On July twenty-fifth, Su Yu was woken up by a phone call from Kevin.
"What time is it?"
"Eight thirty. You're late."
"Wasn't the meeting supposed to be at ten today?"
"Changed. Nine o'clock. Get here quick."
The call ended.
Su Yu stared at the date on his phone screen for two seconds.
July twenty-fifth.
The number spun around in his head once, without stirring up so much as a ripple.
He rolled out of bed, stepped into his slippers, and went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face.
Out on the living room couch, Sirin was already awake.
She sat there cross-legged, a glass of milk cradled in her hands, her golden eyes flicking a glance at Su Yu over the rim without a word.
"Let's go. The meeting's been moved up today."
"Oh."
The little e-scooter cut through the main thoroughfare of Arc City in the morning light.
The wind at the end of July already carried the parched heat of high summer, blowing against his face like someone aiming a hairdryer straight at him.
Sirin sat in the back, one hand gripping the fabric at Su Yu's waist, the other holding up her phone and scrolling through something.
That message Bronie had sent yesterday was still sitting in the chat log.
"So that graphics card—when exactly are you planning to deliver it?"
Why are you asking me? I'm not that Paramecium.
Sirin pressed the screen dark.
The elevator doors of Arc City Tower slid open.
The lights in the corridor were all off.
Su Yu frowned and reached out to feel for the switch on the wall.
"Click."
The lights came on.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY——!!!"
A dozen voices erupted at once.
Streamers shot down from the ceiling, and confetti in every color rained all over Su Yu's head and face.
The studio's main hall had been redecorated. A checkered cloth was spread over the long table, and in the middle sat a three-tier cream cake, a chocolate plaque stuck into the top of it, on which was scrawled in crooked letters, "Happy Birthday President Su."
One look at the handwriting and you could tell it was Nuwa's.
Kevin stood at the very back of the crowd, holding a party popper, the expression on his face as cold as always—though he'd already snapped the string of the popper.
Su Yu stood in the doorway, streamers draped over his shoulders, confetti caught in his hair.
He stood there stunned for a full three seconds.
"Today is..."
"You forgot your own birthday?" Nuwa planted her hands on her hips. "And here we spent a whole week getting ready!"
Su Yu stood there, dazed.
He really had forgotten.
His head was crammed full of game progress, keeping Sirin under watch, Kiana's safety, Anti-Entropy Technology's dealings with the Honkai Alliance, and countless interpersonal relationships he had to juggle.
A calendar marker like a "birthday"—the kind of thing that belonged to ordinary people—had long since been tossed into a corner of his consciousness.
Elysia squeezed out of the crowd, holding up a pink pointed party hat, and rose onto her tiptoes to plop it onto Su Yu's head.
"Happy birthday, Su Yu~ You're the birthday boy today, so you have to wear this!"
Su Yu glanced down at the cartoon Homu print on the hat, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Whose idea was this?"
"Mine~" Elysia blinked. "But Kevin was the one who planned it."
Everyone's gaze swung in unison toward the man in the corner gnawing on a popsicle.
Kevin pulled the popsicle out of his mouth, expressionless.
"Don't look at me. I was only in charge of announcing the time."
"Kalpas made the cake." Fu Hua stepped forward and set a long, rectangular gift box on the table. "He's got a booking today and couldn't make it. He asked me to pass along that he whipped the cream himself, so don't waste it."
"That guy Kalpas made a cake?" Su Yu glanced at the three-tier behemoth.
"He says he practiced for three days for this cake." Fu Hua pushed up her glasses. "All the failed attempts from the past two days got eaten by Ma Feima, and Ma Feima's still got the runs right now."
Su Yu couldn't help letting out a laugh.
The gifts began piling up on the tabletop one after another.
Eden took a small, exquisite gift box out of her bag and handed it to Su Yu.
Su Yu opened it to find a car key inside.
"This is..."
"Your ride." Eden held a glass of red wine. "Parked in the underground garage, B3-07. As the game director of the studio, you can't very well keep riding that little e-scooter forever, can you?"
Su Yu looked at the brand logo on the key, and his throat bobbed.
"Eden, this is too—"
"Keep it." Eden's gaze passed over the rim of her glass. "No returns allowed."
Elysia's gift was a palm-sized wooden box.
The dark brown wood had been polished to an extreme smoothness, its surface carved with intricate patterns.
"I had someone make this music box out of rosewood~" Elysia placed the box in Su Yu's palm. "Open it and have a listen?"
Su Yu twisted the little knob on the lid.
The metal reeds began to vibrate, and a clear melody flowed out of the box.
It was Elysia's own voice, converted by the precise mechanical structure into tinkling notes, like someone striking the stars with a crystal glass.
"Happy birthday to you~"
The studio went quiet for two seconds.
"Beautiful." Su Yu closed the lid. "Thank you, Ellie."
Elysia's expression softened a touch, and with it, the very air around her seemed to lighten.
Mobius's gift was a bottle of green spray, the label reading "Extra-Strength Anti-Baldness Formula · Mobius Laboratory Exclusive Supply."
Su Yu held the bottle of spray and fell silent for a long while.
"...Is she hinting at something?"
"Mobius says this is her latest research result." There was laughter hidden in Eden's tone. "She says programmers are a high-risk group, so you should take precautions early."
Vill-V's gift was a tin box.
The moment Su Yu opened it, a palm-sized miniature stage popped out of the box, the sound of meshing gears whirring to life.
A paper-thin, palm-sized 2D figure of Vill-V sprang out from behind the curtain, conjured a paper flower in her hand, then a paper dove, and finally pulled a banner out of a top hat.
The banner read: "Happy birthday to my dear assistant, Mr. Su Yu!"
Su Yu stared at the little paper figure bowing at the stage's curtain call, and the corner of his mouth lifted.
"This is the most normal thing she's ever made," Su Yu remarked with heartfelt sincerity.
Pardo's gift was an enormous mushroom-shaped cat scratcher, with a sticky note attached: "For Chongchong~ Big Sis Pardo loves you!"
Aponia's gift was a hand-sewn pillow, its stuffing infused with a faint scent of lavender.
The handwriting on the note was neat and gentle: "May you sleep peacefully every night."
Su's message was the simplest.
His phone buzzed once—a bank deposit notification. In the transfer memo field were only four words: "Buy what you like."
"The joy of the rich really is this plain and unadorned." Su Yu put his phone away and looked toward Kevin. "And you? Mr. CEO?"
Kevin lifted a cardboard box from beside his feet, expressionless, and set it on the table.
The box was printed with a giant Homu logo.
"Super limited-edition Homu instant noodles." Kevin's voice was as flat as his expression. "Only one hundred cases were released worldwide."
Su Yu looked at the box of instant noodles, then looked at Kevin.
The two of them locked eyes for three seconds.
"Thanks, brother." Su Yu patted the box, and he meant it sincerely.
Nuwa's gift was a transparent display case containing a figure so exquisite it was outrageous. It was a 1/7 scale model of Kiana from her days at Senba Academy in Honkai Impact 3rd, painted by Nuwa's own hand.
"This is the one and only in the whole world!" Nuwa thumped her chest. "I spent two months making it! Nobody can buy one!"
Fu Hua stood at the edge of the crowd, waiting until the commotion had quieted down a little before stepping forward. She fished a long cloth bag out of her backpack and handed it to Su Yu.
Inside the bag was a brand-new pair of steel knuckle dusters. The metal surface was polished to a mirror shine, and the grips were wrapped in anti-slip black tape.
"Though I hope you'll never have to use them," Fu Hua said, "it never hurts to keep something for self-defense."
Lin Zhaoyu gave a tea set, saying it was to get him to "drink less iced black tea and more hot tea."
Su Mei gave a VIP promotional package voucher from her company, saying the studio's marketing could get a discount through her in the future.
Ma Feima clapped Su Yu on the shoulder, nearly knocking him flat, then shoved a red envelope at him, saying, "I'm no good at picking things out, so buy your own."
Qin Suyi didn't show up in person, but her delivery arrived.
Opening it revealed a training outfit matching the set she'd given Kiana last time—a men's version, dark gray, with a tiny Tai Xu Sect emblem embroidered on the collar.
But the one who truly surprised Su Yu was Cheng Lingshuang.
This freeloading queen of the dojo, normally too lazy to even bother going downstairs, actually produced a smooth, warm bluish-white jade pendant.
"Serene Jade." She yawned. "Wear it and it'll clear your head a bit. Don't ask me where it came from—if you ask, it's a family heirloom."
Su Yu clenched the jade pendant in his palm, feeling that cool, penetrating chill.
Then, a voice no one had expected came from the doorway.
"Pardon the intrusion."
Everyone turned to look.
Sakura stood at the studio's entrance.
She was wearing that classic Office Slave skin, her hair tied back with a simple hair tie, a small cloth bag in her hand.
"Big Sis Sakura?!" Nuwa's jaw nearly dropped. "How are you here? Weren't you supposed to be working overtime today?"
Sakura lowered her head slightly, as if hesitating over whether to step inside.
In the Golden Courtyard she was normally like an invisible person, coming home late at night after overtime and heading out before dawn. Although she and Su Yu were "noodle buddies" (meaning they'd shared instant noodles together at a convenience store), their acquaintance was otherwise ordinary.
Having heard that today was Su Yu's birthday, she'd made a special trip—partly to offer birthday wishes, and partly to test the measure of this man.
That race on the mountain switchback road was still replaying in her mind even now.
"I heard... it's your birthday." Sakura's voice was very soft. "Here, take this."
She held out the cloth bundle.
Su Yu opened it to find a hand-sewn sachet inside, the embroidery fine and the stitching neat, filled with fragrant herbs.
"Safe travels in and out." Having said this, Sakura, as though she'd completed some major task, turned to leave.
"Big Sis Sakura!" Su Yu called out to stop her. "Stay and have some cake."
Sakura's footsteps paused.
"...Okay."
Su Yu stood before that long table piled high with gifts.
The aroma of the cake's cream, the fresh scent of the lavender pillow, the lingering resonance of the music box, and the faint herbal smell from that sachet all mingled together, filling the entire studio.
He looked at these faces before him.
Kevin leaned against the wall gnawing his popsicle, Nuwa argued with Elysia about the figure's painting technique, Fu Hua poured tea for Lin Zhaoyu, and Cheng Lingshuang was sneaking a strawberry off the cake—only to get caught by Su Mei, who grabbed her by the ear.
Eden stood before the floor-to-ceiling window holding her wine glass, and Sakura quietly drank tea by herself.
Griseo sat on a little stool in the corner, a sketchpad spread across her knees, drawing something with colored pencils.
What she was drawing was this very scene before her—everyone gathered together, and in the middle a young man covered in streamers and confetti, looking a little bedraggled.
Above that young man's head, she had shaded in a large patch of warm yellow.
Su Yu's throat bobbed.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But in the end he only gave a firm nod.
"Thank you."
Two words.
His voice wasn't loud, but everyone present heard it.
Sirin stood at the very outermost edge of the crowd.
She leaned against the wall, arms folded across her chest, her golden pupils sweeping across that table piled with gifts, across those laughing, rowdy humans, across Su Yu standing in the center of them all.
The sweet, cloying smell of the cake drifted over and slipped into her nostrils.
She did not step forward.
That laughter, those gifts, that warm air—none of it had anything to do with her.
It was like being separated by a transparent glass wall. She could see the light inside, but that light couldn't reach her.
Sirin lowered her head and looked at the tips of her shoes.
A dull ache spread through her chest.
It was as if something had lodged itself in her throat—she couldn't swallow it down, nor could she spit it out.
That warmth had nothing to do with her.
That laughter wasn't meant for her to hear.
She was merely a counterfeit borrowing someone else's body, like a voyeur who had snuck into a theater, watching a comedy that belonged to others from behind the curtain.
It was just like a vampire—facing light and warmth, able only to shriek and flee.
She thought of the message Bronie had sent.
In extremely concise words, the hacker had said the graphics card had already been delivered to Kiana's desk.
Sirin lowered her head and looked at her own hands.
The owner of these hands had spent countless late-night Vigilante wages, saving up a sum of money she'd never been willing to spend, all just to give that man a surprise today.
But she had no obligation to hand the gift over.
Seven o'clock in the evening.
The VIP private room at the Astral Grand Hotel.
With one grand sweep of her hand, Eden had booked out the entire top-floor scenic private room.
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows lay the dazzling night view of Arc City, and the long table inside the room was laden with exquisite dishes and drinks.
"Come, come, come, today's a double celebration!" Su Mei raised her glass. "Happy birthday to President Su, and may Honkai Impact 3rd sell like crazy!"
The sound of clinking glasses echoed through the room.
Kevin and Ma Feima drank quietly together in a corner, Fu Hua and Lin Zhaoyu discussed the dojo's utility bills, Nuwa dragged Griseo into frantically promoting the newest figure release, and Elysia flitted between every table like a pink butterfly, carrying laughter to every corner she passed.
A little later, Theresa—who had gone to take part in a variety show idol talent competition today—arrived as well. She said she'd run into a pair of dimwit sisters today, some group called the "Vodka Girls."
The older sister was a Brainless, the younger sister a Grumpy, one strawberry and one blueberry—pretty vibey, actually.
As for her gift, she'd brought a premium-seat ticket to the magical girl Teriri concert next month, grandly claiming she wanted to use "magical biubiu" to pierce straight through Su Yu's little heart.
Thinking of this white-haired shorty's monstrous strength, Su Yu felt that probably wasn't magic—it was physics.
The place buzzed with voices.
Cups and glasses passed back and forth.
Everyone was immersed in this rare night, free of any work pressure.
Sirin sat at the far end of the long table.
The food in front of her had barely been touched.
Her chopsticks lay neatly across her plate, and the juice in her glass had only been sipped twice before she'd set it aside.
She kept her head lowered, staring at the lights reflected on the tabletop.
Those swaying, warm patches of light were like ripples spreading out across a water's surface, expanding ring by ring, yet never quite reaching her fingertips.
Across the table, Su Yu was being plied with drinks by Nuwa and Su Mei.
He kept waving his hands, saying "I can't, I can't anymore," only to have Ma Feima pin his shoulders down from behind.
Laughter rose and fell all around.
That laughter poured into her ears like an extremely high-frequency noise.
Sirin stood up.
No one noticed her leaving her seat.
Or rather, in this lively private room, an empty spot in the corner was in itself nothing that would draw attention.
She pushed open the door leading to the terrace.
The night wind surged in.
The terrace was large, and beyond the railing stretched the boundless night of Arc City.
The high-rises in the distance glowed with dense clusters of lights, like a starry sky turned upside down onto the ground. And the real starry sky hung directly overhead.
The moonlight painted the terrace floor a cold white.
Sirin walked up to the railing and braced both hands on the icy metal handrail.
The night wind lifted the loose strands of hair at her forehead.
She raised her head and looked at the stars in the sky.
During those days on the moon, the starry sky had been her only companion.
Cold, distant points of light that would never betray her and never vanish.
The moonlight traced a cool, clear silver edge around her silhouette from behind.
The clamor from the private room, muffled by a single door, became a distant, blurry drone.
Eden leaned against the couch with her wine glass, her gaze passing over the crowd to land on that terrace door pushed open a crack.
She lowered her head and took a sip of red wine, then turned to look at Su Yu, who was being forced through his seventh glass of beer.
"Your girl there went outside."
Su Yu set down his glass.
His face was flushed from the alcohol, but his eyes were still clear.
"I saw."
"Then why are you still sitting here?"
Su Yu was silent for two seconds.
He stood, walked over to the cart holding the cake, cut off a slice still bearing a cream flower, and placed it on a clean little plate.
He pushed open that door leading to the terrace.
The night wind rushed at his face, carrying away the last traces of alcohol clinging to him.
On the terrace there was only moonlight and the sound of wind.
At the railing, Sirin stood gazing up at the stars in the sky.
She didn't turn around.
Su Yu walked over and held the plate out at the railing's edge.
Sirin didn't turn.
The night wind blew her white hair up, covering half her face.
"What did you come out here for?"
Her voice was hard as stone, several degrees colder than the terrace's night wind.
"Afraid I'd use this Paramecium's body to cause trouble out here?" She finally turned her head to the side, those golden eyes reflecting the lights of the distant office buildings. "Don't worry, I'll honor the agreement."
Su Yu didn't withdraw his hand.
The cream flower on the plate had already begun to sag slightly, turning into a gooey white lump in the July heat.
"Eat it now or it'll melt."
Sirin's gaze drifted back and forth between the plate and Su Yu for two seconds, her lips pressed into a stubborn straight line.
"I didn't say I wasn't going to eat it."
She took the plate.
The fork stabbed into the soft body of the cake and she brought it to her mouth.
Kalpas's skill really was beyond reproach. The sweet richness of the cream and the mellow depth of the cake sponge melted on the tip of her tongue—a flavor enough to lift anyone's mood.
Yet Sirin felt that, after that sweetness slid down her throat, it turned into some indescribable bitterness in her stomach.
The laughter and lights from the private room a moment ago still lingered on her retinas.
That laughter was for Su Yu. Those gifts were for Su Yu. That warmth, too, was for Su Yu.
And she was merely a counterfeit mixed in among the crowd, a shadow borrowing someone else's face.
____
Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 60 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉