Zhōng Yì later heard that after the meeting that day, her cousin still went to Yan Tinglin’s office.
After the tour, her cousin said, “Looks like life’s getting better for you—better than mine.”
Her cousin returned to Jinghe Park two months later, on her birthday.
A heavy rain had fallen a few days before, and the park had shifted from the height of summer into early autumn.
Grandfather kept fussing that she wasn’t taking a break on her birthday and had his cousin send over a cake and gifts.
He said her first birthday after publicly revealing her identity deserved a proper celebration. She had once longed for such a day, a lively and grand birthday party with classmates invited over.
But that was a wish from before she turned ten.
Now, she no longer wanted to spend energy on a party—it just felt exhausting.
Grandfather ordered a six-layer cake, enough for several teams to share.
Six layers symbolized smooth progress for her project.
The issue of precision loss after model quantization was still unresolved; even while eating cake, she was still thinking about it.
“President Zhong, happy birthday.”
“Thank you.”
Zhōng Yì clinked her glass with Yan Tinglin’s.
Yan Tinglin said, “It’s a pity I couldn’t surprise you before your birthday.”
Níng Quē added, “You can’t really blame him. If you hadn’t been born prematurely that year and had come full term in November or December, you’d have broken through your bottleneck by now.”
Yan Tinglin smiled. “You’re right. It actually makes sense.”
He used to think blaming the premature birth was absurd.
But when it involved himself, the reason suddenly felt very fitting.
While eating cake, Zhōng Yì turned to Táng Nuòyún. “I’ll send you the testing requirements later. I’ll need your team to run the tests this afternoon—no matter how late, just send me the results.”
Táng Nuòyún replied, “It’s your birthday today, you should rest for once.”
Then she asked, “Aren’t you going out to celebrate with President Zhou?”
Zhōu Shíyì was at Kuncheng today and hadn’t arrived yet, but he would probably celebrate with her.
Zhōng Yì: “If he’s not busy, we’ll go out.”
***
They had a birthday celebration at the cafeteria with colleagues at noon, and for the first time in a while, neither of them worked overtime that night. The two went out for some time alone.
Zhōu Shíyì booked the Western restaurant where they had lunch on the day they registered their marriage. Outside, the locust tree leaves no longer looked as lush as they did in early summer.
Zhōng Yì ate the pan-seared sea bass and thought back to six months ago that very noon, when she’d been eating yellow croaker noodles in the cafeteria and got a fishbone stuck.
At that moment, she hadn’t yet known she was about to reunite with Zhōu Shíyì.
Zhōu Shíyì tapped her glass. “What are you thinking about?”
Zhōng Yì put down her fork and raised her glass. “I was thinking, if I had known that at noon on the day we got engaged, I choked on a fishbone and had to go to the hospital, maybe that meant the worst was over and better days were coming.”
Zhōu Shíyì sipped his red wine. “And if I was the one who knew about the engagement—what was I feeling then?”
“Hard to describe. A mix of emotions. Relief, sadness, and countless grievances. But no matter how I felt, there was only one thought: I never wanted to be apart from you again.”
“How have you celebrated your birthday these past few years?”
“Nothing special. Back then, I was still at Jinghe Headquarters, so I’d go to Grandpa’s for lunch. Sometimes Zhong Jie was on set and couldn’t make it back, so in the evening we’d have a simple celebration with my dad.”
Zhōng Yì looked at him. “What about you? Do you think of my birthday on that day?”
Zhōu Shíyì: “You think I wouldn’t? Your birthday was the most important day to me—more than any holiday.
The alarm set for 9:05 has never changed. How could I forget?
Besides March 22nd, September 5th is the day I feel the worst inside.
Because I remember it too well. No matter how busy, I always know what day it is.”
Zhōng Yì sipped her dry white wine. “I’m drinking tonight. Just consider me drunk—can I say a few unreasonable things?”
“Sure. I told you before marriage, no matter how unreasonable you get, I’ll always comfort you.”
Zhōng Yì: “You noticed I deleted you. Don’t you have my email? You could have emailed me and asked if I really got back together with Lù Chéng. But you didn’t even ask.”
Zhōu Shíyì didn’t explain directly but gave an example. “Suppose Zhang Nuoxu was my first love. She was a rookie actress, and my mother is a Film Queen.”
“You pursued me while I was still hung up on her and rejected you. Later, when I thought we were right for each other, I got together with you. Then you found a photo of me and her on my computer. After some conflicts, I was the one who broke up.”
“At that time, did you wonder whether I ever really loved you?”
“One year passed, and you still couldn’t let go. When you wanted to come back, you found out my mother had gone out of her way to promote Zhang Nuoxu, ensuring her career went smoothly. And at the same time, you discovered I had deleted you.”
“Zhōng Yì, would you still email me to ask if I got back together with Zhang Nuoxu?”
“Whether or not you did isn’t important anymore. Even if you didn’t, you’d think she was always important to me—important enough for my mother to promote her at her own expense.”
“Promotion sometimes requires mutual benefit, but even then, it’s not always reciprocated. A Film Queen lowering herself affects her own status and career and can invite criticism.”
Zhōng Yì was stunned, speechless for a moment.
Zhōu Shíyì took her plate and cut her some fish.
He stopped giving examples and spoke about them instead.
“I already knew about my parents’ relationship. My mother didn’t need any favors.”
“Zhōng Yì, you said if I had exes, you wouldn’t care about the past.”
He looked up as he spoke.
Zhōng Yì didn’t interrupt and listened quietly.
Zhōu Shíyì: “It’s because I don’t have any. You can’t imagine, so you don’t care.”
“I never minded that you and Lù Chéng dated. We just have different emotional histories, so naturally our thoughts differ. We can’t empathize with each other’s feelings.”
The fish was cut.
Zhōu Shíyì placed the plate back in front of her. “I was mostly responsible for the breakup. I shouldn’t have been so reckless with my words.”
Only recently did he suddenly realize that during their relationship, he had been too good and too indulgent to Zhōng Yì.
Then, when he spoke recklessly, it hurt her deeply, driving her to despair and uncertainty about continuing with him.
After a long cold war, she had to end the pain by breaking up.
He raised his glass and clinked it with hers again. “I’m sorry.”
Zhōng Yì clinked and then drank half her glass of white wine in one go.
On her birthday, she finally untied all the knots in her heart.
Zhōu Shíyì: “I never mind if my partner has exes. But if you can’t let go for a long time, I’ll definitely care more.” He paused. “My dad influenced me.”
Zhōng Yì explained again: “I’m not holding on.”
“Now I know. I mean before.” Zhōu Shíyì didn’t mention Lù Chéng and switched to talking about his father.
“My dad helped his exes several times and always took me along when meeting them. I was just a kid.”
Zhōng Yì was surprised; he had never mentioned this before.
Zhōu Shíyì: “Looking back, I think my dad took me to show he wasn’t hiding anything and could explain things to my mom. But I was too young to understand.”
“Some things may seem like they don’t affect us, but subconsciously, they influence us without us realizing.”
When Zhōng Yì mentioned his father, she asked with concern, “How are your parents lately?”
“Not sure about their relationship, but my mom controls the finances now.
For your birthday, she decided to transfer two overseas buildings under my dad’s name to us, saying the rent would buy you scarves. The paperwork is complicated and still in process.”
“I should call and thank her.”
“No rush. Wait till it’s done, then thank her in person.”
His mother now found all sorts of excuses to transfer his father’s assets to herself. His father said, “Should I give them to outsiders?”
Mother replied, “What if you have a secret child? I’d lose out!”
Father: “Don’t give anything to Shíyì yet, or his wings might grow too strong. Everything goes to you.”
Mother couldn’t believe it. “You’re willing?”
Father: “Thirty years of marriage—what wouldn’t I give you?”
Not only had his father become generous, he’d even learned to buy small chestnut cakes.
Just this morning, his eldest uncle called him, telling him not to be so focused on projects and to come back to Kuncheng more often.
He asked what was wrong.
Eldest uncle said, “Your dad’s been acting flashy lately. If you didn’t know, you’d think he was showing off like a peacock! You better remind him, at his age, just stay steady and don’t let anyone swindle him.”
Not only did his uncle think their father was losing his charm, he wouldn’t even link “swindling money” with “swindling affection.”
Zhōu Shíyì assured him: “Money’s safe, it’s all under my mother’s control.”
His father always cared about his image. As a motorcade boss, admirers never stopped coming.
Lately, he cared even more about his appearance—never repeating shirts and keeping his hairstyle impeccable.
His uncle’s old gym had become his father’s private domain.
Zhōu Shíyì picked up the half-eaten piece of cake Zhōng Yì left and fed her a bite.
Zhōng Yì shook her head. “No more, I ate too much at lunch.”
Zhōu Shíyì finished the rest of the cake. His phone vibrated on the table.
Zhan Liang: [President Zhou, everything is ready.]
Zhōu Shíyì: [Thanks for your hard work.]
He glanced at the time and asked Zhōng Yì, “Where do you want to go after dinner?”
Zhōng Yì really wanted to go back to the lab. She had submitted the model testing requirements today; the chip team was testing, but she hadn’t heard back from Táng Nuòyún yet.