Chapter: 61. Butterfly
“Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday dear Xiya~~ Hehe, make a wish while blowing out the candles.”
This is a birthday party unique to Xiya and Xue Fei.
Riverside Villa, a tranquil night, the flickering candlelight dances.
Xue Feiya is singing the birthday song that is exclusive to their previous world.
Whenever someone has a birthday… someone always sings this song, and then the birthday star blows out the candles and makes a wish, only then will the wish be fulfilled.
But Xiya’s way of making wishes… seems a bit unconventional?
“I hope Xue Fei’s dreams all come true… I hope Xue Fei has everything go smoothly…”
“Ah… silly Xiya! You can’t say your wish out loud! If you say it, it won’t come true!”
“Is… is that so? Then let’s do it again, good thing I haven’t blown out the candles yet.”
“……”
Looking at the golden-haired girl, who closed her eyes again, hands clasped together, silently reciting the wish that had already been revealed, and slowly blowing out the candles.
Xue Feiya shook her head in disbelief, not knowing if this way would still make the wish come true.
Twisting her fingers through her silver hair, Xue Fei glanced at the clock.
There are fifteen minutes left until midnight.
— Just in time.
Pfft… Speaking of which, Xiya, what kind of wish is that? How can you wish for someone else on your own birthday?
Xue Feiya picked up a piece of cake from the table, sat directly on the floor, propped herself up with one hand, and cast her gaze toward the bright moon outside the window, while keeping her peripheral vision on Xiya, who was still sincerely making wishes.
You, you…
Calling you silly, you really are!
On your birthday, should you at least think a little more about yourself?
Because of the previous battle and the fast running back, both Xue Fei and Xiya’s dresses were covered in dust.
How can you celebrate your birthday looking so grimy?
With just a flick of her hand, Xue Feiya summoned her magic, and in an instant, Xiya’s wine-red dress was as clean as new.
When Xue Feiya nodded in satisfaction, she realized, just as she looked down—her own dress was still dirty.
Sigh… It seems I forgot to take care of myself.
After using magic to tidy up her own gown, Xue Feiya raised her head, just in time to meet Xiya’s sparkling blue eyes, which had a hint of mischief.
“Hehe… Xue Fei is really careless, thinking only of her sister and forgetting about herself.”
“A mistake, just a mistake!”
“There’s no such strange mistake.”
Xiya had already blown out the candles.
Seeing that Xue Fei was sitting casually, she discarded those complicated formalities, picked up her piece of cake, and sat beside Xue Feiya.
From this angle, the two could tilt their heads and admire the full moon together.
Xue Feiya could see the moon.
And Xiya, tilting her head, could see a side profile more radiant than the moon.
Some eyes shine brighter than moonlight.
“Xue Fei… thank you.”
“Ha? What are you thanking me for again?”
“If it weren’t for you remembering that method earlier, we definitely wouldn’t have been able to come back to blow out the candles. Now that I think about it, it seems like it was the same in our previous life, whether it was my birthday or yours, we would buy a small cake and cut it in half to share, never buying a big one.”
“Because a big cake is too much to eat… I wasn’t as good at eating back then as I am now.”
“Pfft… Maybe it’s because I didn’t eat enough cake back then that Xue Fei became such a big eater now!”
They didn’t say it.
Actually, the reason for not buying a big cake is because it always comes with a lot of candles.
It is said that one candle represents one year.
With more candles, the years go by, and as they drift apart, how can it be guaranteed that they can still sit in front of the same cake next year?
So fewer candles, a little innocence in life, sometimes isn’t a bad thing.
They knew this was useless, but back then…
We always hoped time would slow down a bit.
Just like that, the two leaned against each other, listening to the clock ticking away.
A dreamlike blue butterfly flutters its wings on the windowsill.
Looking directly at it, it seemed as if its wings were carrying the entire boundless starry sky.
Xiya leaned her head against Xue Fei’s shoulder, her squinted eyes gradually opening, her voice gentle and calming.
“Xue Fei still remembers… Sister said before that she wanted to give you a gift on your birthday.”
“I remember, but I don’t really like gifts.”
“Why not?”
“Because the gifts I gave you before never reached you, and today it’s the same.”
“Before…? Today…?
Before… so long ago.
When you were terminally ill in your previous life, that box of medicine was equivalent to the gift I wanted to give you.
But I couldn’t deliver it…
I didn’t walk the path all the way, and you didn’t see me by your side.
And today, I still couldn’t deliver it.
“I… actually bought a hairpin yesterday, and hid it in the hall ahead of time, thinking I would surprise you with it when the time came.”
Xue Feiya gazed out the window.
She was looking far away, lost in thought.
“That hairpin was hidden in the layers of the cake cabinet, but unfortunately, when I wanted to give it to you, it was smashed.”
“Xue Fei… you were looking for that?”
After the hall trembled from the magical attack, Xue Feiya had gone to check the cake cabinet before taking Xiya outside to fight.
Xiya thought she just wanted to see if there was still unbroken cake left to eat.
But actually… Xue Feiya wanted to see if the hairpin she hid there was still there.
The result was clear.
That hairpin had already been crushed into several pieces, destroyed.
In that moment, Xue Feiya seemed to see the little rain from the previous life.
Sinking on the water surface, the box of medicine that never reached its destination.
You know…
If it weren’t for that car accident, just a few hours later, it would be Xiya’s birthday.
As a result, Xue Fei couldn’t blow out the candles for her eighteenth birthday together.
Immersed in darkness…
In the depths of Xue Feiya’s heart, there was no sunlight.
But…
She heard a voice.
“Xue Fei, come.”
“Mm…?”
She gently lifted her head from her knees, only to find the cake in her hands had somehow been taken by Xiya and placed in a small dish.
As Xue Feiya looked up the dish…
The flickering light of the candles was no brighter than sunlight.
But it was more than enough to illuminate one person.
“Xue Fei, you should blow out a candle too. It seems like this was also the same age…? You didn’t blow out my birthday candles back then, so you can make up for it now, come on, gently blow it out.”
“Ugh… Xiya…!”
“Mm…?! Hey… don’t cry, it’s sister’s birthday… why are you crying?”
But clearly, you’re already shedding tears too.
The day after Xue Feiya left in the previous life.
Xiya, at eighteen years old, for the first time blew out the candles alone, but it was so exhausting.
She cried then, her weak body making her tears feel powerless.
But the tears back then were, after all, different from now.
Because there was more than one candle.
And there was more than one person to blow out the candles.
Xue Feiya sobbed in Xiya’s embrace, while Xiya tightly held her shoulders and embraced her closely.
Actually, when you said your gift never reached you, that was incorrect.
“When I was confined in that domain magic… it was Xue Fei who came to save her sister, right? You saved me, arrived just in time.”
“Well… that’s true, but this…”
“I was confused and helpless in the kingdom, unsure of the meaning of the hero’s job, tired of the battlefield, and rejected by my family, it was Xue Fei who came to tell me to be free, today, they no longer treat me with cold eyes.”
“That’s what you fought for… I…”
“No… it was because you came just in time.”
Even now, you are so strong…
You still often have those terrifying nightmares, right?
Shattered lights.
Pattering rain.
The helpless you.
That rainy night, your sister wasn’t by your side, leaving you to depart alone, to be afraid alone.
I’m really sorry…
“From now on… never again.”
“Xiya…?”
“Ha… don’t say that, Xue Fei, you just have to blow out this candle, and I’ll tell you a secret, okay? If I say I’m giving you a gift, I must give it, don’t let your sister go back on her word.”
“Mm… okay?”
Facing the candlelight, Xue Feiya pouted her adorable cheeks, and with just a gentle blow, the candlelight extinguished.
In fact, the candle did not go out.
The candle has always been burning in her heart, replacing the indistinct glaring sunlight.
The candle was blown out, and Xue Feiya fulfilled her promise.
So now…
Is it time for Xiya to fulfill her promise?
The nervous feeling that was originally there suddenly calmed at that moment.
Xiya adjusted her wine-red dress, kneeling as she moved to face Xue Fei’s face.
Xue Feiya did not understand why she suddenly looked so serious.
But she was struck by Xiya’s sparkling eyes, a radiance she had never seen before, and with her movements, she sat down face to face.
A feeling, with eyes locked, so much longing.
“Xue Fei… the gift sister wants to give you is actually just a sentence.”
“A sentence…?”
“Mm, this sentence is…”
Xiya’s face gradually approached Xue Feiya’s view, magnifying.
Until there was almost no distance left.
“I like you, without any other meaning… purely, I like you.”
“Xi…! Mm?!”
Xue Feiya could no longer speak or ask.
Because the gentle contact between their lips completely blocked her words.
She struggled for a moment, but soon felt completely powerless, no longer making any sound, gradually entrusting all her weight to Xiya’s embrace.
The clock struck midnight, and two tears fell.
[Mm… you can definitely get through this, don’t worry, come see me every day… Sister has no reason not to get better!]
[We will be together for next year’s birthday too, and I’ll splatter cake on your face at your graduation party.]
[If I’m not here.]
[Please find me.]
[As long as you are here.]
[Sister will be here.]
The pattering rain, in front of the car lights, once had a blue butterfly, resting on the soaked medicine box, reluctant to leave for a long time.
And now the dim blue butterfly flutters up from the windowsill, flying toward the distant, bright moonlight, never looking back.
