CH 73

Ch73 - Happy New Year

As the New Year approached and Yi Da Zhuang received his compensation sum from the kidnapping case, and his pay from the advertisements on his blog posts, he decided to shout all of us to a grand meal. He booked a reservation in the city’s most sumptuous, and most popular…. hotpot restaurant.

After making the reservation, Yi Da Zhuang specifically tagged me in the group and asked me to bring my brother, as he said that he wanted to thank him for saving his life.

Hot pot restaurant? With Sheng Min Ou?

Even if Sheng Min Ou could tolerate the rowdy atmosphere of the place, he probably wouldn’t be able to stand the pungent aroma there…

Yet, when I tentatively informed him about these plans over text, he ended up replying with a simple “Got it.” I confirmed and stressed with him again that this was hotpot, the type of meal where multiple people would be eating out of one pot – that kind of hotpot.

He was probably wondering if there was something wrong with me, as it took him a while before he responded, “I know what hot pot is.”

Alright then, as long as he was aware.

After a while of receiving treatment, the kitten had gradually grown its fur out into a long coat as it also began to gain some weight and fill out its frame.

Originally, I wanted to wait for it to grow up for a while longer before giving it away. However, Shen Xiao Shi suddenly mentioned that his mother, after seeing a picture of the kitten, felt a great fondness towards it. Since she had sorted everything out with her new place, and was now missing something to keep her company, he asked me on her behalf to see if she could adopt the kitten from me.

This arrangement couldn’t have been better. Earlier, Shen Xiao Shi’s mother had been living with him at his place as the legal proceedings of dividing the property had not been finalised. However, as Shen Xiao Shi was renting his place, there was only one small room to share, which meant it was quite inconvenient for the two of them to live in.

Fortunately, now that everything had been divided up, Shen Xiao Shi’s mother no longer had any more ties to the other side and used the money to buy a place near her son’s house. As it was a second hand house, the furniture was already there and after a few days of cleaning and tidying it up, she would be able to move in.

The kitten being adopted by her meant it would be going to live at a pretty good place.

The next day, I packed up everything belonging to the kitten and handed it alongside the kitten to Shen Xiao Shi. I detailed the next vaccination time and dietary precautions for him to pay special attention to.

Shen Xiao Shi carefully noted all this down and reassured me. Once he got home, his Wechat feed had been updated already, filled with photos of his mother holding the kitten in her arms, having the kitten with her as she watched the television, as she did household chores, as she ate and as she slept.

“I seem to have gotten a younger brother.” Shen Xiao Shi captioned.

I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I showed these pictures to Sheng Min Ou. He glanced at it and stared at Shen Xiao Shi’s mother on the screen and he said, “Ms. Yao has changed a lot.”

Shen Xiao Shi told us that his mother was still occasionally awakened by nightmares at night. What happened in the past clearly still impacted her greatly, but things were getting better. Humans were strong and tenacious beings, and even if the progress was infinitesimally slow, time would one day heal all wounds.

“Because love can change a person.” I shifted to lay on Sheng Min Ou, who was currently reading a book and pressed my face to his chest. His calm, yet powerful heartbeats drummed in my ear, as I slowly closed my eyes.

Sheng Min Ou didn’t push me away, rather he continued to read in this less than comfortable position.

Listening to the steady, drum-like rhythm below me, I gradually began to fall into a deep sleep. While I was asleep, I seemed to indistinctly sense someone moving me into another position.

I frowned in dissatisfaction as I rolled over, in search for the source of heat next to me, when I faintly heard a light tsk from above me.

“Look at you being clingy….”

I muttered something in an attempt to refute this, but I couldn’t open my eyes, so instead I burrowed further into the arms of the person beside me, and refused to let go.

When I woke up the next day, I saw Sheng Min Ou washing up, while rubbing his shoulders and neck as if it was quite sore. I glanced in the mirror and bit the toothbrush in my mouth as I freed up my hands to help him massage the spot.

“What happened, did you fall off the pillow?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Vtfcu Zlc Ye ujnf wf j oiffalcu rlvf fsf, jr P rtevvfgfv jcv yfujc reymbcrmlberis gfoifmalcu bc ktfatfg P tjv vbcf jcsatlcu kgbcu gfmfcais.

“Pa’r cbatlcu.” Vtfcu Zlc Ye gfqilfv jr tf ibbxfv jkjs jcv rdeffhfv bea j ilcf bo abbatqjraf, “P’nf yffc gfjvlcu abb wemt gfmfcais.”

Yc atf vjs bo Tl Gj Itejcu’r Rfk Tfjg’r Snf vlccfg, Vtfcu Zlc Ye tjv oijuufv tf kbeiv yf jgglnlcu ijafg jr tf tjv j wffalcu, rb kf jii jgglnfv ja atf tba qba gfrajegjca olgra.

As Yi Da Zhuang reserved a place early, we had a private room to ourselves and a TV to watch.

The biggest news being aired recently was the matter regarding Mei Teng. The results of the investigation had come out and the company was given a severe fine of hundreds of millions. Mei Teng held a press conference to apologise to the public and Xiao Sui Guang was unable to attend due to reasons concerning his physical health, so he granted full authority for his daughter to handle the matter.

As Xiao Mo Yu faced great change in the family, she had shed her previous image of being a rich, frivolous second generation heir. Now instead she wore a black formal suit, had very little makeup and donned a simple ponytail. She stood in the middle of a group of executives and spoke clearly, her tone sounding neither inferior nor arrogant, as her words appeared very sincere. I wondered whether there was a PR team who had checked over her speech in advance.

With Xiao Meng in jail, Xiao Sui Guang had no other choice. From now on, this shaky empire would fall entirely on Xiao Mo Yu’s shoulders.

Speaking of which, a while ago I thought of telling Zheng Mi Mi the truth, and typed up a long text with several hundred words. However, it turned out that she had already at some point blocked me. Now thinking about it, she probably had found out about everything from Xiao Mo Yu.

Although I didn’t spend that much time with her, I could tell she was a good person. However, now it would appear that the time I shared with this little shijie had come to an end.

When the dishes were all served, Shen Xiao Shi poured drinks for each of us. He didn’t sit back down, as he bowed to me and Yi Da Zhuang with a cup in his hand and a rather serious expression on his face.

Yi Da Zhuang and I looked at each other, and given everything that had occurred, we simply stood up and returned the gesture.

“Today, as your brother, I have something to confess.”

I looked at Wei Shi, and judging by how he looked like he was totally uninvolved with the situation, and was just casually eating peanuts, I had an idea of what was coming.

But Yi Da Zhuang was still very clueless as he asked, “What’s with your expression… what happened?”

Shen Xiao Shi downed the juice in his cup in one gulp and announced boldly, “I’m seeing San Ge!”

Following this statement, in the next second apart from the sound of the TV broadcasting news and the sound of the soup base being boiled, there was only the sound of Yi Da Zhuang’s shocked gasps.

“Hold on a second…” He couldn’t grasp what had been said at all as he continued, “When you say you’re seeing him, do you mean it in the way I’m thinking right now?”

Shen Xiao Shi responded directly with his actions.

Yes, it was indeed what he was thinking – as Shen Xiao Shi leaned down and placed a loud kiss on the corner of Wei Shi’s lips.

“My god!” Yi Da Zhuang gasped again, as he looked at Wei Shi and the other. His gaze then fell on me as he asked, “You, why aren’t you surprised at all?”

The time when I was surprised had long passed, so now this news didn’t even stir up a ripple on the surface of my calm.

“Because I already knew of this.”

Yi Da Zhuang’s hand shook hearing my words, and some contents of his drink spilt out of the cup.

“What? You already knew?” He said, his voice trembling. “Fuck, a brother is now a sister-in-law, I… I just woke up, I’m feeling a little dizzy.”

Since this was the case already, I decided to seize the occasion and lifted my cup up to toast the three people present as I announced that I also had something to say.

Yi Da Zhuang lifted a hand to his chest as he exclaimed, “You also have something to say?”

I smiled at him as I said, “I’m also seeing my brother.” With that, I downed the beer in my glass.

Yi Da Zhuang almost couldn’t recover his breath as his legs gave way and he fell into the chair.

Shen Xiao Shi looked at me in confusion for a while before finally saying, “Feng ge, you too?”

“What a coincidence.”

He scratched his head as he sat down, and frowned aftering seeing Wei Shi still eating peanuts on the side as he asked, “How come you’re not surprised at all? Were you in the know already?”

Wei Shi finally paused his movements with his chopsticks as he coughed lightly and replied, “I’ve known for just slightly longer than you.”

Shen Xiao Shi considered this and said, “No wonder… I felt like something was weird between them two when they were playing truth or dare.”

Yi Da Zhuang began wailing, as if the kingdom had fallen apart and the world had collapsed.

“In the end, it turns out I’m the only one who’s really single… how could you guys be like this!”

When Sheng Min Ou was led into our room by the waiter, Yi Da Zhuang had already somewhat come to terms with the reality of things. We hadn’t begun eating yet when he got to his feet and raised his glass to Sheng Min Ou.

“Lawyer Sheng, from now on, Feng ge will be in your care.”

Sheng Min Ou raised an eyebrow, but because he was going to drive later, he only drank the tea in his cup.

The meal itself was quite enjoyable, however as three quarters of the group did just come out of the closet together, Yi Da Zhuang needed time to process this and so things were somewhat awkward.

I was worried that Sheng Min Ou might feel uncomfortable, so I kept picking up food for him. It was easy to lose track of how much food I was getting and putting into his bowl, as in the next second his bowl was almost overflowing with various dishes to eat. However, Sheng Min Ou didn’t stop me, as he slowly ate everything I gave him, bit by bit.

I wanted to see if he would continue and just eat everything I gave him, given that he wasn’t refusing, so I deliberately dipped more pieces of meat into the hotpot soup base and placed them in his bowl. I noticed that his frown gradually deepened as he ate, and when I was about to place a fish ball into his bowl, he finally stopped me in the act.

“You eat it.”

I snickered as I bit the fish ball and replied, “Okay.”

In a few hours, it will be the new year. After we had almost finished eating, Shen Xiao Shi jumped up to liven up the atmosphere and asked everyone to make a New Year’s wish.

“I’ll go first. My wish is for my family, friends, those that I like and those that like me to all be healthy and to stay safe.” After finishing, he passed on his pair of chopsticks, which was acting as a microphone, and passed it in front of Wei Shi. “To this gentleman here, what would your wish be?”

Wei Shi thought about this for a while before saying, “To stay away from scums and to make lots of money. In addition, I hope my little lover can take more initiative.”

Shen Xiao Shi’s cheeks flushed all of a sudden, as he quickly ran over to Yi Da Zhuang whilst still holding out his chopsticks.

“I hope to not be single soon and to find a girlfriend.” Yi Da Zhuang clasped his hands together and bowed to the sky, as he emphasised loudly, “I said girlfriend, girlfriend. Emphasis on the fact that she’s a woman!”

The ‘microphone’ was quickly passed over to me, and I actually didn’t have many more wishes that were left unfulfilled. I glanced at Sheng Min Ou, and managed to scrape together one.

“Then… I hope my brother’s wishes will all come true.”

Yi Da Zhuang clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Sheng Min Ou looked over and glanced at me for a second, before finally speaking as Shen Xiao Shi urged him on in the background, “It’ll be good for things to just stay the same as they are right now.”

This really was a simple and plain wish, one that was very much in line with what I wanted.

I echoed, “Yes, it’ll be good for things to just stay as they are.”

After finishing dinner and saying goodbye to each other, I walked side by side with Sheng Min Ou to the parking lot, and suddenly felt a drop of something cold fall on my nose.

I stopped in my footsteps and looked up to the sky. Under the dim yellow light, small snowflakes continued to fall from the sky.

It was snowing……

I held out my hands and caught the falling snowflakes, and soon after I had a small pool of water in the palms of my hands.

When I looked at Sheng Min Ou again, I found that he had walked a short distance out.

He was wearing a light beige coloured wool coat, and he already resembled a long-legged supermodel from a magazine just by looking at his back.

It was this same image of his back that had been the object of my attention for a long, long time. Ever since my birth, it was like I had always been staring at his back, chasing after him and striving to catch up to him. I had attempted to employ several methods to keep him close, hoping that he would stop in his footsteps for me.

However, now…

“Ge!”

Sheng Min Ou stopped in his steps and looked back at me. His chiselled profile under the light was so faultless it made him appear like he was a breathing sculpture.

Now however, I no longer had to helplessly watch him walk further and further away from me, to no avail. I could call out to him and reach him, I could even have him stop for me.

“Look, it’s snowing.” I said, as I ran up to him and grabbed his arm.

Sheng Min Ou looked up at the sky, and his breath came out as a white fog when he spoke.

“With snowfall comes prosperity, it seems like next year will be a good year.”

I took his hand in mine and placed ours in his coat pocket. The wind was cold, but our hands were warm. We continued walking forward, letting the snow fall onto our shoulders, like a layer of frost.

With him around, every year would be a good one.

“Happy new year.”

Sheng Min Ou’s low voice suddenly sounded in my ear and I was taken aback for a moment as I turned to look at him. His gaze remained fixed in front of us, his eyelashes slightly lowered.

After I got over my initial surprise I let out an easy laugh.

“En, happy new year.”

[Main story – end]