Chapter 1.2

Nothing went wrong. Ling Xia went to tutor that boy on Wednesday afternoon, and no complications arose. Ling Xia spent his time researching figure skating. That sounded weird, but Ling Xia liked to go into everything prepared. He also got Li Ming's father to sign him up for an ice skating class. The classes started two weeks later, two days per week. Ling Xia also invested the money Li Ming earned from being a tutor into stocks.

Since Mu Ninghua and the male lead, Bu Huai, were going into the business industry, Ling Xia got a few sneak peeks into what stocks would rise or fall. The memory was pretty vague, so he didn't have much information, but Ling Xia had been in three worlds that were business-oriented, so he was already a master at this. The stocks would be an easy way to get money if he ever got fired.

Ling Xia also confirmed his idea that Mu Ninghua didn't like him. Actually, it wasn't just dislike, it was hate. Ling Xia had no idea why. The only clue he had was her inferiority complex, but that alone shouldn't garner that much hate.

On Saturday, Ling Xia went to Mu Ninghua's house intending to search for clues. He knocked on the door and waited for Mu Ninghua to open it. He stepped into a house that was beautifully decorated. Too beautifully decorated for a second-class family.

The porcelain items that were on every flat surface in sight looked like they came from the most expensive auction house in town, the carpets that were laid out everywhere the eye could see felt like they were made of the best wool, and the paintings that were hung from the walls could be sold for hundreds of thousands of yuan. Well, even if it was suspicious, Ling Xia could still enjoy it, right? He took a moment to take in everything his eyes allowed him to see. Alright, back to the serious stuff now.

Ling Xia felt like Mu Ninghua was taking advantage of her pursuers too much. Especially because it wasn't in her character description, but figuring out why was the reason he was here today.

Mu Ninghua led him to the living room, where a trifold was lying on the ground. "Did you bring any materials?" she asked.

In response, Ling Xia took everything out of his bag. From crayons to colored pencils, watercolor to acrylic, he had everything he 'borrowed' from Li Ming's brother. "Yes."

"That's great! Then let's get started!" Mu Ninghua exclaimed. "I did some research on drugs, and I was thinking we could do our project on tobacco."

"That's fine with me. I did some research on that too." The two worked on the project till the light faded outside. "Alright, I think we're done for today. Should I come back tomorrow to finish this off?"

"Yes, but don't leave yet, I'll ask my dad if you can stay for dinner."

Ling Xia didn't refuse the free food. "Thank you for your hospitality." He watched as Mu Ninghua left the room to get them their dinner. As soon as she turned the corner, Ling Xia sprung up from the ground and quietly and quickly scoured the area he was in. An area searched was an area crossed off, after all.

Over the past few hours, he arrived at an idea that might explain why Mu Ninghua hated him. Ling Xia was a detective in a past world, and he had come across a case containing a person that took pleasure in acting differently in front of different people. He'd asked a psychologist, and she told him that these people usually have diaries that are generally used for writing out their real emotions. She said that these types of people, since they weren't doing it normally, needed a place to vent out their real emotions. It was bad for a person if they kept too many emotions locked up.

Mu Ninghua seemed like that type of person in Ling Xia's eyes. How else could she have lived happily while faking her entire personality and possibly even who she loved? So what Ling Xia was looking for right now was a diary. That didn't mean he ignored everything else, though.

He was searching for anything that might be of value to his cause.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be useful in the room. Ling Xia wanted to search the adjoining room, but as he moved towards it, he heard footsteps and quickly ran back and sat down.

Mu Ninghua walked back to Ling Xia. "Sorry, I can't seem to find my parents anywhere. I think they left while we were working on the project. They're probably out shopping for my birthday party," she explained.

"Why don't you try texting them?" As could be seen, Ling Xia really wanted free food today.

Mu Ninghua smiled forcefully. "Oops. Guess I forgot that. Let me try." She grabbed her phone and quickly texted them. They waited in awkward silence for a bit, but no sound came from the phone, indicating that no messages were sent to Mu Ninghua. "They're not answering, sorry."

"It's okay, texting people always takes time. I can wait a bit longer, I'm very hungry."

"Haha, no, I'll feel bad if I keep you here for a long time when you could just go back to your house and eat there. Maybe you should go home."

"Actually, why don't you try calling your parents. Maybe that will take less time." To Mu Ninghua, Ling Xia seemed like he was ignoring her, which was absolutely true. Anything for Ling Xia to see Mu Ninghua mad. He knew schadenfreude probably wouldn't help him, but who could resist?

Meanwhile, Mu Ninghua seethed. Her nails dug into the palms of her hands, and her smiling expression seemed to be on the brink of breaking. She had never met a person who could be so insistent about something while she kept on implying that she only said it out of politeness! How could his face be so thick?

Mu Ninghua's mouth twitched as she tried to keep her smile on her face and not lash out at Ling Xia. "That's a good idea, I'll try." She dialed her dad's number and, almost immediately, a voice came from the other side. "Dad, can my friend stay over for dinner?"

A gruff voice came over the phone in response. "That friend, he's the one we saw earlier right?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Sure, your mom made something for you to eat while we're at the store. There should be enough for both of you."

"Thanks. Love you. Bye." Mu Ninghua hung up on the phone and told Ling Xia that he could stay.

"Thank you for letting me stay." Ling Xia stood up to follow Mu Ninghua. Then, as if he just remembered something, he froze in his spot like deer caught in headlights. He scratched his nose guiltily, hesitatingly saying, "Sorry, I just remembered that my family packed some food for every meal in the fridge for me for while they're on their anniversary vacation, and they'll be mad if it's not done."

Mu Ninghua: "..."

'The entire conversation we just had was about food! You should have remembered that a long time ago!' Mu Ninghua took a subtle deep breath to calm herself. She couldn't tell him that his excuse was so unbelievably unbelievable because, unlike Ling Xia, she had a facade to keep up! Mu Ninghua cried a little inside.

Meanwhile, Ling Xia hysterically laughed in his mind. Of course, that wasn't true, what kind of family would do that? Well, actually, one of his previous hosts had a family that did that, but that was beside the point.

Ling Xia packed up his–well, Li Ming's brother's–stuff, put his shoes on, and waved goodbye to Mu Ninghua. The sun was just starting to set when he stepped out the door. The warm hues of the sunset gave off a comforting feeling as he walked back to Li Ming's house.

His house was actually within walking distance of Mu Ninghua's house, which came as a surprise to Ling Xia because, in the memories of the world, Mu Ninghua once apologized to Li Ming about her late arrival at a party at Li Ming's house with the excuse of, 'Sorry, I'm late, it was a long drive.' Unfortunately, Li Ming was drunk when that happened, so he had no idea that the excuse wasn't viable.

They lived in the same neighborhood... What an excruciatingly long two-minute drive. The corner of Ling Xia's mouth lifted up into a sarcastic smile. He soon reached Li Ming's house, and as he stepped in the house, he realized he had just lifted a rock only to drop it on his own foot(1).

He had originally wanted to eat at Mu Ninghua's house because it was free food, and there also wasn't any at Li Ming's house, but he got sidetracked because he wanted to see Mu Ninghua trying to hold in her anger. Now he had no food.

Ling Xia slapped himself on the forehead a few times, just to get his brain working again. 'Food is a necessity,' he told himself. 'Never refuse free food, intentionally or accidentally.'

Realizing again that he was hungry, Ling Xia whipped up a quick dinner for himself. While eating, he schemed and plotted. Finally coming up with an idea to find Mu Ninghua's maybe-existing diary, he decided the first thing to do the next day was to buy a birthday present.

Notes:

1: Imagine somebody picking up a rock to throw it at somebody else, but then realize that they're the one that suffered a loss, not the other person because they were stupid and dropped the rock on their own foot. To put it simply, Ling Xia's actions backfired.