Morning in Zhejiang ;
The light knock on the door drew the woman's attention to the door, she looked down at her daughter who was still trying to fix the ribbon on her hair.
"Mom would be right back ok? when you are done with your hair. Grab your breakfast on the table and start eating", she said.
Xiu fan nodded her head as a response.
She opened the door and saw Zhou (Mr. Zhang's brother).
Her unimpressed face said it all, the man ignored her and tried stretching his neck to look into the house but the woman who wouldn't leave the door prevented that from happening, he looked at her and let out a sigh.
"BI$#%CH," he thought and proceeded to say "Good morning to you too Susan, can I see my brother please, it is urgent and you standing in my way is strange".
The woman felt the sarcasm in his words, her lips curved into a fake smile.
"Isn't it too early to be knocking on people's doors? I know you won't understand what I am saying because you probably have nothing going on", she smiled and continued, "my bad, I forgot you are always available..... I forget things easily" she said, still smiling.
The hurtful words thrown at him made the man smirk at the woman, he looked away for a short while and then back at her?
"People's house? this is Zhang's home, my brother's home?"
He questioned.
"You missed him, your brother left for work. He is not in, so are we good now?"
Zhou did calculate well, he knew when his brother usually go out to work and that was 20 min later than the time had arrived.
The woman noticed the man refused to leave, she shook her head and turned to leave, "I need to take care of my kid... goodbye"
The aggressive shutting of the door made the man flinch, he shook his head and said "your kid? and not your kids? Susan is just an Ass%$7he.
The woman saw Xiaofan staring at her from the stairs that led to the living room, she ignored the disgusting stare and walked away.
The girl hurried out to see if her uncle was still outside but unfortunately he wasn't, she looked around quickly but there was no sign of him. She gave up and let out a sigh, her school bag held in her left hand.
"Why did she lie to her? she gets worst every day".
Her gaze fell on a girl watering the flower next door, Xiaofan have never seen the girl around, so she concluded the girl just moved in.
The girl has black curly hair, and a chocolate-skinned body that looks so clean even from afar, that anyone could tell she is been taken care of.
The girl looked up and saw Xiaofan's eyes on her, she let out a smile and waved at Xiaofan.
"Oh she is waving at me, should I wave back? or leave?", Xiaofan thought but the new girl's friendly smile made her wave back immediately. "That wasn't so weird?" she whispered and turned to leave.
The girl who had stopped watering pulled out the glove from her hand and kept staring at Xiaofan until her image faded away.
(Lee and his brother's cottage)
She opened the door and walked in, dropped her bags, and fell on the cushion,
Chun hurried out after hearing the door been opened, he looked around and saw the girl laying on the chair, he let out a relieved sigh and walked towards the girl who ignored the presence.
"Missing classes again miss?", Chun asked as he sat opposite the girl.
Xiaofan groaned softly, she sat upright and nodded, "My mental health cannot accept me going to school today Chun, I am very fine here", she said and suddenly noticed someone important was missing.
Lee who had seen the girl's eyes searching around said as he walked out of the kitchen, "If you are trying to look for Yi Chen, he is not in right now because he has gone to school, and what does a 10-year-old understands by mental health?".
Lee questioned her.
"More than you imagined", she responded and fell on the couch.
"Okkkk!!! will you eat fried meat? I just finished frying it, I am sure you can tell with the sweet aroma all over the room", Lee offered as he returned to the kitchen.
She looked over at Chun and whispered, "what meat is it?".
"SNAKE!", Chun's mouth whispered back to her.
Xiaofan stuck out her tongue out of disgust, she shook her head and looked over in the direction of the kitchen, "I would pass!".
"Your loss",
They both heard the guy say from the kitchen.
After a short time of silence amongst them, Xiaofan decided to ask, "Tell me a story guys", she said expecting the two guys to tell her a very interesting history, but instead, Lee came up with a scary tale.
He put down the plate of hot peppered snake meat on the table as he continued, "Dad told me his dad told him about some spirit that was seen in china some years ago, he said it was a tale and just certain people saw them, they were hideous and as well gifted."
The girl listened attentively.
"They were soldiers but ancient ones, no one knows why they came to earth and no one knows why they returned, many towns were destroyed by them and some people died", Chun added.
Lee's mouth was filled with meat, he managed to continue the tale, "What if they come back? I always ask my Dad but he said no one knows"
Chun saw Xiaofan's terrified face, but he didn't stop, "Like a thief in the night they will come and.....".
The front door opened immediately, the girl jumped out of fear, and they all saw the boy standing by the door.
The scar on his face and the stain of blood on his shirt made Xiaofan forget the scary tale, she hurried to Yi Chen and asked worriedly.
"What happened?".