BSS - Chapter 127

Chapter 127

The night before her seemed as long as time itself.

Perhaps it was the atmosphere, but Deng Chuan's voice sounded exceptionally calm. It had even lost the soft, downy quality of a teenager's voice from a year ago, becoming more composed, with a hint of steadiness. No matter the occasion, Deng Chuan's composure still made Xu Wei's heart flutter. If they hadn't just been talking, Xu Wei would never have remembered that this was the same "little friend" who, just ten-odd minutes ago, had been asking her for advice about her confusion and uncertainties.

This little friend was now speaking close to her ear, "Teacher Xu, have you lit the candles? Can I sing you the birthday song? I wish Teacher Xu good health and success at work in this new year of your life. And I'll borrow a bit of Teacher Xu's birthday luck and hope that I pass my exams smoothly next year, return home smoothly, and get to see you soon."

As she spoke, Deng Chuan's voice unconsciously grew sweet and clingy again, like a sugary plea. It was a trick she was skilled at, one that only ever appeared in front of Xu Wei.

This brought Xu Wei back to her senses. Listening to Deng Chuan's renewed clinginess on the other end, the corners of her mouth turned up without her realizing it.

She indulged her good mood, turning around with the cake box that was cutting into her hand and walking toward the living room. She replied, "So is it my birthday or your birthday? You've taken all the advantages today, even making a wish before I did. What if it doesn't come true now?"

The little friend let out a belated "Ah," realizing that her long string of words had indeed seemed to steal the host's thunder. She quickly added, "Then what I just said doesn't count!"

Xu Wei asked leisurely, "Then what does count?"

"What you say counts," Deng Chuan reiterated seriously. "Let's start over-Teacher Xu, light the candles quickly. I'll sing you the birthday song, and then you make a wish. Remember to include everything I just said in your wish."

"Alright, alright," Xu Wei said with a laugh. "Hold on, let me see if I have a lighter at home."

"It's in the bag with the forks and plates," Deng Chuan said. "I asked the shop to put one in."

Xu Wei opened the small paper bag Deng Chuan mentioned and, sure enough, found a very ordinary red plastic lighter inside.

As she walked into the living room, Juzi and Zhou Liu, who had been sleeping on the sofa, watched her carry the items to the dining table and followed her curiously. Xu Wei was mindful of their tails, but she saw that they didn't seem to care at all about being stepped on, their attention fixed solely on the square cake box swinging from her fingertips.

This time, Xu Wei didn't shoo them away. The two cats were granted a pardon and jumped onto the dining table, squatting to one side to watch to their hearts' content.

The cake Deng Chuan had chosen was a whole matcha mousse. The flavor wasn't too rich, and the size was just right—enough for Teacher Xu to eat her fill for the night, with the rest serving as tomorrow's breakfast.

The lighter from the shop was hard to use, and Xu Wei struggled with it, so she only lit a single candle. Afraid the night breeze was too strong and would blow out the flame, she carefully cupped the small flame with her hand, only letting go after a moment.

The candle flickered, emitting a small point of orange-yellow light. The room wasn't fully lit to begin with; here at the dining table, there was only a bit of white light cast from the living room, set against the city lights in the night outside.

In such lighting, one person and two cats would normally be a scene that felt even lonelier than pure darkness. But because of the small candlelight and the person in her earphones, it became lively again.

Deng Chuan waited quietly for Xu Wei to light the candle, then asked, "Teacher Xu, have you lit the candle? I'm going to start singing. This only happens once a year, so you have to listen carefully."

Xu Wei carefully took a photo, capturing the two cats with wide, curious eyes peeking around the cake, and the bouquet of roses in the candlelight. Then she said, "Okay, okay."

Deng Chuan said, "Then I'll start."

As she said this, Xu Wei put down her phone. She sat down at the dining table, rested her arms on it, and clasped her hands together, making a wish in earnest to Deng Chuan's birthday song, coming from nine thousand kilometers and a seven-hour time difference away.

Outside Deng Chuan's window, the sun was bright. It was a dry autumn, the sky as blue as a flawless sapphire. Deng Chuan gripped her phone tightly. Xu Wei heard her voice drift out from the small earphones:

Happy birthday to you
Wishing you happiness, wishing you health
Wishing you a bright future
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you
Wishing you happiness, wishing you health
And a warm family

Deng Chuan usually spoke very clearly, and her enunciation while singing was also very clear. She sang very slowly, even slower than the original version. This allowed Xu Wei to hear how tenderly she uttered every line of blessing on the other end.

Xu Wei closed her eyes, thinking amidst Deng Chuan's tender song surrounding her ears: the call was just between the two of them, with no one to disturb them. They were each other's one and only at this moment, so the birthday should also be a one-of-a-kind birthday for just the two of them.

With this naive thought, unbefitting of her age, Xu Wei earnestly made a wish for two. She even thought, It's my birthday, so I'm in charge. That means there's no question of whether the wish will come true or not.

"Okay-" Deng Chuan slowly finished the entire song, having repeated "Happy birthday to you" so many times. Then, still with the tender gentleness from her singing, she spoke clearly and slowly, "Teacher Xu, blow out the candle."

Xu Wei finished making her wish for two and opened her eyes. Her gaze fell upon the quiet dining table and the two cats squatting to the side, watching her. The candlelight swayed, its flickering shadow reflected on the ceiling. The candle was small, but wax tears still trickled down its partially burned body, about to drip onto the matcha powder-dusted mousse.

Just as the wax tear was about to fall, Xu Wei quickly blew a gentle breath and extinguished the small candle.

Deng Chuan heard the sound of her blowing and urged from the other end, "Hurry and eat the cake! It's from a private bakery that many people recommended to me, but I haven't tried it. It's supposed to be delicious."

"Mm." Xu Wei raised her fork and took a bite. "It's pretty good." She squinted her eyes slightly from the sweetness in her mouth. "No wonder so many people recommended it to you. They're all girls, right?"

"Huh?" Deng Chuan heard the deliberate emphasis in Xu Wei's words and hastily explained, "I only asked them because I was looking for recommendations. I was afraid you wouldn't like anything too sweet, since you have to control your sugar intake. I asked a lot of people."

"No." Deng Chuan's tone was too sincere. Xu Wei's eyelashes trembled. "It's not too sweet. It's delicious."

The little friend on the other end laughed foolishly. "That's good."

The room wasn't bright. The two silly cats were still staring blankly at her, their two pairs of translucent pupils looking a little scary in the dimness, but Xu Wei wasn't afraid.

The cake beside her was emitting a sweet fragrance.

Xu Wei couldn't remember the last time she had eaten cake. After graduate school and starting work, her birthday had become just a symbol in her life. Of course, it wasn't an insignificant symbol. She still cared about her birthday and was willing to give the day special meaning. But precisely because it was so special and she cared so much, during those ordinary years, in that ordinary life, she became unwilling to celebrate it.

This might be a very contradictory, perhaps even childish, thought. But Xu Wei had her own stubbornness.

Perhaps it should be called willfulness. Xu Wei knew she's always been like this. When she was a student, she willfully chose the science track against all the elders' advice that "it's better for girls to study liberal arts." When she argued with her family, she was so willful that even her younger brother thought she was heartless. And then, at work, she willfully chose Deng Chuan.

So, in a sense, this willfulness was so important to her.

Xu Wei cherished this willfulness of hers. After she started working, she rarely celebrated her own birthday. She held the same attitude about many things.

Xu Wei always willfully felt that it was better to have nothing than to have something of poor quality.

Now, this willful attitude had finally been exchanged for a true "possession." Xu Wei put another bite of cake in her mouth and thought slowly: perhaps her willful "better nothing than substandard" could also be interpreted as waiting for a certain someone where "the more, the better."

Otherwise, it was just a birthday. Why would she be so happy right now?

Deng Chuan was still talking to her on the other end. She was also eating lunch, mumbling while chewing on a fried egg, and telling Xu Wei, "Later, I'm going to register an account on the UK lottery website and buy a scratch-off ticket."

Xu Wei was speechless for a moment, then laughed. She asked her, "Why?"

Deng Chuan answered with perfect self-assurance, "Because it's Teacher Xu's birthday today, of course. So it's a lucky day."

Xu Wei said, "Even if you say that, I'm not confident I can bless you with a win."

"It's okay," Deng Chuan said. Her reasoning and premise were flawless, clearly the result of careful thought. "If I win, it's a string of good luck. If I lose, the bad luck is driven away."

Deng Chuan said this sentence in English. Xu Wei didn't know if it was her personal filter, but when those tones and words fell so elegantly on her ear, her heart thumped violently, as if she were listening to a love poem recited in Old English.

Xu Wei restrained herself, afraid the little friend on the other end would hear her fluttering heart and get carried away with pride. But she also indulged a desire to let Deng Chuan know her own charm. It was quite a contradiction. She simply put another bite of cake in her mouth before slowly saying, "Mm… losing means spending money to avert disaster."

Hearing this, Deng Chuan immediately said, "I don't believe it! My luck will definitely be good today. Don't hang up, I'm going to scratch it right now!"

The next second, Xu Wei heard her push back her chair and the sound of her bare feet running on the wooden floor. "Slow down, slow down… I won't hang up."

Deng Chuan quickly ran into her room, grabbed her sleeping laptop from the bay window, and the screen lit up to show a half-written paper. She didn't even look at it, single-mindedly logging onto the lottery website, registering a new account, spending ten pounds on four sets of numbers, and then scratching them off.

Xu Wei heard a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

As she expected, the little friend soon spoke up, a little dejected, "This is so annoying… Mm, okay, nothing."

Xu Wei mimicked her tone, "Mm… spending money to avert disaster?"

The little friend immediately retorted, "It's driving away the bad luck."

"Okay," Xu Wei said with a laugh, indulgently agreeing with her. "Driving away the bad luck."

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