Zhou Lei scratched his head. He placed his feet on the floor and stood up, leaving the messy bed behind. He walked towards the bathroom, intending to take a bath. It was then that he saw himself on the mirror, his eyes possessing a glint full of determination.
"Haah... I need to finish Despaghetti today..."
After taking a bath, he entered his sister"s room and shook her body.
"Aah! Wh- what..." Zhou Zhenya rubbed her eyes, her vision adapting to the sudden awakening her brother gave her. She sat up and was surprised at her brother"s appearance.
"Zhenya." With a voice as serious as could be, Zhou Lei looked at his little sister"s face straight in the eye. He placed both his hands on her small shoulders.
"..." Zhou Zhenya shuddered a bit, thinking of what was going to happen next! Was he... going to commit an unspeakable crime?!
Just imagining it made her shiver!
Her brother"s face inched closer to hers, making her close her eyes and bite her lips. She turned her head to the side as slowly as possible.
Zhou Lei arrived right beside her face. She could feel his breathing brushing against her ear.
"Prepare... some... good... food."
After uttering those four words, he fell silent.
"...Huh?" Zhou Zhenya opened her eyes and faced towards Zhou Lei who was just inches away from herself. "What do you mean?"
Zhou Lei patted her on her shoulder as he stood upright again. "You know what to do."
He exited the room.
"What..."
Her brother"s sudden entrance and exit left Zhou Zhenya dumbfounded. She froze for a solid few seconds before her brain started operating again.
"Prepare some good food...? What does he mean?"
Outside the room, Zhou Lei nodded, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with confidence. "That should have startled her enough to make her forget the fact that she thinks I cook better than her."
He had always wondered how to make his sister cook for him since he knew she thought that he had greater skill in that field than her.
With hours of thinking... this was the solution he got.
Sure enough, he witnessed Zhou Zhenya walking out of her own room and towards the kitchen.
"Heh... With Zhenya"s cooking, I will be much more determined to do this!"
Even though her cooking was only a little better than his, that small margin was like a gulf for Zhou Lei. When any food he ate tasted stale or plain bad, he appreciated even the smallest amount of good flavor that much more.
Imagining the sandwich that was going to be made by his little sister, saliva started to drip from the corners of his mouth. The sumptuous brownish slice of ham, the moist lettuce strip on top of it, between two pieces of soft grainy bread...
...Okay, that"s just a regular sandwich. But with his sister"s Cooking Skill stat through the roof, some magical effect made this ordinary looking sandwich taste like it was the most delicious delicacy in the whole world.
Zhou Lei hummed, a smile present on his face.
.....
A hand covered in dust scratched some black hair which had split ends on every strand.
The beggar"s unkempt face looked distressed as she waited outside the boy"s house. That boy bestowed upon her the one and only holy sandwich which had a flavor she could never forget.
She followed him here three of days ago, and using up her reserve money, she staked out his house.
To be honest, looking at the small size of building in front of her, she did not think much of the boy"s wealth. After all, she had lived in a much larger house previously.
"If only I didn"t get lost that time..."
She unconsciously started biting onto the nail of her thumb as she thought of her past.
In the end, she shook her head, thinking that having such thoughts would be pointless. In the foreign world she was in now, there was no hope for her graceful return. Anyway, it has been 5 years already, and not a single person went back to retrieve her... This made her realize her worth to her family.
"My objective right now is that holy sandwich." The beggar craved to taste the sandwich again... This single thought eradicated any concerns she had about her past.
"Ah, he"s here again!" Her eyes lit up, looking at the wooden door that slowly opened.
Out of the entrance came an incredibly handsome man, one which would make even an international idol fall to his knees and bow his head in shame.
Even though she had seen this boy"s face for the fourth time already, she couldn"t help but still be surprised. After all, she thought that such a level of handsomeness could only be possible in her imagination.
However, another object distracted her from paying any more attention to the good-looking youth"s face.
"Th- the sandwich!"
For the past two days, she witnessed this youth exiting his house, feeling quite disheartened at the fact that the holy sandwich was absent from his hands on both occasions.
Zhou Lei walked out of his home with a disgruntled face. That was because halfway through his little sister"s preparation of his food, she suddenly realized that she didn"t have to do this.
He could still remember her pout as she stomped angrily towards Zhou Lei and uttered a little "hmph" before turning her head away and entering her room again.
"...I have no idea how this sandwich will taste. Will it taste different because I was the one who finished it?" Zhou Lei looked at the sandwich on his hand, contemplating on whether he should eat it or not.
Suddenly, as he walked a meter from his home"s entrance, a beggar approached him with enthusiasm.
Zhou Lei observed the beggar"s stature. She looked to be the same height as him. Her whole body was covered with a large gray rag that had tears and holes in random places.
Long black scruffy hair flowed down ungracefully from the top of her head, nearly covering her dirty face that had splotches of mud and dust. Two big bulges laid on the chest area, confirming his suspicion that the beggar was a female.
"This beggar is a bit familiar..."
The beggar licked her lips, staring at the sandwich between Zhou Lei"s hands. Saliva visibly dripped down from her widely opened mouth.