After Transmigrating into an ABO World with My Rival - Chapter 35.1

Chen Yanzhi froze for a moment before instinctively wrapping his arms around Fu Tingyue’s waist. Breathing in that intense scent of rose wine, his heart began to race uncontrollably.

It’s over, he thought. I think I really do like Fu Tingyue.

They held each other for a long time. The concentration of pheromones in the air grew so high that it completely masked the perfume Chen Yanzhi had sprayed earlier. Fu Tingyue turned his head and kissed Chen Yanzhi’s earlobe, his voice muffled and low: “When did you start preparing all this?”

The sensation of Fu Tingyue’s breath made Chen Yanzhi feel ticklish. He kept trying to shrink back, his voice carrying a slight, unmistakable tremor: “I started last month. I only finished everything two days ago.”

Fu Tingyue let out a low chuckle. He held Chen Yanzhi by the waist to prevent him from dodging and planted a firm kiss on his ear, his voice raspy: “I completely forgot today was my birthday.”

Hearing that, Chen Yanzhi guessed Fu Tingyue had been far too busy and exhausted lately. A surge of heartache rose within him, and he patted Fu Tingyue’s back comfortingly: “It’s okay. It’s enough that I remember.”

Fu Tingyue buried his face in the crook of Chen Yanzhi’s neck, his tone laced with a faint sense of dread: “Chen Yanzhi, what should I do?”

Chen Yanzhi grew nervous along with him: “What’s wrong?”

Fu Tingyue murmured: “I don’t think I can stop loving you. What should I do?”

Chen Yanzhi let out a massive sigh of relief, his tone a bit awkward: “I never told you to stop.”

He had never felt that being loved by Fu Tingyue was a bad thing; he just hadn’t known how to face it before, so he wanted to hide away and wait for the feeling to pass on its own.

But the truth was, it wouldn’t pass. Fu Tingyue wouldn’t stop loving him, and his own feelings for Fu Tingyue had undergone a transformation.

Fu Tingyue didn’t press for more; he was afraid that if he asked further, the answer wouldn’t be the one he wanted. He looked up at the beautifully decorated room and turned to ask Chen Yanzhi: “Have you been busy with this the whole time?”

Chen Yanzhi nodded: “Yeah. Secretary Jiang helped, otherwise I couldn’t have managed it alone.”

Jiang Tang had handled the lights and balloons, but Chen Yanzhi was the one who designed the layout. He was the chief engineer.

Thinking of this, Chen Yanzhi couldn’t help but feel proud, instinctively straightening his back and tilting his chin up.

Seeing his “please praise me” expression, Fu Tingyue laughed and rubbed Chen Yanzhi’s head: “Zhizhi is amazing. It’s decorated so beautifully, like a fairy-tale world.”

Chen Yanzhi’s eyes sparkled: “Then, do you like it?”

Fu Tingyue stood up straight, a deep smile on his face: “I love it.”

However, Chen Yanzhi noticed that Fu Tingyue’s eyes were slightly rimmed with red, and his eyelashes were damp.

He said blankly: “Are you crying?”

During the preparation process, he had guessed Fu Tingyue might cry; in fact, making Fu Tingyue moved to tears had been his ultimate goal. But now that he was actually seeing Fu Tingyue’s tears, he wasn’t happy at all. Instead, his chest felt heavy, as if something were pressing down on it.

Fu Tingyue didn’t deny it. He cupped Chen Yanzhi’s face and said: “Thank you for celebrating my birthday. I’m very happy.”

Chen Yanzhi cupped Fu Tingyue’s face in return, using his thumb to wipe away the moisture from the corners of the man’s eyes. His brows were knit tight, his voice low and muffled: “Don’t cry. I don’t want you to cry anymore. I wanted you to be happy.”

Fu Tingyue laughed and caught his hand, a smile dancing in the depths of his eyes: “These are tears of joy.”

Chen Yanzhi’s heart still felt a bit heavy. He hadn’t seen Fu Tingyue cry since they grew up. He took back his earlier words; he didn’t want to move Fu Tingyue to tears, he just wanted him to be happy.

Fu Tingyue scanned the room and changed the subject at the right moment: “Did you prepare a gift and a cake for me too?”

He hadn’t actually intended to cry, but his emotions had buckled in that moment. His rut was approaching, making his feelings a bit harder to control.

Chen Yanzhi answered softly: “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I bought a bit of everything.”

Fu Tingyue looked at the boxes of various sizes, his gaze tenderly fixed on Chen Yanzhi’s eyes: “You didn’t use the card I gave you?”

Chen Yanzhi felt self-conscious under that gaze. He scratched his hair and turned toward the table, trying to keep his tone light and natural: “A gift should be sincere. I bought them with the money I earned from selling my design drafts. I spent every last cent. These decorations in the room were bought with your money, though.”

Fu Tingyue followed Chen Yanzhi over. Looking at the rather ugly-looking cake, he couldn’t help but be curious: “Where did you buy this cake?”

It was a bit ugly and strangely shaped; you couldn’t quite tell what it was supposed to be. The frosting wasn’t smooth, the uneven surface was enough to drive a perfectionist crazy, yet it was very deliberately decorated with pearls. It was the first time Fu Tingyue had ever seen “exquisite tackiness” on a cake.

“I… I don’t know. Secretary Jiang bought it. How has this cake shop not gone out of business yet, right?”

Chen Yanzhi talked to himself, his heart pounding with nerves.

This was already the best-looking one he had made. The others were even worse.

He was so nervous that he forgot Secretary Jiang had started his New Year leave and gone back to his hometown three days ago, not due back until the eighth.

Fu Tingyue knew exactly what was going on the moment he heard that. Against his conscience, he said: “It’s not ugly. It’s quite unique.”

Chen Yanzhi felt incredibly awkward. With red ears, he grumbled: “If you’ve guessed it, just say so. Why beat around the bush?”

The smile on Fu Tingyue’s lips deepened: “When did you learn?”

Chen Yanzhi didn’t even know how to wash dishes, yet he had gone to learn how to bake a cake just to celebrate his birthday.

For someone with zero culinary skills, making it look like this was already very good. He couldn’t imagine how many times Chen Yanzhi had secretly made cakes over the past month, or how many times he had failed.

He must have been so frustrated at the time; after all, ever since they were kids, there was nothing Chen Yanzhi wanted to do that he couldn’t learn. He was very bright.

Chen Yanzhi said arrogantly: “What’s so hard about making a cake? I learned it in just two days.”

In reality, he had started learning a month ago. He spent three hours every day at a bakery and even paid five thousand yuan for the lessons. It wasn’t until yesterday that he finally managed to produce a cake that was somewhat presentable; the previous ones were too hideous to show anyone.

Fu Tingyue knew Chen Yanzhi was lying, but he didn’t call him out. Instead, he asked with concern: “Did you get hurt?”

It was his fault for being careless. He had been too busy last month. Every night when he came home, Chen Yanzhi was already asleep. He had seen Band-Aids on Chen Yanzhi’s hands and assumed they were just accidental scrapes. He had asked a few times, but Chen Yanzhi always said it was nothing, so he hadn’t looked into it.

Chen Yanzhi had been pampered and delicate since childhood; he must have suffered quite a bit to learn this.

Chen Yanzhi waved it off nonchalantly: “It’s nothing. I just scraped some skin off. It wasn’t serious, and it’s already healed.”

Fu Tingyue carefully inspected Chen Yanzhi’s hands. They had indeed healed, but the originally soft, smooth fingertips had tiny new scars. Although they were small, they felt like deep, unfillable furrows cut into Fu Tingyue’s heart.

He held Chen Yanzhi’s hands and kissed them with a look of pure heartache, blaming himself: “Chen Yanzhi, you don’t have to do these things for me. I’m already happy enough that you remembered my birthday. I didn’t take good care of you last month because the company was too busy. It’s my fault.”

“I’m not a child; you don’t need to take care of my every move. This is something I wanted to prepare for you. In this world, only I know your birthday is today. I’m happy I could prepare these things for you, and I also hope you can be happy.”

As Chen Yanzhi spoke, his voice began to choke up. He turned his head to steady his emotions, then smiled as he picked up the slightly ugly birthday hat he had made by hand. Fu Tingyue proactively leaned down to let him put it on.

Chen Yanzhi cupped Fu Tingyue’s face and looked up at him, tears shimmering in his eyes: “Happy 20th birthday.”

Fu Tingyue was nearly a year older than him. Their birthdays were at opposite ends of the year, one at the beginning and one at the end. Chen Yanzhi had just turned nineteen, while Fu Tingyue was entering his twentieth year. But this secret was known only to the two of them; everyone else thought Fu Tingyue was twenty-three, but he was actually only twenty.

Fu Tingyue was so moved his eyes stung: “Thank you, Zhizhi.”

Chen Yanzhi patted his face, turned to wipe away a tear, and clapped his hands: “Alright, time to light the candles and sing the birthday song!”

He opened the bag of candles, and he and Fu Tingyue inserted them one by one, twenty candles in total.

When Chen Yanzhi had his birthday, he had put in nineteen. At the time, some people were confused, and Chen Yanzhi explained he wanted to stay nineteen forever, but it was actually because he had just turned nineteen.

Chen Yanzhi finished singing the birthday song with tears in his eyes. Feeling depressed, he wiped his tears and grumbled: “I originally wanted to move you to tears. How did I end up crying like this? So embarrassing.”

Fu Tingyue wasn’t doing much better. He turned away to haphazardly wipe his face, then took a tissue and gently wiped Chen Yanzhi’s face for him.

He hadn’t expected Chen Yanzhi to prepare a surprise. This was the first time since they were children that Chen Yanzhi had put so much heart into something. Before, he would celebrate Fu Tingyue’s birthday, but it usually just involved buying a gift and everyone having a meal together.

Fu Tingyue was deeply moved. In Chen Yanzhi’s heart, he was finally different. He would spend time learning to bake a cake for him and secretly prepare a surprise behind his back.

Fu Tingyue felt he was getting a response; he even had the illusion that Chen Yanzhi liked him back.

Let it be an illusion, then. I’ll treat it as a dream and deal with it when I wake up.

He carefully wiped Chen Yanzhi’s face clean. Chen Yanzhi turned away awkwardly, looking at the cake he made with his own hands, and said to Fu Tingyue: “I’m telling you, even though this cake looks ugly, I baked the sponge perfectly. The bakery owner even praised me.”

Realizing Fu Tingyue was staring at him in a daze, Chen Yanzhi grabbed Fu Tingyue’s hand and handed him the cake knife: “Come on, cut the cake! I made it yesterday morning. I don’t know if the texture got worse after sitting in the fridge all night.”

Just as Chen Yanzhi was about to step back, Fu Tingyue suddenly grabbed his hand, tucked the cake knife into his palm, and held his hand firmly: “Let’s cut it together.”

The Alpha was tall and broad, while the Omega was small and delicate. Even though Chen Yanzhi was considered tall for an Omega, he was still small in front of Fu Tingyue. He was practically nestled in Fu Tingyue’s embrace.

Fu Tingyue’s arms were warm, and the faint scent of rose wine lingered in the air. Chen Yanzhi didn’t refuse; he and Fu Tingyue cut the cake together.

Fu Tingyue ate the first piece and said it was delicious. Chen Yanzhi took a bite, the taste was just average, likely because it had been in the fridge for a day.

If he hadn’t run out of time, he would have made it today, the texture would definitely have been better.

He ate a small piece and put down his fork, turning to Fu Tingyue: “Next time I’ll make it on the actual day. It’ll taste better.”

Fu Tingyue didn’t usually like sweets, but he finished every bit of the cake Chen Yanzhi gave him. There was a bit of white frosting on the corner of his mouth: “It’s very good.”

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