Chapter 14: The Worst Birthday Gift
The birthday gift was easy to find because it was quite large and rather conspicuous in the living room.
It was an unassembled Lego Avengers Tower. The huge box’s cover displayed the assembled tower, looking magnificent and cool, very much to Luo Jing’s liking.
He took a picture of the gift with Plastic Bag and sent it to Huai Dan.
Huai Dan seemed to be less busy now and replied quickly.
Brother: [Do you like it?]
Luo Jing didn’t reply but carried Plastic Bag back to his room, closed the door, and threw himself onto the bed, using his tablet to video call Huai Dan.
The default ringtone rang for two seconds, and the video call was quickly connected.
The signal on the other end seemed poor, and the screen was black for a few seconds.
Perhaps because they hadn’t seen each other for a few days, in those short few moments, Luo Jing, looking at his own reflection on the screen, felt inexplicably nervous.
But only slightly, as the nervousness vanished the moment the boy appeared on the screen.
On the other end, Huai Dan was sitting in a living room.
He was wearing a white shirt and a dark gray tie that looked very high-quality. A black suit jacket was casually draped over the back of the sofa, indicating he had just returned.
“Brother, did you just get back from a meeting?” Luo Jing asked, curious, “Don’t you live in a dorm?”
“I don’t go back to the dorm very often.” Huai Dan took off his glasses and put them aside, then looked at Luo Jing on the screen: “Finished school so early? Do you like the gift?”
“I like it, and I like the cake too,” Luo Jing said happily.
“Good.” Huai Dan looked at the happy child on the screen and smiled unconsciously. “Happy birthday.”
“How did you know it was my birthday today?”
“I asked your sister.”
“Oh.”
After speaking, neither of them knew what to say, so both sides fell silent.
Seeing the child racking his brains for a topic, Huai Dan couldn’t help but find it amusing. He cleared his throat and poured himself a glass of water: “Where’s Plastic Bag?”
Plastic Bag was patrolling Luo Jing’s bed. Hearing its name, it waddled over on its short legs across the soft bedding.
Stopping in front of the screen, Plastic Bag saw the familiar face and tilted its head, seemingly puzzled as to why Huai Dan was in this small frame.
It reached out and patted the screen, making a few crisp sounds. Luo Jing instinctively moved the screen away and then held Plastic Bag up to show Huai Dan: “Look at the clean Plastic Bag.”
After its wound healed, Plastic Bag had been thoroughly washed and groomed, so now it looked fluffy and adorable, its fur so white it was almost reflective, the last vestiges of its stray dog appearance gone.
Huai Dan looked at the dog, then at the child holding it, and commented, “Not bad, very cute.”
“It feels so soft now.” Luo Jing smoothed Plastic Bag’s fur, lowering his eyelashes. “Too bad you can’t touch it.”
After a pause, he looked up at the person on the screen again: “Brother, when are you coming to play with me again? I miss you a little.”
For some reason, Luo Jing felt like there wouldn’t be many opportunities to see Huai Dan in the future.
He always seemed busy, and his sister had also said he was busy.
Huai Dan was slightly stunned, seemingly not expecting Luo Jing to say that.
“I’ll come when I have time,” he chuckled after a moment. “I only left a few days ago.”
Luo Jing felt he was being a bit perfunctory: “Really? Then you must come when you have time, don’t lie to me.”
“I won’t lie to you.”
Luo Jing thought about it and felt it made sense. After all, he was his brother-in-law, and they were practically family, so they would definitely see each other again.
Thinking of this, Luo Jing cheered up.
He instantly felt relieved, his previous dejection gone. He then carried the tablet and Plastic Bag out of the room and started showing Huai Dan his house, explaining his future plans for the space: “Brother, look here… the Avengers Tower you bought, I can put a glass display case here, and add some lights, it’ll definitely look awesome…”
They chatted for a while through the screen. Although it was mostly Luo Jing talking non-stop, Huai Dan was happy to listen to his ramblings.
Luo Jing held up the tablet, showing Huai Dan every corner of his house, even having him greet Lin Xue, who was busy in the kitchen. He only stopped when his arm got tired, and realizing they had been talking for almost an hour.
His father wasn’t back yet, so dinner would be a while. Luo Jing carried the tablet back to his room and sent a message to Luo Feng.
AAA Homework Wholesaler Xiao Luo: [Sister, please don’t break up with my brother.]
He sent it casually and was about to switch to another chat window when he saw “Typing…” appear above.
So he decided to wait for his sister to reply with an “Okay” before switching.
Then Luo Jing watched as the “Typing…” above the screen flickered on and off for about two minutes.
Luo Jing: ?
AAA Homework Wholesaler Xiao Luo: [Are you writing me a birthday essay?]
After he sent the message, the typing stopped for a few seconds, then reappeared.
Luo Jing sensed guilt from the flickering “Typing…”.
A strange kind of guilt.
A guilt that gave him a bad feeling.
Luo Jing narrowed his eyes and directly called her.
The phone rang for half a minute before being answered, clearly showing the hesitation and guilt on the other end. Luo Jing suppressed his ominous premonition and said coldly, “Luo Feng.”
“W-what?” The female voice on the other end stuttered.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Usually, when he addressed his wicked sister so disrespectfully, he would be reprimanded immediately, but not this time.
The only explanation was that she had done something wrong and was feeling guilty.
And what could that be…
“Why didn’t you reply to my message?” Luo Jing asked sternly.
“I just saw it…”
“Liar, I saw you typing for a long time.”
“There was a bug in WeChat, I really just saw it…”
“Stop making excuses, tell me the truth.” Luo Jing paused and took a deep breath: “Did you and my brother break up… Is there something wrong with your relationship?”
He asked euphemistically.
There was silence on the other end for more than half a minute. Luo Jing didn’t hang up, and the two just listened to each other’s breathing for several seconds.
Finally, Luo Feng couldn’t take it anymore, and knowing she was in the wrong, said with resignation, “Fine, fine, we broke up, happy now?”
Although Luo Jing had vaguely expected this answer, he was still devastated when he heard the truth.
“Why did you break up? He’s so good… It must be your fault.” Luo Jing was furious. “I’m so mad, you have to give me a reasonable explanation. Did you treat him too badly?!”
“I…” Luo Feng couldn’t defend herself, wanting to go back in time and shut her own mouth. But seeing her brother so biased towards an outsider and speaking to her like this, she also got angry: “Why does it have to be my fault! You’ve only known him for a few days and you’re already so close, whose side are you on? You’re too much!”
“How am I too much! He’s so nice, if it’s not your fault, then whose fault could it be?!”
“It’s his fault! You don’t know anything, who are you yelling at!” Luo Feng was on the verge of exploding.
“Then tell me! Why did you break up?!” Luo Jing was also about to explode.
Upon hearing this, the other end fell silent again.
Luo Feng had just spoken impulsively.
She hadn’t actually come up with a reason yet.
Luo Jing realized this was the key to the problem, so he narrowed his eyes, seizing the opportunity: “Tell me, why? Are you silent because you’re guilty?”
“…I’m not guilty,” the other end replied hesitantly.
But her voice lacked its previous aggressiveness.
“It’s like this,” she cleared her throat and explained vaguely, “He’s too busy, we didn’t have much time to spend together, so we broke up.”
“And we later realized we weren’t very compatible, we didn’t really like each other.” Afraid that Luo Jing would say something about them getting back together, Luo Feng quickly added another sentence, extinguishing his hope.
“You…” Luo Jing was exasperated. “What’s wrong with him?!”
“It’s my fault, it’s my fault, okay?” Luo Feng didn’t want to continue arguing and gave up. “Anyway, we broke up, and we’re not getting back together. Just pretend we were never together… Why are you, a little kid, meddling in this?”
They were never together in the first place.
She had only said that to annoy him at the time. Who would have thought it would develop into this.
Luo Feng now only felt regret.
Luo Jing also fell silent.
His mood plummeted. Stroking Plastic Bag’s head, he asked dejectedly, “Will he ever come to our house again?”
His voice was low, even the exclamation mark gone.
Luo Feng felt a pang of sympathy, but after thinking for a moment, she still answered truthfully, “Probably not.”
There was no reason for him to come. They weren’t a real couple, and he was indeed busy.
“That’s true,” Luo Jing thought silently. Since they had broken up, how could he still visit his ex-girlfriend’s family? It would be too awkward.
If it were him, he wouldn’t come either.
No wonder Huai Dan had sent him gifts and a cake. It must have been a farewell gesture.
When he asked during the video call, Huai Dan had said he would come visit when he had time. It seemed he was just being polite.
No.
Perhaps it was a polite rejection.
Ignoring his sister’s questions of “What’s wrong?”, “Are you unhappy?”, and “Why aren’t you talking?”, Luo Jing sadly ended the call. He then found Wu Li’s chat window and sent him a crying Plastic Bag emoji.
On his fifteenth birthday, Luo Jing received the worst birthday gift.
