Following his new master, Yang Hongtao finally witnessed how wealthy people lived. Zhou Ziwei's family was indeed very rich; his father, Zhou Zhengxiang, ran a pharmaceutical conglomerate with total assets of at least a billion yuan. While this was still far from the wealth of Huang Lianshu, the richest man in Zhongdu City, it was still considered a local tycoon in the small town of Dangyang.
However, Zhou Ziwei himself was too disappointing. As the eldest son in the family, he should have been able to inherit more than half of the vast business his father had built. But Zhou Ziwei had been lazy and incompetent since childhood, dropping out of high school and declaring he would never study again. Moreover, relying on his family's money, he indulged in drinking, gambling, and whoring, doing almost every kind of bad thing imaginable.
A few years ago, his father had intended to groom him to take over the family business, but as soon as Zhou Ziwei was given any power, the kid would inevitably become lawless and reckless, treating the company's account as his own personal ATM, squandering it to death, and even once taking a large sum of money to Macau for a high-stakes gambling spree.
Fortunately, his father kept an eye on things after delegating the authority, and as soon as he noticed something was wrong, he immediately took back the delegated power. Otherwise, if this kid had been allowed to cause trouble for a few more days, he might have bankrupted a branch company!
After this happened two or three times, Zhou Zhengxiang finally gave up on his son and simply stopped caring about him. He regularly deposited 20,000 to 30,000 yuan into Zhou Ziwei's account every month for him to spend as pocket money, and he no longer allowed him to interfere in company affairs.
In contrast to Zhou Ziwei, his younger brother Zhou Zixu has always been an excellent student, never causing his family any worry. Two years ago, after returning from studying in the United States, he immediately took on the position of vice president of the Zhou Group. Moreover, after taking office, he performed exceptionally well. He also used the relationships he had established abroad during his studies to directly enter the US market for several of the company's main health products, making the future of the Zhou Group even brighter.
This made Zhou Zhengxiang, who was over fifty years old, so happy that he praised his youngest son to everyone he met, praising him to the skies. He was just waiting for Zhou Zixu to become more familiar with the company's business and personnel before he planned to hand over the position of president of the group company to him.
People are afraid of comparison. If it weren't for his capable youngest son, Zhou Zhengxiang would only be disappointed no matter how incompetent and wasteful Zhou Ziwei was. However, compared to his youngest son, he found his eldest son increasingly displeasing. So he bought a decent house outside and had Zhou Ziwei get married and move out early.
Zhou Ziwei has been married for over a year now. His wife, Wang Xuewei, comes from a business family. His father-in-law is Zhou Zhengxiang's business partner, but his business is not as big as Zhou's Group, so he still needs to rely on Zhou's Group for support.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei and Wang Xuewei's marriage was basically a political marriage. There was no emotional foundation between them. In fact, they had only met three times before the marriage, and there were outsiders present on all three occasions. As for dating alone... that was something that never happened.
After the birthday party, Zhou Ziwei managed to get 100,000 yuan from his younger brother through a combination of begging and deception. He then resumed his extravagant lifestyle, frequenting bathhouses, massage parlors, bars, and restaurants. He was surrounded by a constant stream of different women.
Of course, most of these were prostitutes. Back home, Zhou Ziwei barely spoke a word to his wife, Wang Xuewei. Although they were husband and wife in name, they seemed less like neighbors than even those living in the same building.
Although neighborly relations in cities are relatively cold, at least people can nod to each other when they meet. But this couple, when they met, acted as if the other was just a transparent shadow, completely ignoring each other.
Yang Hongtao was utterly baffled as to why Zhou Ziwei would neglect his beautiful wife at home and instead frequent brothels to patronize ordinary women. Frankly, Yang Hongtao had seen his fair share of beautiful women before he died, but aside from the superstars in movies and television, he had never seen a woman as beautiful and elegant as Wang Xuewei in real life. Yet Zhou Ziwei, living under the same roof with this absolutely stunning beauty, could still find interest in all those unattractive women on the street. This made Yang Hongtao seriously suspect that Zhou Ziwei's aesthetic sense was severely different from that of normal people!
"Young Master Zhou, please take care. It's my sister's birthday next week, so please remember to come and visit!"
Under the blazing sun, in front of the Spring Breeze Entertainment City, a woman with a face heavily made up, dressed like a demon queen, pulled Zhou Ziwei, who was still waking up from a hangover, aside and gave him a detailed lecture. She then tricked the playboy out of two hundred-yuan bills before finally shoving the still somewhat dazed Zhou Ziwei into a taxi.
"Driver... to Villa No. 7, Guimingyuan... hurry up!"
Zhou Ziwei drank too much strong liquor last night. Although he slept for a while after dawn, he was still not fully sober. When he went out and was exposed to the wind, he felt as if his head was about to split open. He mumbled something to the taxi driver, then leaned his head back and fell fast asleep in the car.
So much so that the taxi didn't even head towards the address he gave, but instead turned at the next intersection and drove straight out of the city, without Zhou Ziwei noticing.
"Squeak—" The taxi drove for more than half an hour out of the city before finally stopping beside a quiet mountain road. The dark-skinned, thin taxi driver turned around and looked at Zhou Ziwei, who was still fast asleep in the back seat. He shook his head slightly, a mocking smile on his face, and then opened the door and got out of the car.
After getting out of the car, the driver first looked around cautiously. Seeing that there was no one in sight, he turned around and removed a thick seat cushion from the car. Then he turned around, opened the back door, grabbed the car seat cushion with both hands, and pressed it hard onto Zhou Ziwei's face, who was sleeping like a dead dog.
"Ugh..." A few seconds later, Zhou Ziwei, who was completely drunk and suffocating, finally woke up due to difficulty breathing and immediately began to struggle desperately. However, the taxi driver was prepared. He bent one leg and pressed his knee firmly against Zhou Ziwei's body, and no matter how much Zhou Ziwei struggled, he could not lift the seat cushion pressing down on his head.
In just over a minute, Zhou Ziwei gradually stopped struggling, and his body slowly stiffened. However, the taxi driver still showed no sign of stopping, continuing to press the car seat cushion firmly against Zhou Ziwei's head to prevent him from catching his breath after letting go.
However, the taxi driver's worries were obviously unnecessary. Zhou Ziwei's body, already weakened by alcohol and sex, simply could not withstand such prolonged suffocation. Shortly after he stopped struggling, a phantom shadow slowly rose from Zhou Ziwei's corpse, drifting across the roof of the car and directly exposed to the scorching sunlight.
"ah--"
A shrill scream came from mid-air. It was the painful howl of Zhou Ziwei's soul as it was burned by the sunlight. However, the soul's scream had its own unique frequency, so the taxi driver could not possibly hear it.
Yang Hongtao, who was also a pure soul, heard it clearly and was disturbed by the desperate cry, even feeling a sense of shared sorrow.
Yang Hongtao had been following Zhou Ziwei for several months now. Although Zhou Ziwei's character was rather poor and Yang Hongtao looked down on him, they had developed some feelings for each other after spending so much time together. So, seeing Zhou Ziwei's soul slowly suffering the pain of being scattered under the sunlight, Yang Hongtao felt extremely sorry for him. Therefore, Yang Hongtao once again silently recited the magical six-syllable mantra deep within his soul.
One by one, characters radiating a sacred aura burst forth from the bullet-shaped ornament hanging on Zhou Ziwei's chest, then transformed into six white halos in the air, each over ten meters in diameter, enveloping the broken soul that was struggling to die in the sunlight within their glow...
After Zhou Ziwei's soul was purified into pure soul energy and a wisp of scattered memories under the influence of the Six-Syllable Mantra, and forcibly merged into Yang Hongtao's soul, and was slowly and completely absorbed by Yang Hongtao as part of his own soul, the taxi driver finally released the car seat that had been pressing on Zhou Ziwei's face. He then reached out to check Zhou Ziwei's breath, confirming that Zhou Ziwei was indeed dead. He then reached out and touched Zhou Ziwei's body, found the wallet and kept it for himself. Afterwards, he picked up the body and threw it into the roadside bushes on the lower side of the mountain road, kicked it hard, and the body immediately rolled down the slope of about forty degrees.
Dry branches and sharp stones in the grass kept cutting into Zhou Ziwei's corpse, and fresh blood that had not yet cooled and congealed slowly oozed out from these newly opened wounds, quickly staining Zhou Ziwei's designer casual clothes with bloodstains.
When Zhou Ziwei's body finally stopped rolling down the hillside and became stuck under a low tree, thick blood had completely soaked through his tattered clothes, and the bullet he had always worn close to his chest was also stained a shocking crimson.
The instant the blood touched the bullet, Yang Hongtao suddenly felt the invisible force that had been holding him firmly inside the bullet begin to loosen. He had a slight thought and quickly concentrated his mind, gathering his powerful soul force to struggle with all his might.
With a "snap," the small bullet that had been bound for three years cracked open under Zhou Ziwei's all-out struggle, and at the same time, the invisible mysterious net covering the bullet's surface also broke apart.
Although the gap was less than two millimeters long, it was nothing short of a door to freedom for Yang Hongtao, who was trapped inside.
Without any hesitation, Yang Hongtao rushed out the moment he saw the bullet head crack open.
At that moment, the slit in the bullet head was directly opposite Zhou Ziwei's chest, so Yang Hongtao's soul naturally entered Zhou Ziwei's corpse the instant it burst through the bullet. Then... Yang Hongtao felt waves of excruciating pain all over his body!
Oh no! Could it be that the reason I haven't been scorched to death by the sunlight is because of that mysterious mesh layer on the bullet head? If so, isn't escaping from the bullet head now just courting death?
Because a soul does not have a physical body, it is generally impossible for it to feel pain. However, Yang Hongtao felt a stinging pain all over his body at this moment. He naturally thought that this was caused by the direct sunlight shining on him, which is the most harmful to a soul.
Fearing that even a moment's exposure to the sun would annihilate him, he abandoned all thoughts of freedom and hurriedly turned back, intending to hide inside the bullet again. However, as Yang Hongtao turned his head, he suddenly realized that his perspective had become severely distorted from before.
Originally, a soul being has no eyes, but Yang Hongtao could clearly sense everything within a ten-meter radius around him using his soul energy.
This means that Yang Hongtao used his soul energy to sense the world, at which point his field of vision could reach 360 degrees. However, now... Yang Hongtao could only see the scenery in one direction in front of him, and the bullet was not even within his field of vision.
What... exactly happened?
Yang Hongtao's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously looked down at his chest, where he saw a bloodstained bullet hanging gently on his tattered clothes...
Volume 1: The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 4: Soul Energy
Could this be the legendary possession of another's body?
Yang Hongtao was stunned for a long time before he finally understood what had happened. Then, shocked, he moved his hands and feet and found that he could indeed control the body that originally belonged to Zhou Ziwei!
Is this real? Have I really been given a second chance at life?
The immense power of his soul allowed Yang Hongtao to display astonishing vitality within his extremely weak body. His heart, which had stopped beating, began to regain its vitality, and several powerful deep breaths brought a large amount of oxygen into his flowing blood, nourishing his body and gradually giving rise to vigorous life.
Yang Hongtao had just rolled down the hillside and suffered many cuts and scratches, making him feel pain all over his body. This was the reason why he had mistakenly thought that his soul could not withstand the damage of sunlight once it left the bullet.
However, now that he understands that these are just external injuries, Yang Hongtao naturally doesn't care anymore. No matter how painful the wounds are, they can't diminish his joy at being reborn.
He stood up despite the pain and took a good look at his new body. He was quite satisfied with it. He was about 1.8 meters tall, a little over half a head taller than in his previous life.
Zhou Ziwei is slightly thin, which is related to his indulgence in sensual pleasures and irregular lifestyle. With proper care and regular exercise, this should improve quickly. As for his appearance… although there's no mirror to see now, Yang Hongtao has been by Zhou Ziwei's side for the past few months, so he's quite familiar with his looks. Frankly speaking, Zhou Ziwei is quite handsome, at least a level above Yang Hongtao's appearance in his previous life.
It's just that this week, Ziwei has been frequently drunk and staying up all night, always looking listless, which is why his appearance isn't particularly outstanding. Looking at himself, the feeling was incredibly strange. Moreover, Yang Hongtao had been a wandering ghost for three years, long accustomed to sensing the world with his soul energy. Suddenly switching back to seeing the world with his physical eyes was quite a change.
It's important to understand that while using soul energy to sense one's surroundings has significant limitations—generally, only things within the area enveloped by soul energy can be clearly seen—it's far less effective than visual observation in terms of the effective range of vision.
However, the feeling of having a 360-degree all-around perspective centered on oneself, as well as the extremely high clarity, is far beyond what the naked eye can see. In fact, if facing some low-density substances, as long as the soul energy can penetrate into them, it will produce an effect similar to X-ray vision.
Now, Yang Hongtao has been reborn through Zhou Ziwei's body, but he can only observe things with his naked eyes, which makes him feel a great sense of loss. It's like a bird that is used to flying in the sky suddenly losing its wings and having to walk on two legs from now on; it will definitely feel very inconvenient.
Does this mean I'll forever lose the ability to sense the world with my soul energy? Although normal people can't use soul energy, I've died once, so why can't I bring the abilities of a ghost into this body?
Yang Hongtao was really unwilling to lose this ability, so he immediately closed his eyes and began to test it.
In his ghost form, Yang Hongtao didn't need to do anything deliberately; he could naturally sense a radius of about ten meters using the radiating soul power. If he deliberately dispersed his soul power into the distance, the sensing range could extend to more than two hundred meters away.
Of course... deliberately dissipating soul energy will weaken the soul energy to some extent.
Now that Yang Hongtao has been reborn in Zhou Ziwei's body, his soul power is bound by his physical body and can no longer radiate outwards at any time. However, after concentrating and trying several times, he actually broke through the limitations of his physical body and actively allowed his soul power to dissipate outside his body, regaining the feeling of observing the world from a 360-degree perspective.
Unfortunately, the physical body has a great constraint on soul energy. Even with Yang Hongtao's powerful soul energy, he could only cover an area of about three meters around himself when he used his full strength. This was incomparable to the range covered by his soul power in his ghost state.
Moreover, releasing soul energy to this extent was a huge burden for him. He had only maintained it for less than five seconds when he felt a wave of mental fatigue. His soul energy had already been consumed quite a bit, which frightened him so much that he quickly pulled the dissipated soul power back into his body.
It seems that although he still retains this ability, it's practically the same as not having it at all. At least in the future, he can't just release his soul power casually when he has nothing to do, just to enjoy the feeling of a full-view perspective. That would be tantamount to courting death. No matter how powerful his soul energy is, it's not enough for him to mess around like that.
Yang Hongtao sat down and rested for a while. He felt his mental fatigue was relieved a little, and at the same time, he was surprised to find that the wounds on his body, big and small, seemed to be less painful.
Yang Hongtao looked down and examined himself closely. He was surprised to find that most of the cuts on his body had already begun to scab over, and some of the shallower cuts had even healed completely, leaving no trace of the injuries.
This... the speed at which the body heals itself is too fast! Even a gecko isn't this amazing!
Yang Hongtao didn't believe that this was an ability that Zhou Ziwei's body originally possessed. A few days ago, Zhou Ziwei cut his chin while shaving, and it took more than a week to heal. But now, these wounds on his body were healing at an almost visible speed. The only reason for this amazing change could be that Yang Hongtao's soul was in control of this body.
How could Yang Hongtao suddenly give an ordinary person's body such a strong self-healing ability? After pondering for a moment, Yang Hongtao felt that the most likely reason was that when he tried to release his soul power outside his body, a large amount of soul energy had a similar effect of modifying and strengthening his cells as it passed through his body.
Although he still couldn't quite understand why soul energy had such a powerful effect on improving a person's body, he couldn't think of a more plausible explanation. A few more minutes passed, and all of Yang Hongtao's wounds had scabbed over, with no bleeding anymore. The pain had completely disappeared, but the scars started to itch. Yang Hongtao knew this was because the tender flesh beneath the scars was rapidly growing and healing.
Judging by the looks of it, it wouldn't be long before even these newly formed scabs completely fell off. Yang Hongtao was both surprised and delighted for a moment, then calmed down and began to seriously consider his future plans. He would never forget the deep-seated hatred from his past life. Although three years had passed, and he had lived two lives, the first thing Yang Hongtao thought of after his rebirth was how to take revenge, how to grind that bastard Huang Lianshu to dust! And that vile woman Xiaoya!
Yang Hongtao and Xiaoya had been in love for seven years, and he had devoted himself to her without complaint for those seven years. But in the end, he was sold out by this heartless woman... Xiaoya's family was in dire financial straits. Her mother was bedridden for many years, and her father was a laid-off worker. The whole family relied on her father's manual labor on construction sites to support them and also to pay for their two daughters' schooling.
After Xiaoya was admitted to university, her father struggled to scrape together enough for a year's tuition and a few hundred yuan for living expenses. Xiaoya had to work part-time to make ends meet. However, Xiaoya suffered from chronic malnutrition and often stayed up late studying before the college entrance examination. Her body was as weak as an underdeveloped bean sprout, and she was not capable of shouldering the burden of life on her own.
She had been working part-time at a restaurant near the school every night for half a month when she collapsed on the roadside on her way back to her dormitory due to severe anemia. Yang Hongtao, a junior at the same school, happened to be passing by and naturally took it upon himself to take the junior to the school clinic. He also took good care of Xiaoya for half the night, and from then on, the two naturally became a couple.
Upon learning of Xiaoya's family situation, Yang Hongtao took on all the responsibilities without hesitation. Although Yang Hongtao's family wasn't well-off either, they could afford to pay for his university education, so he never had to work part-time to earn his tuition. However, to prevent Xiaoya from overworking, Yang Hongtao took on two part-time jobs every day: delivering milk at five in the morning and washing dishes at a fast-food restaurant after school each evening.
Although the income from both jobs wasn't much, it was enough to cover Xiaoya's tuition and living expenses. This situation only began to ease after Yang Hongtao graduated from university and started working. However, shortly after, Xiaoya's younger sister, Xiaoru, was also admitted to university. Because the family's debts from when Xiaoya went to university hadn't been paid off, Xiaoya's father was no longer able to raise tuition fees for Xiaoru. Xiaoya had no choice but to ask Yang Hongtao for help, and Yang Hongtao, naturally, readily agreed, covering all of Xiaoya's sister's university expenses as well.
It can be said that Yang Hongtao's relationship with Xiaoya over the past few years has been almost entirely one-sided and unpaid. However, the seven years of feelings and hard work he has put in are not worth a single thin check in Huang Lianshu's hand. Just that thin check and the string of Arabic numerals on it made Xiaoya choose to betray and sell him without hesitation.
Revenge is a must, but Yang Hongtao knows he doesn't have the ability yet. Huang Lianshu is not just a wealthy boss; his power and background are extraordinary. Although Yang Hongtao wasn't Huang Lianshu's direct subordinate back then, he knew a little about the boss's background.
The fact that he had only learned a fraction of the power behind Huang Lianshu was enough to terrify him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have lacked the courage to expose Huang Lianshu and tell the truth in court. He understood that with Huang Lianshu's background, he, an ordinary citizen, could never bring him down! As for taking action in secret, that was even more impossible.
Huang Lianshu had done many bad things, so he was naturally afraid of being retaliated against. Therefore, he always paid great attention to his personal safety and had professional bodyguards protecting him 24 hours a day. Some of these bodyguards were retired special forces soldiers he had hired from abroad at great expense. This level of security protection was almost comparable to that of national leaders!
However, Yang Hongtao would certainly not give up on taking revenge on that scumbag Huang Lianshu. His opponent was powerful, but after merging the memories of nearly a hundred souls, Yang Hongtao was no ordinary person.
These nearly one hundred souls were engaged in various professions in their previous lives, and many of them were elites in their respective fields. Now that they have the memories of so many people, it can be said that Yang Hongtao has almost become an omniscient genius. As long as Yang Hongtao is given time to unleash his integrated talents, there is no doubt that he will stand out from the crowd, and it is not impossible that he will eventually surpass Huang Lianshu in achievements.
Therefore, what Yang Hongtao needs to do now is to become stronger as quickly as possible before he can talk about avenging his past grievances.
In any case, Yang Hongtao could only use Zhou Ziwei's identity to survive and develop for the time being.
Since he had already taken over Zhou Ziwei's body, he was Zhou Ziwei in other people's eyes, even if he didn't want to admit it. So Yang Hongtao decided to temporarily forget the name Yang Hongtao and from today onwards he was Zhou Ziwei.
Judging from what just happened, the taxi driver was most likely a professional hitman, hired to kill Zhou Ziwei. Although Zhou Ziwei is now dead, and Yang Hongtao is living in his place, the person who hired him doesn't know this. If he sees Zhou Ziwei alive and well again, he might very well try to kill him again.
Therefore, it won't be easy for Yang Hongtao to continue posing as Zhou Ziwei. If he can't uncover the mastermind behind the hired killer soon, Yang Hongtao could die again at any time. Who exactly wants to kill Zhou Ziwei?
This problem really stumped Yang Hongtao. As for Zhou Ziwei, that kid, he spent all his time indulging in pleasure and doing almost everything except human affairs.
In particular, Zhou Ziwei was a womanizer. When he worked at his father's company, he abused his position to molest several female employees. Later, he hung out with some thugs and they committed many bad deeds together. Eventually, those thugs squeezed him dry before kicking him to the curb.
Therefore, there were far too many people who had reason to want to kill Zhou Ziwei. Yang Hongtao had only been by Zhou Ziwei's side for a few months and had only received a portion of Zhou Ziwei's memories in his soul. It was impossible for him to guess who had hired the assassin in such a short time.
It seems I must be extra careful from now on. I must not let my guard down until I find the person who is plotting against me.
Yang Hongtao straightened his dirty clothes and then walked down the hillside to the road below.
The road at the foot of the mountain is a main artery between the two cities. Unlike the winding mountain road, it is not as secluded. There are quite a few vehicles coming and going, so Yang Hongtao doesn't have to worry about being stuck in traffic and unable to get to the city.
Fortunately, the taxi driver didn't take all the change from Zhou Ziwei's pockets after taking his wallet. Yang Hongtao pulled out more than thirty yuan from his pocket, held it up in his hand, and waved it at passing vehicles for a long time before finally managing to flag down a passing truck that took him back to the city.
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 005 Prying Open the Door and Locking