The dry wood in the fireplace crackled as the flames licked at it.
Zhang Xiao sat beside the warm fire, his dark brown eyes shining in its glow.
Bird Sis lay comfortably in his arms, her eyes closed in a light doze. The weather outside was miserable; a biting wind laden with snow had been howling all day.
Zhang Xiao gently stroked Bird Sis's smooth feathers, his brows slightly furrowed as though something was troubling him.
A sheet of parchment lay spread across the little table in front of him. Since he simply couldn't spin a quill between his fingers, he had even bought himself a fountain pen.
The expensive fountain pen now lay casually at an angle across the parchment as Zhang Xiao stared at what he had written:
"Postpartum care for sows"
The complete set of "The Lord of the Rings"
"Dragon Ball," deluxe full-color edition (several volumes)
"Huaiyang recipes-illustrated edition"
"Five thousand years of Chinese history (preschool edition with pinyin)"
These were all Christmas presents he had prepared, but choosing gifts for certain people had left him stumped.
What should he give Professor McGonagall, for instance?
The first thing Zhang Xiao thought of was the cat tree that appeared so often in fan fiction.
No way. She'd turn me into a mouse! Or turn me into a cat and make me climb it a hundred times!
Hmm? Maybe I could give her that?
Zhang Xiao's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly wrote his new gift idea on the parchment.
Heh heh, Professor McGonagall should like this.
Choosing Professor McGonagall's gift seemed to open the door to a whole new world, and Zhang Xiao kept writing.
Professor Flitwick-Auspicious Cloud (children's model: maximum altitude 1.5 meters)
Professor Sprout-Changbai Mountain Ginseng (supposedly capable of growing into a ginseng baby)