“Hm?”

“Today is your birthday. You’re the boss.” She turned her head and declared with great boldness, “If you don’t like it, have them tear it down and switch to another style.”

“No need.” Gu Ci swept his eyes around, letting them fall on the conspicuously bright red hearts, then smiled as he commented, “I actually quite like it as it is.”

……

The main event of most birthday celebrations was in the evening, and Gu Ci’s birthday was no exception.

Disney Auntie led the group of aunties in the kitchen, displaying her skills, likely after spending two days planning the menu. The final dishes she presented won endless praise.

As with Little Black’s birthday, everyone gathered in the dining room to eat together. The difference was that this time it was more grand, and by now they were all much more familiar with each other than back then.

—Even the wine was far better than last time.

Before drinking, it was already late. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, Yan Luqing slipped upstairs for five minutes. When she returned to the dining room, it happened to be just as Big Black came in carrying the wine.

She quickly went back to sit in her seat beside Gu Ci, full of anticipation.

This was at home, and she was sitting right next to Gu Ci. Yan Luqing was not afraid of losing face, nor afraid she wouldn’t make it back. She had not a single worry left. If it weren’t for Gu Ci keeping her in check, she could have drunk wine as if it were water.

But it wasn’t just Yan Luqing drinking—everyone else was drinking as well.

The first half of this banquet for Gu Ci’s birthday was extraordinarily cheerful. Yan Luqing wasn’t sleepy at all; even drinking to high spirits didn’t make her drowsy. With one hand propping her cheek at the table, she began to nod off bit by bit, until Gu Ci adjusted her posture for her, and she fell straight asleep on the table.

And just as she fell asleep—

Gu Ci saw his foolish son drunkenly staring at him.

Little Black was so drunk he called him by name: “Gu Ci, why do you have to leave?”

“…?”

Gu Ci’s hand, holding a glass of water, paused. “Leave…? Who told you that?”

“Of course it was—hic—Miss Yan.”

Drunken words are truthful words. Little Black had already completely let himself go, and Big Black, who was always mature and steady, was the same. He walked over to Gu Ci’s side, face full of sorrow, and said: “Miss Yan has really changed a lot. She’s practically a different person. Do you think she isn’t good now?”

The two of them took turns, completely forgetting what they had promised Miss Yan before. Brains dominated by alcohol, they blurted out what lay deep in their hearts, until finally they were pleading with no logic at all to make Gu Ci stay.

Big Black: “Don’t leave, don’t leave. I’ll even call you brother, alright?”

“I’ll call you brother too,” Little Black even had tears in his eyes, “you’re so happy here, how could you bear to go?”

“……”

Gu Ci looked at the two, torn between laughter and helplessness, answering them from time to time, until at last, seeing they had said enough, he watched them support each other and collapse onto the chairs to the side. Whether resting for a while or planning to sleep there, who could tell.

As if rehearsed in advance, one scene ended, and another immediately followed—just as Big Black toppled over, Yan Luqing slowly woke.

She had been sleeping with her classroom posture, face down on the table. Gu Ci saw half of her cheek pressed pink, with a few faint creases, paired with her slightly mussed hair and hazy eyes—astonishingly cute.

Though all were drunk, unlike the two brawny men just now, when Gu Ci spoke to Yan Luqing his tone and pitch were as if coaxing a child.

“You’ve woken up? Or do you want to change places to sleep?”

“……”

Yan Luqing blinked, as though struggling to think. She thought hard, furrowed her brows, and finally remembered: “Ah—! The gift!”

She shook her head, braced her hands on the table and stood up: “I have a gift to give you.”

“Mn,” Gu Ci also rose with her, his voice tinged with a smile, “still remember where it is?”

“Of course!” Yan Luqing rubbed her own face. “But I need to find something to cover your eyes… something… oh! This will do!”

In her hand was a clean, unused napkin. Without waiting for Gu Ci to say a word, she tiptoed up and tied it over his head, precisely covering his eyes, knotting it securely at the back.

Gu Ci did not resist the entire time, but he slowly opened his mouth: “Does your gift require going upstairs? I’m afraid we’ll be meeting in the hospital afterward.”

The person beside him, without much thought, replied: “Then I’ll just pull you along, won’t that work.”

After speaking, Yan Luqing quickly seized his wrist and led him out of the dining room.

Gu Ci’s sense of direction was very strong. He had spent many days moving under vague conditions, let alone in this house where he had already lived for some time—blindfolded, he could still walk all around it.

So, when he said “see you in the hospital,” he hadn’t meant he would stumble here.

The two of them first went smoothly up to the second floor. Just as they stepped past the last stair, Yan Luqing suddenly cried “Ow!”—originally she was the one leading Gu Ci forward, yet she tripped herself. If not for him catching her, she would have taken a spill on flat ground.

“……” Gu Ci asked her again, “Truly don’t need me to open my eyes? Which floor is the gift on?”

“No, no! Just stay like this!” Yan Luqing answered at breakneck speed, then huffed and puffed as she continued tugging him along.

She pulled with no small force, and so the two of them, “supporting” each other like this, went up to the third floor.

This attic, Gu Ci had hardly heard anyone mention, and it was rarely cleaned—should have been used for storing odds and ends.

He knew Yan Luqing had been running between the second and third floors recently, but he did not know exactly what she had been doing in the attic.

“Here we are!” Yan Luqing’s voice came from at his side, followed by the sound of a door opening. Her tone was joyous: “Alright, you can open your eyes now—!”

The darkness before Gu Ci’s eyes was lifted away, and gradually the scene before him became clear.

The room was very small, with a low ceiling—he could barely stand straight. Opposite the door was a wide glass window, and at this moment, outside was tonight’s exceptionally bright starry sky.

And this tiny room was filled to the brim with stars. Some were strings of lights, some were handheld star lamps; stars covered the walls, stars covered the floor.

There was hardly any furniture, only a soft mat spread on the floor, with a beanbag large enough for one person to lie on beside it. Other than that…

At the very center, a white telescope pointed toward the window.

Only, its height had been adjusted very low.

After the past two days of work, Yan Luqing seemed very familiar with this place. Once she stepped in, she naturally knelt on the soft mat inside. “Come on, come on! The good thing is here!”

Gu Ci looked at the excitement on her face. The mark from her clothes pressing into her skin was still on her cheek.

If she were sober, when he first saw this room she would surely have explained in detail what she had done here, step by step, claiming credit.

But now that she was drunk, this step was omitted.

He walked to Yan Luqing’s side. She raised her head and patted the mat beside her: “Hurry, kneel here, I’ll let you see the good thing.”

Gu Ci felt like laughing, and asked seriously: “Must I kneel to view it?”

Yan Luqing widened her eyes and nodded vigorously: “Yes! I went to such trouble to find the angle—it must be viewed kneeling!”

So that was why she had slipped away for a few minutes earlier, to adjust the angle.

“……”

After Gu Ci knelt on the mat as she did, under Yan Luqing’s expectant gaze, he looked into the eyepiece of the telescope—without moving it.

In that instant, he froze.

Within the circular field of view, the left half was the real starry sky, while the right half was an image: the silhouette of a young girl, her head raised and hand reaching upward, as if about to catch something.

And at the same moment, Gu Ci realized that she must have found something like a sticker, cut into this shape, and affixed it to produce such an effect.

Thus, within this circle of vision, the right half would never change—only the left half, that is, what the girl’s hand received, would shift.

And at this moment, in the girl’s hand was cradled an extremely bright star.

……

Gu Ci looked for a while, then withdrew his gaze.

Yan Luqing, at some point, had shifted from the soft mat to the right, sinking herself into the beanbag. Seeing Gu Ci lift his head from the telescope, she instantly widened her eyes at him: “Well? Is it pretty?”

“Pretty.”

“Eh, then does this count as picking a star?”

“It counts.”

“Am I smart?”

Her eyes were opened wide and round, as if a pair of fuzzy little dog ears or kitten ears and tail had sprouted, twitching adorably.

Gu Ci stood, taking two steps to her side.

Originally, he had wanted to raise his hand to tidy the messy hair atop her head.

But with the emotion of receiving a gift, and an inexplicable impulse rising within him, he messed her hair up even more instead.

She looked as though she were wearing a little bird’s nest on her head, but was entirely unaware: “Then you keep looking for a while longer.”

Since the gift hadn’t flopped, Yan Luqing’s spirit relaxed at once. She yawned, lay down on the beanbag in a daze, and mumbled: “You’ve got to look for longer, then I’ll break even…”

Gu Ci gave a quiet “mn.”

After a while, he said: “Then if I look longer at the person who prepared the gift, would that count as breaking even?”

There was no reply.

“……” A soft laugh sounded in the quiet room. “Truly worthy of the title Sleep God.”

Gu Ci sat down on the soft mat beside her, right next to her beanbag.

From the moment he had seen this room, he knew why she had prepared such a gift.

Because of something he had once said.

In fact, she had misunderstood his meaning, but this was an unexpected delight.

He had originally imagined the birthday gift he would receive would fall somewhere between that human-shaped pillow and that inexplicably patterned phone case.

He had never expected she would prepare so earnestly, so seriously.

Some of the star lights in the room glowed steadily, while others twinkled, their soft radiance mingling with the starlight pouring through the glass window into a uniquely beautiful hue.

Yan Luqing slept amidst that hue, as though she were merging into it.

After watching for a while, Gu Ci still stretched out his hand, deciding to slowly smooth out the little bird’s nest he had just created in her hair.

But Sleep God Yan Luqing was not merely sleeping.

She was dreaming.

In the dream, once again she was smothered by couples—and this time, not just one pair—

First came the male and female leads from the movie. The male lead, calling “wife” while kissing the female lead’s face, even cast a provoking glance at Yan Luqing.

Then came the Little Rose of the Mortal World and the Little Pine Tree’s kiss. After kissing, Little Pine Tree said, “My wife is really beautiful,” then looked coldly at Yan Luqing.

After that it was Wine Bottle and his girlfriend, Little Mahua and her boyfriend. The men, each one calling out “wife,” all looked at her with contempt, as though flaunting something before her eyes.

…She was so damn fed up!

Yan Luqing was furious, smoke practically rising from all seven orifices. In a rush, she turned her head—and suddenly discovered a great beauty right beside her.

She looked once, looked twice—this great beauty looked very familiar.

Oh—oh oh—! Wasn’t this Princess Ci? Wasn’t this her wife?!

Gu Ci had just smoothed out about two-thirds of her hair when Yan Luqing suddenly opened her eyes.

His hand paused, and he smiled faintly: “This time you woke so quickly—”

Before he could finish speaking.

The one who had been lying down asleep propped up her upper body. She lifted an arm, hooked it around his shoulder and neck, then gave a tug downward—

Yan Luqing, smiling with her eyes narrowed, leaned in toward the great beauty’s face. Without giving him the slightest chance to react, she planted a loud “smooch” on his right cheek.

For some reason, in the silence of the attic, that sound seemed especially loud.

“…………”

Gu Ci was stunned for a moment, the soft damp warmth still lingering on his cheek. But Yan Luqing had already released him and flopped back down.

As she rolled over, she puckered her lips and muttered under her breath:

“Hmph~! Who doesn’t have a wife too!!”