Chapter 1.26

But fate had other plans, as it would appear. Ji Shengge had just gotten to the final step of the stairs, finally finished with Yang Lizhen's horrid plate, when Bu Huai brushed shoulders with him as he went past him.

He thought nothing of it, but people's eyes always followed what was most interesting. And right now, the most interesting thing was the slight stomp in every step Bu Huai took. Ji Shengge kept his eyes on Bu Huai's feet, and it didn't take long for him to realize that Bu Huai was planning on leaving.

His brown jacket fluttered behind him as he rushed down one flight of stairs to talk to Bu Huai. He called out the other's name calmly. "Bu Huai."

His unwavering voice reached Bu Huai's ears, compelling him to turn around. After a moment of hesitation, he complied with Ji Shengge's wishes as his body rotated slowly. With an obviously forced smile on his face, he asked, "What?"

"Are you guys already done?" Ji Shengge politely wondered.

Bu Huai's face twisted as if one side wanted him to lie to get out of this house and one wanted him to tell the truth. After a long few seconds, he heaved a breath, spitting out a breathy "No".

He had decided to tell the truth.

Ji Shengge keenly noticed that something was wrong with the way Bu Huai was acting. "What's wrong? Why are you leaving?"

"They... I don't think they are my friends anymore." Even if Ling Xia and Wei Liqin told him they were his friends after he left the room, it was obviously just a ruse to get his help. He saw the hesitation in Ling Xia's eyes, and from now on, he would only believe what he saw with his own two eyes. No hearsay allowed.

Ji Shengge cocked his head slightly to the side, openly displaying his utter confusion. "What are you talking about? Why wouldn't they be your friends?"

Bu Huai explained to him what had transpired a few minutes ago. Bu Huai seemed to be heartbroken, but Ji Shengge was still confused. "There could have been a lot of other reasons for his hesitation. It doesn't have to be that," he reasoned out, so Bu Huai wouldn't rashly make this decision that might change his life.

"Like what? What else could it have been?" Bu Huai threw his hands up in frustration. There was no other possibility! Why couldn't Ji Shengge just understand that?

"Like hesitation because he saw something weird on you, or because he noticed something weird about the conversation." Ji Shengge shrugged. "There are many possibilities. Maybe the reason he hesitated was actually the opposite of what you think."

Bu Huai shook his head, looking at Ji Shengge as if he was dumb. "What are you talking about?" Though his gaze was scalding, his actions told the opposite story, his hand finally slipping off the door handle. It now hung loosely at his side, but still in proximity to the door handle that he could twist and pull at any moment to leave the house.

"I'm saying that maybe Li Ming paused because he realized he was friends with you. Not the other way around." At least that was what Ji Shengge thought was the case. He had to do something like that once too.

"How unlikely is that?" Bu Huai's resolve started cracking as he tried to defend his theory. Because it might be true. That 'might' was what caused him all his problems.

Ji Shengge noticed this though. No matter how much he annoyed Ling Xia by pretending to be an idiot, that could not be further from the truth. He pressed on. "I don't know, but doesn't that miniscule chance it's true make it worth not losing a friend?"

Maybe Bu Huai could take a gamble and go back up there, repair their relationship. He stood there, knowing that he didn't want his, Ling Xia's, Yang Lizhen's, and maybe also Wei Liqin's relationship to fade, but he didn't know how to go about it even if he did go back into that room.

But it was worth a try. He mustered up all the courage inside of him, and, so as not to change his mind halfway through, he raced past Ji Shengge and knocked on the door loudly before he could double-check his actions.

Ji Shengge jogged after him, standing behind Bu Huai's shoulder, acting as Bu Huai's rock and also as his captor, preventing him from leaving. Wide stance and smoldering eyes, this epitome of the stereotype bodyguard was the sight the three people inside the room were greeted with when they looked over.

Of course, the main person in the scene was Bu Huai, so their eyes weren't distracted by Ji Shengge for long.

A shaky smile on his face, Ling Xia pulled open the door for the two to enter, his eyes stuck on Bu Huai. As he grasped the door handle, he found his slick with sweat, something he hadn't felt in a long time.

In the other worlds, he had never felt these emotions because he couldn't choose his actions. Everything was forced, so he was automatically biased against everything in those worlds.

He was a person that always monitored his emotions, making sure he understood them and why he did certain things. He very clearly knew about his biases and what they resulted in, but this was so completely unexpected, it almost made him freeze in his spot.

His hands were sweating. Because of a friendship with somebody he knew wasn't real. How scuffed was that?

Nevertheless, time waited for no man, so he pulled open the door, comforting himself with the knowledge that he would never see the man that brought him so many unwanted emotions after he left this world.

"You came back," Yang Lizhen noted from behind Ling Xia as he stood slowly from his chair, shocked.

Bu Huai stayed silent, and nobody really knew what to say next. Fortunately, Ji Shengge broke the silence with a horribly-timed snarky remark as usual. "You can thank me," he said with a nod. A confident smirk laid on his face, not a semblance of the caring side he had shown when he gave his heartfelt advice to Bu Huai present.

Care and love were a fatal weakness when dealing with enemies after all... or people that consider themselves his enemies. To him, Ling Xia was nowhere near his enemy. Instead, he was the source of Ji Shengge's problems.

"Thanks," Ling Xia sarcastically answered, hiding his gratitude away.

A hand landed on Ling Xia's shoulder, white skin contrasting with black cloth, as Wei Liqin popped into the conversation. "We decided that maybe we should follow your suggestion. Y'know, get into witness protection."

From the very beginning, this wasn't a problem with losing their identities. This wasn't even the real world, so why should they care? It was always a problem caused by conflicting morals.

But a tree that couldn't bend, instead broke. Now that they decided that they wanted to be friends with Bu Huai, they had to conform to his standards a bit too.

If that meant compromising and telling the authorities about Chu Yan and Bai Xian, then so be it.

Bu Huai blinked. "Wow, um, thanks." He shuffled his feet, his voice sounding unsure. "But I just came back to know why you hesitated when I asked you that question."

"Oh." Ling Xia scratched his nose in embarrassment. On the table, the fingers on the other hand slightly curled as he tried to figure out what to say. "Um..." Somehow, he explained the situation, and to Bu Huai's surprise and confoundment, Ji Shengge was spot on. "So, yeah..."

"Then that's great." A large breath that Bu Huai was holding was finally released as his body sagged in relief.

"So we were thinking that maybe it's better to lose our identities and stuff. It'll make putting Mu Ninghua in jail much easier, so why not?" Wei Liqin repeated. He had let go of Ling Xia's shoulder by then, assuming his original position: sitting in a chair.

Ji Shengge shrugged, still behind Bu Huai. Realizing that most likely nobody saw him shrug, he lightly pushed Bu Huai into the room to give the others a better vantage point. It would actually be an exaggeration to call it a push, it was more like a tap, signalling Bu Huai to move forward.

Still, Bu Huai's reaction made it seem like a push. He jolted, stumbled forward a bit, then hastily moved aside for Ji Shengge. Then Ji Shengge was left awkwardly standing with his hands up as proof of his 'misdeed'. He pretended not to notice the stares directed at him. "Sure, got nothing to lose anyways."

"Well, it was my idea, so..." Bu Huai didn't really know where his input came in, so he left his sentence open.

"Then we're at a consensus." Ling Xia smiled.

Discussion closed.

...

Parents were the people that loved their children most. No matter what that child did, they would love them. They might hate them at the same time, but their love for them would never dwindle.

At least that was the case in most situations.

Growing up in a family where her parents hated her was normal for Mu Ninghua. She was unloved, so it was only natural that she strayed from the 'good child' path her older brother set for her.

She did lots of things that she wasn't proud of, just for that measly second of attention from her parents, good or bad. She soon calmed down though, realizing that no amount of crazy acts would change her parents' feelings for her from obligatory responsibility to actual love.

It was then that she fell in love with an otome game. She loved playing it, and then, out of nowhere, she was sucked into that game. Be it intentional or a fluke, she quickly resolved that she would do anything to stay there.

Because in that world, her parents loved her. So did her sister. Whoever the real Mu Ninghua was, she had an amazing family, and now the fake Mu Ninghua got to experience it.

The first thing she did was thank the real Mu Ninghua for dying.

Then she wondered whether this family was truly hers if they didn't know that the souls of the two Mu Ninghua's got switched. But she pushed it aside, thinking that it would be hers in due time, once they got accustomed to her.

Then she got to work, increasing the capture targets favorability for her endlessly. When she played the game in real life, once a capture target's favorability dived into the negatives, it was extremely difficult to bring it back up. Additionally, they would then take the initiative to ruin her life. So that was why she spent most of her time trying to curry favor with them.

But what she could never expect was that the game was locked on hard mode.

Mu Ninghua had only played the game on hard mode once, but gave up soon after, given the amount of times she had died in the first fifteen minutes.

The reason hard mode was so difficult was because it had an extra variable added to the mix. A variable named 'Li Ming'.

With this other character that also came from a low background and was smarter than her, the capture targets had no reason to ever find her special or be interested in her. Mu Ninghua had to approach them by herself, and, without annoying them to no end, figure out a way to get closer to them.

Also, Li Ming had gotten in her way multiple times, each time infuriating her even more. She had asked herself numerous times why he wouldn't just leave her alone and let her do her thing, but his morals kept on stopping her.

She couldn't count how many times this thought ran through her head. That was, until she got an idea to get rid of him forever.

It was simple; to kill him. More specifically though, to have Chu Yan kill him, because God knew that she couldn't be implicated!

She was hesitant at first, as any person would be when they tried to commit their first murder. But as she went on, hatching new plots after the previous ones failed, she realized that she had a great affinity towards it and that she was actually enjoying it.

Ultimately, she didn't succeed. And it also came back to bite her after six years. Now she had to go to court for the attempted murder of Li Ming, being an accomplice for two murders, and killing many others herself.

At the very beginning, she had assumed that Li Ming was innocent and dull, which was probably the fatal flaw in her plans. When she learned the opposite was true later in the year, she was shocked, to say the least. Then she realized that Li Ming's reason for being friends with her paralleled her own.

It was really only to spy. What irked her the most was that Li Ming actually grew on Mu Ninghua by the end of the year despite all of her failed attempts at his life, and then he dropped this bomb on her. She knew she had it coming, but she didn't expect it to arrive so quickly.

And that was why she was in a drab, dry, dull cell, the grey walls looming over her like they were taunting her. All of her possessions were taken away, and the orange prison uniform wasn't helping her either.

These small details kept on reminding her of her situation. She was seriously on trial for multiple murders. After five years of escaping the authorities, she thought she was invincible, but this brought reality crashing back onto her.

Because of her situation, her once beautiful face had turned thin, the bones very pronounced. The food they gave her was horrible as well, but it was something to fill her stomach, so she ate it, begrudgingly so.

While she wallowed in her misery, footsteps approached, accompanied by the jingle of keys. Her finger did not stop drawing pictures on the cold cement floor though, her mind fully occupied by the possibility of a death sentence after the trial.

As the clicking of keys grew louder, the situation seemed to dawn on Mu Ninghua. Her eyes widened with horror. It was time for her trial, a trial that she was most likely going to finish on the guilty end of.

She withdrew her hand, instead using it to propel herself backward, as far away from the cell door as possible. She was huddled up in a corner of the room, as if trying to blend in with the walls, but her uniform stood out too much. The door soon opened, and the police officer saw Mu Ninghua with her knees to her chest..

She was shivering there. It was almost like she was trying to guilt-trip the man into treating her nicely. The officer had been in the trade for long enough, however, that he wasn't affected by the guilt-tripping. After his first time here, he had already learned his lesson, so he only told the prisoner to get up in his gruff voice. "Get up."

Mu Ninghua rose to her feet shakily, her arms wrapped protectively around herself. This post didn't last long, though, because the officer then ordered her to put her hands out. He pulled metal handcuffs, linking Mu Ninghua's two wrists together with them.

After the right handcuff clicked into place, he took her arm and led her out of the cell. As they walked through the police station, other police officers joined them. After having heard tales of Lotus's ruthlessness, the station thought it was necessary.

Nonetheless, she was escorted into a black car armed with bulletproof windows and all, and nobody inside could leave without the police station's permission. From there, a driver designated by the country drove them to the court, the uncomfortable sound of silence the only thing they heard throughout the entire ride.

With two officers on either side of her, Mu Ninghua felt confined and isolated from the outside world. It was... a bit like psychological torture, but Mu Ninghua knew she couldn't be swayed by this at all.

She just had to put on a strong front, act like she was innocent, and then somebody would probably help her. Humans were like that, always lending a hand to people because of something they liked to call sympathy, but it was more accurate to call it pity most of the time.

She banked on that pity, always using it to her advantage when trying to get something done. That was the reason her code name 'Lotus' grew to be a notorious one in the business.

As Mu Ninghua was lost in her thoughts, the driver suddenly slowed the car down to allow them to go over a speedbump. The car bobbed a bit, the movement jolting Mu Ninghua out of her thoughts like lightning.

The blurry world snapped back into focus as she looked around, alert. Soon, the car came to a stop at the door of the courthouse, reporters crowding around the car. Even before the door opened, the reporters were trying to claw through the crowd and push their microphones to the front with outstretched arms.

The door then swung open, the two officers filing out with Mu Ninghua in tow. Their hands were on her arms, pulling her through the large group of reporters blocking their way. The reporters were always trying to create the best stories, and even though they knew that the police wouldn't let the arrested person talk, they still tried to get them to.

It was insane, literally.

But the police officers didn't seem bothered, and they only continued herding Mu Ninghua into the courthouse. It was huge, as expected of a federal building. Oh yeah, that was supposed to be mentioned. The case had become federal ever since the Mu Ninghua had been revealed to be Lotus.

So it was a huge deal. Nowadays, every news source was reporting on it, and every person was outraged at this abomination of a human. Other than related persons, though, none of them were allowed to hear the verdict in real time.

When Mu Ninghua was led into the courtroom, she immediately caught sight of her family. They looked... disappointed.

Embarrassment rose up in her, but also regret. Not remorse, regret. She regretted the fact that she got caught, that she might be killed in a few months, that she could lose this family that she was gifted with.

Even if she got out of this alive after she got convicted, she would still lose her family because they would be too disappointed in her to visit. Deep down inside, she knew that they wouldn't visit the public humiliation of their family just because of love.

She felt a pang in her heart. What hurt her most, though, was that her father wasn't present. There was a missing spot in between her sister and mother, and although the rest of the seats were filled with people that she knew, she felt the emptiness creeping into her heart.

As she was led to a seat, the judge also found her seat. All the people were assembled now, except one. The defending lawyer.

Seemingly, Ling Xia and his crew had done too good of a job getting rid of any and all willing lawyers and now, the case wouldn't proceed further than this point.

Notes:

The only note today is that I'm basing this off of the US court system which I have substantially more knowledge of, so don't be surprised if it doesn't feel right, especially in the next chapter. Also, don't be surprised if it's not exactly according to the US court system either, because I'm definitely not too well-versed in that.