Shen Wenta first felt a trace of bewilderment, and then said, "What gives them the right to demand compensation from me?"
It was a very classic statement of the privileged elite, but he was telling the truth.
No matter what Shen Yi planned to do, as long as a scene was caused, the host of the banquet here would personally come to apologize to him with a smiling face.
As the hosts, their first consideration would be how to smooth over the trouble his sister caused.
Rather than asking him for compensation.
Ask him for compensation?
Are they crazy?
Shen Yi: "Oh. I understand."
Meaning, she wouldn't even need to pay if she stirred up trouble?
That was too awesome.
Just very immoral.
Guests arriving late in a hurry to a birthday banquet wouldn't usually attract attention, but her brother was obviously the center of attention wherever he went.
Many men and women picked up their wine glasses, piling on their dedicated social smiles. Seeing that the crowd was already trending toward gathering around them, Shen Yi made a prompt decision and forcefully shook off his hand.
Her movements were crisp and clean, without the slightest hesitation.
She definitely did not want to be surrounded by this group of people.
Shen Wenta, who was ruthlessly abandoned, froze for a moment.
For a split second, his expression was so cold it could have mitigated global warming.
But Shen Yi turned a blind eye. She even waved at him from a distance, taking the opportunity to pull Shen Xun along. The two children blended into the dazzling crowd and gradually disappeared from sight.
Seeing that she had really run off without looking back, Shen Wenta twitched the corner of his mouth and signaled to the bodyguard beside him, "Follow the two of them. Come to me if anything happens."
...
Shen Yi's gaze constantly swept over the people around them, seemingly looking for someone.
She looked very carefully.
She would pause for an extra second on every child's face.
Shen Xun didn't understand what she was doing; he just spaced out on his own.
"How is your eyesight?" Shen Yi asked, tugging at Shen Xun after looking around and realizing she couldn't possibly check everyone by herself.
Shen Xun: "Very good."
"Then help me look quickly. Is there a boy here who looks a lot like me?"
"A boy, who looks a lot like you?"
Shen Xun's phrasing was a bit strange.
He placed the emphasis on "boy."
In fact, Shen Xun was truly and genuinely confused.
A boy who looked a lot like his sister?
Why look for him?
What happens after finding him?
It was a very strange thing to say, but he didn't ask further. He just quietly followed Shen Yi, his gaze aimlessly sweeping over the people around them.
Shen Xun wasn't seriously looking at all.
He didn't want to look.
This was a subtle intuition, not a conclusion derived from logical deduction; he couldn't explain why.
So Shen Xun tried to change the subject.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
Shen Yi was still looking around: "I'm okay?"
She indeed hadn't eaten dinner.
From trying on her styling to leaving the house, it took three or four hours of tossing about. In between, she only had a few small cookies handed to her by the stylist.
Right now, her stomach was indeed a bit empty.
Much of the food at the banquet was just exquisitely plated in tiny portions—the kind that wouldn't make you full but wouldn't let you starve either, barely enough to pad the stomach.
Shen Xun had sharp eyes and saw a few plates of small cakes on the long table nearby.
Strawberry, chocolate, mango—each was only about two bites in size, adorned with fresh fruit on top.
He walked over and picked up a plate of cake covered in strawberries.
"Then let's eat it!"
His tone carried a bizarre sort of cheerfulness, like an AI pretending to be human.
His every movement seemed carefully calculated, and a smile even rose on his face.
"..."
Shen Yi's attention finally fell back onto him a little, puzzled: "You want us to eat this cake?"
He nodded.
"Alright..." It was just eating a cake, why use such a jubilant tone? It wasn't like there was a famine at home.
Shen Yi found it very strange.
But she still took the cake and picked up the small fork on top.
Shen Xun bit the corner of his mouth.
Was this wrong?
He secretly observed Shen Yi's expression.
The internet said that boys who love to smile won't have bad luck.
Tone needs to have fluctuations to be easily liked by others.
He had already tried hard to smile and tried hard to give his tone some fluctuation.
Why was his sister looking at him with an even stranger expression?
Shen Yi used the fork to eat the strawberry on top, then scooped a piece of cake into her mouth.
"I used to like sharing cake with people too," she said, speaking from her feelings.
Shen Xun caught that word.
Used to.
"Who?" he asked.
"A little kid."
Shen Yi spoke vaguely.
Combining this with her background, Shen Xun could only conclude that the 'little kid' was perhaps her companion from the orphanage.
Taking turns bite by bite, after eating up the small cake, Shen Yi's stomach finally didn't feel uncomfortably empty anymore.
The two children had their heads together, muttering about something.
Sharing a cake in their hands, their relationship looked very intimate.
Song Sijun, leaning boredly against the railing on the upper floor of the banquet hall, looked down and saw this scene, and for the first time, he spaced out a little.
He, Song Yi, and Shen Yi all shared the same birthday.
Whenever that day came, the one surrounded by the stars was always Song Yi, while his sister would hold his hand and weave through the crowd.
Shen Yi's movements were very light and very careful, as if afraid of being discovered.
She easily bypassed the people at the banquet and took the most beautifully decorated cake from the top tier of the long table.
Then she took him to an empty guest room. After shutting the door tightly, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and collapsed lazily onto the bed. "Good thing we weren't noticed."
"It would be trouble if we were found out."
Song Sijun couldn't help but complain: "Why do we have to be so cautious just to take a cake, when today is clearly our birthday too?"
He hated it.
He hated everything here.
Shen Yi sat up: "I also want to ask that question, but that group of people around Song Yi look at me like dogs seeing meat; they always come up and bite me for no reason."
"Don't you think this world is really bizarre?"
Does this world belong to Song Yi?
Do people who don't befriend her, or who oppose her, all have to die?
"Not only is this world sick, but Dad is sick too. He could obviously arrange two separate parties, yet he makes the three of us squeeze together," Song Sijun was furious. "Today is clearly our birthday too."
But in the end, the ones who needed to sneak around were the two of them.
Where in the world was the logic in that?
Shen Yi agreed immensely: "You're right, it's all Song Guanyan's fault. I used to look forward to birthdays."
Now look.
Let alone looking forward to it, on their birthday, it was a good thing if they weren't stepped on a few times by Song Yi's admirers.
He licked the cream off the fork and mumbled, "Why look forward to it? Birthdays are obviously very boring."
Shen Yi said, "Because in the past, I would look forward to Auntie Director buying me a cake. Occasionally, when she had spare money, she would celebrate for us once—a small piece, shared among everyone."
She paused, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly.
"She liked me a lot."
That was his first time hearing his sister mention Auntie Director.
"Is that so..." Song Sijun whispered.
And now, Shen Yi was not lacking in cakes.
So birthdays weren't important anymore either.
Shen Yi poked at the cake in her hands, "The way I see it, a birthday is just a formality. I really don't know what the point of hosting this kind of banquet is."
"No, it's not," Song Sijun recalled the birthday banquets of the past few years and whispered. "For Song Yi's birthday, many people will show up to celebrate her birth."
"Gifts, friends, family, and companionship."
These are universal symbols of happiness and joy.
Shen Yi let out a soft sigh, sitting on the bed and swinging her legs. "...It is a bit hard to imagine."
When someone has never experienced these things, it is impossible for them to imagine anyone possessing so much. To her, a birthday was just a day when she could eat cake.
Actually, the orphanage director was quite nice.
At least someone remembered her birthday and occasionally gave her a little surprise.
As for seeking other forms of companionship or blessings, that was simply too unrealistic.
In the end, the two of them shared and ate more than half of the cake.
Children's digestive systems are rather delicate. In the middle of the night, both of them felt nauseous from the overwhelming sweetness, tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
"Sister, why didn't you grab something else? The cake is so rich and sweet," Song Sijun complained softly.
Shen Yi also clutched her stomach, her voice weak. "But aren't you supposed to get cake for a birthday? I didn't think that much about it. Next time, it can be your turn to go get the food."
"Fine, I will get it then," Song Sijun rolled over, grumbling resentfully. "At least I won't grab a cake that makes both of us want to throw up!"
Actually, in Song Sijun's memory, those sneaky experiences were somewhat pitiful.
But he still liked to reminisce about the past.
The cake in his memory was not really that delicious to him, either.
But even so, a cake was still a cake.
Looking back,
it was still sweet.
There should be three more chapters.
I will try my best to publish all three chapters together this afternoon.
I cannot do it right now because I have to go visit relatives. I have to get up early, so goodnight everyone.
