SM Chapter 27

“That day, you’ll accompany me.”

This “Uncle,” equally shocked everyone except Zhu Suiyi. The most direct reaction came from Zhu Yingqing, who was standing at the kitchen door, causing the spatula in his hand to clatter to the ground.

Though, it wasn’t entirely shocking for everyone.

Tan Zhi Xu raised an eyebrow, his surprise fleeting. He was quite composed, even ruffling Zhu Shihao’s hair.

Zhu Suiyi laughed heartily, “Looks like you really got into character that day.”

Liu Ruoyin playfully slapped her, “What’s going on?”

“The night before Jia Jia’s kindergarten New Year’s event, her dad got dead drunk, like a log…”

Catching her son-in-law’s embarrassed expression, Liu Ruoyin slapped her again, her eyes warning her to speak properly.

Zhu Suiyi rubbed her nose, “Anyway, I had them go in our place. Tan Zhi Xu pretended to be the uncle for a day. Just a moment, there’s even a video, let me find it.”

She found the teacher’s video in their group chat and watched it with Liu Ruoyin and Zhu Yingqing, who had come over.

“Amazing, right? Neither her dad nor I could have gotten first place.”

After understanding the whole story, the two parents calmed down. Liu Ruoyin glared at her, “You guys will be able to do this when Jia Jia turns twenty.”

Zhu Shihao sat on the other side of the sofa, lowering her eyes at those words.

Everyone felt that the relationship between Tan Zhi Xu and Zhu Shihao was built on over twenty years of shared history; whether it was understanding or closeness, everything had a clear origin.

It seemed that no one considered any other possibilities between them.

Feeling a bit unsettled, she momentarily forgot to peel the sugar orange in her hand, lost in thought until the little orange was taken away.

Zhu Shihao’s gaze followed the hand and saw Tan Zhi Xu sitting with his legs apart, elbows resting on his thighs. He was hunched over, peeling the orange for her, stray strands of hair falling casually over his forehead.

An open palm reappeared before her, with a peeled orange, its segments neatly separated, with the surrounding peel resembling blooming flower petals.

“We’re about to eat. Don’t eat too much.”

Seeing her dazed, Tan Zhi Xu stretched his hand out slightly, making an inquiring “hmm” sound.

Zhu Shihao slowly took the orange, her fingertips brushing against his palm for a fleeting moment, leaving a slight itch. If the occasion wasn’t wrong, he thought he would have reached out before she pulled away, grasped her hand, and fed the orange to her lips.

While this lively family atmosphere was nice, he still wanted to be alone with her, even if it was just to quietly cuddle and watch a movie.

Fortunately, these days didn’t last too long. After the pre-senior year tutoring ended, Liu Ruoyin also went on vacation. A couple of days after she relaxed, Zhu Yingqing took his wife on a trip nearby, as expected.

Tan Zhi Xu got what he wanted: Zhu Shihao’s free time, not all of it, but eighty or ninety percent of it.

Saturday was Feng Zan’s birthday. He was their high school class monitor, someone they interacted with quite a bit back in school, and a good person. They hadn’t lost touch over the years.

They had agreed to go, and initially, they planned to go together, but two days prior, a negotiation with a business partner was moved to today due to the other party’s schedule changes, forcing Tan Zhi Xu to go to the company, suited and booted, on a perfectly good weekend.

He had even invited Zhu Shihao to go with him, but she firmly refused.

“Don’t be like that. Just suffer the overtime yourself.”

Tan Zhi Xu tapped her forehead and chuckled, deciding to get extra snacks at night to soothe his soul.

Actually, the main reason was that Ran Cai had asked to come over, so Zhu Shihao had stayed at Riviere since Friday.

Around 2:30, Tan Zhi Xu called her, casually chatting about whatever came to mind for a while, before hanging up to wait for 3:00 to arrive.

Zhu Shihao walked around the house, making sure there weren’t any obvious signs of a man having stayed over. Most importantly, there was nothing Tan Zhi Xu shouldn’t have left behind.

When she received Ran Cai’s call, she opened the door. Ran Cai clasped her hands together, “Shihao, my dear, I’m so sorry, so sorry. I’m late, I’m late.”

“We’re meeting at my place, so I don’t even have to leave the house. What’s there to be sorry about?” Zhu Shihao said, grabbing a pair of slippers for her and closing the door.

While changing her shoes, Ran Cai raged, “You won’t believe it. I just looked down at my phone for a bit, and that driver sneakily took me on a detour. I’m so done with him. It cost me twenty or thirty yuan more than usual! What a huge circle!”

“The worst part is that I couldn’t even turn around. Seriously, if you’re gonna rob me, just rob me, don’t waste my time.”

“Don’t be angry. I ordered bubble tea.” Zhu Shihao led her towards the living room. “I didn’t wait for you, I already started drinking.”

“Ahhh, I love you, Shihao.” Ran Cai handed her the bag she was carrying. “Here’s a soufflé for you.”

The two leaned back on the sofa, sipping bubble tea, eating soufflé, and chatting idly.

“I remember Xu Ge’s birthday is right after Feng Zan’s, isn’t it coming up soon?”

A smile played on her lips, and Zhu Shihao nodded, laughing, “Yeah, next Monday.”

Ran Cai then asked her, “How does he plan to celebrate it?”

Thinking back to when she had asked him a few days ago, what had he said?

“Not celebrating. I can’t be bothered. A bunch of people making noise, annoying,” he had said, wrinkling his brow at the right moment, as if just thinking about it was already annoying him.

Zhu Shihao sat beside him, “Are Aunt Ting and Uncle Tan coming back?”

Tan Zhi Xu shook his head, “Probably not. They’re busy before the new year. There are a lot of things that need to be settled now or it’ll have to wait until after the holiday, and there are various forums and talks.”

It seemed like this had been the norm since high school.

She pursed her lips, feeling a bit sad, and leaned over, reaching out an arm to ruffle his hair.

Tan Zhi Xu turned to look at her. She used to have this expression many years ago. She wouldn’t say anything bad about Xu Ting and the others, but would just touch his head, silently comforting him.

He had never refused, nor had he spoken, quietly accepting her comfort. He never told her that he didn’t really care. Birthdays, to him, had no special meaning other than indicating he was a year older.

No, perhaps there was still something.

On this day, Zhu Shihao would spend the most time with him, accompanying him to eat cake, preparing gifts for him, and most importantly, on this day, he could clearly feel her happiness. She always had a beautiful smile.

He reached out to grasp her hand, gently pressing her palm. Tan Zhi Xu lowered his eyes and said in a soft tone,

“That day, you’ll accompany me.”

Others were unnecessary, didn’t matter, but Zhu Shihao had to be there.

On this matter, she didn’t deliberately oppose him, and wouldn’t even joke about it.

Her hand being held, Zhu Shihao gazed at him, extremely serious: “Okay, I’ll accompany you.”

“Shihao, Shihao?”

A hand waved in front of her eyes.

“Huh?” She snapped back, taking a sip of her bubble tea, “I spaced out. What were you saying?”

Ran Cai repeated herself, “I asked whether Xu Ge is celebrating his birthday, and how he’s celebrating it?”

“He’s not.” Zhu Shihao shook her head.

As for Tan Zhi Xu saying she only needed to accompany him, of course she wouldn’t say it.

Hearing this, Ran Cai shrugged, spreading out one hand to indicate she wasn’t surprised at all. “Xu Ge still doesn’t like celebrating his birthday. According to the pattern, he celebrated it last year so he won’t celebrate it this year, and he’ll probably celebrate it next year.”

“Last year was clearly your guys’ spur-of-the-moment thing, tricking people to go and pulling out confetti.”

Remembering the confetti all over Tan Zhi Xu’s head and shoulders, his unhappiness masked by understanding everyone meant well, forcing an expressionless face, made her laugh.

Zhu Shihao couldn’t help but remind her, “Don’t do that in the future. He doesn’t like getting stuff all over him.”

Ran Cai rolled her eyes, “Did I need you to tell me that? With the look on his face, no one dared to say a word for the next few minutes.” It was pure, fast-paced eye darting, without anyone daring to make a sound.

“I never knew Xu Ge had a bit of a cleanliness compulsion. Dousing him in confetti, what were we thinking?” She wore a resentful expression.

Maybe he has it a little bit.

Zhu Shihao thought, “He didn’t play with ocean balls or sand as a kid, and he doesn’t like people touching his head.”

But actually, it’s not that bad, he wasn’t a particularly finicky person.

It had been a while since the two had seen each other. Even though they chatted and video called on WeChat, the feeling of chatting face-to-face with a friend was still different.

There were always many things to talk about, like the weird customers at “Bye Self,” or how someone in Ran Cai’s class wrote a love letter in English and the homeroom teacher brought it to her office. She read it and exclaimed internally how impressive high schoolers were, and the young teacher called the student in to explain the incorrect grammar.

A little after four o’clock, Zhu Shihao went to change and put on makeup. Ran Cai didn’t follow, but instead found a variety show to watch and touched up her makeup.

When Zhu Shihao reappeared in the living room, Ran Cai kept saying “Wow.”

She circled her a couple of times, completely amazed. “Shihao, my dear, you look so good! You should dress like this more often, everyone would call you an absolute beauty.”

“You’re exaggerating too much,” Zhu Shihao said, raising her hand to cover her mouth as she laughed.

This laugh made her look even more beautiful.

“It’s not even an exaggeration. How could it be an exaggeration?” Ran Cai gave her a disapproving look, then her gaze moved downwards, raising her hand to touch her chest with envy in her eyes, “Why is it that some people can be both thin and have big boobs?”

The only thought in Zhu Shihao’s head when she was groped was, ‘Thank goodness Tan Zhi Xu isn’t here.’

Removing Ran Cai’s presumptuous hand, Zhu Shihao pondered for a moment, “Don’t do that. And my upper arms are fat.”

Ran Cai tsked twice, then pinched her arm, “Compared to the rest of you, it’s a little bit, but it’s still alright. You’re still perfect.”

“Thank you, you always have eight hundred reasons to compliment me,” she said with a helpless smile.

“That’s nothing, ask Xu Ge. He can come up with a thousand reasons to praise you, and he wouldn’t be able to find a single reason not to praise you.” The more Ran Cai said it, the more it seemed true.

Zhu Shihao gave her a reproachful look, “Isn’t that a bit too much?”

If she didn’t believe her, there was nothing she could do. Ran Cai spread her hands out and didn’t say anything, not noticing the smile that had appeared on her lips.

She still had to wear a down jacket; after all, she needed to protect herself from the cold. The two women held hands as they left. They definitely would be drinking tonight, so they didn’t plan on driving.

The place Feng Zan found was specifically designed for gatherings like this, with halls of all sizes, from a dozen people to hundreds. There was food, alcohol, singing; as long as the money was right, they could switch DJs eight times in one night.

There was a little bit of traffic, but thankfully they had left early, arriving a little after six o’clock.

There were already quite a few people in the room. Everyone was sitting on the sofa, chatting. Glancing at the large round table over there, Ran Cai clicked her tongue and whispered in Zhu Shihao’s ear.

“Is he making it a big deal this year? How many people did he invite? Did the class monitor strike it rich?”

Zhu Shihao nudged her lightly with her elbow, shaking her head to signal her not to say things like that here.

When Feng Zan saw them, he walked over to greet them. “You guys are here! Both of you look beautiful today. Make yourselves comfortable, don’t hold back.”

Even though he said “both of you,” his gaze mostly fell on Zhu Shihao’s face. Fortunately, his gaze was polite.

The two offered their birthday blessings.

Feng Zan wanted to chat more, but a waiter called him over, so he could only say helplessly, “Guess we’ll have to chat later. Eat, drink, and have fun!”

Ran Cai looked around and pulled her to the side. “Let’s go, let’s go. It’s so hot. The temperature’s set way too high.”

Fortunately, Feng Zan had been called away, or she would have been sweating from wearing the down jacket any longer.

“If they don’t turn it up that high, people might catch a cold,” Zhu Shihao countered, thinking it was understandable.

Taking off her down jacket and hanging it up, Ran Cai glanced, barely noticeably, at Fang Xiaoyan and the others, and pouted. “Seriously, it’s impressive. Wearing a camisole dress under a down jacket in this weather is a skill.”

Instinctively looking over there, Zhu Shihao didn’t expect Fang Xiaoyan to be looking at her. Zhu Shihao paused for a moment, then gave her a slight smile. The person on the other side simply glanced away.

Ran Cai, who had witnessed this reaction, was annoyed. “She’s got a problem, right? After all these years, her two-facedness has become even more refined.”

“Let’s just ignore her.” Fearing she would charge up, Zhu Shihao advised, “Be careful not to let her hear and start another fight. At least today is Feng Zan’s birthday. For the sake of the class monitor, let’s not bother with her.”

For the sake of Feng Zan.

Ran Cai suppressed her anger, gave Fang Xiaoyan a disgusted glare, and stopped looking at her.

“Hey sis, Ran Cai, come sit over here! What are you two talking about over there?” Wei Wang, seeing that they hadn’t come over yet, called out.

They were only familiar with Wei Wang and Hao Hao out of all these people, so they didn’t think much and walked over.

Wei Wang asked her, “Where’s Xu Ge? Isn’t he coming?”

“He went to the office this afternoon.” Zhu Shihao explained, thinking, “He should be here soon, right?”

As soon as she finished speaking, the door was pushed open.

A tall, handsome figure appeared.

Tan Zhi Xu’s gaze swept across half the room, immediately catching sight of the woman in the crowd wearing a knitted dress. The form-fitting design clearly outlined the curves of her body, making her extremely attractive. Her long black hair was loose, and as she turned to look at him, the ends brushed lightly against her waist.

Those eyes shone like stars, now blossoming into a radiant smile.

His steps didn’t pause. He had no other thought but to walk towards her.