Chapter 360: Just Not The Same

Li Lei still could not believe it. "She can't be Xia Ling. After Xia Ling died, everyone witnessed how heartbroken Pei Ziheng was. He even almost fell out with his family to bury Xia Ling in his ancestral grave. Furthermore, he visited her grave every year and searched for people who resembled her. If Xia Ling were still alive and were acting as Ye Xingling, Pei Ziheng would have come for her a long time ago."

"Perhaps, even Pei Ziheng doesn't know the truth?" Tan Ying speculated.

"Why?" Just as Li Lei asked this question, he suddenly thought about the information that Old Man Bao told him. About two or three years ago, Xia Ling was imprisoned and tortured by Pei Ziheng. Maybe that was why she escaped as she could no longer tolerate it. If that was the case...

How much hardship exactly did his Xiao Ling endure?

His heart hurt immensely, and he wished he could hold her in his arms to comfort her immediately.

Unfortunately, Tan Ying did not know about the hardships that Xia Ling suffered and asked in confusion, "Her relationship with Pei Ziheng is so good that she doesn't need to hide from him... Well, there is another possibility. She might have dual personalities or suffers from hysteria. The possibility is very low, but..."

Li Lei eyes lit up like he found a straw to clutch at. "Dual personalities or hysteria?"

"Yes," Tan Ying said. "I consulted with some experts, and there are indeed such cases. Some people with lower mental strength would develop a second personality when they are in severe duress which is very different from the original personality. The Miss Ye you love may be the second personality of Ye Xingling. However, there is something unexplainable about this. The main and secondary personality will usually alternate, and it is impossible for the main personality to not appear at all during the past two years."

"What about hysteria then?" Li Lei asked.

Tan Ying said, "Hysteria may be caused by serious provocation. The patient hallucinates and thinks of herself as another person. Thus, her speech, actions, and even handwriting can even resemble another person's. However, this has the same problem as the dual personalities theory. Hysteria only lasts for a short time and occurs intermittently. It is impossible that it lasted for two years."

"Besides these two, are there any other explanations?" Li Lei was uneasy.

Tan Ying shook his head. "No. If we remove the doubt that she's a spy, Miss Ye's situation can be explained by one of these three causes. Number One, she has a dissociative personality disorder. Number Two, she has hysteria. Or number three, she is originally Xia Ling."

Li Lei rubbed his forehead and was deep in thought for a long time.

Judging from Xiao Ling's birth chart, she was thirty years old now. Or at least, she thought she was thirty.

Wait... Was the birth chart engraved on the amulet what she told Preceptor Xia? If she had a dual personality disorder and gave herself a birthday, did that mean that the amulet would lose its efficacy?!

Li Lei's heart skipped a beat. In a flash, he recalled that when he gave Xiao Ling's birth chart to Preceptor Xia, the birth chart he stated was Ye Xingling's birth chart. However, Preceptor Xia did not remove that birth chart from the amulet. He only looked for Xiao Ling personally and added a new birth chart.

Why?

Did Preceptor Xia know from the start that there was something wrong with the birth chart?

Why did Preceptor Xia not say anything? Why did he look for Xiao Ling alone? Was there something that he could not tell him?

Suddenly, Li Lei realized that Preceptor Xia definitely knew something and there was a secret between him and Xiao Ling! Li Lei lifted his head and said to Tan Ying, "Help me look for a person, the unpredictable Preceptor Xia."

The Preceptor? Tan Ying was loyal to the Li family, and as Old Master Li believed in the metaphysical, many of the subordinates in his family heard about him before. Tan Ying heard about that man a long time ago and knew that he was very powerful spiritually. "Many powers in the world want to look for The Preceptor. Some people looked for him for decades without succeeding. I can only say that I will try. However, Boss, Miss Ye's situation surely can't be related to him."

Li Lei also understood.

Suddenly, he felt that this situation was even more bizarre. Why would a person that was able to change the luck of powerful people appear two times in a month because of Xiao Ling when the world could not find him after years of searching?

It was becoming more and more confusing.

"Rare cases of illnesses can't be verified," Li Lei said slowly and made a decision. "We have to use the elimination method and investigate the most feasible possibility by checking if Xiao Ling is really Xia Ling."

Tan Ying had no objections and rationalized. "The first thing we must verify is whether Xia Ling is truly dead. That year, the news that she fell to her death from the stage was very sensational. I will investigate that incident again."

Li Lei gave him a contact number. "Old Man Bao has been investigating this incident. You can contact him."

Tan Ying took the contact, got up, and bid Li Lei farewell.

Li Lei sat in the study for a long time.

When Xia Ling awoke, she was in a dream-like state and realized that Li Lei was not in the bedroom.

She looked down and realized that he had helped her shower. She had the scent of shower gel on her, and she was wearing soft fleece pajamas. Even the bedding was replaced. Feeling that her body was still sore, she rolled around on the bed and called out a few times as she felt hungry. She had not eaten for 24 hours since last night, and after being tormented so many times on the bed by Li Lei, she felt like dying.

"Jerk. Big jerk... Ignoring me after he ate..." She muttered. Aching, she got down from the spacious bed and swayed as she walked out of the bedroom barefooted.

The entire villa was covered in thick carpets, and the central air conditioner was at a suitable and comfortable temperature.

Initially, Xia Ling wanted to go downstairs to look for food. However, when she walked past the study room, she saw that the door was half ajar, and she could see that Li Lei was sitting inside. For a moment, she forgot that she was hungry and pushed the door open to look for him. "Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Seeing that he looked troubled, it caused Xia Ling to be upset as well.

She knelt by his side and looked up. "Is something bothering you?"

When Li Lei realized that she was there, all of his gloominess disappeared. He smiled as he pinched her face. "Are you awake?" Seeing her bare feet, he commented. "You didn't wear slippers." Was she really Xia Ling? Did she ever act like a spoiled child so shamelessly in front of Pei Ziheng before? She was so innocent and cute. How was Pei Ziheng able to humiliate her like that? Once he thought about that, his heart was set on fire, and it burned with agony.

Xia Ling was unaware of his troubles and only said, "I'm hungry."

"What do you want to eat?" He smiled gently and helped her up from the carpet. "I'll ask the servant to cook something for you."

"You're using the servant to send me away!" Xia Ling cried, unhappy. There was truly a difference before and after she slept with him. "In the past, you would always cook for me. What about now? Stinking gangster!"