Song Chi seemed to be deliberately opposing her; the more she urged him to eat faster, the slower he ate. Just like that, a simple hotpot meal for two ended up taking two hours.
During the process, Zhou Yun went to the kitchen and cut several more plates of food.
By the end, Zhou Yun couldn’t hold back anymore and blurted out the classic line to Song Chi: "Are you a pig?"
Song Chi glared at her and said, "Can’t you show some host spirit? When others treat someone to a meal, they encourage them to eat more, not scold them like you’re doing to me for eating just a little."
Zhou Yun looked at the table that was clean and messy from the meal, smiled, and said: "I wasn’t scolding you, I was stating a fact."
After finishing the meal, Zhou Yun said she’d clean up when she woke up tomorrow.
Song Chi said, "I’ll help you clean up."
Zhou Yun said it wasn’t necessary.
Song Chi insisted, "No, let me do it. You go rest."
Zhou Yun said, "This is my house after all, and you are a guest."
"Why bother with those formalities?" Song Chi had already rolled up his sleeves and begun cleaning up the mess of dishes and cups on the table.
Since Song Chi was so proactive, Zhou Yun didn’t bother pretending to refuse as she didn’t want to clean up anyway.
However, the clean-up took another half an hour, and by the time Song Chi came out of the kitchen, it was almost midnight.
Zero hour was approaching.
"The driver will be here in ten minutes," said Song Chi.
Zhou Yun yawned and said, "So you are finally leaving."
Song Chi replied, "...That’s heartless."
Ten minutes later, Song Chi got a message from his driver, saying he was downstairs.
"Then I’m leaving," Song Chi said.
Zhou Yun got up and walked Song Chi to the door.
Zhou Yun was stunned.
She blinked, looking blankly at Song Chi.
"Goodbye." Song Chi curled his lips into a smile, his eyes also shimmering with amusement, and he walked out the door.
"Song Chi!" Zhou Yun called out to him.
Song Chi stopped, turned to look at Zhou Yun, and said, "What is it?"
"Did you, specifically come to celebrate my birthday?" Zhou Yun could hardly believe it.
Song Chi rolled his eyes disdainfully, "What are you thinking?"
Zhou Yun realized she had been too presumptuous and felt a bit embarrassed, "Alright, you better go."
"I just saw on Weibo, it mentioned that tomorrow, or rather today, is your birthday." Song Chi was still explaining, "Don’t overthink it."
"I got it, you better go now," Zhou Yun said, awkwardly curling her toes.
Finally, Song Chi left.
Zhou Yun closed the door, returned to the living room, and was about to turn off the lights and go to her bedroom when she suddenly saw something unfamiliar on the coffee table.
She moved closer to see it was a rectangular small box.
She was certain it wasn’t something from her house.
She opened the small box to see what was inside.
On the velvet, there lay a necklace, and the inside of the box’s flip cover was embossed with four words: Happy Birthday.
Downstairs, in the parking lot.
Song Chi, wrapped in a cold air, got into the car.
He looked at the still-lighted elevator lobby, eyes gleaming with a smile.
"Hurry up and get some sleep. We have to start recording early tomorrow morning," Huang Hu said. "It will be a whole day of recording."
Song Chi smiled and hummed in response, "Brother Hu, you’ve worked hard."
"Why tell me this? Don’t worry, I’ve had a whole night’s sleep. I came over as soon as I received your call. Just relax and get some sleep," Huang Hu said, glancing at Song Chi through the rearview mirror. "But seriously, you have a recording early tomorrow, how can you afford to be out so late?"
Song Chi laughed, looking down, and said, "Maybe it’s the folly of youth?"
Huang Hu didn’t understand and looked confused.
Song Chi spread out the blanket, "I’m going to sleep."
On her birthday, as usual, it was busy.
Zhou Yun looked at herself in the mirror. Indeed, she had been extremely busy lately and wasn’t resting well, visibly deteriorating.
The scheduled commitments still had to be completed, fortunately, her energy was abundant.
Throughout the day, people sent her birthday greetings, even He Yong arranged for someone to send over a gift.
The company’s official Weibo made a grand promotional picture wishing her a happy birthday.
Zhou Yun’s handful of fans also painstakingly edited a video for her.
During her meal breaks, Zhou Yun finally watched the video. It was edited with care, bringing tears to her eyes.
It wasn’t until eight in the evening that work finally ended.
Zhou Lan asked, "I’ve booked a place. Shall we go celebrate?"
They ordered her a cake, sang the birthday song, blew the candles; it was a full-blown ceremony.
Zhou Yun made a birthday wish, laughed and talked, and shared the cake with everyone.
At last, Zhou Lan said, "Let me take a photo of you to post on Weibo. Lots of fans are wishing you a happy birthday there."
Zhou Yun agreed, wearing a birthday crown, holding a piece of cake, her smile sweet.
The photo was uploaded to Weibo, captioned: Celebrating my birthday at work, busy yet blessed with your company.
"Sister Xiao Yun, is that necklace new?" Zheng Xiaojue asked, noticing a detail she had missed all day long in the chest-up photo.
Prompted by Zheng Xiaojue’s remark, Zhou Lan noticed that she had indeed never seen that necklace around Zhou Yun’s neck before.
Zhou Yun said, "Ah, this? It was a gift."
Zhou Lan asked, "Who gave it to you? It looks expensive."
"A friend," Zhou Yun said with a smile. "Who else wants some cake? I’ll cut it for you!"
It was eleven at night by the time the director announced the end of the shoot for the episode, and Song Chi clapped his hands in gratitude, heading to the van with Luo Yuhu by his side.
After a whole day, Song Chi felt as though his body was falling apart, visibly exhausted.
Yesterday, he had only managed a few hours of sleep in the car, and upon arrival, he immediately rushed to the set without stopping at a hotel—makeup, styling, then a full day of shooting followed.
Luo Yuhu said, "Did you stay up last night? I can see bloodshot in your eyes."
Song Chi hummed, his eyes on his phone.
He was replying to WeChat messages.
There were always a lot to reply to, especially for the drama "Heart Inquiry", which required his attention in many areas.
Costumes, props, styling, choosing locations...
Luo Yuhu said, "You look like you’re about to drop dead any second. Should I cancel tomorrow morning’s shooting?"
"No need," Song Chi said without looking up. "A good sleep will do."
Once in the car, he finally finished replying to the WeChat messages, suddenly a Weibo notification popped up, the keywords read "Zhou Yun posts a photo to celebrate her birthday."
Song Chi clicked in to see Zhou Yun’s newly posted Weibo.
He zoomed into the photo, focusing on the necklace Zhou Yun wore around her neck, and started smiling, lips pursed.
He lifted his left hand, lightly covering it in front of his mouth.
Tonight, the stars shone brilliantly.