Chapter One Hundred and Ninety: From Triumph to Sorrow II (1/2)

Chapter One Hundred and Ninety: From Triumph to Sorrow (II)

There was a special day at the end of August.

In reality, everyone had a day that was special to them, a day that would come every year.

……

Xiao Yu rarely ever celebrated his birthday. When he had been a student, August was that awkward time at the end of their summer vacation. There were always those who needed to finish their summer homework, and others seized their last opportunity to go have fun. Thus, it had been hard to gather people to celebrate his birthday. On top of that, people in his family normally didn’t remember his birthday, and after a while, Xiao Yu didn’t care too much about it. After he’d gone overseas, there was even less of a reason to celebrate such a trivial matter. Then, when he’d started work, every day was spent on drawing designs until the middle of the night. His supervisor wouldn’t approve any vacation, and he’d missed observing the anniversary of his father’s death several times, not to mention his own birthday.

This year, Xiao Yu had forgotten that his birthday was coming up. His birthday hadn’t been celebrated for over twenty years, so it wasn’t a big deal to miss another. He hadn’t expected that someone else would remember.

While reviewing some documents, Yan Jin said, “Oh, isn’t your birthday on the twenty-seventh?”

Xiao Yu stuck his head out from behind his monitor and silently looked at Yan Jin, who was sitting close by.

“Hmm? How come you aren’t saying anything?” Yan Jin also looked up.

“Are you asking me?” Xiao Yu said.

“Is there anyone else here?”

“It didn’t sound like you were asking me about my birthday.” Xiao Yu grumpily retreated behind his monitor.

“…So is that a yes or no?”

“Yes, yes, yes. What do you want to do?”

“Secret.”

Xiao Yu gave Yan Jin the middle finger.

“So troublesome…” Yan Jin muttered and went back to reviewing the documents.

Their conversation had started randomly and now ended randomly. It really was quite confusing.

Perhaps Yan Jin understood what had happened, but Xiao Yu definitely didn’t.

Furthermore, Yan Jin had only brought it up that one time. He didn’t say anything about it for the next few days until they were leaving home together on the twenty-seventh.

Xiao Yu had wanted to bring up the topic many times but had resisted the urge in the end.

He didn’t care about his birthday.

Twenty-six years had gone by without celebrating it. One more time wasn’t a big deal.

“That’s why you’re here so early showing off your love life?” Jing Mo facepalmed after listening to Xiao Yu’s entire story. He was tactfully indicating that he wanted no part whatsoever in Xiao Yu’s love troubles.

“I’m not showing off my love life…” Xiao Yu’s weak denial only strengthened Jing Mo’s point. “I’m just, I’m just curious what Yan Jin is up to. If he hadn’t brought it up, I would have forgotten about it. What do you think he meant?”

“It doesn’t matter what he meant. At the very least, it shouldn’t be anything bad.” Jing Mo sighed and analyzed, “Maybe he just wants to surprise you?”

“That’s not how it sounded though. What did he mean by ‘so troublesome’…?” Xiao Yu refused to give up.

“I will tell you one more time what I think: it’s just a surprise. Stop worrying about it and go back to work.”

The entire morning had been wasted by Xiao Yu’s antics, and Jing Mo hadn’t even started on any work. He had wanted to send Xiao Yu off, but after seeing Xiao Yu’s pitiful expression, he softened his voice and said, “Whatever it is, you’ll find out by the end of the day. Just wait a little bit more.”

“He didn’t show up in the office this morning and isn’t answering his phone either though.”

“…You’ve been here harassing me since 9 in the morning, okay? Maybe he’s back now?”

“But he hasn’t replied to my messages.”

Jing Mo had no words left. He picked up his cellphone and checked the time. Then, he helplessly said, “Alright, fine, it’s already twelve. Let’s go grab a bite to eat. It’ll be lunchtime soon anyways. I’ll come with you to find him.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Now let’s go already.”

As Jing Mo pushed Xiao Yu out, he opened his phone to check QQ.

Xiao Yu began to count off on his fingers the good food available to eat in the cafeteria this week. “It’s Thursday today, so unfortunately there’s no fruit. Oh, but I think there’s some dessert? YL’s cafeteria is worlds apart from SI’s. What should I eat? I heard the fried noodles are really good…”

“…Wait.”

Jing Mo had come to a stop and was staring at his phone.

“What’s up?” Xiao Yu looked back at him, puzzled.

“I think I know what Yan Jin is up to.”

“Huh?”

Jing Mo held up his phone vertically for Xiao Yu to see.

Xiao Yu stared blankly at the posts scrolling down the screen for a while, but didn’t know what they were talking about.

It was the internal employee QQ group. During working hours, the group usually didn’t have many messages. When there were, they were usually gossip about personal events. When Jing Mo had looked at his phone, there had been a screenshot there. However, in a few short seconds, the screenshot had been pushed down by ninety-nine other messages.

Xiao Yu never had the opportunity to see the screenshot. He could only see all the replies that had buried it. They were all very strange; it wasn’t too much to describe them as gibberish.

What the heck was “I can die happy now”, “Unheard of”, “Call me your Daddy”, “Pigs have flown”, “IRL Tagging @Chairman Yan @Chief Xiao”, and “Mom is asking why I’m kneeling”?

Xiao Yu was bewildered.

Then, just when he had opened his mouth to ask Jing Mo what it meant, there was an explosion inside the office.

To be more precise, it wasn’t the office that exploded, but the employees inside that did.