Chapter 81: Birthday

By the time Chi Xiao sat up again, his short hair—barely longer than a finger—had already been tied into over a dozen tiny pigtails with colorful hair ties by Ming Can. His slightly longer bangs were not only tied up but also covered with sparkling hair clips. Miaomiao assisted from behind, constantly handing tools to Ming Can. Ming Can was laughing so hard her face was cramping, holding up her phone to take endless pictures of Chi Xiao together with Miaomiao. As they snapped away, they urged him to look in the mirror and share his thoughts on the hairstyle.

“It looks amazing.” Chi Xiao, like a worn-out puppet after being played with, sat there with his cold and indifferent face now adorned with a riot of colors. He glanced at the two people in front of him, who were laughing uncontrollably, and said, “As expected of my wife and son’s handiwork.”

Ming Can: “Who’s your wife?”

Chi Xiao stood up without hesitation, towering over her. He reached out and pinched her cheeks, forcibly squishing her face into the shape of a pufferfish. “If you weren’t my wife, would you dare to do this to me?”

Ming Can wanted to argue, but when she looked up and saw the little pigtails swaying on top of his head, she instantly let out a “pfft” before dissolving into helpless laughter, unable to make another sound.

Chi Xiao finally let her go, then grabbed his son and their dog—both laughing and barking wildly on the side—and gave them each a little “lesson.”

“Dad’s being unfair,” Miaomiao complained, covering his butt. “Mom was the real mastermind! Why are you only punishing me and Xiao Xiao?”

Xiao Xiao barked twice in protest.

Chi Xiao casually pulled two hair clips from his head and, in an unhurried tone, said, “I’ll deal with her tonight.”

…

They stayed at home until a little past one in the afternoon. After Miaomiao woke up from his nap, the three of them drove to the venue of the birthday party.

It was a Western-style villa with a massive garden, a property under Ming Shu’s name. Ming Shu would also be returning to Beicheng today to attend Miaomiao’s birthday party, playing the role of his mother in front of his classmates.

The classmates were expected to arrive around four o’clock, but Ming Can and Chi Xiao brought Miaomiao over early because they had other plans.

In the car, Ming Can kept checking her hairstyle in a small mirror. Her sweet, shoulder-length braided hair perfectly matched her elegant and luxurious strappy dress with a voluminous skirt, making her look like a character straight out of a Nordic fairy tale.

After putting down the mirror, she reached into her bag and pulled out a camcorder. From this moment on, Miaomiao’s birthday party was officially underway.

“Hello, Miaomiao~” Ming Can pointed the camera at the little boy in the child seat, who was hugging the dog. “Do you know what day it is today?”

“I do!” Miaomiao said excitedly. “Today is my sixth birthday!”

Ming Can: “And besides your birthday?”

Miaomiao blinked, looking confused.

Then, his mom’s voice echoed in his mind: March 14th is International Pi Day! It’s also International Mathematics Day! Every year on Pi Day, your dad’s and my school holds all kinds of math activities—like reciting hundreds of digits of pi, playing math puzzle games, and solving Sudoku…

Miaomiao’s expression went completely blank: …

But what Ming Can actually said had absolutely nothing to do with what she was thinking: “Oh no, I have bad news! Today is also the day the zoo is being attacked by evil dinosaurs! Tons of little animals are waiting for you to rescue them!”

Just as she finished speaking, the car rolled to a stop in front of the garden villa.

Chi Xiao was the first to get out. He walked around to the back seat and opened the door for the mother and son.

Ming Can stepped out first. As soon as her little leather boots touched the ground, the villa’s wrought-iron gate suddenly swung open. From within, a Tyrannosaurus rex with a gaping, bloodthirsty maw burst out. It raised its tiny arms and grabbed Ming Can by the neck, dragging her toward the villa as its hostage.

“Mom!”

Miaomiao frantically scrambled down from his child seat, only to see his dad—who was even taller than the T. rex—get effortlessly swatted aside by the dinosaur’s claw. Chi Xiao staggered back, clutching the car for support as if he had sustained serious injuries and could no longer move.

By the time Miaomiao jumped down from the car, his mom had already been dragged into the garden. She reached one hand out toward him, waving desperately as she called out, “Help! Baby, save me!”

[Don’t save me. Let me get taken! Oh my god, can you drag me faster…?]

Hearing his mom’s inner thoughts, Miaomiao’s foot slipped, and he nearly fell over.

Chi Xiao reacted quickly, grabbing the back of his son’s collar just in time. And he didn’t let go. It was as if he were afraid Miaomiao might actually try to rescue his mom.

After all, that T. rex was dragging people way too slowly. If Miaomiao really ran after them, he’d stop them in seconds.

Only when Ming Can was successfully pulled into the villa and the doors shut behind her did Chi Xiao finally release his grip.

Then, his performance began.

“Your mom has been taken by a dinosaur! We have to hurry and rescue her. And we need to find all the missing zoo animals too—otherwise, when the visitors arrive and see that all the animals are gone, it’ll be a disaster.”

[Your mom’s part is done, but mine… is just getting started.]

Miaomiao: …

He guessed that this was a game his parents had specially designed for him. He loved it—it was incredibly fun and exciting! But every time he got too excited, he would hear the chaotic thoughts running through his parents’ minds, which completely ruined the atmosphere.

Better to just tune it out.

Miaomiao knocked on his head twice, shutting off his superpower. Then, he looked up at Chi Xiao, clenched his fists tightly, and said with confidence, “Dad, let’s go rescue them all!”

The two of them stepped into the garden. On the left, an open grassy field was enclosed by a fence. Pushing the gate open, they walked inside. Not far ahead stood a small wooden hut with its doors tightly shut—it looked like a stable. From inside, they could hear the sounds of heavy breathing and the occasional swish of a horse’s tail.

“The poor ponies are all locked inside,” Chi Xiao said, acting like an NPC whose dialogue triggers when reaching a certain spot. He tried his best to sound emotionally invested, but his speech still carried the stiffness of a programmed character. “Let’s figure out how to set them free.”

Miaomiao nodded firmly. His sharp eyes quickly spotted something unusual. “There’s something weird stuck on the door!”

Chi Xiao walked over to inspect it, putting on a show of examining the door. Following Miaomiao’s cue, he peeled off the laminated sheet covering it, revealing a magnetic puzzle board underneath.

Chi Xiao: “Looks like a sixteen-grid Sudoku?”

“It’s not Sudoku!” Ming Can’s voice came through their Bluetooth earpiece. She was monitoring their every move from inside the villa and immediately corrected him. “You have to call it a fruit grid.”

“Sixteen-grid fruit puzzle,” Chi Xiao instantly corrected himself before turning to Miaomiao to explain the rules. “Each row, each column, and each 2×2 section must not contain the same fruit. If we fill in all sixteen squares correctly, we should be able to free the ponies inside.”

Inside the basket on the ground were many fruit-shaped magnetic tiles. Miaomiao picked up the basket and carefully started filling in the fruit grid. It took him quite a while to complete the entire board, but just as he removed the magnetic panel—there was another one underneath!

“Dad.” Miaomiao suddenly turned to Chi Xiao. “Mom got captured, and you’re not even worried? Don’t you want to save her?”

Chi Xiao: “I’m very worried. I really want to save her.”

Miaomiao nodded in satisfaction and handed him the basket of magnetic tiles. “Then you do this one! I believe you can fill it in with just a blink of an eye~”

Chi Xiao sighed. “Did you see that evil dinosaur smack me earlier? That one slap turned me into an idiot. Now I’m even dumber than you.”

Miaomiao: …

Chi Xiao: “So anything that requires brainpower, you have to handle it.”

“Alright then.” Miaomiao pouted but quickly got fired up again. “I’ll definitely rescue Mom and all the animals—then I’ll cure Dad’s brain!”

Chi Xiao: …

Watching Miaomiao throw himself into solving the puzzle again, Chi Xiao pressed a finger against his Bluetooth earpiece, walked a little further away, and spoke in a low voice. “Have you laughed enough?”

“HAHAHA… I’m sorry, but you guys are just too funny…”

Chi Xiao stood on the lush, level grass, subconsciously lifting his gaze toward the third-floor window of the villa.

Ming Can was peeking down from there. The moment their eyes met, her heart skipped a beat. She quickly pulled back, ducking out of sight.

Ming Shu, still wearing the inflatable T. rex costume, sat beside her and couldn’t help commenting, “You’re so mean.”

Ming Can finally calmed down a little. She took off her earpiece and muted it. “Auntie, whose side are you on?”

Ming Shu shrugged and walked over to the window. Chi Xiao had already gone back to play the puzzle game with Miaomiao. She looked at the tall, upright figure of the young man below and suddenly said, “I just think… if that kid can make you laugh like this, that’s a talent in itself.”

After Ming Can’s mother passed away, she had remained lively and outgoing. She never became withdrawn or gloomy, but Ming Shu had never seen her laugh so uncontrollably like a child again.

Until today.

Ming Can brushed it off. “That’s just because I wrote a good script.”

“Please.” Ming Shu, as an artist, could easily tell just how ‘humorous’ that so-called script actually was. “If someone else were playing the role, would you still find it this funny?”

“That just means he’s funny.”

“It’s not just funny,” Ming Shu said. “It’s that you find him adorable—just like you find Miaomiao adorable.”

Ming Can muttered, “What’s so adorable about him?” She rubbed her face and leaned over to look down with her aunt.

On the lawn below, Miaomiao had successfully freed two small ponies. He clapped his hands excitedly and, together with Chi Xiao, started feeding them carrots and bananas.

Next, they moved to another fenced-in section of the lawn. Several cages covered with black cloth sat on the grass. This challenge was much more straightforward—each cage had an incomplete equation on it, and solving it correctly would unlock the cage.

Miaomiao stood in front of the first cage, staring hard at the equation, gripping his chin in deep thought.

( )7 + 1( ) = 30

…

So hard!

He tilted his head up to look at Chi Xiao, flashing an awkward grin, then quickly grabbed the marker and scribbled a 2 and a 3 into the parentheses.

The moment he put the pen down—he was airborne.

And immediately after, his dad gave his butt a solid smack.

Chi Xiao: “Wrong. Don’t think you can get away with guessing.”

Miaomiao: “Waaah! Dad, didn’t you say you turned into an idiot?”

Chi Xiao: “I was also cursed. If you get an answer wrong, the evil dinosaur takes over me to punish you.”

Miaomiao: “…”

Chi Xiao put Miaomiao down, as if breaking free from possession. In an instant, he returned to his gentle fatherly self, rubbing Miaomiao’s head and saying, “I have it much worse than your mom. You have to work hard and save me quickly.”

“That line wasn’t in the script,” Ming Can muttered. “Why is this guy improvising?”

Ming Shu smiled and watched her for a moment. “You two don’t seem like a couple that just got together.”

More like an old married couple.

Ming Can’s face grew hot. “We really just got together—half a month ago.”

Ming Shu withdrew her gaze, her tone softening slightly as if something had crossed her mind. “That’s good. If you two are good, the family is good too.”

Ming Can frowned. “How is the family better?”

Ming Shu explained, “After Chi Xiao’s father came to our house for New Year’s greetings on the second day of the year, he and your dad met again at other events. They’ve gotten quite close, and people have started speculating that our families might become in-laws. You know how your dad has never been able to touch the core industries of the Ming family. He wanted to build his own factory outside, but he couldn’t get a decent plot of land. Now, I hear people are offering him land to choose from.

“Before, those same people refused to work with him, thinking Ming Group’s payment cycles were too slow and that he didn’t have enough influence. But now, they probably assume that if our family and the Chi family unite through marriage, the Chi family will definitely support Ming Zheng’s project. And with the Chi family’s cash flow, delayed payments shouldn’t be an issue anymore.”

Ming Can said, “Aunt, if you have time, talk to my dad and tell him to be careful. Even if I really do marry Chi Xiao in the end, the Chi family won’t necessarily be kind enough to cooperate with us.”

Ming Shu asked, “Why do you think that?”

“As far as I know, President Chi isn’t someone who lets family ties influence him. He’s a pure, self-serving opportunist,” Ming Can said bluntly. “He didn’t even support his own wife’s business. Why would he care about his daughter-in-law’s family?”

“Is that true?” Ming Shu was surprised. “Chi Xiao wouldn’t be like that too, would he?”

“He shouldn’t be.” Ming Can let out a breath and said, “But he’s still in school, and his father isn’t old. Who knows how many years it’ll be before he actually takes power?”

The conversation fell into a brief silence.

“Ugh, let’s not talk about this.” Ming Shu pulled Ming Can over to a screen in the room, which was live-streaming Chi Xiao and Ming Miao’s progress through the game. “They just rescued four capybaras and are about to enter the villa.”

“That fast? Miaomiao’s problem-solving speed has improved,” Ming Can checked the time. “The next stage is simple. They should be upstairs any minute now.”

She lifted her skirt and hurried out of the room, entering another one and shutting the door behind her. Outside, Ming Shu locked it and hung the key around Xiao Xiao’s neck.

The first challenge inside the villa was a spatial geometry puzzle. Based on the silhouettes of geometric shapes on the walls, they had to stack large building blocks in the center of the room. If the shadows projected by two spotlights matched the given silhouettes, they would pass the challenge.

Miaomiao’s spatial reasoning was stronger than his numerical skills. Although this challenge was beyond a first-grader’s curriculum, he completed it quickly. After succeeding, he walked to the side door of the room and released two alpacas that had been inside, locked in an intense spit-firing battle.

Miaomiao loved alpacas, but when he heard that the final challenge was to rescue Xiao Xiao and use the key around Xiao Xiao’s neck to free his mom, he suppressed his urge to play with them. Without wasting a second, he grabbed his dad and raced upstairs.

In the south-facing bedroom on the third floor, Ming Can lay on a bed piled with toys, playing the role of Sleeping Beauty.

About twenty minutes later, accompanied by the familiar sound of barking, Ming Can knew they had arrived at her door.

“Woof woof woof!”

“Woof woof! Woof woof woof!”

“Xiao Xiao! Don’t bite her! That’s Great-Auntie!”

“Ah, heavens… I, the mighty Evil Dinosaur… have I really been defeated by you all just like this? I refuse to accept this…”

These lines are really terrible.

Ming Can trembled with laughter on the bed. The next moment, hearing the door open, she immediately steadied herself, remained motionless, and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

“Mom, I’m here to save you!” Miaomiao, drenched in sweat, his eyes bright with excitement, charged into the room like a little cannonball. He climbed onto the bed piled with toys and shook Ming Can with all his might. “Mom, wake up!”

The Evil Dinosaur, now deflated from Xiao Xiao’s bites, hobbled into the room and said hoarsely, “Only a true love’s kiss…”

Before the words were fully spoken, Miaomiao had already leaned into Ming Can’s ear, whispered something, and then smacked a big kiss on her cheek.

Ming Can’s chest rose and fell. Unlike the scene written in the script, she didn’t wake up lazily like Sleeping Beauty. Instead, she opened her eyes immediately, sat up without wasting a second, and wrapped her arms around the warm little body in her embrace, feeling the sweat on the back of his neck.

“Baby, you’re amazing. Mom knew you would come to save me.” Ming Can patted the bed and said, “This is the Evil Dinosaur’s lair, and these are all its treasures. From now on, they’re yours.”

Only then did Miaomiao notice that the bed was covered with toys—all his favorites. Hanging above the headboard was a golden balloon shaped like the number 6, gently swaying in the air.

“Mom!” Miaomiao hugged her tightly. “I’m so happy!”

Chi Xiao stood at the doorway, lifting a hand to fan his face as he quietly watched the mother and son in the distance.

Just then, Miaomiao suddenly jumped off the bed, ran straight to the door, and dove into Chi Xiao’s arms.

“Dad turned into an idiot and got cursed too. I have to save Dad as well.” Miaomiao turned to the deflated grandaunt beside him and asked, “Is it also a true love’s kiss?”

Ming Shu was momentarily stunned. “Ah… yes…”

Hearing that, Miaomiao stretched out his chubby little hands toward Chi Xiao, asking for a hug.

Chi Xiao bent down and effortlessly lifted him from the ground. Miaomiao shot up like a rocket, wrapping his small arms tightly around his father’s neck. Leaning in close to his ear, he whispered softly, “Dad, I love you.”

“If you love me too, then I’ll give you a kiss, and you have to get better right away, okay?”