Chapter 101: The Meeting (1/2)
Melting Snow was surprised to hear from his cousin, he knew how busy he had been. Opening up the video call, Melting Snow couldn't help but frown at how tired his cousin's avatar appeared to be. He had a feeling that he was overworking himself again if it was showing this much inside of the game.
”What's with the frown, my cute little cousin should always be smiling,” Zixuan told him with a grin.
”I would be smiling,” Melting Snow staring hard at his cousin. ”If a certain cousin of mine didn't look so haggard.”
Zixuan eyebrows raised in disbelief, ”Haggard, you say? The game might be realistic but I doubt my avatar could look haggard.”
”That's just it if you're so tired that it's changing the appearance of your avatar, then something is wrong.” Melting Snow said seriously.
”Are you worried about me?” Zixuan began, chuckling. ”It seems my little cousins have grown somewhat.”
Peeved, Melting Snow retorted, ”Don't try to change the topic. I'm very worried, you could get sick from the way you're overworking yourself.”
Zixuan saw how sincere his cousin was in his concern about him and tried to soothe him, ”Don't worry, I know my limits. I will even give you permission to check up on me and make me rest.”
”Are you sure you want to give me permission to boss you around?” A mischievous grin formed on Melting Snow's face at the thought of telling his cousin what to do.
”Well,” Zixuan started, already knowing what kind of thoughts that were going through Melting Snow's mind. ”I know you would never take advantage of it, right?”
Melting Snow couldn't help but pout while silently tsk'ing in his heart before saying, ”Right, I would never do that.”
Zixuan wished he could give his cousin's head a pat right, he looked so adorable standing there pouting. Before he got a chance to say another word he saw his cousin's face light up followed by the sound of a man's voice calling Melting Snow's name.
~
Xinya couldn't hide the joy that appeared on his face when he saw Melting Snow standing there, in front of the inn. He couldn't believe how much Melting Snow had changed since the last time he saw him. He was still as cute as ever with his black wolf ears and fluffy tail, but the gear he had was upgraded a lot.
He looked like a modernized samurai, wearing a blue and gold hakama for his armor. It was completely different from a normal one, the pants, for one thing, wasn't loose but fitted perfectly to his legs while his undershirt hung loosely over his trousers, and lastly, his golden Haori lay open over his shirt.
Melting Snow swords were also different, gone was his twin black swords, they were now replaced by blue ones that matched his outfit perfectly. Xinya could tell that his armor and swords were custom made, and was happy to know that Melting Snow had such a caring brother that would spend so much on him.
Seeing that Melting Snow caught sight of him, Xinya smile became bigger and he started to walk over to him, ”Long time no see, did you miss me?”
”Well we did chat all the time with one another,” Melting Snow replied jokingly. ”So not really.”
”I'm hurt, and here I thought you missed going on adventures with me.” Xinya teased him.
Melting Snow huffed at him, ”Don't even get me started. I still can't believe I missed that epic adventure you went on.”
Xinya just laughed at the frustrated expression that was currently on Melting Snow's face. He almost forgot how amusing this boy was, all his irritation about handling monster guts disappeared. It seems he did miss him more than he thought.
~
The sound of someone clearing his throat interrupted Melting Snow's inner rant about how stupid his brother was and how much he wanted to kick him. The sound came from his cousin who was looking at him as if saying, 'You didn't forget about me did you?'
”Oh, I'm so sorry cousin,” Melting Snow sheepishly said, ”Let me introduce you to my friend.”
After changing some settings in his video call, the once transparent screen that was only visible to him could now be seen by everyone. Melting Snow grabbed Xinya's arm and pulled him closer to him.
”Drifting Cloud meet my older cousin Nascent Soul,” Melting Snow said happily that his two favorite people in the game were meeting.
Xinya was taken aback by the suddenness of the introduction but pulled himself together. Looking into Melting Snow's video screen he said, ”Hello, Nascent Soul, it's nice to meet you.”
Melting Snow always talked about his cousin a lot so Xinya was quite curious to see what he looked like. From how Melting Snow talked about him he expected a gorgeous god-like man, but what he saw was a semi-handsome man that looked very tired. He had an urge to ask if he was alright.
”It's nice to meet you too, Drifting Cloud. I heard so much about you from Melting Snow.” Zixuan said polity not thinking much of the other man.
He could see why his cousin was so enamored with him though, The Dryad did look cool. With his tree-like skin and how leaves made up his hair. It was like the man was a living plant, although he was older than what he expected. But, from the way he heard them speak to one another, he didn't feel like he had anything to worry about.
”The same could be said about you,” Xinya said with a smile.
Chuckling, Zixuan said, ”I guess he doesn't have anything else to talk about.”
”Hey!!” Melting Snow gave both of them the stink eye, ”I have plenty of things to talk about that don't contain you two.”