Chapter 26 - A Gift

Zhang Min stood outside Shi Ai's door at 7.30 am.He had of course found her address by certain illegal means(hacking into the school system) so he was a little uncertain about knocking on the door.He did not want his little sister to think bad of him.But he had been worried about how she would reach their house.It was a bit far from where she stayed and he thought that since she was a scholarship student with no guardian,she would not have much money.What he did not know was that thought Shi Ai was not very well off,she lived frugally and thus would have been able to afford conveyance.His inner turmoil led him to rush here and reach her an hour before she was set to meet his family.Before he could gather his courage,an aroma of something delicious wafted into his nose and he decided to follow it thus forgetting his dilemma and knocked on the door.Shi Ai opened the door and he tried to smile at her a little carefully.She rolled her eyes and said,"Senior brother,you finally decided to come inside!I thought you planned to guard the gate while standing there."

Zhang Min then realized that Shi Ai had already seen him and si he frowned and accused,"Little cousin!If you had seen me,why did you not open the door earlier.It would have saved me the trouble!"

"That's because you scared me!I was not expecting anybody at this hour.And that too someone who was trying to peep inside.I thought you were a pervert!You should be grateful that I did not open the door and bash your head with that bat."Shi Ai pointed to a bat that was leaning against the side of the door.

Zhang Min felt himself blush at that and his head a bit feeling embarrassed.He really had been peeping.. But then another thought struck him!

"Why do you have a bat at the door?Do you get regular perverted visitors that you need to chase away!Then let me tell you if that is the case then I am packing your bag right away and taking you home. You are not allowed to live here alone.And if you have still not decided then I will borrow a gun from father and stay here!In face I will even ask the big brothers to come here!"

Shi Ai shook her head and said,"Senior brother.There is no need to go that far.That bat is only a precautionary measure.And ever since I started recovering I have been learning martial arts as part of my fitness training  so I am pretty much capable of self defense.And now,since you are already here,please come inside and give me an opinion on something.With that Shi Ai went inside leaving Zhang Min to follow her.Once inside,he looked around the small space and also realized that the source of the yummy smell was right there.,"Rice cakes!" Being the growing boy that he was,he forgot his manners and was about to pinch away one when his hand was swatted at."I made those to bring to your family!You can have them later!And now tell me,will Mrs Zhang like this?"

Zhang Min stared at the slightly nervous Shi Ai and the beautiful silk scarf in her hand.The truth was he had no idea about his mother's preference with regards to fashion so he wasn't sure.But he could see Shi Ai was nervous about it so he nodded and assured her that she would of course love it.Since he had helped her,he made puppy eyes at her and convinced her to give him a ride cake to which she reluctantly agreed.They then set together to go for the breakfast.