As both Xiao Zhi-Ren and Ru walked alongside each other towards their common destination. There was an ocean of silence between them. It was a cold winter night and the gust of cold wind was blowing past them.
Xiao Zhi-Ren was wrapped in his long woolen coat but suddenly, he noticed that the young 'man' beside him was only clad in a black hoodie which didn't even look very warm to him.
"Mr. Xie," he called her as his curiosity took the best of him.
"Hmmm..." Ru hummed in reply.
"Aren't you cold?" Ru knitted her brows as she tilted her head to glance at him inquiringly. "I mean do you know the temperature today?"
"I heard it's quite cold," Ru answered nonchalantly with a shrug of her shoulders.
"You heard it? What about feeling it yourself?"
Ru stopped walking and turned to face Xiao Zhi-Ren. "Do you know what I've been through life?"
"Umm... No." Xiao Zhi-Ren was flabbergasted by this reply not knowing what to say.
"Exactly that's why you think that this temperature of -3 degrees is actually cold."
"It's 26 degrees actually." Xiao Zhi-Ren told her plainly.
Ru lifted her hands as if ready to choke him to death. "Mr. Xiao, it's -3 degrees Celcius which is equal to 26 degrees Fahrenheit." Obviously, Xiao Zhi-Ren was aware of that but he was teasing her on purpose to see her reaction and was truly amused by it. Unexpectedly though, Ru didn't comment on him being American this time even when he talked about the temperature in Fahrenheit instead of Celcius.
"So, what have you been through?" He changed the topic since Ru was throwing him cold daggers with her glares.
"I've been through hell. After that, I don't think things like a bit of cold can possibly hurt me." Just thinking about the time made her shudder inwardly but seeing Xiao Zhi-Ren's prying eyes. She laughed it off saying, "That was a joke."
Xiao Zhi-Ren nodded his head on the outside but he didn't believe her words entirely. Something bugged him inwardly that she wasn't joking with him. And if she really wasn't then he really didn't know how to react.
He wasn't wrong. She wasn't kidding at all. She had lived in a hell that burned her and then it slowly froze her.
"So, can I conclude that you like cold weather?" Xiao Zhi-Ren again distracted her as his keen gaze had caught the way her hands clenched into tight fists.
"You can say that," Ru remarked simply and her fists were loosened up a bit.
"I like drinking hot chocolates in cold weather. What do you like about it?"
"I like wind chills in the dead of night." Xiao Zhi-Ren gave her an inquisitive look.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because they are exactly like me... Piercing cold roving in darkness." Her last words were said in a whisper but Xiao Zhi-Ren still managed to hear her.
None of them spoke afterward. In that peaceful silence, they reached their respective homes.
Later in the night, when Xiao Zhi-Ren sat alone in his study, his mind kept wandering off to Ru. That indescribable emotion in her green eyes was irking him for some unknown reason. He remembered the time when Ru told him that people called her heartless. He already reckoned that she wasn't heartless but tonight, he learned that she had actually started to use her heart a bit less to make it seem like she was a cold and insensitive person.
'Do you know what I've been through in life?' Her voice again rang in his mind as he further fell into deep thought. 'I've been through hell.' Xiao Zhi-Ren leaned his head back to rest and closed his eyes.
"What was that hell like to make you indifferent to the extent that there is always a practiced smile on your face?" He really wanted to ask that question to Ru but he didn't know with what right he should ask? They could be considered acquaintances but nothing more. Ru was cold but he knew she was harder to understand since even he couldn't fathom what kind of volcano was hidden underneath that blanket of coldness.
He sighed out since the green-eyed person in his life was getting more and more intriguing. But the real problem was, no matter how intrigued he was he still couldn't look up anything related to the person named 'Xie Rong'.
His probing around only got him the ordinary details related to Ru. For instance, things like her name, 'Xie Rong' and the related professional detail. Even a single photo wasn't anywhere on the wide web.
Oddly, he noticed how much similarities Mr. Xie Rong shared with Lord Alev Knight. Both were mysterious keeping their personal lives well concealed. Both hold an inconceivable power since nothing could be disclosed about them. And both fancied dark colors and dark lives.
This fact alone wasn't enough for him to feel suspicious but for some odd reason, Xiao Zhi-Ren still tried to look up the whereabouts of Lord Alev Knight and the easiest way to do that was; Adrian.
Thinking about this, Xiao Zhi-Ren dialed Adrian's number and after a couple of rings the call was connected and Adrian's groggy voice came through, "Hey, Zoran!"
"Did I disturb your sleep?" Xiao Zhi-Ren asked looking at the time. It was about 10 o'clock in China but if Adrian was in London then it was around 3 o'clock in the day there. Why was he sleeping at this time?
"Yeah, I just got back from France. So, I decided to catch up on some sleep." Adrian replied as he rubbed his eyes.
"What took you so long in France?" Xiao Zhi-Ren was rather surprised to know that it's been weeks since Adrian went to France from China to take care of some issue and the matter was only solved now.
"Don't even ask me. It's all his fault!" Adrian seemed aggressive to Xiao Zhi-Ren. It was like he was ready to pounce on someone at any moment.
"Who are we talking about?" Xiao Zhi-Ren questioned with interest even though he had a hint about who was being discussed here.
"That bloody piece of rubbish! That bloody arse! I'm going to murder him if he came before my eyes again." Through Adrian's hateful curses, Xiao Zhi-Ren managed to conjecture that it was indeed Lord Alev Knight who messed with Adrian again. How very obvious!
To be honest, Xiao Zhi-Ren found both arch-enemies to be rather childish. Both Adrian and Mr. Knight always tried to be better than the other one. As if it was a competition who managed to get on whose nerves.
Shaking his head, Xiao Zhi-Ren asked, "So, where is your nemesis, Mr. Knight?"
"Could you please stop giving him so much respect by calling him Mr. Knight so politely? Just call him a bloody blighter[1]!" Sensing how much worked up Adrian was Xiao Zhi-Ren decided not to provoke him any further.
"Fine... Now, can you please enlighten me where that bastard is?" Xiao Zhi-Ren spoke in the way that Adrian would like.
"Sorry, can't tell you. Grandmother sent him on some secret mission. His whereabouts are said to be kept the most secretive at this point." Listening to Adrian, Xiao Zhi-Ren knew that he won't be getting any specific details. "But why are you so curious?"
"That's not important for now... But can't you at least tell me in which part of the world he is?" Xiao Zhi-Ren tried to probe a bit more.
Knowing Xiao Zhi-Ren's obsession with Alev Knight's life, Adrian decided to be a bit honest. "He's somewhere in Asia. That's all I can tell you."
"When did he left London?" Xiao Zhi-Ren asked.
"About two months ago. Don't ask anymore. I'm going back to sleep." Adrian hung up the call immediately since he really wasn't allowed to disclose any more than this.
'Two months? Isn't this the same time when Xie Rong came to China?' Xiao Zhi-Ren rubbed his lips in thought. 'Both people have way too many similarities... Now, even the timeline of them being in Asia is the same. What connection do they share?'
Obviously, Xiao Zhi-Ren only thought they were somehow connected. He couldn't fathom them being the same person for various reasons. The first reason would be, Xie Rong wasn't like how Adrian had explained Alev Knight to be. But Xiao Zhi-Ren was forgetting one thing; Adrian always had his biasedness controlling his thoughts whenever he talking about Ru. While Xiao Zhi-Ren was observing the real Ru with his own eyes.
[1] "Blighter": An unpleasant person regarded with pity, contempt, or envy.