Chapter 23 “Happy Birthday.”

On the weekend, Ye Xiaoyang held a small birthday banquet at Fuli Hotel as planned.

From childhood until now, because his birthday was in summer vacation, he had always spent it with family and never invited classmates.

This time he suddenly said he wanted to treat classmates to a meal. Ji Shu was a bit surprised.

The birthday was still two months away. This was neither here nor there. Why hold a birthday banquet now?

But Ji Shu spoiled her own son, and Ye Xiaoyang was someone with his own opinions. Whatever he said, Ji Shu would usually help him get it done.

Maybe her son just wanted to experience a birthday banquet with classmates? After all, spending a birthday with people the same age and spending it with family were different experiences.

Ye Xiaoyang’s previous birthdays had all been relatively simple. He didn’t like putting on flashy things.

This time it was rare to hold a birthday at Fuli Hotel. Ji Shu happened to take the chance to indulge herself.

Probably every mother’s heart had a little girl’s heart at the bottom. When Ye Xiaoyang saw the birthday banquet hall his mom had arranged for him, although his face was calm, his inner heart was extremely collapsing.

“The cake is already here. Are the drinks enough? If not, have the hotel people send more.” Ji Shu was inventorying the supplies.

“Mom.” Ye Xiaoyang pointed at the foam plastic standing sign at the banquet hall doorway, his fingertips trembling. “What is this?”

“I was afraid your classmates wouldn’t find the place, so I had them make a life-size sign of you.” Ji Shu explained. “When they see this, they’ll know to walk this way.”

That’s right. Printed on that foam plastic board was a photo of him himself.

The print shop had perfectly cut out his entire person and restored him one-to-one with precision. It was just that the expression was so cold and merciless that you couldn’t see the slightest joy of celebrating a birthday.

This was the first “surprise” his mom Ji Shu gave him.

After Ye Xiaoyang pushed open the banquet hall door, his entire person felt as if he had been placed in a pink ocean.

The stage had been decorated with flowers into a Disney princess castle. The floor was covered in pink balloons, and multicolored lights hung everywhere.

The banquet hall wasn’t large. It only had four tables. Behind every chair a Mickey Mouse helium balloon was tied. As exaggerated as it could get.

Ye Xiaoyang really wanted to ask his mom one question: where had she gotten the illusion that her son would like these things?

Or was his taste in her mind at this level?

“Isn’t it pretty?” Ji Shu was completely immersed in her own world and hadn’t noticed Ye Xiaoyang’s almost collapsing expression at all.

Ye Xiaoyang couldn’t bear to shatter his mom’s beautiful fantasy, so he found a sharp entry point, preparing to probe this mom whose little-girl heart was overflowing.

He pointed at the Mickey Mouse helium balloons tied behind the chairs and said, “Mom, do you know? If you accidentally get stranded on a deserted island, as long as you draw a Mickey Mouse head on the island, Disney’s legal department will send a helicopter over to sue you.”

Ji Shu laughed. “Don’t worry. These balloons are all official Disney. Eighty-one of them, no cheating of old or young. Later let each of your classmates take one home.”

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

It was almost eleven. This banquet hall could only be like this.

Ye Xiaoyang suddenly had an impulse. This birthday, this old man wasn’t celebrating it. Whoever wanted to come could come!

Would he still be able to be a person at school after this?

Of course, this still wasn’t the worst. The worst was that just as he was on the verge of exploding, two girls’ quiet conversation came from outside the banquet hall door.

“Is it here?” This was Luo Yi’s voice.

“Look quick. There’s his photo here. It must be here.” This was Qian Jiayun’s voice.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

Was it still in time to die on the spot?

Right after, the door was pushed open. Two girls poked their heads in and walked inside.

Ji Shu went up to meet them with a face full of smiles. “You must be Yangyang’s classmates? Sit quickly.”

That’s right. Yangyang was Ye Xiaoyang’s childhood name.

Hearing Ji Shu call it at home on ordinary days didn’t feel that strange. But calling him this in front of classmates made the shame level explode off the charts.

Especially in front of the girl he liked. This feeling—ascending to heaven on the spot, anyone?

After Luo Yi set the large paper box she was hugging onto an empty table, she finally saw Ye Xiaoyang, and the dreamy Disney ocean behind him.

Uh. So you were this kind of Ye Xiaoyang?

After Qian Jiayun pulled Luo Yi to sit down, classmates arrived one after another.

When Ji Shu saw that most of the people had arrived, she told Ye Xiaoyang to properly entertain his classmates, then went out.

Ye Xiaoyang couldn’t get away, because the others didn’t know this was a birthday banquet with ulterior motives. Those male classmates were all busy cracking jokes with Ye Xiaoyang.

Luo Yi didn’t like joining this liveliness, and also didn’t want to speak with Ye Xiaoyang alone. She played on her phone while quietly chatting with Qian Jiayun.

The classmates who came more or less brought some gifts. The things the girls sent were still relatively common—nothing more than dolls, water cups, earphones, and the like. The style was very close to Taobao gifts titled “Boys instantly cried.”

The things the boys sent were all kinds of strange, dazzling to the eyes.

“This is what we brothers pooled money to buy for you.” Wang Changze walked over with a wicked smile. “Use it secretly. Don’t let your mom find out.”

As he spoke, he mysteriously stuffed a black box into Ye Xiaoyang’s hands.

Ye Xiaoyang shook it and didn’t hear any sound. He couldn’t help asking, “What is it?”

The few boys looked at each other. Someone shouted, “Fleshlight—”

The room instantly burst into laughter.

Ye Xiaoyang: “…”

Listening to Zhou Jiahang’s suggestion and holding this birthday banquet was a complete and thorough mistake!

Ye Xiaoyang coldly glanced at Zhou Jiahang. Zhou Jiahang hurriedly raised his hands to show his innocence. “I swear I didn’t buy a share!”

“It was your damn idea!”

“Bullshit. I never said that!”

Wang Changze, like a salesman, started giving Ye Xiaoyang a detailed introduction. “I saw on Taobao it said it’s especially easy to use. Fully automatic massage, stretching and self-adjusting—”

“You shut up!” Ye Xiaoyang gritted his teeth.

Wang Changze pointed unconvinced at the mountain of gifts. “I think this is much more practical than those things.”

Seeing that everyone had already sent their gifts over, Qian Jiayun pushed Luo Yi’s arm. “You go.”

Luo Yi lowered her eyelashes, her cheeks scarlet, and murmured, “You go.”

“You bought the thing. I’m not borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha.” Qian Jiayun said lazily. She had made up her mind not to step out for Luo Yi.

There was no way. Luo Yi put away her phone, picked up the box, and walked to Ye Xiaoyang in small steps.

A circle of boys saw a girl coming and made way one after another.

Today Luo Yi was wearing a small chiffon floral skirt. The short hair by her ears softly pressed against her cheeks. On her feet she wore short white socks and little cowhide shoes. Her whole person looked as if she had walked out of a fairy tale.

“Happy birthday.” Her voice was soft. She didn’t dare look into Ye Xiaoyang’s eyes.

Seeing her like this, Ye Xiaoyang felt both pity and resentment in his heart.

Why was she this timid? On the outside she looked fragile enough to shatter at a pinch, yet on the inside she had a heart of cold stone.

“What did you send?” A few boys wanted to snatch it over and take a look, but Ye Xiaoyang tightly clutched that box. No one could take it away.

Luo Yi said, “A football.”

She didn’t know what he liked. She only remembered that he should quite like playing football, so early on she had pulled Qian Jiayun to the Adidas specialty store and bought a football to give him.

This football cost a little over a thousand yuan, just enough to offset the favor of that box of chocolate. It was quite suitable.

This way, the guilt in her heart could also be a few points less.

Ai. She didn’t want to keep owing him.

Ye Xiaoyang only felt that the box in his hands weighed a thousand pounds, yet his heart wanted to fly beyond the ninth heaven.

She had given him a gift? And it was a football. She remembered his preference.

Actually even if she gave him a foxtail grass he would treat it as a treasure. Yet she had even given him the football he loved most.

Although his family had several footballs, now Ye Xiaoyang announced that those footballs had all fallen out of favor.

From now on he would only kick this one!

No. What if he kicked it broken?

This ball should be polished shiny and placed on a shelf!

Or hug it to sleep at night?

Ye Xiaoyang didn’t know what he was thinking. In this moment, countless thoughts drifted through his mind.

Thoughts so absurd they couldn’t be more absurd.

After Luo Yi finished giving the gift, she returned to her own seat. Ye Xiaoyang still stood in place like a stone statue holding the box.

Zhou Jiahang coughed lightly. “Brother, the person already left.”

Ye Xiaoyang came back to himself and placed this box in the exact center of that pile of gifts.

After the banquet started, the venue was full of shouting and booming human voices.

Luo Yi used small chopsticks to pick up dishes and quietly ate. Qian Jiayun’s gaze was completely attracted by Fuli Hotel’s strange and peculiar dishes. Every time a dish came up, she had to cry out once.

It was strange to say. These foods under the chef’s hands were simply reborn.

Fuli Hotel specialized in creative dishes. Just looking at the appearance of each dish, you absolutely couldn’t tell what the ingredients were. After eating them, you had to carefully savor them before you might guess correctly.

“What is this? Has anyone figured it out?” Sun Yiman asked.

On the plate in front of her were jade-green kiwi slices, dotted with a few white bits of meat.

“Crab meat?”

“Shouldn’t be. Crab meat’s texture is a bit denser.”

“Tuna?”

“Tuna meat has a texture a bit like garlic cloves. These meat grains are smaller.”

Several girls chattered and discussed.

The plate turned to Luo Yi’s side. She picked up a piece, chewed twice and swallowed, then said, “It’s flounder.”

“Flounder? True or false? I’ve never even eaten it.”

“Flounder is a sea fish, right? This meat’s flavor is clearly very light.”

Luo Yi picked up another piece and tested the taste. This time she was very certain. “It’s flounder that lived in freshwater.”

Everyone argued without reaching a conclusion. Someone went to ask the server.

The server smiled awkwardly. “It’s freshwater flounder. The chef processed the fish meat, so the flavor is a bit different.”

A table of girls was very surprised. Flounder was a fish everyone had basically only seen in books, not to mention its high price. Almost no one present had eaten it. Even if they had, it was hard to remember the taste. Luo Yi could actually taste it in one bite?

This… Dae Jang Geum reincarnated?

Seeing everyone looking at her, Luo Yi put down her chopsticks and explained, “Before, when Dad took me to an island to play, I ate it a few times, so I have a bit of an impression.”

“Wow, you really can’t tell. So well-traveled and knowledgeable.” Li Lingqiu praised.

“Not at all.” Luo Yi wasn’t very used to receiving this kind of praise. She said modestly, “If it were another kind of fish I wouldn’t be able to taste it.”

“Ai, Luo Yi, your family is from Tongze. What do your parents do?” Sun Yiman slowly poured a cup of coconut milk.

It was strange to say. This time every table had a large bottle of coconut milk. Ye Xiaoyang was completely unlike the spring outing, when he had been so small-minded as to only prepare one can of coconut milk.