Chapter 45 – Celebration

Gu Yan smiled embarrassedly and took a piece of tissue quickly to clean Manla’s delicate palm.

“You…How long haven’t you washed your hair?” Manla looked at Gu Yan plaintively and tried to forget her own greasy palm but failed. Finally, she ran to the toilet to wash hands.

Gu Yan also followed Manla to the toilet and leaned against the door while scratching her head. “Eh, let me think.” She tried hard to remember when she washed her hair last time?

“You should need to think about it! How long has it been since you washed hair last time?” Manla raised her voice. She was obsessively tidy, so although she loved Gu Yan, she couldn’t accept that Gu Yan hadn’t washed her hair for long. Then Manla washed her hands with hand sanitizer twice.

“Ho-ho, I am too busy recently. The decoration was completed finally, or else you couldn’t see me here. And now, there are only two decoration projects, one of which has not been started yet.”

Walking out of the toilet, Manla saw Gu Yan’s poor look and wanted to give Gu Yan a hug, but she stopped at the sight of Gu Yan’s messy appearance.

Seeing the dislike in Manla’s expression, Gu Yan didn’t care and smiled.

“Oh, wait a minute. I will dress up and then we go to the hotel.” Gu Yan thought that if she didn’t dress herself up, Manla would stare at her all the time, so she ran to the balcony quickly and picked up several clean clothes.

“Okay, I will wait for you. You must be as pretty as before.” Manla wanted to sit on the sofa, but as she saw a layer of dusk on it, she showed a helpless expression.

“You are just in time. We can buy ingredients and celebrate together tonight.” Gu Yan rushed into the toilet with her clothes. She had been busy for a few months and could relax finally.

“Oh? What will we celebrate? Is there anything pleasant?” Manla thought, “Did Gu Yan want to celebrate my promotion? But I hadn’t told her yet.”

“Uh, let’s celebrate the successful completion of decoration.” Gu Yan closed the door and opened the water heater.

“Uh-huh, you must dress yourself up, otherwise you will be seen as my mother.” Hearing the sound of shower, Manla shouted.

After a while, Gu Yan and Manla went back from shopping and now they stared at those ingredients in the kitchen. Manla stared at Gu Yan and asked her to cook, but Gu Yan shook her head embarrassedly. Finally, Manla sighed helplessly and began to cook.

“I love you so much, Manla.” Gu Yan pleased her in a naughty voice.

Manla rolled her eyes, “You have planned for me to cook here.”

“You know, I am only able to cook instant noodles that are not suitable in such an important occasion.” Gu Yan was not good at cooking and only ate instant noodles in the toughest times.

“Humph.” Manla hummed helplessly.

An hour later, looking at the dishes on the table, Gu Yan praised Manla’s cooking skill.

Manla cooked four dishes and a soup, including fried beef in Chinese kale, fried squid with mushroom, fried taro with lotus root, fried vegetables, and seaweed and egg soup.

The meal was simple but full of warmth and happiness. This was why Gu Yan wanted to buy ingredients and let Manla cook. Gu Yan sat down and looked at Manla who was very fashionable but now wore an apron to cook for her. She thought Manla was really like her elder sister.

Manla came over with the tableware, took off the apron, and then saw Gu Yan staring at her.

“Little sister.” Manla interrupted Gu Yan’s thought.

“Wait a moment.” Gu Yan came to herself and saw that Manla was already here. Suddenly, she remembered that she had prepared something.

“Hey.” Gu Yan put a bottle of red wine and two cups on the table.

Manla shook her head and sat down. She knocked on the cups with chopsticks and said, “Will we drink red wine with them?”

“Cups can also hold red wine. Just make do with them.” Gu Yan opened the red wine, and then poured half a cup of wine into each cup.

“Come on! Cheers.” Gu Yan raised her cup and drunk a toast to Manla generously.

“Cheers.” Manla snickered at Gu Yan’s childish behavior. Only she and Gu Yan were here and they could overindulge themselves occasionally.

“By the way, I got a promotion.” It was really hard for Manla to be promoted in that there were so many excellent people in such a bustling metropolis. Her achievements today depended entirely on her perseverance.

“Really? Congratulations.” Gu Yan looked at Manla happily. Manla could only rely on herself and had made arduous efforts since childhood. Only she knew the hardships that Manla experienced.

Manla took a sip of red wine. Although it was not very pure, it was really tasty.

“How is your decoration project going on? Do you want to contract more?” They hadn’t seen each other for a long time since they met in the cafe last time. Gu Yan was supervising decoration each time Manla called her.

“I will contract after the third house is decorated well. I can’t find so many workers and there will be various problems if I contract too much once.” Sometimes, things didn’t turn out as planned, and Gu Yan knew that she shouldn’t be too anxious.

“But I believe that you will solve those problems finally.” Manla chewed a piece of beef slowly and said, “Well, it tastes good.”

“Yeah, although I am extremely tired, I can’t describe my happiness when I got the hard-earned money.” Thinking of this, Gu Yan waved her chopsticks to express her excitement.

“You make money through your hardworking. I thought you might fall into the hell accidentally and just crawled out of the garbage.” Manla ate a piece of squid and said, “It was overcooked.”

“Ha-ha, it is really a good description. My marriage was like the hell but I get out of it finally. I have to grow up. Although I’m tired now, I don’t need to listen to others’ orders anymore.” Gu Yan self-deprecated, with sadness hidden in her happy expression.

Manla put the chopsticks down, held the cup and said, “Cheers. It is a happy day and we shouldn’t be sad.”

“Cheers.” Gu Yan echoed.

“Stop talking about me. You had also worked hard for so many years. Your company’s assessment on employees are very strict and this is the first time that you have been promoted since you worked there. Congratulations.”

“Yeah, I am promoted finally. And then I have to work harder, or I will be demoted at any time.” Manla’s company had so many workers but less promotion chances, so employees competed against each other to get a promotion at all costs. However, many people still tried their best to be members of the company. Manla could persist and get a promotion finally because she held the belief that she should make every effort to keep the job she fought for.

“Cheers! Oh, no! We should eat more.” There were so many dishes. It was so waste.