Gu Wei's fake cries were bordering on the real side, and Song Wei frowned at the boy in her arms.
"Wei Wei-ah, mother's here, just cry if you want to, cry it all out."
Hearing these words, Gu Wei stopped faking with a heavy sigh and pulled back a little from Song Wei, he didn't want to cry.
And anyway, what type of adult cries after a hard day?
You drown your sorrows with alcohol instead.
Song Wei took hold of Gu Wei's face, bunching up his cheeks, and scrutinized his red-rimmed eyes.
"What happened?"
Sighing again, Gu Wei retracted his hands, letting Song Wei free from his bear grasp, and sniffed a little.
"Nothing much, just… I'll tell you later while we eat. Is there food?"
Gu Wei peeked beyond Song Wei, who stepped to the side and raised a hand to display the mouth-watering dishes she and the girls had prepared.
Skewered meat dripping with sauce, dumplings piled high on a plate, pork stabbed into a stick in five stages, and steamed buns stacked so close together, you'd think it was one big bun.
But this was only half of it.
Gu Wei's mouth watered as he hungrily eyed the pleasantries, and his stomach caved in further, urging him to fill it quickly.
Xu Ai, Ling Jie, and Zhai Mei were already sat on plushie pillow cushions laid in a circle on the floor, close by the four one-person beds, with two empty ones beckoning Song Wei and her son.
What shook Gu Wei the most was the exact copy of the food laid out between the human circle, and Gu Wei stared from the one on the table to the one on the carpeted floor.
"You didn't make all this yourselves… Right?" Gu Wei said, horrified at the amount of work it would take to get so much food.
Song Wei laughed and urged him forward. She took his coat, and they joined the seated group.
"No, god forbid. My hands would've fallen off if so. We bought them from the supermarket a while ago, then forgot the drinks, so Zhai Mei offered to get them."
Song Wei patted Gu Wei to sit right opposite Zhai Mei, and it was almost like the reunion all over again.
Gu Wei gave a similar smile as the one he'd offered that day, albeit less enthusiastic, and Zhai Mei smiled in return. This version was better than the original reunion the day before.
She'd let her hair down this time, and the voluminous, noodled strands fell over her shoulder whenever she moved her head a certain way.
Her fringe was also securely in place, unlike how she'd styled it at the reunion.
Her outfit this time was also casual. A long grey pleated skirt that was pooled between her crossed legs and a sweatshirt of the lightest yellow ingrained with horizontal lines.
Zhai Mei's red scarf was nowhere to be seen, hidden somewhere, along with Gu Wei's coat.
Gu Wei hadn't noticed before, but the long sleeves were cut in the seams from the inside of her elbows to the edge, giving the shirt a modern, flashy look.
Gu Wei could only think that she liked sweatshirts a lot. He didn't even bother to take in the other's clothing.
Their uniforms were the same as always. Xu Ai in suits, Song Wei in fluffy dresses, and Ling Jie in punk.
"Wei Wei, how's your work going? And you too?" Xu Ai said, hands already straying to the skewered meat as Song Wei ruffled through her bag a few inches away.
Gu Wei smiled, with that weary vibe still clinging to him. "Fine fine. I'm fine too, and you? How's Sleep In Country Real Estate treating you?"
Sleep In Country Real Estate was the name of the company Xu Ai worked for as a Relationship Manager for the staff and clients.
Xu Ai copied Gu Wei's heavy sigh, "Not good man, today's such a disaster for everyone. Even Ling Jie lost two followers, right?"
Ling Jie affirmed with her heavy sigh, "Yes-ah, Gu Wei Ge, you should've seen how many tears I cried when those precious numbers depleted. Sigh. So sad."
Ling Jie was a social media influencer with thousands, if not millions, of followers. The last time Gu Wei checked, she had about 50k followers.
Gu Wei squinted suspiciously at Ling Jie.
"But don't you have like… thousands of followers? How did you see the number deplete?"
A glare from the influencer was what he got in answer, and a mechanical voice said, "Never question the words of Ling Jie. If she said she saw it, then she saw it."
Gu Wei clamped his mouth shut at Zhai Mei's words, accepting defeat without a complaint. Everyone was gloomy, it seemed, and they'd suffered one or the other of things.
Gu Wei wondered what Zhai Mei's struggles were. He could already guess Song Wei's, seeing as she always complained of her yarns appearing in her dreams and haunting her.
Song Wei was a Professional Contracted Crocheter and made the loveliest toys and clothing. Her gifts were the best when Christmas and New Year's arrived.
Speaking of Song Wei, said woman exclaimed triumphantly as she procured a robust dark bottle from the depths of her bag.
She sped off to the table full of food to get an opener, and returned with the same amount of flourish, plopping onto her pillow beside Gu Wei.
"Son, here, this is for you. Mother spent her husband's money so she could take care of her baby."
With real tears in his eyes now, Gu Wei placed the lightest of touches on his dear wine, accepting the gift with a bowed head.
However, Song Wei stopped short of letting go. "But, should you be drinking? I touched your face just now, and your temperature was so hot I almost burnt my hands."
Gu Wei, who had been salivating for his one-and-only alcohol from the moment he'd learned of its existence, snatched the drink from Song Wei's grasp with a strained smile and proceeded to open it.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe the room temperature affected your hands. Yes, that must be it."
Gu Wei said, avoiding Zhai Mei's gaze as the bottle successfully opened and Song Wei watched her hands in question.
No one was stopping Gu Wei from drowning his sorrows that night. Not even an immature fever.
Song Wei opened up the bottles of their special liquor, beer as usual, while Xu Ai passed the cups.
Gu Wei blinked as they poured the drinks nonchalantly into the mugs, passing one to him without so much as a twitch.
Gu Wei gingerly accepted it with thanks, not sure if he should broach the subject or not. Were his sisters and mother okay up there?
It wasn't until they all took a sip and scrunched up their noses that they realized… "Ice!" Song Wei exclaimed, almost spitting it back into her cup.
"What disgusting taste, my god!"
This was Xu Ai, who was fanning her face, and her eyes were blinking back hurtful tears.
Ling Jie calmly put her mug down and placed her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking.
Tears or laughter? No one knew.
Gu Wei himself felt his previously faded tears prickle his eyes again, almost falling as his beautiful sweet wine rubbed wrong against his taste buds.
Today was nothing short of bad luck.
It was Zhai Mei, who had also tasted the bland non-chilled drink, that stood and made for the fridge with a mission in mind. Get the ice.
How could they have forgotten?
Planning and planning till the last stage, and the most important thing, that lived carefree in the fridge, skipped their minds.
The room had fallen into a despairing silence, and Gu Wei was blinking rapidly in the hopes that he wouldn't fall apart when Zhai Mei quietly re-joined them and slid three cubes of ice each into their drinks.
Song Wei stared dazedly at the wall. The Best of Class 13 waited with barely contained impatience to let the ice sink in.
Zhai Mei took a sip of the re-incarnated drink first, and Ling Jie parted a few fingers to steal a glance.
"Is it-Is it okay? Is it reborn?" She asked, voice almost quacking as Zhai Mei swirled the drink on her tongue and contemplated it for a while.
They all stared with bated breath. Then she nodded.
A collective sigh of relief went through each person, and they gingerly drank for a few seconds before relaxing.
Their conversation continued like the heartbreaking event hadn't occurred, and they all finally dug into the food at Song Wei's go-ahead.
Gu Wei stuffed himself with steamed buns with the same amount of fervor he'd had that fateful night at King Cai Shin's statue. Zhai Mei could only watch with the same surprise.
They all recounted the day's events and struggles, drowning their sorrows with food and alcohol, not bothering to call Gu Wei the drinking saint out as he chugged mug after mug of Sweet As Ever wine.
Apparently, Xu Ai had been reported by one of their agent's VIP clients for 'tarnishing their relationship', and she'd had to clear her name and make a report of where it had all gone wrong to her boss.
A headache, if you ask Gu Wei.
Ling Jie the baby had found herself in a controversy with Fu Yuan Jie Jie's hot-blooded fans after barging in on an argument online and commenting with the words:
'That Fu Yuan is all talk really, I know a friend that stans her and she's not that big of a deal.'
Of course, this was a terrible mistake, as even when fighting, the fans didn't hesitate to pair together and tear into a stranger slandering their Goddess.
Gu Wei had to walk his laugh off to the door and back before he calmed down.
Ling Jie was one of his many friends who questioned his blind loyalty to Fu Yuan, and she never failed to speak her mind, but it seemed this time, Gu Wei's fellow worshippers had done her bad, even losing two followers in the process.
With Ling Jie's stories done, Song Wei opened her mouth to recount hers, when Xu Ai butted in.
"You had a dream about that favorite yarn of yours again, right?" Xu Ai said, almost like a script.
Song Wei gasped and placed a hand on her chest. "What…? How did you know?"
Rubbing the bridge of her nose in exasperation, Xu Ai saved all of them from another recount of a terrifying or cute dream, whatever it was this time, and flatly shut Song Wei up with five previous similar tales.
Song Wei could only gape.
"But this one's different, I swear! It was a different kind of yarn this time, the one I said they shipped from Korea, remember?"
Gu Wei's mother was bordering on desperation as she tugged at Xu Ai's suit, a dark blue this time, in an attempt to be permitted to tell her repeating stories.
She always said it was different each time, but Gu Wei, with everyone else, knew it was all the same.
But this was the first time Gu Wei had heard of a yarn shipped from Korea, so he was a bit curious.
Xu Ai probably felt the same and allowed Song Wei to tell her story, hoping this time it genuinely was different.
However, when had Mother Wei's yarn dreams ever strayed?
Xu Ai, Ling Jie, Gu Wei, and even Zhai Mei's expressions slowly went from appealing curiosity to weary distaste.
Why had they thought their mother would change? When even they were still the same?
Were the thoughts simultaneously running through the group of people, save for Zhai Mei, who just couldn't understand how or why any type of yarn would act the way Song Wei was describing?
Gu Wei met Xu Ai's equally red eyes, glanced at Zhai Mei's confused expression bordering on horrifying, saw Ling Jie downing her beer like a lifeline, and interjected Song Wei's speech.
Or else, all their ears would transform to wool and Song Wei wouldn't recognize her yarny friends at the end of her tale.