Chapter 328
Chapter 328: Happy Birthday
Honestly, the gift-opening part was still pretty fun. Even after receiving two boxed sets of “Gaokao Sprint,” Little Red Riding Hood still felt happy.
Then the barbecue racks went up. The court musicians summoned by the King started playing new songs. Rapunzel took the chance to launch a few fireworks while no one was watching, and the atmosphere instantly turned lively.
The little kids ran around the bonfire, laughing and yelling. Irene even split off two bodies to join the fun, and she deliberately went to provoke a group of dollheads. Before long, the traditional program started again: the children chased her around like she was a runaway toy.
Everyone egged Mermaid on to sing a song, so she stood in front of the bonfire and belted out some massive choral piece with a name nobody knew. It had a full symphony orchestra, at least two hundred people singing, and by the end, at least five thousand people clapping and cheering.
Yu Sheng, who had no artistic bone in his body, didn’t understand a thing, but it still made his blood boil in the best way.
Engineer Sun sent over two crates of beer.
A bunch of fairy tale members swarmed over at once, but Yu Sheng blocked the beer. Beside him were wolves summoned by Little Red Riding Hood, and the King squatted proudly on top of the crates, waving its paws at the half-grown kids.
“Minors, move aside! The juice at the big table is for you!”
Yu Sheng turned to Little Red Riding Hood. “Congrats on becoming an adult—but only this once. Before you graduate high school, this is the only time you drink.”
Firelight painted Little Red Riding Hood’s face red. Her eyes sparkled as she stared at the beer, excitement mixed with hesitation. “…Isn’t this unhealthy?”
“You’re worried about health now?” Rapunzel wandered over, swinging a skewer of lamb. “When you thought you wouldn’t live to eighteen, you didn’t sound like this.”
Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth but didn’t answer.
Yu Sheng slapped down a strand of golden hair that was slowly sneaking up the table leg, then pulled two cans of beer out of Rapunzel’s hair for good measure. “Quit fishing in muddy water—you’re only sixteen this year!”
“Ah! Why is the lord so mean!” Rapunzel whined dramatically, then marched off in mock resentment.
Foxy wandered over curiously, took a can of beer from the table, opened it, and licked the foam. Her eyes lit up at once. “Benefactor! This taste is interesting!”
Yu Sheng had no idea what “interesting” was supposed to taste like, but judging by Foxy’s expression, she was pretty pleased.
Little Red Riding Hood finally relaxed. She licked her lips, grabbed a can of beer, and opened it too. The moment she took a sip, she nearly gagged. “It tastes awful!”
“The first time is always like that,” the King said. Somehow its cat face even carried an expression that looked experienced. It raised a paw and summoned an attendant. “Drink a couple more times and you’ll realize it’s kind of interesting.”
Before the King even finished, the blank-faced attendant opened a can of beer for it and poured it into a bowl on the table. The King nodded with satisfaction and lowered its head to drink.
Yu Sheng stared, shocked. “Cats can drink this?!”
“Cats aren’t supposed to talk either!” the King snapped, lifting its head to look at Yu Sheng like he was an idiot. “If you’re already a spirit, what can’t you do? Or what, are you saying your fox still can’t eat chocolate?”
Yu Sheng glanced at the nine-tailed fox, who was holding a beer can while eating barbecue and drinking at the same time. He opened a can for himself and said casually, “She really can’t eat chocolate. It gives her a stomachache. I think that’s pretty amazing too.”
Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng, then at Foxy. After hesitating, she took another sip of beer.
Still awful.
But she was happy.
In the past dozen years, she had rarely been this happy.
Fireworks lit up the sky. In the sudden bloom of light, there was also the shadow of something flying.
Yu Sheng looked up and saw a beautifully decorated pumpkin carriage drifting over the plaza. Rapunzel hung beneath it by her hair, holding a huge sparkling fountain in each hand and spraying light everywhere. The firelight washed the whole scene in gold, and the girl laughed without a care in the world.
Tonight, she seemed like the happiest person there besides Little Red Riding Hood.
The bonfire burned higher and higher. The King even sent people to add firewood twice.
Once the prepared meat was gone, the children started holding skewers by the racks to roast marshmallows, vegetables, and slices of bread.
Snow White somehow got her hands on a pile of sweet potatoes and secretly buried them in the hot ash beside the bonfire. Not long after, Foxy discovered them. She immediately bit three of them raw. She was about to bite the fourth when she got caught. Looking wronged, she buried the sweet potatoes back again.
After that, the King got drunk.
It was Yu Sheng’s first time seeing the King drunk. It swaggered over to the bonfire with an unstoppable strut, somehow found a megaphone, and when it turned it on, everyone jumped in shock.
“Next, I’m going to say a few meows—”
It barely got through the first sentence before it threw up all over the place, then got carried away by a frantic attendant.
A normal cat probably wouldn’t get drunk like that.
Yu Sheng held half a can of beer, smiling as he sat contentedly in a corner of the plaza.
Someone stood with him.
Luna stood quietly beside Yu Sheng. The distant firelight reflected off her gleaming shell like a layer of jumping illusions. She didn’t speak and didn’t move. Standing still, she looked like a sculpture with no warmth or life. From far away, it even looked a little… eerie.
But Yu Sheng could faintly sense her mood.
“You’re not going over?” Yu Sheng asked. “They really do welcome new friends.”
Luna hesitated, then answered slowly. “I… speak slow. Children… no patience.”
“You don’t need to worry,” Yu Sheng said with a smile, waving a hand. “These kids are more tolerant than you think. But it’s fine. If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. Fitting in takes time. Staying here with me for a while is good too.”
Luna nodded slightly and kept watching the bonfire.
No one knew what she was thinking.
After a long while, she broke the silence. “You… like fire?”
“Fire?” Yu Sheng blinked, confused. With the way their communication stumbled, he couldn’t always follow her train of thought. Still, he considered it seriously. “Yeah. I think I do. Warmth and light—people need both, especially in the dark. Firelight makes people feel safe.”
Luna lowered her head slowly.
Maybe it was his imagination, but in that instant, Yu Sheng felt something like holiness rising from the iron doll.
Of course, her “nun” posture already carried holiness. But that was just the Hermitage Order’s careful design—a perfect form, an elegant pose, all symbols of saint veneration. What Yu Sheng felt now was something else entirely.
Luna spoke again. Still slow and stiff, but her voice carried a low, blurred tremor.
“Then… I guard your fire.”
Bonfire light reflected on her shell, as if unreal flames danced across her, hazy and dreamlike.
“Uh…” Yu Sheng scratched his head. He didn’t really understand what she meant, but he nodded anyway. “Well… that’s good.”
Luna smiled—not the cold, hard steel smile, but a thin curve that looked alive.
Yu Sheng stared at her face, suddenly unsure if he’d drunk too much.
“Luna, can your face… actually change expressions?”
“I… don’t know.”
Yu Sheng blinked. The faint smile was gone, like it had only been a hallucination.
The gathering by the bonfire continued, while the noisy shrieks of the dollheads gradually faded away.
The youngest children got sleepy around ten and were sent to bed by the guardians. The plaza slowly ended up with only the older kids and adults.
After setting off all the fireworks she’d hoarded, Rapunzel, still not satisfied, tried to persuade Dorothy to lend her the anti-air guns. Dorothy refused harshly. Then Rapunzel tried to persuade Little Match Girl, but she got dragged away before she could even finish her sentence.
Mermaid sat by the bonfire, humming an unknown tune with lyrics she’d made up herself. If you got close, you could hear her singing, “Sitting beside a tall, tall fire pile, in a while I’ll turn into dried fish…”
Cinderella discovered that her pumpkin carriage had been scorched black by Rapunzel’s fireworks and was currently sulking in sorrow.
And Little Red Riding Hood, who kept saying beer tasted awful, finally got drunk too.
The result was a chorus of wolf howls across the plaza.
Yu Sheng looked up at the sound and saw Little Red Riding Hood and Foxy squatting side by side on a table. Little Red Riding Hood stretched her neck and howled at the sky.
“Awoooo—”
Every time she howled, Foxy followed with a sharper, higher “Awooo—”
Sometimes they even barked “woof” twice together, leaving the pack of shadow wolves squatting beside the table completely confused.
Everyone around them stared. Dragonslayer rubbed his eyes hard. “This is my first time seeing Sister Red Hood like this… If she wakes up, she won’t silence us, right?”
“Quit thinking about nonsense,” Rapunzel said, already pulling out her phone to record. “You don’t see this every day.”
Before she finished speaking, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly stood up on the table.
Everyone flinched—especially Rapunzel, mid-filming—but Little Red Riding Hood only pointed at Foxy, who was still squatting there, full of momentum.
“We’ve got fate. Let’s form a duo!”
Foxy wagged her tail so hard she nearly spun. “Sure, sure.”
“Then from now on, we’re partners in crime—”
Before she could finish, the girl in red fell backward, stiff as a board, and started snoring evenly on the tabletop.
When Yu Sheng walked over, he saw the whole thing. He didn’t manage to stop it.
He only managed to record a fifteen-second clip.
The noise slowly died down.
After a while, Yu Sheng heard someone whisper, “What time is it?”
Rapunzel muttered, “Don’t you have a phone? Look yourself.”
Yu Sheng checked the time without thinking.
“It’s past midnight. Just barely,” Snow White whispered.
Someone leaned toward the table and said softly, “Congrats, Sister Red Hood.” “Happy birthday, sis.” “You’ve become a boring lord now~”
Little Red Riding Hood suddenly sat up straight again on the table, eyes still closed, full of momentum.
“I want to get a driver’s license!!”
Everyone burst out laughing.
“Happy birthday, Wang Jia Jia,” Yu Sheng whispered to the sleeping girl in red.