Meng Chuan had said he had gone out of town and wouldn’t be back tonight.
This must be a hallucination.
The girl lowered her head again.
“Shu Wan.”
A deep, magnetic voice came from above her.
Even though she was completely drunk, Shu Wan sobered up by at least two points.
As if a teacher had called her name—or, better yet, as if a military instructor had called her out during training—she instinctively shot to her feet.
But her entire body was too weak.
She immediately collapsed.
The dull impact she expected never came.
Instead, Shu Wan fell into someone’s arms.
Arms cold as the wind and snow.
Not particularly warm.
But strong and powerful.
“Shu Wan.”
Meng Huaijin held a cake in his right hand while his left arm firmly caught and supported her.
He called her name again.
His tone was hardly any warmer than the snow falling around them.
Sure enough, she had grown so accustomed to his cold words that even in a hallucination, he still spoke exactly the same way.
Shu Wan felt even more aggrieved.
Since this was only a hallucination, she had nothing to worry about.
She tightly wrapped both arms around his neck and squinted up at his handsome face beneath the falling snow.
Then she imitated the low tone at the end of his sentences and called his name.
“Meng Huaijin.”
“Huaijin.”
The man narrowed his eyes.
His voice dropped into something as deep as the sea.
“Say that again.”
Shu Wan trembled slightly in his arms.
She didn’t dare call him by his full name again, but she still continued venting her frustration.
“See? You’re being scary again.”
“Can’t you make your voice a little softer? A little warmer?”
“I’m not one of your soldiers.”
No.
If anything, the man’s expression became even more serious.
There was a suffocating tension in the air, like the calm before a storm.
Still relying on the fact that this was supposedly a hallucination, Shu Wan decided to go all the way.
From the perfectly convenient height of his arms, she leaned against him and raised her index and middle fingers in a Vshape.
Then she gently pressed them against the corners of his mouth and pushed upward.
“Chief Meng, don’t be so serious.”
“I hardly ever see you smile.”
“Like this. This is what smiling looks like…”
Her fingers suddenly hurt.
Meng Huaijin had grabbed her hand.
“If you move again, I’ll throw you into the snow.”
Shu Wan pouted.
“Go ahead. Throw me.”
“Anyway, I’m just some stray dog or stray cat you happened to bring home.”
“I’m just some stray dog or stray cat you picked up…”
“That’s all I am.”
“So that’s why you dressed up all fancy and went out having fun first thing this morning without taking me with you.”
“On my eighteenth birthday, too!”
“You didn’t even send me a single message all day.”
“You’re terrible.”
“I’m telling you, you’re really, really terrible…”
She had no idea that the place she was sitting was a park only five or six hundred meters away from the apartment.
Meng Huaijin carried the cake in one hand and held her in the other as he walked back toward the apartment.
His sharp brows furrowed again and again.
His tone wasn’t much gentler.
“Is this because I didn’t spend your birthday with you?”
The girl pouted without answering.
Tears silently soaked through the collar and tie of his shirt.
What she said, however, had nothing to do with his question.
“Today was important.”
“Very important.”
Meng Huaijin shifted the weight of the girl in his arm with one hand.
His expression remained emotionless.
“How important?”
Shu Wan clutched the collar of his shirt and rubbed her face against it.
In a soft murmur, she said,
“I’ve never dared tell you.”
“I was afraid you’d say I was being overly sentimental.”
“But actually…”
“I really miss my mom and dad.”
“I miss them so much.”
Meng Huaijin suddenly stopped.
He stared at her tearstreaked face.
At her trembling eyelashes.
At her flushed cheeks from the alcohol.
At the crooked hat on her head, already soaked through by the snow.
In the end, he said nothing.
They entered the apartment.
Took the elevator upstairs.
Stepped out.
Meng Huaijin unlocked the door with his fingerprint, nudged it open with his foot, then kicked it shut behind him.
First, he placed the cake on the dining table.
Then he turned the heating up to its highest setting.
Only after that did he carry Shu Wan over to the sofa and remove her damp, snowsoaked hat.
Once she was leaning against the sofa, he finally noticed the gift bag she was clutching in her arms.
He tried pulling it away.
It wouldn’t budge.
Feeling someone trying to take it, Shu Wan hugged it even tighter and snapped,
“Don’t touch my stuff!”
“This is a scarf I bought for Uncle.”
Meng Huaijin raised an eyebrow and withdrew his hand.
Then he looked down at her.
“Did you eat any cake?”
The girl shook her head vigorously with her eyes closed.
Meng Huaijin glanced at his watch.
It was already 11:55 p.m.
He walked over, opened the cake box, casually stuck a candle into the cake, and pulled out a lighter.
He lit the candle.
Then he turned off the lights.
Carrying the cake over to the sofa, he gently pinched Shu Wan’s soft cheeks to make her open her mouth.
“Shu Wan.”
“Blow out the candle.”