"Capitalists are scary."

Yin Niankai officially became Grandma's favorite person. He was well mannered and very knowledgeable and loved old operas just as much as my Grandma did. Add to that the small fruit shaped cakes that I had begged Nuo Tai to make; Yin Niankai was on his way to become the official Son-in-Law much to my Uncle and Aunt's chagrin.

Grandma was making Yin Niankai and my cousin elder sister, Qiu Zhen teach her how to use WeChat and Weibo and all the other elders were busy talking to each other so I took advantage of no one paying attention to slink away to sit outside on the swing-set in the garden.

I took my phone out to reply to my messages.

Tai Chi (Nuo Tai): [Picture]

Tai Chi: How was it?

I opened the picture to see small cakes neatly arranged, the very ones he made and Yin Niankai brought with him.

Cupid: My Grandma has fallen in love with Yin Niankai.

Tai Chi: Niankai, that brat, must have soared up to the heavens.

Cupid: Of course. Now that he has the Empress Dowager on his camp no one can take away his role of Fuma (Princess Consort).

Cupid: Also my Grandma loved the cakes. I'll take her to Atmos someday.

Tai Chi: [Thumbs up]

Then I opened Hacker's chat.

Adc Not Abc: Yu Ge, Yu Ge, play double row with me!

Adc Not Abc: Master will take you to fly!

Cupid: I'm out with family. I'll play after I go home.

Cupid:….Did you tell your parents, yet?

I waited for his reply but it did not come which is weird because he always replies pretty quickly. I closed the chat to open my friend's moments.

Capitalist Qian: My mother cried to me that my neighbor auntie's niece already has a son that can buy soy sauce while I'm still single. Excuse me, you daughter can already buy you a soy sauce factory, why do you still want a grandchild? [Digs nose]

I choked out a laugh before reply," Capitalists sure are scary."

Lian Qian's personally texted instead of replying back, almost instantly.

Capitalist Qian: What scary? This is called luxury, okay?

Cupid: Why is your mother so rushed? We're only 20.

Capitalist Qian: Don't you know 25 year olds are considered old spinsters? [rolls eye]

Cupid: No way! So ancient?

Capitalist Qian: Well can't complain too much. Even this old lady wants to feel a little love nourishment ;)

Cupid: How disgraceful.

Capitalist Qian: Yo look at this high class baifumei. [Laughs up sleeve]

Cupid: Hurry up and catch Linping if you want love.

Capitalist Qian: Who wants that unemployed bum stuck in the cyber café?

Cupid: >.>

Capitalist Qian: Since you've found a man you've started looking down at me huh?

Cupid: What man? Stop speaking nonsense. I have something to do here so I'll go first.

Without waiting for a reply I backed out of WeChat and stuffed my phone back into my pocket and started swinging in earnest. The biting cold winter breeze hit my face and I could feel it freezing every part of body. My ears and my hands always got cold very easily so I made sure to always cover them but I forgot my scarf inside the house so I knew that my ears must be red right now.

"So you abandoned me and hid out here?" I turned to see Qiu Zhoufan walking towards me holding my mauve scarf in her hand. I dug my legs forcefully into the ground to stop the swing and turned to accept the scarf from her, wrapping it around me.

"How long are you here for?" I asked while lightly starting to swing again, not trying to race against the wind anymore.

"What? Already want me gone?" When I didn't reply she sighed. "Until New Year. I took leave from college."

"Don't music schools generally have concerts at the end of the year? Why were you so free?"

"Your sister is the star of her school. I can afford to be capricious." She gave a haughty laugh which made a rare smile bloom on my face. She looked at me smile with a happy face and it made me awkward. I turned my face away as naturally as I could to the other side.

"What about you? How's college?"

"Great."

"Do you like it there?"

"Uh-hm. It's interesting and Lian Qian is with me."

"But you don't like Literature."

I wanted to defend myself and I say I did but it took me time to even convince myself.

"I do. It's fun."

Qiu Zhoufan gave me a pointed look. "Yuyu, you'll be a great pianist."

"So will you so I don't understand why you insist on singing."

"I left piano because I couldn't compare." Qiu Zhoufan and I were both sent to learn the piano when we were 9 years old. Though, this is common occurrence amongst high class families, the instructor found that we both had a natural talent towards it. Me, more than Qiu Zhoufan. However, I could see that she really liked to play the piano; my time with Qiu Zhoufan had made me adept in reading her; so I refused to participate in compete and only played it as a recreation. I gave up.

However, I didn't expect her to drop it too and go into singing instead. Not that she wasn't doing well; Zhoufan was blessed with a good set of lungs and vocal chords, but I knew that this wasn't her first choice.

"And I left it because I didn't like it enough." My voice was firm. Zhoufan didn't reply but an ironical smile flashed in her eyes.

"Yuyu, you still have a chance. Come back with me. I know you love music." I got up to go back to the house.

"It wasn't your fault!" She suddenly said loudly, "You know it wasn't. Mom has never blamed you nor have I."

"So you've said." A thousand times over and over, she has. I stood with my back against the porch lights as I tried to blend into the white glare of the tungsten tube.

"So can't you believe me? You're my sister; you've always, always been my sister." Her voice trembled as I saw her swallow back tears.

How great it would be, if I could believe it. I have always wanted to believe it but I'm so scared. Scared of seeing her burn her hands because of me, of seeing her scarred body bleeding again because of the quills I had plucked off her.

Just then a call came in saving me from the situation as I was close to spiraling down and losing control of the emotions I had carefully sealed, putting a new layer every day to make it airtight.

It was Chief.

Another person that I was hurting.

I signaled to Qiu Zhoufan that I needed to take this call. She nodded, turning to sit back on the swing.

"Hell-"

"Qiu Yu, that bastard ran away from home! Ju Linping is missing!"

"Where are you? I'm coming." I said as I started to panic in earnest this time. I should've known something is wrong when he didn't reply to me. Hacker always replies. My hands were shaking so much that I could not hold the phone steady as it fell down. I bent down mechanically to pick it up but for some reason I suddenly could not see.

Qiu Zhoufan noticed and hurried over to pick up the call and ask what's up. She quickly replied, hung up and turned to me.

"Qiu Yu." She held my shoulders but when I didn't reply she shook me hard," Qiu Yu!"

My eyes snapped up to hers, momentarily focused. "You can't lose it right now. Hold yourself together. He needs you right now. Nothing is going to happen. Calm down and go find your friend. Qiu Yu! Calm down, you'll find him."

I nodded.

"Let's go. I'll tell your mother you're staying with me tonight. Don't worry and take your time. I'll handle everyone. Just stay in contact. I have Lian Qian's number. Send me the other girl and the boy's number too."

I followed her in, changing my shoes with barely restrained patience as Qiu Zhoufan said her cooked up story quickly before following me out, shouting to her mother that she was taking the car. Kuan Huahua, thankfully, did not question us as she somewhat understood that there was something wrong.

Qiu Zhoufan quickly floored the accelerator, heading towards the destination which Chief must have told her.

"Why did he run away?"

"He wants to play LOL professionally and got signed to a good team too but his parents must have disagreed. They're violent and lock him up, sometimes starving him for days."

"Fucking pricks." Qiu Zhoufan swore under her breath. "Where do you think he could be?"

"Cyber café, snack street, some bar. I don't know. Anywhere." I muttered as we reached the street that Hacker lived in.

"They're waiting at the playground. Here take the car keys. I'll take a taxi home. Call me every two hours. Even a text is fine." She pressed the keys into my hands as she snapped her seatbelt open too and got out of the car. I nodded, ready to rush towards the playground.

"Yuyu, please take care." She hurriedly said. I stopped for a second before rushing away.