Winter Wind (YiZhan)

44. Claim

Xiao Zhan heads back to the apartment, because the first thing that he has to do is call Nini.

Her cousin is startled at his return, once again thinking it is her husband, but Xiao Zhan consoles her with a smile, retrieves his phone and heads out again.

By the time he shuts the door behind him, Nini has responded.

"Hello?"

Her voice is timid and low, and fully expectant of the wrath that she expects is about to come down upon her.

Xiao Zhan however, takes a deep breath, truly not knowing where to begin.

Peace he thinks. All he wants is peace but no one wants to allow him to have it.

"You told Yibo where I am?" he asks.

Nini is quiet for a few seconds before she replies.

"He couldn't reach you."

"Is that what he told you? That he called and I didn't pick up?"

"No, he said that he couldn't call you, because you'd both had an argument. He wanted to see you instead."

"And so you told me where to find me. Is that why you told me to come to your cousin's house?"

At this a scoff escapes her. "Of course not! But... I d-did call to find out where you were because he was asking."

"And so you gave in. Did it not at any point occur to you that perhaps I didn't want to see him?"

She sighs.

"It did, but..."

"But what?"

She sighs again. "The way he sounded... I couldn't refuse him. He didn't even come to me at first. He went to Qingyuan and asked him to find out. Qingyuan then came to ask me because of course he didn't know where you were."

Xiao Zhan is taken aback by this. Nini's assistant? How did Yibo get in contact with him?

"Qingyuan?"

"Yeah, I was surprised too but then he told me that he and Yibo had added each other on WeChat back when you were both filming the Untamed. They used to play an online game together along with a couple of Qingyuan's friends from a forum."

Realization dawns on Xiao Zhan because he clearly remembers this.

During one of their waiting times, Qingyuan had introduced the game to Yibo and the both of them had competed at it. However Yibo was never able to beat him and that had automatically placed Qingyuan on a pedestal. Yibo had told Xiao Zhan that he would keep trying, and that was the last he'd heard of it. He can't help but wonder now if Yibo was ever able to win against him.

It makes sense now. Yibo's competitive streak and his respect for those more skilled than him in his areas of interest, has always been the quickest way to pull down his walls towards anyone.

This incident however does bring another one to mind.

Back in Beijing, Yibo had also just shown up at his hotel. He had wondered back then how Yibo had known his hotel and room number, because it definitely could not have been through Nini. It also definitely couldn't have been through his bodyguard so that left only Qingyuan whom had been the third present party from his team at the audition.