Chapter 1.3

On Sunday morning, Ling Xia got up, refreshed from nine hours of sleep. When he was in the military he only got seven hours which was the lowest amount of time that was also considered healthy for an adult. That meant the soldiers would work well and hard. The best way to squeeze as much value out of them as possible.

Ling Xia played around with his stocks a little bit. Then he told Li Ming's brother that he was going out and would be back soon. He took some cash with him and biked to a shop. There, he bought Mu Ninghua's present and some clothes and headed back to Li Ming's house. After tinkering with the present a bit, he put it in a gift bag and set it aside for the evening.

Ling Xia handed the present to Mu Ninghua while taking off his shoes. "Good afternoon."

"Hello, what's this?" Mu Ninghua asked, examining the bag in her hand.

"You said your birthday is coming up, so I got you a present." Ling Xia smiled at Mu Ninghua to show his goodwill. Mu Ninghua looked at him in surprise. She never expected him to remember what she just offhandedly mentioned.

Mu Ninghua grinned back in gratitude. "Thank you. This is very nice of you," she said while opening the gift bag, only to see a lot of gift paper stuffed inside.

Ling Xia laughed and lightly reprimanded her. "Don't look at it yet, that's bad luck. You should open it on your birthday. When is it by the way?"

"It's the day after tomorrow. We're having a party. I wish you could come, but we're only inviting family members."

Ling Xia slightly raised an eyebrow and politely refused. Was it just him, or was Mu Ninghua's acting much better today? Whatever. All he knew was that Plan A wasn't going to work. He couldn't get into Mu Ninghua's house during the party, so he was just going to have to get in after it.

In Li Ming's memories, Mu Ninghua once complained to him about her mother. Her mother made everybody in the house open the windows because the house needed 'fresh air'. When Mu Ninghua's mother thought of this, she obviously didn't consider the safety risks, but Ling Xia could use this to his advantage.

He would sneak in through the window while Mu Ninghua was knocked out by his present and take pictures of her diary. He couldn't steal the diary, though, because that was basically broadcasting to the entire world that somebody knew what its contents were.

Ling Xia and Mu Ninghua worked on the project, and before long, it was time to leave. Once again, Ling Xia regretted how he lied to Mu Ninghua about the food Li Ming's parents were supposedly expecting him to eat. Now, he had to make his own food again. Don't get him wrong, he liked cooking, and he was great at it, but it was free food! He didn't have to pay for it, and he didn't have to spend time making it.

"See ya."

"Bye. See you tomorrow." Ling Xia left the house feeling accomplished and worried. He hoped Mu Ninghua would take the bait he gave her. If he managed to get this right, he would have all the info that he needed.

Ling Xia helped himself to some food and went straight to bed. He spent the next couple of days going to school, doing his schoolwork, and he also started going to the ice skating rink he would have his lessons at for two reasons, first, to familiarize himself with the environment and the process of renting and getting into skates, second, to practice by himself.

Remember how Ling Xia researched figure skating because he wanted to go into it prepared? Yeah, he wanted to practice everything in the first level to build a solid foundation. The ice skating class he was going to attend was separated into levels. Each level had around ten sessions, to learn and practice the skills taught in that level. After finishing the first level and passing the test during the last session, people could register for the second level, which had the same procedure.

Since Ling Xia was on the first level, he practiced taking a few small steps on the ice. He used the wall of the rink as support as he walked. Once he finished an entire lap, he felt like he was ready to actually skate. He slowly skated around the rink, then got away from the wall and miraculously didn't fall this time. He felt a bit proud of himself, so he skated faster.

Pride came before the fall. Literally. Ling Xia skated too fast, and he caught his toe pick on the ice and fell. The ice was hard, much harder than concrete. Ling Xia helped himself up and felt shaken. He moved the feeling to the back of his mind and continued.

This was one thing he learned through many worlds. No matter how badly somebody messed up, they still had to smile and get up whether it was practice or performance. If a person messed up and couldn't continue during practice, they probably wouldn't be able to in a performance where the stakes were higher. It was super important for an athlete to not only be physically strong but also mentally strong.

Ling Xia continued practicing. He practiced doing swizzles and a snowplow stop. Swizzles were pretty easy, but stopping was difficult. It took him a while to figure out the secret to it, which was pressure. He had to put a lot of pressure on the ice to stop. He learned that bent knees helped a lot when figure skating earlier, but it was a lot harder than it seemed. It felt very weird to have his knees bent while just standing still on the ice, and it wasn't something he was used to, so he had to constantly remind himself to do it.

Ling Xia was so engrossed in figure skating that, before he knew it, the night of Mu Ninghua's birthday had rolled around the corner.

Ling Xia forgot his shower cap, an extremely necessary item when breaking and entering somebody's house. How else was he supposed to stop any strands of hair from falling on the ground and leaving evidence as to who the robber was? It was not like he needed it though, why would his hair fall out randomly? This was just a precautionary measure, yes, a precautionary measure.

He left the house with gloves and a mask on. He also wore all black, to blend into the surroundings. He jogged to Mu Ninghua's house and stopped to catch his breath. 'My host's body is really unfit,' he lamented.

He almost started walking up to the house, when he heard the crunch of a branch under somebody's foot. The only problem was, it wasn't his foot. Agilely moving behind a bush, Ling Xia surveyed the surroundings. With the moonlight aiding him, Ling Xia could barely make out the silhouette of a large man walking past Mu Ninghua's house. He waited for him to leave, but just when Ling Xia thought he was in the clear to go to Mu Ninghua's house, the man turned around and walked back.

Ling Xia's eyes widened in surprise. He watched the man walk to the other side of the house, then turn once more and walk in the other direction. Was he a guard sent by Mu Ninghua's suitors or something? Oh, how right he was. But seriously, what kind of madman would send a guard to protect the person they're pursuing through the night. What, did they think their rivals in love would try to show up at their love interest's house and develop a romantic relationship with them?

Anyhow, Ling Xia watched the man for a little while and when he felt confident enough, he quietly approached the man from the back. Focusing for even the slightest movement that indicated that the man knew Ling Xia was there, he successfully snuck up on him.

He followed the man as he walked with light footsteps. Ling Xia balled his hand into a fist and pulled it back, ready to strike at a moment's notice. The man slowly started to turn around, already lacking vigilance from sleep deprivation, and Ling Xia tightened his fist. When the man turned most of the way, he noticed the boy behind him and his pupils shrunk, but it was already too late.

Ling Xia swung his fist onto the side of the man's jaw, and his entire body swung with him. The impact of the blow was great, and the speed at which the man's head turned caused trauma to his brain, both working together to effectively knock the man out.

Ling Xia smiled at the man fallen on the ground before him, feeling accomplished. All that training back in the real world after leaving the system really helped him out because he was super rusty. He was glad he was back in action.

Ling Xia dragged the man behind a bush. Even if he was a bit rusty, he still had to clean up his mess. He then looked up to the many windows slightly ajar on the second floor. Luckily, climbing random walls or buildings was part of his military training.

He had even made sure his gloves had a good grip when he chose them. Unfortunately, he didn't know which room was Mu Ninghua's, so he had to climb to every single one to check if she was in there.

He started climbing, slowly making his way up to one of the windows, and popped his head just above the window sill to look into the room. Disappointed at the lack of Mu Ninghuas in the room, he climbed down a little and jumped off the wall.

The room he had just peeked into had another window, so he could skip the window right next to the one he had just looked into. It seemed great, one more window down, but that actually meant that there was less of a chance that a window on the front side of the house, the easiest to escape from, led to Mu Ninghua's room.

There was only one more window on the front side that was the right size to be viable for connecting to a bedroom. Ling Xia got himself ready and climbed up the wall of the house. As soon as he got near the top, he smelled a peculiar fragrance and instantly recognized it. That was the smell of the sleeping gas in the present he gave Mu Ninghua. He wrote a letter saying that it would help sleep quality and that she should wear it tonight so Ling Xia could see the effects the next day.

Wearing the cloth mask he bought earlier, he snaked an arm through the opening and used the knob of the window on the window sill to open it. Through the mask, he could barely smell anything, but he still needed to be quick in case the gas still affected him. This was why he had originally wanted to buy a gas mask, but it was too heavy for Li Ming's body to hold while climbing walls.

He entered the room and locked the door, so none of Mu Ninghua's family who woke up could get in. Next, he swiftly searched through Mu Ninghua's belongings using the flashlight on his phone. He knew he could be pretty loud because Mu Ninghua was just gonna keep on sleeping through it, but he couldn't throw random things while looking because, well, it was obvious.

He pulled open a desk drawer and inside was a hardcover novel. He pushed it aside to see what else was in the drawer but accidentally flipped the cover open, and the light illuminated the words written on the cover:

'M08←

gvimpje n'vpebidi ph'

Ling Xia: "..."

He had never seen a language like this before. Maybe it was a code, which the 'M08←' at the beginning implied. The fact that it was encrypted meant it was important, so Ling Xia started taking pictures of each page in the book. He originally wanted to take a video, but cracking the code of the book would be even harder with that. He continued taking photos speeding through page after page.

...

Du Wu zoomed through the night to his destination. His car was sleek and black, almost unnoticeable in the pitch dark except for the headlights. He arrived at the place and got out of the car, and called out to his good brother(1) to change shifts with him. No response came to him, and his eyebrows furrowed. He walked out and saw a dim light coming from his client's bedroom. Why was she still awake in the dead of night?

Du Wu called his brother's name again, but nobody answered. He looked around for him using his flashlight but saw no one. His eyes scoured the area, and his sharp eyes caught a piece of red through a bush. He hurried over to check what it was and found his brother, Du Si, lying unconscious on the grass. Confusion turned to understanding as his gaze turned to the light in his client's room.

Notes:

1: The term 'brother' in China does not have to mean a biological brother. Much like the word 'hyung' in Korean, it is more of a respectful address.