265: Now, open your mouth!

Heartbroken!

This time, she was truly heartbroken!

Ye Chen knew very well that with Jin Meiting's personality, she couldn't possibly be that submissive; otherwise, she would never have attained her current position.

The only explanation was a broken heart.

Heartbroken by her family, she had completely given up on herself.

Ye Chen sighed inwardly and asked, "And the result?"

"The result?"

Jin Meiting gave a self-deprecating smile.

"He took the money and vanished without a trace."

"At that time, my job happened to undergo some changes, which led to me defaulting on my loans."

"I was nearly driven to a dead end, almost forced to do those degrading things to myself."

"Fortunately, I met Bing Lan. She gave me a hand and helped me get through the crisis."

Ye Chen listened in silence.

He hadn't expected that the seemingly glamorous Jin Meiting would have such a painful past she didn't want to look back on.

Ye Chen couldn't help but ask, "Then what about your parents? They didn't help you?"

Jin Meiting shook her head, her eyes dimming.

"In their eyes, there is only my younger brother."

"I've known since I was a child that I had to carve out my own path."

"In a situation like that, it was good enough that they didn't blame me for being a burden to the family. How could they help me?"

Ye Chen understood.

The neglect from her family and the betrayal by her relative were likely the roots of Jin Meiting's later independent and even somewhat unscrupulous personality...

"So this time, you didn't lend it to him?" Ye Chen looked into her eyes.

Jin Meiting shook her head.

"No. I made it very clear to him that the money from before was just like feeding a dog. From now on, I no longer consider him a relative."

"He got desperate then and said many nasty things, calling me cold-blooded and saying I forgot my roots once I had money..."

"Finally, we had a huge fight, and I had the security guards throw him out."

After she finished, she looked at Ye Chen. "Do you think... the problem with my body is related to him?"

Ye Chen's gaze sharpened, and he said in a deep voice.

"It's almost certain."

"When I checked your pulse just now, I found a foreign parasitic object in your body interfering with your life force."

"To put it simply, someone has placed a Gu on you."

"Combining that with the timeline of your contact with your Younger Male Cousin, the timing matches perfectly."

Jin Meiting's face instantly turned pale, followed by a surge of anger: "How could he do this? I'm going to call and ask him right now!"

She naturally knew what a Gu was; those things were unique to the Miaojiang region.

But she hadn't expected...

That her own Younger Male Cousin could actually get his hands on such a thing and use it on her!

However, before she could act.

"Asking him is useless."

Ye Chen held her back and shook his head. "Since he dared to do it, he won't admit it. Alerting the enemy might instead make the practitioner behind him wary. The priority right now is to get that thing out of your body first."

Jin Meiting's chest heaved violently, clearly livid.

She had heard of the bizarreness of Miaojiang's Gu Art; those afflicted were often controlled by the one who placed the Gu, their life and death no longer their own.

The thought of such a disgusting thing possibly residing inside her made her feel a wave of nausea and fear.

Seeing her expression, Ye Chen knew she couldn't let it go, so he asked, "That Younger Male Cousin of yours, is he still in Xiamen City?"

"He should be."

Jin Meiting took a deep breath and recalled, "Before he left, he made a threat, saying he has an influential benefactor in Xiamen City. If I won't help him, someone else will. Knowing his nature, he won't leave easily without getting the money."

"Fine."

Ye Chen nodded. "Then we'll solve the trouble in your body first, and then go find him and his 'influential benefactor' to settle this score properly."

Hearing this, Jin Meiting felt slightly more at ease, but looking at Ye Chen, she was still a bit hesitant: "I heard that once a Gu insect leaves its host, it dies, and it will immediately alert the person who placed it!"

"Generally speaking, that's true."

Ye Chen smiled. "However, who said it has to die?"

"Huh?"

Jin Meiting was stunned, not understanding his meaning.

Wouldn't a Gu insect die once it left the body?

Ye Chen didn't explain further and gestured for her to sit properly on the sofa and relax her body. "Don't be nervous, leave it to me. It might be a bit uncomfortable, so bear with it."

Jin Meiting sat up straight as instructed and closed her eyes.

Ye Chen flipped his wrist, and three Silver Needles appeared between his fingers.

Then.

He moved like lightning, accurately piercing Jin Meiting's Tianshu, sea of qi, and Guanyuan—three major acupoints in her abdomen.

The needles went in deep, their ends vibrating slightly.

Jin Meiting only felt a sense of soreness and bloating in her lower abdomen. It wasn't painful; instead, a current of heat followed the vibration of the Silver Needles, gathering toward her energy center.

Ye Chen flicked his finger lightly against the end of one of the Silver Needles.

"Buzz—"

A soft hum rippled out, and the vibration frequencies of the three Silver Needles suddenly synchronized.

The next second.

Jin Meiting felt the faint sense of heaviness and nausea that had been lingering in her abdomen suddenly become vivid, as if something had been disturbed and began to move restlessly.

"Ugh..."

She let out a muffled groan and instinctively covered her mouth.

"Relax, don't resist, let it come out."

While soothing her, Ye Chen held his fingers together like a sword, a faint trace of energy swirling at his fingertips. He moved them along Jin Meiting's Ren Meridian, pushing from her abdomen to her chest, then to her throat.

The "thing" being driven out struggled more and more violently. Jin Meiting's face became pained, and fine beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

"Now, open your mouth!"

Ye Chen gave a low shout and tapped lightly on the Lianquan point below Jin Meiting's throat.

"Ugh— Hurk!"

Jin Meiting couldn't help but lean forward, opening her mouth in a violent dry heave.

The next second.

A black-and-white insect as thin as a strand of hair was vomited out of her mouth, landing in the white porcelain teacup Ye Chen had prepared beforehand.

The insect landed at the bottom of the cup, its body curling into a ball, appearing somewhat lethargic.

Jin Meiting gasped, looking at the disgusting insect in the cup with a mix of lingering fear and revulsion.

Ye Chen picked up the lid, covered the teacup, and sealed the Gu insect inside.

Of course.

Before sealing it, he infused a trace of true qi into it to slow down the Gu insect's tendency to die.

That way.

The one who raised it wouldn't notice anything was wrong.

Once it was done.

Ye Chen shook the teacup and said,

"I've used true qi to temporarily protect its life force; it won't die within twelve hours."

"And with it here, we won't have to worry about not finding the culprit."

Jin Meiting rinsed her mouth with fresh water, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and looked at Ye Chen with eyes full of gratitude. "A-Chen... thank you."

"Why are you being so polite with me?"

Ye Chen placed the teacup on the coffee table, his gaze turning cold. "Let's go. Take me to find that 'good' cousin of yours. It's time to collect some debts, with interest."

His tone was calm, yet it made Jin Meiting feel a piercing chill.

She knew that Ye Chen was truly enraged this time...

...

Inside a hotel room.

A young man was bowing and scraping as he handed a cigarette to an old man on the sofa, his face covered in a fawning smile. "Elder Qin, look... when can you give me that money?"

His name was Li Huai, that very Younger Male Cousin.

Elder Qin took the cigarette, and Li Huai quickly pulled out a lighter to light it for him.

Elder Qin took a puff before shooting him a sidelong glance.

"What is rightfully yours, this old man will not give you a penny less."

"Besides... once you completely control that Older Female Cousin of yours, you'll be the one calling the shots at the entire Tiangong Nightclub."

"When the money starts rolling in daily, will you still be anxious over this small pittance?"

Hearing this, an irrepressible madness immediately surfaced in Li Huai's eyes, and he nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, yes! Elder Qin is right to lecture me! I was being short-sighted!"

He rubbed his hands together, his face written with greed.

That's right.

Before he came to find his Older Female Cousin Jin Meiting this time, he had already met this mysterious Elder Qin at a casino.

Elder Qin had not only taught him a few clever cheating tricks, making him momentarily invincible, but had also revealed that he possessed supernatural arts that could help him completely control his cousin, who was now the queen of Xiamen City's nightlife.

Li Huai had barely hesitated before becoming his disciple.

A few days ago, following Elder Qin's instructions, he had secretly slipped a small insect into his cousin's water cup.

The thought of being able to control the vast wealth and connections of the Tiangong Nightclub in the future made him so excited he couldn't sleep at night.

"My cousin is also quite ruthless."

Thinking of Jin Meiting's coldness when she rejected him, the excitement on Li Huai's face vanished, replaced by venomous resentment.

"She made it big herself, hooked up with a sugar daddy, and then doesn't care whether we poor relatives live or die!"

"If her parents hadn't had the foresight back then to let her go out and mix in society early, would she be where she is today?"

"She's simply an ungrateful, white-eyed wolf!"

Elder Qin didn't respond, merely squinting his cloudy old eyes and taking occasional puffs of his cigarette. No one knew what he was thinking.

After a while, just as the cigarette in his hand was about to burn out...

Suddenly!

"Knock, knock, knock."

A series of measured knocks sounded, interrupting Li Huai's incessant babbling.

Elder Qin's brow furrowed slightly, and he tilted his chin, signaling for him to go open it.

Li Huai followed the cue, walked over, and pulled open the hotel room door.