Chapter 39: The Genius and the Little Madman

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The night wind skimmed across the Han River, its bone-chilling cold like countless knives being pressed into the skin.

Xia Xing narrowed his eyes and studied Liu Zhimin’s expression.

She wore a faint smile, but it was obvious that her eyes concealed many things as well.

Some information about his identity could, in fact, be found online.

If all Liu Zhimin knew came from the gossip on the Yongsan International School forum, he probably would not readily believe that someone in his family had deliberately leaked his background to Dispatch.

After all, although Dispatch specialized in entertainment gossip and possessed little in the way of moral integrity, it still had to maintain some standards when it came to accuracy.

If it treated even those rumors from the school forum years ago as reliable sources and included them in its reports, Dispatch would be demeaning itself far too much.

Besides, even if the agency wanted to expose him, why would it send the photographs to SM? Was it trying to kill with a borrowed knife?

“At least from my perspective, someone in your family wants your identity exposed and hopes it will attract public attention. What, you don’t believe me?”

She sighed with feigned disappointment, allowing the night wind to scatter her long hair as she stared blankly at the river view.

“You still haven’t told me how much you actually know about me. So for now, I can’t believe that someone in my family wants me exposed.”

“Do you really want to hear it? This is your privacy, after all. I’m worried that something I say carelessly might offend you.”

She stuck out her tongue mischievously, then took a notebook from the Prada leather tote bag she carried and handed it to Xia Xing.

“So I organized everything I know, along with the public information I could find online, in here. You can look through it yourself.”

“I’m still not very familiar with the business side of things, though I’m learning, so it might be a little messy.”

As Liu Zhimin explained, she watched with some anticipation as Xia Xing opened the notebook in which she had compiled all the clues.

It looked brand-new, and on the first page were various details about the members of the Xia family.

His maternal grandfather, Xia Xuhe, chairman of Peninsula International; his uncle-in-law, Kim Seong-min, the chief operating officer; his elder aunt, Xia Minji, chief executive officer of Peninsula Finance; and his younger aunt, Xia Xianzhi, chief executive officer of Peninsula Entertainment.

Most important of all, and the detail most convincing to him, was his mother, Xia Yingzhi, currently a professor in China, whose name had been circled in the corner of the page.

Seeing that alone was enough to convince Xia Xing that someone within the family had leaked his information to Dispatch.

“What do these lines you’ve drawn here mean?”

Xia Xing also noticed that some of the names were connected by lines marked with numbers. For the moment, he truly could not understand what they signified.

To explain the lines to him, Liu Zhimin suddenly moved closer. A faint citrus scent lingered in the air.

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“These? They indicate the page numbers in the notebook.”

“For example, this three means that the news sources involving both Xia Xuhe and Xia Minji are listed on page three.”

Though Liu Zhimin had only graduated from high school, her reasoning was remarkably clear.

She had never attended university, yet she knew to record the sources of reference articles so they could be found quickly next time.

In the materials she had organized by person, she had also separated everything into categories such as financial news and gossip, writing each section into the notebook accordingly.

She had even noted which matters she did not yet understand and what areas she needed to study next.

“Why are you looking at me with such a surprised expression? I’m really not the sort of person who pries into other people’s privacy. I only did all this research because I want to work with you.”

She seemed embarrassed by Xia Xing’s stare and edged slightly farther away. Leaning over the Han River railing, she turned her attention to the city skyline across the water.

“Once you exclude the public information you gathered, there’s still quite a lot in here that only members of our family could know.”

“I believe what you said now. Someone really does want my identity exposed to the public.”

Xia Xing was about to close the notebook and put it in his bag when Liu Zhimin let out an alarmed cry and hurried back to seize his hand.

Her hand was astonishingly cold.

“This is the result of my hard work. Why are you taking it with you?”

After returning the notebook to her, Xia Xing sighed with some regret.

“You organized everything very clearly. I’ve never thought about it from that angle.”

“Perhaps analyzing my family’s situation from an outsider’s perspective can help me understand the circumstances better.”

“As someone caught up in it, I might actually be the least capable of seeing my own family clearly.”

Since she already knew the basic situation of the Xia family, Xia Xing had nothing left to hide and simply confessed what he truly thought.

“If there’s anything you can’t figure out, you can pay me for a consultation.”

She waved her notebook in front of Xia Xing as though showing off, one corner of her mouth raised in a smug smile.

Her words about a “paid consultation” made Xia Xing laugh. He suddenly felt that she was far more optimistic than he had imagined.

No—that was not quite right. Rather than optimistic, she was trying to face reality without allowing herself to become too pessimistic.

Like a rose blooming through the pangs of pain, perhaps “strong” was the more fitting description.

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“How much do you charge for a consultation? Do I need to buy albums for a chance to attend a raffle-only fansign?”

He answered in the same joking tone, and amid their predicament, the two reached an unspoken understanding.

“As for my consultation fee, I really do need to think about it carefully… After all, this will be my first job apart from being an idol.”

She rose onto her toes and spun around, glancing in every direction. When she spotted a milk tea shop that was still open, she pointed toward it.

“How about a cup of milk tea from that place?”

“Milk tea has too much sugar. Is it really all right to drink it at night?”

Xia Xing deliberately made the excuse sound stingy, and Liu Zhimin clearly understood that he was joking too.

But her response was unusually serious.

“I know it’s high in calories, but I still couldn’t stop myself from drinking it before. Sometimes I even felt like binge-eating. It wasn’t because the milk tea was especially delicious.”

“If I had to name the reason, it was probably a kind of revenge against the company. I wanted to eat myself fat so the company wouldn’t be able to make any money.”

At that, even she could not help laughing. “Isn’t that childish?”

“Childish.” When Liu Zhimin gave him a slightly aggrieved look at being called childish, Xia Xing pointed at himself. “I’m the same.”

“But back to the matter at hand. Since someone in my family wants to expose me, how do you plan to cooperate with me? What do you want from me?”

“One taro milk tea. What about you?”

Ignoring Xia Xing’s question, Liu Zhimin went over to the employee who was packing things up in preparation for closing and hurriedly placed an order.

“The same for me?”

“The same.”

“He’s paying!”

Xia Xing took out his payment code. The employee, carrying a hint of overtime resentment, poured all the remaining taro paste into the two cups before handing them over.

Like business partners clinking glasses at a formal reception, the two cups of generously filled milk tea touched in tacit agreement.

“As for what I want, it’s actually rather helpless. Let’s start a dating scandal together.”

“That’s a pretty crazy idea.”