After venting, I made a wish, blew out the candles, cut the cake… and then everyone went wild again. No one dared to provoke me anymore, but then, the CEO Qi Yufeng, whom no one dared to mention, appeared with a face that was both exhausted and irritated. Holding his removed suit jacket in one hand, he grabbed me with the other and dragged me towards the exit, “Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you! Come with me.” I remained silent, forcefully shaking off his hand. He turned his head, puzzled and angry, “I’ll say it again, come with me, now!”
“I’ll only say this once, I won’t!”
“Tonight is my birthday, and I’ve waited for you all day, past midnight, there’s no show left, let’s go, I don’t want to see you anymore!” I slammed the door in front of everyone, no longer seeing his expressionless face. This certainly hurt his pride, but I didn’t feel any joy…
At around 4 AM, as we were leaving, I saw Qi Yufeng leaning against his car door smoking across the street. Upon seeing me, he extinguished his cigarette and was about to come over, but I turned and walked away, leaving him to stop helplessly. Baba scolded me, pointing at the cigarette butts littering the ground, “He waited for you all night!” I was forced to go over, reluctantly pouting; hadn’t I waited for him all night, and even longer than he did! However, seeing the cigarette butts all over the place, though it was bad for the environment, it was somewhat touching…
We stood there in silence for a long time, the empty street as if no one else existed, just the two of us with our own thoughts.
“Let’s go home,” I said, opening the car door and getting in—what’s that smell? Qi Yufeng, upon entering, also noticed it. He suddenly slapped his forehead, “Almost forgot,” and reached to the back seat for a large bouquet of flowers, “They’ve been closed up for half a day, they’re almost wilted,” “Do you still want them?” I took them from his hands immediately; they smelled so good!
“Are they… night-blooming cereus?” He actually brought night-blooming cereus… “You’re so weird…” His face seemed to flush slightly, “It’s my first time giving flowers, I didn’t know the details… If you don’t like them, throw them away, if you dare.”
“I like them~” They’re so beautiful! This variety is quite rare, and he actually used it to give me flowers! “I had them specially air-freighted back.”
Suddenly, he stopped the car, parking at the roadside—what was he doing?
“Xia Xia,”
“Huh?”
He hesitated, then turned his head away, ignoring me. What was he doing, so bizarre! I looked out the window; we were at a harbor.
Qi Yufeng suddenly started cursing, “So embarrassing! What a surprise, now it’s all ruined! Get out!”
Before I could figure out what was going on, Qi Yufeng dragged me out of the car, over the railing, onto the beach. On an abandoned small boat, he handed me a sand shovel, pointing at a slight mound in front of us, “Dig!”
“What?”
“I told you to dig!”
Then he brushed off the sand from the edge of the boat, sat down, angrily loosened his tie, and started smoking. What was he thinking? I was sweating profusely, squatting there digging the sand, but I was sure there was something hidden beneath, which is why he wanted me to dig.
“Can’t you dig faster?”
“I’m already digging fast enough, what’s the rush!”
He made me do manual labor and still had so many demands! But he seemed really angry, he put out his cigarette, rolled up his sleeves, snatched the shovel, and started digging himself. I comfortably squatted aside, urging him to dig faster.
It turned out to be a huge Styrofoam box! Qi Yufeng opened the lid, and inside was… water? Floating in the water was a small box.
“They were supposed to be ice.”
“Oh, to ice what?”
He glared at me fiercely, then went to fetch the small box. Uh… did I say something wrong? Why glare at me…
He handed me the box, “Open it.”
I did as instructed and found a melted puddle of ice cream. I looked at Qi Yufeng in confusion; he was also staring at the puddle, “It was an ice cream birthday cake, but look, now it’s nothing.”
“You’ve seen it, you can throw it away.”
“I really deserve this!” He took the box away, cursing in frustration.
To say I wasn’t touched would be a lie; I was so happy. He remembered my birthday, even though I never mentioned it, he intended to celebrate it for me.
“Don’t throw it away!” I ran over and hugged him from behind, “Melted ice cream is still good to eat~”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting diarrhea?”
“What’s the big deal?”
Eating melted ice cream in the summer is pretty normal for me, and I’ve been used to it since I was little; diarrhea? What a joke.
Qi Yufeng had even prepared fireworks! On a midsummer night, with ice cream and fireworks, could there be a lack of joy? I love fireworks, an unexplainable love, the only thing my sister and I both loved growing up.
Remember? The rooftop when we were kids, the backyard of the Yang family, and the little balcony in the French apartment… Do you remember, sister? In the pitch-black night sky, there are still a few stars twinkling faintly, I held up a brightly burning sparkler, and my eyes blurred unknowingly. Look, how beautiful the fireworks are in the night.
Qi Yufeng said that the fireworks here would last until dawn, wonderful, there would be no more endless nights, no more despair.
Qi Yufeng opened an elegant silk box in front of me, and my eyes lit up at the sight of a pearl with a dark, lustrous glow, its surface shimmering with small, sparse diamonds, like stars in the sky, attached with a delicate platinum chain.
He circled around behind me, put it on for me, the cold touch resting on my collarbone, and I felt the warmth of his lips on my face, “Happy birthday.” Excited, I turned around and hugged him tightly, warmed to the point of nearly losing consciousness. “Seems like you really like it, so you should…” His mischievous profile suddenly appeared before me, I understood his implication, stood on my toes, and kissed him, then his right cheek. “The previous two were too perfunctory, now let’s get serious.” The two of us passionately performed, not suitable for children! Sitting quietly on the beach waiting for the sunrise, the blue of dawn, lawless. I thought of a song, “Spring Fever.” No matter how dim the lighting or how gray the sky, it cannot hide the bare brilliance. Each morning has a different shade of blue, how can one expect the days to come? A moment of passionate confusion, a lifetime might not find it again. It’s hard to find it again. It was also my birthday, in a small coastal town in southern Italy, where he, in his youth, rode a bike to take me to see the sunrise at the beach, I held a handful of dandelions in one hand, and wrapped my arm around his waist with the other. The uneven stone road elicited trembling laughter under the dim streetlights, in the dark blue of dawn, dandelions scattered all over the sky… hard to find it again. “What are you thinking about?” “A song, a picture…” “And a person, right?” I looked at him in surprise, but he just smiled faintly, his furrowed brows filled with lines I couldn’t understand. His hand touched my face, “Do you know, when I think of him, this face is unique, it makes me want to crush it.” He restrained his strength, let go of my face, and watched the sun slowly rise over the horizon, leaving us at a loss. “Xiaoxia, you can love me.” “But when will you love me?” “I don’t know.” Truly didn’t know. “I’ve actually fallen to this state.” He laughed bitterly. I couldn’t say anything, at this moment, I really had no position to speak. He stood up and walked back, I followed. After returning home, we showered and slept, waking up to another daybreak. The silence between us could be ignored, as if only the sounds of the world existed.
