Chapter Nineteenth Birthday

  Here is the translation:

  In the following days, Ou Yang's mood wasn't particularly good. His mother attended parent-teacher conferences during the day and then went to attend another conference for Ou Yang. Feng Hongyan seemed dissatisfied with the change of homeroom teachers, but Liu teacher was chosen by the parents themselves through a draw. Now that this situation had arisen, they couldn't say much about it.

  Ou Yang, on the other hand, was spaced out every day, and even when Mai Si came to play computer games with him, he didn't react. Feng Hongyan knew that the friendship between children is the purest, and no one wanted their deskmate of several months to suddenly leave.

  But this was a reality Ou Yang had to accept. Before she knew it, the holidays arrived, and everyone was busy with their own things. Ou Yang mechanically repeated his routine of attending math tutoring classes and doing holiday homework.

  About four or five days passed, and Ou Yang received a text message from Chen Juan, saying that she was having a great time in Beijing and mentioning the extracurricular book Ou Yang had given her, which she read every day. Ou Yang suddenly snapped out of his gloomy mood.

  Feng Hongyan saw Ou Yang's reaction and thought to herself that children are simple-minded and their emotions change quickly. Before long, Ou Yang's birthday was approaching. Ou Yang was born on the 27th of December, and people said that those born in December have a "small" birthday. Ou Yang didn't know what this meant.

  Since he was young, his mother had said that he was a "lazy one-year-old" because he was born in December, while others thought he was a monkey (according to the Chinese zodiac). Whenever someone asked about Ou Yang's birth year, his grandmother Feng Qinglian would jokingly say that he was a sheep's tail.

  Whenever Ou Yang's birth was mentioned, it brought back memories for Feng Hongyan. At the time of Ou Yang's birth, Feng Hongyan had a difficult labor and lost too much blood. It was only because her family members went to fetch wolf blood that her life was saved.

  Feng Hongyan would sometimes say that Ou Yang was an impatient child, playing for two days before being born in the first month (of the lunar calendar). This had caused him to fall seriously ill. Ou Yang remembered his father, Ou Yang Mu Bo, saying that he started smoking during Feng Hongyan's difficult labor due to excessive stress.

  Because of this memory, every year on Ou Yang's birthday, Feng Hongyan would mutter: "Son's birthday, mother's bitter day." This phrase could only be deeply understood after Ou Yang grew up.

  As it happened, Ou Yang's birthday fell in December, and during normal school days, it was impossible to celebrate his birthday. Usually, everyone was busy preparing for the new year or visiting relatives around that time, so no one had the energy to care about Ou Yang's birthday.

  Moreover, when he was in elementary school, his parents didn't want him to run around everywhere, and even Ou Yang only went to Wang Lin's house once to play. So birthdays were usually spent with his mother accompanying him, and sometimes his father would return during the new year to celebrate Ou Yang's birthday. Even if he couldn't come back, he would make a special phone call to wish Ou Yang a happy birthday.

  It was the day before Ou Yang's birthday, and he was still repeating what he did every day. When it was time to go to bed at night, Ou Yang couldn't sleep. He looked at the ceiling and thought about his upcoming 13th birthday tomorrow, wondering what he should do. He had already discussed with his mother to cancel all his extracurricular classes tomorrow, but even if there were no classes, he would still be alone at home playing computer games, which was not interesting at all.

  A person spends their birthday alone, feeling so bored. Thinking this way, Ouyang fell asleep.

  The next afternoon, Ouyang was woken up by his own phone ringing, it was a call from his father. As expected, it was still his dad showing concern for him, calling to wish him a happy birthday and saying that he would be back to accompany Ouyang for a while after moving into the new house. After hanging up the phone, Ouyang was so delighted that he couldn't sleep anymore, got out of bed, washed his face, and started planning what to do for the day. At this time, the phone rang again.

  "Hey, Ouyang, we're already at the train station. Why haven't you come to pick us up yet?" On the other end of the phone was Xu Yuejie's voice. Ouyang was startled and asked, "How did you get here? Who else is with you? What are you doing here?" Xu Yuejie chuckled on the other end of the line and said, "Dummy, of course we're here to celebrate your birthday! If QQ hadn't reminded me yesterday, I wouldn't have even known it was your birthday today. Don't ask any more questions, just hurry up and come pick us up at the train station. Mu Yuhan, Xiao Yangchen, and I are all here. Bring Wang Lin and Xu Xue Mei along when you come." Ouyang happily agreed, he really hadn't expected so many people to come celebrate his birthday. Then he dialed Wang Lin's and Xu Xue Mei's numbers. Xu Xue Mei said she had a class soon and wouldn't be able to make it, but Wang Lin immediately decided to let Ouyang go to his place first, and the two of them would head to the train station together.

  Two people quickly arrived at the station and met up with Xu Yu Jie and others. Wang Lin saw Mu Yu Huan and said, "You still wear skirts? You're not like before, deskmate." Mu Yu Huan gave him a white eye and said, "Isn't it normal for girls to wear skirts? Besides, this isn't my first time wearing one." After hearing Mu Yu Huan's words, Xiao Yang Chen was surprised and said, "This isn't your first time wearing a skirt in front of others, so when was the last time you wore a skirt?" Mu Yu Huan looked up at Ou Yang, then lowered her head and didn't speak. Ou Yang quickly mediated: "Alright, it's getting late, today is my birthday and I'll treat everyone to dinner, let's go."

  Then, Ou Yang took them to the only KFC in District D. Ou Yang directly ordered a family bucket, and they all sat down around a table, chatting happily. Wang Lin first pulled out a packaged bag from his pocket and handed it to Ou Yang, saying: "Here, let's not say much more, happy birthday." Ou Yang looked at the gift that Wang Lin had handed over, which was square in shape, wrapped in packaging paper, and really didn't know what was inside. Xu Yuejie urged Ou Yang to unwrap the package, while Mu Yuhan said with a bad tone: "With his taste, he can pick out something good." As soon as he heard this, Wang Lin got angry and directly asked Ou Yang to unwrap the package. Ou Yang had no choice but to comply, "Wow, it's JJ's latest CD. The authentic version must have cost a lot of money, thank you." It turned out that it was Ou Yang's favorite Jay Chou's new CD, and Ou Yang smiled and thanked Wang Lin. Wang Lin seemed to be unhappy and said to Mu Yuhan: "Don't mention me, what did you prepare for Ou Yang?" Mu Yuhan didn't say anything either, but pulled out a package of similar size from his own bag. Ou Yang opened it and found a wallet. "I've never used a wallet before?" Ou Yang carefully examined the wallet that Mu Yuhan had given him, which was obviously designed with Doraemon theme, very cartoonish, and seemed to be chosen by a girl. "It's because you always put all your money in your pocket without a wallet, so you often lose money. I gave you this one to remind you not to lose money again." Ou Yang couldn't hear Mu Yuhan's tone, but suddenly remembered that the last time he went to the park with Mu Yuhan, after rowing the boat, Ou Yang found that he was missing 20 yuan and couldn't find it anywhere. Thinking of this, Ou Yang said thank you in a silly way. Xiao Yangchen's gift was the most valuable among them, a crystal ball that could play music. Ou Yang thanked him and thought about where to put the crystal ball at home. Xu Yuejie then pulled out a phone chain from her bag and said to Ou Yang: "Give me your phone." Ou Yang didn't say anything and handed his phone over to Xu Yuejie. After a while, Ou Yang saw that the phone chain was made of crystal, with a character "Xi" engraved in the middle.

  "Hey, this phone strap doesn't cost much, does it?" Wang Lin had just finished speaking when Ouyang gave him a hard push.

  Xu Yu Jie smiled and didn't say a word, while Xiao Yang Chen spoke up: "The thing itself isn't worth much money, but its significance is different. Because Yue herself also has an identical phone chain, which she's still using now." Wang Lin immediately understood the implication and fell silent. Ou Yang glanced at Mu Yu Huan, who pushed his glasses up with his hand, but his eyes were fixed intently on Ou Yang's phone chain.

  In the afternoon, Ouyang took them to the park for fun. Xiao Yangchen seemed very interested in rowing a boat, but Ouyang and Mu Yuhan didn't want to row again after trying it once before, so they made up an excuse to stop. Mu Yuhan almost revealed that she had been there before, which startled Ouyang.

  Only Xu Yuejie was left, who couldn't row by herself, so Wang Lin went with Xiao Yangchen to row a boat. The three of them sat on the shore, and after a while, Xu Yuejie asked Ouyang, "I'm a bit thirsty, where can we buy water?" Ouyang pointed to a pavilion nearby and said, "I'll go buy some." Xu Yuejie smiled and shook her head, getting up and saying, "How could I let the young master buy water himself? I'll go instead. Mu Yuhan, do you want any?"

  Mu Yuhan shook her head, so Xu Yuejie turned around and walked towards the pavilion.

  "Dawn." Mu Yu Heng watched as Xu Yue Jie walked away, then called out to Ouyang. Ouyang turned around and asked what was wrong. Mu Yu Heng said: "Can you not use that phone chain?" Ouyang looked puzzled and said: "Why? I don't have a phone chain right now anyway, so I'll just use it for now. It's not like I'll be using it for long." Mu Yu Heng immediately denied him: "That won't do. You really don't understand what that means?" Ouyang shook his head again, and Mu Yu Heng anxiously said: "When I came to find you the other day, did you know what I meant either?"

  Ouyang said: "Isn't it just going out to have fun? What's the point?"

  Mù Yǔ Háng patted his own head, then let out a sigh and said: "You're really a blockhead."

  At this time, Xu Yu Jie, who had been standing behind them for a long while, spoke up: "What are you two talking about? You seem so happy, tell me too!"

  Mantou Yu Huan turned around and looked at Xu Yuejie, who was standing behind them with two bottles of water in her hands and a smile on her face. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know if Xu Yuejie had heard the conversation between her and Ouyang...

  Time seemed to have stood still... Ou Yang could see that Xu Yu Jie's smile, which was reflected in her dimples, was somewhat stiff and forced.

  Or it can be said that they were putting on a brave face.

  The atmosphere suddenly became awkward....