She pointed to a cake in the transparent display case and gave the employee a polite smile. "Hello, could you make one just like this for me?"
The girl in front of her was very pretty, especially when she smiled. Her eyes curved into crescents, giving off a pure and wholesome feeling, like a valley full of lilies—radiant and lovely.
’A face like that could win anyone over just by looking at it.’
The employee nodded gently. "Of course."
Hearing the affirmative answer, the girl’s smile grew even brighter. "That’s wonderful! Can you remove the ’Happy Birthday’ on top and change it to ’Happy Divorce’?"
Stunned by the unusual request, the employee’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at the girl in disbelief. "Happy Divorce?"
The girl nodded firmly. "That’s right, ’Happy Divorce’!"
Hearing this, the employee swallowed hard.
’People these days are really something else.’
’I’ve had requests for the bakers to draw two eggs and a sausage, or to draw... you know... *soft things*. And now, ’Happy Divorce’...’
’Running a cake business is getting harder and harder.’
"O-Okay. Please wait a moment."
...
Half an hour later, the baker had prepared an exquisite Ultraman cake according to the girl’s instructions. As Yan Xici had requested, "Happy Divorce" was written across the top in large letters.
Of course, the price wasn’t cheap—three hundred yuan.
The girl glanced at the five hundred yuan in her WeChat wallet and paid without hesitation.
Don’t let her generous cake purchase fool you; the girl was usually very frugal.
Ever since starting university, her older sister had given her an allowance, but she hadn’t spent a single penny of it!
This was where the benefits of being a good student came in. She was covered by scholarships, and on top of that, she earned several thousand yuan a month from Little Broken Station. She couldn’t even spend all of that, let alone the money from her sister. She’d saved up several hundred thousand yuan.
’When you thought about it, she was a secret rich girl.’
After buying the cake, the girl skipped home cheerfully.
Seeing that her brother-in-law wasn’t back yet, she decisively walked over to the coffee table, pulled open a drawer, and found his address book. She carefully entered a number into her phone and, with a nervous heart, made the call.
"Hello?" The girl’s voice was sweet and cautious. "Excuse me, is this Brother Cheng?"
Xu Cheng paused for a second, then asked, "Who’s this?"
His tone wasn’t very friendly.
Just a moment ago, Xu Cheng had been arguing with his wife’s older sister—his sister-in-law.
The two families had opened a hot pot restaurant together, investing over seven hundred thousand yuan in total, split evenly between them. The agreement at the time was that it would be a partnership, and they would earn money together.
But as business had declined over the past few years, their restaurant had essentially failed.
To cut their losses, they had no choice but to close it down. However, his wife’s sister was demanding he pay her back her three hundred and fifty thousand yuan.
Where was Xu Cheng supposed to get that kind of money? Besides, they had agreed from the start to a 50/50 split. Now that the business had lost money, what kind of logic was it for him to have to cover her share?
The two of them had been fighting about it for days, and he was at his wit’s end.
After confirming his identity, the girl let out a small sigh of relief. "Brother Cheng, it’s me, Xici."
Hearing that it was Yan Xici, Xu Cheng was taken aback.
’Xiao Ran’s sister-in-law?’
’What could she want with me?’
He and Xiao Ran had known each other since high school and were even roommates in college. They were as close as could be.
Xu Cheng instinctively blurted out, "Did something happen to Xiao Ran?"
"No, no, Brother Cheng, don’t misunderstand," the girl explained hurriedly. "My sister and my brother-in-law got divorced today. I was hoping you guys could come over and keep him company..."
Hearing this, Xu Cheng froze. ’Xiao Ran got divorced?’
’That bastard. Something this huge happens, and he doesn’t even tell me!’
He cleared his throat. "Don’t worry, I’ll be there in a bit!"
’My shop is closing down, my best friend is getting a divorce... when it rains, it pours!’
’We’re definitely having a couple of drinks today.’
Hearing that he was coming, the girl spoke cautiously, "Brother Cheng, could you please not tell Xiao Ran yet...?"
’She was mainly afraid that Xiao Ran would find out and stop her.’
He was the type of person who always kept things bottled up and hated to trouble others. His specialty was pretending that everything was fine, as if he didn’t care about anything at all.
But the more he acted like that, the more worried Yan Xici became, which was why she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Xu Cheng was taken aback for a moment. "Oh... okay, okay."
Thinking of his own sister-in-law, then thinking of Xiao Ran’s, Xu Cheng shook his head. ’She’s in her thirties and yet she’s less considerate than an 18-year-old girl.’
’If she had even an ounce of understanding for me, she would never have said those things.’
After hanging up, the girl patted her nervously fluttering heart. The first call was a success, now for the second!
Following the same method, she called Zhang Chuan.
He was also her brother-in-law’s friend, and they were on good terms.
"Hey, Brother Zhang Chuan, it’s Xici. Are you free tonight? Could you come over to my place for dinner?"
Zhang Chuan was a frequent visitor at Xiao Ran’s home. Whenever he came over, Yan Li might not have been there, but Yan Xici always was. The girl was pretty and well-behaved, so naturally, Zhang Chuan was very kind to her.
Their relationship was a little closer than the one she had with Xu Cheng.
So when Yan Xici spoke to him, she was a bit more casual.
"Sure thing. Where’s your brother-in-law?" Zhang Chuan agreed immediately.
"My sister and my brother-in-law got divorced today. He went out and isn’t back yet. I wanted you to come over and keep him company," the girl told him honestly.
"No problem, you wait. I’ll be there soon. By the way, do you have any drinks at home? If not, I can bring some over."
"We do, we do! I bought some, and beer too. Thanks for doing this!" the girl’s voice was cheerful.
...
With the phone calls done, it was time for the simplest, yet most important, step: ordering takeout.
It wasn’t that she was too lazy to cook; there just wasn’t enough time.
For four people, you’d need at least eight dishes. It would be impossible to cook all that in less than two or three hours.
Not only was there clearly not enough time, but her cooking skills were also questionable, to say the least. If she messed it up, that would be terrible.
She decisively searched for her brother-in-law’s favorite barbecue place and ordered ten kidney skewers, another ten lamb skewers, ten beef skewers, and didn’t forget a mala-spicy stir-fry pot and spicy river snails. These were all his must-haves when eating barbecue.
A whole table full of all her brother-in-law’s favorite dishes.
After placing the order, the girl started to tidy up the house.
Time always passed quickly. An hour and a half had already gone by.
She was still cleaning when she suddenly heard the doorbell ring.