Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1037: Test of patience

Liu villa.

In the evening, Jin paced and forth in his room while trying Alix's phone for the hundredth time now. He had been trying to reach her ever since the show had ended, which he felt like ages had passed by. A layer of sweat moistened his forehead as he thought back to the chaos on the stage.

His hand holding his phone trembled with Liu Hai's words constantly punching his face as if he was standing in a boxing ring with no timeout. But right now he felt that talking to Alix and clarifying the misunderstanding was more important than digging through his own feelings.

Damn it, please pick up Alix…

No matter the amount of text messages or missed calls, he didn't get a single response from Alix.

"This is not like her…" he muttered to himself.

Though announcing their possible engagement was quite serious even for Alix's fooling around standards, somewhere in his heart he held a feeling that she would shrug it off as usual. She would simply send a goofy reply that would frustrate the hell out of him. But this complete off-the grid radio silence was now beginning to unnerve Jin.

He jumped on his feet and grabbed his coat, ready to head to Alix's house to talk to her. But he abruptly stopped on his own.

She will definitely be bothered by my last minute visit, right?

On top of that, he was clueless how her parents would react to his sudden appearance when they might already be dealing with Liu Hai's troublesome announcement.

Ugh, Grandpa!

*Meow*

All the time, the cats Jun-kun and Ai-chan were staring at the race he was running against himself.

"Ai-chan…"

Jin bent and scooped her in his arms, a hint of relief in his eyes at her sight. Hugging her warm, fluffy body gave him the much needed comfort he wanted.

"Can you talk to Alix?"

*Meow*

Ai-chan looked like she wouldn't mind being the peacemaker between them. Jin let out a light chuckle and tapped on her nose. With that, an idea struck him and his eyes widened.

Yes, that's what I will do!

—

The simple idea was to bring Jun-kun and Ai-chan to his office the next day. Instead of facing Alix's wrath alone, he was confident that being in the cats' presence would melt her anger and she would return to normalcy. Yes, she would hurl some curses at him but her fury would eventually simmer down.

"Well, she has gotten close to you two so you have to help me out, okay?"

Jin could clearly read pity in their eyes towards him, making his brow twitch.

"I am fine being pitiful but just help me out. Please."

Should I have brought Ailun with the cats too? Jin wondered. They have gotten pretty close too. She would never ignore the adorable trio.

And so Jin waited.

And waited.

And waited.

He had expected Alix to come to his office as usual. Her small office still held a lot of her work stuff, which did require one visit to be sorted.

But Alix never showed her face.

Lunch time had passed but Alix hadn't come.

The afternoon turned into night yet Alix never stepped anywhere near Liu Corps.

I am fucked, was Jin's conclusion by the end of the day.

He covered his face, exhaling a deep, silent breath. He held an urge to text her again but didn't. After the messy chaos of last night, he wanted to give her space.

"Okay. Patience, Jin. Patience. It's just one day. Did you really expect she would come today immediately after last night? You were a fool to expect that. Giving space's definition is not just a few hours, idiot."

Jin glanced at Jun-kun and Ai-chan.

"Okay, I don't know when she will return but as a precaution, I will have to bring you two to the office everyday. You are my safety net."

*Meow*

The cats looked unbothered. House or office didn't matter to them as long as they got to sleep.

"...Thanks for your overwhelming support, guys," he grimaced.

Jin stared in the direction of Alix's office softly exhaled again.

I will wait for you Alix.

—

For Jin, it turned out to be a game of test of patience because there wasn't any response or movement from Alix even one whole week later too. It was now that he was beginning to panic. For the first time yesterday in six days, he texted her again but only to get silence in return.

"No, no, Alix is not like this. This is not like her to go off the grid like that."

Did the announcement…really offend her that much?

"It is indeed strange, so time to take some action, brother-in-law."

Jin closed his eyes, biting down on his lip. He opened them again and saw Ai comfortably seated on the couch in Jin's office and playing and laughing with the cats.

"And for the tenth time, what are you doing here Zhou Ai?" His gaze darkened.

Ai pouted. "What should I do? You keep taking Jun-kun and Ai-chan to the office everyday and I don't get to play with them. So I thought to come today myself, hehe," she chirped.

"Then don't disturb me!"

"I am helping you. I am also worried about Alix."

Jin paused and his anger retreated.

You can say that again…

He opened his chat window with Alix and released a sigh. On the other side, Ai, who was bored, switched on the television for some entertainment. She randomly changed the channels when she saw a familiar name on one of the news channels.

"Um…Jin."

"What?"

"I don't know about your text messages but I..can surely see the Ren family on the news here."

"Huh?"

Confused, Jin glanced at the news channel and read a piece of news scrolling down across the screen and also flashing at the center in bold.

'Breaking news! Ren Alix has relinquished her CEO's position!'

Jin jumped on his feet, stupefied.

"What!?"