Save for one potentially catastrophic incident, the remainder of the lunch passed smoothly for the Xi Family. Having finished cleaning the table and returning to their rooms, Xi Ran had been laying down on his bed listening to softly played music when an abrupt knock rang from his door.
Her fingers swiftly tapping on the screen of the smartphone to pause the playing music, Na-er prodded the dozing Shang Xuan awake with gentle pats in apology for her rash act earlier in the day. When the youth blearily opened his eyes in complaint and indulgence, the young girl gestured towards the door with her hands.
"Ah?"
Shang Xuan patted Na-er's head as he slipped off of the bed with a loud yawn. The youth walked through the barren room to stand before the wooden door, his hands prying it open to reveal the placid countenance of Xi Yuhan leaning her body against the hallway.
Compared to her expressions earlier in the morning, the young woman didn't seem to appear so jovial at the moment…
"Elder Sister, what is this about?"
The confused voice of Xi Ran's mild-natured personality shook Xi Yuhan awake from her temporary daydream, and the young woman took it upon herself to brush the youth's arm aside and breach into the room.
Upon stepping through the entrance and exposing herself to the inner contents, however, the Eldest Sister of the Xi Family couldn't suppress her lips from a… cautionary twitch.
…not even a poster of a girls' performing band?
"Elder Sister, something wrong?"
Shang Xuan raised an eyebrow of interest upon discovering that Xi Yuhan's limbs had completely stalled in their movements, and that the young woman stood frozen in place after taking a few steps into his room. The youth stepped before his sister and in a blink of an eye, rapidly waved his hand.
"Elder Sister…?"
Na-er suppressed a chuckle as she witnessed the Flame Ancestor pull the comedic act of 'energetically' waving his hand before a woman's countenance to regain her attention. Soon after, the young girl eventually returned towards the smartphone 'graciously' gifted by Shang Xuan's subordinate, her crafty fingers playing around with the Heaven and Earth organization's messaging board.
"…ah?"
Xi Yuhan's mind returned to reality after a few cycles of disturbing thoughts regarding her youngest brother's sanity, only to discover a pale hand fluttering before her eyes. Her lips perpetually twitching as she deftly ignored the youth's waving hands, the young woman parted her lips to ask a trivial question.
"Ah Ran, what happened to your… furniture?"
"Furniture?" the youth blinked in incomprehension.
Shang Xuan took it upon himself to cajole his Elder Sister one step further, his lips quirking into a secret smile. When he had stepped back to sit at the edge of the bed, however, the youth's countenance had reverted back to the plain, ordinary expression of deadpan emotions.
"Elder Sister, why would I get any new furniture? These are working properly, there aren't any needs for new ones."
"Oh…"
Everyone she had met in Beijing would at least post several decorations in their room, be it flowers, unique articles of technology, an instrument, or perhaps a risqué poster…
But this room was completely empty; she couldn't even see a laptop placed on the desk!
Her Youngest Brother was indeed a lost case!
Xi Yuhan wailed in her heart as she forced an unnatural smile onto her countenance. The young woman sighed as she sat down next to Shang Xuan at the edge of the bed, not knowing that she had forced a disgruntled young girl to make space and settle for the youth's shoulders instead.
"…why do you have such a glum expression?"
Shang Xuan probed as he fiddled with his thumbs, steeling his countenance as to not reveal that his back was undergoing a pleasurable tribulation. The youth glanced towards the beautiful young woman's eyes with a raised eyebrow, his palms angled outwards as though he were expectant for an answer.
Xi Yuhan remained silent for a few breaths of time, but quickly relented under the silent pressure emanating from the recluse of a youth's body combined with the graveyard-esque sensation of living in such a… plain room.
"Ah Jun won't be coming home to visit for a while."
The words were uttered in an airy tone, but spoke volumes in their interpretation.
"A while?" the youth narrowed his eyes.
"Elder Brother had always replied that his business was working well. Why suddenly become silent and have Elder Sister relay that he won't be able to return?"
Shang Xuan directed a few strands of spiritual intent from his back towards the young girl resting against his shoulders whilst responding to the young woman's statement.
Na-er pouted her lips at the coincidental strands of spiritual intent that brushed at the base of her abdomen, sinking her teeth into the exposed collarbone of the youth before her. Once she received the faint quiver of the muscles that she desired, the young girl quickly manipulated the Samsung Note 8 to surf the internet as per the words uttered from Xi Yuhan's lips.
"Ah… Ah Jun's business had the right opportunities and the proper partners to collaborate with, but he quickly ran into problems with the locals in contests for territory over the market since a few years ago…"
The keywords of "market disputes", "low-income business", and a search range of five years was rapidly inputted.
"Contests with locals since a few years ago?" Shang Xuan repeated with an incredulous expression.
"That's pretty much within the first six months of establishing his business; what did my Elder Brother even decide to settle for as the marketable product?"
"Er… if I recall correctly, Ah Jun mentioned something along the lines of an antivirus software for electronic devices?"
Xi Yuhan muttered under her breath as she attempted to scrounge throughout her memories, ultimately resulting in a complete blank. The young woman tapped the base of her chin with her palm as she suppressed the endless sighs begging to escape her throat.
"But isn't Elder Brother's specialty reside in managing personnel?"
The youth couldn't withstand the urge of taking a moment to blink his eyes and breathe deeply in surprise. As leaned against Na-er's soft and warm back, Shang Xuan recalled the contents of a scientific journal of the past that he had perused in his boredom.
"But… antivirus software itself is a risky field, and not one that should be taken if the business is small… so why did Elder Brother make such a decision?"
The young girl continued to scan through the presented search results that displayed relevance to the inputted search query. Upon Shang Xuan's clarification of newly founded antivirus software, Na-er narrowed the search definitions to be restricted onto Beijing's provincial regions.
"His senior in university had finished obtaining his master's degree in computer software, and successfully convinced Ah Jun to found a kickstarter company."
Xi Yuhan leaned back on the bed, boring holes into the plain ceiling with her eyes. The young woman tallied another entry into her mental list of questions to bombard Xi Jun and Xiao Yu later when she rendezvoused with them next week.
"Perhaps… Ah Jun thought the dream of his senior was worthwhile?"
"Worthwhile, but now he's supposedly in trouble. Just what happened?"
Shang Xuan questioned, a trace of concern arising in his limpid gaze. The youth recalled the silhouette of the figure's back, of which it had displayed an uncanny brilliance and pride incompatible with his economical status as a student.
"About that… Ah Jun refused the proposal of a merger with a branch of Gongsi's dedicated towards the expansion of their mobile antivirus software to compete against 360 Corporation… in the developing market, or so I've heard," the young woman allowed a fatigued sigh to escape her lips.
"After that, both companies decided to launch a siege against Ah Jun's startup company, utilizing their connections to the provisional offices to halt distribution and development of his software. Alas… all of his previous contractors fled as soon as they caught wind of the incident with 360
Corporation, and now Ah Jun is in a tremendous amount of debt."
The young girl filtered through the hundreds of search results to display only those that posed of relevance to both 360 Corporation and Gongsi, redefining her search queries to reveal with thirteen different articles.
As she listened to Shang Xuan and Xi Yuhan earnestly discuss their sibling's matter in solemn voices, Na-er clicked the link to one of the articles at the top of the results.
"Debt? How much does Elder Brother currently owe?"
The moment the words left his lips, Shang Xuan had a brief premonition regarding the answer that he was about to receive. As the youth braced himself for the ghastly sum, the young woman lowered her eyelashes in concern.
"Just through microloans and bank loans themselves… fifteen million RMB would be an underestimation."
Ah, it seemed that Na-er had just accepted a mission on the top of the Heaven and Earth organization by accident. The young girl was still unused to the multitasking functionality present in the Samsung Note 8, and thus had accidentally accepted the mission.
But who was Lise Millet of Arenberg?
And it wasn't an assassination mission, but one of protection?