Chapter 49 Birthday Cake

Chapter 49: Birthday Cake

Shen Rong's face was even more of a mess than Shen Ci's.

Liang Ning was the first to come over and drag Shen Rong to the restroom; with her family watching, she just couldn't take the embarrassment.

"Birthday gift." Shen Shiyan stood up, pulling out a red envelope that looked pretty heavy and handing it to Shen Yao, offering a polite smile to the elders. "I'm really sorry, but I gotta take him back to change."

Shen Ci wasn't sure if Shen Shiyan saw what just happened. Feeling kinda guilty, he looked up at Shen Shiyan.

Shen Shiyan took off his jacket and held it in his hand, beside him, a little cat with half his face smeared in cream.

Shen Ci could smell the sweet smell, torn between worrying about getting Daddy's car dirty and whether Daddy was mad. He chose to lick the cream off the corner of his mouth with the tip of his tongue.

"That greedy?"

Just as he was sneaking a second lick of cream, he'd barely clicked his seatbelt in when Shen Shiyan's voice hit his ears first. Then he leaned in, his whole face filling Shen Ci's view, showing no emotion at all.

Shen Ci sat up straight, his heart racing.

He felt the familiar cold, crisp scent mixed with a hint of warm breath and the sweetness of cream, flooding all his senses in the almost closed-off space.

In his nervousness, the ridiculously handsome face in front of him pulled back slightly, then his arm slowly lifted.

Oh no, oh no, was he gonna get hit?

Stuck in the seatbelt with nowhere to go, Shen Ci swallowed hard and closed his eyes.

No hit.

Shen Shiyan just reached out and gently wiped a bit of cream off his upper lip that he hadn't licked off. "Gross."

Shen Ci's face turned red. He stared blankly as Shen Shiyan got up and shut the car door.

As the engine started humming, Shen Ci quickly explained to Shen Shiyan, "Daddy, Shen Rong didn't touch me. The cream on this cake is clean, and my face is clean too—I just washed it before we left the house."

Shen Shiyan grabbed a tissue to wipe his hand, gripped the steering wheel, and just said "Mm" quietly.

Shen Ci couldn't tell if he was mad, so he said, "I just thought it'd be a waste. This is my first time eating birthday cake."

The car, which had been driving smoothly, gave a tiny jolt—Shen Shiyan's foot on the gas pedal paused for a second.

"Mm." Still quiet.

Shen Ci shut up.

"Go take a shower." Shen Shiyan didn't talk to Shen Ci again until they got home. He leaned against the doorframe, texting.

After Shen Ci washed up, Shen Shiyan stared at his fresh face for a few seconds, then looked away, tossed his phone on the couch, and went into the bathroom.

After a quick rinse, he dried his damp hair, picked up his phone again, shifted his gaze to Shen Ci, who was sitting there in a daze in his pajamas, and said quietly, "Go get changed. We're going out."

Shen Ci snapped out of it, his mind racing. He figured they must be heading back to Yuncheng Restaurant, let out a quiet "Oh," and was about to leave barefoot.

Someone tugged the back of his clothes. He turned around and saw Shen Shiyan's gaze was totally calm, just like always.

"Put your shoes on."

"Oh." Shen Ci cheered up a little. Since Shen Shiyan was still taking care of him, it meant he wasn't gonna ditch him.

This was a conclusion he'd come to on his own, maybe borrowing a bit from Song Qiuchi's own experience. Last time he messed up so bad that Shen Shiyan didn't talk to him for three days, but in the middle of it, when he had a stomachache, Shen Shiyan still came into his room with a stiff face and slipped his hand under his blanket.

Shen Ci remembered it was because a bold stray cat had gotten into the yard. He let the cat into his room, and it snatched away the peace charm that Shen Shiyan kept on his desk and held in his hands every day.

He had never heard Shen Shiyan say a single word about that peace charm, but he knew it was something incredibly, incredibly important to him.

Shen Ci spent a long time chasing the cat around the yard, getting his face all dirty, before he managed to get the charm back.

But it now had a few cat hairs and two small holes bitten through by sharp teeth.

That was the first time he had seen such obvious anger on Shen Shiyan's face.

After that, Shen Shiyan no longer left the peace charm on his desk and kept his distance from every cat he encountered.

"Daydreaming again?" After work, Shen Shiyan rarely wore anything other than suits. Now dressed in a casual gray outfit, he poked Shen Ci's forehead.

Now Shen Ci was completely sure that Shen Shiyan wasn't gonna ditch him and wasn't mad either.

He took Shen Shiyan's pinky again and asked, "Won't it be too late if we go back now?"

Shen Shiyan always shortened his stride when walking side by side with Shen Ci, looking a bit awkward with his long legs. He put his other hand in his pocket. "We're not going back. They've all finished eating, so why bother?"

"Huh? That's a shame. I really wanted to eat that pinecone pastry." Shen Ci sighed regretfully, spotted a pebble on the road, and nudged it with his toe. "So where are we going now?"

"Just wandering around." Shen Shiyan was vague, but Shen Ci loved being with him, so even wandering was fun.

Though he said "wandering," Shen Shiyan had a clear destination. He stopped in front of a dessert shop in Jinting Center.

"Welcome to Sweet Island. How can I help you?"

The wind chimes on the glass door jingled softly, and the shop assistant's voice was gentle. The air was filled with the aroma of caramel and freshly baked chiffon cake. Shen Ci felt like he was wrapped in a freshly baked, fluffy piece of bread.

"Order a birthday cake. Size and design are up to him, price is no object." Shen Shiyan gently tugged the hand holding his, pulling Shen Ci forward a bit.

"Of course, sir."

The shop assistant bent down and smiled at Shen Ci, pulling up cake designs on her tablet for him to choose from. "Little one, there's a table over there. We can discuss it."

Every time Shen Shiyan did something like this—acting without words—it moved Shen Ci so much he wanted to cry. Suppressing the urge to shout "Daddy, I love you!" under Shen Shiyan's slightly warning gaze, he obediently followed the shop assistant to the table and sat down, seriously looking at the pictures on the tablet.

Shen Shiyan stood quietly in front of Sweet Island's display case, the tips of his ears a little warm.

Even he didn't understand why his heart softened so much every time Shen Ci quietly mentioned his miserable past.

Not far from him, the person the shop assistant had called "little one" was swinging his legs again, but deliberately keeping them away so his shoes wouldn't dirty the shop assistant's white dress.

His hair had grown as long as when Shen Shiyan first met him, without any styling or dyeing, falling softly just below his collarbone, with a slight curve at the ends. The delicate face buried in his hair looked unreal, like something out of a painting.

"Pretty sister, are these decorations on the cake also made of cream?"

His voice was the same too—youthful with a hint of childish softness.

"No, they're made of fondant." The shop assistant, flattered by Shen Ci's repeated "pretty sister," whispered a reminder, "They're not that tasty, and they're more expensive than cream."

Shen Ci nodded, indicating he understood.

He had no concept of cake sizes, so he pointed at the sample images on the screen to communicate.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Shen Shiyan's lips.