Rui Fei raised a brow in puzzlement as he eyed the two suspiciously but because he was thinking more with his lower half than his head he didn't think much of it going straight to the point. "You two know when exactly is my birthday better than I do so spill it. I have a birthday gift to cash in," he said with a little impatience.
The two siblings who were expecting to be interrogated glimpsed at each other for a second before staring back at Rui Fei. Rui Li scratched her head while asking, "So you bust in here in a hurry just to talk..... about your birthday which you hate?"
"Ouch," she yelped in a whisper when her dangling leg was pinched from the bottom bunk. Too many questions can result in their smart older brother remembering something he shouldn't.
"Uh ha, so, so you like your birthday now?" replied Rui Yewan trying to stir the subject far away from things that could get him in trouble. Because Rui Fei spent most of his time in the dark dungeon he didn't get exposed to the outside world often. At least his siblings were in the cells upstairs and could talk to each other through the bars.
It was for this reason he had no idea what date was his exact birthday. He had no idea what time of day it was in that dark dungeon. All he knows is that each year at the beginning of winter his siblings would risk making a lot of noise just to say happy birthday.
There was no special cake or gift not that he cared for the cake as he couldn't stand sweet things. He appreciated their birthday wishes but it was also the day he lost his mother which meant he had no special feelings towards this day.
For the past two years, his younger siblings tried to make up for the lost birthdays by spoiling him with everything he likes but his reaction was meh at best. Despite his meh like reaction, it didn't stop them from celebrating his birthday.
And now the very same person who had little to no reaction to his birthday had taken the initiative to ask about it. How can they not be surprised?
"Ahem.... uh dage, did you hit your head on something. I mean, I can call Old Du and he can fix you right up," said Rui Li trying to correct this major OOC setting.
"Ssh didn't you hear what he said. He, has, a gift, to cash, in... get it?" said Rui Yewan enlightening his sister. No wonder Rui Fei forgot about the other thing, it was because of this mysterious gift.
"Oh,...ooohhhh a gift. Sounds exciting, I wonder what Yao-ge is getting for my dage for his birthday?" replied Rui Li after having caught up.
Rui Yewan gave her a stare that seemed to say you really don't want to know but of course, she didn't catch that. "Two weeks and three no four days from now. We will throw you a big party an-," she said but she was cut off when Rui Fei shook his head before saying,
"Can't you move it to next week like possibly move my birthday in maybe two days? You can bring a cake, liquor and don't forget the red envelopes then leave me with Yao-ge. Is that clear?"
Everyone, "....."
"But you can't stomach sweet things," said Rui Yewan completely disregarding the fact that he wanted them to commit birthday fraud.
"It's for Yao-ge, I will feed him the cake. You just have to make sure it's his favourite, okay?" he replied thinking they were all on the same page.
Rui Yewan might have been fooled but Rui Li wasn't. Arms crossed across her chest she said, "That's not how birthdays work. You can't possibly think that we will help you fool saozi, do you?"
Rui Fei put on the 'dah of course,' expression that infuriated Rui Li. That's where she drew the line. She wasn't going to help him lie to her saozi, in fact, she was going to snitch on him if he dared to go ahead with that plan.
"Count me out and if you dare do it I will snitch on you," she said before disinterestedly lying back down.
Rui Fei looked at Rui Yewan as though telling him to convince her but he was well aware of Rui Li's personality. She was a chilled person and didn't fuss over anything. She didn't complain about what she ate, where she slept or walking a great distance. This also meant she had a few things she was strict about.
Actually, it was only one thing she cared about and that was her precious novels. Now they had to add committing fraud against their in-law. She would not participate in such criminal activity.
This meant there was no wiggle room as it wasn't up for negotiation. "You heard her, she will snitch if we lie so either we get rid of her or you wait two weeks and..... four days," replied Rui Yewan with a light smile on his face.
Unfortunately, Rui Fei didn't take this well. His siblings were for the first time going against him. So much for having each other's backs. "Fine, since you two won't help me get an early birthday present I will see you in two weeks and two days with my cak-,"
"Four days," interjected Rui Li.
"Dage, it's definitely four," backing up his sister. It kind of felt good screwing his older brother over for the first and possibly the last time.
"Fine two weeks and four days with cake, liquor and red envelopes. So... what were you two talking about earlier?"
"Shit," muttered Rui Yewan under his breath. If he had known Rui Fei would ask about this he would ask not to talk in exchange for moving Rui Fei's birthday to a closer date. He would even splash dirty water on Rui Li and claim she remembered the date wrong when she snitches.
Even Rui Li was kind of regretting it right now. But nope, she had principals and she had to stick to them even if it gets both of them in trouble.
"We um.... we," stammered Rui Yewan seeking inspiration but based on Rui Fei's personality he was hard to lie to that is if it was even possible.
"We what? Can't come up with a lie fast enough?.... Wan Wan, what didn't you want dage to know about?" As he asked this he leaned closer with a gaze so menacing that Rui Yewan wanted to cry.
"That um..... we think Yao-ge can get pregnant. That's, that's what we were talking about," interjected Rui Li coming to the rescue. Technically they weren't lying so maybe Rui Fei wouldn't be able to spot hints of deception.
Rui Fei, "WTF!"
He didn't care for that but having a little cub that looks like the both of them would be so cute. As expected anything to do with Ji Yao could severely damage Rui Fei's IQ. The chance of them getting away with it had increased drastically.. Their in law was indeed a gift sent from heaven.