Forcing Me to Be Reborn?! -
Chapter 432 - 350: Watch Closely, This Is How You Use a Cake
Chapter 432: Chapter 350: Watch Closely, This Is How You Use a Cake
Bed and breakfast, suite.
The soundproofing was indeed excellent here; you couldn’t hear anything from the outside world, nor could they hear anything from inside.
In the end, it was Cheng Zhu who went to the bathroom for a shower first.
He called out to the counselor several times, but she didn’t respond, just curled up under the covers, hiding her flushed face completely.
Her most genuine reaction right now actually stirred up endless satisfaction and a sense of achievement in a man.
After Cheng Zhu came out from the shower, he found that she had already put on a bathrobe and then, without speaking to him, she quickly slipped into the bathroom, head lowered.
The hot water rinsed away the grime, and Chen Jieyu felt she was driven mad by him yet again.
Moreover, the main problem was—the night was long.
This was just the first half.
When she, dressed in a bathrobe, stepped out, she saw Cheng Zhu standing by the table in the living room.
And on the table, there was a small birthday cake.
The cake was exquisite, purchased from a well-known bakery in Hang City, and it wasn’t cheap.
"Where did this cake come from?" Chen Jieyu was slightly startled.
Cheng Zhu glanced at her, seeing her cheeks were still a bit flushed, which was related to her hot shower, but not entirely.
"I brought it over in the afternoon, had the boss keep it chilled for me, and just now I called him to have it delivered," he replied.
As he pulled the ribbon off the box, he said, "You definitely need to eat cake on your birthday."
The counselor looked at the exquisite cake on the table, a stark contrast to the cheaply decorated cake she had bought.
It was so delicately made, seemingly there just for young girls to take photos for their social media; even the packaging was meticulously detailed, with various sizes of faux-pearl balls adorning the paper cake tray.
Whereas the decorated cake in her bag, with its pink plastic wrapping, screamed of being cheap.
Chen Jieyu pulled out a chair next to him and sat down.
Cheng Zhu looked at her and asked in surprise, "Aren’t you taking out the cake from your bag?"
"Hm?"
"Stop pretending, I saw it when you were taking things out of your bag just now, don’t tell me you’re too miserly to share it with me?" Cheng Zhu was shocked.
"That’s not what I meant," Chen Jieyu sighed helplessly, and finally took out the small, old-fashioned decorated cake from her bag.
Placed beside Cheng Zhu’s cake, the contrast became even more striking.
"It’s pretty impressive that you found such a retro style, where did you dig this up? I probably haven’t tasted this thing in ten years, not sure if it still tastes the same as in my childhood," Cheng Zhu said, picking it up to examine.
To Chen Jieyu’s relief, he seemed to appreciate the gesture.
"What made you think of buying this kind of cake, just for a childhood memory?" Cheng Zhu asked.
Little did he know his words couldn’t be further from the truth; he was still underestimating Chen Jieyu’s family situation.
She shook her head and said softly, "It’s because I couldn’t have it when I was a child, so now when I see it, I feel like buying one."
This statement silenced him.
He had assumed, in a family that favored boys over girls like hers, a thoughtfully prepared birthday gift was impossible; at best, they’d get a cheap cake or simply a bowl of birthday noodles.
Therefore, he had prepared 27 gift boxes.
But he hadn’t expected that, hey, they didn’t celebrate her birthday at all, utterly ignoring the day.
"I actually was conservative!" Cheng Zhu cursed inwardly.
But on second thought, even though retro trends are perennial, given Chen Jieyu’s personality, without a special reason, she probably wouldn’t find an old-fashioned decorated cake interesting enough to buy.
Chen Jieyu looked at him and said, "Does this make me seem a bit affected?"
"There’s no one in this world who is entirely unaffected," Cheng Zhu replied, then quickly changed the subject, suggesting, "Let’s eat yours first, I’m actually quite nostalgic for the taste of childhood."
Chen Jieyu nodded, opening the transparent lid.
"Aren’t you lighting candles to make a wish?" he asked.
Chen Jieyu shook her head.
She didn’t celebrate her birthday; this was actually for that little girl from the past. As for wishes, she had already closed her eyes, prayed quietly in her heart, and pretended to blow out "candles" in the air when she was a child.
The cake that Cheng Zhu bought belonged to the 27-year-old Chen Jieyu.
Taking a fork, Cheng Zhu tasted the decorated cake and immediately noticed the difference in the cream’s texture.
"As a kid, I thought it was so delicious!" he thought to himself.
But that’s how people are; their threshold for satisfaction just keeps getting higher.
As a child, drinking a plastic bottle of soda seemed so joyful. The snacks you could buy from the shop at the school gates for fifty cents a packet were the taste of pure delight.
But as you taste more and more things, have more and more experiences, and see more and more of the world, your threshold for happiness just gets higher and higher.
What’s worse is that as children, everyone was a "prophet".
When you were a kid you wanted to eat instant noodles every day, and now you’ve achieved it.
When you were young, you thought the computer was the most fun, hoping to sit in front of one every day, and now as an adult at work, you’ve done it.
As a kid, you wished for a hundred yuan every day, and now you earn a monthly salary of three thousand yuan.
Damn it, no wonder we’re not happier!
The small decorated cake was quickly devoured by Cheng Zhu’s big mouth, while Chen Jieyu had only taken a couple of bites.
But watching him gobble it up like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, a soft smile appeared on her face, less austere and more spirited than usual.
It was as if the young Chen Jieyu from years ago was hosting the insufferable man who had barged into her life in the years since.
"Is it really that tasty?" she wondered.
"To be honest, the cream is just so-so, but it’s kind of nostalgic," Cheng Zhu admitted.
In his memory, there would be a similar retro version coming out from Holiland in a few years, but the ingredients would certainly be different than they were over a decade ago.
Its texture indeed wasn’t as good, but it was a memory for several generations.
"Now, it’s time to make a wish and blow out the candles," Cheng Zhu said.
He placed candles on his own cake but didn’t hurry to light them. Instead, he connected to the Bluetooth speaker in the rental room.
"Just a sec, I’ll play a birthday song for you," he said while connecting the speaker, adding, "I’ll surely sing along too, but I’d be embarrassed to sing alone here, haha!"
Once the candles were lit, Cheng Zhu turned off the lights in the rental, and the birthday song began, played through the Bluetooth speaker—the most common version rather than the one from Haidilao Hot Pot.
Chen Jieyu had thought she would be uncomfortable, even resistant to this part. But when the lights dimmed, leaving only the flickering candlelight, and the sound of Cheng Zhu’s voice mixed with the speaker’s, the atmosphere suddenly lifted.
For some reason, her nose felt a bit sore, so she decisively closed her eyes.
When Chinese people make wishes, they tend to aim high.
Wishing for wealth was a tall order.
In reality, even the wish for good health wasn’t easy to fulfill.
From a young age, Chen Jieyu understood one thing: the world often thwarts your desires.
So, she never made grand wishes or even broad ones.
Rather than making a wish, she was committing to a hope:
"Hope that next year I can still celebrate my birthday with Cheng Zhu."
She didn’t even wish for every year.
Just next year, nothing more.
Because of that wish, she could make it again next year.
One wish per year.
In the bed and breakfast’s living room, Chen Jieyu blew out the candles on the cake.
Cheng Zhu, standing by the switch, snapped the lights back on.
He turned off the Bluetooth speaker with his phone and asked with a smile, "What wish did you make?"
"Don’t you know that wishes aren’t supposed to be told?" Chen Jieyu retorted.
"I didn’t expect a university worker like you to be so superstitious!" Cheng Zhu said as he took out a tray and cutlery from the bag and handed them to her.
The counselor took the cutlery, looking somewhat uncertain about how to start with the cake.
"Just the two of us, we can’t finish it," she said.
"Start eating, and we can decide later about leftovers," Cheng Zhu replied. "I bought the smallest size possible; if it were a bit bigger, it would look even better."
In the end, Chen Jieyu cut a small piece for herself and a larger piece for Cheng Zhu.
"This is too big!" Cheng Zhu complained.
Women are always like this. If they can’t finish something, they don’t know to put forth the effort to eat a bit more themselves; they just have to give us men more to eat!
But what’s interesting is that Cheng Zhu, like most men, after putting in the effort, really could finish it all...
And he ate faster than Chen Jieyu.
While they were eating cake, he started a conversation with the counselor: "How’s the contact going with Dean Zhang?"
This topic had been in the air for a while.
Cheng Zhu wasn’t in a rush about it, just wanted to be updated.
"I guess the dean has his top choice in mind and is waiting for that person’s response," Chen Jieyu said.
"Who?"
"Probably his son who’s globetrotting," she guessed.
"Huh? Globetrotting?" Cheng Zhu looked surprised.
"Dean Zhang’s son is a computer prodigy from Tsinghua, very famous and highly skilled in the professional community, was working in a renowned company in Shen City but faced some special circumstances last year and quit to travel the world," she explained.
"What special circumstances?"
"He got divorced," Chen Jieyu answered.
"Is divorcing such a wound? Hasn’t recovered even after traveling for a year, a faithful good man?" he asked.
"Well, his case is a bit special..." Chen Jieyu hesitated.
"Keeping secrets from me, are you?" Cheng Zhu pretended to be displeased, "I’m not a blabbermouth."
Chen Jieyu sighed and said, "His and his ex-wife’s two children are not his."
Cheng Zhu hadn’t expected this and after a moment, he bizarrely followed up with, "The two kids are twins? Or...?"
Chen Jieyu’s answer was explosive, "Not twins, the older one is three years older than the younger."
At that moment, Cheng Zhu involuntarily felt a shiver down his spine.
He sort of understood why this fellow, after a year of traveling the world, still couldn’t settle his heart.
He had once heard someone say that when choosing a husband, one should pick a computer scientist, should pick one of us coders.
After all, who wouldn’t like a husband with plenty of money, few words, and an early death?
Plus, always working overtime and rarely home, the air is free.
But the freedom in that brother’s home seemed just a tad too excessive!
After chatting briefly about this, the counselor, who had been nibbling away at the cake, finally finished.
She looked at the remaining cake on the table, thinking it a bit wasteful and hesitating whether to refrigerate it for the next day.
While she was contemplating, Cheng Zhu suddenly smeared some cream from the cake with his finger and dabbed a bit on her face.
Chen Jieyu remained calm, not startled, and showed no intention of retaliation.
"Hey, why are you so dull?" Cheng Zhu said, perplexed.
"I’m not a kid anymore, I’m already twenty-seven," Chen Jieyu said.
"Understood, you like... adult games, right?" Cheng Zhu laughed softly, and leisurely spread a thick layer of cream on his finger.
Chen Jieyu and he exchanged a look, and this time she felt an inexplicable urge to dodge.
Cheng Zhu first applied a bit along her jawline, then her neck, then her collarbone, and then, continued trailing downward.
Watch closely, this is how adults use cake.
Chen Jieyu tried to stand and escape, but he held her down and sealed her lips, while his right hand began to smear wantonly.
....
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