Chapter 127 - The Troops Attack 2

Bohai had successfully broken the ice and the awkward atmosphere by cuddling with Shi Ai. Soon all the kids were surrounding Shi Ai and trying to gain her attention and get to know more about their pretty aunt. Soon the only people left in the room were Ah Hai, Ru and Zhao Min.  The little ones had all abducted Shi Ai to play with her while leaving behind orders for Ah Hai to prepare breakfast. Ah Hai glared at the spoils brats, cursing his brothers in his heart. The two boys sensed the danger in the air once Shi Ai was gone and decided to escape

Before they could make a move,they were caught in a chokehold by Ah Hai who then almost knocked their heads together."I thought you were missing me. So where are you off to now? And what were you doing driving the car? Have you forgotten you are underage?"

Ru looked at his uncle sheepishly as he pointed to his neck indicating that he could not talk. Once the boys were let loose,they ran to a safe distance and then said in unison,"We did not drive all the way. It was Uncle Matt. He drove us to your gate but then he had to rush somewhere urgently so he went. We only drove inside the gates. And now we are going to play with out Aunt. Please hurry to prepare the breakfast,we are really hungry. Uncle Matt did not feed us."

Matt Long who was on his way home,sneezed a few times as the children lied about him who had served them a breakfast fit for kings just a few hours ago.

Having thought that they had escaped,the two boys happily made their way but then two cushions attacked them on the back of their heads,"Brats! Go in the kitchen now and wash the chicken and vegetables. You have to help me."

Ru and Zhao Min let out a pained groan and walked towards the kitchen to help their Uncle. Suddenly an idea struck them and they veered into the other room and then putting on pitiful expression complained to Shi Ai,"Aunt! You have to help us!Uncle Ah Hai is bullying us. We are here for a vacation and he wants to work."

Shi AI was at a loss as she stared at the two almost grown men giving her the look of golden retriever with their sad eyes. But unable to resist their cuteness, Shi Ai went out of the room to offer help so that the boys could rest.

Zhao Min and Ru gave each other a thumbs up at having escaped kitchen duty and followed behind Shi Ai.  Naturally before she could say anything Ah Hai had already intercepted their move and he whispered something to Shi Ai which caused her face to turn red and in an about turn,she turned to the two boys and said primly,"Your uncle is right. You are grown ups and must help him take care of your little siblings." She then escaped the kitchen lest Ah Hai make good in his threat of bullying her. She had never thought that he would use something like 'that' to threaten her. She could not take more of his kisses without self combusting so it was safer to let Ru and Zhao Min be bullied.

The two boys stared at their aunt's retreating back and realized that their uncle was better at bullying than anyone. He had already prepared his ammunition against them. With a raised eyebrow Ah Hai stared at the two boys and silently pointed at the onions and potatoes on the table. His pointed look was clear,"get to work." With matching disappointed expressions,the two started to peel the onions and potatoes.

A little while later, the kitchen was lively as everyone chattered at the same time and tried to get their voices heard. Shi Ai was grinning wildly and she remembered the time she used to live in the orphanage. Though the fare for eating was more grand than their simple food table from back then,she suddenly had a feeling of nostalgia. She had been lucky over the years, she realized. From her sister protecting her to her meeting with Alicia and then coming to Country A or later being kidnapped in country C. All throughout she had somehow been protected by the fates and suffered only minimally. Seeing the kids,she really missed sister Alicia and decided she was going to call her soon. She had never gathered the courage to talk to her after cutting off all contact from her in the past. Shi Ai knew that Alicia Long had always been aware of her whereabouts but she had never contacted Shi Ai herself in order to respect Shi Ai's wishes. The little girl Rou resembled her mother in looks and temperament Shi Ai wanted so badly to hug her but she was sure that the over enthusiastic hug would scare the poor girl. Another person she was missing the most was Zhang Min.  It had been so long since they had met. There was one thing thing that all the Long men were good at. That was reading a person's emotions. Seeing the dazed expression on his Aunt's face,Ru had already guessed what she was thinking so he quietly took out his phone and snapping a picture,sent it to his mother. As he had guessed,the next moment his phone vibrated with a video call notification which he promptly answered. Suddenly a loud squeal sounded and Alicia Long's sweet voice sounded through the speakers of the phone.,"Shi Shi!Finally Ah Hai has come out of the closet and let us see you again!" Though Alicia could not see Shi Ai yet as the phone was still facing Ru,everyone at the table quieted in surprise. Teasing his mother,Ru showed every child on the table who waved at her happily before turning the camera to Shi Ai while his mother threatened to ground him if he did not do as she wished. Shi AI was so happy to see and hear Alicia that her eyes turned wet even as she grinned from ear ti ear. After a lengthy and satisfying conversation where they promised to keep in touch now,the two people hung up the phone. Only then did Shi Ai realize that everybody had moved to the grounds to give her some privacy. She decided to follow them,unaware that she would be getting another surprise soon.

Zhang Min had just come back from his overseas assignment and was on his way to Shi Ai's university to see her. They were siblings but they were meeting after so long. Before he could reach the university, the grin reaper messaged him that Shi Ai was not there and the man even sent him the address to reach them. Zhang Min entered the address into the GPRS and realized that the place was not too far.Deciding to go there directly Zhang Min drove a few more minutes towards the address. He did not stop to wonder how Ah Hai knew that he would be coming. Zhang Min had long accepted the fact that Ah Hai knew everything and he was omnipresent.Who would have thought that he would receive such a major shock upon reaching the address. That man..that grim reaper who only knew to scare people and maybe worry about his wife was actually playing with children! Zhang Min subtly pinched himself to see if he had maybe been some part of a time lapse. Because he was very sure all three kids closely resembled the grim reaper in features. Had Ah Hai fathered children before marrying Shi Ai? And were these Shi Ai's step children?But then his gaze found Shi Ai and another two young girls were sitting playing with her. No no..a cold man like Ah Hai could not have produced so many children with another woman. Maybe he had fallen asleep on the way here because of exhaustion and all this was a dream. But that pinch had certainly hurt! He was going back out of the gate and come back tomorrow., he decided.Then everything would mostly be fine.

But before he could be escape,he was spotted by the grim reaper who was actually smiling and picking up a kid in his arm was walking towards him. With the smile of an angel on his face, Ah Hai handed little Bohai into Zhang Min's arms causing both Bohai and Zhang Min to stare at each other in shock. He then turned around to the others and announced, "Kids, this is your Uncle Zhang. He is here to spend some time with you and get to know you all. Zhang Min,meet the kids."

"@@#####@@**" All Zhang Min could so was curse. He had been tricked! After being surrounded by the kids,Zhang Min understood how he had suddenly received Ah Hai's message out of the blue. The man had actually called him here so that he could baby sit. Zhang Min felt he was too young to be called uncle and after promising to bribe the kids with innumerable kids,he got them to introduce themselves and call him big brother instead of uncle. Seeing the happy look of Sho ai as she ran to hug him, Zhang Min decided to be magnanimous and forgive Ah Hai for his trickery.Seeing the loud and naughty group,he could guess why the uncles were shirking responsibilities. These kids were really too much. He would have been totally out of his element if not for Shi Ai playing the referee.

Inside,Ah Hai picked up the forgotten metal box from where he had pushed it into a cabinet and took it into a room in the far hidden corner of the house.

This room in the house was well guarded as it was always locked and also sound proof. There were various tools and drillers lying on a table. Placing the  box on an empty table, Ah Hai went to a furnace in the corner and turned in the flames. Donning the protective gear with a pair of goggles and gloves, he started working to open the box. The box had to be handled carefully because they did not know what was contained in the box and he did not want to damage what was there inside. Picking up a few small knives and some sulphuric acid, Ah Hai was successfully able to pry open a hole in the box after two hours. Placing all the tools aside,Ah Hai picked up a flash light to see the items that were stored in the box. It seemed the mother knew that the money may or may not reach her daughters so there were several rolls of bank notes rolled and tied with rubber bands. There was a black book which he guessed was mostly a personal diary. He would have to enlarge the hole to get that book out and there were also some shiny stones that he guessed was jewellery. Knowing what was inside the box not, Ah Hai got back to the work of getting everything out. Finally after accomplished everything, Ah Hai placed everything from the box into a different box and then went out to the family. Actually Ah Hai had not initially known about Zhang Min's plan to come here. But early this morning he had been looking for something when on his computer when he saw that Zhang Min was now on leave. But Zhang Min was going to prove to be very useful...