"I never asked," Yan Hang stretched out his legs and leaned back in his chair, "when's your birthday? Is it coming up?"

"One more month," Chu Yi also stretched out his legs, lining them up next to Yan Hang's.

"It's not today?" Yan Hang smiled and shook his feet.

"I used to think it was today when I was little," Chu Yi also shook his feet, "because birthdays weren't celebrated over New Year's."

"What do you want to do for your birthday this year?" Yan Hang glanced at him and shook his feet again. "Why not invite your classmates to celebrate together?"

"Good idea," Chu Yi nodded and continued shaking his feet, "I'll invite my dorm mates."

"Okay," Yan Hang kept shaking his feet and tapped Chu Yi's right foot with his left, "you can come to my restaurant first for a birthday dinner, we have themed dinners for birthdays."

"Sounds good," Chu Yi got a little excited and shook his foot to tap Yan Hang back right away.

"You just can't stop, can you?" Yan Hang looked toward Chu Yi's feet.

"You bumped me first," Chu Yi said.

"Why were you shaking your feet along with me?" Yan Hang kicked his foot.

"Are you the only one allowed to shake feet?" Chu Yi kicked him back.

Yan Hang kept kicking him and Chu Yi kept retaliating.

If little kids under 10 acted this way, they'd be punching each other already... Of course, anyone over 10 still playing this game were probably just these two.

This skirmish ended with Chu Yi's defeat. He pulled out a wet wipe from his bag and carefully cleaned his shoes: "Jerk, you got my shoes all dirty."

Yan Hang laughed for a good while. When he looked up, he saw the two flight attendants at the gate giggling at them behind their hands.

"Look, we're making the ladies laugh," Yan Hang tutted.

"My fault?" Chu Yi looked at him then sneakily glanced over again, "Or could they be your, your fans?"

"Probably not," Yan Hang said, "after all, I only showed my face for one second, the screenshot was very blurry. They're probably your fans, you have quite a few young lady fans now."

Chu Yi smiled.

"They're all asking about your Weibo," Yan Hang stretched lazily, "are you going to make an account?"

"No, not making one," Chu Yi answered right away.

Yan Hang tutted.

"I'm the man behind an outdated beauty blogger," Chu Yi said, "who also covertly amasses wealth."

"Oh stop," Yan Hang laughed, then added, "Outdated my ass, I'm trending again now, okay."

"You were never trendy to begin with," Chu Yi sighed, "you've finally become trendy now."

Yan Hang didn't respond. He rummaged in his pocket for a while, took out a bandaid, ripped it open and stuck it on Chu Yi's mouth.

The two flight attendants burst out laughing.

The New Year felt a little short for Chu Yi. Most people were still immersed in the New Year atmosphere, but Yan Hang had already gone back to work.

Chu Yi was bored at home for two days before going back to work at the cafe.

In the past, he wouldn't have felt anything, but this time it was different because being with Yan Hang let him experience "New Year" for the first time.

It also made him realize for the first time that he actually cared a lot about "New Year".

Just like birthdays, many things depend on who you're with to figure out if you care or not.

There were no customers in the cafe. Chu Yi sat behind the bar in a daze, thinking about his birthday. In all his years, he had never looked forward to this day before.

Yan Hang said they would eat dinner first, then go to karaoke afterwards.

Karaoke?

That sounded good. Young people liked it. Though he guessed there probably wouldn't be any songs he knew how to sing in the machine... Should he learn a few songs in advance?

Hmm.

No way he could learn songs on such short notice.

But it didn't really matter. His singing always sounded like chanting anyway. He could just pick any song and chant along while reading the lyrics.

Chu Yi was lost in thought when someone tapped the bar counter.

He quickly stood up and said "Good evening" before recognizing Zhou Chunyang, Gao Xiaoyang and Wu Xu behind him.

"Happy New Year, little bro," Zhou Chunyang smiled. "Quick, make us your best coffee, one for each of us."

"Happy New Year," Chu Yi smiled back. He was bored just now and happened to run into his dorm mates.

"We're good to you huh," Gao Xiaoyang leaned against the counter. "We came all the way here to shop, just to see you."

"I already see, enough of you in the dorm," Chu Yi joked while making them coffee.

"Just getting reacquainted," Wu Xu said. "We'll be together again in two days. Annoying, so let's get used to it early."

Chu Yi served them coffee and sat down at their table.

"We'll order you a big cake for your birthday, no need for a small one," Zhou Chunyang said.

"Yeah," Chu Yi nodded, "Thanks."

"Should we call Su Bin along?" Wu Xu asked.

Chu Yi shook his head, "Let's not call him, it would be awkward. I've always assumed it was just the seven of us in the dorm," Gao Xiaoyang said. "Besides, he's so noble, if we invite him he might even feel it's an insult to his character."

The few of them laughed. Chu Yi sighed, "He really is more...invisible than me."

"You're not invisible at all," Wu Xu said. "The famous Brother Dog, just say auto repair and it's Brother Dog. You're now the spokesperson for auto repair."

"That's right, spokesperson for many things," Zhou Chunyang counted off on his fingers, "The best fighter, the most handsome, the coolest, the least talkative...the best grades in his major."

"It's weird to lump that last one together with the rest," Gao Xiaoyang tutted. "Doesn't fit Dog Brother's image."

"Oh shut up," Chu Yi laughed.

Cui Yi parked his car at the roadside. Yan Hang ran over and got in, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Finished with the questions?" Cui Yi glanced at him.

"Mmm," Yan Hang pulled the seatbelt over himself and clicked it in, frowning. "Same questions as last time. Today I also looked at some photos, except for the limping guy I haven't seen anyone before. Feels fruitless, like I'm no help at all."

"Just being asked questions is already helping," Cui Yi said. "However you can help, you can help. How can answering questions tire out a cop?"

Yan Hang sighed and closed his eyes.

"You still haven't told Chu Yi about them asking you to help with the case?" Cui Yi asked as he drove.

"Haven't," Yan Hang said. "Chu Yi has a lot on his mind, I'm afraid if I tell him he'll keep worrying about it. His birthday is in a few days, I'll tell him after."

"Mm," Cui Yi responded.

After a moment of silence, Yan Hang turned to look at Cui Yi. "Old Cui, there's something I want to ask your opinion on."

"Go ahead," Cui Yi nodded.