His Marriage Partner is Scheming

The moment he heard these words, Chi Xueyan thought, this seemed to be the most ordinary and ordinary Christmas Eve in his memory, but also the most bizarre and special one.

He got out of the car at the door of his house. There was no snowflakes for the occasion, and no pre-decorated Christmas trees outside, only the biting cold wind.

But he received a Christmas gift beyond imagination.

An unsolved mystery that is standing next to him at this moment and is close at hand, handing over to him a key that can be used to verify all answers.

This is a gift that Chi Xueyan can never refuse—as long as he is still him.

He loves the cryptic details that are traded for birthday photo stories, peer-to-peer.

In the novel, there are black and white protagonists, villains, passers-by, an omniscient and omnipotent God's perspective, and a tragic or happy ending marked in advance.

But real life has never been so simple. It is impossible to clarify the thoughts hidden in other people's hearts, and it is impossible to predict where the future will lead.

People can only use their own perspective to live in the present moment.

In the landscape as far as the eye can see, the only certainty is uncertainty itself.

For example, the current Heqiao.

An uncertain mystery, but it has a certain transparency only for him.

It's Chi Xueyan's infatuation with the contradiction.

From now on, he no longer has to spend extra energy thinking about whether the mysterious book walker He Qiao is hiding something from him.

The balance has been uneven from the beginning, so it no longer tilts and shakes, and everything returns to the most fair origin.

new origin.

The key dropped into the lock cylinder and turned slightly.

In the long winter night, he stared at the side face of He Qiao who lowered his head and opened the door.

The posture of the whole person shows good upbringing, but does not appear expensive, giving people a handsome, gentle, innocent and friendly impression.

The first feeling when we first met seems to still apply at this moment.

But it is not complete enough to summarize all the people around you.

The doors open, and the house is as beautiful as ever, but without the slightest celebratory air.

Chi Xueyan has no interest in following the rules of birthdays, so she didn't prepare the most necessary links in advance: cakes, candles, wishes, and gifts.

But most people always care about these ordinary rituals.

Especially a first birthday in a strange world.

So the first thing Chi Xueyan said after walking into the house was to ask He Qiao: "Do you need a birthday cake? I passed by several cake shops just now, and forgot to stop to buy it."

Buying a cake was originally what he planned to use to politely reject He Qiao.

But it's not entirely an excuse, he has indeed considered this point, treating He Qiao as a friend at that moment.

"No need." He Qiao shook his head, "I don't like cream very much, the cake is too big, it would be a waste to buy it."

Unlike Chi Xueyan who brought sugar with him, he has no special preference for sweets, especially cream.

Moreover, for He Qiao, this was already the best birthday he could imagine.

In the next second, he saw a smile flickering in the other party's eyes.

"No need?"

Chi Xueyan took off his coat and threw it on the sofa casually, with a hint of teasing in his tone: "I wanted to make you a cake."

Chi Xueyan said that he would make him a cake.

... He Qiao suddenly didn't know how to answer.

It was the end of a birthday he could not have imagined.

The most unexpected birthday coda.

But the last sentence "no need" is still in my ears.

Seeing the repentance on his expression, the smile on Chi Xueyan's face became brighter. He no longer asked birthday star for this obvious answer, but went straight to the kitchen.

"There is no cream, the volume is very small, and it can be finished in half an hour." He told the truth, "It's a lazy cake, don't expect too much."

That's a long half hour for someone busy in the kitchen.

Half an hour is too short for those who are with me in the kitchen.

It was rare that Chi Xueyan didn't look at the balloon man outside the window to relieve his boredom, but lowered his head and carefully separated the egg white and egg yolk.

Eggs, butter, low-gluten flour, baking powder, matcha powder...they were all prepared in the kitchen before moving into the wedding room.

He Qiao can cook, but has never been exposed to baking. For this reason, he once wondered why his mother would prepare so many commonly used ingredients for baking.

When he called once, he casually mentioned it, and Sheng Xiaoyue told him that Han Zhenzhen asked someone to buy it, saying that Xiaochi might use it.

This made He Qiao even more surprised.

From Chi Xueyan's constant perfunctory sandwiches when he made breakfast by himself, and his repeated emphasis on not wanting to learn to cook, it is clear that he resists cooking.

It is unimaginable that he took the initiative to enter the kitchen to bake.

But He Qiao has indeed seen it, there is a group chat on his mobile phone about making sweets.

Just on the day of the wedding.

He saw Chi Xueyan's lit phone screen, and at the same time found the notes for him and Ren Xuan on it.

As for the latter matter, now is not the time to ask.

But today, he at least solved the previous doubt.

"...Having lived together for more than twenty years, it is inevitable that there will be quarrels and unhappiness." When Chi Xueyan was mixing the egg yolk paste, he chatted with He Qiao to pass the time, "Whenever the two of them get angry with me, I just sneak into the kitchen."

What's more, he always does things as he pleases, and it is common for him to make his parents angry, even if they are already much more tolerant than ordinary parents.

"My dad has a sweet tooth, so I learned a little about the simplest desserts and cakes." He laughed, "I joined a group dedicated to sharing recipes for lazy people—do you know how lazy the owner of that group is? "

"She doesn't even bother to add the word lazy to the group chat name, but sometimes she is willing to overcome her laziness and bake a small cake for herself."

"Man is really a strange and contradictory animal, just like I hate cooking, but occasionally I will take the initiative to walk into the kitchen to make a dessert."

In front of the clear glass window in the winter night, Chi Xueyan lowered his head and smiled, while He Qiao, who was waiting by the side, stared at his back, with a smile on his face that he didn't even notice.

"Isn't your mother a sweet tooth?"

"Well, she doesn't like it, so I will give her a hot cup of milk." Chi Xueyan continued, "My dad will forget to be angry with me for a while when he eats something he likes, while my mother holds the hot milk and looks at it. I was reluctantly washing a pile of used utensils in the kitchen, and it seemed to forgive me."

"However, if the same trick is used too much, antibodies will always be produced. But it just so happens that I started working as a children's dentist after graduation."

"I have forgotten what was the cause of that day. Anyway, I started making cakes, and they followed up in the kitchen, trying to continue the quarrel. As a result, I suddenly started telling fairy tales."

In lighthearted memories, Chi Xueyan poured the mixed batter into a paper cup and put it in the oven.

The most troublesome step was finally completed, he breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to look at He Qiao.

Under the warm yellow light in the kitchen, He Qiao behind him is still patiently waiting for the suspense to be revealed, about what happened after he suddenly told a fairy tale.

The oven made a running noise, and Chi Xueyan leaned against the countertop in the kitchen, and told him the answer with a smile: "When my parents heard it for the first time, they were stunned, and then asked me in an unbelievable tone, is it right?" Treating them like children."

"I said, yes, I often tell this story to children in dental chairs, and they usually like it because it's a new version that they haven't heard before."

"I simply admitted that I was coaxing them, like a child. So they suddenly had nothing to do with me, either listening to stories in the kitchen, or waiting for dessert and hot milk in the living room."

"So far, the trick hasn't failed because I always have a new story to tell."

At the end of Chi Xueyan's talk, the memories bordered on reality: "Also, I don't need it anymore, I don't live together often, and there is no fight to quarrel."

He has a new home, though not really a home yet.

He Qiao probably thought of the same thing.

In the kitchen of his new home, amidst the similar sweet aroma, he took the initiative to ask about the story that Chi Xueyan told a long time ago.

"What was the first fairy tale you told?"

"The story of the mermaid." Chi Xueyan said, "but the plot is completely different. For example, it wasn't her who turned into the bubble."

In the original story, the prince has a beloved princess and is going to marry her, but the little mermaid trembles and drops the knife, and at dawn, it becomes the beating foam on the sea.

He thinks that children should not listen to such fairy tales, they should not give up their fishtails for ethereal love, give up their voices, lose their lives in the end, and never be the little mermaids who lived happily in the first place.

He Qiao asked: "Who is that who became the bubble? The prince?"

"It's not anyone, it's time that turns into a bubble."

"The little mermaid regretted it, so in the new story, she decided to swim to the deep sea, where she liked coral and pearls better than the distant prince on the shore."

Chi Xueyan had told this newly compiled fairy tale to different people countless times, but only tonight, he suddenly felt a fable-like atmosphere.

Did he tell this fairy tale in the book?

Probably not, because he quickly gave up the career he once liked and went to the family company to name himself.

So at the beginning, He Qiao didn't even know that he was a dentist.

Chi Xueyan lowered her eyes, her brows and eyes were smudged by the dim and silent light in the room, He Qiao didn't speak after listening to the fairy tale, but just stared at him with gentle eyes as always.

In the slight trembling of the eyelashes, maybe after waiting for a long time, maybe only a moment later, there was a crisp ding from the oven.

The cake is ready.

He turned around and got back to work.

Go to the snack box and get a pack of marshmallows, and unpack two cartons of milk.

The milk pot is gradually boiling, and the marshmallows are cut on the cutting board.

Then he put on his gloves and lifted the two tiny cupcakes out of the oven.

He Qiao had already consciously sat down at the dining table, waiting for him to appear with the cake.

This is the simplest and most special birthday cake he has ever seen.

The two matcha muffin cakes were extremely fluffy when they were just baked, and the round tops of the cakes swelled and cracked outwards, like layers of large dark green branches, each dotted with a few pieces of marshmallows.

The pure white marshmallow was cut into thin slices, and each slice was specially cut with snowflake-like edges and corners, although the edges and corners were not neat and symmetrical at all, and seemed random.

They look like two snow-covered Christmas trees.

There are two cups of hot milk on the side.

Chi Xueyan sat down opposite him, and said softly: "There are no birthday candles at home, but this cake looks like a Christmas tree, and it looks even more like a Christmas tree, so I think it can replace the function of candles."

Candles, like Christmas trees, are used to make wishes.

Heating milk with sweets is the way he used to coax his parents, so he added an extra sentence.

"I'm not angry, and you shouldn't be either. So I'm not coaxing you because of the quarrel."

Chi Xueyan said: "It's just because you are about to usher in a new year in this world, maybe you need a cake with a sense of ceremony, and I suddenly want to drink hot milk."

Then, he said it again: "Happy birthday."

That is the opposite blessing.

Saying goodbye and beginning.

The cold wind blows through the withered leaves outside the window.

The lights in the window reflected the two Christmas trees that once placed wishes.

He Qiao thought, at this moment, saying thank you is obviously not expressive, and it is too early to say thank you more intimately.

So he said: "Matcha muffins really look like Christmas trees."

Turning a birthday cake into a tree and cutting marshmallows into snow is a quirky idea that only the person in front of you can think of.

"Right?" Chi Xueyan was very satisfied with his approval, "Especially after adding marshmallows, it's a pity that it's too troublesome to cut, it doesn't look particularly like snowflakes."

"I'll cut it next time."

"...Do you want to eat this cake again next year?"

He Qiao listed three reasons in a serious tone: "There is no cream, the size is just right, and I should be able to learn how to do it."

Hearing this, Chi Xueyan glanced at him with a half-smile, then stopped talking and picked up the glass in hand.

The dark green glass was the one Chi Xueyan picked out to be the most suitable for this dining table, and it contained the most sour lemonade four months ago.

Now, he drinks hot milk from it by the light.

And He Qiao began to taste his birthday cake.

The pine branches were once again covered with snow, but it was warm and soft.