Complications of Being Invaded by an Alien Race You Never Knew Existed

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.