Chapter 45
Before Li Rui could finish his cool pose, a dirty rag was thrown over his head.
"Damn it! Lu dog, what the hell are you doing?!"
Li Rui ripped the rag off his head and yelled at the person who rushed out of the door.
The one who was being insulted retorted sharply: "Damn it, your head's on fire and you're still trying to look cool! If it weren't for me, today would be Xu Jun's birthday and your death anniversary!"
The two started arguing back and forth, leaving Xu Qingzhou standing there dumbfounded: "..."
What are they saying?
Her...birthday?
Xu Qingzhou was stunned for a moment, then carefully recalled the date.
Ah... it really is her birthday.
So, are Li Rui and the others... here to celebrate her birthday?
Listening to the various sounds coming from the small rented room, Xu Qingzhou estimated that there should be quite a few people inside.
She instinctively felt a little embarrassed, but she had to admit that an uncontrollable warm current welled up in her heart, and she was grateful from the inside out.
Seeing that Li Rui had caught fire while cooking, Xu Qingzhou quickly stepped forward and offered to help.
Li Rui waved his hand and said, "Little sister, quickly put down your schoolbag and go inside to rest. I'll show you my skills today!"
As he spoke, he turned Xu Qingzhou around and kept pushing him into the house.
It was at this moment that Xu Qingzhou was finally able to see the people inside the room clearly.
There were about seven or eight boys.
They all looked somewhat familiar, like faces I'd seen at Li Rui's birthday party.
Upon seeing her, they all raised their hands.
Hello, little sister.
"Hi, birthday person."
With so many eyes on him, Xu Qingzhou was momentarily at a loss. He forced a nod, waved his hand, and his face involuntarily became a little hot.
Fortunately, after exchanging greetings, everyone went about their own business. Xu Qingzhou glanced around and discovered that the room had been decorated, with various bright and sparkling ribbons and balloons hanging on the windows or covering the floor, making it look quite festive and lively.
Amidst the colorful balloons scattered on the ground, a group of boys sat on small chairs or simply sat on the floor. Some were teasing a rabbit with carrots, some were clumsily peeling broad beans, and others were preparing vegetables…
Xu Qingzhou felt a pang of regret when he saw the pot full of celery leaves that had been thrown away.
Just then, she heard a strange cry from inside the house:
"Damn it, Xu Jun, get serious! You've cracked all the walnuts!"
"They're all broken like this, doesn't this affect the appearance of my signature dish?!"
Following the sound, Xu Qingzhou then discovered that Chi Jun was sitting lazily at her small desk, propping his head up with one hand and idly tapping walnuts on the desk with a small hammer in the other.
Upon hearing this, he lifted his eyelids and looked at Wang Shuai, who had rushed up to him.
"I've already done more than enough by condescending to crack a walnut for you, what more do you want?"
Wang Shuai seemed stunned by his self-righteousness, blinking his eyes before saying:
"Wow, whose sister is having a birthday party?"
Chi Jun: "Did I send you here?"
Everyone: "..."
No, we came on our own because we wanted to join in the fun...
As he spoke, Chi Jun had a lazy smile on his face, but for some reason, Xu Qingzhou felt that he seemed to be in a bad mood.
Although others might not notice, she had been spending so much time with Chi Jun that she had a keen sense of it.
Xu Qingzhou quickly stepped forward: "Let me knock."
When Wang Shuai saw that it was Xu Qingzhou, he immediately felt that he was reliable.
"Yes, yes, you should do it, little sister."
After saying that, she turned to Chi Jun and mocked him, "You might as well eat these broken walnuts yourself."
Chi Jun: "Oh, okay."
As he spoke, he reached out and stuffed the walnut into his mouth.
Wang Shuai: "..."
As the birthday celebrant, Xu Qingzhou was not supposed to lift a finger; he could simply wait to eat.
Unfortunately, Chi Jun couldn't handle the walnut-making task, so she temporarily took over. She even tried to help at the stove, but Li Rui and the others wouldn't let her. Finally, she suddenly remembered something:
"How about this, little sister, could you take them to borrow some stools, tables, and chairs?"
Xu Qingzhou turned her head and glanced at the room full of boys who were staring at each other, waiting for their meal.
I looked again at the pitiful little dining table and four small chairs in the original small rented room.
"..."
【good】
Xu Qingzhou led several boys out and quickly brought back enough tables, chairs, and benches from the neighbors.
There was no need to borrow bowls and chopsticks, because Li Rui and the others had bought disposable eating utensils in advance.
The meal preparation didn't end until almost eight o'clock.
A group of people sat down at the borrowed tables and chairs, and each person first filled a disposable paper cup with beer.
Xu Qingzhou hadn't originally intended to drink it.
However, Li Rui and the others said that since they were already adults and it was their birthday, drinking a little beer wouldn't hurt, especially since tomorrow was the weekend.
Xu Qingzhou thought for a moment. So many people had come all this way to celebrate her birthday. If she, as the birthday girl, had to refuse to drink beer at this time, it would be a bit of a disappointment. So she nodded, held the small paper cup with both hands, and let Li Rui fill it up for her.
"Come on, let's toast to our birthday star, Xu Qingzhou! Cheers! Hey Xu Jun, what are you thinking about? Raise your glass!"
"Here we go again! Cheers to our fairy sister Xu Qingzhou! Happy birthday!!!"
The paper cups clinked together, and everyone drank it all in one gulp.
Xu Qingzhou also tried to drink half a glass, and the alcohol rushing out of his mouth made him squint.
Everyone put down their paper cups and began to eat the delicious food on the table.
"Hey Li Rui, I didn't know you were such a good cook."
"That's because I've had a dream of becoming a chef since I was a child, but my dad nipped it in the bud."
"If your son, who owns a company, wants to be a chef, and I were your father, I wouldn't even bother to nip your dream in the bud; I would just kill you."
Upon hearing this, a burst of laughter erupted from the table.
Wang Shuai munched on a braised duck wing: "I have to say, Li Rui, with your skills, you could easily set up a street stall."
Li Rui squinted smugly and pressed his hand down a few times.
"Oh, keep it low-key, keep it low-key."
Someone then remarked, "Li Rui's wife is going to be very lucky from now on."
Li Rui covered his chest and nodded:
"That's right, an outstanding graduate of the male virtue class!"
After saying that, he suddenly turned to look at Xu Qingzhou: "Little sister, why don't you just come with me?"
Although the dinner was prepared for her, Xu Qingzhou, who had difficulty speaking, mostly ate in silence and listened to others chat.
Li Rui suddenly brought her up, and said the same thing.
Xu Qingzhou felt a lump in his throat and was immediately choked by the spicy crayfish sauce, coughing and turning red in an instant.
Li Rui, while saying "Ouch, ouch," pulled out a few tissues and was about to hand them over.
Before Xu Qingzhou could even reach out to catch it, Li Rui let out a cry and staggered, falling directly into Wang Shuai's arms, the tissue slipping from his hand and covering his face.
"Damn it!" Li Rui ripped the paper off his face and glared at Chi Jun: "Brother Jun, why did you kick me?"
Chi Jun: "Even eating can't shut you up."
As soon as he finished speaking, he roughly shoved a chicken leg into Li Rui's mouth.
Amid Li Rui's exaggerated "woo woo woo" performance, everyone laughed heartily, continuing to eat and chat, and soon they reached a consensus—
This kind of birthday party, where you decorate the house and cook together with friends, seems much more interesting than simply going out to a restaurant for a meal or singing karaoke.
So they agreed that the same procedure would be followed for anyone's birthday next time.
Everyone announced their birthdays, and Li Rui even borrowed a piece of paper from Xu Qingzhou to write down the dates for everyone in front of the crowd.
"Your birthday is the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, right?"
"Wang Shuai, March 12..."
"..."
After asking around, only Chi Jun remained.
As Li Rui wrote on the paper, he glanced up at Chi Jun and asked, "Brother Jun, when is your birthday?"
After he finished speaking, Chi Jun remained silent for a long time.
Li Rui asked again, and then, amidst the clatter of bowls and chopsticks, he looked up and saw Chi Jun staring at him, answering calmly—
"today."
The room fell silent instantly.
Even Xu Qingzhou, who was eating, paused for a moment.
Immediately afterwards, the group around the table erupted in a cacophony of chatter, with everyone saying things like, "Why didn't you say it was your birthday today?", "Don't you consider us brothers?", "Brother and sister share the same birthday, what a coincidence!", "What coincidence? Maybe they're twins!" and other increasingly off-topic remarks.
Just as the discussion was about to subside, Wang Shuai, who had been silently biting his chopsticks, spoke up.
“That’s not right,” he said, his gaze shifting between Chi Jun and Xu Qingzhou. “Xu Jun, it’s your birthday today. We didn’t know, but your sister didn’t know either? Why haven’t we heard her mention it?”
Xu Qingzhou and Chi Jun exchanged a glance, each preparing their own excuses to get through the situation.
Li Rui suddenly picked up a crayfish from the large bowl and put it into his own bowl, saying without even looking up:
"That's normal. Some people's birth charts are not suitable for celebrating their birthdays. I have a distant relative who is like that. Apparently, a fortune teller said he would die young and couldn't celebrate his birthday, for fear that it would remind the King of Hell and take him away when he reached the right age."
This mystical explanation certainly attracted everyone's attention.
Everyone asked him what happened to his relative afterward, and then they started talking about the supernatural events that had happened to them or those around them since childhood. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they forgot to ask Chi Jun about it.
Among the faces engrossed in the story, Xu Qingzhou slightly turned her head and glanced at Chi Jun.
He wasn't listening; he just silently cooked meat in the hot pot, his face expressionless.
As the night deepened, the meal drew to a close.
At 10:30, a neighbor gently reminded her that her child needed to go to sleep.
Seeing this, everyone simply stopped eating and used the last ten minutes to happily sing a birthday song for Xu Qingzhou and cut the cake. As for Chi Jun—
Because everyone had been talking about superstitious things all night, it seemed that they had already grouped Chi Jun and Li Rui's relative who couldn't celebrate his birthday together.
Therefore, instead of giving him a birthday hat or singing him a birthday song, they tacitly smeared cake all over his face as a blessing.
And so, the event ended.
The once noisy room suddenly became empty and very quiet.
Chi Jun's face was covered in colorful cream, while Xu Qingzhou's small face was clean.
She seemed a little drunk again; her eyes were red and misty. She just lay on the table staring at Chi Jun for a while, then suddenly burst out laughing.
Chi Jun stared at her with his face covered in cream.
"What are you laughing at?"
Xu Qingzhou: [So ugly]
Chi Jun: "..."
He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at Xu Qingzhou:
"You're cuter when you don't drink."
Xu Qingzhou didn't seem to understand what he meant, and kept staring at him, her brows furrowing as she looked at him.
Chi Jun was puzzled by her gaze and was about to say, "Is it really that ugly?" when he saw Xu Qingzhou write two more words:
【waste】
Chi Jun glanced at the words on the paper, but before he could figure out what she meant by "waste," Xu Qingzhou suddenly stood up and bent down to get closer to him.
The girl's delicate, fair face suddenly drew closer.
Chi Jun was momentarily stunned. A certain expectation surfaced in his mind without warning, and before his brain could process the information, the touch arrived—
Something soft and wet touched my skin.
The next second, Xu Qingzhou tasted the cream on the tip of her tongue, seemingly quite satisfied with the sweetness. She pursed her lips, looked at him, and smiled.
Chi Jun: "..."
...Was he... taken advantage of by Xu Qingzhou?
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