Birthday Battle

August 24th, morning.

The phone buzzed on the table. A new message popped up in the three-person group chat named "Strategic Alliance."

Chu Miaomiao: "Birthday_Cake.jpg"

The cake in the photo didn't have any flashy cream decorations. It was simply covered with a rich chocolate glaze, dotted with plump crushed nuts and a few fresh strawberries. It looked understated yet delicious.

Xie Yuling: "What a beautiful cake! Lin Mo will definitely be thrilled."

Chu Miaomiao: "Hehe, Lin Mo doesn't like things too sweet. I reduced the sugar three times for this recipe to make it exactly to his taste."

Even in a three-person group chat, Chu Miaomiao's straightforwardness was impossible to hate.

Jiang Yunlu stared at the phrase "exactly to his taste," her fingertips pausing over the screen.

She had no idea how to bake a cake.

Jiang Yunlu: "Since we have the cake, how about I arrange the place for dinner tonight? What about that newly opened Kaiseki restaurant in the city?"

The group chat went quiet for a few seconds.

After thinking for a moment, Xie Yuling finally rejected the idea: "Let's not. Lin Mo didn't even want to celebrate his birthday in the first place. If we do all this complicated stuff for him, he might not be as happy as we imagine."

After sending that, Xie Yuling added another message.

"I think we should just buy some groceries and go to his place. We can cook ourselves; it'll be lively."

Flatly rejected, Jiang Yunlu gripped her phone, her knuckles whitening slightly. The screen's light reflected on her expressionless face.

This again.

She took a deep breath, suppressing the slight displeasure in her heart, and started typing in the input box again.

She didn't know how to cook, but she had other ways.

"Cooking by ourselves will be too tiring. Besides, Lin Mo has a huge appetite, and us girls won't be able to make many heavy dishes."

"In that case, we can have someone cook the food and deliver it. We can also prepare a wider variety of dishes."

Xie Yuling: "No problem."

This time, Xie Yuling's reply was much faster, and she didn't object.

Good, she finally won a round.

Jiang Yunlu's mood brightened a bit, feeling like she had finally found an irreplaceable role in this birthday planning.

Chu Miaomiao: "Happy_Cat_Waving.jpg"

A static sticker of a chubby orange cat popped up, waving its paws, looking adorably naive.

Xie Yuling: "That cat sticker is so cute, where did you find it?"

As she said that, Xie Yuling pressed save, keeping Chu Miaomiao's sticker for herself.

Chu Miaomiao: "It's my Hajimi! I took the picture and made it myself."

Jiang Yunlu: "Hajimi? Is that the cat's name? This orange cat is indeed quite chubby and cute."

Chu Miaomiao: "Yeah, Lin Mo gave it that name. I don't know why it's called Hajimi either, but since Lin Mo named it, Hajimi it is."

A critical hit.

This sentence was like a fine needle, accurately piercing Jiang Yunlu's just-relaxed heart.

A name, and behind it was a story she had never been a part of.

Chu Miaomiao was still typing.

"By the way, I'll bring it over later. Are either of you allergic to cat hair?"

Xie Yuling: "No, bring it! I want to pet it too!"

Then Xie Yuling clenched her fists and muttered viciously behind the screen, "If this was a cat from a cat cafe, Lin Mo, you'd be dead!"

Jiang Yunlu looked at the chat interface, feeling like a fool. She had personally yielded the stage to someone else and even handed them the spotlight.

She slowly typed out a few words.

"I'm not allergic either."

Putting down her phone, Jiang Yunlu leaned back in her chair and sighed silently.

She really wanted to slap herself.

If she had known, she wouldn't have asked about the cat's name.

Now it seemed this birthday preparation was more like a competition without gunpowder.

Chu Miaomiao had a custom-made cake and a cat personally named by Lin Mo. Each was a unique proof of intimacy.

Xie Yuling understood Lin Mo's personality. She was his little landlady, living right upstairs.

And what about herself?

Other than having money, it seemed she couldn't do anything.

In this contest, everyone else brought magical artifacts. She alone carried an Italian cannon, only to find the battlefield was a kitchen of less than ten square meters.

It seemed she alone was the furthest away from Lin Mo.

Jiang Yunlu was feeling a bit emo.

--System: I also think Jiang Yunlu is lagging behind by quite a bit. Hey, no playing favorites!--

Afternoon.

The sunlight lazily filtered through the gap in the curtains, slicing a streak of light across the floor.

Lin Mo was sunk into the sofa, potato chips in his left hand, an ice-cold cola in his right, completely immersed in the joy of being an otaku.

The crisp crunch of the potato chips, accompanied by the fizz of the cola bubbles, constituted the entire essence of this rare holiday.

Having stepped into the otaku life, he didn't even have the slightest sense of what day it was today.

In the next room, Ning Qingcheng, as a junior otaku girl, was fighting for her 2D career.

"Bankai——!"

A full-throated shout pierced through the wall. Lin Mo's hand holding the potato chip paused for a moment before he stuffed it into his mouth without changing his expression.

A 2D otaku girl wasn't unacceptable; it was certainly more normal than being a senior agent of Yanhuang Awakening.

Things like Water Shadow Hurricane, Six Dragon Balls, Fire Thief King, Living God... she didn't miss a single one, watching them day and night.

She called it a way to better integrate with her classmates when she went to school in the future.

Whether it was to communicate better with classmates after enrollment or to become the cult leader of Chuunibyou, it was hard to say.

Lin Mo had a sentence held back in his heart for a long time.

For girls of this age in our country, it would be a miracle if even three out of ten watched these things.

With this direction of integration, you're probably going to end up chatting with the male students about whether Hollow Ichigo or Mugetsu is stronger.

Forget it, as long as the little girl is happy. Anyway, no one can bully her.

With her looks, when she grows up, she'll be at the same level as Xie Yuling and the others. Coupled with her intelligence that far exceeds her peers and her special abilities, Lin Mo didn't think anyone in this world could bully her.

Anyone who dared to touch her would probably have to weigh whether their own life was tough enough first.

Just as he was about to open the next bag of potato chips, his mind stirred slightly.

His divine sense, which covered the surroundings like a radar, caught three familiar and somewhat joyful signatures.

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow.

"Wait! Da Shachun, what are you guys trying to do?"

At this moment, less than a hundred meters away from Lin Mo's house, a car slowly came to a stop.

Jiang Yunlu got out of the car first, looking left and right like an agent on a secret mission.

The other two girls followed closely behind, their movements also a bit sneaky.

They were unwilling to share Lin Mo's day with anyone else, so the result of their discussion was for the three of them to come together and share it jointly.

Chu Miaomiao was carrying a cat backpack. An orange cat was lying quietly inside, its mood very stable, posing no danger, and absolutely not going to evolve into an elderly form.

In her hand, she was carefully carrying a large cake box, afraid of slipping with every step she took.

The other two were both carrying bags, hiding their gifts securely, fully emphasizing a sense of mystery.