This Is a Real Mental Illness

Ming Jiu privately didn't think "love" was necessarily more valuable than "money"—of course, she admitted that she was speaking from a position of comfort.

She had never lacked love herself, so she felt having money was better.

But the eldest Miss Zuo clearly didn't think so—when Ming Jiu was little, she had personally heard Zuo Junxin chasing after Mother Ming and calling her "Mom." She still remembered the frightened expression on her mother's face.

After that, Mother Ming became much colder toward Zuo Junxin. It was only years later that Ming Jiu realized—perhaps that had been the trigger for her being bullied.

Seriously, did people like Zuo Zhenrong have some inborn, overwhelming need for this stuff?

He fought his brother for their father, then had a child who fought her cousin for a mother.

Unbelievable.

Looking at it that way, Zuo Junhao was practically one of the few normal people in the Zuo Family.

"Forget it, I understand you. You're pretty pitiful too. Your uncle was busy grooming his son, your aunt was busy attending gatherings and focusing on herself, and Zuo Junhao was busy enjoying his father's love. No one in your family paid any attention to you."

"After I moved away, even Grandpa stopped liking you, didn't he? Tsk, tsk."

The words Ming Jiu used to strike back wouldn't have caused even the slightest ripple if posted online. They weren't remotely vicious, but they were highly targeted—more than enough to deal with Zuo Junxin.

"What are you so proud of? If Uncle and Aunt were really that great, would they have had a second child?"

"My mom and dad have patience to spare, so you don't need to worry about them. Do you know why you were born? Because Zuo Zhenrong wanted a son to compete fairly with Zuo Junhao. And if that didn't work out, a daughter could still be married off for a business alliance. No matter how you calculated it, there was no loss... What a little business genius."

After Ming Jiu spoke unhurriedly, she looked at Zuo Junxin's eyes, whose eyeballs were protruding slightly from how hard she was straining, and felt that things seemed to have gone somewhat beyond her expectations.

There was clearly something wrong with that look.

[Sister System, help me look up Zuo Junxin's information.]

Compared to Zuo Junhao, Zuo Junxin's history was much simpler—within minutes, Zuo Junxin's overseas diagnosis and hospitalization records surfaced in Ming Jiu's mind.

Well, damn. So she hadn't gone abroad for university; she had gone abroad for treatment and happened to get a degree along the way.

Anger regulation disorder, mania, and quite severe at that.

This was a genuine mental illness.

Ming Jiu pulled Ming Rong behind her and began considering how to deal with the ticking time bomb that was Zuo Junxin.

What had happened to Zuo Junxin in her previous life again? She had lived in the City B Safe Base for nearly three years and seemed never to have heard any news of Zuo Junxin. On the other hand, Zuo Junhao had remained firmly at the top of the base's influential figures ranking for years.

Zuo Junxin clenched her fists, her entire body taut. Even the handbag in her grasp was trembling, and she looked at the two Ming sisters as though they were dead.

Ming Jiu was even a little eager for her to lose control—unfortunately, she didn't. A phone call interrupted Zuo Junxin's clearly abnormal state. Zuo Junxin calmed down and declined the call.

The ringtone immediately sounded again. This time, Zuo Junxin did not reject it, and her tone was extremely nasty.

"Is something wrong?—I told you I don't want to go back!—Got it, you're so annoying!"

After hanging up, Zuo Junxin let out a breath.

"Just wait. If I could drive you away once, I can drive you away a second time."

"This time, I'll make sure you can't survive anywhere."

Zuo Junxin strode away in her high heels.

Ming Rong looked up at her sister and noticed that the corners of Ming Jiu's mouth kept rising.

"It's fine. She's just a lunatic. Don't pay attention to her."

It was hard for Ming Jiu to be in a bad mood. The moment Zuo Junxin declined that first call, the system had thoughtfully reminded her—the Zuo Family Group's board of directors had begun making its move.

At least five hundred million in massive misappropriated funds. What would Zuo Zhenrong do?

Excluding the group's shares, all the Zuo Family's assets that could be liquidated immediately added up to about that amount. Of course, it was also possible that Zuo Junhao had first secretly used the family's money, then misappropriated company funds.

The board's goal was simple: kick the Zuo Family out, reshuffle the deck, and divide the cake again. As long as Zuo Zhenrong handed over the shares in his hands, he could get away unscathed.

Would he hand them over? Of course not! As long as he had the shares, he would have more five hundred millions in the future.

Whether for public or private reasons, Zuo Zhenrong could never give up Zuo Junhao, his son. That meant he could only try every possible means to make up the deficit before the deadline.

System: [Host, the latest news: Zuo Zhenrong has already had someone compile a detailed list of assets. They have now begun inventorying the property under Zuo Junxin's name.]

Ming Jiu understood. There was a ninety percent chance that Zuo Junxin's phone call just now had come from Zuo Zhenrong and his wife.

They had not called their daughter home to discuss things, but to inform her. Most likely, they were planning to pool the entire family's resources to clean up Zuo Junhao's mess.

The more Ming Jiu thought about it, the more eager she became.

[Sister System, can you save the surveillance footage from the Zuo Family villa?]

System: [Of course. If the host requires it, I can save all information I am able to gather that the host wants. However, to avoid slowing my operating speed, I recommend that the host prepare storage devices.]

Ming Jiu suddenly had an idea—right!

Why hadn't she thought of that before?

Thus, during the walk from the elevator to the parking space, Ming Jiu added hard drives, phones, tablets, and other electronics from various brands to her cart.

There was no rush for the electronics. She could just get a batch from Huaqiangbei later. First, she needed to get the portable hard drives.

Considering the value of buying in bulk, Ming Jiu chose 2TB hard drives first and set the quantity to one thousand.

Once the address was confirmed, she would place the order immediately.

Perfect. She could have the system directly download all kinds of materials... along with TV dramas, variety shows, anime, novels, and games—she wouldn't need to think about hiring university students anymore.

After successfully getting the rental car keys, twenty minutes later, Ming Jiu drove Ming Rong and the person in charge to the real estate agency.

The property certificates for the two homes had not been issued yet, so the contract transfer procedures could not be handled for the time being. They could only go look at the properties first.

There were two types of buildings in the complex—foreign-style apartment buildings that topped out at eleven floors, and high-rises that topped out at twenty-five floors.

The home with an actual area of 200 square meters was in one of the foreign-style apartment buildings, on the sixth floor. There were two units per elevator, and it was unit 602. The 150-square-meter home was on the top floor of a high-rise, with four units per two elevators, unit 2501.

There were still tenants in the 200-square-meter home, so Ming Jiu did not disturb them. She only looked at the floor plan and the photos the agent had taken several months ago when the previous tenant moved out and a new tenant moved in.

She also had the agent discuss ending the lease early and clearing out the home. She could provide compensation.

Ming Jiu did not plan to move in with her sister in unit 602. The floor was too low, and the complex was not situated very high either. She had the system estimate it, and during the torrential rains and floods, the water could reach the sixth or seventh floor. There was no need to take that risk.

She did not plan to live there, but the home had to be emptied before the blizzard arrived. Once the blizzard began, the weather would only grow worse by the day. Moving would become even less feasible, and tenants staying long-term would affect her later plans.

The second home, with an actual area of 150 square meters and located on the top floor, was quite nice. The overall decor had a minimalist natural-wood style that was very pleasing to look at and still did not feel outdated even now.

It had four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a spacious kitchen, and a master bedroom suite with a large master bathroom.

Because it was a prime corner unit on the top floor, the home came with an attic level. It was not very large, only around forty square meters, but beyond the attic was a rooftop terrace of seventy to eighty square meters.

The cross-section of the high-rise residential building was shaped like a "U." The prime corner units—2501 and 2504—were the larger 150-square-meter layouts, while units 02 and 03 in the middle were 98-square-meter mid-sized layouts.

The rooftop terraces directly connected to the larger units were separated by a stretch of empty space and were not connected to each other. Ming Jiu was very satisfied with that.

During the extreme cold, she could make full use of the rooftop terrace to freeze ice blocks and store ice and snow, then take them out for use during the extreme heat. Wonderful.