Chapter One Birthday

  That September afternoon, the rain was drizzling, and a thick fog surrounded everything. Feeling depressed and bored, I entered the internet cafe outside of school as usual and started playing my favorite game on a computer. To my left was my good friend Minzi. We were classmates in the same major, and before, we would often hang out together at the internet cafe, eat meals, play basketball... almost inseparable. However, this was our relationship in the past. Two months ago, when Minzi got a girlfriend, things started to change. When someone gets a girlfriend, they always need to spend a lot of time with her, which I can understand. So, gradually, I got used to going to the internet cafe alone, eating at the cafeteria alone...

  Maybe Minsu's girlfriend had class this afternoon, so he called me and we went to the internet cafe together. After playing for almost half an hour, I felt a bit tired in my eyes, so I turned around and habitually glanced at Minsu, saying without thinking: "This game is boring, how about trying another one?"

  Toshiko said without lifting her head: "I don't have much time to play games anymore, so I'll just play casually, it doesn't matter what game."

  I nodded and didn't say anything else, turning my head to continue playing my game. Time passed minute by minute, and before we knew it, we had already spent an hour in the internet cafe. Minzi stood up at this time and said to me: "I'm leaving, I made a promise with Qiong, ten minutes later we're going fishing by the river. Are you going or not? Want to come together?"

  Qiong is his girlfriend, a beautiful person and also our classmate. She is one year younger than me and two years younger than Minzi.

  "I'm not going then, it's no fun with just a few light bulbs, haha." I shook my head and laughed: "You'd better go quickly, or you'll be late and blind, hahaha."

  Minzi also smiled: "Qiong is a impatient person, can't wait to scatter, go first." He hurriedly walked away, with a hint of excitement and anticipation on his face. People in love are probably all like this.

  I also stood up and left the internet cafe, playing games alone is not fun after all. But where should I go? My heart suddenly popped out with such a question, I was lost in this moment. Ah... I secretly sighed: "Go back to the dormitory." I walked towards the dormitory, but didn't meet any familiar classmates on the way. I felt very depressed, feeling how it's so meaningless. Maybe it's because of this terrible weather, I thought to myself.

  "Kanemori!" A voice suddenly entered my ears: "Are you Kanemori? Wait a minute!"

  I turned my head to look at the place where the voice came from, and I was taken aback for a moment: Was this person calling me? My name is indeed Jin Cang, but there are not many people with this name. In our school alone, there are two of us, one is me, and the other is a law lecturer.

  "What's your name?" I looked at the person who rushed to me in a hurry and asked somewhat puzzled: "What are you looking for me for?"

  A neatly dressed, dignified-looking middle-aged man came over, holding a black leather bag in his left hand and a paper bag in his right. Perhaps because he had run for several steps, he was slightly out of breath as he spoke: "I'm calling you, Jin Cang, are you Jin Cang?"

  I nodded, but became even more confused: "Do we know each other?"

  The middle-aged man chuckled: "My name is Chen Jin, and I am a staff member of the school's trade union."

  "Oh," I suddenly realized: "What does Teacher Chen want with me?"

  Chen Jin stretched out his right hand and handed me a paper bag in front of him: "This is something that one of your friends asked me to pass on to you, take good care of it."

  I let out an "ah" and habitually said, "Thank you." As I reached out to take the paper bag, I hesitated again: What kind of friend would ask a union staff member to deliver something to me?

  Chen Jin saw me hesitating, so he took a step forward and stuffed the paper bag directly into my hand, smiling and saying: "Take it, good stuff." After that, he didn't wait for me to say anything, turned around and left.

  I hastily reached out to grab Chen Jin, but lowered my head and saw that the paper bag only had a few books inside. So I slowly put down my already stretched-out hand and carried the paper bag back to the dormitory.

  Reading is one of my hobbies, but I haven't been reading any books systematically lately. Firstly, I just wanted to play and couldn't calm down to read a book properly. The second reason is that my mood hasn't been great, although nothing big has happened to affect my mood, but I always feel like my emotions are not clear and it's hard to be calm.

  "Red Chamber Dream", "Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", and "Journey to the West". These are actually the four great masterpieces. I'm a bit disappointed, because I already have several sets of these books, so it's not necessary to get another set. I don't even have the desire to open them up and take a look. I put down the four thick classics in my hand, turned on the desk lamp, picked up my pen, and wrote a line in my diary: Received the first birthday gift - the four great masterpieces.

  It's okay, today is my birthday, otherwise Mako, who is in love, wouldn't have taken an hour out of her busy schedule to accompany me.

  Sat quietly for a while, picked up that book "Dream of the Red Chamber" which I didn't want to open at first, opened the first page. After all, I should know who sent it to me.

  "Happy birthday, Jin Cang!"

  There were only these few words on the book, no signature, and no identification of any kind.

  I'm puzzled, why would the school union staff go to so much trouble to send me a birthday gift without even letting me know who it's from? I closed my eyes and thought carefully, but couldn't come up with any leads. It was probably just one of my classmates playing a prank on me.

  Just then, there was a knock at the dormitory door. I got up to open it and laughed: "Brothers, you didn't bring your keys again?"

  The ones who knocked on the door were our dormitory mates, Da Zhang, Xiao Li Zi and A Qiang. There are four people living in our dormitory, excluding me, there's Da Zhang, Xiao Li Zi and A Qiang who just moved in, all of them are over 1.9 meters tall. Da Zhang's surname is Zhang, his name is Wei, he's big and tall, a basketball fan, thinks he'll become a basketball superstar in the future, calls himself the boss of our dormitory, so we all call him Da Zhang; Xiao Li Zi's surname is Li, his name is Guo Hua, he's the opposite of Da Zhang, short and thin, looks pale but neat, so when we joke around, we say he looks like the eunuch Xiao Li Zi from TV dramas, that's how he got this nickname which he doesn't really like; A Qiang's name is Zheng San Qiang, tall and thin, a very mysterious person, often disappears for three to five days without a trace, occasionally comes back to the dormitory but just for a flash, never stays in the dormitory for more than an hour. Moreover, he never sleeps in the dormitory at night, it's said that he rented another place outside.

  After Da Zhang entered, he burst out laughing and said: "With you here, does it matter whether we bring the key or not?" As he spoke, he handed me a delicate pen holder, then heavily patted my shoulder and loudly said: "Happy birthday!"

  "Thanks," I said, wincing as he patted me on both shoulders: "Easy does it, you think I'm not made of flesh and blood, it hurts!"

  "Hahahaha, I told you to follow me out and play some ball, exercise a bit, but you wouldn't listen. Now you can't even take this little hit from me, you're like a little girl."

  I smiled wryly and didn't argue back.

  Xiao Li Zi is a rich kid, although he's small in stature, his generosity far surpasses many others: "Kid, take this, it's your birthday gift. Happy birthday!" He says the words of blessing in a loud and boisterous tone, handing me an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

  I still said "thank you" and took the gift to put it on my desk: "Brothers, I'll treat you guys tonight, let's go out for a big meal..."

  "Wait," Ah Qiang interrupted me, taking a few steps forward and handing me a gift box: "I haven't given you my gift yet! So, tonight we don't need to ask you to treat us. My brothers and I have already booked a table. Tonight, call up those friends of yours, and we'll go drink together at the Fragrant Pavilion."

  "Jù... Jù Xiāng Gé?" I was startled and stuttered: "Brother, don't scare me, that place... that place is not somewhere we can go..."

  Juxiang Pavilion is the most luxurious and expensive restaurant in this area. To casually have a meal at Juxiang Pavilion, it would cost me at least one month's living expenses. I'm not some rich kid, so I never dared to hope that I'd be able to afford to go there someday.

  Xiao Li smiled: "Don't worry, I won't let you spend a single penny. I'll cover all the expenses for tonight. Just bring Da Zhang, A Qiang and your other friends and fellow villagers along."

  Looking at the smug expression on Little Li's face, I surprisingly didn't feel happy. On the contrary, there was a little bit of resentment: The life of the rich is luxurious, alas... This favor I cannot owe, because I won't be able to repay it, and in the future, seeing Little Li will make me very uncomfortable.

  Dazhang seemed to have seen through my thoughts, and came up to pat my shoulder heavily: "You little guy don't think too much, last time I had a birthday, it was Little Li who invited us to eat at Juxiang Pavilion, his family has money, they don't care about this." He paused for a moment, then continued: "Right, last time you were sent by the school to participate in an exchange, didn't make it to my birthday, didn't know about this."

  A Qiang furrowed his brow, looked at me deeply: "Don't think too much, Xiao Li Zi is also kind-hearted, we were classmates, originally destined to be together, now we're roommates, even more can't be distant, right? Let's just let Xiao Li Zi treat us this once, and invite our brothers to have a good time."

  I'm in a difficult position. Originally, I would absolutely not agree to let Little Li pay for me, but now my dormitory roommates all think I should accept Little Li's kindness, and for the time being, I have no reason to refuse: "Okay..."

  "It's settled then." Before I could finish speaking, Little Li cheered up: "You finally consider me as one of your own! Haha."

  I was stunned and thought about it again and again, but finally didn't continue saying what I wanted to say earlier.

  Dà Zhāng said from the side: "Little Li Zi really has no shame, this is also worth making a fuss about, isn't it just Jin Cang agreeing to treat you to a meal? Hmph, bootlicker."

  Xiao Lizi immediately shouted: "What? Whoever can invite Jin Cang to Ju Xiang Ge, I'll give him 1,000 yuan right away."

  Dazhang immediately shut his mouth, because he and I are the same, not some rich kid, can't afford to go to places like Ju Xiang Ge to eat, let alone invite me.

  Ah Qiang laughed: "If the Zhang family had as much money as your family, they would have invited us to Ju Xiang Ge too. Don't use that as an excuse, you lowlife."

  Xiao Li looked at A Qiang for a moment, as if he had thought of something, and turned his head to look at Da Zhang: "Da Zhang, I didn't mean that, you...you know."

  Dazhang nodded and said with a smile, "It's okay, I know. Don't mention that useless thing anymore, hurry up and call your family members now, it's almost five o'clock. At six o'clock, be on time at the Aggregation Fragrance Pavilion, I will wait for you there first. Remember to be on time, anyone who is late will be fined a bottle of wine."

  Family members, absolutely not referring to our parents, but those boyfriends and girlfriends of people who are in a relationship. However, for someone like me without a girlfriend or classmates without a boyfriend, we're just "single dogs", no so-called family members.

  A Qiang cheered and turned around to leave first. Xiao Lizi also turned around and ran out with a "I'll go prepare first".

  I quietly sat back at my desk, picked up that "Dream of the Red Chamber", and was just about to take another close look at those small characters when Dazhang suddenly shouted on one side: "Who sent it?"

  "What?" I was startled by him.

  "Who gave you this 'Dream of the Red Chamber'?" Da Zhang's expression was strange, and he said with some surprise: "What kind of person would give this as a birthday gift? It's also too old-fashioned!"

  I laughed: "Old Gu? Old-fashioned or old antique? Giving books isn't bad, can still learn from them."

  "Old-fashioned and outdated, that's what it means, so rustic. Who still gives this as a gift nowadays?" Dazhang said with a straight face: "It must be some country bumpkin who gave it to you."

  I smiled and stopped discussing this topic with Dazhang.