Chapter 165: Birthday, Gift

Standing in place, Guan Yiqiu felt a slight sense of disappointment.

She thought of her own boyfriend again. When would he ever become sensible, have a mind of his own, and become independent and self-reliant? Someone even younger than you was already on television accepting interviews.

The more she compared, the more Guan Yiqiu felt Cheng Yao's maturity and excellence. Compared to her own boyfriend, they were simply people from two different worlds.

"Yeah, I'm home and heading to bed. Let's talk about whatever tomorrow, hanging up now."

The late-night cold wind brought Guan Yiqiu even more confusion.

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By the time she returned to Half-Mountain Cloud Residence, it was already twelve-forty.

Taking the elevator up to the apartment, the Maine Coon trotted over wagging its tail. Seeing him return, Zhang Ya yawned and stood up from the sofa.

"It's so late. Do you want to take a shower first?"

"I'll take a shower first. Wait for me in bed. Are Little One and the others asleep?" Cheng Yao asked with a cheerful smile.

Once Little One and the others were asleep, he could be intimate with Zhang Ya.

"They're asleep."

Seeing his unserious demeanor, Zhang Ya gave him a sideways glance, opened a can of cat food for the Maine Coon, and then walked toward the bedroom.

Cheng Yao simply lathered up with shower gel, rinsed off quickly, and dashed into the room without even wearing pants, leaving Zhang Ya dumbfounded.

Clutching the blanket, Zhang Ya stared at him awkwardly, "You're not wearing clothes?"

"I'm used to sleeping naked. It promotes blood circulation."

"Who says things like that?"

Disregarding everything, Cheng Yao hugged her and took a deep, heavy sniff of her scent.

Zhang Ya's heart hammered like a drum. Pressing down on his hands, she said softly, "It's late today, I'm so sleepy, let's sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Goodnight."

"Yeah..."

In the end, Zhang Ya still failed to stop his mischievous hand from slipping inside her clothes.

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Early the next morning, the rising sun ascended in the east.

Just as Cheng Yao woke up, he received a message from Fang Liang. Late last night, quite a few distributors had actually called in to place stock orders.

Moreover, online sales had risen sharply.

Hearing this news, Cheng Yao knew this must be the effect of last night's television program. Although the impact wasn't overwhelmingly huge—after all, the promotional heat of Xia Shiqi's endorsement hadn't faded yet—still, every little bit counts.

Next came waiting for market feedback. Good products are never truly buried. Granted, it was a bit expensive, much like Black Swan; its target demographic was simply different.

Sales over the past two days had been quite impressive. Midsummer Technology was showing signs of taking off. The market had always been there; no matter what kind of commodity it was, expecting everyone to switch to smart toothbrushes overnight was completely unrealistic.

Some people were so used to ordinary ones that they would never switch in their lifetime, while others found them unaccustomed. There were even plenty of cases where people tried it a few times, decided it wasn't for them, and simply returned it.

Those who used this smart toothbrush were basically the younger demographic.

Midsummer Intertainment continued its steady development as usual, thriving with endorsements and all sorts of advertisements flying everywhere.

Moving forward, Cheng Yao no longer needed to pump money into Intertainment.

Recently, Liu Hanyue had no time to rest, juggling various endorsements.

During this period, she and Wang Churuo had invited him to go play at the haunted school, Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, but Cheng Yao declined because he was busy.

Lu Mengyao also had quite a few endorsements, considering she already had over three million followers.

Zhang Ya was awakened by her biological clock. Feeling groggy, she remembered that last night, as she fell asleep, her clothes had somehow vanished...

"I'll get up and make you breakfast. We're going to Shanghai at noon."

"Yeah, okay."

Zhang Ya picked up her phone and said, "I already contacted Rong Xuelin and the others last night. They're coming together to celebrate my birthday, along with a few classmates we get along well with. Where is the birthday venue?"

"The Peninsula. I'll just send them the address. You went to bed late last night, sleep a bit longer."

"No, I'm used to waking up at this time."

Zhang Ya tied her hair up into a rather dangerous "wife hairstyle"—dignified, elegant, and very pretty...

Fortunately it wasn't night time, otherwise he wouldn't be able to handle it.

After getting up and washing up, Cheng Yao began making breakfast.

Cheng Cheng and Jiang Yuexi had already gotten up and gone to school, so he only needed to make breakfast for two: fried eggs, bacon, steak, and toast.

After preparing some cat food for the Maine Coon, Cheng Yao rarely found himself not thinking about Lu Mengyao and Lin Ketong. When Zhang Ya was around, he almost forgot about the existence of the others.

"It's ready."

Looking at the exquisite breakfast, a faint smile appeared on Zhang Ya's face, along with a trace of disbelief.

"I remember you used to just go downstairs to buy it?"

"I usually study and pick it up. Change is always a good thing. Hurry up and taste how it is."

"Not bad."

Cheng Yao thought for a moment and said, "There's still noodles in the fridge. Is it enough? If not, should I cook some noodles for you?"

"It's enough. I have a small appetite and can't eat that much."

The two of them shared a warm breakfast while browsing their phones. Nowadays, life was inseparable from phones; it felt like apart from the older generation, very few people could get used to life without a mobile device.

Unfortunately, he hadn't drawn any semiconductor chips, otherwise he would have directly entered the mobile phone industry.

Thinking like this, Cheng Yao felt he was getting too arrogant.

You have to eat your meals one bite at a time, and walk the road one step at a time. It was best to start developing from the simplest daily necessities, progressing steadily and solidly.

After finishing breakfast and packing up—just the same light luggage as yesterday—they arrived at the underground parking garage. Zhang Ya asked curiously, "Where is your LaFerrari?"

Cheng Yao smiled and said, "I parked it at the school."

Outwardly calm and collected, his inner thoughts remained completely unrippled. An Oscar-winning level of acting allowed him to handle any situation with ease.

The LaFerrari was, of course, parked at High-Tech Zivitang.

Getting into the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Zhang Ya couldn't help saying, "The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a bit more comfortable to sit in than the LaFerrari, but sitting in a car like that brings out too much vanity, overflowing involuntarily."

"When I make a fortune, I'll hook you up with a Ferrari."

"Okay."

Zhang Ya accepted Cheng Yao's promise happily.

Leaving Half-Mountain Cloud Residence, they headed straight to the South Railway Station, picked up their tickets, boarded the business class carriage, and arrived in Shanghai precisely at eleven o'clock noon.

Cheng Yao looked up at the sky; it was a bit overcast, but the weather forecast said it wouldn't rain.

Sometimes, weather forecasts weren't accurate either. He hoped it wouldn't rain, otherwise the drone setup he had prepared would fall through.

"I'll drop you off at the school first. I have some things to prepare, and I'll call you when I'm ready."

"So secretive. I'll just go with you."

"You can come over later with Rong Xuelin and the others."

"Alright then."

After dropping Zhang Ya off at the school, Cheng Yao left the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and headed straight for the Peninsula Hotel.

At the hotel entrance, the lobby manager smiled and said, "Mr. Cheng..."

After a polite greeting, Cheng Yao got into the elevator and asked, "How is the setup coming along?"

"Following your style, it's decorated in a minimalist yet luxurious way. Over ten thousand roses are distributed in every corner of the presidential suite, which will surely give your girlfriend an unforgettable birthday."

"Has Black Swan called you yet?"

"They've already called. The cake will be delivered at two o'clock this afternoon."

Cheng Yao asked about the ingredients. He hadn't even tasted these ingredients himself; the ingredients alone cost seventy to eighty thousand, reportedly of the highest global quality, and airlifted from various countries.

These were not included in the rebate calculations; only the cake had yielded a twenty-million rebate last night, which was just a drop in the bucket for him.

Arriving at the presidential suite, pushing open the door revealed a sea of balloons and flowers, brilliant and colorful.

Large-scale floral art design is a trendy, romantic, and highly time-sensitive emerging industry. They mostly cooperate with major hotels and wedding planning companies, rarely entering the ordinary person's view.

Due to its exorbitant price and the characteristic of being disposable after a single use, its impracticality ranked even higher than fireworks.

Fresh flowers were expensive, and once used, they could only be thrown away.

However, with so many roses, having a flower bath afterwards wouldn't be bad...

Moreover, setting it up in a hotel presidential suite maximized the novelty-seeking psychology of the nouveau riche. Someone genuinely wealthy wouldn't care about this small amount of money anyway.

Cheng Yao didn't feel much emotional resonance toward these things; perhaps that's just what guys are like, whereas girls all love this kind of romance and sense of ritual.

Taking a walk around, Cheng Yao felt it was pretty good. He contacted the drone rental company again, and they confirmed there would be no problem tonight, assuring him it definitely wouldn't rain.

With everything prepared, Cheng Yao didn't need to strain his brain or lift a finger; he simply spent some money. Money makes the mare go, and in this gold-digging society, money could truly solve ninety-nine point nine percent of troubles.

And the remaining zero point one percent of troubles were purely from having too much time on one's hands.

Leaving the Peninsula Hotel, Cheng Yao still needed to prepare a gift for Zhang Ya.

After much thought, he still didn't know what gift to give.

Those stunts on Douyin where guys gifted luxury cars pulled on flatbed trucks transparently were purely for clout, making one's skin crawl just thinking about it.

Since they weren't getting married yet, Cheng Yao couldn't just gift a diamond ring or anything like that.

Come to think of it, from the very beginning, he had never really gifted Zhang Ya anything. Even the first watch he gave her was given out of a desire to farm system cash rewards.

On the other hand, Lu Mengyao and the others each had a villa and luxury cars...

Of course, that was also for farming cash rewards.

To the point where Cheng Yao even felt he was being too unfair to Zhang Ya.

Ultimately, Cheng Yao decided that gifting a necklace would be nice, paired with a wristwatch and a Birkin bag.

Cheng Yao remembered Lu Mengyao had one such bag, and its appearance and aesthetic were quite good.

And so, Cheng Yao came to the Nanjing Road shopping mall.

Here, luxury watches gathered together, and various luxury goods were dazzlingly abundant.

"Good afternoon, sir, welcome to Louis Vuitton..."

"Help me pick out a nice bag, suitable for a nineteen-year-old girl, but with a slightly mature touch..."

"Certainly. Do you have a budget in mind?"

In the end, the female sales associate showed Cheng Yao many bags across the counter, but at a single glance, Cheng Yao felt none of them quite suited Zhang Ya. The black ones were too old-fashioned, the white ones too monotonous...

"Sir, this light yellow LV messenger bag is very popular, and the price is relatively affordable..."

Cheng Yao took one look—it was far too mainstream.

Ultimately, he still chose that Birkin bag.

A restrained black main tone blended with a novel and aesthetically pleasing spliced body design, injecting a sense of avant-garde individuality. Exquisite and beautiful lychee-grain leather decoration created a strong visual impact.

Dignified, atmospheric, yet luxurious.

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Ps: Normal updates today, with more chapters coming later tonight. They will be out later, and a three-thousand-word chapter takes about an hour and a half to write.