Chapter 39 Jealousy is a Poisonous Snake

**Chapter 39: Jealousy is a Poisonous Snake**

Ji An jerked back with a hiss, his hand recoiling from the burning pain. The Zombie Core clattered to the ground as he clutched his Space Necklace.

Gu Jinsheng didn’t realize the necklace was scorching—it simply looked to him like Ji An had suddenly grabbed his chest in distress.

“Ji An, what’s wrong?” In one swift step, Gu Jinsheng reached his side and supported him. Those eyes, usually as unmovable as a mountain, now rippled with raw tension and panic—emotions so rare they were almost foreign to him.

Perhaps only one person in his entire life could stir such a reaction in him. That person was Ji An. No one else—not even himself—could provoke his emotions so effortlessly.

“Boss…”

The three behind them spoke in unison, their voices tight with concern. Wu Youyang quietly withdrew the hand he had instinctively extended toward Ji An.

He seemed… superfluous. Wu Youyang awkwardly rubbed his nose.

“I’m fine. Sorry for startling you.” Ji An let go of the Space Necklace, ignoring whatever burn mark it had left on his chest.

“You look terrible. I’m taking you to the hospital,” Gu Jinsheng said firmly, his tone brooking no argument. He had never spoken to Ji An this way before—always respectful, always deferring to his will. This was the first time he had shown such unyielding insistence.

Strangely, Ji An—who normally hated when others made decisions for him—felt no irritation at all. He didn’t even notice how forceful Gu Jinsheng was being.

“I’m fine,” Ji An murmured, glancing at the Zombie Core on the floor. This time, instead of touching it directly, he wrapped it in a cloth.

“What’s wrong?” Gu Jinsheng asked.

“I suspect there’s something off about this Zombie Core. We can’t trust the Americans.”

“Mn.” Though Gu Jinsheng had the feeling Ji An might be hiding something, he let the matter drop.

From the moment they met, Gu Jinsheng had always respected Ji An’s choices. If Ji An didn’t want to speak, even if Gu doubted, he never pressed.

He didn’t linger on it—after all, being cautious of America wasn’t unwarranted. He bent slightly and lifted Ji An into his arms, startling the man mid-thought.

When Ji An registered what was happening, he felt both exasperation and a strange, flustered warmth—an emotion more complex than mere embarrassment.

“I’m fine. It was just… a twinge in my chest,” he offered weakly. After all, he really had seemed to be having chest pain earlier. Now, he couldn’t exactly say otherwise.

“You’ve been overworking yourself. A checkup is necessary,” Gu Jinsheng insisted.

Since arriving at the base, Ji An had thrown himself nonstop into research—first working on the Spatial Storage Device, barely resting before diving into nutritional compounds. And he had a habit of holed up in the lab, never allowing himself a break.

Such intense pressure and workload placed immense strain on his heart, significantly increasing the risk of cardiac arrest.

At that thought, Gu Jinsheng’s lips tightened into a thin line, his expression darkening like a man facing a life-or-death crisis.

“Boss, do you know how much we made from the auction?” Zhou Qin came up the stairs, eager to share the good news—only to freeze when he saw Gu Jinsheng’s icy expression. His gaze flicked to Ji An in Gu Jinsheng’s arms, then to the tense figures of Wu Youyang, Tang Ning, and Zheng Yan behind him. His smile vanished instantly.

“Ji An? Are you unwell?”

“It was just a brief discomfort. I’m fine now,” Ji An quickly assured.

Zhou Qin’s face remained serious. “Then you *must* get checked out. Go to the hospital—get Fang Rurong to treat you if necessary. Don’t brush it off.”

As they walked, they reached Tang Tang’s hiding spot behind a column. With nowhere left to hide, she stepped out stiffly.

Meeting Ji An’s calm gaze, her heart churned violently.

How could he look at her with such indifference—as if she were nothing but a blade of grass by the roadside, an ant beneath his feet, not worth a second glance!

It was precisely this kind of look that sent Tang Tang's emotions into a violent upheaval. He could hate her, scold her, even hit her—anything would be better than this complete indifference!

After their reunion, how could he remain so calm? Wasn’t it just because he was doing well, having found himself a better sugar daddy to lean on?

Tang Tang hadn’t known Gu Jinsheng before, but she recognized Zhou Qin. Who else could Zhou Qin, the Deputy Commander, call "boss"? Only the Commander-in-Chief of the Capital Base!

The moment Tang Tang realized Gu Jinsheng’s identity, her rage spiked even higher. Why? Why? Why?!

Why, after fleeing the Third Base in such a wretched state, could Ji An still escape to the more prosperous and powerful Capital Base and establish himself there? Why, after being abandoned by Chen Chen, could he turn around and latch onto an even more formidable super, one who wasn’t some half-dead old man but a handsome and dashing figure, leaving Chen Chen in the dust in terms of both superpower level and status?

And her, Tang Tang—in no way inferior to Ji An—had ended up in such misery. Stuck with a petty man like Song Pengcheng was humiliating enough, yet even in this wretched state, Song Pengcheng didn’t treat her well, pimping her out to the scum of the base—men who hadn’t touched a woman in ages, dirtier than the streets themselves.

Just recalling those disgusting men grinding on top of her made her want to vomit!

Later, she barely managed to attach herself to a super—only for him to be a crusty old geezer who now wanted nothing to do with her.

But Ji An? Living the high life! A guy this top-tier was willing to spend a price that could buy a thousand, no, ten thousand of her, just to purchase a high-level psychic Zombie Core—something Ji An didn’t even need—just to please him!

Meanwhile, she was left worrying whether she’d even have a full meal tomorrow!

How could Tang Tang accept this? She refused!

The overwhelming resentment gnawed at her mind, sending all her blood rushing to her head, battering her rationality.

"Commander, I bet you don’t know just how much your lover has been hiding from you, do you?" Tang Tang’s reason was consumed by white-hot jealousy. Fear forgotten, she lashed out recklessly, determined to drag Ji An into the mud with her.

Her voice was a screech verging on hysterics. "Has he told you? He’s been with countless men! He specializes in attaching himself to powerful lovers—including Chen Chen, the Commander of the Third Base!"

Gu Jinsheng’s gaze turned icy. If glares were lethal, Tang Tang would’ve been frozen into a sculpture, shattering at the slightest touch.

But looks couldn’t kill. Tang Tang merely shivered under that glare—yet she refused to back down. Surely this exceptional man simply didn’t know how filthy Ji An truly was. With suicidal audacity, she pressed on, "Ji An is far dirtier than you can imagine! You’d be better off with me—I’m a healer super, and a woman! I can give you kids!

Everything Ji An can do, I can do too! And things he can’t, I can!"

"Is this woman insane?" Zhou Qin genuinely wondered.

Comparing herself to Ji An? Even the rest of them present couldn’t measure up to him.

Forget the spatial storage device—any spatial super could replace that. But the nutrient formula? That was a miracle saving countless lives. Even if he, his boss, and the entire Capital Base pooled their efforts, the number of people they could save wouldn’t come close to a fraction of what Ji An’s nutrient formula alone achieved.

He, a Level 4 super, didn’t dare compare himself to Ji An—or rather, he lacked the qualifications to. If he died, there’d still be thousands of Level 4 supers, some even stronger. But the one who could successfully develop the nutrient formula? Only Ji An.

And Tang Tang? At best, a D-list super. How dare she boast so shamelessly about matching Ji An?

"Dumb guts come with no brains," Wu Youyang remarked coldly. "Truly, the less fools speak, the better."

Even Tang Ning thought Tang Tang had lost her mind. "Tang Tang, I used to think you were just a bit scheming—still clever, at least knowing what you wanted and going after it ruthlessly. But today, I see you’re not just vicious—you’re stupid. Dumber than a pig, a total dumbass! Giving Chen Chen a run for his money in the dumbass Olympics!"

"You—you’re not dead?! How are you still alive?!" Only now did Tang Tang notice Tang Ning, her attention previously monopolized by Ji An at the center of the crowd.

"..." Tang Ning was speechless. So all this time, Tang Tang hadn’t even noticed her standing there silently.

"Why would I die? You’re still alive despite being so pathetic!" Later, Ji An had shown Tang Ning the footage sent from the Third Base. At the time, she’d felt vicious glee—mixed with a twinge of pity.

Now, Tang Tang finally took in Tang Ning’s appearance. Her dress was drop-dead gorgeous, something that would’ve been worth a fortune even pre-apocalypse. With post-apocalyptic production crippled, such clothing would be worth its weight in gold.

Tang Ning radiated vitality, looking a decade younger than when she’d left the Third Base. Gone was the zombie shuffle; instead, she carried that untouchable rich-girl vibe.

But none of that was the most striking. What truly shocked Tang Tang was the jade necklace peeking out from Tang Ning’s neckline as she approached. She gasped out in disbelief, "Is that—a spatial necklace around your neck?!"

Tang Ning smirked smugly and deliberately jingled the Space Necklace around her neck. "That's right! This is the very same Space Necklace you scrambled desperately for at the auction but still couldn’t get your hands on!"

"You probably don’t even know that the Space Necklace was developed by Mr. Ji," Tang Ning admitted, fully aware she was doing it on purpose—just to provoke Tang Tang.

"Mr. Ji has opened a shop in West City now, selling spatial storage devices you’d kill for but still can’t get. He’s got so many spares he wears one and plays catch with another just for fun."

Tang Ning bragged, "This one around my neck? Mr. Ji felt sorry for me because I couldn’t afford it, so he just gave it to me for free."

"Oh dear!" Tang Ning covered her mouth, giggling in an exaggerated way. "The greatest luck of my life was following Mr. Ji out of Third Base—that stinking dump full of dumbasses like you.

Capital City Base is amazing. We’re about to release a new batch of nutritional agents, and everyone in our base can buy them freely.

Oh yeah, I remember your Third Base didn’t even secure distribution rights, did you? What are you going to do now? You won’t even have the chance to buy them later! Tsk tsk, how pitiful!"

Tang Tang was furious, but more than anger, she was eaten up by gnawing jealousy—the kind that coils like a snake around the heart.

"Impossible! No way! The Space Necklace is a one-of-a-kind marvel! How could a fool like Ji An possibly develop something like that?"

Tang Tang refused to believe it. She absolutely refused to accept that the same idiot who could be snatched away with minimal effort could suddenly invent spatial storage devices. There's no way he could be better than her!

"You must all be lying to me! The Space Necklace is a naturally occurring treasure! You found it somewhere else and are just pretending Ji An invented it to trick me!" Her mental state was crumbling. She couldn’t accept it—couldn't accept that Ji An had it better than her, and most of all, that he was so much more talented than her!

Watching the hysterical Tang Tang, Ji An remained calm. He had long predicted this miserable fate for her and now simply found her shrieking too noisy.

"Kick her out and drag her out of Capital City Base," Commander Gu Jinsheng ordered coolly.

"Yes, sir." Zhou Qin didn’t even need to touch Tang Tang. With a flick of his power, a long vine sprang forth into the air.

Thick and menacing, the vine swayed forward with force—but the moment it neared Tang Tang, it froze. As if she were something repulsive, it thrashed and recoiled, twisting violently as though trying to escape.

"Commander Zhou, what’s wrong with it?" Tang Ning asked.

"Poor thing. It doesn’t want to touch this garbage," Zhou Qin said flatly. "Suck it up. Just endure it. It’s not like you deal with this kind of filth every day."

"Pfft—" Tang Ning and Zheng Yan both burst out laughing.

Commander Zhou’s mouth was seriously sharp!

"Don’t worry, dumbassery isn’t catching. If you're really that worried, I’ll hose you off after, okay?" Zhou added.

Only then did the vine reluctantly coil around Tang Tang, whose features were now contorted with fury.

What nonsense about the vine not wanting to touch her! It was Zhou Qin’s power—he controlled it completely! He was just humiliating her on purpose!

His power could fight zombies—was she really worse than one?!

Zhou Qin had zero sympathy for someone so unhinged. With a hard yank, he sent her crashing to the ground before dragging her along like a sack of potatoes.

At this point, Tang Tang had forgotten all shame. All she wanted was to pull Ji An down with her, to smear him just as badly as herself.

"Commander!" she screeched. "You don’t know what other secrets that bastard Ji An is hiding from you! That Space Necklace—"

Her mouth flapped open and shut, but nothing came out. The words were right there, yet she couldn’t speak them. Every time she tried to force them out, her head exploded with pain, as if something inside her skull was swelling, ready to burst.

The sensation made her gag violently.

"Don’t you dare puke on my vine!" Zhou Qin barked, dragging her even faster.

Still refusing to give up, Tang Tang writhed against the vine’s grip as she was yanked along, screaming, "He has another secret! A huge one! Bigger than the space thing! It’s about that Space Necklace! Believe me, he put a psychic gag on me—I can’t say it!" "He really, truly is hiding something huge from you!" she wailed desperately.

Just as everyone thought Gu Jinsheng wouldn’t speak, he suddenly said, “I don’t want to know them all. Everyone in the base has secrets.”

“It’s different! This one is different!” Tang Tang couldn’t understand why Gu Jinsheng refused to listen. What kind of hold did Ji An have on this man, making him so bewitched?

“Put me down. I have something to say to her.” Seeing Tang Tang’s hysterical state, Ji An suddenly felt like provoking her further.

“You’re not feeling well. I’ll carry you over.” Gu Jinsheng didn’t set Ji An down, instead holding him as he walked toward Tang Tang.

Nestled in Gu Jinsheng’s arms, Ji An looked down at Tang Ning like a god looking down on a worthless ant.

That dismissive gaze burned into Tang Tang’s eyes, corroding her heart.

Ji An watched Tang Tang, a faint smile playing on his lips as he spoke leisurely, “Ah, I almost forgot to mention—I was the one who developed the nutrient formula too.”

Tang Tang was driven to madness by his indifferent tone and the revelation itself. No words could express her devastation—only wordless screams could convey her emotions. “Ah! Ah! Ah—!”

Ji An’s eyes shone with cruel amusement, as if filled with stars. “Pity, isn’t it? If you hadn’t schemed endlessly to drive me away, this glory would’ve belonged to the Third Base—and at least half of it would’ve been yours!”

To destroy someone, break their mind first—this was exactly that.

Tang Tang’s mind reeled, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ji An’s smile faded as he stared coldly into her eyes. Tendrils of mental energy seeped from his mind, drilling into Tang Tang’s pupils and flooding her brain.

One moment, she was a raving lunatic—the next, she fell silent, as still as a doll.

Her eyes turned hollow and lifeless, her expression stiff and vacant, like a puppet stripped of its soul.

“Remember my words until your dying breath. But even if your mind shatters and your brain bursts, you will never speak a single syllable of them. Understood?”

“Un...der...stood.” Tang Tang’s reply was slow and labored, like a child fumbling through speech.

“Good.” Ji An smiled, then abruptly withdrew his psychic energy from Tang Tang’s mind. Like a receding tide, it vanished without a trace.

Ji An wanted Tang Tang to remember everything clearly—to know that even though revealing the truth could plunge him into endless trouble, she would never be able to utter a single word. The poison of envy would eat away at her heart day and night, and resentment would haunt her every waking moment.

Tang Tang’s eyes briefly glazed over before her vision cleared. She stared at Ji An in disbelief. “You all saw it! This is how he forced that mental command on me—to keep me from revealing his secret! Now do you believe me?”

Silence. Deafening silence.

Tang Tang’s gaze swept across the crowd, taking in face after face—different faces, all frozen in the same indifference.

“You… you all…” She pointed accusingly at Tang Ning, Zheng Yan, Gu Jinsheng, and the others. “Doesn’t this terrify you? His power is monstrous! If he wanted, he could control your minds! If he wished, he could even become the Commander-in-Chief of the Third Base!”

After all, Ji An himself had once feared that his power would make others shun and persecute him—so much so that he hid it. Why were these people acting so unfazed? As if mind control were some trivial trick, not a terrifying ability!

Gu Jinsheng glanced down at Tang Tang, his cold eyes filled with disdain. His thin lips parted slightly. “Only those with weak minds can be controlled. And we are not weak.”

“Take her away,” Gu Jinsheng ordered coldly. “Silence her.”

“Yes, Commander-in-Chief!” Zhou Qin gave a mock salute, then used his superpower to conjure a handful of rotten, stinking vegetable leaves, which he stuffed into Tang Tang’s mouth.

Unable to speak, Tang Tang could only whimper and writhe on the ground like a worm.

A grim foreshadowing of the vast difference in their fates from this day forward.

After Tang Tang was dragged away, Ji An looked up at Gu Jinsheng. From this angle, he could see the sharp line of Gu Jinsheng’s jaw—clearly defined and unreadable.

“Aren’t you curious?” Ji An asked.

"No need." Gu Jinsheng lowered his head, allowing Ji An to see his entire face. "Getting you to trust me completely is my job."

Ji An had imagined countless possible responses, but this was the last one he expected—leaving him momentarily stunned.

A secret smile played in Gu Jinsheng's eyes as he carried Ji An out of the auction hall.

When they reached an open area, Gu Jinsheng pulled a car from his Space Necklace. Ji An was speechless at first—until he noticed that Gu Jinsheng wasn’t the only one doing this. Many superpowered individuals from the command center were doing the same; it seemed to have become a trend.

As the guy who invented this thing, Ji An felt conflicted. When he developed this technology, he never expected space storage devices to be used like this.

With his arms full holding Ji An, Gu Jinsheng couldn't open the car door himself. Zhou Qin quickly stepped forward and opened it for him. After settling Ji An inside, Zhou Qin leaned against the open window and said, "Boss Ji, you’ve got to take good care of yourself. Anyone else can have problems, but you absolutely cannot. Do you know how much we earned for our base at this auction?"

Zhou Qin held up five fingers. "Fifty years' worth—at our current usage rate. Those fools thought they could clear out their stockpiles, but instead ended up losing everything they brought and more. Hahaha..."

Ji An shared in the excitement. With such abundant supplies, nutrient solutions could now be produced without limits, bringing them one step closer to the goal where no one would ever go hungry again.

Gu Jinsheng took Ji An to the command center’s main hospital for a complete checkup, but nothing abnormal was found.

This was normal. Ji An drank Magic Spring water every day, which kept his body in excellent condition. His mental capacity had also expanded significantly, and his thinking had become sharper. Earlier, while Gu Jinsheng wasn’t looking, he had even smeared some Magic Spring water on his chest, just in case the skin there had been burned and might leave a mark.

Only after seeing the test results did Gu Jinsheng feel reassured. He told Ji An to rest well before sending him home.

Ji An had indeed been burning the candle at both ends lately—developing space storage devices, working on nutrient solutions, and managing the auction had kept him spinning nonstop like a top.

"Alright."

Back home, Ji An went upstairs, collapsed onto the bed, and was instantly hit by a wave of exhaustion. Just as he was about to drift off, he snapped awake.

The Zombie Core—he remembered the core in his pocket still needed inspection.

Before, Ji An had only suspected Country M had ulterior motives, and that the Zombie Core they sent might be problematic. Now, with his Space Necklace suddenly heating up, he was certain the core was trouble.