Chapter 1.15

A/n: So, uh, what the heck happened, you might ask. Or you might not, but I'm going to answer anyway. I finished this chapter a long time ago, and then, for some reason, I didn't want to upload this one until the next one was finished. I don't know why, but I did, so have that other chapter too as an apology. Enjoy!

In the blink of an eye, six years passed.

First and foremost, he had found no other trapped people from the real world. That was definitely what Ling Xia considered the worst thing that happened, or didn't happen, in the past few years.

A good thing that happened was that Ling Xia finally got rid of Mu Ninghua by implementing his blackmail plan at the end of the school year, and showing her all the evidence he had against her after dropping all pretenses. She was very angry, but also scared that all the dirt on her would come to light, so she left Ling Xia alone.

Because Mu Ninghua stopped talking to him, Ling Xia finally had an excuse to cut all ties with Ji Shengge and the Crimson Moon gang. He even generously told Ji Shengge who his source of information was through the year.

That information didn't come in handy though because Ji Shengge resigned from his post as gang leader near the end of the school year. Their parting wasn't that great either, so Ling Xia wouldn't blame Ji Shengge for not believing his words and not relaying that information to the new gang leader.

He and Ling Xia aced the college entrance exams, and Ji Shengge left to college while Ling Xia stayed to become a figure skater.

Mu Ninghua, on the other hand, almost failed her college entrance exams because Ling Xia evilly went and blackmailed her the day before that. So she didn't get into the college of her dreams.

Ling Xia definitely didn't cackle gleefully when he heard that she didn't get that high of a score.

And that was the last time Ji Shengge, Ling Xia, and Mu Ninghua ever saw each other.

He did keep tabs on Mu Ninghua though. Because she hadn't gotten into a good university, she didn't continue to date Bu Huai, a relationship they had only started the last few months of high school. She still owned Bu Huai's heart, though, something Ling Xia had tried to change many times through his quickly blooming friendship with Bu Huai.

Bu Huai and Ling Xia did keep in contact, sometimes going out for some food together, and were no close friends. Someday in the future, Ling Xia wanted to use his friendship with Bu Huai to make him fall out of love with Mu Ninghua, so she would be vulnerable and easy to defeat.

In the business field, Ling Xia was also doing great.

After the nerve regeneration technology was released, it shot to popularity, which earned him some prestige. He'd then been offered many jobs as the lead developer of biotechnology companies, but he refused all of them.

Creating new technology was just an on and off thing, he really didn't care about it that much.

Although he sometimes cooperated with V and helped him out some, he basically retreated into the background from that point on. Because of the cooperations and his friendship with V, he had earned his trust, and V would protect him if Mu Ninghua ever tried to make a comeback.

He kept his life as Ling Xia and life as Li Ming separate. In Li Ming's life, the only people who knew about his double life were Li Ming's family.

In the life that was involved in business, he and his friends had tacitly agreed not to talk about hidden identities, also because V kept his identity secret as well.

There was another place where he used his 'Li Ming' identity though. He used the name 'Li Ming' in the figure skating field, also the place that had the most development in the past few years.

After the first two years of figure skating, Ling Xia started posting himself doing performances online.

In the beginning, he focused only on the interpretation of the music part and not the technical elements at all because he had been a dancer and choreographed dances in another life. Well, he soon found out that dancing on the floor and dancing on ice were two completely different things, so although he didn't have to relearn everything from scratch, it was definitely a setback.

After mastering that, he slowly incorporated the technical elements in, like jumps and spins. He liked spins more, to be honest, they worked better with the choreography unless the jumps were times impeccably.

People actually donated to him for great performances, so he earned some cash while he was at it.

He only had to do that for half a year or so, before he caught the attention of a coach who brought him to the national and international stages. Li Ming's parents were delighted to hear that their 'son's dreams were finally coming true and always attended the competitions, which did bring Ling Xia some nerves.

It was always worse messing up in front of somebody he knew than a complete stranger. After all, only one could talk about it with him afterward.

That being said, he didn't go into international competition right after he was recruited.

There were two aspects of being a figure skater, the mental and physical ones. Ling Xia had the mental one down a long time ago, mostly because he was technically hundreds of years old.

But anyhow, for the physical part, he kinda failed in every place possible. He was still working on his double axel when he was scouted, so he first had to improve his jumping performance a lot.

Four years later, also known as now, he finally landed his first quadruple jump in competition, a quadruple lutz.

He was never going to admit the only reason that his physical fitness improved so quickly was because of the little pushes from his spiritual power, although he tried not to use it too much. Despite his lack of connection to anybody in this world, he really did want to learn a skill or set of skills in each world, not just breeze through it because of his insane spiritual power.

Although, he did think learning how to use spiritual power in the previous worlds he'd been in was a great time investment.

The most important thing he'd achieved in these past five years, though, had nothing to do with figure skating or spiritual power.

He had slowly changed Li Ming's family's impression of himself. Now, he could freely act like himself for the rest of this life.

He could show the school he graduated from four years ago too since they were having a reunion… tonight.

He actually really needed this. He had lost contact with Mu Ninghua for so long, and this would bring her back into his life. To be honest, blackmailing Mu Ninghua didn't satisfy him or equal up to how much Mu Ninghua tried to make him suffer, so this would be redemption!

So Ling Xia pulled on a nice, black, button-down shirt and black slacks. He also added a hat matching the color of his other clothing because it was a warm, midsummer evening. How did people dress for high school reunions anyway? Throughout all the worlds he had been in, he had never come across a high school reunion, oddly enough.

Ling Xia left his house, making sure to lock the door on the way out. There had been some suspicious people lurking around the area, and Ling Xia had no idea who they were or why they were here, but he wanted to protect against them.

He tested his door by trying to open it, satisfied with his unsuccessful attempt. He got on his bike and rode over to the building where they were having the reunion. He actually owned a car, but he really wanted to bike there.

The decision was made on a whim, but it took him back to when he wasn't allowed to drive, and had to bike everywhere. The perfect memory for a high school reunion.

The reunion was in a nice, rented room specifically for something like this. They decided it was going to be a potluck at the last minute, so Ling Xia had rushed to make something for it.

He had made an egg and tomato stir-fry, and it was now jostling around in its container. Ling Xia had even put a seatbelt on for it, but it would probably still look ruined by the time he arrived.

That didn't mean it wouldn't taste good though. It came from a chef that worked in a two Michelin star restaurant, albeit in another world.

Ling Xia pushed open the door to the place to find some people already there. He set the food down on the table and looked around the room to find Li Ming's friends, very quickly being reminded that Li Ming had had no friends. He was friends with Mu Ninghua, but we all know how that went.

As more people poured into the room, it was made more and more apparent to him that Li Ming truly had no friends.

That was, until Bu Huai rolled in. He looked around the room for Mu Ninghua and seemed very disappointed when he couldn't find her. Ling Xia could practically see the originally excited doggy ears drooping down because of the missing person.

Because of the pity Ling Xia felt for him, and definitely not because Ling Xia felt like an outcast, he made his way over to him and initiated a conversation.

"Hello," he greeted.

"Hi," Bu Huai said back, obviously depressed from not seeing his favorite person. "How are you?" he perfunctorily asked.

"I'm fine, you?" Ling Xia cheerily responded, trying to infect Bu Huai with his enthusiasm, but also not really caring.

Bu Huai sighed, the type of sigh that came from people who had been through the turmoils and vicissitudes of life, a disappointed yet expectant sigh. Ling Xia was surprised. He thought only old people did that, forgetting that he himself was much older than Bu Huai.

"I'm okay," he drearily answered.

Ling Xia leaned on the wall next to Bu Huai, taking a sip of his newly opened can of soda. Even if he was now an athlete, he could indulge sometimes. Plus, he had been deprived of soda for over a year!

He internally cried tears of joy when the first drop of sweet, fizzy soda reached his tongue, feeling like he was on top of the world. 'It's been so long, my love.'

One thing to know about Ling Xia was that he adored soda, although he always refrained from drinking it to keep himself healthy.

Once Ling Xia had downed the entire can and also stopped himself from getting another, he finally spoke again. "You don't have to be so depressed. Maybe she'll come later."

"Oh, you mean Ninghua?" Bu Huai asked, already having confirmed this. He didn't even find it odd that Ling Xia knew what he was thinking because he was already used to this. "Hopefully."

Ling Xia sympathetically patted Bu Huai's shoulder. Over the years, he had discovered that Bu Huai was actually a good person and was acting arrogant. He thought it was sad that Bu Huai had fallen for such a woman and was still being tricked by her.

That was not to say Ling Xia wasn't tricking Bu Huai as well, but at least he did it with Bu Huai's best intentions in mind.

Ling Xia shrugged. "Maybe the reason she's not here is because she isn't who you're fated to be with. Maybe this is to make you realize that you need to look for somebody else. Maybe this is just like the old man losing his horse(1)," Ling Xia once again tried to persuade Bu Huai to give up on Mu Ninghua.

"No! She's the one I'm meant to be with! I'm sure of it!" Bu Huai suddenly burst out in a somewhat childish manner.

Ling Xia held his hands up in defense. "Alright, I'm sorry."

"What are you two talking about?" a familiar, clear voice asked from the right of Ling Xia. Ling Xia turned his head to see Yang Lizhen holding two plates of food. He passed one to Ling Xia.

"Ooh, thanks," Ling Xia said, instantly attracted by the enticing fragrance the food was emitting. It was Japanese curry and rice, but the curry was made from scratch, Ling Xia could tell. The smell was unlike anything any curry block or powder would give, yet so similar.

He ate some, savoring every bite of the food. "I didn't know we had such a good cook in the class. What was the name on it?"

All the people who came to the reunion had come to the consensus to put their name on their own dishes, so they could tell the difference between two similar containers when it was time to go home.

"I believe it was Ji Shengge." Ling Xia raised an eyebrow, officially astounded at this piece of information. When he saw that Yang Lizhen wasn't joking, something Ling Xia should've known because Yang Lizhen never joked, he let out a whistle of appreciation.

"Nice," he complimented Ji Shengge, not knowing that he was in earshot.

"Thank you," Ji Shengge said in a genuinely sincere voice.

Ling Xia looked at the source and didn't expect it to be Ji Shengge. His voice had mellowed out a lot since he had last seen him.

"Oh, hey, it's been a long time," Ling Xia beamed.

"Yeah, it has. You look… shorter," Ji Shengge remarked, using the only word he could think of after surveying Ling Xia.

Ling Xia let out a short, angry laugh. "I see you're still as annoying as ever."

He wasn't really angry. What Ji Shengge failed to take into account was Ling Xia's height in the real world. He was 185 cm in the real world, successfully passing Ji Shengge's 182 cm, so in the end, he won. No need to be petty about it.

"And I see you still like to sneak into other's events," Ji Shengge retorted, referring back to how Ling Xia snuck into Mu Ninghua's house during a birthday party.

Ling Xia's eyebrows furrowed, bemused. Ji Shengge simply gestured to Ling Xia's clothing, and Ling Xia glanced down at his all-black clothing. Gazing down at it, he remembered he had also put a black hat on. He probably looked like a thief or something to a stranger.

Ling Xia tried to hold in a laugh thinking of how people would react if they saw him on the streets but decided against it and chuckled. His chuckle soon turned into a full-on laugh.

'Oh, the look on their faces must be priceless,' he thought, feeling a small urge to try going out there and standing outside of a house.

"You're laughing." Ji Shengge noted, his voice going unnaturally high for a moment in astonishment.

Ling Xia nodded. "Yes, I know, you've never seen such a handsome man truly laugh before," he jokingly complimented himself.

Ji Shengge snorted, covering his mouth in fake pity. "You? Handsome. You're mediocre at best."

It was true. Li Ming didn't have many notable features except for his dark eyes that looked very endearing, although he was never able to use them because only a cold light ever reached them.

Ling Xia had no comeback though, so he just kept laughing. Ji Shengge also laughed along with him, and for the first time, they acted like friends, continuing to poke fun at each other and make snide remarks that would previously be considered provocation, but were now fun and games.

"Why are you acting so friendly anyways?" Ji Shengge asked after they calmed down.

Ling Xia shot the same question back at him. "Why are you acting so friendly with me?" Ji Shengge stayed silent, waiting for a real response, and Ling Xia delivered on that. "I honestly think we should put our past behind us. It's been five years after all."

He didn't want to be petty and continue to be enemies with Ji Shengge even though he'd never see him after this world. It wouldn't hurt to become friends with the son of one of the richest families in China either.

He stuck his hand out, offering a handshake for forgetting the past and moving on. Ji Shengge's face split into a grin, and he reached out to take Ling Xia's hand. Before they could feel the heat coming from the other's hand though, the door opened once again, this time with a loud bang.

Mostly everybody's eyes shot to the source, even Bu Huai's and Yang Lizhen's who were absorbed in their own conversation.

A man roughly dragged a woman into the room by the arm. Giving a final yank of her arm to make her face him, he finally let go of her, but the evidence of his misdeed was still there.

There, on the woman's pale arm, the outline of fingers could be seen in bright red, although she desperately tried to cover it up.

"Look! We're here. You've been bugging me to go to this stupid reunion for so long, and we're here! Aren't you happy?" the man shouted in his high voice.

Many people stared at the sight in horror. Some people wanted to step up and help, but they didn't know what to do. They were debating whether to reason with the man or to go up and fight him.

Although the man committed such a crime against the woman, he wasn't actually intimidating, instead having a tall, lanky figure. Neither of them were identifiable, the man never having been seen before, and the woman hanging her head, letting nobody see her face.

"I–I'm happy," the woman's feeble voice came out, obviously not happy. Her fingers trembled as she clutched her arms in a posture that looked like she was hugging herself. She shivered uncontrollably, most likely out of fear, considering the position she was in.

The man was still in the dominant position, shouting out a string of insults to her and ordering her to introduce him to her friends.

In Ling Xia's eyes, the scene was something he would never stand for. The only reason he didn't interfere was because he had a growing hunch about who the woman was, and he wanted to confirm it before deciding whether it was worth taking action for.

The woman cowered in fear as the man, seeing the woman not responding to his words, raised a hand to slap the woman.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, bracing herself for the impact she had felt many times before. But it never came.

She slowly opened her eyes, and took a step back in surprise. A hand had grabbed the man's arm, stopping him from bringing his hand down on the woman's face.

Notes:

1: Old man losing his horse: There's a story about an old man losing his horse but it ended up being a blessing in disguise.