Chapter Fifty-Five: Happy Birthday

The winter break ended in the blink of an eye, and the second day after school started was my birthday. Since Lin Jie and Monkey's birthdays were close to mine, we all agreed to celebrate the three of us together today.

“Hey, Happy Birthday, Piggy!” As soon as I woke up and opened my eyes in the morning, I received a text from Haozi. Staring at the message, I suddenly felt like crying, but I managed to hold it back—I didn’t want to shed tears on my birthday. Haozi, my good brother, perhaps among all my friends, you’re the only one who remembers my birthday every single year.

But unfortunately, the other two messages I’d been waiting for never came. As for Lele, after all, we’d broken up, so it was understandable that she didn’t text me. But as my current girlfriend, Huang Xin hadn’t shown the slightest sign of remembering my birthday, leaving me quite displeased.

It was probably not long after the start of winter break that the already shaky relationship between Huang Xin and me began to crack again. Her stubbornness, her selfishness, and all those actions that never took my feelings into account made me feel more and more that being with her was the biggest mistake I’d ever made.

By the time I dragged myself out of bed, it was already noon. After lunch, I went alone to the newly opened internet café on School Street. It called itself an internet café, but in reality, it was just the villagers nearby, secretly using spare rooms in their homes to set up a few computers and charge for internet access.

I chatted with friends on QQ for a while, then Zhao Gang arrived, and we started playing NBA LIVE 2005 together over the LAN. Zhao Gang was a master at this game—his pinpoint three-point shots, sharp drives, and flawless teamwork made me feel completely outclassed. Despite giving it my all, I only managed to win two rounds against him all afternoon.

Just as we were getting into the game, Lin Jie called and asked me to join him at the restaurant on Student Street to pick out dishes and reserve a private room for the evening.

With everything settled, by 7:30 that night, our group stormed into the restaurant like a band of marauders.

Besides my dorm brothers, we’d also invited plenty of classmates we usually got along with. Huang Xin was my girlfriend, so naturally the girls from her dorm were invited as well. The two round tables were packed to the brim. The three birthday guys sat at separate tables—Lin Jie and I at one, Monkey at the other. Once everyone was seated, the dishes began to arrive.

Monkey’s table was mostly filled with guys—a bunch of drinkers—who hadn’t even started eating before they were already challenging each other to drink. One case of beer down, and every one of them still looked untouched by the alcohol, faces unflushed, hearts steady. Our table, on the other hand, was mostly girls, so things were much more reserved. After a while, as the atmosphere grew a bit quiet, Huang Xin’s roommate Xiao Yan suggested, “It’s boring if we just keep our heads down eating—let’s play a game!”

As soon as Xiao Yan said this, everyone looked up. “What should we play?”

“How about... how about Truth or Dare…” Xiao Yan rested her chin in her hand, thinking for a long while before making the suggestion.

“No way! No way! We’re guys; what are we doing playing Truth or Dare? We might as well play dice!” Zhang Tao interrupted before Xiao Yan could finish. The guys quickly agreed with him, but the girls were less than pleased.

After much back-and-forth, everyone finally compromised and chose a game acceptable to both the guys and the girls—Frog Dive.

The rules were simple: one frog jumps into the water—plop. Two frogs jump—plop plop... Each person says a word in turn, and the person who starts the round decides how many frogs jump, up to seven. If you mess up, you get punished. There were three forms of punishment: first, answer a truth question with complete honesty; second, do a task requested by the group; third, drink alcohol—but not from a cup, rather from the big soup bowl on the table.

Lin Jie started the game, and the first to slip up was Zhao Gang, who chose the third punishment. Everyone scrambled to grab bottles and poured alcohol into the bowl, tossing in a few extra “special ingredients” as a prank.

“Come on, Zhao Gang, drink up.” We all watched him gleefully.

A bet’s a bet. Zhao Gang frowned, sighed helplessly, then closed his eyes, picked up the bowl, and gulped down the booze. It took him quite a struggle to finish it, and when he finally set the bowl down, he sat there, face twisted, gasping for breath.

The game continued—this time Chen Li made a mistake.

He didn’t dare drink, so he chose to answer a truth question. The atmosphere immediately livened up, and the group unanimously decided he had to answer who he liked best among the girls in class.

Chen Li’s face turned bright red. He stammered for quite a while before finally saying, “I don’t... I don’t like anyone.”

That answer obviously didn’t satisfy us. By a show of hands, the group decided to make Chen Li drink. He insisted he couldn’t, and after more than ten minutes of bargaining, under our relentless persuasion, he finally agreed to drink just five cups.

To our surprise, Chen Li really couldn’t hold his liquor—after only four cups, he was already drunk. His face flushed, he started talking nonsense in a drunken haze, and I was genuinely worried he might suddenly confess his love to some girl at the table.

After dinner and settling the bill, everyone scattered for the dorms to collapse for the night.

Walking Huang Xin back to the girls’ dorm, the February wind cut cold against our faces. Huang Xin instinctively hugged herself, head lowered, following the shadow at her feet.

“Are you cold?” I turned to ask without thinking.

“I’m fine…” Huang Xin rubbed her hands together and hopped in place. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she quickly pulled a small bag from her purse. “Oh right, this is for you. Happy Birthday.”

I opened the bag to find a pair of knitted gloves inside...

When I got back to the dorm, the lights were already out. Everyone had drunk too much and gone straight to bed. I wasn’t tired, but sitting alone downstairs was dull, so I decided to sleep as well. Chen Li was lying in bed muttering in his sleep, something about “XXX, I love you.” I couldn’t tell whether it was drunken nonsense or a heartfelt confession.

Curled up quietly beneath my blanket, I couldn’t help but think of Lele again.

Lele, I remember you used to say that only those who are easily contented can be happy. But I never told you—though I’m easily satisfied, there are still many things I care about deeply.

“Xiaobei, Happy Birthday.” Just then, the message I’d been longing for all day arrived, quietly, at last.

In that instant, my eyes filled with tears.