The Host Has Fallen for the Second Female Lead Again - Chapter 40

Ji Mingxiao gained quite a bit of weight during her week-long stay at home. Xi Ruan, naturally, went with her, though as an exchange student.

The moment the first class ended, Xue Qingran stood at the door of Ji Mingxiao’s classroom and looked at her, “Are you alright now?”

“It’s nothing serious. I thought I could get some good rest, but I ended up getting beaten by my dad again,” Ji Mingxiao said with a look of melancholy. “I’ve been practicing for so long without any progress. When I mentioned wanting to change majors, my dad gave me a beating.”

Xue Qingran looked at her.

“Then I casually mentioned the recommendation spot,” Ji Mingxiao noticed that Xue Qingran froze for a moment. “My dad said he wouldn’t give it to me, even if he didn’t want it, and told me to just get by.”

“I was just asking,” Ji Mingxiao said, looking at Xue Qingran with a wronged expression.

Although Xue Qingran tried to hide her emotions, Ji Mingxiao could still sense the change in her mood.

“And then?”

“I don’t know. I told him to give the spot back.”

“Why are you so impulsive?” Xue Qingran frowned, expressing her disapproval.

Ji Mingxiao looked at her, “But, if I take the spot and go to the Eleventh Army, what about you?”

After saying this, Ji Mingxiao started to panic and explain, “I didn’t mean it that way. I didn’t mean that you couldn’t get into the Eleventh Army. I…”

“I understand,” Xue Qingran smiled. “With my current skill level, it would indeed be difficult to get into the Eleventh Army on my own.”

Ji Mingxiao bit her lip, “How about we just forget about that spot? The Eleventh Army is great, but I still want to stay with you.”

Xue Qingran patted Ji Mingxiao’s shoulder, “Don’t make a decision so soon.”

Class was about to start, and Ji Mingxiao and Xue Qingran had to part ways again.

Ji Mingxiao returned to her seat and messaged Xi Ruan.

【Ji Mingxiao: It should be related to her. I’ve noticed that she loves patting my shoulder. If this medicine is inhaled, would it have an effect?】

【Xi Ruan: What are you thinking? You have to eat it. Otherwise, what’s the point of fighting a war? You could just scatter the medicine and the enemy would be useless. You’re usually so smart, but why are you so silly now?】

【Ji Mingxiao: Oh, I was just trying to tease you.】

【Xi Ruan: No, you just didn’t think of it. I’m not going to mock you.】

Ji Mingxiao propped her chin on her hand and looked at her optical computer, feeling a bit helpless. She could already imagine Xi Ruan’s smug expression without even being in front of her.

She turned her head to look out the window.

Some people were training on the field now; it looked exhausting. Thinking about having to do the same thing in the afternoon made her heart ache.

So she turned her head back.

She was calm, but Xue Qingran’s mind was wandering throughout class because of what Ji Mingxiao had said.

Since Lin Yuan’s image in Xue Qingran’s mind was a naive, innocent girl, she didn’t even consider that Ji Mingxiao was deliberately trying to get a reaction out of her.

Xue Qingran clenched her fist. She knew she couldn’t get into the Eleventh Army on her own, and the other people with spots weren’t as easy to trick as Lin Yuan.

She tapped the table and took a deep breath, deciding to take it slow for now.

At noon, Ji Mingxiao invited Xi Ruan to eat with her, telling Xue Qingran that she was her distant cousin.

Xue Qingran didn’t think much of it. After all, Xi Ruan wasn’t from the military academy, and she looked so gentle and weak, posing no threat.

Xi Ruan had to get her meal from the regular student line, while Ji Mingxiao and Xue Qingran had to pick up their so-called “nutritional meals.”

Xue Qingran never had a chance to tamper with anything. When she helped Ji Mingxiao get her soup, Ji Mingxiao observed her from a distance and, during that time, collected samples of all the food into test tubes, using several of Ji Mingxiao’s cards.

She had originally wanted to use her card skills to monitor Xue Qingran, but the consumption was too great, and she only had just over ten thousand points.

When Xue Qingran returned, she saw Ji Mingxiao calmly eating, without any hint of suspicion.

Xi Ruan had few classes. She was a third-year exchange student and had the entire afternoon off, so she took the samples to be tested.

The food had no abnormalities.

The next two weeks were the same. Ji Mingxiao used a lot of skill cards but couldn’t find any evidence. Her frequent leaves of absence were also attracting too much attention.

“Lin Yuan, tell me the truth, what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Then why are you taking so many days off? Lin Yuan, I don’t want us to have secrets.”

Ji Mingxiao looked at Xue Qingran, her expression conflicted, and finally shook her head, “Sorry, I can’t say. If I could, I would have told you already. Can you please not pressure me?”

“You’re making me worried.”

“I’m not a child anymore. The things we’re learning have confidentiality,” Ji Mingxiao looked at Xue Qingran. “There’s no danger, don’t worry.”

“Alright.”

Xue Qingran looked at Ji Mingxiao, feeling a sense of inexplicable panic.

Xi Ruan waited around the corner until Xue Qingran left before she came out, “You’re really something.”

“Still can’t find anything?”

“Yep.” Xi Ruan nodded. “I’ve checked everything you’ve eaten recently, and there are no problems.”

“That’s for sure. Recent treatments haven’t detected any re-exposure to the medicine. It’s probably a cyclical dosage. It’s been half a month; she’s definitely going to do something.”

“I originally just wanted to be a slacker, but now I’m back in school.”

“You have so few classes, aren’t you still a slacker?” Ji Mingxiao rubbed her arms and tapped her legs a couple of times. After so many days of brutal training, she had more or less adapted to her current life, but she still wanted to lie down.

Xi Ruan glanced at Ji Mingxiao, who was covering her mouth and yawning. Xi Ruan frowned, “Speaking of which, putting medicine directly in the food is too obvious. What if it’s on something you touch with your hands…”

“That’s a possibility.” Ji Mingxiao put her hands down and looked at them. “Let’s go back, no rush.”

Ji Mingxiao returned to her dorm room. She had someone do a thorough investigation of Xue Qingran. To be honest, Xue Qingran had almost no special experiences. She had good grades since childhood and was single-mindedly devoted to getting into the Eleventh Army. If Ji Mingxiao hadn’t known what this person would do later, her impression of her wouldn’t have been bad based on this file.

It’s rare for someone these days to set a goal and work tirelessly for it without giving up, and Xue Qingran had been doing it for over ten years.

She scanned the file and tapped the desk.

Xue Qingran’s social circle was very simple, and she hadn’t been in contact with any suspicious people during this time.

There was no other option. Ji Mingxiao could only have her people continue the investigation, looking into who the “unsuspicious” people in contact with Xue Qingran were in contact with.

Xue Qingran’s close friends were basically from similar family backgrounds, so the investigation wasn’t very difficult.

Three days later, Ji Mingxiao finally managed to sort out a few connections from thousands of relationship lines.

The ultimate link was a person from the Zhao family, Zhao kou, the youngest son.

The Zhao family and the Lin family had a long-standing feud that began with Lin Yuan’s grandfather. The Eleventh Army was built by Lin Yuan’s grandfather, so it could be said that the Eleventh Army’s current reputation existed because of him.

After Grandpa Lin passed away, the Zhao family always tried to seize control of the Eleventh Army. Luckily, Lin’s father quickly rose to prominence, stabilized the Lin family’s position, and kicked the Zhao family out of the Eleventh Army.

Each generation of the Lin family was excellent, but because there were so few of them and they weren’t into scheming, they inevitably suffered in the field of competition.

However, because the Lin family had always been strong and were highly respected by the people, their position remained stable.

If you were to look for a family that wanted to take down the Lin family, the Zhao family would be the first on the list.

If Lin Yuan were ruined, the Lin family would be as good as ruined, and taking over the Eleventh Army would be a piece of cake.

Furthermore, given Zhao Mo’s status, getting his hands on this kind of illegal medicine wouldn’t be difficult.

Ji Mingxiao listed the four relationship lines. Each line, not including Zhao Mo and Xue Qingran, had three to five people.

She wrote down the names and had her people continue the investigation.

Unexpectedly, she received a reply that evening.

Xue Qingran would leave school once a month and just wander around. And among the four people who were supposed to be in contact with Xue Qingran, one of them would also go out and wander on the same day.

There were no surveillance cameras on those crowded streets, making it difficult to get evidence.

However, knowing this was enough. Based on the frequency of Xue Qingran’s outings, the next meeting would be the day after tomorrow, Thursday.

Ji Mingxiao had already prepared her skill cards.

Someone was watching the school gate. When Xue Qingran left the school, Ji Mingxiao received the notification and immediately started using her skill card.

She could see what was happening on Xue Qingran’s side.

The other person still looked a little nervous, constantly glancing around.

But once they were outside the school’s perimeter, the person looked a lot calmer.

The person didn’t look like they were there to go shopping. At this point, even though Xue Qingran was more mature than the average person, she wasn’t mature enough.

Finally, the other person appeared in the picture. The two of them clearly saw each other, approached, and bumped into one another. The other person quickly slipped something into Xue Qingran’s pocket.

The item was small.

Ji Mingxiao zoomed the camera angle into Xue Qingran’s pocket. Using a faint ray of light, she managed to see what the item was.

It was a small bottle of white powder.

Ji Mingxiao called Xi Ruan over. If this picture were sent out, it would probably be immediately intercepted.

She might even get arrested.

Xi Ruan came over quickly.

She was a little surprised to see the picture Ji Mingxiao took.

“It’s probably that medicine. If it’s in powder form… tsk, it might actually get on your hand and you’ll end up ingesting it,” Xi Ruan said, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“What are you going to do?”

Ji Mingxiao tapped the desk, “Switch it, and then put the real stuff in her bowl.”

Xi Ruan: …

“I just love giving people a taste of their own medicine,” Ji Mingxiao said with a kind smile.

The next second, a small bottle appeared in Ji Mingxiao’s hand. The other small bottle contained a replicated drug that looked no different from the real thing. It also tested as an illegal drug, but it had no effect if consumed.

Although she said she should use fewer skill cards, she ended up using quite a few.

Xi Ruan twitched her lips.

Even though they were almost certain about the medicine, Xi Ruan still took some back to be tested.

The next morning, she sent the results to Ji Mingxiao; it was correct.

“Host, the plot is moving a little too fast,” System A said with some emotion. It had only been a few days, and she had already dug up this stuff.

The reward for special tasks was high because they took a long time. If Ji Mingxiao got out too quickly, the system felt like it would lose out a bit.

Ji Mingxiao leaned against her chair, “Why wouldn’t I move fast? I have to drink that bitter medicine every day.”

System A: And that’s the only reason?

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