A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

Chapter 93 Pretending to be Confused

With the thought that a big star was coming to his house in mind, the first thing Li Mu did upon returning home was to observe everything in the house.

Hmm, it's alright, not dirty.

However—let's still clean up the house.

So, before taking a shower, he picked up a rag and got to work.

After tidying up the house, which wasn't actually dirty, and taking a shower, I lay down in bed at 11 o'clock.

I couldn't resist the sleepiness from jet lag anymore.

He yawned, and it seemed that in the time it took to yawn, his consciousness had already plunged into darkness.

I slept without any dreams.

On Tuesday the 18th, early in the morning, Li Mu, feeling refreshed, quickly got up, slung his bag over his shoulder, and drove to work.

The novelty of the Audi hadn't worn off, but unfortunately, the "don't flaunt your wealth" lesson he'd learned from the conman made him instinctively wary. Instead of driving to work, he parked in the underground parking lot of the office building next to his workplace and walked there.

The office building wasn't far from his workplace, just one intersection away. As he reached the bus stop, a bus pulled up, and a few seconds later, Sui Kuan's voice rang out: "Holy crap, Li Mu!?"

"?"

Li Mu turned his head and saw Fatty Sui carrying a bag. He smiled and said, "Hello."

Sui Kuan perked up and quickly walked to his side. As they walked towards their workplace, he asked, "You're back from America? When did you get back?"

"Yesterday afternoon."

"Oh my god, you have no idea, when we heard about you at work, the whole office went crazy. Li Wei grabbed me and asked what you were doing in America, demanding some news articles from me—I thought to myself, I didn't have any, you didn't give me any!"

Upon hearing this, Li Mu rolled his eyes: "Nonsense, that news was directly taken over by the unit leaders, how could it possibly be distributed?"

"That's exactly what I was saying, but your live report still surprised us—by the way, what were you doing in America? Why did you suddenly go abroad? Was America fun?"

"—I've experienced something like 9/11, do you think that's funny?"

Li Mu was both amused and exasperated. As for his reason for going to America—

"I just wanted to take a day off to go out and have some fun, but I never expected to run into something like this."

"Well----"

When he said those words, suddenly, in Sui Kuan's eyes, his "background" became somewhat different.

That's America.

People say that you need a passport and visa to go to the United States, and that the visa process is complicated and involves approvals—ordinary people simply can't go.

Furthermore, plane tickets cost several thousand yuan per trip.

The round trip alone would cost at least ten thousand yuan in travel expenses, not to mention the food, drinks, and entertainment in the United States.

Those were all spent in US dollars.

But Li Mu wanted to go; not only could he get a visa, but most importantly, he could afford to go.

Subconsciously, Sui Kuan sized up Li Mu.

From head to toe.

I feel like her clothes are pretty ordinary.

He doesn't look like a rich person at all.

So secretive?

His eyes were wide with surprise, but even more so with curiosity: "What was it like at the time?!"

So, Li Mu started talking to him about the "real" situation on the scene.

He had to admit that, in the news, his statements were still somewhat conservative.

The main issue is that he reports on the situation at the time of the incident, rather than reporting on the scene like Zhang Linjie did.

The problem is that when Zhang Linjie was reporting from the scene, he toned it down a bit, and didn't even shove the camera right up to the pile of body bags downstairs to film them.

And that scene—to be honest—is really easy to drop your SAN value.

So, naturally, Sui Kuan was dumbfounded: "It's that serious?"

"Yeah. When that building collapsed, someone was picking me up in the car. I watched it collapse, and the dust and smoke chased after our car. It was just like a Hollywood movie—"

"hiss"

Sui Kuan gasped repeatedly.

The two chatted until they clocked out, and then Li Mu went into the office.

As soon as he entered, someone spotted him: "Hey, Xiao Li!? You're back!"

The few people who had arrived early in the office heard this and turned to look at him simultaneously.

"I'm sorry to have worried all the teachers—"

Li Mu quickly replied politely.

As more and more people returned to work, everyone expressed surprise and welcome at his return.

Even Zhang Zhengwen was eventually alerted.

The director personally visited, saw Li Mu, offered some words of encouragement, and then had him complete the necessary paperwork for the business trip.

Clearly, this trip to the United States had become "assigned by the newspaper".

Although the reason was absurd, Li Mu keenly grasped a possibility—that no matter what Brother Bie said to Director Zhang about his trip to the United States, the credit had already fallen to the Department of Culture and Sports.

Never mind why our intern reporter went to the United States out of boredom.

In short, he went.

They also visited the site of the 9/11 accident.

This credit belongs to our Department of Culture and Sports; no one can take it away!

That's roughly the idea, right?

The cause is not important, the process is not important, what matters is the result—the credit belongs to us.

"Tsk, I heard—"

As Zhang Zhengwen left, Sui Kuan, his eyes filled with envy, lowered his voice and said to Li Mu, "This year's Group's Outstanding News Award might be yours. And to put it more broadly, you might even be the Outstanding Reporter!"

Sui Kuan was referring to a series of awards from the Southern Media Group.

There are awards every year, and the winners receive a cash prize, but more importantly, it represents an honor and a prestigious qualification.

If you can continue to advance in the future, then with the same resume, the person who won the award will obviously have a greater chance of being considered.

"Who told you that?"

"That's what everyone's saying! Your news is so big! It's global news! I heard from Brother Bin that this is the biggest news story of the year so far! And it's exclusive!"

"Brother Bin? Shang Xiaobin?"

"Yeah, Brother Bie hasn't been taking me with him lately, he's had me stick with him instead—"

At this point, Sui Kuan paused, looked around, and asked, "What happened?"

"What happened?"

"Brother Bie, did you tell Brother Bie about your trip to America?"

"Yeah, didn't he tell us we could just ask him for leave? I was going out on my own, and my workplace definitely wouldn't approve it, so I told Brother Bie."

Hearing this, Sui Kuan nodded slightly and continued, "Recently, Brother Bie hasn't taken me out at all—has he taken you out?"

"Brother, I've been gone for over a week now, what do you think?"

"Before I said anything—it was Brother Bin who told me that Brother Bie asked him to mentor me. What about you? What did you say?"

"Brother didn't tell me—"

Although he knew perfectly well what was going on, Li Mu pretended to be confused.

He didn't know why, but his intuition told him that playing dumb was obviously the best way to deal with this kind of thing.

It doesn't matter whether others believe it or not, but you must keep your mouth shut. The best way to handle things is to say you don't know.

And Sui Kuanxin?

He really didn't believe it.

But Li Mu just said that anyway, and even though he was full of doubts, there was nothing he could do.

In the end, he could only sigh inwardly and say nothing more. Li Mu got up to fill out the attendance sheet, and the matter ended there.

When Li Mu returned, he ran into Sui Kuan, who was walking out: "Where are you going?"

"Brother Bin said there's an interview coming up."

"Oh~"

Li Mu nodded.

Lunchtime, off work.

Li Mu didn't even eat. He walked straight out of his workplace and dialed Fan Bing's number as he walked towards the office building where the parking lot was located.

"Beep beep—Hey, Brother Li, good morning."

"—I've been working all morning."

Hearing the big star's energetic voice, Li Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Hehe, I just woke up a little while ago, and I'm packing my bags right now. Wow, I have so much stuff—"

"Should I come pick you up and help you carry it?"

"No need, I have an assistant. By the way, Brother Li, what are you planning to treat me to dinner tonight?"

For some reason, Li Mu sensed that she seemed to be in a good mood.

Li Mu had actually called for the same reason, so he said, "Is there anything you particularly want to eat? Chicken, duck, fish, or any kind of meat. Choose two as your main dish~"

"Wow, you're a real chef! You can even choose the ingredients?"

"Ha~"

It would have been better if she hadn't brought it up, because the moment she did, Li Mu felt an unbearable itch to touch it.

A feeling mixed with a sense of showing off arose spontaneously.

"Tell me, what do you want to eat most? You just choose the ingredients, and I'll cook the rest for you. Oh, and tell me your dietary restrictions while you're at it."

"Ugh————"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone before someone said, "I've been craving beef lately, and I also want to eat fish—but I don't know what kind of fish to eat."

"Beef? Fish—hmm, sea bass in September is the best, and as for beef—are you just craving it? Or do you actually want some?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Of course! When you're craving something, you have to eat a really big meal, even more intensely than just wanting to eat it."

"That's craving—the kind of craving that makes you really want to have a big meal."

"Ah, I understand. What about dietary restrictions?"

"Hehe, no, I have no taboos."

"Okay, I got it. See you tonight, I'm going to buy groceries."

"Hehehe, then I'm looking forward to Brother Li's feast!"

"Um."

Li Mu hung up the phone and walked into the underground parking lot.

A moment later, the Audi drove out of the parking lot and headed towards the Friendship Store on Huanshi East Road.

That's the most upscale large-scale shopping mall in Guangzhou that he knows of, specializing in imported food.

Fatty's cooking skills are undeniable, but many of his dishes require herbs and ingredients not commonly used in China. For example, when a big star craves beef, his first thought is always a classic Burgundy beef stew.

As for the fish, it should be served as a "fish, main course" in the French meal order. Using sea bass as the main ingredient, we made a French herb butter lemon fish. This light flavor is a perfect match for the rich Burgundy beef.

But one of these dishes requires the herbs thyme and rosemary, while the other requires lemon.

These cannot be bought in ordinary markets.

That's the only place we can go.

Moreover, we didn't have enough pots and pans at home, so buying all of them was just the right thing to do.

There was no other way; the old man who was Fatty's best friend had taught him all Western cuisine. Although the culinary world is all about the same thing, for a "newbie" who had just mastered the skills, Li Mu felt that it was better to follow his instincts and just copy what he learned.