Chapter 27 The Same Birthday

  After the dissolution, my brother had left. Tian Jiaomei and I went to purchase supplies together. We already knew what to prepare, tomorrow we will enter the new life practice place, without special circumstances, we can't come out, so we need to stock up on three months' worth of supplies. This is a big test, this little space is obviously not enough.

  Along the way, Xiaomei told me about her sister's experience, which she had shared with her. I listened very seriously, even though it didn't apply to me.

  When we finished shopping, she didn't see me buying dry goods and other food, nor did I buy any tableware or kitchen utensils. She couldn't help but worry:

  "Little brother, why didn't you understand what I said? What will you eat later?"

  I had long expected her to ask this question, a mysterious way:

  "You'll know when the time comes, hehe."

  "But...," she wanted to persuade me, afraid that I wouldn't pass the first test, which was a compulsory examination for the college.

  The reason Tianba made this rule is simple: if a person can't even live independently, how can they achieve anything.

  I interrupted her when she said "but".

  "Don't you believe in Xiao Ge's ability? When did I ever lie to you?"

  She looked at me with a firm gaze, inexplicably convinced in her heart, and nodded slightly. With this small action, I knew she already believed.

  The supplies have been purchased and it's already dusk, I should head back to the dormitory now.

  I smiled and said:

  "Xiao Mei, where is your home? I'll send you back home." She looked at me for a while and said:

  "Come with me."

  When I arrived at her doorstep, it was already somewhat dark, and I vaguely saw: a quiet small courtyard, with various orchids, roses, and plum blossoms planted in the yard, as well as several patches of green grass, a large tree, and a winding path running through the middle; In the night, a few strands of moonlight shone obliquely on the red walls and blue tiles of the two-story four-room small house; There was no light coming out from inside the house, making it seem unusually quiet.

  I said goodbye with some reluctance:

  "Xiao Mei, I'll see you off here, see you tomorrow morning!"

  Not hearing a response, I turned my head towards Little Plum, only to see her eyes misting over, as if she was thinking about something, so she hadn't heard what I said.

  I repeated it again, and she hurriedly turned her head around, secretly wiping away tears, saying in a low voice:

  "Little brother, don't go, stay and keep me company for a while before you head back, okay?"

  Looking at her appearance, I couldn't help but feel a pang in my heart, and said with pity:

  "Okay, little brother won't leave, can you tell me why you're crying?" She rushed into my arms and started sobbing softly.

  The first time I held a girl in my arms, she was still a crying little girl. My heart beat faster and I felt a bit at a loss for what to do, but after a while, I relaxed. Learning from the characters on TV, I gently stroked her jade-like back with my hand, feeling an indescribable sense of wonder that lasted for a long, long time before she finally calmed down.

  Then, gently pried open my hand and whispered:

  "Thank you!"

  I hung my head in embarrassment, opened my mouth, but couldn't say a word.

  After a while, she expectedly said:

  "Hey little bro, come over to my place and hang out for a bit. It's my birthday today, looks like I'm the only one celebrating."

  After hearing this, I seem to understand why she was sad and crying. Wait a minute, is it her birthday today? I widened my eyes and looked dull. She saw me like this and felt even more sorrowful:

  "What's wrong? Don't you want to spend my birthday with me either? Waaahhh"

  I finally heard clearly and quickly shook my head, explaining:

  "No, no, how could it be? I was just momentarily excited, haha, haha."

  She became even more puzzled: "What's there to be excited about?"

  "Haha, what a coincidence! Today is also my birthday! Come on, let's celebrate together. Birthdays are meant to be happy, haha!"

  "Really?"

  I pretended to be displeased: "Little brother, when have I ever deceived you? If you don't believe me, I'll leave."

  She immediately put on a pitiful look: "I'll never dare to do it again, little brother. Please forgive me. If you leave, there will be no one to accompany me."

  Seeing her on the verge of tears, I hastily said:

  "You won't leave, little brother, how could he bear to leave you alone."

  She finally calmed down and stopped the impending flood of tears, I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, then walked with her towards her home.

  The door opened and we walked in, the room was suddenly bright with lights and I heard "Happy Birthday!" cheers, and Xiaomei's family and my brother were walking towards us with eight birthday cakes.

  I and Xiao Mei were stunned, she was first stunned, then tears of emotion sparkled, her body was clearly trembling. I looked at my brother, the meaning was very clear: it was your idea, right? My brother nodded with a smile, and I couldn't help but laugh too.

  Then they put the birthday cake on the large round table, and Liu Lan hurried over to pull Tian Jiaomei into her seat. Little Mei rushed into her mother's arms and began to cry.

  At the same time, Tian Qingyan and Tian Yunyan pulled me to sit down, one on the left and one on the right. Seeing the two sisters, I didn't feel awkward or resistant at all, just like family members, and surprisingly let them pull me to sit in the middle. Others were puzzled by this, but we three weren't puzzled either - why were they so good to me? It seemed natural. Of course, Tian Ba had an inscrutable expression.

  Everyone sat down, and the birthday party began. First to speak was Tianba, the oldest in seniority, with a gentle voice:

  "Today's party is specially set up to celebrate the birthday of my dear granddaughter Tian Jiao Mei and her little brother Ren Yi Yue; it has to be said that this is a kind of fate, you two are not only born in the same month but also on the same day, and today you can gather together to share happiness, what a great joy in life! Next, let's bless them and enjoy the fun!"

  "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..."

  They suddenly sang the birthday song, accompanied by applause and clapping along with the rhythm. Little Mei is a clever person, seeing this, quickly learned it too, everyone sang in unison.

  Next is blowing candles, all eight birthday cakes were lit with candles, and I and Xiaomei were "forced" to blow out all the candles in one breath, if we couldn't blow them out in one breath, we had to keep blowing, it was really difficult!

  What's even harder is that it's always ladies first, and no matter how many she blows out in one breath, I have to finish the rest. So every time, I get attacked by a group of people, why? Little Mei once blew out only one or two candles on each birthday cake, while there were ten candles on each cake. The remaining ones, I tried my best to blow them out, but still left the last candle on the last cake unlit.

  This is the twelfth time blowing, Xiaomei still as usual, I took a deep breath and thought: to blow out a large area of candles, it's not far to blow. So I puckered up my mouth, concentrated my energy and blew again, this time it was fun: each birthday cake still had one candle left unlit.

  "Hey, Moon brother, look at you, it's all because you didn't complete the task! This time is good, not a single one was extinguished. What are you going to do? Don't waste your breath blowing anymore, I'll just help you blow one more time and put it out. Why be so stubborn?"

  "Yes, yes, if it can't be blown out, then so be it. There's no shame in that." The others chimed in agreement.

  "Hehe, this time I'll definitely blow it out!"

  I was just playing around and trying to make everyone laugh, so I didn't mind them teasing me, and then I went to light the candles again.

  Rose saw that I was not giving up and struck back: "Some people are just so stubborn, go ahead and blow it, we'll just watch the show." I didn't respond, knowing she didn't mean any harm. However, thin-skinned Xiaomei couldn't take it anymore, her small mouth pouting high, thinking to herself:

  "I must blow it out!"

  Lit the candle, unintentionally turned back to see Xiaomei's appearance, playful mood instantly changed, seriously said: "Xiaomei, let's discuss a strategy, this time we must blow it out."

  Then we whispered to each other for a while, and when we were ready to blow again, others could clearly feel our confidence, which was a kind of invincible confidence.

  The 13th time, still Xiao Mei blew first, but this time her breath was scattered and she blew out three birthday candles at once. I was thrilled, originally thinking that if she could blow out one it would be good enough, but it turned out I had underestimated her. I pretended to be proud and looked at Rose, letting out a loud shout:

  "Give me extinction!"

  Then exaggeratedly steady horse step, both palms have model have of make air movement action, at the same time blow out a mouthful of air, remaining candle one by one extinguish!

  The whole room was silent, and to our surprise, we really blew out all the candles. Xiaomei was so excited that she jumped up and down, and without caring about anything else, she ran over and hugged me tightly, almost suffocating me if it weren't for Tianba's seemingly calm coughing sound coming from afar.

  Rose felt a twinge of discomfort at this, a feeling that only she knew, although even she didn't know why.

  Next was to divide the birthday cake, one for each person. My brother and I only ate a third of it and were full, while others finished theirs with an unsatisfied look. So my brother and I divided our leftovers among them.

  They were a bit strange, the birthday cake was so sweet, why did the two brothers only eat a little? The three aunts showed concerned expressions, while Tian Bo had a thoughtful look on his face. The two brothers didn't explain either, because if they explained clearly, many secrets would be revealed. Fortunately, no one asked.

  Then there was Xiaomei's mother's handmade longevity noodles, and Xiaomei and I each had a bowl. I have to say, the noodles were extremely delicious. At this time, I saw Xiaomei eating very happily, even her eyes were sweet like a crescent moon, obviously very happy...

  Finally, Tian Ba concluded this birthday party, smiling and saying:

  "Everyone had a great time tonight, and the biggest credit goes to Rendai, this party was his idea, haha."

  "What creativity!" The group of women gave genuine praise. As for the two brothers, they just smiled and remained silent.

  On the way back, I asked my brother how he ended up at Xiaomei's house and how he knew I would follow Xiaomei home. He said he went to buy a birthday cake and happened to run into Tianmeigui, then after a conversation, they had tonight's birthday party.

  For my second question, he didn't answer directly, but looked at me with a sly smile, apparently thinking that Xiaomei and I were very close. To this, I shook my head and stopped talking.

  Back in the dorm, after the excitement subsided, a hint of desolation remained, feeling like something was missing. It should be the feeling of not being able to find home, yes, that's it, the feeling of home. Thinking back, when I spent my birthday at home, mom would always cook eggs for me to eat, although plain and unremarkable, but very considerate.

  At the same time, far away in Junlang Village, my parents were sitting in the courtyard, seemingly thinking about something. After a long, long while, my mom spoke up:

  "Today is Xiao Er's birthday, he is in a unfamiliar place at school, don't know if he is doing well or not? Maybe he is thinking of home again, really want to go see him."

  Dad stroked Mom's back and comforted her:

  "Don't worry, Gaoming has been sensible since he was a child, and with Gaoqiang by his side, there's no need to worry too much. Ah, but I really miss them."

  "Shall we go and take a look at them?" Huo Lan said hastily. Xing Chen shook his head and said slowly, "No, we can't go see them for the time being. We can't let them become dependent on us. Let's wait until they return home."

  Holland seemed to have thought of something and said softly:

  "Yes, both children will achieve great things in the future. As parents, we should not be an obstacle and instead find ways to help them."

  Xingchen nodded in agreement, seemingly lost in thought.

  …………