52. Xixi is four years old!

"Dad, what is a birthday?"

One day, on the way home from picking Xixi up from school, the little guy suddenly asked this question.

Pei Yiyan paused for a moment, cleared his throat, and explained truthfully, "A birthday is to commemorate the day you were born. People usually eat cake, and there are flowers and candles on their birthdays. Do you want to celebrate your birthday?"

"Today, the little fat boy's mother came to the kindergarten to celebrate his birthday. The cake was bigger than Xixi's head and had three layers. It contained taro paste and ice cream."

Xi Xi made a big circle with her two chubby paws, smacked her lips as she spoke, and stared straight at him with her dark eyes.

Pei Yiyan realized that she didn't really want to celebrate her birthday; she clearly wanted to eat ice cream cake.

“I just made you a chocolate cake last week.” He adjusted his little red backpack. “Eating too many sweets can cause cavities, even for little monsters.”

Xixi learned to present facts and reason from her father. She grinned, revealing two rows of snow-white baby teeth.

"Look, Xixi's teeth aren't sick, they're very healthy."

"I can also heal myself."

That's true. Children who catch colds from time to time don't seem to have a trace of it on Xixi, and ordinary bumps and falls are almost invisible because of her super self-healing ability.

The same tricks used to fool ordinary human children were not very effective on Xixi, and Pei Yiyan couldn't think of any new reason to stop her from eating cake.

Well, little monsters are born with the right to be willful.

"I know you're good at this." He pinched the chubby boy's arm. "I'll make it for you next month."

"Not enough, not enough, Xixi wants to celebrate her birthday too."

Pei Yiyan stopped celebrating his birthday after he turned five. The despair of losing a leg and the hatred and fear of his biological father made him instinctively loathe the other half of his blood. Celebrating his birthday was a way of reminding him that he and Pei Jin would always have an unbreakable connection.

So the word "birthday" has faded from his vocabulary for many years.

If Xixi hadn't brought it up herself today, he wouldn't have remembered it at all.

"Okay," Pei Yiyan agreed. "Do you know when you were born?"

"I don't know." Xi Xi shook her head. "How could I remember something that happened three hundred years ago?"

Pei Yiyan wasn't surprised. He felt that birthdays were just a ritual, and the date didn't matter, as long as he was happy.

“Then let’s set it for the day you come down the mountain.” He looked down and patted the child’s head with one hand. “That will be the day you find your father.”

Xi Xi had no objection and nodded happily.

Pei Yiyan's narrow eyes curved slightly, and he said with a gloating tone, "Don't be too happy yet. That day is the winter solstice. You still have to wait half a year for your birthday."

"Ah, it takes so long." Xi Xi's mouth dropped open.

Yesterday was the start of summer, and it will be a full seven months until the winter solstice, by which time the daylilies will be too cold.

"No problem," Pei Yiyan said with a smile. "We can go ahead with the ceremony."

No one says you can't have two birthdays in a year. Pei Yiyan has never been one to follow rules. As long as the child is happy, every day can be her birthday.

Of course, this doesn't apply to eating cake every day.

Xi Xi's eyes lit up: "Then I want to treat all the kindergarten kids to cake too!"

Pei Yiyan nodded, saying that a cake wouldn't cost much.

I thought the little girl wanted to invite her kindergarten friends over to celebrate her birthday, but I didn't expect her next sentence to be...

"Daddy, Mommy and I, please come to the kindergarten to celebrate Xixi's birthday! I want a four-tiered cake!"

Four floors?

Pei Yiyan's eyelids twitched. It was nothing serious; he could just pay more to have the cake shop make it sooner.

"Daddy, Xixi's boyfriend and girlfriend all want to eat the cakes you made!" The child smiled and blinked his big eyes cutely.

"You don't mean you want me to make your birthday cake, do you?"

"Uh-huh!"

“”

Pei Yiyan rubbed his cheek as if he had a toothache. He had once made a 16-inch two-layer durian cake, and good heavens, it was more tiring than playing basketball for two hours. Wouldn't making a four-layer cake be exhausting?

That little brat really doesn't treat his father like a father! He angrily tried to back down.

As if sensing his intention, the little girl softly wrapped her arms around his neck, becoming his sweet and affectionate daughter.

"Dad, if you can't do it, I'll ask Mom to do it. I definitely won't make things difficult for you."

Pei Yiyan narrowed his eyes and said irritably, "Who said I can't make it? How difficult can a cake be? It's not like I don't know how to make it."

Knowing full well it was a child's scheme, the father was completely powerless to resist; in some ways, his damned competitive spirit was frighteningly strong.

Despite saying that, Xixi still secretly called Meng Zhiyao after she got home, hoping that her parents would make her a birthday cake together.

Meng Zhiyao has always enjoyed researching desserts, and besides, it was her daughter's first birthday. Even if she didn't know how to make them, she would put in 120% effort to learn.

The only problem is that all three family members are in school, so if Xixi wants to celebrate her birthday at kindergarten, her parents, Pei Yiyan and Meng Zhiyao, will have to take leave from school.

Fortunately, the freshman year courses were not too intensive, and both of them were top students, so missing a class occasionally was not a big problem.

They had planned everything meticulously, but they got stuck on asking their counselor for leave.

Especially for Meng Zhiyao, who is neither a native of Beijing nor has any relatives there, and whose home is more than a thousand kilometers away in Pingshui City, her counselor always has to consider her more carefully as she came to Beijing to study alone.

Besides, the little girl looked rosy-cheeked and didn't seem sick at all and needed to rest.

Adhering to the principle of being responsible for the students, the counselor rejected her leave application.

Meng Zhiyao wouldn't skip class unless it was an absolute emergency. She stood outside the office door, frowning in thought, and after a moment, she took a deep breath as if she had made a decision.

He stepped inside.

At the same time, in different places, young boys and girls, their faces still showing signs of immaturity, spoke in unison:

"Teacher, actually I have a four-year-old daughter. I asked for leave to be with my daughter for her birthday."

"I'm taking leave to celebrate my daughter's birthday."

Pei Yiyan took out his household registration book from his pocket and turned to the second page: "Pei Xi, my daughter."

The counselor, who thought he had misheard, exclaimed, "Huh?"

Although the process was a bit absurd, the result was good; they successfully obtained leave.

Meng Zhiyao rushed back after school on Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning, Pei Yiyan took Xixi to kindergarten, and she took the opportunity to go to the supermarket to buy groceries.

The two had long since developed a tacit understanding in their division of labor and cooperation.

Pei Yiyan communicated with the kindergarten teacher at 3 pm, which was about the time when the children had just woken up from their afternoon nap, so the cake was perfect for afternoon tea.

Fruit cakes are a safe bet and not easy to make mistakes with, so the two of them made an extra-large taro and strawberry cake according to Xixi's favorite flavor.

The strawberries were freshly picked by Pei Yiyan and Meng Zhiyao from a strawberry farm. The bright red cream strawberries were big and sweet, and the taro paste was smooth and soft, with an ice cream-like texture. Very little sugar was added, which perfectly preserved the original sweetness and glutinous texture of the taro paste.

Pei Yiyan, carrying a cake, arrived right on time like a god before the group of little ones, accompanied by the graceful Meng Zhiyao.

To show her appreciation for her daughter's birthday, Meng Zhiyao put on light makeup before leaving the house. She was already radiant without any makeup, and this made the little ones even more stunning.

The sudden appearance of the stunningly beautiful woman elicited a chorus of exclamations of "Wow!"

The birthday boy, sitting in the main seat, proudly raised his chin: "See? I told you my mom is beautiful, didn't I?"

Meng Zhiyao rarely picked Xixi up from school, and the goldfish-brained children didn't remember what she looked like, so they assumed that Xixi was a pitiful child without a mother.

Looking at her now, Xixi's mother is not only exceptionally beautiful but also very gentle, completely different from her grumpy father.

Oh, and most importantly!

Xi Xi's mom can make four-tiered cakes!

All the praise and attention flocked to Meng Zhiyao. Although they appeared together, the handsome and dashing male father was relegated to the background.

Pei Yiyan silently arranged the cake, handing out small forks and plates to everyone, his mind filled with thoughts of the cream he whipped, the cake base he baked, and the frosting he did.

Why isn't even one of the little kids praising him?

Well, he's not bad-looking either.

He glanced at his chubby little boy out of the corner of his eye, thinking, "Hmph, you little ingrate."

Surrounded by her friends and parents, the little ginseng spirit Xixi celebrated her first birthday in three hundred years. She wore a princess crystal crown made by her mother and little leather shoes bought by her father, and was surrounded by flowers and cake, just like a real princess.

After celebrating her fourth birthday, Xixi faces new challenges in her growth, which is an essential experience for every child.

Sleeping independently.

After Xixi's fourth birthday, Pei Yiyan stopped sleeping with her.

He cleaned up the small bedroom next door and moved in himself, letting Xixi sleep in the master bedroom she was familiar with. At first, Xixi was not used to it and cried every day, or she would get up in the middle of the night to look for her parents.

To make her feel safe, Pei Yiyan slept on a makeshift bed outside her room for a month and also bought her a 1.2-meter-tall Elsa princess pillow online to help her gradually get used to sleeping independently.

Sometimes she would act spoiled and ask her father to stay with her, and Pei Yiyan would occasionally soften and make an exception to sleep with her for one night, but the next night they would still sleep separately.

Summer vacation arrived in the blink of an eye. The speed at which time passed made Pei Yiyan unable to react. It felt like only yesterday that he had found Xixi.

The father and daughter's days in Beijing were like a cup of lukewarm water, plain and uneventful, yet with a hint of sweetness upon closer tasting.

The mundane days have made Pei Yiyan forget his previous life of being a walking corpse. He is becoming more and more like a responsible father and is gradually showing the vigor of his peers.

"Xingxing, I'm accompanying my dad to school in Beijing. Sigh, there's no other way. It's too dangerous for my dad to be alone. I have to protect him."

"Don't worry, Xixi will take good care of herself and will also make my dad healthy and plump."

"I promise you, when my dad becomes a great scientist, I'll make sure he's the first one to sign your autograph! Okay, I'm not talking to you anymore, my phone's about to run out of credit."

"Waaaaah, Xixi misses you the most, Xingxing. I only think about Yuanbao occasionally, but I think about you the most."

The chubby little boy sitting on the bay window held his smartwatch and chatted with his friend across from him, while picking at his toes and shaking his head.

The doting father, who slowly drifted past from behind, said, "Didn't you say yesterday that you missed Yuanbao the most? Why have you changed your mind?"

The little girl immediately covered the receiver, turned around, and angrily raised her little fist to scare people.

She turned around and immediately smiled again: "No, Da Xingxing, my dad loves to talk nonsense. Let me tell you, you can't believe what men say, big men and little men are the same."

Pei Yiyan scoffed, "You little rascal."

During the summer vacation, Pei Yiyan took Xixi back to Baicao County to stay. Coincidentally, Meng Zhiyao was also going back, so they inevitably went together.

During their absence, Aunt Lan would visit every few days to tend to the plants and clean the house.

The South is great in every way, except for the rain, especially the long plum rain season, which can bring rain even during the sweltering heat.

In previous years, the rainy season was a nightmare for Pei Yiyan, as the pain from his broken right leg was unbearable.

The wound from more than ten years ago had long since healed, and he selectively forgot that bloody past, but the pain of the broken wound forced him back to the darkest moment of his life.

Pei Yiyan's right foot hadn't hurt for a long time. From the moment he found Xixi, he was like a healthy person, without any illness or pain.

The sudden, excruciating pain finally reminded Pei Yiyan that he was disabled.

He is missing his right leg.