For the entirety of the simple birthday party, the two boys spent almost the whole time secretly staring at Yu Xing.

However, Yu Xing did not pay attention to anything else. It had been a while since she’d last seen Su Qiu; when she visited home last week, Su Qiu had to go to make-up classes, and so on and so forth. Their schedules simply did not align with each other, so now that they had the chance to talk, they naturally had a lot to say.

The girls chatted together excitedly, but as the host, Su Qiu made sure the boys were not left out. From morning to evening, everyone involved had an enjoyable time. The two newcomers kept straight faces all throughout, just waiting for the opportunity to act gentlemanly in front of Yu Xing.

That careful and solemn appearance was also somewhat cute.

After dinner, they moved to a quiet bar.

Compared to a regular KTV bar, it was quieter and had a better atmosphere; they could sit and talk while playing games, and there were live performances by resident singers.

Su Qiu and her friends sat down and ordered drinks. They started by playing a dice game, then worked their way through all the popular games at gatherings. When the resident singer finished his performance, the microphone on the small stage was left unattended. Consequently, they all urged each other to go up and sing.

Yu Xing sipped her drink through her straw. She was drinking freshly squeezed fruit juice with extra ice cubes; she liked cold drinks even as the weather grew colder.

She thought that she might as well, since they were still trying to get each other to sing.

“Yu Xing, do you want to go up and sing?”

Jia Ruo, who had just refused to sing herself, saw the chance to divert the attention towards someone else. "That’s right! Yu Xing, you go sing!"

Yu Xing’s smile dropped. "Why dump it on me?"

Jia Ruo begged for mercy, doing her best to coax her into agreeing. “My singing is really bad! Come on, you go sing!”

"I don\'t sing very well either…"

"It\'s fine, go ahead."

"But…"

Yu Xing wanted to refuse, but Su Qiu suddenly leaned over. "Just sing one song, you can sing the one we usually sing together when we go to KTV."

Even though she had her birthday gift sent to her friend on her actual birthday, Yu Xing wanted her to be happy, so she finally agreed. She also didn’t want to spoil everyone\'s fun, and thus ended up going onstage.

Thankfully, there weren’t many people in the store because their group came early. There were only two or three tables of people, even counting the corner booths.

Yu Xing gave in to Su Qiu\'s pleading. "Just one song."

Su Qiu happily gave her a thumbs up.

After taking the stage, the audio clerk helped her select a song and handed her the microphone. Yu Xing sat on a high wooden stool. The entire area around her was shrouded in darkness, the only light on the stage shining on her.

Both she and Su Qiu liked the song she was about to sing, which was popular nationwide a few decades ago. The original singer had amazing appeal and a good voice, sweet but not overly so.

When the music started playing the gentle and melodious tune, guests at other tables also looked at her.

Yu Xing didn’t think her voice was very sweet, but the song was sweet, and as she continued to sing, she could not help but smile along with them.

—

"Holy shit, what a pretty girl!"

Translator\'s Note:

for some reason translating the texts made me laugh, i kinda want to get to the next parts as fast as i can just so i can reread the text convos. something something recontextualizing chinese into english, i\'m just glad i get to make them say fuck