Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 53: How Rude

Shehnaaz stared at her phone; she wondered what Deepak was doing at her apartment. At this very moment,
she heard a chime from Parth’s phone, which he had left on the table. It was a text message.

Shehnaaz automatically glanced at the phone, and saw the contents of the message without meaning to.

It was from Shefali Arora.

[Shefu]: “It’s that time of the month for me again. I feel so uncomfortable… I miss the ginger tea you used to make for me, all those years ago…”

Shehnaaz’s mind reeled upon seeing this. Her mouth twitched as she nudged Parth’s phone away from her.

Before long, Parth appeared with a big dinner tray. He set it down before Shehnaaz, and moved the two plates of food that had been on the tray onto the table.

Shehnaaz silently picked up her pair of disposable chopsticks, and began to
eat.

Parth sat beside her. He watched Shehnaaz’s profile as he ate, a smile on his face.

Shehnaaz was embarrassed by this. She tapped Parth’s bowl with her chopsticks as she said, “Your lunch is
over here. What are you looking at?”
Parth’s eyes sparkled behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

He laughed, and said, “I’m looking at you, of course…”

“What nonsense. I’m not food, so why are you looking at me during lunch?” said Shehnaaz, before taking a sip of iced milk.

“You’re a real feast for the eyes.” Parth reached out and held Shehnaaz’s hand with his free hand.

Shehnaaz hastily pulled away. “Don’t be so cheesy, I’m still eating here.”

As they spoke, Parth’s phone rang again.

He reached for his phone, but the first thing he saw was the text message from Shefali that he had missed.
The phone continued to ring relentlessly, but Parth did not take the call. He was staring at Shefali’s message, his thoughts far away. He couldn’t help it; he was awash in old
memories. His eyes lingered on the words “ginger tea”.

Shehnaaz found it strange that Parth  wasn’t answering his phone. She asked, “What’s wrong? Who’s calling? If you don’t want to pick up, just cancel the call. It’s kind of noisy.”

“Oh. It’s the student council.” Parth  had returned to his senses. He unlocked his phone and took the call.
He gave a few non-committal replies to whoever was on the other end, before hanging up to check Weibo on his phone.

Shehnaaz was done eating; she saw that Parth had left most of his food untouched. She asked, “What’s wrong? Not hungry? Did something come up with the student council?”

“Yeah, I have some student council stuff to deal with, but I’ll give you a ride back, first.” Parth stood up, too lazy to eat now. He dumped the rest of his food.

When the two got up to leave, a woman wearing one of the newest dresses from Chanel’s latest summer line-up entered the cafeteria.

It was Arti Sinha’s older sister, Kasmira Sinha.

She looked at Shehnaaz as she walked past her. Shehnaaz was radiant and full of smiles; the tall, slim, elegant, and dignified man beside her had his arm around her shoulder.

She recognised the man: it was Parth Patel, her sister’s class representative, and also the only son of the Patel family, one of the wealthiest families in C City. The Feng family had once tried to curry favor with them.

The two of them walked past her, absorbed in their own little world.
They did not recognise her.

Kasmira turned, and watched Parth  hold open the door to a Buick for Shehnaaz.