Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China
Birthday
Scorpio Lou Jingmo
Lou Jingmo’s birthday was coming up.
For the past few days, Shen Maomao had been counting the days on her fingers1.
November twenty-second, the last day of Scorpio.
She wanted to prepare a little surprise for Lou Jingmo, but Lou Jingmo rarely showed that she cared about anything in particular, so she had no idea what kind of gift to get.
She thought about it for days, and her Baidu2 search history was full of things like “what to get your girlfriend for her birthday.” She kept thinking until her head was about to go bald3 but still couldn’t come up with anything. The main issue was that Lou Jingmo was a person who was too much without desire or want4, to the point where one simply felt they didn’t know where to start5.
She had no family and few friends, and was used to coming and going alone. The number of people in her chat apps, aside from her boss, didn’t exceed twenty. Of those twenty, you had to subtract fifteen work contacts, leaving only five who could barely be considered acquaintances she could talk to. As for those five people, they were—Shen Maomao, Golden Retriever, Shang Zhou, and two other big shots6 who, according to her, were on the same level as Shang Zhou.
Lou Jingmo’s social life was overly simple. She hardly ever went out except to buy groceries. Every morning she’d hole up in her study to write, in the afternoon she’d work out at the gym or do some yoga, and if she had nothing to do in the evening, she’d play games on the sofa. She couldn’t be more carefree.
It was precisely because of this carefree lifestyle that Shen Maomao now had no idea who to contact to throw a birthday party for her.
Golden Retriever had his art school entrance exams7 coming up soon. He had hired a master painter as a tutor and was practically painting like a man possessed, so Shen Maomao didn’t have the heart to bother him. As for Shang Zhou and the other two big shots, they were completely outside of Shen Maomao’s consideration.
She thought and thought, her ideas ranging from staying home to enjoy a world for two, to going out and running wild for a whole day. Her indecisiveness got so bad that her hair started falling out in clumps.
How about I just wrap myself up and give myself to her?
The moment she had this thought, Shen Maomao felt like she wasn’t giving Lou Jingmo a gift, but rather securing a perk for herself.
Although Lou Jingmo always had a passion like fire8 when they were out on trips or playing games, she usually had a much more aloof and reserved style. As a result, their intimate moments generally started with Shen Maomao sending out a “hungry” signal, which Lou Jingmo would receive, and then they’d have a great time. But Shen Maomao was usually only in charge of the beginning and wasn’t qualified to be in charge of the end… Ahem, just talking about this was making her thoughts go astray.
Besides, she’d been feeling a bit of kidney deficiency9 lately—in short, the option of gifting herself was ruled out.
That night, she was chatting with her mom and mentioned the matter offhandedly. Her mom reacted as if she’d been injected with chicken blood10, getting instantly worked up and ordering her to bring Lou Jingmo home for her birthday, or else she shouldn’t bother coming home ever again.
Shen Maomao never expected that after getting a wife, in one fell swoop her own mother had turned into a stepmother11. She was probably picked up from a trash can12 by her mom.
During dinner that evening, she tried to bring the matter up with Lou Jingmo. “Lou-jie, have you been busy lately?” she asked.
Lou Jingmo replied, “It’s been alright.”
Shen Maomao asked again, “Are you done with the new book?”
Lou Jingmo raised an eyebrow. “Just about. Want to hear some spoilers?”
“You shameless little thief! Shut your mouth!” Shen Maomao immediately refused. “Detective novels are only interesting if you reason them out yourself! You, shut up!”
Lou Jingmo smiled, then her expression turned serious. “What are you scheming now?”
Shen Maomao scooted her stool closer to her and blinked her eyes. “My mom wants you to come to our place for New Year’s Day. What do you think?”
The hand Lou Jingmo was using to pick up food paused. Then she said, “Wouldn’t that be inconvenient?”
Shen Maomao said dismissively, “What’s so inconvenient about it?”
Lou Jingmo said, “Alright then. When do you want to leave? I’ll buy the plane tickets now.”
“Tomorrow!”
“?” Lou Jingmo’s face was full of question marks. “New Year’s Day is still a month and a half away?”
Shen Maomao immediately corrected herself. “No, that was a slip of the tongue. I meant Christmas, not New Year’s.”
Lou Jingmo gave her a suspicious look. “Your family celebrates Christmas?”
Shen Maomao’s expression was serious, not a hint of a bluff. “That’s right, we do.”
Lou Jingmo pulled out her phone, glanced at the calendar, and said, “I think you’re trying to trick me. Christmas and New Year’s are only six days apart. Are you serious?”
Seeing that this approach wasn’t working, Shen Maomao switched to acting cute. “It’s actually because I miss my mommy~”
Lou Jingmo put down her bowl and chopsticks. “If you keep that up, I’m going to dump this bowl of rice on your head.”
Shen Maomao knew that this old dog was definitely capable of doing something like that, so she instantly changed her expression and said seriously, “Actually, my mom misses you and wants you to come stay at our place for a few days.”
“Me?” Lou Jingmo pointed to herself, sounding rather unconfident.
Shen Maomao linked her arm through hers with a hint of complaint. “Do you not know how much charm you have? My mom has been telling me on WeChat these past few days that if only you were her biological daughter, she would absolutely never agree to you being with me.”
Lou Jingmo couldn’t help but laugh. For once, she wasn’t being narcissistic and said something reasonable: “Auntie is just saying that to you. If we both fell in the water, she’d definitely save you first.”
Shen Maomao: “??” Why did she feel like there was something wrong with the angle of that question?
…
In the end, Lou Jingmo agreed to it.
Early the next morning, the two of them packed up and got on a plane. After a few twists and turns, they finally arrived at Shen Maomao’s home, and the moment they stepped off the train, their faces were blasted with cold wind.
November in Nancheng could be considered autumn at best, but November in S City was truly winter. Although it hadn’t snowed yet, the temperature was genuinely low.
The two unprepared women shivered in the cold wind in their trench coats, while the people around them in thick overcoats all cast looks of admiration their way. They could faintly hear whispers—
“Young women these days, all wearing so little. They’ll know the pain when they get old.”
“They really choose beauty over warmth. It’s below zero today, don’t they feel cold?”
Shen Maomao: “My bad… I forgot it was cold back home!!”
Luckily, there was a mall near the station. The two of them half-ran, half-jumped inside, and only felt like they’d come back to life when the warm air from the heating system washed over them.
They bought a few thick items of clothing and changed on the spot. Lou Jingmo also bought some skincare products and other necessities nearby, and only then did they head for Shen Maomao’s house.
It was still early, so Dad Shen and Mother Shen were both busy at their restaurant. Shen Maomao felt under the doormat for the key, opened the door, and let Lou Jingmo in.
In the afternoon, Mother Shen came back first. The moment she entered, she saw shopping bags piled up all over the entryway, along with two pairs of dress shoes placed side by side that were clearly not meant for this season.
Her eyes lit up. She put down the groceries she’d just bought, walked quickly to Shen Maomao’s room, and raised a hand to knock.
Shen Maomao wriggled out of Lou Jingmo’s arms, her eyes bright. She threw off the covers and climbed out of bed. “That must be my mom!”
Lou Jingmo quickly got up as well, discreetly tidying her clothes and hair to make sure she was presentable, then followed behind Shen Maomao.
Shen Maomao yanked the door open, intending to throw herself into her mother’s arms, but her dear mom grabbed her by the ear. “You brat, why didn’t you tell me when you and Xiao Lou arrived? I could have bought some extra groceries on my way back!”
“Ow ow ow, that hurts!” She struggled a bit and argued, “She’s not a stranger! Aren’t you being too polite and treating her like an outsider?!”
Mother Shen let go and turned to Lou Jingmo. “Xiao Lou, it’s enough that you came. Why did you bring so many things?”
Lou Jingmo smiled shyly, her expression so gentle that Shen Maomao thought she’d been possessed. “It’s not much. I just hope you don’t mind, Auntie.”
Mother Shen was grinning from ear to ear. “You child. If only Maomao were half as sensible as you.”
Shen Maomao protested, “I bought stuff too! I bought stuff too! I bought stuff too!”
Mother Shen automatically ignored her voice and pulled Lou Jingmo by the hand to sit on the sofa. “We don’t have much to eat at home today. When Maomao’s dad gets back, we’ll go out to eat. My treat!”
Lou Jingmo said, “Auntie, it should be my treat…”
Mother Shen patted her hand. “You’re still a kid, how could we let you pay? Listen to Auntie. If you argue with me again, I’ll get angry!”
Lou Jingmo said, “How about this, Auntie? I see you bought groceries. Why don’t I cook for you and let you have a taste? It’s so late today, and Maomao must be tired from traveling all day. We can go out to eat tomorrow, okay?”
Mother Shen said, “How can we have a guest do the cooking?”
Shen Maomao cut in, “But isn’t that treating her like an outsider!”
Mother Shen shot her a glare, full of warning.
Shen Maomao, with her tail between her legs13, dejectedly squatted off to the side and watched the two of them be polite to each other. In the end, Lou Jingmo won by a slight margin, putting on an apron and heading into the kitchen with the groceries.
Mother Shen kicked the spectating Shen Maomao in the butt. “Go help, hurry up! Why do you look so happy? Are you just going to space out here?”
Shen Maomao said, aggrieved, “But… Lou-jie said she was going to fully display her skills14. Won’t I just be in her way if I go?”
Mother Shen frowned, her expression disapproving.
Shen Maomao was most afraid of her mom making that face, because it usually meant she was about to get a beating.
She put down her phone, quickly stood up, and raised both hands in surrender. “I’ll go, I’ll go, alright?” With that, she scurried into the kitchen.
Hearing the noise, Lou Jingmo glanced at her in surprise. “What are you doing in here? Shouldn’t you be keeping Auntie company?”
Shen Maomao grabbed an apple. “She told me to keep you company.” Then she started munching on it, crunch, crunch.
Lou Jingmo found her to be in the way. “Go back and keep Auntie company.”
Shen Maomao leaned against the counter and said helplessly, “So I’m not wanted on either side, huh?”
Lou Jingmo smiled, and when she wasn’t looking, stuck a hand wet with cold water down the back of her neck. The chill made Shen Maomao shiver so hard she almost dropped her apple.
Shen Maomao’s eyes went wide, and she was about to retaliate on the spot.
Lou Jingmo was quick as a flash. She yanked open the kitchen door, pushed her out, and shut it behind her, leaving Shen Maomao outside staring with big eyes at small eyes15 with her mom.
Mother Shen: “What’s the situation?”
Shen Maomao was silent for a second. “I got kicked out.”
Mother Shen looked at the apple in her hand, sighed, and gave her a look of hating iron for not becoming steel16.
Shen Maomao ran back to the sofa with an innocent look on her face and sat down.
Who did the apple offend? The apple is innocent!
The author has something to say:
Shouts: I’m useless!
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