Chapter 10 The Citrus Orchard "He doesn't even know it's your birthday..."
Shen Cen frantically pressed the answer button and then quickly switched the game off the screen.
After doing all that, she realized something was wrong.
No? What is she worried about? Jiang Shiyu isn't even standing in front of her!
Even if I stood right in front of her, so what if she was playing a dating simulation game?
Despite thinking this way, Chen Cen's voice still sounded somewhat unnatural: "Hey."
However, Jiang Shiyu didn't recognize the meaning and simply said, "Hmm."
The sound of knives and forks clattering came from the other end of the phone. Shen Cen checked the time on her phone; it was morning in New York, and if she wasn't mistaken, Jiang Shiyu should be having breakfast.
The two remained silent for a few seconds.
Seeing that Jiang Shiyu didn't seem inclined to speak, Shen Cen had no choice but to ask again, "What's wrong?"
"Oh, it's nothing..." Jiang Shiyu said unhurriedly, "I accidentally pressed the phone button."
? ? ?
Accidentally... touched... the phone key?
Oh, sir, you mean you accidentally opened WeChat, then accidentally opened your own chat window, and then accidentally touched the voice chat button, right?
Despite inwardly complaining, Shen Cen ultimately didn't expose Jiang Shiyu: "Then it seems everything's alright?"
Jiang Shiyu did not deny it, but changed the subject, "How's the weather in Jingjia these past few days?"
Shen Cen: "..."
She opened the weather forecast app, took screenshots of the weather for the past week and the next week, and sent them to Jiang Shiyu.
When she sent it, she noticed that it would rain heavily in Jingjia for the next week, starting tomorrow.
Summers in Beijing and Jiaxing are always like this, especially since the start of the rainy season, with continuous overcast skies and rain. This isn't unusual, but Shen Cen suddenly realized that if Jiang Shiyu were to return to China, would his flight be delayed due to the weather?
Thinking about this, she guessed why Jiang Shiyu had suddenly called and asked her about the weather in Jingjia.
He probably wanted to find a day with good weather to go back to China.
but……
"Actually, you can find the weather forecast for Jingjia online," Shen Cen reminded Jiang Shiyu, just in case he didn't know.
"Okay, thanks for reminding me, otherwise I really wouldn't have known."
Shen Cen felt his tone was strange, but then thought she was overthinking it. Afraid of another awkward silence, she asked him again, "When are you coming back from your business trip?"
Jiang Shiyu: "What's wrong, Teacher Shen, you've missed me after a few days?"
Shen Cen regretted speaking out of turn: "No, it's just that the weather is bad, and I was worried that it wouldn't be convenient for you to come back."
She searched online during the day and found that an international bar expo was being held in New York, lasting until the 21st. She wasn't sure if Jiang Shiyu was attending this one; if so, it meant he might be back on the 22nd. But the 22nd happened to be the rainiest day.
The two exchanged a few more awkward and unfamiliar words. Shen Cen said she was going to rest, and Jiang Shiyu then hung up the phone.
But actually, Shen Cen wasn't in a hurry to sleep. She opened "Summer Echoes" again and continued watching the story she hadn't finished:
The moment she pushed open the bedroom door, she didn't see the awkward scene she had imagined. It was just that her neighbor's brother looked a little unnatural, probably because he heard her footsteps and stopped what he was doing.
Although it wasn't exactly what Shen Cen had expected, it was still reasonable. After all, the game's protagonist was only in high school at this point, and overly explicit scenes wouldn't pass censorship.
At this point in the story, the first chapter has concluded.
-
the next day.
As with his usual birthday, Shen Cen opened his phone and was greeted with a screen full of birthday wishes.
The first to send a message was Wen Jie, who always sent Shen Cen a birthday greeting right at midnight, often a heartfelt little essay. Shen Cen read it from beginning to end, his eyes slightly reddening.
The second person to send blessings at midnight was Lu Baichuan.
Lu Baichuan is Uncle Lu's son, who is also Shen Cen's stepfather's son. Shen Cen has never been close to the Lu family, except for Lu Baichuan.
Lu Baichuan's birthday wishes were brief; he simply wrote: "Happy birthday, Xiao Cen."
Shen Cen replied: 【Thank you, bro~~[blowing out candles.jpg]】
Lu Baichuan replied to her immediately: [Do you like your birthday present?]
Shen Cen: [I like it.]
Then he asked, "Brother, why aren't you asleep yet?"
Lu Baichuan is studying in Germany; it must be early morning there.
Lu Baichuan explained: "I was writing my thesis at the time, and I thought you should be waking up soon, so I kept an eye on the messages. Luckily, I didn't miss anything."
He asked Shen Cen what his plans were for the day.
Shen Cen: [Returned to school to proctor exams this morning, went out with Wen Jie this afternoon.]
Lu Baichuan: [Hmm? Are you still with Wen Jie?]
From Lu Baichuan's words, Shen Cen realized that Fu Meihua had already told him about getting their marriage certificate. She had originally planned to tell Lu Baichuan after he returned to China in the second half of the year.
Although they are not biological siblings, in Shen Cen's eyes, Lu Baichuan is no different from her own brother, and he has taken great care of her over the years.
Therefore, she didn't intend to hide the truth about her engagement with Jiang Shiyu from Lu Baichuan: "He doesn't know today is my birthday. Brother, I'll tell you a secret, but don't tell Uncle Lu or Mom, my marriage with Jiang Shiyu is actually a sham."
Lu Baichuan: [A fake marriage? Because Mom keeps pressuring me to get married?]
Shen Cen explained: "It's not just because of Mom. Chen Zhao kept coming to see me, and Jiang Shiyu even taught him a lesson for me once. After Chen Zhao heard I was getting married, he stopped bothering me. It just so happened that Jiang Shiyu also wanted to get married, so we hit it off. Jiang Shiyu is a good guy, don't worry, brother."
Lu Baichuan didn't have a very good impression of his brother-in-law, whom he had never met: "He doesn't even know your birthday, how can I feel at ease with him?"
He remained silent.
Many former classmates, colleagues, and students sent her birthday wishes.
But Jiang Shiyu was the only one who didn't.
His chat window has now been pushed to the very bottom.
Actually, she doesn't have any feelings for Jiang Shiyu right now, but for some reason, she feels inexplicably empty inside.
It's like a jigsaw puzzle; if one piece is missing, it just doesn't look right.
Lu Baichuan, worried that his sister might be upset about this, comforted her: "It's okay. Since it's a fake marriage, there's no need to take it too seriously. If he makes you feel wronged, just tell me immediately. Don't worry, I'll take care of Mom."
Shen Cen: [Okay, got it~ You should get some rest, I'm going to school now.]
After leaving Lu Baichuan's chat window, Shen Cen replied to the birthday wishes of the other people one by one.
After replying, she glanced at Jiang Shiyu's chat box again, but there were still no messages.
In the morning at school, Chen Shili and his friends bought a big cake for Shen Cen, and Shen Cen cut a piece for each of the history department teachers.
Just then, a student came to the teaching and research office to submit materials and saw several teachers sharing a cake, realizing that it was Shen Cen's birthday today.
Less than half an hour later, a post titled "Who doesn't know that today is the birthday of the Ice Queen of the History Department?" appeared on the school's online forum, with comments like "XXX from Class XX of Department XX sends his heartfelt birthday wishes to Teacher Shen."
Shen Cen only learned about the post when she was having dinner with Wen Jie that evening.
In front of Shen Cen, Wen Jie read aloud several popular comments from the post: "Family members, who doesn't know that today is the birthday of the Ice Queen of the History Department! Let's remember this great day, June 19th! Hahahaha, I didn't expect the juniors at Peking University to be getting better and better at creating fun."
Upon hearing this, Shen Cen immediately went to the school's online forum and saw that the post was already the most popular. When he clicked on it, he saw rows of birthday wishes below. Some of the names were familiar, they were his students, but most of them were from students in other majors whom he didn't recognize, and they had also sent him birthday wishes.
This was something she hadn't expected at all: "There were so many classmates."
"Of course, you're now a famous goddess-like teacher in the History Department at Peking University."
Wen Jie recalled what happened when they first entered university. "Do you remember when you were a freshman, there was a beauty pageant on the school's online forum, and you weren't far ahead of the competition? I never thought that after we started working, it would still be such a big deal, hahaha."
Shen Cen remembered the school beauty pageant very clearly. Given her personality, she wouldn't have participated in such a contest. But someone secretly took a picture of her during military training and uploaded it without permission. That very night, it went viral on the online forum, her votes skyrocketing and far surpassing the second-place winner.
Her unexpected rise to fame also attracted a lot of false and negative news. In the following days, many negative posts frequently appeared, but strangely, one night, all of these posts disappeared and never reappeared afterward.
However, this incident left a psychological scar on Shen Cen, who had just entered university. She even secretly cried under the covers while looking at those negative posts, and Wen Jie knew about it.
So when she got to this point, Wen Jie realized she might have brought up unpleasant memories and immediately apologized: "Honey, I'm sorry, I just blurted it out..."
"It's alright." Shen Cen fed Wen Jie a small pastry and smiled. "I stopped caring about this a long time ago."
"Wow, thank you, baby!"
The voice of the girl sitting next to them caught their attention.
Shen Cen looked over and saw that the tabletop and chairs next to her were covered with roses, a pink sea of flowers, with several beautifully wrapped gifts placed among them. A girl in a delicate dress hugged her boyfriend, who had prepared this surprise for her, and looked up, beaming, saying, "I love it so much!"
After saying that, she stood on tiptoe and gave the boy a light peck on the cheek.
The boy's ears turned red, and he gently patted the girl's head: "I will celebrate your birthday with you every year from now on."
Wen Jie noticed that Shen Cen was watching intently, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up in a smile, so she asked, "Are you envious?"
Shen Cen turned his head: "No, I just thought that scene was quite beautiful, just like in a TV series."
Wen Jie said "Oh," and nodded: "I see... I thought you also wanted to be with Jiang Shiyu..."
"impossible!"
"Okay, okay, that's impossible."
"By the way, speaking of Jiang Shiyu, did you know he graduated from Peking University?"
Shen Cen was taken aback, then shook his head.
She had never heard of this before.
Wen Jie continued, "I heard it from a colleague at our magazine. That day, when they were talking about Siji, a colleague stood up and said that he knew the owner of Siji and that the two of them had played basketball together in school."
"Jiang Shiyu consistently ranked first in his major and won awards in many top competitions. He was also handsome, and many girls in his major liked him at the time."
"However, he is a very low-key person and doesn't usually live on campus, so people from other majors don't know him very well. After graduation, there was no news of Jiang Shiyu, and we didn't know if he went to another school for further studies or what. The next time we saw him was when he was in Siji."
-
On the way back, Shen Cen kept thinking about what Wen Jie had told her.
She never expected that Jiang Shiyu was also a graduate of Peking University, but he had never mentioned it to her.
She discovered that she knew nothing about Jiang Shiyu's past, and felt inexplicably irritable.
The phone rang.
“Chen Cen”.
A clear, crisp male voice came from the phone. It was a familiar voice, but now it sounded somewhat unfamiliar.
Shen Cen lowered his head, stepped on his own shadow, and responded softly, "Mm."
Jiang Shiyu could tell from her muffled voice that she was in a bad mood.
What's wrong? Did someone upset her?
He asked, "Where are you now?"
Shen Cen replied, "I just finished eating with Wen Jie and just entered the residential area."
He paused for a second, then asked, "And you? It should be morning in the US right now, right?"
"I'm celebrating someone's birthday right now."
Birthday?
It must be quite lively where he is right now, right?
Shen Cen looked up at the bright moon in the sky.
Although the weather forecast said it would rain today, it only rained for a short while in the morning, and then the sky was clear and blue all day.
She lowered her eyes and said to the person on the phone, "Okay, I'll talk to you later. You have a good birthday celebration for your friend."
“But,” Jiang Shiyu’s tone became more serious, and Shen Cen stopped in her tracks as she was about to hang up. The man continued, “That person hasn’t gone home yet. I’m still waiting downstairs at her house.”
I haven't gone home yet.
Wait downstairs at her house.
Shen Cen suddenly realized something, his breathing became rapid, and his pace quickened.
Could it be that Jiang Shiyu...
Finally, in the distance, she saw a man standing under a streetlamp.
The man was pulling a suitcase with his left hand and holding a phone with his right.
The streetlights cast his shadow long, very long.
Perhaps sensing something, the man turned around.
The instant their eyes met, she heard the person on the phone say:
"Chen Cen, happy birthday."
A note from the author:
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