery footage online.

After extensive preparation, she finally attended the audition.

Although momentarily startled by the lifelike corpse used in the scene, she quickly composed herself and gave her best performance.

Director Meng wasn’t completely satisfied but acknowledged her talent.

Xu Zhizhi guessed it was her authenticity and boldness that earned his approval.

Lin Yu was delighted with her success.

Filming in Beijing was challenging, as Director Meng’s relentless high standards created immense pressure. However, she persevered.

Then one day, while leaving the set, she encountered a stray dog carrying a human bone.

At a time when she believed her career was on the rise, Xu Zhizhi’s world crumbled. She was framed and found herself constantly watched by suspicious individuals.

When she was drugged and abducted, her mental state, already on the brink due to various incidents, nearly shattered.

Her captor seemed obsessed with her—or rather, with the villainous roles she had portrayed online.

Terrified and on the verge of a breakdown, Xu Zhizhi was rescued by Li Feng and his team. Without their timely intervention, she might have gone mad.

Though she forced herself to complete her role, her mental state deteriorated. She began therapy with a psychologist.

Thankfully, her system provided her with constant reassurance, while her parents’ love and care helped her recover gradually.

During this time, her Malice Points continued to increase, allowing her to gain new skills.

Once she regained some stability, Xu Zhizhi immediately exposed Popular Entertainment, reporting its secret private club operations to the police.

The company’s relentless attempts to smear her reputation finally ceased and Bai Qing retired from the entertainment industry.

While addressing her psychological issues, Xu Zhizhi met one of her father’s students.

He was gentle, cultured, and showed great interest in her.

Although she didn’t feel as strongly about him, she didn’t reject his advances.

However, as they spent more time together and she used her hacking skills to investigate, she discovered his terrifying nature.

Not only was he involved with multiple partners simultaneously but he also had a penchant for poisoning others.

But she realized it too late. Li Fengqing had been poisoned twice by the man because he was dissatisfied with the professor’s criticism of his sloppy academic work.

For someone like Li Fengqing, who had already spent years exhausting himself, a poison that would cause a healthy young person to fall seriously ill was devastating.

After Xu Zhizhi gathered evidence and sent the man to prison, she devoted herself to accompanying Li Fengqing through his long recovery process.

When Li Fengqing was finally discharged after extensive treatment, Xu Zhizhi received the first leading role script of her career.

During this time, the entertainment industry was far from peaceful, but none of that concerned her.

She focused solely on the script, which was incredibly engaging. The director, Li Feng, was a highly acclaimed figure in the industry.

Without much hesitation, she agreed to join the project.

However, during this period, she began to notice something strange about the system.

It seemed to be subtly manipulating her, enticing her to use unconventional methods to punish wrongdoers.

These suggestions were cloaked in the system’s seemingly innocent and naive tone, making them appear straightforward and well-meaning.

Yet they were laced with temptation, coaxing her down a dark path.

She realized that many of the events around her were connected to the system.

Fearing the worst, she decided to complete the film, earn enough money, and then retire from the entertainment industry to spend time with her parents.

Her plan seemed clear, but what awaited her was Director Li Feng’s harsh demands.

She was forced to immerse herself in her role, enduring the torment brought by Wen Yang’s character in the film.

Whenever she tried to leave the crew, she was threatened with an exorbitant penalty for breaching her contract.

The film set was under Li Feng’s total control. Due to her relatively low status in the industry, he forbade the crew from interacting with her unless absolutely necessary.

Already battling psychological issues, Xu Zhizhi struggled to meet the system’s mounting tasks for Malice Points. Slowly, she began to feel as if she was losing her sense of self.

She wanted to recover but resistance proved futile.

One day, when she nearly stole a porcelain vase worth 50 million Yuan, she was horrified to realize she had been hypnotized and manipulated.

She saw the malicious side of Li Jiahang and Li Feng.

Then she had been kidnapped again and Li Feng handed a knife to her captor before collapsing.

As the police closed in on her, the system offered her a solution: eliminate Li Feng quietly. With her intelligence and skills, it assured her she could get away with it.

Xu Zhizhi was just an ordinary girl from a rural village who had relied on her own efforts to reach her current position.

Her personality was soft and unlikable. She had made countless mistakes, causing Bai Sheng’s death, Jiang Yuchuan’s leg injury, and the derailment of his future.

Now, manipulated, she was about to kill the person who had wronged her.

The system whispered to her, justifying that those who harbored malice and sought to harm her deserved to die.

When she regained awareness, she found herself on the fourth floor, watching Li Feng struggling to climb out of the net. He was dizzy and unable to resist. Just a few more steps and she could release her hatred.

But as she stared at the scene, her hands trembled, and she couldn’t do it.

Xu Zhizhi fled in panic.

However, her tormentors refused to let her go. Li Jiahang set her up, causing her to stab someone.

She could barely distinguish between reality and illusion. She was mentally shattered, teetering on the edge of madness.

When she briefly regained clarity, she managed to piece together the full truth.

She confronted the system and it admitted its intentions; inviting her to formally join its world of crime, promising to protect her from being caught.

By this point, Xu Zhizhi had completely succumbed to insanity. Her Malice Points spiraled out of control, and she was eventually arrested by the police.

Li Jiahang’s schemes were clumsy and the police were able to uncover the entire truth.

But her mental state required supervision.

Her parents admitted her to a psychiatric hospital. Before Xu Zhizhi entered, the system drove Li Jiahang insane.

The system simply conveyed its threats to her parents and Xu Zhizhi agreed to its demands.

Holding a knife in her hand and standing before Li Feng, who had harmed her, she plunged the blade into her own heart.

She died. Would this be the end of everything?

As she lay dying, filled with immense hatred, she questioned the system.

At that moment, her Malice Points grew like wild grass, enveloping both herself and the system as they perished together.

When her Malice Points were about to reach 100,000, she found herself in a mysterious space.

It seemed the system had been discovered and detained.

A voice asked her if she was willing to go back in time to eliminate the system completely.

The voice explained that they could control the criminal assistance system but destroying it came at a great cost. Moreover, the system had an escape mechanism. Unless it was physically eliminated, only a host with 100,000 Malice Points who do not violate the law could completely destroy it.

By sheer coincidence, they managed to bring her back. In that timeline, she had already died.

They presented her with three choices.

First, return to the past, complete the mission, and gain a new life.

Second, allow them to transfer a compatible consciousness into her body to attempt the mission.

Third, erase that timeline entirely, including the criminal assistance system, through physical annihilation.

The third option was the most brutal and left no trace but came at a high cost for them, though not insurmountable.

Xu Zhizhi chose the second option. She did not pick the first because even if reborn, she feared she would still be weak, hesitant, and afraid when facing the system. Whether she retained her memories or not, the outcome would likely remain the same.

If she failed, they would resort to the third option, and she couldn’t take that risk.

She chose the version of herself from a parallel timeline, a diligent intern lawyer who had died of overwork.

This version of her, not raised by her grandmother, lacked her excess timidity, fear, and naivety. She was decisive, brave, and driven.

At the same time, this version was deeply kind and understood the boundaries of the law.

Xu Zhizhi felt at ease entrusting her with the mission.

Once the choice was made, a conversation followed.

She met her parallel self and explained everything.

The overworked intern lawyer Xu Zhizhi accepted the mission and chose to embrace a new life.

She assumed she would die in the process, but instead, their lives were swapped. The voice explained it was compensation for their oversight, which allowed the system to escape.

Thus, the two exchanged lives.

The intern lawyer Xu Zhizhi became the scandal-ridden celebrity.

The celebrity Xu Zhizhi became the intern lawyer.

Xu Zhizhi: “Thanks. After dying of overwork, I was reborn~”