"Can you come inside with me first?"
"Me...? Can I?" Song Sijun pulled his gaze away from the crystal ball.
His voice carried a hint of surprise and uncertainty.
He thought he would be intruding on them.
Song Sijun didn't know much about a strange family like the Shens.
He was also a bit curious about how they interacted with each other.
Would Shen Yi be bullied among them?
Shen Yi didn't overthink it like he did. She gathered her emotions and smiled, "Mom won't mind, come on, come on."
Saying that, she practically dragged him inside.
The house was very warm.
The warm yellow lighting made everything look soft and gentle.
He followed her in.
In the living room, Shen Ruxu and Shen Xun were still arguing when they suddenly saw Shen Yi walk through the door leading a little boy by the hand.
The two brothers couldn't help but look over in unison.
Shen Ruxu was the first to recover, looking Song Sijun up and down.
"Are you two twins? This is the first time I've seen a boy and a girl look so similar," he said, his eyes widening slightly, his tone filled with wonder.
Shen Xun also walked over, standing next to his older brother and looking at Song Sijun.
Song Sijun didn't speak first; he just curved his eyes into a smile and met his gaze.
Two boys, one expressionless, the other with smiling eyes, neither saying a word.
"Mom," Shen Yi called out after carefully placing the crystal ball down, pulling Song Sijun toward the kitchen.
The girl peeked halfway through the door first.
Her tone was soft and slightly tentative, "It's my birthday today, can we have one more person in the house?"
Wen Ya turned around and saw her daughter's pleading look. She smiled and nodded, "Of course, no problem."
Shen Yi's eyes lit up. She pushed the door open and waved at the person behind her.
Wen Ya followed her gaze, and when she saw the little boy, her hands paused.
It was Song Guanyan's son.
She remembered this child.
"You two children share the same birthday," Wen Ya put down her knife and said naturally. "You can celebrate together here. Good thing the cake I bought is big enough."
Having received permission, Shen Yi hopped over like a little sparrow and gave Wen Ya two quick kisses on the cheek. "Thank you, Mom."
Shen Sixing leaned against the kitchen counter, raising an eyebrow without a word, his gaze lingering on the two children for a brief moment.
After the two kids left, Wen Ya slid the kitchen door shut.
She picked up her knife again, her tone carrying a touch of emotion. "Every time I see these two similar children together, it feels so magical."
"But how did this child get out?" She turned her head to look at Shen Sixing. "Song Guanyan must care a lot about his only son. He's only seven, how could he let him go out?"
It was a bit unreasonable.
Shen Sixing was prepping vegetables, his movements unhurried. With his head lowered, he said flatly, "Probably because I hired someone to crash into Song Guanyan and send him to the hospital."
"Didn't kill him, the defensive modifications on his car are pretty good," he added lightly, under Wen Ya's astonished gaze.
Although Shen Sixing didn't have much of a childhood, he understood the emotional needs of a normal child.
Facing Wen Ya's teasing look, he put the prepped vegetables into a basin of water and straightened up. "I think whether it's a child or an adult, on their birthday, they would want to spend it with the most important person to them."
So he casually lent Song Sijun a helping hand.
"Shen Sixing."
He looked up at her.
Wen Ya took two strides over and hugged him tightly.
"Darling! Husband!" She planted a heavy kiss on his cheek. "You're actually showing some humanity now!"
Wen Ya was moved beyond words, holding him tightly. "I always thought you were a robot before."
Shen Sixing looked down at the woman in his arms.
She was always like this, full of passion for everything, wearing all her emotions on her sleeve, so vivid that it was almost... scary.
Actually, someone like Wen Ya.
She was the same as him.
Having no reverence for life, always doing whatever she pleased.
Of course, she couldn't possibly be a good person.
But to him.
She was like a fake light shining into a bottomless abyss.
It was false.
Not real, and not warm enough.
But even if it was a false light, it was tangible, falling right into his hands.
And it made him, for the first time, harbor the thought of wanting to hold onto something.
...
Anxious to give him his birthday present, Shen Yi pulled him into her room, closed the door, and stood on her tiptoes to reach a small box on the nightstand.
"For you."
"A birthday present!"
Her voice held a hint of anticipation, "I prepared it in advance, and I was just wondering how to get it to you."
Song Sijun seemed a bit dazed, not expecting to receive a gift, and most importantly, one prepared by Shen Yi.
He took it without hesitation and carefully tore off the wrapping paper.
Opening the box, he found a red string inside. It was very thin, but the braiding was intricate, revealing it was handmade. A small, fish-shaped jade pendant hung from the red string.
Shen Yi rolled up her sleeve, revealing another red string with a teardrop-shaped jade pendant resting against her slender wrist bone.
"Yours is a little fish." Saying that, Shen Yi pressed the two pieces of jade together.
They formed a perfect circle.
"Look."
She held it up for him to see. "Do you like it? I braided the string myself too."
"I like it." He looked at it earnestly, feeling a bit like crying.
Ugh.
He felt it was pathetic of him.
But this was the first time the two of them could happily exchange gifts on their birthday.
Just like children from ordinary families.
It had nothing to do with the value of the gift, but the act itself made him want to shed tears.
...
Shen Xun wasn't as hard to read as his oldest brother. He was a boy of few words and expressions, and his way of expressing emotions was very direct.
Acting like a madman, he rummaged through the cabinets and pulled out a book.
Then he lowered his head and flipped through it rapidly, the pages rustling loudly, though it was unclear if he was actually reading anything.
After Shen Ruxu finished hanging all the fairy lights, he leaned lazily against the sofa, offering his commentary with interest:
"I knew she had a brother, but I never expected them to look so alike."
Shen Xun ignored him, completely focused on tormenting the book in his hands.
He continued to flip the pages frantically.
"The bond between twins must be really close. Someone's going to get left out, but I won't say who."
Still provoking him.
Shen Xun stood up and shoved the book right into his face.
Shen Ruxu took the hit squarely, his entire face buried in the pages.
He wasn't angry. With a good temper, he let out a muffled laugh and pulled the book down.
"Being too possessive won't make you likable, you know," Shen Ruxu said, acting like a third-rate relationship guru, spouting nonsense with a straight face. "As an older brother, you have to be magnanimous."
Hearing this, Shen Xun gave his older brother a serious look.
He walked straight to the dining table, stood on a chair, and yanked down the fairy lights Shen Ruxu had just painstakingly hung up.
With a snap, all the lights fell down.
"Eh?"
The corners of Shen Ruxu's mouth still maintained the same smiling curve, but his expression had frozen.
His gaze was dark and gloomy as he stared blankly at his younger brother.
"Magnanimous," Shen Xun coldly repeated his words. "An older brother has to be magnanimous."
"..."
Shen Ruxu was so angry he almost laughed.
When dinner was served, Wen Ya noticed that the decorations on the table were arranged far too rigidly.
It wasn't an aesthetically pleasing arrangement, but rather a bizarrely neat one, like troops lined up for battle.
Her temper flared up instantly.
"Where is Shen Ruxu? Where are his lights?"
Shen Ruxu stood up slowly and pointed at the pile of fairy lights on the floor. "Shen Xun pulled them down."
"Then hang them back up," she said with a wave of her hand, ordering around the three useless men. "Rearrange the things on the table, hurry up."
On her birthday, Shen Yi also received a giant teddy bear from Chen Jiaojiao.
It was a foreign brand, looking ugly but cute, and it was incredibly soft to hug.
Shen Yi was almost crushed by the bear when she signed for the delivery.
She struggled to carry the giant bear through the living room and lugged it onto the sofa.
When Shen Wenta arrived, he froze for two seconds at the sight of the room.
A massive, ugly bear was sprawled out on the sofa.
A messy pile of unopened gifts sat on the table, and Wen Ya was directing Shen Sixing to adjust various decorations.
Shen Yi stood in the center of the living room and blinked when she saw him walk in.
Shen Wenta shoved the gift in his hand to Shen Yi. Carrying a hint of the chill from outside, his gaze paused briefly on Song Sijun before returning to normal.
"...Are there this many people today?"
Never mind.
He couldn't be bothered to dwell on it. He reached out, gently poked her forehead, and stared at her, urging, "Aren't you going to open my gift?"
"..."
Shen Yi's head tilted slightly from the poke.
Aside from her younger brother's, which she had already opened, the rest of the family's gifts were still sitting on the table.
Shen Yi clearly remembered the scene from last year when they were on bad terms and at each other's throats; the elevator shoes he had gifted her were still vivid in her mind.
It was truly hard to imagine him giving her any normal gift.
Feeling a bit curious, Shen Yi decided to just go ahead and open Shen Wenta's gift first.
