Lucy picked up the call from her boss and cursed herself for doing it. But she had nothing else to do. Lili was somewhere with Lei and after the background check Lucy did on him, she found nothing suspicious. And he was actually pretty good, in Lucy's opinion.
"What's going on?" she didn't bother with greetings because for her boss time was everything.
"I need you to hurry to Beijing." Lucy thought she heard wrong.
"Sorry, can you say that again?" she asked once more because she couldn't believe what she had heard.
"Pavel is urgently in hospital and he can't head there. You have to stand in for him," Lucy's boss said, her voice completely bare of any emotions.
"You certainly have different translators that know Mandarin… I'm in Hong Kong… I have a vacation. We agreed to that." It was hard for her to keep calm and don't start yelling. Or crying in desperation.
"Yes, I have many others that know Mandarin but not many others that know Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese. The client is attending a medical conference, and he needs to have a versatile translator." Lucy sighed, put down the coffee she was holding, and looked around. Just to remind herself he was in public and that she shouldn't scream.
"I had never translated medical terms. I think you forgot my specialty is business and law!" Lucy hissed into the phone, but soon, she regretted that.
"And I think you forgot you have a contract with us. I'm your boss. So you've got two days to get to Beijing. I'll send you the address in the email." The sound of a hung-up call was the only thing that Lucy heard.
On her phone, she started to look up the fastest way to get to Beijing. When she got another call, this time, it was Lili.
"Hej, co je?" she started asking what was going on.
"Lucy, something happened to Lili. She is not responding, just crying without a sound." Lucy swore in her native language when she heard Lei's voice, and waved on the server and with a covered phone, she asked to pay.
"What the fuck happened before? I told you not to hurt her. Fuck. How long is she like that? Fuck. I'm coming over. I'll be there in half-hour. Crap. Try to get her to respond. Give her some alcohol. Whatever. Just wake her up from this trance. She will stop eating, drinking, anything. Last time she ended up in a hospital." Lucy recalled the break-up, Lili, never really recovered from, up until now. She had paid for her coffee and cake and regretted she couldn't buy more with her, running to the carpark she left her car in.
"I'm in the car. I'll be there soon. Who was the call from?" Lucy said, holding the phone in between her shoulder and ear as she was getting in the car.
"Mama. Is it her mother? Could something happen at home?" Lei asked. Lucy connected the phone to Bluetooth and only raised her eyebrow at his question.
"How should I know? Oh, god. At least you are good-looking. Cuz you are not bright," she said, not fearing offending him at all. But he actually chuckled.
"Hey, you skyscraper gingerbread idiot, stop being a bitch. He is worried." Chao said, and Lucy heard it. She wasn't offended at all. They called her worse names in middle school.
"Oh, lazy good-for-nothing bummer, is there too?" she replied back. After a while of driving, when she hoped she wasn't caught speeding up, Lucy got nervous about the silence on the other side—even checking whether or not they hung up. She couldn't hold in her curiosity and asked.
"Why are you silent? What's happening?" Lucy bit her lip.
"He tried Prince Charming's wake-up call. I think mom read too many fairy tales to him when he was young." Chao answered, and Lucy made a disgusted sound.
"Pff, taking advantage of her when she is out of it, huh? Disturbing," she said, but actually meaning it as a joke. Lili shared with her everything that happened these past days…
"Should I pour the alcohol directly into her mouth? What if she chokes?" Lucy heard the panic in Lei's voice and shared, speeding up a bit more. She was already close to the compound.
"That would be good. It will wake her up. I'm almost there. Three minutes. Call your guard," she said and hung up the call. Speeding up past the open gate, hurriedly she got to the side house through the already opened door. Some boy showed her upstairs and Lucy took two or three steps at a time before pushing through the door.
"What happened?" Lucy hurried inside. "Good, she is normal now." She sighed a breath of relief because the sobbing and crying were loud. She got out of the worse. Now the only thing that remained up to Lucy was that Lili won't lock herself in again.
"I wanna go home. I have to go home." Lili said lightly into Lei's shoulder, sobbing. Lucy knew that something must have happened at home.
"Hold her for a bit longer. I will make some calls." Lucy got out of the room and found a silent corner on the balcony. Watching the boys downstairs, she called the friend in airlines and the receptionist at the hotel. When she was done, she got inside the room again.
"Lili. Let's go. But remember, it's the last time you see him if you choose to…" Lucy hurried the other people outside, leaving some privacy that Lili needed.
"What do you mean last time if she chooses that?" Chao asked, confused.
"They can keep in contact. But it depends on her whether she will want him or will hold him in her memory as a wonderful holiday romance. You know, just like in the movies." The door opened and Lili came out alone without Lei. But Lucy didn't care at all. The only thing she needed to do was to safely get Lili back home and then hurry to Beijing.
But there was actually one thing she asked. And the answer almost broke her heart. Great-grandma Veru died. The kindest person has left…