Chapter 53. Birthday Gift

After Ruan Tang said "Like your ex-wife", Feng Xue ate several pieces of tripe in silence. The tender tripe was bobbing in the boiling pot and was put into his mouth with full of red oil. It was a great delicacy to drive away the cold on this bleak autumn night.

The spiciness made his eyes wet, and he took four or five tissues to wipe away his tears and snot. Ruan Tang handed him a piece of watermelon and deliberately joked: I haven't said anything yet, why are you reacting so strongly?

"It's your birthday today, let's not talk about her." Feng Xue's phone alarm rang. He turned it off and picked up a slotted spoon to scoop out a spoonful of shrimp paste. "Hurry up and eat this. It won't be this tender even if you cook it for a second longer."

Ruan Tang cooperated by picking up all the shrimp paste, lowered her head and took a big bite. She looked up and found Feng Xue looking at her, so she took the opportunity to continue: "Why don't you ask me why? And why do I know what she is like?"

"After all, we've been together before, so it's possible that we've influenced each other a bit, but I think it's pointless to talk about that. What's important is the present moment."

Even Ruan Tang, the king of spicy food, gasped a few times because of the spiciness. She leaned over to turn off the fire, looked at the red oil at the bottom of the pot which was gradually calming down, and said word by word: It won't be long before the top layer of oil will solidify, and the things we just put in will be sealed under this layer of oil. But when we open the pot again, we still have to eat up the things inside before we can put in new vegetables and meat.

"What do you want to say?"

Ruan Tang bit the straw, turned her gaze from the red oil in the pot to Feng Xue, and said: I am not as reasonable as Xu Wei, but I feel that pretending to let go will not allow you to truly move on. You know, when we first met, I pretended to be rich and beautiful, and I was deceiving others. You two are different, you are even deceiving yourselves.

"You... have seen her?" Feng Xue frowned, seeming not as calm as before.

She turned the heat back on, and the pot began to simmer again. White steam rose like a barrier separating the two people sitting opposite each other. She continued, "I know you feel you owe her something. It has nothing to do with our relationship, but I don't want to compromise. Why should I compromise when pursuing material things? Now that I finally have a simple relationship, I have to constantly face the shadow of a third person?"

Feng Xue thought for a long time, suddenly raised his head, looked at her seriously and asked, "Are you... unhappy with me?"

Ruan Tang couldn't help laughing and asked: You don't think I want to quarrel with you so I take the opportunity to talk about my ex-wife, right?

"no……"

"It's nothing, you are, you can't hide it from me, I'm too lazy to beat around the bush. If I really felt unhappy, I wouldn't be sitting here today," Ruan Tang lifted her hair, and seeing that he relaxed, she continued to ask: By the way, are you still looking for her recently?

Feng Xue pursed her lips, as if wondering whether this was a free point question or a life-threatening one. After a half-minute silence, she answered truthfully: The last time we met was when you ran into us in the store. Later, I asked Zhang Haoyu to help me find her, but she had changed her contact information. I tried all kinds of ways. Maybe she really doesn't want to see me. Actually, you are right. I think maybe not disturbing her is the best compensation for her.

Ruan Tang almost threw the sour plum soup in his face and called him a "scumbag," but then she calmed down, feeling that even from a God's perspective, she couldn't play the role of a rational person. She tentatively asked, "So you... give up? If I disappear one day, will you look for me?"

"Do you know something?"

"Shouldn't you have answered me immediately that you would, and that you would keep looking until you die?"

Feng Xue clasped his fingers together and said helplessly: I really don’t understand what you mean.

Ruan Tang let out a long sigh, leaned back on the sofa, touched her round belly, and said: Actually, I don’t understand either.

It was already late when the two of them left the hot pot restaurant, and there were noticeably fewer pedestrians and cars on the street. Feng Xue called a taxi and asked her to wait at the door while he went out to wait for the taxi and called her out when it arrived.

Ruan Tang shook her head and said: I want to go to Xu Wei's house tonight. She said she has prepared a gift for me.

Feng Xue was silent for a moment, lowered his head, picked up the phone and said: Then I will change the destination and take you there.

"No thanks," Ruan Tang waved her hand. "I'm not a kid. Besides, if you take me there, then you'll be going in circles if you call a taxi back. The taxi fare is so expensive."

As she spoke, she took Feng Xue's phone and changed the destination herself.

Feng Xue sent Ruan Tang to the car. She twisted her body and looked out the window. Feng Xue, who was standing there, was moving away from her at a very fast speed. She felt her nose sore for some reason and turned around to roll up the window.

The driver, a man in his fifties or sixties, glanced back through the rearview mirror and asked kindly, "Girl, are you cold? Do you need me to turn on the air conditioning?"

Ruan Tang sniffed and said: No, thank you, I just feel the wind is a little cold.

She turned back and slumped back in her seat, taking out the seventh photo she had paid extra to develop from the compartment of her bag.

A photo that was only about the size of the palm of a hand actually cost fifty yuan. Ruan Tang leaned her head against the car window and reflected sadly: Could it be that I have really become love-brained?

She held the photo in front of her eyes and looked at it carefully under the street light outside the car window. She was probably too nervous when Feng Xue kissed her and forgot to close her eyes. She carefully put the photo into her phone case.

Xu Wei opened the door with damp hair, her expression clearly overly surprised. Ruan Tang had experienced a night of emotional ups and downs. Lazily taking her arm, she walked straight into the living room, coquettishly asking, "Why don't you welcome me, your birthday..."

When she saw Jia Yingjun sitting on the sofa, she was so shocked that she swallowed the word "star".

"Why are you here?"

"Why are you here?"

The two greeted each other subconsciously, and then looked at Xu Wei who was standing beside them.

Xu Wei lowered her head, pinched her brows, pointed at Jia Yingjun and explained: He came to talk...

"Having coffee!" Jia Yingjun and Xu Wei explained simultaneously, their voices uncomprehending. Jia Yingjun glanced at the empty coffee table in front of him and smiled. "Having coffee and talking about things, eh?" But why should we explain this to her?

Xu Wei shrugged: It's just a statement of fact, not an explanation.

Ruan Tang was puzzled: Drinking coffee so late?

Jia Yingjun smiled calmly and said: We entrepreneurs don’t need sleep.

Xu Wei said to him: Oh, I forgot to tell you, today is Ruan Tang’s birthday.

"Shouldn't she be with our Xue'er?"

Xu Wei turned her head to glance at Ruan Tang and immediately understood most of what was going on. She coughed lightly and suggested: Why don’t you go back first and we can talk about business matters another day?

"Okay," Jia Yingjun nodded in agreement, picked up his coat from the sofa and walked out. When he passed Ruan Tang, he smiled and said to her: Happy birthday.

But Ruan Tang always felt that his eyes were chilling, as if there were a thousand cold arrows hidden in them, ready to be fired, making her think that what he wanted to say was not "Happy Birthday" but "Fuck you".

But she still politely smiled back and nodded: Thank you, Mr. Jia.

Ruan Tang came out of the shower and found Xu Wei leaning on the sofa, almost asleep.

She walked over and sat down beside her, leaning on her and resting her head on her legs. She saw Xu Wei slowly open her eyes and look at her with disgust: You haven’t even blow-dried your hair yet, and my pajamas are silk!

"I'm afraid you don't want to blame me for getting your pajamas wet, right?" Ruan Tang pouted and sat up, raising her eyebrows at her with a wicked smile.

"Since it's your birthday, I won't complain about you," she glanced at the clock on the wall and said: I'll complain in an hour.

Ruan Tang took her arm and leaned over, and without any remorse, he wet her shoulder a little, and whispered: I'm sorry to disturb your good night, but I'm really too confused tonight.

"Were you having a fight?"

Ruan Tang shook her head and said, "Look at Feng Xue's personality. Does he look like someone who can get into an argument? And there's nothing to argue about."

"You really don't plan to tell him?"

Ruan Tang lowered his eyes and thought for a while, looking like he was asleep, with a slightly tired expression, and said: This matter is not for me to say, and didn’t Sun Yihuan ask me to keep it a secret?

Xu Wei concluded: One of them can't figure out why the other hates her so much and feels guilty, while the other is stubborn and wants to use this secret to punish him and herself. This could take up thirty or forty episodes in a TV series. You, then, are the tragic second female lead.

"It's my birthday today after all, please don't curse me." Ruan Tang's face fell instantly, and she grabbed her silk pajamas and pretended to wipe away her tears.

"By the way, I have something for you. Consider it your birthday present." Xu Wei patted her shoulder and motioned her to get up. She walked to the entrance, picked up her bag, rummaged through it for a long time, took out a piece of notepaper, and returned to the sofa to hand it to her.

There was a number written on the sticky note.

"I recently got acquainted with the producers of the platform while filming a show. One of the girls gave me this number. She said Fu Bei's wife had contacted her before and asked her to help keep an eye on him. She also promised her a lot of resources. But later, Fu Bei kept telling everyone that they were divorced. This is his wife's number."

Ruan Tang curled up on the sofa, legs tucked in. She took the sticky note and felt the thin piece of paper was surprisingly heavy. She looked at the number on it, pouted, and complained, "What kind of birthday present is this? It's unlucky."

"Hey, but why are you looking for his ex-wife? Are you planning to avenge the slap you received that year?" Xu Wei asked jokingly.

"I remember you told me that if a dog bites me, I can't bite the dog back, so don't worry." Ruan Tang took out a video from her phone and handed it to her.

It was the surveillance footage of Fu Bei coming to the store to look for her that day. All the sincere words he said were recorded clearly because the store was relatively quiet.

"Is it necessary?" Xu Wei sighed.

Ruan Tang took back her phone and watched the video again. WeChat messages kept popping up in the middle. She simply turned off the internet, nodded affirmatively, and said: Of course.

"I read online before that after the age of thirty, a person's personality traits tend to resemble their rising sign. Although you're one step closer to thirty, your Scorpio attributes are still full."

Ruan Tang immediately sat up straight and denied it: Although I do hold a grudge, it is not revenge against her. I just want her to see how ridiculous the marriage and the man she guarded like crazy are, so that she can realize it sooner and turn back. This is called doing good deeds every day and repaying grievances with virtue.

"Okay, okay, you're the birthday girl and everything you said is right." Xu Wei stretched and pinched the part of her pajamas that was not completely dry and shook it.

Ruan Tang lowered her head and opened WeChat, then directly opened the dialog box with Xu Wei and handed it to her. Xu Wei laughed out loud, "Oh my god!" without any idol burden, and almost woke up from laughing.

"See? That's what we call holding a grudge."

The background of the chat with Xu Wei was a screenshot of the news that Fu Bei was transferred to the public security organs for processing.

"But I still want to ask, why me?"

Ruan Tang explained clearly, "I thought about it. You and Feng Xue are the ones who interact most frequently every day. But I can't change my chat background with him to this, right? That would be weird. And you, I'm already happy every time I chat with you. Now, opening your chat box every day is Happy Plus. Doesn't that make sense?"

Xu Wei nodded reluctantly and said: As long as you are happy, I'm going to sleep. You can only get on my bed after your hair is dry.

Watching her return to the bedroom, Ruan Tang remembered the few unread messages and flipped to the top of the WeChat page.

It turned out to be Jiang Li, and the messages she sent were voice messages, and there were three of them.

"Hello, Sister Tang, I'm Zhang Haoyu. I was afraid that Brother Xue would misunderstand, so I sent it using Jiang Li's WeChat," he said here, but was interrupted impatiently by Jiang Li, who asked him if he could get to the point quickly.

"I just want to say happy birthday to you, happy birthday."

"I'll give it to you as a birthday present after you break up." His tone was cheerful, as hopeful as when your parents told you when you were a child that they would buy you the thing you wanted most after you did well in the exam.

Ruan Tang couldn't help laughing, and her mood became a lot more relaxed. She replied: Thank you, cousin, but that day probably won't come.