Chapter 94: Blessing
“Happy birthday!”
The girl shouted loudly over the phone, her laughter uninhibited, without a trace of the usual girlish restraint. Su Yu had to move the phone away from his ear. He also smiled and said, “What happy birthday? It’s still more than a week away. Are you wishing me a happy birthday so early?”
“Hehe, I sent you something. The mail has been so slow these past few days because of the Double Twelve sale. It should arrive around your birthday.”
He Mu Qing’s voice was full of excitement, as if she were eagerly anticipating the gift reaching Su Yu.
“Mm-hmm, then I’ll definitely have to see what you sent me.” Su Yu nodded and said, “What about you? You’re almost halfway through your third year of high school. You said you had made progress last time. I saw your post. Did you have an important exam recently? How did you do?”
“Wuwu~” Hearing Su Yu ask this, He Mu Qing’s excitement immediately dissipated. She puffed out her cheeks and exhaled, looking angry. “Are you annoying or what, Su Yu? You only know how to ask about these useless things. With such low emotional intelligence, you’ll never find a girlfriend in your life! And… you promised to help me find a good milk tea shop. Have you found one yet?”
“Haha, doesn’t that depend on your grades? If you don’t like me asking about that, I’ll ask about something else.” Su Yu smiled. Hearing the whining tone in her voice, he could only go along with her. “Did Auntie He scold you for being careless again? Or did Uncle He take your allowance to buy cigarettes?”
“Hmph, all of them! Let me tell you, my mom is so unreasonable…”
Su Yu silently listened to the girl’s endless complaints. He would occasionally interject with questions about trivial matters, such as how Uncle He was recovering after his surgery. But it was mostly the girl who was talking. They had mostly communicated through messages before, and they hadn’t talked on the phone very often. The girl seemed to have endless things to say, like a jar of candy beans that had been overturned, spilling out everywhere.
He didn’t pay much attention to his own birthday, but He Mu Qing always remembered. She would always tell him in advance that she had prepared a gift for him and then personally hand it to him on his birthday.
Although this method lacked the element of surprise that a birthday gift should have, He Mu Qing had told him that compared to the surprise of the gift, she didn’t want to see him feeling uneasy on his birthday, wondering if he would receive any blessings, because his parents were not around.
Unfortunately, they were no longer just a floor apart like in high school. The distance between them was so great that the gift had to be sent a whole week in advance to arrive on time.
He Mu Qing had celebrated his birthday with him every year. She didn’t want Uncle He and Auntie He to worry about these things, nor would she ask them for money. Sometimes she would bring a few friends that Su Yu knew and who wouldn’t spoil the atmosphere. Sometimes it would just be the two of them, celebrating his birthday with a cake bought with their saved-up allowance.
Later… later, this annual birthday blessing had suddenly stopped on a certain day. The person who sent the blessings became Xia Qian Ge, who was Su Yu’s girlfriend at the time. As for whether it was on the eve of his graduation or a few months before he started working, he had forgotten. Su Yu frowned and thought for a long time, but he still couldn’t remember when…
“Hello, Su Yu? Are you listening to me?”
Su Yu came back to his senses and smiled. “Mm-hmm, I’m listening. Go on.”
“Haha, you’d better be.” He Mu Qing smacked her lips, clearly not believing him. “By the way, there’s something important. Old Mo closed his milk tea shop.”
“Huh? Closed?” Su Yu asked in surprise. “He’d been talking about closing for a long time. How did he really close it? I was planning on going back during the holidays to try his new products.”
He Mu Qing sighed pitifully. “He said he wanted to go out and travel. Hmm… he might be back during the summer break. I’ll have to say goodbye to my mango pudding for a while.”
“That’s good too. Focus on your exams. When you’re done, we’ll have to make Old Mo treat us.”
“Mm-hmm, maybe Old Mo will bring back a wife then. He’s so old and still not married.”
He Mu Qing agreed and then looked at the time. It was getting late. “Should I hang up now? I have to get up early tomorrow.”
“Okay, see you during winter break. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Su Yu hung up the phone. The screen returned to the previous chat box. The contact’s name was Xia Qian Ge. The last chat record was a greeting from a long time ago, and the words “Happy Birthday” were in the chat box, but they had not been sent.
He stood on the balcony in the early morning, the vast night sky only faintly revealing a few dim lights from the dormitory building opposite. The thin pajamas couldn’t block the biting night wind. He tightened his clothes and left the balcony.
…
“Qian Ge, my big birthday star, happy birthday!”
In the video, Lin Siyi smiled and wished Xia Qian Ge a happy birthday.
“Thanks. Are you deliberately timing it? My birthday is almost over.”
“Yes, yes. Otherwise, what’s the difference between me and those high school classmates during the day?” Lin Siyi winked playfully. “Did you receive my gift? Are you not in bed? Is that pillow super soft and comfortable?”
“I received it. I’m on the balcony. I like the pillow very much.”
Xia Qian Ge smiled faintly and brushed aside the hair that had fallen to the corners of her lips. She hadn’t had time to remove her makeup. When she returned, her roommates had held her back and asked her a lot of questions, all surprised that she seemed to have become a different person today.
She squinted her eyes and pretended to be angry. “But what are your intentions with this gift, hmm? Are you trying to make me stay in bed and not get up?”
“Oh, Qian Ge, you’re either working part-time or studying every day, like a robot. I’m not by your side, and it breaks my heart. I just want you to get more rest.”
Lin Siyi couldn’t stop once she started talking about these things. She had always been very worried about Xia Qian Ge’s health and had told her to take good care of herself in the winter and not catch the flu.
“Okay, okay, I know you care about me.”
“It’s good that you know. Otherwise, I would have doted on you for nothing.” Lin Siyi lifted her head, looking like a good best friend with Xia Qian Ge. She seemed to have remembered something, and her tone became very excited. “I’ll go to Qingchuan to see you in a while. Didn’t I tell you I have a new boyfriend? I’ll bring him to meet you.”
“Come to Qingchuan? Is it convenient?”
“I was planning to go during National Day, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to buy a ticket. My school is quite close to Qingchuan. And I’ve wanted to go to Qingchuan for a long time. We haven’t seen each other in so long. I miss you.”
Xia Qian Ge frowned and thought for a while. She couldn’t refuse Lin Siyi and finally agreed. “Well… okay then. Tell me your class schedule, and I’ll see when I have time.”
“Okay. Will the three of us be a bit lonely? Hey, isn’t Su Yu at the same school as you? How about we ask him to come along? Of all your friends, I’m most familiar with him.”
Lin Siyi’s words seemed to have touched a loose nerve. Xia Qian Ge’s heart pounded, but her expression remained calm. She even hesitated. “This… is not a good idea, right?”
“What’s not good about it? If you’re too embarrassed, I’ll go ask him. If I can persuade him, you can’t stand me up.”
“Haha, I’ll listen to you. I can’t refuse you.”
Xia Qian Ge reluctantly agreed. “But… don’t be too hard on him.”
“I know. Didn’t you say you’ve seen each other a few times? Today is your birthday… didn’t he send you a blessing or something?”
“No, maybe he forgot.”
Xia Qian Ge shook her head, her smile as if deliberately drawn on her lips, her dark eyes growing dimmer.
“Sigh… maybe he was busy and forgot. I thought you two had a good relationship. My boyfriend is the same. When I’m sick, he just tells me to drink hot water. It makes me so angry.”
Lin Siyi complained a few more times about her boyfriend and told Xia Qian Ge to find a boyfriend to take care of her soon. The two of them chatted for a while, and seeing that it was getting late, they hung up the phone.
Xia Qian Ge looked at her chat box with him. It was still empty. She didn’t know why she kept looking at these meaningless things. She clearly remembered that the boy would send her birthday wishes every year.
In her second year of high school, he, who sat behind her, had patted her on the shoulder and then shyly took out a box of chocolates from his drawer and stuffed it into her hand. He had awkwardly emphasized that he had just happened to remember that it was her birthday and had bought a box of chocolates as a reward for letting him copy her English homework. Before he could finish speaking, he had escaped from the classroom with the excuse of going to the restroom.
Xia Qian Ge remembered that she had eaten that box of chocolates for a long time, because the slightly bitter chocolate had become an incredibly sweet candy in her mouth. Although she stubbornly felt that such a sweet thing was not suitable for her, she had finished the box in the end.
That most unforgettable birthday was now the last one. This year, there were no gifts, no smiling faces, not even a cheap template of a birthday wish.
Reason kept urging Xia Qian Ge to think about the reason behind it, to find the cause. But she was unwilling. She was very tired. Standing in the late autumn wind made her feel cold.
She was like a little girl who was about to freeze to death in the harsh winter. She lit the last match and then thought naively: the boy must still like her. As for the reason why he didn’t send her chocolates, it must be because she hadn’t lent him her English homework, so he couldn’t find an excuse to give her a gift. It must be like that.
Xia Qian Ge, holding the disconnected phone, turned and went back to her dorm. Xu Dan and the others were gathered around a small TV, watching the newly updated variety show. They asked her if she wanted to have some late-night snacks, but Xia Qian Ge shook her head and refused, with the excuse that she was tired from work today, and then went to the bathroom to remove her makeup.
In the mirror, the mature and bright makeup was gradually removed. Xia Qian Ge was a little reluctant. She always felt that she could see a shadow of her future self in that makeup.
The adult Xia Qian Ge… the girl who had shed the weakness, self-doubt, and kindness in her personality. Even the fragility of her face had to be covered with makeup. Others could only see her strength. She didn’t want to be bullied anymore. She wanted everyone to be afraid of her. She should get what she wanted by any means necessary, without any hesitation.
Including him!
Even if she ended up alone, as long as she had him, it was enough.
After washing up, Xia Qian Ge lay in bed and covered herself with the blanket. She hid in the darkness, the sound of her roommates laughing and playing in her ears. She looked at the chat box again, unwilling to give up. No surprise…
She looked at it for a while, staring blankly as the time moved towards midnight, and then a new day began.
The phone in her hand remained silent.
She turned off the screen, and everything returned to darkness.
