Her mobile phone swam in the toilet bowl. That was a month ago. So, Li Nuxie was not surprised when one day, her cousin, Li Chanying, was standing in front of her apartment complex.
Li Chanying's face was marred with beads of sweat, trickling down to her neck.
"Li Nuxie, what the heck are you doing with your life?" Li Chanying asked with wrinkled eyebrows, her chest slightly heaving. She barely glanced around before storming inside Li Nuxie's apartment.
Li Nuxie crossed her arms; her eyes were calm like the morning sea. "I'm taking a PhD in Hermitism," she replied before striding behind Li Chanying.
Li Chanying dropped herself on the sofa, not minding how her skirt became misaligned. She raised her eyebrow as she hugged a throw pillow. "Are you for real?"
Occupying the opposite sofa, Li Nuxie rolled her eyes. "Definitely not. Can't you differentiate a joke from truth?" All she got from Li Chanying was an unladylike snort. "Watch out you behavior," she chided her cousin softly.
"It's not like grandma is here," Li Chanying's response made Li Nuxie irritated. Li Chanying or Ying was her paternal cousin. She was the 'Vulture' of the hacker world. That's why it was not really a surprise that her cousin was in front of her despite the lack of communication between them.
When it comes to tracking down people, no one beats Li Chanying. Vulture is indeed a suitable description to Li Chanying's skills.
"Besides, I'm not really sure if you are collecting PhDs like seashells on the shore," Li Chanying continued speaking while Li Nuxie remained silent. She could not be bothered to respond to her cousin's nonsense rambling.
Li Chanying narrowed her eyes, clearly not happy how her cousin was ignoring her. "You're just going to stay silent? What? I've spent fifteen minutes tracking you down and you don't even appreciate my hard work?"
She threw the pillow towards Li Nuxie, however Li Nuxie turned to the side, successfully evading the landing pillow.
"You call that hard work?" Li Nuxie shook her head. "Hardly."
"It's definitely hard work," Li Chanying's voice went a notch higher.
Li Nuxie closed her eyes. "Mmmm. There's food in the fridge," she told her cousin.
"That's bribery," Li Chanying retorted, a smile was slowly forming on her lips. Her cousin really knew how to appease her. She stood up, ready to troop down the kitchen when she heard Li Nuxie's intermittent snoring.
It was past five in the afternoon when Li Nuxie's soft snores came to halt. She knew that she snored. It was a coping mechanism of her body whenever she went for three days without a decent sleep. She was still in the sofa while Li Chanying was nowhere to be found.
She stood up, wondering whether something serious had happened for her cousin to track her down. As she walked towards the kitchen, she saw a sticky note, carelessly sticking against the mirror.
Before the sticky note gave in to the gravity, Li Nuxie decided to rescue the poor sticky note from falling down. After all, it was not good when no one was there to catch you if you fall.
Going out for a walk. Don't miss me, the note said.
Li Nuxie curled up her lips as she crumpled the note in her hand. Li Chanying has not changed at all. Still Dora the explorer. Opening the fridge, she picked up a carton of milk and poured herself a glass. This will be a long, long night, she thought.
The apartment door opened at seven in the evening. Li Chanying has changed into a loose shirt and tight denim pants. Li Nuxie was currently going over her designs when she heard the door opened.
"You had dinner already?" Li Nuxie asked while her eyes were still glued to the papers in front of her.
"Yup, I tried their hotpot. It's good but not as good as grandma's," Li Chanying said as she towered behind her cousin. Just then, Li Nuxie raised her head.
"Are you deliberately provoking me?" Li Nuxie asked with eyebrows raised.
Li Chanying shook her head while smiling sheepishly. "Sorry, I was just mesmerized by your designs," she went beside the table. Li Nuxie rolled her eyes before continuing what she was doing earlier.
Li Chanying knew that Li Nuxie's pet peeve was someone standing behind her while she was doing something. But Li Chanying was not in her right mind at the moment, thinking how she can break the news to her cousin.
Silence enveloped the living room. Li Nuxie was flipping through the papers while Li Chanying was eyeing her cousin warily.
"Since when did you become fond of beating around the bushes?" Li Nuxie broke the silence.
Li Chanying was wringing her hands; her eyes were a bit sceptical. "Xiaoxie—"
"Ewww. Don't call me that. You sound like grandma," Li Nuxie's eyes widened as she heard how her cousin called her.
Li Chanying's laugh has reduced the tension in the air. "Okay Xiexie. The family has a problem."
"I know," Li Nuxie said.
Li Chanying put her trembling hand over her mouth. "You already knew?" Her already stressed heart slowly relaxed.
"I know that something serious has happened. If not, you will not spend fifteen minutes tracking me down," Li Nuxie looked up, throwing her cousin a side glance before resuming her work. Li Nuxie's answer made Li Chanying's heart rate increased once again.
"Xiexie…" Li Chanying did not know how to proceed.
"Mmmm?"
"Xiexie…"
"Mmmm?"
"Xiexie…"
"What the hell do you want to say? Just spill it out," Li Nuxie snapped out. She was busy thinking about what design to make for her next collection while her cousin sounded like a pirated CD. Man, why do I have a cousin like her?
"The partnership between the Lis and the Yangs was already cancelled," Li Chanying blurted out. The color has left her face following the sudden outburst of Li Nuxie.
"Okay, so the partnership between the Lis and the Yangs was cancelled. Do you need to track me down for that?" Li Nuxie's hand suddenly stopped sketching when she realized what she had said. The pencil she was holding escaped from her fingers and rolled down the table, falling silently against the carpeted floor.
"What did you say?"
"Xiexie—" Li Chanying tried extending her hand towards Li Nuxie but her cousin's cold eyes stopped her.
"What did you say?"
"It is what it is."
"Elaborate."
Li Chanying trembled from her cousin's cold voice. It was just one word. One word and an order in capital O. She gulped. "Yang Lina cancelled the engagement. Xiexie, we really don't know what happened. Chao-ge didn't tell us anything and he's nowhere to be found."
Li Nuxie raised her eyebrow but did not speak.
"I mean he told me that I should not track him down or he will sever ties between the two of us," Li Chanying was pouting.
"So you're afraid of Chao-ge?" But not of me? She wanted to add but stayed mum.
"Obviously, I am. If I am not, I will not be standing here," Li Chanying's sassiness was slowly coming back after she broke the news to Li Nuxie. Truth be told, she was not afraid of Li Chao, Li Nuxie's older brother and her cousin.
She was more afraid of Li Nuxie. Her grandma described her youngest cousin as a sleeping volcano. The type that does not erupt for centuries but can bring destruction in a blink of an eye.
Li Nuxie crossed her arms, her head tilting to the side. "What about me then?"
"You're my angel, Xiexie," Li Chanying hugged her cousin from the side. Li Nuxie pursed her lips to her cousin's antics. Obviously, Li Chanying just wanted to hug her thigh at the moment.
"You need to help us. Grandma went ballistic when she learned about it."
"Is she alright?" Li Nuxie knew that her grandma's heart is still healthy but her age is already advanced so she will not take chances about it.
Li Chanying nodded and looked at her. "Yup, but she said that she needs reinforcement."
Li Nuxie shook her head. It seems that she was the so-called reinforcement. "Is she going to retaliate?"
"She definitely will but for now, she needs to rescue the Li Textile from collapsing and that's where your reinforcement is needed."
Li Nuxie nodded her head slowly. "Go back to City S tomorrow and track down Chao-ge. I'll just need to finish something here before I head back."
"Okay, I'll tell grandma about it," Li Chanying kissed her cousin's cheek before going to the bedroom.
Li Nuxie took a deep breath. She was already in the advanced stage of becoming a hermit, having eliminated modes of communication, even by accident. She had been gradually adapting to the life in the countryside but now, she was forced to file for an early retirement. What an irony.