Just as Bai Qing Mei predicted, the group of waitresses readily agreed to her request and soon after, she received several video recordings of the heated showdown between Xu Wen Han and his suspected harem. 

While she didn't have a chance to view all of the videos before her phone's battery ran out, the few that she did manage to see left her grinning like a Cheshire-cat. 

Bai Qing Mei was almost certain that once she showed her mother these videos she'd be able to convince her mother to not send her on any more blind dates for the next little while. All she had to do was act as if she had been extremely dismayed by how her first blind date had turned out and declare that her fragile heart would need time to recover before she could even think of meeting anyone else. 

Of course, this was only a temporary solution but at the very least it would buy her some time. With this time, she could potentially look into hiring some guy to pretend to be her boyfriend in front of her parents. After all, it did seem as if rental boyfriend services were becoming more popular lately. 

The more that Bai Qing Mei ruminated on this rental boyfriend idea, the more she felt that it was plausible. A rental boyfriend would stop her parents from worrying about her love life and more importantly, a rental boyfriend would be significantly less troublesome to deal with than a real boyfriend. 

Although Bai Qing Mei wasn't completely opposed to the idea of dating or marriage, she was one of those people whom genuinely did not have a fear of dying alone as she had always found comfort in solitude. Solitude meant she had complete freedom over how she'd allocate her time and resources. A real boyfriend would only hinder her as she'd naturally need to make sacrifices and compromises to account for both their wants and needs. A rental boyfriend; however, would go along with whatever she decided, no matter how selfish it was, because she'd be paying him to do! Furthermore, clauses in an employer-employee contract were much more trustworthy than the sweet promises of any lover. Therefore, money was the answer to all of her problems! 

Bai Qing Mei sneered as she adjusted the supposedly "lucky" rings on her fingers that her mother had forced upon her. Whomever had said that money couldn't buy happiness clearly hadn't known how to spend it properly. 

Right now, for instance, if her mother hadn't emptied out her wallet—spare a few coins—and unplugged her phone charger—thereby, taking away her ability to pay electronically—to prevent her from escaping from her blind date, she would've happily been sitting alone in the back of a spacious and air-conditioned taxi, not miserably squeezed in together with dozens of strangers like canned sardines in an old and musty bus. 

Unbeknownst to Bai Qing Mei, as her expressions shifted from one emotional extreme to another while she was lost in her thoughts, a cute little girl in pigtails was keenly spying on her. 

"Uncle, look. Look!" The little girl conspiratorially leaned towards her uncle as she jerked a thumb at Bai Qing Mei. "You see that super pretty older sister over there? Yeah, her? I bet you ten lollipops that she's trying to decide if she should dump her rich second-generation boyfriend after finding out he was canoodling with her green tea best friend on the side! Check out how her expression keeps changing! She's definitely going through something rough!" 

Although the little girl thought that she had been speaking in whisper volumes, in truth, her voice wasn't very quiet so all the nearby passengers, including Bai Qing Mei, had been able to hear every word she said. Thus, before she had even finished speaking, they had all turned to stare at her with their mouths agape. Rich second-generation? Canoodling? Green tea best friend? How was a child familiar with these terms?! 

The girl's uncle awkwardly spun the girl around so she could no longer gawk at Bai Qing Mei. "Quiet, you! Don't you see you're embarrassing us in public with your nonsense?" 

"I'm not talking nonsense! I may be a kid but I know a lot!" The little girl held up her chubby little fingers to count. "I've seen one...two...three...four...five...sev—no, six...seven...eight! I've seen eight whole dramas with grandma so I know I'm right. That older sister's  for sure got love troubles!" 

"...Grandma's the one letting you watch these messy things? I thought she only watched serious historical dramas." 

"She doesn't only watch historical dramas," replied the little girl matter-of-factly. "Historical dramas air mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays. The rest of the week we watch whatever drama looks fun. Yesterday, we watched ⟪The Overbearing CEO Acts Cute to Me⟫. Today, we're watching ⟪Scum Men Revenge Club⟫. Tomorrow, we're watching ⟪Sharing Rent with an Immortal⟫ which is the best show ever! I'm a mom-fan of Qin Cheng! He may be a sand sculpture but he's the most cutest and kindest cub ever!" 

With the little girl's passionate declaration of maternal love, the passengers within earshot exploded into laughter.

"Hahahaha! Did you hear that? She said she's a mom-fan!" 

"Too funny! This little girl watches all the shows I watch!" 

"Im dying! I'm a wife-fan of Qin Cheng! Does that mean that this little girl is actually my mother-in-law?" 

While everyone else chortled away, Bai Qing Mei's eyes lit up with appreciation. ⟪Sharing Rent with an Immortal⟫ was a drama that was adapted from one of her earlier works, ⟪My Roommate Swears He's Not an Immortal⟫. In fact, she even participated in its creation as she had remotely participated in the casting of the main characters. This was done to ensure that only actors of a certain standard were selected. It was her principle to never sell the rights to any of her works unless she had a say over the casting as she refused to see people wrongly or poorly portray her beloved fictional darlings. Qin Cheng was one of her darlings and this little girl was a fan of his so rounding up, this little girl could be considered a fan of hers! 

Suddenly, Bai Qing Mei felt that occasionally taking the bus might've not been so bad. 

Despite how uncomfortable and inconvenient it could be at times, on the bus there was always a chance of encountering a vast array of individuals she wouldn't normally meet, such as her little fan girl. Carefully discerning these individuals' appearances, personalities, temperaments, and behaviours would inevitably aid her in the development of new characters for her work. 

This last thought abruptly reminded Bai Qing Mei of an important matter—Mo Qing! Until now she still had yet to find a prototype for Mo Qing! 

Bai Qing Mei immediately began to scan and assess all the faces of the nearby men on the bus. 

The boy in the tracksuit in front of her? No. He looked too young and fresh-faced. 

The suited man on her left? No. His features weren't in balance. 

The young man wearing a jersey on her right? No. He could be considered good-looking but his facial contours were too delicate. 

The man wearing a baseball hat by the back doors? Definitely not. He was much too devious looking. That was the face of someone you just assumed ran an MLM organization. 

Her little fan girl's uncle? No. His face was too plain and unassuming. It was the most suitable appearance for a policeman trained for undercover missions because it was the type of appearance that was so nondescript you'd always lose him in a crowd but it was the least suitable appearance for Mo Qing.

Bai Qing Mei's shoulders slumped. Was her plan to find a muse destined to fail? At this point she only had a week left to decide on an appearance for Mo Qing but no matter where and when she and her assistant, Tang Li Qin, searched, no one even came close to the image of Mo Qing that she had envisioned in her head. 

Bai Qing Mei was at a loss. In her six-year long career as a manhua artist, although she had experienced difficulties drawing new characters before, she had never felt this conflicted. A small part of her felt that she was being too picky with Mo Qing's character design but a bigger part felt that Mo Qing alone deserved this meticulous treatment. 

Despite her despondency, after a while Bai Qing Mei found herself drawn to the conversation of two teenaged girls standing a few feet away from her. 

"⟪The Overbearing CEO Acts Cute to Me⟫ isn't a bad show but man, I wish they'd cut Zhang Jia Yu's character from the plot. His crappy acting ruins the character for me." 

Zhang Jia Yu? The name sounded familiar but Bai Qing Mei couldn't put a face to it. 

"His acting's trash but he's handsome so I don't mind seeing him on screen." 

Feeling the bus slowing down as it neared the next stop, the first teen switched to holding the hanging strap with both hands to ensure that she didn't topple forward. "Does it matter that he's handsome when he has about as much acting talent as a dried up sponge?" 

"Are you kidding me? Looks always matter," affirmed the second teen as the bus came to a full stop. "Humans are visual creatures. We desire beauty."

As someone whom was easily moved by beauty herself, Bai Qing Mei silently nodded in agreement. 

"Tch. Not all of us humans are like that. I, for one, don't care that much about loo—Oh my God! Did you see that guy that guy that just got off the bus?!! He was sooooooooo gorgeous!!"   

"A gorgeous guy? Where? Where? Show me!" 

The first teen pointed outside the window as the bus slowly pulled away from the curb. "There! In the blue shirt!" 

Out of curiosity, Bai Qing Mei followed them in peering outside the window to see if she too could catch a glimpse of the so-called "gorgeous guy". 

In the next instant, Bai Qing Mei subconsciously held her breath. 

That face...That temperament...

Even though it was from a distance, every detail within sight matched up exactly to the appearance she had been visualizing in the depths of her imagination. 

This was her Mo Qing. 

Without thinking, Bai Qing Mei found herself slamming the stop request button and forcibly pushing her way towards the back doors of the bus with the strength and drive of a housewife at a grocery store during a time-limited sale event. "Stop the bus! Please stop the bus! I need to get off!" 

Hearing the commotion, the bus driver looked at her through the rear view mirror. "Sorry, young lady. I can only let people off at the designated bus stops." 

"But—I—!" 

"Sorry. It's policy. The next stop's not too far from here though. It wouldn't take too much effort for you to walk back to the previous stop from there."

Bai Qing Mei knew that the bus driver had every right to deny her request but that didn't mean that she didn't want to throw herself out of a bus window in frustration. 

Minutes later when the bus eventually reached the next stop, Bai Qing Mei flew out of the doors and started sprinting towards the previous stop. 

Seeing that her heels were getting in the way, she stopped to remove them.

The moment the pair of crystal-embedded pumps  were off her feet, she looked up, flashed a smile at a young woman whom was coincidentally passing by, and decisively tossed them towards her before scrambling away barefoot. 

The young woman was bewildered by her bizarre set of actions but just as she was about to open her mouth to protest, Bai Qing Mei's voice rang out from the distance. "Consider them a gift, beautiful little sister! You can throw them out if you want but I should mention that they're authentic and I've only wore them twice!" 

Shortly afterwards, Bai Qing Mei heard a high-pitched squeal behind her. "Limited-edition Jimmy Choos?! No way!" 

When Bai Qing Mei finally reached the bus stop a while later, she made a sharp turn and ran in the direction that she had seen the man walking towards while she had been on the bus. 

While running she desperately prayed to four generations of her deceased ancestors. "Dearest ancestors, if you care about me, your most well-behaved descendent, even just a little bit, please do everything in your divine power to help me find my soon-to-be muse! Please block him from making any sudden turns so I don't lose track of him! Let him trip on a rock to slow him down if you must!" 

After she had verbalized that last bit aloud, she belatedly realized that it hadn't sounded too appropriate so she quickly added, "But not on like a big rock or anything. A small rock or even a pebble will do. Think momentary delay, not cripplingly injury!" 

She clenched her fists. "I swear if you can do this for me I'll burn five times—no ten times—no a hundred times the amount of joss paper we usually burn! I'll get Lan Lan to burn a hundred times the amount as well! If afterlife internet is a thing, I promise I'll do my best to burn enough for all of you to afford the fastest internet packages!" 

Not even a second after she finished praying, a sudden gust of wind swept a cloud of dust directly towards her. "Ack!"

Worried that the dust would irritate her eyes, she hurriedly squeezed her eyes shut and covered her face with her arm. 

When the dust eventually settled, she cautiously lowered her arm and opened her eyes. 

Unexpectedly, the first thing that entered her vision was an indistinct figure of a man wearing a shirt the colour of the sky a few hundred meters ahead of her. 

Her heart skipped a beat. 

Could it be? 

She squinted. 

It was! 

Bai Qing Mei gasped. Her prayers actually worked! 

At once, she put her hands together reverently. "Thank you, ancestors!" 

With palpable excitement she dashed forward. "Excuse me! Young man! Do you mind stopping for a minute?" 

Fortunately for her, because of the location and the time of day it was, no one was around to react to her shamelessly yelling and chasing after a man without wearing any shoes. However, unfortunately for her, the man she was chasing wasn't really reacting either as he never once looked back; thus, all she could do was speed up and yell even louder. "Please stop! I need to talk to you!" 

As she advanced, Bai Qing Mei could feel her exposed feet accumulating more scratches and wounds with every step she took but she did not allow herself to stop moving. "Please, kind gentleman in the blue! I'm begging you! Stop!" 

When she was within touching distance of the man, she reached out with her hand and tugged his sleeve backwards. "Stop!" 

With this action, at last, she succeeded in making the man stop, pull out the wireless earbuds that he had been wearing, and turn around. 

Inexplicably, both parties froze when they were face to face. 

Devastatingly handsome. 

At this moment, all that Bai Qing Mei could think about was that up close, her prospective muse was even more good-looking than she had originally thought. His eyes were good-looking. His nose was good-looking. His mouth was good-looking. 

The only "flaw" that she could find on his otherwise enthralling and perfect face was a long and jagged scar that started from his temple and extended to just above his right eyebrow. 

Perceiving her sight on his scar, the man stiffly drew back and reflexively covered the right side of his face. For a second, his demeanour revealed a trace of timidity but it didn't take long before his expression hardened and his disposition became wintery and aloof. 

Confronted by his exceedingly cold gaze, Bai Qing Mei did not feel intimidated. On the contrary, her already heated cheeks actually grew warmer and warmer. 

There it was. The sense of contradiction she had always sought. 

There was no longer any room to doubt. 

This was her Mo Qing! 

Once she made this confirmation in her heart, she found herself grabbing onto the front of the man's shirt with trembling hands. Then, in a soft but determined voice she asked, "Young man, if I was willing to pay you handsomely, would you be willing to come home with me?"