Chapter 1.18

Ji Shengge's face was all too close to Ling Xia's as he stared up at Ling Xia. It was a face he was never expecting to see even in his wildest dreams.

"It's you!?" Ling Xia couldn't wrap his mind around this reality.

Then he heard Ji Shengge's next words.

"Mhm, and now you owe me a favor," he had said with a smile that screamed evil intentions.

Ling Xia took a long breath with closed eyes, wondering how he had ever believed that a person was willing to save him with no ulterior motives. He squeezed his eyes to tell himself to reset, and when he opened his eyes, he had a professional smile on his face.

It seemed like the 'friendship with Ji Shengge' plan would have to be trashed.

"I see. And what makes you think I'll deliver on this favor? I didn't ask you to save me, right?" Ling Xia wouldn't fall for this trick where people would do something for another person by themselves and would expect the other to do something in return. That only worked if the two involved people cared about each other.

Ji Shengge's smile became even more wicked. "Well, that's not the way to treat the person who led you straight to your target while being chased by you as well."

It took a moment for Ling Xia to understand what Ji Shengge just revealed. He was the eavesdropper they were trying to catch.

"What did you hear?" Ling Xia's body tensed up, and he leaned forward, ready to silence Ji Shengge the moment he heard something he didn't want come out of Ji Shengge's mouth. Dead men told no tales after all.

"Hold on. You're injured, remember? I'm sure you don't want to fight me right now," Ji Shengge said after seeing what state he was in.

Suddenly, the fact that he was severely injured came back to Ling Xia, bringing his awareness of the pain he was in with it. The pain, which seemed to have been dulled due to his engaging conversation with Ji Shengge, came back full swing, which Ling Xia was not very pleased with. He leaned back onto the couch, crossing his arms, wincing while doing so because of his injured arm.

Ji Shengge continued when he noticed Ling Xia's willingness to listen. "I only recorded a few minor details. Like the part where you were talking about being sorry about doing things alone. I thought things would get juicy after the whole 'Bai Xian being back is bad' part, so I started recording. Speaking of which, I could always go and tell him that you're after Mu Ninghua."

"And I could always go and tell everybody that you were a gang leader. I actually still have some proof of that on my laptop," Ling Xia retorted.

Ji Shengge gave a short and obviously fake laugh. "You could. But considering that I can send you to hell very easily right now, I think I'm the one with the advantage. I very kindly advise you to let yourself owe me a favor. A favor I'm going to call in right now actually."

"You had something in mind before you saved me," Ling Xia stated, not really asking Ji Shengge. When he saw Ji Shengge not denying it, a horrific thought rose to his mind.

"You were there while we were fighting, weren't you?" Ling Xia accused.

Ji Shengge nodded in reply, finding the situation not at all serious. "You watched them beat me!" Ling Xia hissed. "You were probably considering letting them break my legs too!"

"You're right. But you would be more defenseless if you were weakened by them," Ji Shengge openly admitted, definitely not guilty.

Ling Xia shook with anger and hatred. He detested being in situations like that, where everything was out of his control.

Ji Shengge noticed his face. "If it's any consolation to you, I'm sure you would do the same if you were in my position." From Ji Shengge's experience, Ling Xia was just as ruthless as him to people he didn't care about.

"Oh, please, I would only do that to people who hurt me. Like a certain somebody in front of me." Ling Xia spat before taking his second deep breath tonight, realizing that his anger was futile. If anger could change the world, humans might have gone extinct by now.

Another realization of his was that he was desperately outmatched, so he gave in. "What's the favor you want?"

"Just let me tag along on your adventures to defeat Mu Ninghua." Ling Xia narrowed his eyes warily. Ji Shengge shrugged at his expression. "I don't think my reasons are necessary."

Ling Xia nodded. "Okay. It'll be great to have a helping hand during our adventures," he finished with mischievous light in his eyes. That was going to be part of his payback. He would torture Ji Shengge with countless tasks.

Ji Shengge dryly laughed. "I feel like I'm being set up." He stood, looking down at Ling Xia. "You should go to the doctor's. Check if you have a concussion. Wouldn't want it to ruin our fun."

Ji Shengge went and considerately called an ambulance to help Ling Xia out. "Hello? My friend's unconscious." His voice cracked, and tears poured down his face, although nobody but Ling Xia and himself knew that they were completely fake.

His sobs and sniffles were transmitted over the phone, and the person who received the call became worried. "What happened? And where are you?"

"H–he got hurt by these people who were hounding him for money. He wouldn't give them any, so they, so they beat him up. His head is bleeding so much."

Ji Shengge also mentioned Ling Xia's address and thought the conversation would be over, but the woman who answered the phone continued. "Alright, we'll get an ambulance over immediately, sweetie. Can you try and bandage up his head, so it doesn't bleed so much?"

The corner of Ji Shengge's eye twitched when he heard the woman call him 'sweetie', annoyed at the nickname.

"I tried! But the blood just kept coming out!" Ji Shengge cried out, his voice thick with sadness.

"That's okay. Why don't you just get ready to open the door at any moment, hmm? They should be there in five minutes or so."

"O–okay." Ji Shengge's chest heaved as he cried, and the woman on the other end somehow got that image just from his voice. The woman hung up, and Ji Shengge immediately wiped away his tears.

"You know, if you told her the address first, they would be able to get here faster." Ling Xia complained from the couch.

"I know, I just wanted to make you suffer more." Ling Xia rolled his eyes, not in the mood for jokes after finding out that Ji Shengge stood by while he was getting hurt. "Now play your part," Ji Shengge said before walking over to Ling Xia and performing the classic chop to the back of the neck to him.

Ling Xia flopped onto the couch, staying there until the ambulance got to the house. It arrived with the sirens going crazy like usual, notifying everybody of its presence. The people in the ambulance rushed to the unconscious body and put him on a stretcher.

They drove off to the hospital, Ji Shengge not being allowed to accompany them because of his lack of connection with the patient.

Over the next few days, a bunch of people visited Ling Xia, expressing their condolences. Some even left cards or flowers. After he notified his coach that he had a concussion, he immediately came over to his ward and strictly cautioned him against practicing for the next figure skating competition for a few weeks.

Theoretically, Ling Xia would be unbelievably bored during these twenty odd days, but Li Ming's brother visited him and brought some unexpected news.

Li Qing arrived at the ward with a bright smile on his face. Following him was a young woman with a shy expression who Ling Xia had definitely seen before. He had no idea from where though.

"Brother(1), this is my girlfriend, Mu Ningmian. Ningmian, this is Li Ming, my brother," Li Qing introduced the two strangers to each other.

Ling Xia's and Mu Ningmian's eyes widened in surprise. "Mu Ningmian? As in Mu Ninghua's sister, Mu Ningmian?"

"You're Li Ming? My sister hates you!" Mu Ningmian exclaimed in absolute confusion. Who could have guessed that they would cross paths again like this?

"You two know each other?" Li Qing asked, even more confused than them.

Mu Ningmian's originally shy expression turned cold. "Yes. I had no idea that the brother you look up to so much was such a bad person," she said, not even hiding her disdain.

"What are you talking about?" Li Qing asked before turning to Ling Xia and asking the same question. "What is she talking about?"

"Mu Ninghua and I had a bit of a rocky past," Ling Xia awkwardly explained.

"Yeah. He ruined my sister's career!"

"Wait, what? Ruining her career? Sure, your sister and I weren't on good terms, but I didn't do anything to her," Ling Xia protested, half feigning ignorance and half being genuinely confused.

Other than blackmailing her right before the college entrance exams and the occasional face-slapping(2), he had done nothing to her.

"That's not what my sister told me. She told me that you asked the scorers to hijack her score," Mu Ningmian said,

Ling Xia scoffed. "Typical of her to blame everything on me." He bitterly spat and then looked into Mu Ningmian's eyes. "Did she ever tell you how I could possibly achieve something like that?"

Mu Ningmian's mouth stayed closed as her eyebrows furrowed to show how far she was digging into her memories to remember any instance like the one Ling Xia described. Finally, she reluctantly shook her head.

"Well, maybe you should ask her what happened again. Because as far as I remember, she always blamed me for things I didn't do. One time, I answered a question correctly after she gave the wrong answer, and she scolded me for embarrassing her even though nobody cared for more than one second."

Mu Ningmian's mouth hung open in shock.

Ling Xia caught her expression but mercilessly continued. "She kept on doing these things to me, and I finally realized that our friendship was one-sided, so I cut it off. That's all that happened if you don't count all the times she tried to sabotage me.

"She even tried to plant an answer sheet in my pocket before the one of the monthly exams to make it seem like I was cheating. And she tried to make it seem like I was a prostitute that was getting money from Ling Yu. She—"

"Stop!" Li Qing interrupted. "Can't you see Ningmian's expression?" Li Qing looked at Ling Xia with pleading eyes.

Horror covered her entire face with deep sadness that she tried to keep hidden beneath her startled profile. There was also a bit of utter disbelief in her expression, but it kept on reducing with every passing second.

Although it felt like she was betraying her sister by having these thoughts, what Ling Xia said was pretty reasonable in Mu Ningmian's eyes. That was something Mu Ninghua would do.

"No, it's fine. I think I was just blindly idolizing my sister without considering who she really was. This was my wakeup call." She forced a smile that somehow came from her heart. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Ling Xia casually responded, not even taking a shred of responsibility for what happened, acting like the victim all the way through.

Li Qing looked back and forth between Ling Xia and Mu Ningmian, and after seeing that their conversation was over, he restarted the entire conversation, thinking that it would be better to start on a clean slate. "So, once again, this is my girlfriend, Mu Ningmian, and this is my brother, Li Ming."

"Hello," Ling Xia greeted, tacitly understanding Li Qing's thoughts. Inside, he was celebrating. Once Mu Ningmian confirmed all of the information he had given to her, he would have one more person on his side.

Mu Ningmian took a deep breath to reset. "Hi. It's nice to meet you. But will you be okay with our relationship even though…"

She didn't have to finish her sentence for Ling Xia to understand her question. "Don't worry. If there's one thing I know, it's that Mu Ninghua is an anomaly even in her own family. Not many people are as cruel as she is, and I prefer to judge people based on their own actions instead of their family's." Ling Xia showed a grin that expressed his goodwill.

Mu Ningmian gave him a half-smile back. Even though she said she believed Ling Xia, there was still a bit of doubt in the back of her mind. She had to know if all this was true.

The three people continued talking, and Mu Ningmian and Ling Xia became acquainted. Mu Ningmian and Li Qing then went to their own respective homes.

After which, Mu Ningmian marched up to her sister and interrogated her. In the end, let's just say Mu Ningmian was left unsure of who's side to be on. Her sister's, who had committed many unforgivable crimes, or her boyfriend's brother, who had also committed a few crimes, but none so great as her sister's?

It all came down to what she cared about more; her relationship with her sister or her morals.

With pursed lips, she went to bed, hoping to get some relief from these revelations, only to toss and turn in her sleep.

Ling Xia, on the contrary, went on to have a very comforting sleep. Because he had nothing to do, he just tweaked the choreography for the free skate in the next competition to his liking until he fell asleep.

He'd been choreographing his own programs even after he'd gotten a coach. He'd even choreographed a few programs from the figure skaters under the same coach as him because they liked his so much.

Just one of the perks of being a world-hopper, he presumed.

Being their choreographer actually brought him closer to them, and he was glad to say that he had made a few more friends, even if they'd be rivals on the ice rink.

After he was discharged from the hospital, he stayed at home and didn't do anything. What could he do except to go out for a walk sometimes and maybe cook some food? He couldn't even read a book because that required too much concentration and gave him a headache after a few minutes.

To top it all off, he had a watchdog that followed him everywhere, making sure he didn't fall unconscious suddenly.

And, yep, that watchdog was Ji Shengge. Due to Li Qing's summer break being over, Li Ming's parents having to go to work, and Yang Lizhen being handed the position of CEO after Ling Yu's father died, nobody else was left to accompany him except for Ji Shengge.

And Ji Shengge volunteered for the job as well, so it was a done deal that was only torturing Ling Xia.

"You can leave now," Ling Xia said through gritted teeth as he pulled the covers over himself.

"No, I think I'm fine right here. This is our last day together, after all. I want to spend the entire time with you." Ji Shengge gave him a bright smile that made Ling Xia gag.

He looked at Ji Shengge with a deadpan expression. "You won't find whatever you've been looking for today. Or any time, actually."

"I'm looking for something?" Ji Shengge whistled. "Nice," he nonchalantly remarked, dragging the word out.

Ling Xia rolled his eyes. "Yes, you are. That's why you keep on following me around like a dog. Either that or you're investigating me. Honestly, I can't find a reason for you to do either."

"Well, I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm trying to find out why…" Ji Shengge paused, as if trying to put his thoughts into words. "Such an intelligent person put on a facade of dullness."

"Are you talking about me?" Ling Xia asked with an expression of incredulity on his face. Ji Shengge nodded. Seeing that he was dead serious, Ling Xia was even more confused.

"I have no idea what you mean. Even if I am more scheming than I seem, I never acted dull." How could he act dull? That would go against Li Ming's character traits. He had to be just as smart as Li Ming.

"I'm not talking about having knowledge or getting top scores, Li Ming. That won't get you anywhere in this world. What you need is cunning. But you pretended as if all you had was smarts and kept all your schemes and plots hidden," Ji Shengge explained as he sat on the edge of Ling Xia's bed.

A lightbulb lit up in Ling Xia's brain after he instinctively tried to kick Ji Shengge off, and Ji Shengge grunted in pain, an exchange that had happened many times.

"I just thought it would be more conducive to my goal of staying alive," Ling Xia answered, still kicking Ji Shengge. His grunt apparently went unheard by Ling Xia.

"You mean you thought there would be less of a chance that Mu Ninghua decided to kill you?" Ji Shengge asked, jumping straight to the same page Ling Xia was on. It made Ling Xia appreciate Ji Shengge's brain more.

What did not make him appreciate it was how Ji Shengge's upper body fell backward onto the bed, making Ling Xia feel like his space was invaded even more. Ji Shengge also managed to fall right on Ling Xia's legs, so that didn't help.

"Mhm," he answered, his voice showing his displeasure.

"I would think it would be the opposite. She was attracted to the more cunning individuals," Ji Shengge said.

"The more rich individuals," Ling Xia corrected with raised eyebrows. "She was actually attracted to you." Ling Xia snickered.

Ji Shengge's face turned green and then black. "That was… not what I was expecting." He cleared his throat.

"Heh. Feel my pain," Ling Xia dryly responded with mischief behind it.

"What pain?" Ji Shengge asked. "You've never had anybody like that like you. I don't think anybody's liked you at all, actually."

"How sad is it that I can't deny that?" Ling Xia inquired, genuinely curious for somebody else's answer. Through all of the worlds he'd been in, not a single person confessed to him, the real him.

But that was good in his eyes. He was glad about it. Because if there were no feelings from either side, then that meant no relationship could begin. No relationship meant no broken hearts.

But what did another person think?

"That's depressing." Ji Shengge sighed. "But maybe somebody will fall for you someday."

"You think?" Ling Xia asked, acting casual.

"I don't know. It seems less and less likely the more I think about it," Ji Shengge answered. Not hearing the quiet, relieved sigh leaving Ling Xia's mouth after his words, he continued. "Something about you… just makes me feel like there is no prospect of falling in love in your life."

Ling Xia raised an eyebrow. Ji Shengge's analysis was accurate, which just made him more dangerous. Luckily, he was fake.

"Really? I didn't think so," Ling Xia lied. "Whatever. I'm going to sleep now. I can't stand another second having to converse with you."

"Mm." Ji Shengge pushed himself off of Ling Xia's bed, quickly leaving the room. Ling Xia heard the creak of the door closing behind Ji Shengge, and he closed his eyes, falling asleep soon after, his dreams as peaceful as ever.

Notes:

1: Chinese people address their older brothers and sisters by 'sister' or 'brother' and strangers of around the same age.

2: Face-slapping is not meant literally. Just think of it as a figurative slapping of the face that is done when you crush somebody at something that badly. They can feel the burn on their face.