Chapter 69: "Happy Birthday, Chen Jingshen."

The car was speeding down the road, faster than any other vehicle in the area.

The cell phone receives a quick reply, and Chen Jingshen looks down at the "Oh" on the screen, throws the phone back into his book bag, and turns his head to the woman in the driver's seat.

Ji Lianyi was staring straight ahead, her hair in a messy up-do, with a few strands falling behind her ears. She had lipstick on her mouth to complement her color, but she still looked tired.

Ji Lianyi had been in this state all this time, and it was even getting worse. Chen Jingshen asked him a few times, but he always gave him a deep look and shook his head, saying he was fine.

Today, before he got out of school, he got a message from Ji Lianyi, saying he was coming to pick him up after school.

The car was blocked before it reached the viaduct, and Chen Jingshen looked at the headlights in front of him and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"No." As always, the answer.

"You look tired."

"...... It may be that I dealt with too many things some time ago, and Idle down instead of uncomfortable." Ji Lianyi's hands gripping the steering wheel couldn't help but tighten a bit as she inclined her head to look at Chen Jingshen, "In the future, mom will come to pick you up and drop you off to school every day."

Chen Jingshen curled his fingers, "No need."

"We'll have breakfast together in the morning before we leave the house, and we'll be out on time after school in the afternoon. Mom will be waiting for you at the school gate." Ji Lianyi ignored his refusal, "Same as today."

Chen Jingshen was about to say something, but he inclined his head to meet Ji Lianyi's gaze. She looked like she hadn't slept well for several nights, and her beautiful phoenix eyes were dull.

Chen Jingshen narrowed his eyes as the car behind him honked its horn to urge him on.

"Got it." He said, "Lots of cars, drive slow."

Going home and taking a shower, Chen Jingshen sat on the desk and turned on the light, just took out the wrong book, outside suddenly came a few muffled heavy cracking sound.

There was no light in the living room, and it was dark. Chen Jingshen walked quickly to Ji Lianyi's door, knocked twice and pushed the door in.

Ji Lianyi sits half-bent over her desk, elbows propped up on it, fingers sunk into her hair. Her long hair was ruffled, glasses were broken all over the place, and there was her cell phone.

Ji Lianyi was breathing heavily, looking up indistinctly when she heard the movement, and opened her mouth only after a long time, "...... Why did you come over?"

Chen Jingshen stood at the doorway of the room and suddenly realized why he found such Ji Lianyi familiar.

She was in this same state for a long time when she realized that her husband had a child out there who was a year older than her son.

"Hear the sound." Chen Jingshen walked over and crouched down to pick up the glass shards.

"Don't." Ji Lianyi jolted to her feet as she flicked her hair back, "Don't scratch your hand, mom will do it herself ......"

Chen Jingshen had already picked up the things and thrown them into the trash can in three or two tries. He picked up the cell phone that fell on the ground and was just about to hand it over when the screen suddenly lit up.

The next moment, his hand was empty and Ji Lianyi had already taken the cell phone.

"Accidentally knocked over my water glass." Ji Lianyi snaps her cell phone back on the table, "Scare you?"

"No." Chen Jingshen thought for a moment and asked, "Is it because you're not feeling well?"

Ji Lianyi paused and shook her head, "No, how come. Go to your room, finish your homework and go to bed early, you have to get up early tomorrow for breakfast."

Chen Jingshen furrowed his brows and wanted to ask something else, Ji Lianyi's hand was already on his back, "Come on, mom has work things to do ......"

"I thought I said I wasn't working for a while?"

"Project wrapping up." Ji Lianyi looked up at her baby boy and smiled, "It'll be okay after a while, it's okay, it's okay."

Chen Jingshen returned to his room, still thinking about Ji Lianyi's reaction just now.

Is the family still contacting her? Or is the divorce still pending?

He sat on his desk in silence, turning his pen again and again, his mind having some trouble collecting itself. Until the cell phone on the desk rang.

He glanced at the "What's up?" from his boyfriend, didn't reply, and just put down his pen and called back the video. , didn't reply, just put down the pen and called back the video.

Yu Fan was sitting on the balcony blowing the wind when he saw the video and froze for a moment. He and Chen Jingshen had been doing their homework in the classroom every afternoon before leaving, and with Chen Jingshen's mom always going into Chen Jingshen's room, they hadn't videoed each other since the beginning of the school year.

Yu Fan immediately picked up the phone. The wind blew his messy hair all over his face, and he annoyingly flicked it back, revealing his white face, "Home yet?"

Chen Jingshen : "Uh-huh. My mom came to pick me up and came back after school."

Yu Fan let out an oh and relaxed back against the security fence, "I thought you were up to something ......"

"She'll be here for a while."

Yu Fan paused.

All of them would come, meaning that Chen Jingshen would have to leave after school later and wouldn't have time to work on papers in any of the classes.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Chen Jingshen said, "She hasn't been in a good mood lately, something may have happened. In a few days ......"

"Just right, having detention every day after school is annoying." Yu Fan raised her eyebrows indifferently and added rustily, "Then you stay with her more."

"Uh-huh. Do some homework?"

Yu Fan just wanted to say yes, but his words changed on the verge of his mouth, "Hang up and write, in case your mom suddenly comes in."

Chen Jingshen was silent for two seconds before saying, "Good."

Chen Jingshen's fingers had just moved when the person on the other side of the video suddenly shouted, "Wait!!!"

Chen Jingshen: "Huh?"

The video came unexpectedly, and Yu Fan remembered the main thing only when he was about to hang up. He gripped his hair, "Are you free this Friday after school ......?"

Chen Jingshen subconsciously glanced at the calendar. Friday, August 11th, every year on this date, Ji Lianyi would order a gift to be delivered to the house, and over time Chen Jingshen had memorized his birthday.

"There is. What's wrong?" Chen Jingshen asked.

"What else? Get you out, of course," Yu Fan said, "and get online."

"......"

-

On Friday after school, Yu Fan left the school as soon as the bell rang.

He went to the mall, which he didn't usually frequent, asked the staff and then walked up the escalator and straight into the pen store on the third floor, left corner.

There weren't many people in the store, and the owner, who was playing with his cell phone, immediately stood up straight when he saw him.

This store was a place Yu Fan had picked out after reading reviews online for days. He squinted with blurry eyes as he looked at the various types of pens in the glass case.

"Welcome." The owner immediately walked up to him and asked, "What style do you want? Are you using it for yourself or someone else? Do you need me to recommend a few models for you."

"Give it away." Yu Fan said.

The boss immediately bent down to rummage through a few popular models, asking as he held them up, "For a friend or an elder?"

Yu Fan's inspecting gaze paused, then darted, "Object."

The boss immediately picked a few light-colored delicate ones and put them in front of him, "Then you're really coincidental, these are all new models, we're the only store in South City that has them. Recently, the girls who come here all buy these models ......"

"For boys."

"...... huh?"

"This one," Yu Fan nodded at a dark blue fountain pen in the display case, "how much?"

"999," the owner replied dully.

Yu Fan, with his hands in his pockets, stared coldly at the pen for a long time and gritted his teeth, "...... Wrap it up."

Carrying the gift out, Yu Fan counted his living expenses as he walked. He used to spend money quite freely, he did not intend to go to college, and feel that life is not interesting, spend up always a bit of self-indulgence flavor, just smoking and surfing the Internet went a lot.

From now on, if you keep it under 30 a day, don't smoke and don't surf the net, you should be able to cope with your senior year ......

Yu Fan was walking absentmindedly, Yu Guang glimpsed something, his footsteps lurched, and he slowly retreated back.

He stared at the cupcake in the window, two little people fighting in his mind.

-Save money.

-It's not good to have a birthday without a cake, is it?

- Chen Jingshen how old ah still eat cake?

-Many of them are mostly your subjects.

-Two men eating cake together childish ah.

Three minutes later, Yu Fan stood expressionlessly in front of the cake store clerk, "Order a smaller size egg ......"

The cell phone rings, and Yu Fan picks it up.

[s: Sorry, can't meet up. There's an impromptu family get-together and I'm going to be busy until the evening.]

-

When Chen Jingshen changed his clothes and was ready to go out, he opened the door of his room and saw Ji Lianyi already dressed up.

Seeing him already packed, Ji Lianyi was a bit surprised, wearing an earring and asking him to get in the car first, saying that he was going back to his grandmother's house for his birthday today.

Chen Jingshen said he had an appointment, at that moment, Ji Lianyi's face became very bad. She coldly forbade him to go, and asked her grandmother to call him. Mother and son confronted each other for half an hour until Chen Jingshen realized that there were several boxes of pills in Ji Lianyi's unclosed handbag, and only then did he reluctantly agree.

Chen Jingshen doesn't really know the relatives of either family well. He sits with a few unnamed peers and listens indifferently to their games; he is seen by them as "someone else's kid". When one of them asked him if he played, the other immediately said, "How could Chen Jingshen possibly play games?

Ji Lianyi pushed to the front for the elders to chat, sitting on the sofa for a long time, chatting about achievements and future prospects, everyone is quite lively, only he did not say a few words.

In the middle of the day, I got a message from his boyfriend: "How was the potluck?

Chen Jingshen replied, "It's not as good as Kanto.

I stayed up until the evening and finally got in the car to go home. Both mother and son remembered what happened before they left the house, and no one said anything on the way.

Until he entered the house, Chen Jingshen was just about to go upstairs to his room when Ji Lianyi suddenly called out to him.

"Did you hear about that school Grandma was talking about today?" Ji Lianyi said, "That New York--"

"I don't go abroad." Chen Jingshen replied in a faint voice.

"You can start by getting a feel for the ring over there ......"

"Don't go." Chen Jingshen said, "Don't mention it."

Ji Lianyi locked eyes with him for a few seconds and skimmed her face to signal the end of the subject.

Back in his room, Chen Jingshen only felt tired. He threw all the gift boxes onto the table and was just about to take a shower when a message came in on his cell phone.

[-: Home?

[s: Just arrived.]

[-: Oh, the hallway]

Chen Jingshen looked at the message and was stunned for two seconds before making a move. He turned around and opened the window, standing on the balcony and looking down-

Street lights in the neighborhood dim, tree branches with the summer night wind swinging around, under the dense branches, shadows can be seen sitting on a long stone chair boy. His elbows impatiently supporting the stone chair armrests, crossing his legs, next to the empty position also put something.

When Chen Jingshen called, Yu Fan had just gotten rid of a mosquito.

"Chen Jingshen." Yu Fan tilted her head, spreading all her anger at the mosquitoes on the man standing on the balcony, "What's the point of planting so many trees in your neighborhood?"

Chen Jingshen, who had been tense all day, suddenly smiled. He said, "Wait for me to come down."

"Don't," Yu Fan rushed to stop him, "just stand on the balcony. Your living room curtains aren't drawn tight, and your mom is on the couch talking on the phone."

After saying that, Yu Fan felt that he was a bit perverted, actually peeping into other people's homes.

Chen Jingshen was quiet for a moment, as if hesitating. Only after a long time did he ask, "How did you get in?"

"The security guard saw me and I said I'd come and help you walk your dog."

"When did it come? Why didn't you tell me."

"Not for long." Yu Fan said vaguely, "Chen Jingshen, you talk a lot of nonsense."

Yu Fan stood up and locked eyes with him from the dim shadows of the trees, "Can you see me?"

Chen Jingshen said he could.

Then he watched Yu Fan turn around to get something from the chair, and after tinkering with it for a while, Chen Jingshen's eyes shifted, and a little starburst suddenly appeared in the dark night.

Yu Fan turned around holding up a cake with candles lit. Holding the cake in one hand and his cell phone in the other, he tilted his head and said, "Chen Jingshen, happy 18th birthday."

Chen Jingshen was forced to play the birthday girl for a day today, with only "yes", "no" and "no" lines.

This boring script was supposed to have come to an end. Yu Fan held up a palm-sized cake from afar and said a happy birthday to him, and the day seemed to come alive again.

Chen Jingshen stood on the balcony in silence for a long time before asking, "Where did you get the lighter? Didn't you quit smoking."

"......"

His boyfriend immediately turned cold: "The cake store gave it to me. If I say I'm quitting, I'm not going to lie to you?"

The firelight reflected Yu Fan's eyes flickeringly bright, he frowned and impatiently urged, "Hurry up and blow out the candle, it's tiring to hold it up."

Chen Jingshen blew very briefly, a light wind whisked by, and the candle flame abruptly went out.

Both of them were stunned. Yu Fan stared at the cake for a few seconds before looking back up to inform him, "Alright. You can't have this cake, I'll eat it myself."

"Still?" Chen Jingshen asked.

"Or else? I'll climb the wall and bring you up?"

"Could try."

Resisting the urge to throw the cake at Chen Jingshen's face, Yu Fan sat back down on the bench and pulled out a fork to stuff a bite of cake into his mouth.

"How's it going?" Chen Jingshen asked.

Yu Fan, who hasn't eaten cake in I don't know how many years, simply commented, "Sweet as hell."

One of the two ate and the other watched, looking at each other like idiots for a while.

Chen Jingshen : "Or I'll jump off."

"And then I'll call you 120?"

"......"

Chen Jingshen stifled a laugh and watched him eat the cake a little bit, "Why did you come to me all of a sudden?"

Because looking at the messages you've been sending, you don't seem very happy.

Yu Fan said, "I had nothing to do, I was fooling around, and I turned around."

"And with cake?"

"Picked it up on the road." Yu Fan said expressionlessly, "It happens to have your name written on it."

He couldn't eat any more and put the cake back in the box, ready to throw it in the fridge for tomorrow, "Chen Jingshen, I'm going back."

Chen Jingshen hmmm, "Don't hang up the phone."

"...... Oh."

Yu Fan lifted up the cake box, then suddenly remembered something and pulled out a black gift box from his pocket, "Right Chen Jingshen, the gift. I'll hide it under this tree, you can come down and get it after I leave."

"I'm going down now." Chen Jingshen said.

"Don't, your mom will see it later." Yu Fan lifted his cake box and said, "I'm leaving."

Yu Fan walked out for a while and looked back. Chen Jingshen is still standing there, the balcony did not turn on the light, he can only see the tall and thin figure of the boy.

He recalled that when Chen Jingshen and his mom got off the bus together just now, the two of them didn't say a word, and Chen Jingshen was carrying a lot of gifts without the slightest expression on his face.

Obviously he went out for his birthday and came back still looking lonely.

Chen Jingshen watched him stop and was just about to open his mouth to ask, when the other party suddenly folded back and walked over to the stone chair from earlier.

"Chen Jingshen, I didn't tell you that, did I." Yu Fan tilted his head to look at him.

"What?"

"I like you too."

A cool evening breeze rustled the branches of the trees. His boyfriend's hair was blown all over the place, and the eyes that looked up at him glowed slightly in the darkness.

"Happy birthday, Chen Jingshen," he added over the phone.