Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 108 - Arguing A Point To Death

Shehnaaz and Brother Khatri both nodded at Rashmi, “Teaching Assistant Desai, thank you.”

“Teaching Assistant Desai, this is my guardian.” Shehnaaz introduced as she pointed at Rohit, who was standing beside her. Rohit was in disguise, appearing like a tanned, bushy browed, middle-aged man–just like when he met Kartik at C University. Rashmi had some memory of him. She recalled that Rohit had come in to excuse Shehnaaz when she missed her interview.

She nodded politely, “A pleasure to meet you.” She turned to lead them to a van and opened the door, “Come in,
Professor Sen has made living arrangements for you.” Rashmi took the wheel and drove them to an apartment near Harvard. She rented two units here–a one bedroom, one
living room for Brother Khatri and a two bedroom, one living room for Shehnaaz and Rohit. It was very well
thought out.

“Professor Sen asked you come over earlier, because your F1 student visa has academic credit requirements. You are actually attending the Harvard Law School as exchange students. Professor Sen will be teaching classes in July and August, so you’ll be attending those summer classes to get
six credits.” Rashmi handed them the class schedules.

Brother Khatri furrowed his brows in bewilderment, “We still have to take classes for two months? Aren’t we interning at the Congress?”

Shehnaaz gave him a nudge and spoke in a low voice, “The Congress is in recess from July and won’t resume session until September…”

Rashmi patted Shehnaaz’s shoulder with approval, “You’re truly the top of the class, you’ve prepared well and
even knew about the recess. This meticulousness is rare.”

She continued as she pursed her lips into a smile, “Professor Sen doesn’t need to worry about you getting bullied because of your young age. Just looking at how clever you are, you’d the be the bully, how could anyone take advantage of you?”

Although it sounded like a compliment, her tone was twisted with sarcasm. Shehnaaz already had prejudice against Rashmi since the incident before her interview. Now she was
extremely cautious when it came to anything Rashmi said. However, she didn’t have to defend herself this time.

With the protective and articulate Rohit at her side, Rashmi could be taught a lesson at anytime.

“Teaching Assistant Desai was it?” Rohit rolled his eyes, “This is how you speak, as a law teaching assistant?
Though I didn’t study law, I can tell you were slandering Sana. Know that I can sue you so badly you’d lose your
job.”

Rashmi was dumbfounded, unable to believe someone would speak to her like that. She believed that aside from
Kartik, no one in the world could disrespect her like that.

“Is that right? Then go on sue me? I’ll wait for the court notice.” Rashmi never backed down.

Shehnaaz interjected with a smile, “Brother Rohit, you don’t need the court to make her lose her job. Just directly tell her employer that she’s purposely beating down on students. Professor Sen is a very fair person, I believe he’ll find justice.” She hit it where it hurt.

Rashmi was fearless about everything, except for Kartik. Shehnaaz caught her expression change and despised her even more.

“…Miss Gill, I was just making a joke, I hope you weren’t taking it seriously?” Rashmi’s palms were clammy as she endured the humiliation of indirectly apologizing to Shehnaaz.

Brother Khatri was watching the drama unfold from the side. When he saw Rashmi acquiesce, he gently tapped Shehnaaz to dispel the situation, “Ok, ok, all jokes here, let’s not get too serious.” He changed the subject, “Today’s our first day in the States, where should we have dinner to celebrate?”

Rashmi smiled and nodded at him in gratitude, “We’ve taken care of dinner and will have a car pick you up tonight.” She nodded at Shehnaaz and returned to the car.

Shehnaaz spun the key in her hand and pouted at the disappearing car.

Brother Khatri hastily discouraged her, “Sana, don’t be so rash. She’s Professor Sen’s teaching assistant, you’re the one to get the short end of the stick if you make things tense with her. We have to go with the flow…”

Shehnaaz thought, so will Rashmi let her off she sucked it up? –Of course not. So why did she have to suck it up? It didn’t matter what she did, Rashmi couldn’t stand if she didn’t take a jab or two at her. It was like she couldn’t
speak otherwise, what a shame.

“Brother Khatri, don’t be scared. I never bow down in face of force, wealth or poverty. I’m not afraid of any evil powers. If she gives you a hard time, tell me and I’ll stand up for
you!” She said with heroic righteousness. Brother Khatri’s lips twitched and could only lament that Shehnaaz was a newborn calf not yet afraid of a tiger. What bravery…

Rohit chewed gum as he nodded at Brother Khatri with a smile, “Brother Khatri, please take care of Sana from now on. She’s young and doesn’t know any better, if she wrongs you, tell me and I’ll teach her a lesson.” He said
as he jokingly glared at Shehnaaz.

Shehnaaz looked down with a smile, not afraid at the slightest. The three of them joked as they entered the apartment elevator. Rashmi rented apartments for them on the fifth floor, one on each end of the hallway. Although it was only two bedrooms and one living room, there was 150
square meters of living space and was very spacious.

After setting down their luggage, Rohit immediately took out his anti-infrared detector and walked through the entire the place without missing an inch. He combed through the wall closets, bathrooms, cupboards and all the corners under the bed. He didn’t expect to find to at least five hidden cameras.

“We can’t live here.” Rohit took a hammer to smash the cameras, “Go find the building manager and ask them to find us a different place.”

Shehnaaz promptly answered and went downstairs to speak with the property manager about a different unit.

The American property manager was unwilling at first, but then Shehnaaz put two of the smashed cameras on her desk, and spoke in English, “We just found these in the apartments. This is enough evidence for me to sue the apartment to bankruptcy.”

The property manager’s face immediately changed and stood up immediately, “I can guarantee that we absolutely don’t install this kind of thing here. I’m afraid this was planted.”

“I don’t know if this was planted or not, but if you want to fix this, fine, get me a new apartment first. I’ll choose it myself.” Shehnaaz refused to back down. Americans were all like that, you had to argue the point to death. They assume you are afraid of them and ignore you if you’re cordial. It would be alright as long as you didn’t raise a ruckus.

Shehnaaz’s voice was even, but her demeanor and tone were firm. The property manager immediately transformed into a good Samaritan and personally took Shehnaaz to look for a new place. Because the building was close to Harvard, it was always fully rented. There were vacant units
during the summer break because a bunch of students graduated. The new students hadn’t started school yet, so
there were a few empty apartments for Shehnaaz to pick.

Shehnaaz called Rohit in. They covertly brought a detector to slowly sweep through the empty apartment, and finally close a south facing two bedroom unit on the sixth floor. There were no hidden cameras inside. Aside from the unit Rashmi rented for them, the other ones had nothing fishy about them.

Shehnaaz didn’t bother to mince her words, “We’ll take this one, you can charge the same account that was paying for the other unit.”

“No problem, the rent is the same so we can easily exchange.” The property manager smiled like a blooming flower and was extremely helpful.

After fussing for the entire afternoon, Shehnaaz and Rohit finally settled in the furnished apartment on the
sixth floor.

*
*
*
I hope you enjoy reading it.
Love you all.