Chapter 1.16

Bai Xian had always loved Mu Ninghua. He fell in love with her at first sight when he saw her eight-year-old, toothy smile that was directed at him.

Their grandparents were friends, their parents; best friends, so he thought it was only fitting that he and Mu Ninghua became lovers.

Of course, he didn't want to force such an innocent soul into a relationship, not to mention bringing her into the rich lifestyle so soon would shock her very much.

So he waited until they were fifteen. From then on, he wormed his way into her life, slowly making her rely on him until she wouldn't be able to live without him. His father told him that that was the proper way to woo a woman.

Unfortunately, before his plan could be fully implemented, he and his family moved overseas. Once he turned eighteen, he immediately wanted to come back, but then he learned that Mu Ninghua was dating Bu Huai. He became discouraged, but he cheered himself up, and did end up moving back to China, but he did not reach out to Mu Ninghua.

It turned out that he learned something in the U.S. He had learned that if somebody truly loved another, they would actively seek that person out.

So he decided to wait, and test Mu Ninghua for her love. Weeks became months, and months became years, before he knew it, it had been six years of waiting with no response.

And then he got the invitation for the high school reunion. How, he didn't know. He only went to the school for one year, but he figured it would be a good chance to get back into her life. He had waited for too long.

In his mind, Mu Ninghua would react with a scream of absolute delight when she saw him. What happened would probably be more along the lines of, "Who are you?" but a man could dream, okay?

When the day finally came, Bai Xian dressed to impress, with his hair gelled back for a mature vibe and a suit that would probably cost Li Ming's parents their entire paycheck.

He got into his luxury car and drove to the place they were meeting, making sure to park his car in a notable place to attract Mu Ninghua's attention, even if just a little.

He strode into the room confidently, in high spirits. He even participated in a competition for who could take the most shots in his excitement, though he only ended up a bit tipsy.

When he saw the commotion in the middle of the room about some woman and man, he wasn't even the slightest bit intrigued, but then something happened to completely reverse his stance.

The soft, yellow glow of a low-hanging pendant light near him reflected on something on Mu Ninghua's neck, sending a dull pain through Bai Xian's inebriated mind. "Ugh!" He hastily covered his eyes, almost pushing his drink over in the process.

When the pain finally slowed down, he rubbed his temples to push the rest away, immediately assuming that the pain was man-made and irritated at the culprit. He instantly went to find the source, looking in the direction the glare came from. He saw the fighting couple there.

Very quickly, he found the source of his troubles. On a chain that hung from the woman's neck, a ceramic pendant swung around. The glaze that surrounded it to protect the paint on it gleamed, which was what caused Bai Xian's head to hurt.

With his intoxicated mind, Bai Xian would never think more of such a pendant. But this pendant was special. Bai Xian would recognize this pendant even if he was a blind man desperately trying to save himself on the brink of death.

The pendant was a creamy white flower(1), and although to any regular person, it looked like a necklace that was bought at a street stall, master artisans could tell that each stroke of every petal was carefully thought about and deliberated.

It was expensive, to say the least, and it was also the pendant that Bai Xian had gifted Mu Ninghua the day he left. He had never gotten to see it around her neck, so he had many dreams about it, how she would be wearing the necklace when they got married and when they had kids. He was stuck in a fantasy, and he knew it, but right now was not a fantasy or a dream or just his imagination; it was real life.

Somewhere, in Bai Xian's hazy cognition, he understood that, but it wasn't the part that was directing his actions right now.

He drunkenly stood up, recognizing the woman as his love through her necklace. He stumbled over to the man who was beating her and grabbed him by the wrist before he could slap her.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Bai Xian yelled at the man, unintentionally slurring his words. "What are you trying to do to my girl?"

The surrounding people stared at Bai Xian in shock. They never would have guessed that the woman was Bai Xian's girlfriend if they weren't told straight to their faces.

Even Mu Ninghua ended up staring at Bai Xian because, well, she wasn't his girl! Mu Ninghua had no idea who this random person was, but he was definitely volatile and should not be provoked.

But Bai Xian was still drunk, how could he have the time to turn around and look at his white moonlight's(2) face of utter incredulity, he just wanted to beat up the man who tried to put a hand on 'his' girl. He shoved the man, and the man staggered away and fell to the floor.

Bai Xian advanced, gripping the man's collar with his hands, and brought back his fist to punch the man.

The surrounding people had finally reacted and rushed over to stop a fight from breaking out. They grabbed Bai Xian by his arms, preventing him from attacking the man by holding him back. Bai Xian sluggishly struggled against the people reining him in, even kicking one person in the shin multiple times, to the point where a large bruise would form.

When that person howled in pain and let go to hold his leg, Bai Xian's arm was free and he elbowed the other person in the face, breaking his nose in one hit. More people moved in to replace them, and Bai Xian's movements slowly became sharper as he fought against his captors, revealing that he had started to sober up.

Meanwhile, the man on the floor, Mu Ninghua's real boyfriend, got up, his eyes bloodshot with rage. He charged at Bai Xian who was slowly realizing what was happening and what he did.

Bai Xian stopped the man right in his tracks by grabbing his wrist and twisting hard. Very quickly, the sickening crack of a bone resounded throughout the room. The man screamed, clutching his hand that was now bent completely backward.

"Are you done?" Bai Xian asked in a sharp voice, and the fog in his eyes had cleared, although his words were still a bit melded together.

The man hastily nodded his head, not daring to say anything as that would reveal his shaky, fear-filled voice. He stood there silent, while Bai Xian was finally let go. He glared at the man menacingly before turning to a crying figure huddled on the floor.

It was Mu Ninghua. She didn't know how to react to this, so she simply waited for the show to end. Bai Xian offered a hand to help her get up like the true gentleman he acted like when not drunk.

Mu Ninghua tentatively took his hand, still suspicious of his intentions. He gripped it and pulled her up.

"I'm sorry for calling you 'my girl'," he apologized. Guilt was eating away at him, and he discreetly pinched himself as punishment. What if Mu Ninghua ran away? What if she was creeped out and decided to never speak to him again? He quickly pushed it away though.

"The necklace you were wearing reminded me of a present I gave my girlfriend long ago, so I mistook you for her," he fabricated a lie to explain his words and actions, but it wasn't all a lie. The best lies had some truth in them. It was also a hint to Mu Ninghua about who he was.

Unfortunately, Mu Ninghua had no recollection of him and blatantly showed it. "Oh! This necklace was gifted to me by a friend. He's in the U.S. right now, so I couldn't possibly be your girlfriend," she said after wiping away her tears and calming down.

Suddenly, Bai Xian was stabbed twice in the heart and was now coughing blood from the blows. 'She said "a friend". "A friend"! And she even said that she couldn't possibly be my girlfriend! T^T'

"Mm, well as somebody's boyfriend, I think I have the right to say that your… boyfriend is trash, and you should immediately break up with him." Bai Xian's face scrunched up as he spat the word 'boyfriend' for the second time, it was obvious that he was confused about this whole 'boyfriend' situation. Actually, the last time he checked, Mu Ninghua didn't even have a boyfriend, so he was a bit perplexed when this one dropped out of the sky.

Those words seemed to make Mu Ninghua jump in fright. Her face went pale once again, and her body trembled in fear. Bai Xian saw this and encouraged her, the rest of the people also joining in. Nobody supported this obviously toxic relationship, urging Mu Ninghua to break up.

Even Bu Huai who finally saw Mu Ninghua's face and was previously in the background, joined the crowd. Mu Ninghua gained courage from all these heartfelt words and turned to her boyfriend, determination blazing in her eyes.

She stalked up to him, looking straight up into his eyes, which she saw were full of fear and a bit of hope. That only served to make her courage grow. 'It's finally time,' she thought, excited.

"I'm breaking up with you."

Those words shattered all of the tiny expectations left in her boyfriend's heart, it seemed, for he turned tail and ran.

The crowd cheered. Even Ling Xia, who got to sit back and enjoy the show as an audience member for once, raised his hands to clap. It sent a great message.

Ling Xia looked over to the door, where the man was silently making his escape. Before he closed the door behind him, he turned back to Mu Ninghua and rubbed his index finger and thumb together, a sign that meant money, and then pointed to his broken wrist.

Ling Xia moved his gaze back to the center of attention to see what her reaction was, but she just gave the man a subtle but firm nod in response.

'Ah, so it was an act,' Ling Xia thought as he raised an eyebrow. It was probably her grand comeback into this group of people.

Ji Shengge glanced at Ling Xia's face when he saw him move. He had seen that face many times before. One eyebrow higher than the other, a slight mischievous smirk on his lips, and schadenfreude glowing in his eyes.

That was the face Ji Shengge faced many times during his dealings with Ling Xia. The face that Ling Xia only wore when something went in his favor. It was his signature smirk, the one that made it seem like chaos would unquestionably ensue.

A growing urge became very apparent from the back of his mind to investigate.

Meanwhile, Mu Ninghua turned back to the people who were supporting her with a brilliant smile on her lips. The women around her noticed that her makeup was smudged and took her away to fix her up. Only women, though, because men… were a bit unobservant toward these kinds of things.

Ling Xia, who was sad because he had to put his food down to clap, picked it up again and happily munched away. He thoroughly enjoyed the food and threw his plate away before remembering that he and Ji Shengge had never shook hands about making amends.

He whirled around to get Ji Shengge only to see him staring back at him. Ji Shengge lifted his hand, silently inquiring if this was what Ling Xia wanted.

Ling Xia smiled and took his hand, quickly this time so as not to be interrupted. Ji Shengge returned his smile. He opened his mouth to talk again, but before…

They were actually interrupted again.

The door of the room was slammed open for the second time, and everybody's gazes turned toward the source… for the second time.

In walked an absolutely stunning Mu Ninghua, this time, instead of accompanied by a scum boyfriend, followed by an entourage.

She wore a white dress decorated with navy blue flowers stitched on that nobody seemed to have noticed earlier. It was sleeveless, and the hem came just below her knees giving her a youthful look. A brown belt surrounded her waist, enhancing her figure, and one of the girls who went with her had curled her hair beautifully.

Her makeup was touched-up too, although it wasn't as heavy as the last time the others had seen her because the girls that followed her had told her that she didn't need so much makeup to look pretty. She looked pretty as she was. And it was true. The heavy makeup from before ruined her looks, but this light makeup accentuated her looks, making her much more beautiful.

She walked into the room, and a lot of people stared at her googly-eyed. They were starstruck. Ling Xia also thought she looked great, and that was coming from a person who had seen millions of people before. As was expected of the fate of the world.

Bu Huai's eyes instantly became heart-shaped. It was like he fell in love all over again. Though, this time, he wouldn't make the mistake of acting arrogant to drive her off. He strode up to Mu Ninghua, trying to act confident, though his act was failing since he kept on raking his hands through his hair and fiddling with his shirt.

Fortunately for him, Mu Ninghua recognized him as her first boyfriend and quickly started up a conversation with him, which Bu Huai instantly became engaged in.

Ling Xia shook his head in disappointment. All his words hadn't convinced Bu Huai at all.

Yang Lizhen also gazed at Bu Huai, pity filling his eyes.

Ji Shengge was kind of lost, looking back and forth between Ling Xia and Yang Lizhen, wondering what was happening.

Chu Yan also approached Mu Ninghua, still obsessed with her. Other than the ones who had regained their ability to control their actions, there was only one other capture target that hadn't gone to his previous crush, Qi Bai. He was the only one that had fallen out of love with Mu Ninghua.

It was odd because in the world's real timeline, all of the capture targets' love was eternal. One even almost fell in love with another but stayed loyal to Mu Ninghua in the end. And loyalty meant love, at least by Mu Ninghua's standards.

Back to Bai Xian, he looked at his newly discovered love rivals with hostility. He hid it well from Mu Ninghua, even actively going up to Bu Huai and introducing himself. "Hello, I'm Bai Xian, it's nice to meet you," he said with a smile, although his eyes weren't smiling at all.

Bu Huai returned to greeting, also hostile because he noticed Bai Xian's eyes. Honestly, he could notice that, but not Mu Ninghua's terrible acting? Why?

In earshot of the conversation because he was going to the door, Ling Xia overheard Bai Xian's introduction, and his eyes went wide. Bai Xian was the stalker childhood friend of Mu Ninghua! He was also the person that Ling Xia and Yang Lizhen decided was most likely to be the third male lead, the only one left to complete the collection.

He immediately hurried over to Yang Lizhen and dragged him out of the room with him. Yang Lizhen let himself be dragged away silently because he knew that Ling Xia would only do this if it was very important.

When they got to a secluded room, Ling Xia released his grip on Yang Lizhen. "What's wrong?" Yang Lizhen asked while rubbing his now red wrists.

Ling Xia noticed his actions and forgot everything he was going to say. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I don't really have anything that can help you though." Ling Xia frowned as he rummaged through the small wallet he brought, not really expecting anything that would help to be there, but looking just in case.

"It's fine, A-Hua always did the same thing to me. I'm used to it." Ling Xia frowned once again. He didn't want Yang Lizhen's mind wandering to his girlfriend and the real world while they were talking about serious stuff.

"That's good. But back to the topic at hand, that drunk guy that saved Mu Ninghua was Bai Xian! He finally showed himself!" Ling Xia exclaimed.

Yang Lizhen's eyes widened when he realized the gravity of Ling Xia's words. "That's going to ruin a lot of our plans. Now that he's back, he'll definitely try to stop us."

"I don't actually think he'll do that much. He implied that he was just a stranger to Mu Ninghua, right? So he probably won't do anything openly yet. He might work from the shadows, but there's only so much you can do from the shadows," Ling Xia calmly analyzed. He always seemed to calm down when others were panicking for some reason.

"You're right. Oh, yes, you were leaving early. Why? I thought you wanted to stay and observe Mu Ninghua for as long as possible."

Guilt tickled the back of Ling Xia's mind like a feather. "I wanted to catch up with that guy who pretended to be Mu Ninghua's boyfriend and interrogate him…"

"Alone?" A storm brewed in Yang Lizhen's eyes.

And that was why Ling Xia felt a bit guilty. Only a bit, mind you.

Because they were the only people the other could rely on in this world, they had agreed to do the dangerous things together, especially because if Yang Lizhen died, he would be lost forever. Ling Xia had a warranty if death befell him, but Yang Lizhen did not.

The only problem was, after centuries of being alone and manipulated, Ling Xia was bound to be more of the independent sort. It was even fair to say that he hated dependency. Due to this, he kind of forgot about the promise.

"Sorry." Ling Xia said with remorse in his eyes. "Asking you to come with me just slipped my mind."

Yang Lizhen realized that Ling Xia was telling the truth and sighed. "Just don't do it again."

"Of course," Ling Xia promised once again, this time planning on remembering to keep it. "Anyways, I was going to go after that man because I want to pay him for the records of his deal with Mu Ninghua."

"I don't understand. You said that that man pretended to be Mu Ninghua's boyfriend as well." Yang Lizhen was genuinely confused since Ling Xia hadn't told him anything about his findings.

Ling Xia briefly explained what happened during the class reunion. "He should still be in the parking lot or something because Mu Ninghua promised him money, probably to pay for his medical bills."

"Medi—"

Yang Lizhen started talking but was interrupted by Ling Xia's quiet, "Shh!" Yang Lizhen complied, silently asking Ling Xia why with his eyes.

Ling Xia's volume went down to a barely audible whisper. "I heard somebody's step on something. They aren't leaving."

Ling Xia tiptoed over to the wall separating them and the place he heard the step as silently and swiftly as a master of qinggong(3). He motioned for Yang Lizhen to follow him, letting his hand fall lightly on the doorknob.

Suddenly, a bunch of footsteps came one after another, signifying that the person Ling Xia was trying to catch off guard ran away. Supposedly, he heard the discussion stop so suddenly and knew that he had been caught, so he made a run for it.

Ling Xia slammed the door open, darting out to look in the direction of the noise to find a tall and broad-shouldered figure fleeing. "Catch him!" Ling Xia yelled to Yang Lizhen before chasing after the figure.

Notes:

1: The creamy white flower symbolize the white(bai) in Bai Xian's name, and the flower(hua) in Mu Ninghua's name.

2: A white moonlight is an unforgettable love. You'll keep them in your heart. More often than not in stories, male leads project their love for their white moonlight into expectations for their current lover. In their eyes, their white moonlight is perfect and cannot be replaced, so they can't help but find flaws in their current lover.

3: Qinggong is a martial arts technique that is used to move lightning-quick and silently. In martial arts movies or cultivation arcs, it's often exaggerated and about jumping from tree to tree, scaling walls, and assassinations.