"I understand, I know what I'm doing. You can rest now, I'll keep an eye on the IV drip."
Yan's mother knew her daughter didn't want to listen to her lecturing. Furthermore, there was a rift between them that had formed over time and couldn't be mended in a few words.
"It's good that you know what you're doing. There's plenty of time. I've set an alarm. If you get bored, you can walk around, you don't have to stay by my side the whole time."
"It's fine, you sleep."
Yan's mother gently pulled up the covers and closed her eyes to sleep.
Zhu Li dimmed the lights in the room, drew the curtains, and sat in the chair, lost in thought.
Just a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
As soon as Yan's mother fell asleep, Zhu Li got up to see who it was.
It was Zhou Qingbie.
She was wearing a uniform, looking valiant and heroic, but unfortunately, she looked exhausted these past two days, her spirit not quite there.
"Is something wrong?"
"Something is. Can we talk in private?"
Zhu Li glanced back, then followed her out. They walked together to the end of the corridor.
"Another elder from the Qin family has died, with the exact same method as the last one. The only suspect I can think of is your boyfriend. According to my investigation, he's been dead for three years. Do you know that?"
"What do you think?"
How could she not know, with her capabilities?
Zhou Qingbie sighed, "A person and a ghost are from different realms. How can you..."
The moment those four words left her mouth, Zhu Li's eyes changed. Just as Zhou Qingbie sensed danger, Zhu Li grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up.
"Ugh... let... let go..."
The door next to them opened, and the moment someone walked out, Zhu Li let her down.
The doctor, dressed in a white coat, looked at Zhou Qingbie's attire with some curiosity, casting a few extra glances her way.
Zhou Qingbie didn't dare to cough loudly. After holding her breath for a while, she only started to cough uncontrollably, gasping for air, once the person had walked away.
Zhu Li stood by, her expression indifferent.
She finally managed to recover, anger brewing within her, but she dared not speak it aloud. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have inquired about your relationship. But please, tell me, where is he? Killing is illegal. Even though he's not human now, his unrestrained killing like this will be detrimental to his cultivation. Sooner or later, he'll be..."
She didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.
"I don't know where he is."
"He's not your boyfriend... Do you have a way to find him?"
"Not at the moment."
That little fellow had used her spiritual energy to cultivate, learning quite a few things to guard against her. He was truly too clever!
Zhou Qingbie was somewhat dumbfounded.
She didn't entirely believe Zhu Li's words, but whether Zhu Li was unwilling to say or genuinely didn't know, she had no way to verify.
She could only place her hope on Zhu Li telling the truth. "Then, if he contacts you, please let me know. Don't worry, I won't hold him accountable. Those he's killed so far deserved it. I also wanted to kill them before... Never mind, I won't bother you any longer. I'm sorry."
"Mhmm."
Zhou Qingbie, having gotten nowhere, bid farewell and left.
Zhu Li turned and returned to the ward.
The system also didn't believe her earlier claims and tentatively asked, "Host, you really can't find the mission target anymore? Didn't you put some kind of marker on him before?"
"It's no longer effective."
After all, having experienced so many worlds, she thought they wouldn't have such melodramatic chase-and-hide scenarios between them anymore.
"Do you need me to help you find him?"
"Can you find him?"
"Yes, but it will cost merit points..."
"Deduct them directly."
The system immediately became happy. "Intermediate Mission Target Locator, one-time use, for 2600 merit points. It has been deducted. The red dot you see now is the mission target, and the green one is us."
"What do you mean by one-time use?"
Can it only be used once?
"It can only be used in one world. It will become invalid in the next world. The advanced ones are permanent, but I don't think you'll need them, so I didn't waste merit points."
Although their host didn't care about such trivial amounts.
Zhu Li didn't immediately plan to apprehend the person. Being bored, she started chatting with it.
"You've been very interested in merit points lately. Is there a reason?"
"The year-end evaluation is coming soon. Although I'm a system of the '0' generation, I still have to participate in the evaluation. If I don't meet the standards, I might be squeezed out by other systems. Merit points are one of the criteria. Oh, and Host, I have a customer satisfaction survey for portable systems. Could you please fill it out for me? A five-star review, please."
A survey appeared in Zhu Li's mind, evaluating the system on various metrics.
Including functions, voice, and service attitude.
This little drama queen had choked her a few times and was often verbose, but generally, it was somewhat useful.
Zhu Li gave it full marks from start to finish, skipped the suggestions, and clicked submit.
The system watched from the side. Through the communication between their brainwaves, Zhu Li could feel its joys and sorrows.
For example, at this moment, it was grinning like a foolish, 250-pound person.
"Thank you for the good review, Host! I love you so much! Thank you!"
"You don't have to."
Those words were a bit hurtful, but the system didn't seem to mind. Since it had received a good review, the host must love it, it just wasn't good at expressing it, and it understood.
"Does merit have any impact on the world you're from?"
Although the merit points deducted each time were negligible to Zhu Li, and she didn't particularly care about them, the deducted items were truly gone.
Zhu Li didn't know how they transferred this intangible energy or where they used it, and she couldn't help but be curious.
After its joy subsided, the system quickly refocused and answered the question.
"It should have some impact, but it's not within my scope of work, so I don't really know. To me, it's just a string of numbers."
A string of numbers that were unattainable.
Zhu Li regretted helping it fill out the good review just now.
This thing was simply useless. Apart from mission-related matters, it was clueless about almost everything else.
"I can ask the main system for you. They care about you a lot now, so they should answer."
Zhu Li thought that she would be going to that world soon, so she wasn't in a hurry.
"As you wish."
Just those three words, and after the system reported them, the main system surprisingly arrived quickly.
"Are you curious about the use of merit points? Actually, we also want to know how you obtained your original merit points. This mysterious power is very fascinating, but unfortunately, everyone has very little of it."
"I don't know how I got it either."
Zhu Li genuinely couldn't remember. She didn't recall past events, and she rarely did things that others would call good deeds. More often than not, she acted on impulse.
"That's truly a pity. I would have liked to ask you for advice. But it's okay, I believe we will all know one day. We heard you were coming, and I'm looking forward to your arrival in our world. Then, we'll be able to unravel the doubts that have been bothering us."