Chapter 278: Xia Zili's Birthday (2)

On the night of October 25, as the massive sun sank below the horizon, the city's tens of thousands of lights blinked on one after another, forming a ribbon of light like a long dragon.

At the same time, the Xia-Ke family's birthday party officially began.

Even though this was supposed to be Xia Zili's birthday party, the absence of Xia Ningzhi—the life of the party—left the remaining lineup looking absolutely disastrous. No matter how you looked at it, they couldn't sustain a party atmosphere to save their lives: a repressed father who couldn't squeeze out two sentences in half a day, a "ditzy" mother, a neurotic and unreliable eldest brother, and an overly awkward younger sister.

And, caught right in the middle, a luckless second brother who was neither human nor ghost—

Ke Mingqing sighed. 'Looking at it now, Third Sister really was a one-woman army,' he thought. 'She managed to infect all the weirdos in this house with her silly, cheerful spirit, barely keeping up a warm atmosphere.'

Right now, he looked up from the rim of his soda can. Sweeping his gaze across the room, he still had absolutely no clue who was supposed to warm up the crowd for this party.

Given Ke Linye and Ke Mingwei's standing in the house, any attempt they made to speak would probably just kill the mood and earn a round of awkward laughter. Furthermore, their personalities weren't suited for it anyway—the former was a lunatic, and the latter was a repressed middle-aged man.

Meanwhile, someone like Xia Wenna had already completely transcended the bounds of humanity. Her thoughts and perceptions operated on a completely different frequency from the rest of them.

Forcing her to host the party and liven up the atmosphere would be no different from Earth broadcasting a signal to aliens warning them, "Rain Crow is the strongest superhero on our planet, so you alien invaders better watch out!" only for the aliens to reply, "What? Rain Crow is gay! Halt the offensive, halt the offensive, prioritize protecting the chastity of our troops!"—anyway, it would be exactly that nonsensical and baffling.

So after filtering through everyone, the only one left was Xia Zili herself.

But this was her birthday party. No matter how you looked at it, she couldn't be the one to host it, right?

So, in the very end, the only candidate left was Ke Mingqing.

However, he had no interest in doing the job, so he simply pawned it off on his eldest brother, who seemed full of enthusiasm for it.

Ke Mingqing turned his head, glancing at Ke Linye, who was fiddling with the candles in the kitchen and carving words into their wax, and couldn't help but let out a low, dry chuckle.

'We'd be better off having Mom whip out her mechanical tentacles and perform a specialty act from Planet Fangongta,' he thought. 'Now that would be real entertainment. It beats having a bunch of emotionally stunted people awkwardly chatting here, anyway—'

"What are you zoning out for?" a clear, lovely voice suddenly asked from beside him.

"Oh—what an imposing display of authority. I'm not even allowed to zone out in my own home?"

Ke Mingqing spoke flatly as he pulled his gaze away from the group bustling around the cake in the kitchen and looked at Xia Zili.

Xia Zili wrinkled her nose slightly and said without hesitation, "It's my birthday. Your attention needs to be on me."

Ke Mingqing tilted his head, looking at her in silence for a long time.

He finally understood. The two of them had been giving each other the cold shoulder these past few days, so Xia Zili hadn't been able to act unreasonably in front of him. Now that they had finally made up, she had to take the opportunity to mess around a bit.

After a moment, he couldn't help but reach out and gently poke the tip of her fair nose.

"Why does your birthday mean all attention has to be on you? Just because you're my younger sister, my idol, my girlfriend, and my savior—?"

With that, Ke Mingqing suddenly changed his tune. "Alright, you win. Put like that, it seems I really shouldn't be zoning out on your birthday. It's an unforgivable crime. I'll just let you confiscate my phone for the rest of the night, how about that?"

Xia Zili shook her head. Looking down at Ke Mingqing's finger resting on her nose, she opened her mouth to bite it. "I don't want your phone. There's nothing interesting on it anyway."

Ke Mingqing hurriedly pulled his hand back. He stretched and casually said, "There really isn't much to see on my phone. The people who would text me are basically either dead or have cut contact. It's full of a sense of security—we're the couple that least needs phone inspections in the world. We're practically two orphans."

Xia Zili fell silent.

She looked up helplessly, staring at him without blinking. She didn't know how this brother of hers was so good at talking. Every sentence was a double-edged sword that hurt the enemy a thousand times while damaging himself by eight hundred. He stabbed others right in the heart without sparing himself, leaving her with absolutely no angle to attack him from.

To put it in perspective, it was like an orphan mocking someone else for losing their entire family. Even if you wanted to fire back, he would just smile and say, "Bro, don't be so sensitive. Look at my family, they're all dead too, and aren't I happy every day?"

As the siblings were chatting, the living room lights suddenly dimmed.

They raised their eyebrows and turned their heads over the back of the sofa, looking toward the only spot in the house lit with a faint glow. They saw Tool Number One of this birthday party carrying a gorgeous cake, walking out of the kitchen with solemn steps like a divine child about to receive baptism.

Tool Number One had just rushed back from the Police Department and was still wearing his police uniform. His face was a bit exhausted and stern. In the darkness, this scene looked exactly like a police raid, enough to strike terror into anyone's heart.

A few candles glowed in the darkness, their faint flames swaying gently.

The party's Tool Number Two stepped out of the kitchen right after him, the corners of his lips quirked up and his bright eyes curved into crescents as he sang "Happy Birthday" a cappella.

Where was Xia Wenna?

Just as Ke Mingqing was wondering this, a figure appeared behind him and Xia Zili without them noticing. Like a ghost, she slowly reached out, wrapped her arms silently around their shoulders, and popped a small party popper over their heads.

With a loud "pop," the two of them jumped in fright. Still reeling from the shock, they whipped their heads around and looked at Xia Wenna's face amidst the scattering confetti.

Xia Wenna lowered her head and placed a birthday flower crown on Xia Zili. A faint smile graced her lips, and the usual fog in her eyes seemed to have melted away.

Ke Mingqing stared at this face that was so close at hand. 'Mom, you probably know too,' he thought. 'This is the last birthday you'll ever celebrate for your child, isn't it—'

Just then, Xia Zili suddenly turned her head to look out the window. She saw a flock of crows, each holding a glowing LED letter light in its beak, dancing and staggering along the courtyard wall.

Finally, the crows stopped atop the wall. The colorful LED lights formed a line of text:

—HappyBirthday! Happy birthday, my precious daughter.

Xia Zili froze, her gaze entirely locked onto the flock of crows. At that moment, the leftmost crow spread one wing, and the rightmost crow spread its corresponding opposite wing, forming a visually pleasing symmetry.

Ke Mingqing wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tilted his head to rest it against the side of hers. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "Oho, the old man actually has a romantic side. I'm seeing this useless Crow Man in a whole new light."

"Darling, what's going on?" Xia Wenna—the only person in the house who still had to pretend she didn't know her husband's secret identity—asked in surprise.

Ke Mingwei held the birthday cake in his hands and coughed twice. "Thanks to working at the Police Department for so many years, I'm somewhat acquainted with Rain Crow. I heard Xiao Li was a fan of his, so I asked him to help give her a surprise at her birthday party—"

At those words, aside from Xia Wenna clapping and calling him amazing, and Ke Linye smiling happily, everyone else shot Ke Mingwei a look of slight disdain.

"Enough about that. Make a wish," Ke Mingwei said, scratching his head awkwardly with a frown. "None of us have eaten yet. Once you make your wish, we can have some cake to fill our stomachs."

"Don't act as tense as if you're on a police raid, alright? Comrade police officer who has the fortune of knowing Rain Crow," Ke Linye teased with a smile, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks... Dad."

Xia Zili didn't say much else, merely muttering the words before silently stepping closer to Ke Mingwei. She clasped her hands together, the swaying candlelight reflecting in her dark pupils.

"Good sister, you have to close your eyes to make a wish," Ke Linye reminded her casually.

"Could you please shut up?" Xia Zili frowned. "I'm still thinking. I haven't started wishing yet."

Ke Linye paused, then shrugged. "My apologies."

Seeing this, Ke Mingwei mimicked Ke Linye's teasing tone from earlier. Speaking with a muffled voice through the cigarette in his mouth, he said, "Don't act as tense as if you're on a police raid, alright? Eldest son of the comrade police officer who has the fortune of knowing Rain Crow."

"Yes, sir." Ke Linye smiled helplessly.

"Come on, it's already time to sing the birthday song. Can you two old men keep it down?" Ke Mingqing cursed under his breath.

Xia Wenna also spoke up in all seriousness, "That's right. When making a wish, everyone is supposed to gather around and sing."

The sound of the birthday song echoed through the living room, mostly sung in complete disarray. It was obvious that everyone in the family had inherited their father's tone-deafness. Outside on the wall, the crows had already silently put away that string of LED letter lights.

"What did you wish for back then?" Xia Zili suddenly turned her head and asked after a moment.

Ke Mingqing, who had been singing along, paused slightly and tilted his head to recall.

A few months ago, the young man had closed his eyes, clasped his hands in front of the swaying candlelight, and said in a voice that no one could hear, "I hope that in half a year, I can successfully kill my entire family."

Ke Mingqing snapped back from the memory with a shudder. He shook his head and offered a dry laugh. "I forgot. It's not important."

"Stingy." Xia Zili glared at him.

Ke Mingwei was still holding the cake, looking at the two siblings rather helplessly.

"Actually, my wish back then was to date the magical girl Ember, and it ended up coming true not long after."

"Keep dreaming. The magical girl Ember is already dead."

Having said that, Xia Zili also clasped her hands, lowered her gaze, and closed her eyes, silently making a wish in front of the warm candlelight.

As Ke Mingqing sipped his soda, he turned his head and quietly watched her moving lips.

He could tell what she was wishing for just by reading her lips. Lowering his eyes slightly, he said to her, "Are you an idiot? You're supposed to make wishes for yourself. Otherwise, what's the point of a birthday?"

Xia Zili didn't respond to him. She just puffed out her cheeks slightly and blew out the candles in one breath.