The moment he heard this sentence, Chi Xueyan thought that this seemed to be the most ordinary and strange Christmas Eve in his memory.
He got off the car at the door of his house. There were no snowflakes outside, no pre-dressed Christmas trees, only the cold wind.
But he received an unimaginable Christmas gift.
An unsolved mystery standing next to him at the moment handed him a key that could be used to verify all the answers.
This is a gift that Chi Xueyan can never refuse - as long as he is still him.
He likes the secret details exchanged for birthday photo stories and recirpral.
In the novel, there are black and white protagonists, villains and passers-by, the omniscient and omnipotent perspective of God, and there are tragic or happy endings marked in advance.
But real life has never been so simple. It is impossible to clarify the thoughts hidden in other people's hearts, nor can it predict where the future will lead.
People can only live in the present from their own perspective.
In the scenery as eye can see, the only thing that can be certain is uncertainty itself.
For example, the current Heqiao.
An uncertain mystery has the transparency that only he is sure of.
It's the contradiction of Chi Xueyan's obsession.
In the future, he no longer has to spend extra energy to think about whether the mysterious book traveler He Qiao has hidden something from him.
The balance varies from the beginning, so it no longer tilts and sways, and everything returns to the fairest origin.
The new origin.
The key falls into the lock cylinder and turns it gently.
In the long winter night, he stared at He Qiao's side face that lowered his head to open the door.
The whole person's posture shows good education, but it does not look reserved, giving people a handsome, gentle, innocent and friendly impression.
The first feeling at the first meeting seems to still apply at this moment.
But it is not complete enough to summarize all the people around you.
The door was opened, and the room was as beautiful as before, but there was no festive atmosphere at all.
Chi Xueyan has no interest in the usual birthday, so she didn't prepare the most necessary links in advance: cakes, candles, wishes, gifts.
But most people always care about these ordinary rituals.
Especially the first birthday spent in a strange world.
Therefore, the first sentence after Chi Xueyan walked into the house was to ask He Qiao, "Do you need to eat birthday cake? I just passed several cake shops and forgot to stop the car to buy.
Buying a cake was originally what he intended to use to politely refuse He Qiao's words.
But it's not exactly an excuse. He did consider this point and treated He Qiao as a friend at that moment.
"No need." He Qiao shook his head, "I don't like cream very much. The cake is too big to buy."
Unlike Chi Xueyan, who takes candy with him, he has no particular preference for sweets, especially cream.
Moreover, for He Qiao, this is already the best birthday he can imagine.
The next second, he saw a smile in the other party's eyes.
"Don't you need it?"
Chi Xueyan took off his coat and threw it on the sofa casually, with a vague mocking tone: "I also wanted to make a cake for you."
Chi Xueyan said she would make a cake for him.
... He Qiao suddenly didn't know how to answer.
This is the end of his birthday that he can't imagine.
The most unexpected end of birthday.
But the last sentence "no" is still in my ears.
Seeing the regret on his expression, the smile on Chi Xueyan's face became more and more vivid. He no longer asked Shou Xing for this obvious answer, but went straight to the kitchen.
"There is no cream, the volume is small, and it can be finished in half an hour." He told the truth, "It's a lazy cake. Don't expect too much."
It's a long half an hour for people who are busy in the kitchen.
For the people who accompany in the kitchen, this is too short an hour.
Chi Xueyan rarely looked at the balloon man outside the window to relieve his boredom, but lowered his head and carefully separated the egg white from the yolk.
Eggs, butter, low-gluten flour, baking powder, matcha powder... are all things prepared in advance in the kitchen before moving into the wedding room.
He Qiao can cook, but he has never been exposed to baking. Therefore, he once felt strange why his mother would prepare so many commonly used raw materials for baking.
Once on the phone, he mentioned it casually, and Sheng Xiaoyue told him that it was bought by Han Zhenzhen, saying that Xiaochi might need it.
On the contrary, this made He Qiao even more surprised.
From Chi Xueyan's perfunctory sandwich that has remained unchanged for breakfast when he made breakfast, and he repeatedly emphasized that he did not want to learn to cook, we can clearly see his resistance to cooking.
It's hard to imagine him taking the initiative to go into the kitchen to bake.
But He Qiao did see it. There was a group chat about the production of sweets in his mobile phone.
It was on the wedding day.
He saw Chi Xueyan's bright mobile phone screen, and at the same time found the note on it for him and Ren Xuan.
It's not the time to ask about the latter.
But today, he at least solved the previous doubt.
"... After living together for more than 20 years, it is inevitable that there will be quarrels and unpleasantness." When Chi Xueyan stirred the egg yolk paste, he chatted with He Qiaoxan to pass the time. "They are angry with me for the rest of their lives, and I will go into the kitchen."
What's more, he always does whatever he wants. It's common to make his parents angry, even if they are much more tolerant than ordinary parents.
"My father loves sweets, so I learned the simplest desserts and cakes." As he said, he smiled, "I added a group dedicated to sharing lazy recipes - do you know how lazy that group owner is?"
"She doesn't even bother to add the word "lazy" to the name of the group chat, but sometimes she is still willing to overcome laziness and bake a small cake for herself."
"People are really strange and contradictory animals. Just like I hate cooking, but occasionally I take the initiative to go into the kitchen to make a sweet."
In front of the clear glass window in the winter night, Chi Xueyan lowered his head and smiled. He Qiao, who was waiting beside him, stared at his back, with a smile on his face that even he didn't notice.
"Don't you like sweets?"
"Well, she doesn't like it, so I'll give her a hot cup of milk." Chi Xueyan continued, "My father will temporarily forget to be angry with me when he eats what he likes, and my mother holds hot milk and sees me reluctantly washing a pile of utensils in the kitchen, and seems to forgive me."
"However, if the same tricks are used too much, antibodies will always be produced. But it just so happened that I started to work as a children's dentist after graduation.
"I have forgotten what happened that day. Anyway, I started to make cakes, and they also followed the kitchen and wanted to continue to quarrel. As a result, I suddenly began to tell fairy tales."
In the light and happy memories, Chi Xueyan poured the mixed batter into a paper cup and put it into the oven.
The most troublesome step was finally completed. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at He Qiao.
Under the warm yellow light in the kitchen, He Qiao behind him was still waiting patiently for the suspense to be revealed, about what happened after the sudden story of a fairy tale.
The oven made a noise of running. Chi Xueyan leaned against the kitchen table and told him the answer with a smile: "When my parents heard it for the first time, they were stunned at first, and then asked me in a disbelievable tone if I was coaxing them as children."
"I said, yes, I often tell this story to the children lying on the dental chair, and they usually like it very much, because this is a new version that I have never heard of before."
"I simply admitted that I was coaxing them like a child. So they suddenly had no choice but to listen to stories in the kitchen or wait for dessert and hot milk in the living room.
"So far, this trick has not failed, because I always have new stories."
Chi Xueyan talked to the end, and the memories bordered reality: "Moreover, I don't need it recently. We don't often live together, and there's nothing to quarrel about."
He has a new home, although it is not a real home yet.
He Qiao probably thought of the same place.
In the kitchen of the new home, in a similar sweet aroma, he took the initiative to ask about the story that Chi Xueyan had told a long time ago.
"What was the first fairy tale you told?"
"The story of the mermaid." Chi Xueyan said, "But the plot is completely different. For example, it's not her who turned into a bubble."
In the original story, the prince has a beloved princess and is going to marry her, and the little mermaid trembles and throws the knife. At dawn, it becomes a foam beating on the sea.
He felt that children should not listen to such fairy tales, give up their fish tails for the sake of love, and finally lose their lives. They are no longer the little mermaids who lived happily at the beginning.
He Qiao asked, "Who turned into a bubble? A prince?"
"It's not anyone, it's time that has become a bubble."
"The little mermaid regretted it, so in the new story, she decided to swim to the deep sea. Compared with the distant prince on the shore, there were corals and pearls she liked more."
Chi Xueyan has told different people about this newly compiled fairy tale countless times, but only tonight, she suddenly felt an allegory-like atmosphere.
Did he tell this fairy tale in the book?
Probably not, because he soon gave up the career he used to like and went to the company at home to register.
So at the beginning, He Qiao didn't know that he was a dentist.
Chi Xueyan lowered his eyes, and his eyebrows were stained with the dim and silent light in the room. After listening to the fairy tale, He Qiao did not say anything, but just looked at him with the same gentle eyes as always.
In the gentle trembling of the eyelashes, perhaps after waiting for a long time, maybe only a moment, the oven stinged crisply.
The cake is baked.
He turned around and started to be busy again.
Go to the snack box and get a pack of marshmallows, and then open two boxes of milk.
The milk pot gradually boiled, and the marshmallow was cut on the cutting board.
Then he put on his gloves and took out the two small cupcakes from the oven.
He Qiao has consciously sat at the table and waited for him to appear with the cake.
This is the simplest and most special birthday cake he has ever seen.
The two matcha muffin cakes are particularly fluffy when they are just baked. The round top of the cake expands and cracks outward, like a large layered dark green branch, each dotted with several pieces of marshmallows.
The pure white marshmallow was cut into thin slices, and each slice was deliberately cut out of snowflake-like edges, although the edges were not neat and symmetrical at all, and were casual.
They look like two Christmas trees covered with snowflakes.
There are two cups of hot milk next to it.
Chi Xueyan sat down opposite him and whispered, "There is no birthday candle at home, but this cake looks like a Christmas tree, and it's even more like marshmallows, so I think it can replace the function of the candle."
Candles, like Christmas trees, are used to make wishes.
Sweets and milk were his previous way to coax his parents, so he added an extra sentence.
"I'm not angry, and you shouldn't be. So it's not because of quarreling to coax you.
Chi Xueyan said, "Just because you are going to usher in a new year in this world, you may need a ceremonial cake, and I suddenly want to drink hot milk."
Then, he said again, "Happy birthday."
That's a blessing with a completely opposite meaning.
Say goodbye and start.
The cold wind outside the window blows over the withered leaves.
The light in the window reflects two Christmas trees that have made wishes.
He Qiao thought that at this moment, it was obviously not the words to say thank you, and it was too early to say thank you in a more intimate way.
So he said, "The matcha muffin cake really looks like a Christmas tree."
Making a birthday cake into a tree and then cutting the marshmallow into snow is a strange idea that only people in front of you can think of.
"Isn't it?" Chi Xueyan was very satisfied with his recognition. "Especially after adding marshmallows, it's a pity that it's too troublesome to cut, not like snowflakes."
"I'll cut it next time."
"...Do you still want to eat this cake next year?"
He Qiao carefully listed three reasons: "There is no cream, the size is just right, and I should also learn how to do it."
Hearing the words, Chi Xueyan looked at him with a smile, then stopped talking and picked up the glass in her hand.
The dark green glass is the most suitable cup for this dining table chosen by Chi Xueyan. It was filled with the most sour lemonade four months ago.
Now, he drinks hot milk with it in the light.
And He Qiao began to taste his birthday cake.
The pine branches are covered with snow again, but it smells warm and soft.