After his parents had died and his other relatives took guardianship of him, no one remembered his birthday. At that time, he was attending a boarding school. On his birthday, he would go to the school’s cafeteria and buy noodles to eat. He treated these noodles as an acceptable substitute for longevity noodles. In the past several years, his business grew bigger and bigger. Even so, when he had free time on his birthday, he would make himself a bowl of noodles out of habit. Even if he wasn’t hungry, he would remember his mother’s instructions and finish eating the bowl of noodles.

  When he was a child, he didn’t understand his mother’s intention. It was only after he had become a parent himself that he could vaguely understand half of the meaning. Parents didn’t have any extravagant demands. They only wished for their child to reach old age safely and healthily.

  Ruan Xia pursed her lips after hearing his answer.

  Although there wasn’t much said about Song Tingshen in the novel, it was a fact that he had lost his parents at a young age. He had only said a few short sentences, but she could feel his many years of hardships in those words.

  In the past, she felt that she was quite pitiful. She had been raised by her paternal grandparents. When she later returned to her parents side, she felt like an outsider. But no matter what, they were her biological parents. No matter how estranged they were, she never tasted the bitterness of living under a distant relative’s roof. Her parents always remembered her birthday and would cook a table full of her favorite dishes on that day. Her mom would buy her a cake, and her dad would buy her the item she wanted as her birthday present.

  Compared to him, she wasn’t pitiful at all.

  A man like Song Tingshen would undoubtedly have a fatal appeal for many women.

  The combination of an unhappy childhood and adolescence, his success in cutting a path for himself in the business world under these circumstances, and using his ability to change his fate meant that he had a charm and aura that young men didn’t have. It was also something that other men of his age, who had been born with a silver spoon, didn’t have.

  Ruan Xia walked over to Song Tingshen and smiled at him. “How can longevity noodles be made by the birthday boy? Let me make them. Although my cooking skills aren’t anything special, I can still cook pretty good noodles.”


  The kitchen was spacious. She took out an egg and lunch meat from the refrigerator, boiled the water in the pot, and put a handful of noodles into the pot.

  It was truly very easy to cook noodles, especially when there were abundant ingredients. Ruan Xia sliced three to four slices of the lunch meat and put it inside. This immediately improved the color. She turned her head and asked him, “Do you like to eat soft boiled eggs?”


  Song Tingshen blankly nodded. “.…… It’s okay.”


  After breaking the egg and dropping it into the pot, she tossed in a small handful of leafy greens. Other than salt and a little bit of soy sauce, she didn’t use any other condiments.

  A short while later, a bowl of longevity noodles that looked pretty good was ready to eat.

  “It should taste okay. Try it.” Ruan Xia sat down across from him. Smiling, she offered him a spoon and a pair of chopsticks. “A bowl of real longevity noodles would only have one long noodle. But, it’s too late in the day. We don’t have the ingredients at home, and I don’t know how to make it from scratch either. You’ll just have to make do with eating this.”


  Song Tingshen looked at her. He took her utensils from her. After a moment of silence, he said in a deep voice, “Thank you.”


  Ruan Xia smiled. “No thanks needed. The person that’s hoping the most that you’ll live a long life is me ~”