Chapter 366 - Happy Birthday!

Everyone quickly got back to their seats, and on Han Ye's cue, the servants in charge of the lightings turned off the lights at the garden. 

"Daddy..." Little Monkey grabbed onto her father's shirt and asked to be carried. Mo Yuan did the same with his father as well. 

"Shhh... It's fine..." The two fathers consoled their scared toddlers before giving them the luminescent sticks that Han Ye prepared for the younger kids beforehand. As expected, both the kids calmed down after seeing the pink and the green sticks. 

A servant suddenly hissed excitedly, "Ms. Xiao is arriving in 10 seconds!", before running off again.

As for Han Ye, he stood a few meters away from the door. The moment the servants opened the door to the garden, Xiao Lei would be able to see him immediately. 

Han Ye smiled as he looked down at the beautifully wrapped box in his hand. It was just a small gift, but he thought long and hard about this before finally deciding to give it to her. 

"I hope she would like it..." Han Ye thought as he looked at the box. 

"She's here!" One of the servants who were responsible for opening the door whispered loudly before getting into position. 

...

Xiao Lei took a deep breath as she stood right behind the door. She was a little nervous because of how she was dressed, as well as the fact that everything seemed extremely formal. She wasn't even allowed to open her own door!

However, on the way over, when she asked a young female servant if this was normal, she was told that this was actually normal. 

"This is already very toned down compared to what we actually do during formal events," the young female servant said with a polite smile. 

Xiao Lei sighed, and she accepted everything as normal. 

"Ready, Ms. Xiao?" asked the servant who was standing in front of the door, inside the mansion. 

Xiao Lei took a deep breath and nodded. 

The servant bowed politely before knocking on the door to alert the servant standing outside. 

In a split second, the door was slowly pulled open... revealing a pitch-black garden. 

"Huh?" Xiao Lei blinked as she slowly walked outside. "Did I come to the wrong garden?" she murmured as she looked around. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness that was only lighted by the soft glow of the moon, and soon, she could see the silhouettes.  

BAM!

A spotlight suddenly appeared and fell on a man who was standing a few meters away from her, and another spotlight fell on her, startling her a little that she stopped walking. 

Once she calmed down, Xiao Lei looked toward the man, and she could see the people behind the man vaguely. She knew who they were, but her eyes were completely on the man. "He's smiling at me..." Xiao Lei thought as she stared at him. "Oh, is he calling me?" she thought when the man gestured her to go toward him with a gentle smile. 

Without taking her eyes away from him, she slowly walked down the small steps, and when she was right in front of him, she murmured, "What's this? Why do I feel like--"

She could not finish her sentence because the man suddenly leaned forward and kissed her on the lips briefly. 

"Han Ye..." Xiao Lei's face turned red. It wasn't from the kiss; it was from the fact that she knew that there were many pairs of eyes looking at them at the moment. It wasn't hard to notice them. She could hear childish giggles coming from behind Han Ye. 

"Happy Birthday, Fan Wushuang," Han Ye whispered as he pulled back from her.

He then put a hand behind his back and gave those behind him a thumbs up.

"Happy Birthday, Xiao Xiao Lei!!!" 

Everyone yelled as the lights around the garden were switched on and the sound of fireworks could be heard from a distance. 

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

"Waaahhh!!!" the younger kids gasped loudly as they looked at the fireworks, pointing it out to their parents and clapping loudly. 

Xiao Lei's eyes were captivated by the fireworks as well. 

"Do you like it?" Han Ye asked in a low voice as he looked at her happy expression. 

"Mm..." Xiao Lei looked away from the fireworks and turned to look at Han Ye. "I thought you..."

"Forgot?" Han Ye ended the sentence for her. He then smiled and said, "How could I ever forget about your birthday?"

Xiao Lei felt bad about the way she cursed him in her heart earlier, and she looked down at her feet, embarrassed by her own lack of faith in him. 

"Hey, don't you want to check out your gift?" Han Ye asked as he shook the gift in his hand slightly. "This is from me." 

Xiao Lei looked at it for a second before taking it. "Thank you." 

"Check it out..." Han Ye said as he pointed at the gift in her hands with his chin. 

Xiao Lei raised a brow at him suspiciously, but she still smiled and unwrapped the gift. Inside the box was a necklace with a ring on it. Her eyes went wide when she saw the ring. "This..." She gulped as she looked at the ring emotionally. 

Looking at her expression, Han Ye smiled gently before lifting the necklace out of the box. "I hope you don't mind, but..." 

He walked around her and whispered to her, "I asked Zhihao to get this from your room." 

Xiao Lei knew what he was about to do, and she lifted her hair up slightly so that Han Ye could put the necklace on for her. 

Click!

Once he had secured the necklace around her neck, Xiao Lei turned around to look at him. "But why?" she asked with a small voice. The ring on the necklace was her wedding ring. It was just a simple band with her husband's name on it. And her husband had a ring with her name on it.

"Are you upset?" Han Ye asked uncertainly, wondering if he had crossed the boundary. 

Upon hearing his question, Xiao Lei immediately shook her head. However, she then looked at Han Ye with a confused look as she said, "I'm not angry... But... Doesn't it bother you?"

She took off the ring a while back out of respect for Han Ye, afraid that he might feel uncomfortable with it and that he would be too afraid to talk about it. Han Ye was always too kind, and she would sometimes wonder if she might have accidentally hurt him when she thought about Xiao Yunjie.

Apparently, whenever she thought about her late husband, she would always have this sad, longing expression on her face that Han Ye and her son could easily tell. 

"Does it bother you when you saw my wedding rings?" Han Ye asked as he pulled out the rings that he still wore around his neck. 

"No," Xiao Lei answered truthfully. "I just..." 

"It's the same for me," Han Ye said as he gently caressed her face with the back of his hand. "Yuexue was my past, and Yunjie was your past. They existed before, and they were people who were extremely dear to us. And we loved them. Just because they were gone, it doesn't mean that we should forget about them. And I'm ok if you want to reminisce about Yunjie every now and then..." He then pulled her into a hug as he said in a whisper, "Because I'm forever grateful to Yunjie for being able to protect you in the times when you were alone..."