Chapter 82
Although Zhou Zifang had given Lu Jiyu a lot of gushing advice, he ultimately refused to accept it. He didn't like to make a big fuss on his birthday, and this year was no different. He planned to treat his roommates to a simple meal. The only difference, however, was that he wasn't giving gifts like he had in previous years.
Lu Jiyu had also thought about this, but university is different from high school where he had a group of friends who knew each other well. If he gave something to someone rashly, it would be hard not to be considered as showing off.
He doesn't give gifts, so naturally he won't accept gifts.
Lu Jiyu found a Sichuan restaurant near the school that was quite stylish. Zhou Zifang was originally somewhat dissatisfied with his stubbornness, but when he met Fang Cheng, the two of them were like the north and south poles of a magnet, and they couldn't help chatting.
By the end of their last meal, the two had already talked about how Zhou Zifang, while wearing open-crotch pants, had killed his grandfather's valuable peony with artificial fertilizer and salt.
After dinner, Lu Jiyu was about to go home. Zhou Zifang hugged him and said, "Where are you going? The nightlife has just begun. Let's go karaoke."
Lu Jiyu had been a little absent-minded today. Just as he was having dinner, he received a call from Chen Tingzhe. He wished him happy birthday on behalf of the whole family and asked him why he sounded listless and whether his girlfriend had not come back yet.
Lu Jiyu smiled: "
"What nightlife? If you have this much time, you might as well go back and read a few more pages of books."
Zhou Zifang didn't give Lu Jiyu the right to say no: "I already promised you not to hold a cosplay party, can't you even ask me to sing a song?"
Lu Jiyu glanced at him and asked, "Are you someone who sings very well?"
Zhou Zi was furious: "It's no fun if you say that!"
Fang Cheng, who was standing by, chimed in, "That's right, our Brother Zhou is here to liven things up for everyone!"
Lu Jiyu stood on the roadside with his arms folded over his shoulders, watching the two of them singing and acting in unison. He couldn't help but ask what kind of surprise they had prepared for him that made them so angry and insist on dragging him along.
Lu Jiyu was not the kind of person who would spoil the fun, so he picked up his phone and prepared to call a taxi.
But Zhou Zifang thought he was unromantic and hurried over to ask him: "Why are you looking at your phone? Don't you want to talk to us?"
Lu Jiyu's cold eyes showed a hint of helplessness: "Didn't you say you wanted to go sing? I'll take a taxi."
“Tsk.”
You should have said so earlier. Zhou Zifang patted Lu Jiyu on the shoulder and said with satisfaction: "You are on your way, my friend."
The group split up into two taxis and headed to a karaoke bar downtown. Zhou Zifang was the type of person who showed everything on his face; he'd never taken his eyes off his phone in the car. Lu Jiyu didn't need to guess, knowing he was busy planning some surprise for him.
As they got off the bus, Lu Jiyu mentioned, "Surprises are fine, but shocks are not." He still remembered when Zhou Zifang found him a pet snake for his birthday in fifth grade. Lu Jiyu wasn't exactly afraid of such things, but who could understand the feeling of redemption that comes from opening a gift box and having a wet, cool, and slippery puddle splash onto your hands?
Lu Jiyu will never forget him.
Zhou Zifang looked embarrassed, and walked towards the store with Lu Jiyu in his arms: "What surprise? Don't flatter yourself. I just wanted to sing a birthday song with you."
Zhou Zifang's reserved private room was on the third floor. While waiting for the elevator, he was at a loss for words and asked, "What did your girlfriend say? Is she really not going to make it back?"
Lu Jiyu was looking at Nanyuan's weather forecast. Jiang Wan's flight had been delayed due to heavy rain and had not taken off yet.
"Yeah. The weather is bad." Lu Jiyu's voice lowered a few degrees.
The box was at the end of the corridor. Zhou Zifang walked ahead attentively, not forgetting to give Fang Cheng a look.
Fang Cheng understood it.
The second after Zhou Zifang pushed the door open, he held it shut to prevent Lu Jiyu from coming in. Fang Cheng pretended to be clueless and yelled, "Wow, what's this guy doing? He's so secretive."
Lu Jiyu kicked him impatiently: "Are you addicted to pretending?"
The next second after he finished speaking, the door of the box suddenly opened again. Fang Cheng, who was standing next to him, was quick-witted and pushed Lu Jiyu in before he could react.
"Surprise!" Accompanied by a loud shout and several sharp and rapid bangs, countless ribbons fell from the sky.
"Happy birthday, Beibei!"
"Lu Dashicao! Happy birthday!"
"Brother Lu, this day comes every year!"
“Congratulations on entering the final year of the first word!”
Countless blessings came pouring in to Lu Jiyu like endless floating ribbons.
He raised his hand and waved at the ribbons that had not yet fallen in front of him. Just at this moment, someone turned on the main light above his head. Only then did Lu Jiyu finally see the "surprise" in front of him clearly.
"Why are you here too?" He looked around at the people in front of him. Everything he could imagine and even imagined was gathered here.
Chen Mingjia, leaning in Xu Le's arms, smiled and said, "My cousin is getting married, so it's just right for me to go back to China for a while."
Li Qingxi, still holding the cake, glared at Lu Jiyu fiercely: "Didn't you see it took so long? Don't you even take it?" After she finished speaking, before Lu Jiyu could react, Li Mu, who was standing on the other side, reached out to grab it. Li Qingxi dodged and said: "This birthday person's cake has nothing to do with you."
Li Mu spread his hands and said, "Okay, I crossed the line."
Seeing Lu Jiyu reaching out to take the cake, Gao Zhuo, who had been standing behind the crowd, came over with a pink birthday hat and quickly put it on him.
Lu Jiyu was holding the cake in both hands and had no hands free to refuse, or rather, he didn't want to refuse.
The pink hat is cute, and it may seem out of place on a neatly combed head like his at first glance, but after looking at it for a long time, you will find a sense of unrestrained and free beauty.
The flashes flashed one after another, and Lu Jiyu just stood there like a mascot, letting them take pictures.
"That's enough. Just look at the photos yourself. If they get out, we'll be severing ties." Lu Jiyu said, slowly placing the cake on the coffee table.
"Oops, I forgot to put in the candles."
"We haven't sung the birthday song yet." Zhou Zifang said and went to the song request booth to request a song.
Lu Jiyu seemed to have given up struggling and sat on the sofa to start cutting the cake. A group of people sat down noisily, sang songs and then gathered together to play cards.
Lu Jiyu unknowingly hid himself in the corner again, listening to Fang Cheng's howling singing, and occasionally glanced at Zhou Zifang's bad cards.
"Oh my god, are you sick? Li Qingxi is the landlord, and you actually let him win? I'm speechless about you." Li Mu was heartbroken, and Li Qingxi was feeling proud because he won another game.
"Give me some songs quickly. I want to sing 'Today is a Good Day' next!"
"arrange!"
"Lu Jiyu, you really don't want to play?" Xu Le asked him: "This guy doesn't sing, doesn't play cards, just sits there like an old monk in meditation, just wasting time.
Lu Jiyu took a couple of sips from a bottle of beer and said, "My physical fitness isn't as good as yours."
"What's the meaning?"
"When I play with Zhou Zifang, my blood pressure goes up after just two hands of cards."
"If you have high blood pressure, take antihypertensive drugs. Don't blame your brothers for everything." Zhou Zifang drew a good hand and blew Li Mu to a pulp right from the start.
"A pair of kings, and you bomb them with four twos?" Li Mu showed admiration: "You're really ruthless!"
In the middle of a card game, Chen Mingjia's phone suddenly rang. Several people around him, who had been playing cards to death, suddenly fell silent, as if the mute button had been pressed. They watched Chen Mingjia answer the phone without moving. They thought it was a call from some kidnapper.
Chen Mingjia said a few vague words on the phone and then handed the card to Xu Le: "Maybe the takeaway I ordered has arrived. Please help me check it and I'll go get it."
Xu Le coughed twice and said, "Ah, it's so dark outside. It's not good for a girl like you to go down alone."
"Oh, it seems so."
"What should we do then?"
"Of course, whoever is free can go down and get it."
Lu Jiyu frowned. The two of them were singing the same tune, and their intention to touch him was too obvious, but he just didn't want to move. "She's in danger, can't you stay with her?"
"Tsk." Zhou Zifang patted Lu Jiyu's shoulder: "How come the birthday boy doesn't have any sense of serving others?"
Lu Jiyu was too lazy to waste words with him, so he grabbed the phone that was thrown on the coffee table and stood up: "I'll go."
The nights in the north in mid-to-late October were already chilly. Lu Jiyu hadn't thought about the second show when he left today, so he didn't bring a coat. He stood in the well-ventilated hall, waiting for about four or five minutes, but Chen Mingjia's takeout didn't arrive.
Out of boredom, he sent a WeChat message to Jiang Wan, who had been out of touch for almost two hours.
gazer: The mini program shows that your flight has landed for two hours. Where are the people?
gazer: It’s your boyfriend’s birthday, and you’re missing?
gazer: You don’t want to continue like this, right?
After Lu Jiyu posted it, he withdrew the latest one and replaced it with:
gazer: Wish me a happy birthday now.
He didn't expect her to reply after he sent the message, but she turned around and sent him three cake emojis, and suddenly the screen was covered with cake rain.
Before Lu Jiyu realized it, the corners of his mouth had already curled up uncontrollably.
Is he a little too easy to appease?
He replied coldly with one word: "What are you doing?"
Wanzai Wharf: Busy.
gazer: What are you busy with?
Then the other side didn't come back.
Lu Jiyu laughed angrily.
This guy is really good at fishing him now.
Wanzai Wharf, you'd better really be busy with serious work.
At this time, Chen Minjiajia's takeaway happened to arrive. He put down his mobile phone, picked up the four large bags of milk tea and turned to go upstairs.
When Lu Jiyu returned, the ambient lighting in the private room was so low that even his parents couldn't recognize him. He wanted to switch back to normal mode, but Zhou Zifang stopped him: "What are you doing? It's so atmospheric."
"You are the birthday boy today, so please sing a song for us. You sing so beautifully." As he said that, he put the microphone into Lu Jiyu's hand.
"What do you want to sing? I'll give you something."
Lu Jiyu didn't sing much, but he did sing quite well. However, he wasn't in the mood today. He was about to refuse when the door to the private room was pushed open again. This time, a group of people came in, with Fang Cheng leading the way.
He cleared his throat twice and said, "I just ran into him on the way to the bathroom. He heard that Lu Jiyu was having a birthday, so he came to join in the fun."
As if to suit the occasion, Song Huaian, still holding a glass of wine, scanned the surroundings before heading straight for Lu Jiyu. Song Huaian was followed by a few onlookers, all standing there looking as if they were enjoying the show.
Lu Jiyu had also stood up by now. He had finished his drink and didn't plan to drink any more, so he picked up a glass of water on the coffee table and said, "Thank you."
Song Huaian didn't appreciate it: "Drink, drink, what's the point of drinking water?"
Zhou Zifang walked up to Fang Cheng and asked him, "Who is this?"
Fang Cheng could only make it short and tell Song Huaian everything he thought about Jiang Wan.
Zhou Zifang touched his chin meaningfully after hearing this. "I used to worry about Lu Jiyu's future girlfriend. How insecure she would feel in the future. Now it seems I was worrying too much."
Seeing Lu Jiyu didn't move, Song Huaian couldn't help but feel embarrassed: "By the way, I heard you had a girlfriend right after school started. Why didn't your girlfriend come to your birthday today? But it's okay if she didn't come. If you hear some random rumors, it will probably affect our relationship. So I said..."
Song Huaian was about to say something, but a smooth and gorgeous opening note suddenly flowed out, blocking his words. Several veteran actors in the audience pretended to turn their heads and look around: "Oh, who requested the song?"
“not a single day goes by”
"show me what is through my mind"
…
A bright yet slightly nervous female voice slowly sounded after the prelude.
Lu Jiyu, initially nonchalant, immediately cast his gaze towards the corner of the private room, a look of disbelief filling his brows. In that dark spot, he could only vaguely make out a girl sitting on a high stool, wearing a loose sweatshirt and a high ponytail that swayed slightly to the rhythm of the music.
As for the face, it was completely invisible.
There is no need to see clearly.
"Hurry up, let's sing a love song duet." Li Qingxi could tell that Jiang Wan's voice was still a little shaky. She remembered that she almost put the microphone into Lu Jiyu's mouth.
"but i know it's hunting me"
“i need your love to set me free”
After Lu Jiyu turned around with the microphone cord, he skillfully followed the tune of the female voice.
"do you still think about me baby,baby"
"cause you are on my mind and it's driving me crazy,crazy"
The lyrics are piled up one by one.
The emotions progress layer by layer.
"Why are you filming me?"
"Because you're handsome."
"I'll use a flash to send you out. That's called a flash."
"Lu Jiyu, let's have a love affair that no one knows about."
"Boy friend!"
"girlfriend!"
"Jiang Wan has lost her mind because of her uncle!"
"Let's break up."
"I make my own decisions about my own affairs."
Every moment of the past flashed by like a slide show, and the painful days that were once thought to be there seemed to be dirty sand that was drained away, leaving only those beautiful and strange-shaped shells.
Male and female voices sang alternately, the female voice cheerful and lively, the male voice lazy and lingering. Lu Jiyu half-raised the microphone, his eyes following Jiang Wan in the corner.
Until the end, male and female voices overlap.
"the way taht i still love you"
“i always love you”
Lu Jiyu changed the lyrics temporarily, which earned him a chuckle from Jiang Wan.
Li Qingxi sat on the sofa, cupping her face as she watched the eye-catching couple sing their duet: "It has to be Jiang Wan, otherwise I wouldn't have seen the day when Lu Beibei publicly expressed her love."
"It's a perfect match. What else can I say? I gave Nanyuan Airport to them. I'll put the blame on Zhou Zifang."
"Why the airport?"
"Because then I wouldn't have to go back to England."
When the song ended, Zhou Zifang led the applause: "Awesome, one more song, one more song."
Lu Jiyu ignored him and threw the microphone in his hand to him: "You hid it well enough." He really didn't guess that they had this trick.
"See, I didn't lie to you. I was really busy just now." Jiang Wan walked up to Lu Jiyu and looked at him with a smile: "Happy birthday, boyfriend."
"By the way, President, let me formally introduce myself. I am Lu Jiyu's legendary girlfriend." Jiang Wan raised Lu Jiyu's hand and shook it.
"Rumors stop at the wise, don't you think?" She looked at the boys standing behind Song Huaian.
Fortunately, the lights were dim at the moment, otherwise everyone would be able to see that Song Huaian was so angry that his face turned green.
Lu Jiyu ignored Zhou Zifang and the others' objections and brought Jiang Wan out halfway.
With about ten minutes left until midnight, the street in front of the KTV was already completely silent. The two of them walked one after the other down the empty street, their hearts racing as the occasional breeze blew by.
Jiang Wan put his hands behind his back and looked back at Lu Jiyu: "Where's my gift? Didn't you say you would give me a gift?"
Lu Jiyu put his hands in his pockets and smiled, "Beginner's guide to photography? I have a lot at home, you can pick one yourself."
"Tsk, that's boring. You don't keep your word."
You want to settle the score with him, right?
Lu Jiyu picked up the phone and waved it in front of her: "Who was it that lied to me that I couldn't make it back?"
Speaking of this.
Jiang Wan stopped and stood under a bare sycamore tree: "I went back to see my father this time, and happened to meet your aunt there."
Lu Jiyu hummed lightly and raised his hand to pick off a fallen leaf on Jiang Wan's shoulder: "She told me."
"So, have you guys reconciled?"
"Have you reconciled with your father?" Lu Jiyu asked him.
That's a good question.
Jiang Wan smiled and patted the sycamore tree beside him: "Do you know what I was thinking about the time you came to my house?"
Lu Jiyu didn't guess, he was waiting for Jiang Wan to say it himself.
"I think." She tilted her head: "Isn't he just a nerd with good grades?"
"But after you said that to my mom, I thought, I should try to study hard too. I think I must beat you in the future."
Then go and help those she can.
"Then congratulations, you succeeded."
Jiang Wan waved his fingers: "No, it's just the beginning."
"We still have a long way to go together."
"Do you still remember what you said to me? You should cry when you reach the end. But life is too long. There must be thousands of moments when you want to cry. I hope you will think of me in every one of these thousands of moments. Next time you miss me, you can come and cry in my arms."
Lu Jiyu stared at her gravely: "Is it okay now?"
"What?"
Lu Jiyu answered with action. He took a step forward and buried his head deep in her neck. Of all the words he could say, only one remained: "I'm sorry."
"Lu Jiyu, we can handle everything as long as we are together. What do you think?"
Whether it is Jiang Huainan or Lu Lin, Jiang Wan is full of confidence in her life. She knows that the future is never far away and is at the foot of every step she takes.
"Okay." Lu Jiyu nodded slightly and hugged the person in his arms a little tighter.
We are together, always together.
(End of text)
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