Xiao Zhiren stared directly at her face as if saying, 'Seriously? I just mentioned that I'm in a hurry.'
As if understanding his look, Xie Rong said in English with her perfect British accent, "Fine! You can leave since you're also looking down on me."
Xiao Zhiren scowled at her words. "Looking down at you? Where did that come from?"
Xie Rong sighed audibly. "You don't want me to compensate you because you think that I won't be able to afford it, right? Isn't that looking down on me? I really have bad luck today. Everyone is looking down at me." She was talking about the hotel employee who yelled at her earlier in the day.
"I don't want you to compensate because I really don't think that you did it intentionally. Not because I'm looking down at you." Xiao Zhiren enunciated each word to clearly get it through the thick and weird head of the person before him.
"And you think that people are nice in this world?" Xie Rong challenged fixing her cap on her head.
"Some people are still nice in this world." Xiao Zhiren argued and thought why was he still wasting time with this person. Deep down he knew the answer to his own question but he didn't want to accept it.
"You're weird!" Both Xie Rong and Xiao Zhiren remarked about each other simultaneously and looked at each other's eyes.
"You both are acting weird," they heard a voice and turned to see Xiao Zhiyuan standing at the stairs.
Xiao Zhiren immediately walked towards his younger brother. "Where were you? I've been looking for you for more than an hour now. Do you know how worried I was?"
Xiao Zhiyuan snorted. "If you'd have been concerned then you wouldn't have talked to me like that."
Xiao Zhiren held his brother's face in his hands saying, "Yuan, you're the only one I'm left with. How can you even think that big brother doesn't have any concern for you?"
Xiao Zhiyuan looked at his brother's worried look and added, "If you're concerned about me then let's go back home. I don't want to stay here in China. I don't like it here."
Xiao Zhiren raked his hand through his black hair and sighed heavily. "Little brother, I told you that I have a reason for coming here."
"Then tell me the reason for God's sake. I need to know it." Xiao Zhiyuan spoke exasperatedly.
Xiao Zhiren hugged his little brother and said, "I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything but now is not the right time. Give me some time, okay?"
Watching from the sidelines, Xie Rong found this scene heartwarming. At this point, she missed her younger brother and a bitterness gushed into her heart.
She turned around and walked away giving the brother's some privacy. As she strolled on the footpath, she lifted her head to look at the sky. The smog in the city had hidden the stars underneath it. There was only one thought running through her mind, 'Hope you're doing well, little brother. You must have grown up in all these years. And I'm such an unlucky brother of yours that I can't even come to see you.'
Being raised as a boy gave her a habit of addressing herself as 'him' all the time. Oddly enough, in all her years away from her family, she never had the desire to even act like a girl. Being a guy was her nature now.
Meanwhile, when she left both the brother's alone that's when Xiao Zhiren noticed Xiao Zhiyuan's black eye. "What happened to you? Did someone hurt you?" He immediately went into an overprotective brother mode.
"Big bro, I'm fine. I got into a scuffle but that green-eyed person saved me." When Xiao Zhiyuan talked about Xie Rong, both the brothers turned but didn't find her anywhere. "Where did he go now? He's really like a ghost." Xiao Zhiyuan remarked.
While beside him Xiao Zhiren was lost in thoughts. Those green eyes got etched not just in his mind or heart but it seemed like those eyes found a way to his soul and made a home there. He thought what Xiao Zhiyuan said was right, that green-eyed person was like a ghost but... A lost one.
Under the dark of night, he strolled into his life gently and softly. But he was surreal enough to kindle up those buried sad intangibles of grief and yearning in his heart.
But that was just Xiao Zhiren's thoughts and he could have never imagined that he was right. Xie Rong's green eyes were actually a reminder to her that she was indeed a lost ghost; surreal enough to end up as just a fantasy.
"Big bro!" Xiao Zhiyuan shook his big brother to break his dazed state.
"Huh? What happened?" Xiao Zhiren asked looking at his younger brother's scowl.
"Let's go back. I'm hungry." He even rubbed his stomach making Xiao Zhiren chuckle. He ruffled Xiao Zhiyuan's hair and led the way back towards the hotel.
When they came back to the hotel suite, Xiao Zhiren ordered some food for Xiao Zhiyuan. After freshening up, Zhiyuan got busy playing games on his cellphone as he took a seat beside his brother.
Xiao Zhiren was working on his laptop when the housekeeping came with the meal and along with the housekeeping, Qin Qu also entered the suite.
Xiao Zhiren looked up at his assistant and long term friend, Qin Qu with an inquiring gaze. "Did you look into it?"
"All I found out is that the person who broke that gift you originally brought was the one who sent that expensive chess-set." Qin Qu replied with a tired look.
Xiao Zhiren frowned. "And who's that person?"
"Now that's the tricky part, my dear friend. I couldn't find anything about him." Qin Qu was shaking his head in defeat.
Xiao Zhiren's frown deepened. "Then don't waste time here. Go and look for that person."
Qin Qu glared at his friend and had the urge to hit him. It was after midnight and he was still ordering him to work. He sighed thinking, 'It's my fault for having a friend like you.'