My Dating Sim Just Got an Update - Chapter 40

“Poisoned?”

Ren Chenxi’s words brought a heavy silence to the room. Even Tantan, nestled in her arms, seemed to sense the gravity of the atmosphere; he stopped nuzzling her and went quiet.

“Are you suggesting. that whatever is wrong with Sun Jia is related to Fan Juntian?”

“To be precise, it’s an addiction! I suspect that Fan Juntian’s poisonous smoke ability doesn’t just poison people—it makes them addicted!” Ren Chenxi dropped this bombshell without giving anyone time to process the first one.

“An addiction? What’s your basis for that?” While everyone else was too shocked to even control their facial expressions, Mu Ning remained as stoic as ever, her voice cold and questioning.

God, this woman is annoying, Ren Chenxi thought. My ‘basis’ is that I can literally see all your NPC debuffs!

However, she couldn’t say that. Ren Chenxi twitched her lips and forced a fake smile at Mu Ning while spinning a lie. “For one, look at Sun Jia’s complexion—it bears a striking resemblance to the drug-addled look on Fan Juntian. Secondly, look at the wound on her arm. Logically, ability users have stronger constitutions and better recovery rates than ordinary people. You’ve used plenty of medicine on her, yet her injury won’t heal; it’s actually getting worse. Earlier, Zhang Tongqi mentioned the wound keeps reopening. That’s why I made the bold guess: Sun Jia breathed in Fan Juntian’s smoke and became addicted. During her episodes of withdrawal, she must have torn her own wound open to use the physical pain to fight off the craving.”

As Ren Chenxi laid out her theory, the faces of the girls in the room grew even paler. At that moment, a weak female voice spoke up.

“It is… but that’s not the whole story.”

The speaker was Sun Jia, who had woken up on the bed at some point. She looked at Ren Chenxi with a smile. She seemed like such a gentle person, but from her words, Ren Chenxi could sense the iron-willed resilience beneath that soft exterior.

“When the addiction hits, I’m not delirious. I’m actually very conscious. I tear the wound open myself, hoping the pain will help me suppress… the urge.”

The moment Sun Jia finished, Wu Tong collapsed by the bedside in tears, sobbing and complaining, “Xiaojia! Why didn’t you tell us? Why did you have to suffer all by yourself… tearing a fresh wound back open… how much must that have hurt…”

Zhang Tongqi’s eyes were also red as she glared at Sun Jia in anger. “Xiaojia! Something this big, and you kept it from us! Do you even consider us your friends?”

“It’s not that…” Sun Jia used her left hand to gently pat Wu Tong’s head. She looked up first at Mu Ning, then at Zhang Tongqi. “It’s because I consider you friends that I didn’t want you to know…”

“Why?” Mu Ning asked coldly.

Because I didn’t want to be controlled by Fan Juntian’s smoke and used as a bargaining chip to force the Boss to compromise with him.I wanted to see if I could quit the poison through my own willpower. At first, I could endure it, but as time went on, it became harder and harder to bear…”

Through Sun Jia’s low, weak, yet gentle voice, the group finally understood the sequence of events.

In fact, the morning after Sun Jia was injured saving someone, Mu Ning had taken Chen Gu, Zhang Tongqi, and the others to ask Dong Ting for medicine. Those people had used every excuse in the book to refuse. But by that afternoon, Fan Juntian had shown up with his band of thugs under the guise of “apologizing.” It was an apology in name only; they brought medicine but refused to hand it over simply. Instead, they hinted to Mu Ning that if she wanted the medicine, she had to become Fan Juntian’s girlfriend.

Chen Gu had been furious, immediately throwing a punch at the nearest lackey. Naturally, a brawl broke out. The fight happened right at Mu Ning’s doorstep. Even though Fan Juntian claimed to be there to apologize, Mu Ning and her team refused to let them inside. It was lucky they didn’t; if they had let them in before the fight started, their belongings, especially those precious post-apocalyptic vegetables would have been destroyed.

Fan Juntian was someone most people in the base didn’t dare provoke. While they were causing a scene in the villa district, neighbors stayed behind locked doors, wanting no part of the conflict. Even if they wanted to help, they didn’t have the strength.

The noise downstairs had alerted Sun Jia, who was upstairs resting. She endured the pain to walk downstairs, and as she looked out the window, she saw a sight that nearly made her heart stop. Mu Ning was busy fighting a skin-hardening ability user with her vine whip and hadn’t noticed Fan Juntian standing to the side, secretly releasing poisonous smoke toward her!

Without a second thought, Sun Jia threw open the window as fast as she could. She yanked off the jacket she was wearing and threw it toward Mu Ning with all her might.

“Boss, look out! Fan Juntian is using poison smoke!”

Sun Jia’s right hand was injured, and her left hand lacked strength, so the jacket didn’t reach Mu Ning’s position. However, hearing the warning, Mu Ning spun around instantly. Her vine whip lengthened, snagging the falling jacket, and she swung it forcefully toward the approaching smoke, fanning a portion of it back toward Fan Juntian. Chen Gu and the other boys reacted as well, tearing off their shirts and cursing Fan Juntian’s cowardice while holding their breath and frantically waving the smoke away.

Though the smoke was toxic, it was light. Without a breeze, it drifted slowly. With Mu Ning and the others fanning it, the smoke gradually dispersed.

Because Fan Juntian had resorted to poison, Mu Ning became ruthless, using her whip to give him and his group a brutal beating. Eventually, the patrol arrived with Qi Sheng and forcibly separated the two groups. Qi Sheng already disliked the Fan family, and because Fan Juntian had dared to release poison smoke inside the base, he and his lackeys were taken away.

There was no prison in the base. Minor scuffles usually resulted in a warning; serious ones led to solitary confinement or even exile. Regarding Fan Juntian’s ability, Qi Sheng had specifically set a new rule: Fan Juntian was not allowed to release his smoke freely within the base—at the very least, not outside the Fan family’s own territory.

This time, Fan Juntian had flagrantly violated the rules in the villa district. Consequently, instead of plotting revenge, his family had to focus on how to appease the anger of Qi Sheng and the other base leaders. Even though the Fan family’s power was nearly equal to Qi Sheng’s, Qi Sheng was still the official leader, and Fan Juntian was clearly in the wrong.

With Qi Sheng’s obvious favoritism, Mu Ning and her team—who had left Fan Juntian’s group black and blue—walked away unscathed. The Fan family could only swallow their resentment and find a way to bail Fan Juntian out of confinement.

The only victim was Sun Jia, who had warned Mu Ning.

When Sun Jia threw the jacket and shouted, Fan Juntian knew his plan was ruined. As Mu Ning and the others were dispersing the smoke, he released another cloud specifically toward Sun Jia. He was closer to her position, and at that exact moment, a light breeze blew. The wind helped Mu Ning clear her side faster, but it also accelerated the smoke toward the window where Sun Jia stood.

Sun Jia used her one functional hand to slam the window shut, but she wasn’t fast enough. She inhaled a tiny bit of the smoke that seeped through the gap.

“Was that when you were poisoned and became addicted? Why didn’t you tell us then?” Remembering Fan Juntian’s vile tactics, Mu Ning’s face darkened with displeasure. Her voice grew even colder upon learning that Sun Jia had been suffering since then.

“What would have happened if I told you?” Sun Jia shook her head with a weary smile. “Isn’t the only way to beat an addiction to quit cold turkey? If you all knew, you couldn’t exactly go to Fan Juntian and ask for more poison to ease my pain, could you? Besides, if you went to settle the score and he found out I was addicted, imagine what his disgusting mind would do with that leverage over the Boss. I didn’t want to make things difficult for everyone… so… I thought I could make it through on my own…”

“But… you should have said something… said something so we could help you quit together! Why did you have to be so self-destructive and tear your own wound apart!” Wu Tong was inconsolable by the bed. She was both heartbroken and angry; she wanted to give Sun Jia a punch but, seeing how weak she was, could only slam her fist into the mattress in frustration.

“See? Just look at that temper of yours. You would have ended up looking for trouble with Fan Juntian regardless. Even now that I’ve told the truth, I bet you’re all planning ten thousand ways to cut him into pieces  and the guys upstairs are even more hot-headed than you…”

It had to be said, Sun Jia’s intuition was spot on. Not only did Zhang Tongqi and the others want to teach Fan Juntian a lesson, but even Jian Dan’s group and the students from S University, who barely knew Sun Jia, were utterly disgusted by him.

The only truly rational people present were Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning. Ren Chenxi was calm because she knew she could clear that addiction debuff. As for Mu Ning… well, she was naturally a cold and detached person anyway.

But even a detached person cared for her teammates.

“Everyone, calm down. Sun Jia is right. More important than settling the score with Fan Juntian is helping her get rid of this addiction!”

“But Fan Juntian…” Wu Tong was unwilling to let it go. Her best friend’s wound, which should have healed long ago, had been torn open again and again, and she had to endure the agony of withdrawal every day. Why did the perpetrator get to live in a mansion and enjoy luxury food?

“What do you think you can do by going to him now? Provoking a fight in the base will get you punished. And if you explain why you’re fighting… Fan Juntian will find out about Sun Jia’s condition. That gives him another weakness to exploit! Wu Tong, wake up. There is no cure for addiction. Screaming and shouting at him won’t solve anything…”

“I can do it!”

Aside from Sun Jia, who was forced into it, no one else in the room had ever had contact with drugs. However, even without personal experience, their education and every TV show, movie, and novel they had ever seen told them the same thing: addiction has no cure. You can only rely on willpower to force yourself through it. So, Ren Chenxi’s sudden “I can do it” made everyone wonder if they had misheard.

“You can help her quit?” Clearly, Mu Ning’s interpretation was that Ren Chenxi would assist her through the process, not end the addiction instantly.

“I can cure her addiction!” Ren Chenxi rubbed Tantan’s little head, smiling with absolute confidence.

“You’re… you’re lying, right?” Even though she desperately wanted it to be true, Wu Tong still couldn’t believe it.

“And if I really do cure her? If I get rid of the addiction completely?”

“Then I won’t charge you any rent!”

“Deal! You said it!”

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