Chapter 41 Happy Birthday! Give me a kiss and I'll give it to you.
That night, as Xing Lan was sleeping, he suddenly felt that the bed beneath him seemed to have grown larger, so large that no matter how he turned over, he could not touch the original edge, as if he were a lonely person abandoned on a desolate grassland.
He woke up groggily from his dream, opened his eyes, and found that the bed hadn't gotten bigger, but the person who had always slept next to him was gone.
This discovery sent a chill down his spine, and a bad feeling immediately arose in his heart.
More than a decade ago, on the same night, he raised his hand but could not feel the familiar warmth of the person beside him. The once soft and cherished quilt had gradually become cold.
He silently clenched his fist, using the slight pain in his palm to force himself to calm down, comforting himself that perhaps Li Baidong had just gone to the bathroom and would be back soon.
But when I looked up, the bathroom light was off, the surroundings were dark and desolate, there was no one in sight, and everything was silent.
Thinking of Li Baidong's recent unusual behavior, and recalling the many strange things that happened when his mother jumped off the building years ago, Xing Lan's heart suddenly started racing uncontrollably, pounding like a drum in her ears.
His back was numb from excessive tension, and a thin drop of sweat slid down his forehead and dripped onto the silk pillowcase under his neck.
Thinking of the relaxation techniques she had learned from the psychologist, Xing Lan pursed her lips, took a deep breath, sat up from the pristine white bed, and tentatively called out in the silence, "Li Baidong?"
There was no response from the air.
The curtains on the French windows were drawn tightly, allowing no moonlight to penetrate, making it impossible for Xing Lan to analyze the true situation inside the room.
He paused for a moment, and was about to reach for his phone by the bedside when, with a "click," the bedroom light suddenly switched on.
The sudden bright light made Xing Lan instinctively raise his hand to shield his eyes. A few seconds later, just as he was about to slowly let go, his slender wrist was gently grasped by someone.
He smelled a familiar scent, warm like sunshine, with a faint minty fragrance.
Li Baidong held Xing Lan's hand, gently kissed the back of his hand, and smiled broadly.
"elder brother."
"Happy birthday."
Xing Lan paused, her breath catching in her throat.
"How did you know...?"
Xing Lan was a VIP member at the coffee shop where Li Baidong used to work, and she had registered her phone number and birthday there. As soon as Li Baidong started working, he pulled up all the records Xing Lan had left in the system and reviewed them in detail, especially memorizing important information like her birthday.
Today, he deliberately persuaded Xing Lan to go to bed early. While Xing Lan was fast asleep, he spent more than two hours carefully decorating the entire room with flowers and balloons. He even went into the kitchen and made a birthday cake for him by hand.
Xing Lan woke up just after midnight.
He was full of confidence, determined to be the first person to wish Xing Lan a happy birthday this year.
Xing Lan looked up and saw that his bedroom, which was originally decorated in black, white and gray, had been completely changed.
Balloons of all sizes and shapes covered an entire wall of the room, with the most eye-catching being a string of silver letter balloons in the very center, spelling out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".
The floor was covered with pink and white flower petals, filling the entire space with a faint fragrance.
He lowered his eyes slightly, a glint of light flashing in his eyes, and gently bit his lower lip.
Li Baidong sat close to him, raised his hand, and while Xing Lan looked down, carefully placed the small golden crown representing the birthday star on his head. He then got up and went outside to get him the cake he had just made.
This was Li Baidong's first attempt at making such a large birthday cake. Although he lacked experience and had limited preparation time, resulting in a slightly rough and uneven frosting, it was still a success overall.
His seriousness and dedication are even more evident in those imperfect, patched-up handmade marks.
Li Baidong meticulously arranged fresh raspberries into a small red heart on the cake, and also made two small animals with thick cream. One was a cat with a cold face but wearing a pink bow on its head, and the other was a dog with its eyes squinting, looking very happy.
The two little lumps were plump and close together, swaying and bobbing in the air like jelly.
Xing Lan stared at the cake, looked up, and said to Li Baidong, "Thank you."
His voice was neither loud nor soft, and it didn't sound particularly emotional. But in the dim light of the bedroom, Li Baidong could vaguely see that the corners of Xing Lan's eyes seemed a little red.
He subconsciously raised his hand, wanting to touch the corner of his eye, but Xing Lan slapped it away and awkwardly turned his face away.
Looking at his tense expression, Li Baidong couldn't help but chuckle, "Brother, your eyes are so red."
"...You woke me up so late, how could I not become famous?" Xing Lan paused, then gave him a cold glance.
"I'm sorry." Li Baidong blinked innocently. "But brother, birthdays are only meaningful when they start at midnight."
“Brother, have you ever heard that the person who celebrates your 25th birthday with you is the one who will spend the rest of their life with you?” Li Baidong stared at Xing Lan and said seriously, “So my 25th birthday is very important. I don’t want to be late again and have someone else take the opportunity.”
Li Baidong deliberately emphasized the word "again," as if he meant something.
Xing Lan glanced at him, but her attention was drawn to the first sentence he said.
Will people who celebrate their 25th birthday together really spend their whole lives together?
Xing Lan was skeptical.
It's uncertain whether he and Li Baidong will be able to spend a full year together.
They placed the cake on the small side table in front of the bed, and then sat with their long legs curled up on the snow-white cashmere carpet in the bedroom.
Li Baidong bought two small flower-shaped candles and helped Xing Lan stick them on the cake.
He took out a lighter from his pocket, and before he could even light it, he turned to Xing Lan and asked impatiently, "Brother, what do you want to wish for later?"
He really wanted to know if Xing Lan's wish would be related to him, but he hesitated for a moment and changed the subject slightly.
Xing Lan wasn't fooled and said indifferently, "I won't say. It won't work if I do.
“Okay, that makes sense.” Li Baidong turned around, carefully lit the candles on the cake, and then turned off the bedroom light.
The surroundings instantly went dark again, with only two small flower-shaped candles emitting a faint glow.
The area illuminated by the two small candles was very limited; at that moment, the two people could barely see each other.
The sounds of the bustling traffic outside the window seemed to be shut out, as if the whole world had shrunk to just the two of them.
Li Baidong watched as Xing Lan's face appeared even whiter and more beautiful in the dim candlelight, her long eyelashes casting a shadow on her cheek. As her eyelashes trembled slightly, the shadow constantly changed shape.
He smiled, naturally pulled Xing Lan into his arms, and whispered in his ear, "Brother, you can make a wish and blow out the candles now. I'll sing you a birthday song."
Xing Lan then crossed her arms in front of her chest and slowly closed her eyes.
When Li Baidong celebrates his own birthday, he often dawdles and makes a wish for a long time, since the opportunity to rightfully ask God for something only comes once a year.
However, Xing Lan made a wish very quickly, as if he didn't have any particular wish he wanted to fulfill.
Li Baidong had barely begun saying "I wish you well" when Xing Lan suddenly opened her eyes, turned to look at him intently, and said in simple terms, "I've made my promise."
"...So fast?" Li Baidong said incredulously, "How many wishes did you make?"
“One,” Xing Lan answered calmly.
"Only one allowed? Really?"
Xing Lan nodded, and as she spoke, she puffed out her cheeks and blew out the candle in front of her.
“One is enough,” Xing Lan said, raising her hand to turn the light back on.
Unlike Li Baidong, who was standing to the side with great interest, his tone was very calm.
"It's just a wish; making one or a hundred wishes is the same—none of them will come true."
Li Baidong lowered his eyes, feeling a little frustrated for some reason.
Xing Lan only made one wish, so it's highly unlikely that it will have anything to do with him.
Based on his understanding of Xing Lan, if Xing Lan made ten wishes, one of them might be related to him.
After making a wish, Li Baidong removed the extinguished candles from the cake, and Xing Lan, the birthday girl, began to cut the cake.
Logically, the first slice of birthday cake should be cut for the most important person, but since there are only two people in the room, Xing Lan naturally cut the first slice of cake for Li Baidong, and also cut the wobbly, super fat dog on top for him.
It was late at night, and neither of them could eat much. In the end, they only ate a small part of the six-inch cream cake, and Li Baidong took the rest and put it in the refrigerator to freeze.
Xing Lan stayed in the bedroom to wait for him, looking at everything that Li Baidong had carefully prepared for her.
In a fleeting moment of thought, he seemed to see that person moving quietly in the dark, while also being on tenterhooks, afraid that he might wake up at any moment. Suddenly, he felt a feeling that was hard to describe.
Before today, he hadn't celebrated his birthday properly for many years. The only people who would send him birthday wishes via text message at the same time every year were the telecom operator and the savings bank.
When he was younger, every year on his birthday, Xing Yi would have his assistant buy him the most expensive toy from the mall. As Xing Yi's mistress, Assistant Lin naturally disliked Xing Lan even more and was completely careless in her work, giving him the same remote-controlled airplane every year as a perfunctory gift.
Although this remote-controlled airplane is a children's toy, it is very sophisticated in design and complicated to operate. Even many adults don't quite understand how to play it, let alone Xing Lan, who was illiterate at the time and couldn't understand the instruction manual at all.
At that time, Xing Yi was busy with work and having affairs. In order to ensure Xing Lan's personal safety, the housekeeper was very strict and rigid in managing him, and refused to let him go out no matter what.
In the closed and locked rooms of a villa, the small electronic airplane had absolutely no suitable space to take off. It could only serve as a cumbersome decoration, sitting in a cabinet collecting dust year after year.
He never imagined that after so many years, there would actually be someone in this world who would take his birthday to heart and patiently plan a surprise for him.
Finally, one day, when he woke up in the quiet of the night, what awaited him was not a slide into the abyss of pain, but a sincere blessing in bright eyes.
Xing Lan lowered her eyes and bit her lip, her heart filled with mixed feelings, when she suddenly heard a noise outside the door.
Li Baidong stored the cake in the refrigerator, then trotted back to his side like a puppy, suddenly pulling out a rather large square box from behind his back.
Xing Lan looked closely and couldn't help but ask, "What is this?"
Li Baidong tapped mysteriously on the beautifully packaged square box with his long, slender fingers, and said with a grin, "Of course, there has to be a present for a birthday. Brother, do you want to open it and take a look?"
Xing Lan didn't say anything, but tried to take the box from his hand. However, Li Baidong not only didn't give it to him, but instead raised his hand and held the gift box high.
Xing Lan turned to look at Li Baidong, only to see a sly glint in Li Baidong's bright eyes as he pointed to one side of his cheek.
"Give me a kiss." He said to Xing Lan with a smile, "Give me a kiss, and I'll give it to you."
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