House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 99 - Two Birthday Songs

While Mo Fei was secretly surprised that Yang Yi had actually learned to play the guitar, Yang Yi had already started his singing.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”

When the first sentence was sung, Mo Fei was a little surprised. This world also has a birthday song, but it wasn't sung in this way, and the delivery was also a bit subtle. It was a bit like the old Cantonese song “Wish you a happy life”. How could it be as straightforward as Yang Yi's?

However, hearing the second sentence and the third sentence, Mo Fei was amused: this Yang Yi, really, how could the lyrics be repeated.

Yes, the birthday song was so simple. There was only one sentence in the lyrics, and then it was simply repeated with only a slight change in tone.

However, Xixi liked this kind of simple repetition, which was in line with the acceptance level at her age, such as “Let it go”. Xixi has been learning it from her father for a long time, yet she only knew how to sing “let it go”.

“……Happy Birthday” was repeated only a few times, and Xixi was able to clap her hands and hummed along with a big smile.

Yang Yi became excited and, in one repetition, changed into the English lyrics: “Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you…”

Mo Fei was stunned. It was really the first time she heard Yang Yi speak English. Although it was a simple repetition of a sentence, Yang Yi’s words were still very clear.

Especially the word "birthday", the way in which theta [θ]^[1] was pronounced, many of those who have learnt it still can’t pronounce it properly!

“He can speak English?” Mo Fei felt that her understanding of Yang Yi has been greatly subverted today.

She didn't doubt that Yang Yi hadn't studied English. After all, Yang Yi has only been in high school for less than a year when he dropped out to become a soldier, but at least he took English classes in junior high school, right?

But Mo Fei knew that with Yang Yi’s disdainful attitude towards English and foreign countries, he might have forgotten how to speak English after such a long time!

But now Yang Yi was singing English song with clear articulation and a mellow and full tune, which made Mo Fei confused.

This series of surprises also made Mo Fei forget to ask who wrote the song. She had never heard of it.

However, sometimes women will indulge in flights of fancy, which was not necessarily a bad thing. Just like Mo Fei now, she found the answer for Yang Yi: “Did he change for me?”

This was naturally embarrassing to ask, but thinking of Yang Yi’s character getting better and better and his attitude becoming more and more easy to get along with in the past two months, Mo Fei’s heart, which was no longer that of a young girl, beat like a litter deer prancing around.

Here, Yang Yi has finished singing, Xixi happily clapped her small hands and cheered: “Good! Good!”

Yang Yi smiled and reached out to high-five his daughter to celebrate.

Then he handed the guitar to Mo Fei. Although Mo Fei shyly dodged his gaze, Yang Yi didn’t care. He smiled and said, “it’s your turn!”

When it was Mo Fei's turn to sing, Mo Fei didn't act reserved. She confidently took the guitar, walked valiantly to the front of the microphone and sat down.

“I'm going to sing a birthday song, too!” Mo Fei looked at Xixi and smiled. “This was what Mama's mama used to sing on Mama’s birthday. Now Mama is going to sing it to Xixi!”

Mo Fei’s string of “Mama” sounded like a doggerel^[2], which suddenly reminded Yang Yi of the old crosstalk saying in his previous life: “there is a Lama in the east, a mute in the west, and the Lama is carrying five jin of tart…”

She started to play right away!

“I like listening to Mama’s songs!” Xixi smiled sweetly. Today was really wonderful. Her mother and father surrounded her, just like the stars surrounding the moon!

After a beautiful melody, Mo Fei hummed softly:

(PS: the following lyrics, a small part of which was rewritten by Xiao Han from Lin Zhiying’s song “birthday present”, please look at the lyrics ~)

“There is a bunch of flowers in my heart / dedicated to my beloved baby / watered with tears, it grew up slowly with a smile…”

Yang Yi’s ears were very sharp, and he looked at Mo Fei in surprise. The latter was playing the guitar, while smiling and singing to Xixi.

Mo Fei sang beautifully, but it was very different from her usual singing style. She no longer stuck to the technique of rendering emotions, but she really revealed her tender feeling and sang very naturally!

“It accompanies you through sunshine and light rain / it accompanies you through sorrow and sweetness / now I will plant it in your heart forever…”

This kind of warm birthday song was not as straightforward as Yang Yi's singing. Yang Yi even believed that the lyrics were so subtle that Xixi might not be able to understand them!

But the melody was so beautiful. The little girl sat in her chair, smiling foolishly, shook her head with her mother, and clapped her hands to the beat.

“Everyone has a wish / every birthday has a gift / my favorite baby / I will give you the most beautiful wise and give you the best gift…”

“No matter how many wishes you have / no matter how many dreams you have / my gift is my heart, growing with you…”

At the end of the song, Xixi jumped up happily from her chair. She heard the gift from beginning to end, so she cheered and asked, “Well, what about my birthday present?”

Yang Yi was still immersed in Mo Fei’s sweet singing, which was Mo Fei’s rare warm singing style, until he saw Mo Fei take out her gift to Xixi.

“Wait a minute! Don't open the present yet!” Yang Yi hurriedly stopped her.

Sure enough, Yang Yi saw Mo Fei’s disappointed little eyes, Yang Yi gave her a look: a good bet, you actually want to make a false start!

Mo Fei turned her head in a huff.

“Why?” Xixi’s face was brimming with joy, and she reached out her hand to receive the gift, but she was stopped. She asked unwillingly, “Why didn't you let me open the gift?”

“Because we still have to eat cake!” Yang Yi reacted quickly and replied quickly.

“Cake?” Xixi immediately threw the gift at the back her mind. She ran to her father with both eyes shining brightly, and held her father's hand. “Where? Xixi wants to eat cake!”

“Papa will get it right away!” Yang Yi appeased the little girl and then said to Mo Fei, “Mo Fei, turn off the lights.”

“Can we not turn off the lights? Xixi is afraid.” Said the little girl right away.

Mo Fei also nodded her head fiercely. She was also afraid!

Yang Yi couldn't help but console: “instead of turning off all the lights, just turn off the headlights. These colored lights will be left on!”

Mo Fei still shook her head… Forget it, he would come back anyway. Yang Yi went to the door of the store to turn off the incandescent light and then disappeared into the darkness.

Although colorful lights twinkled in front of the bar, like stars shining in the night sky, and they were colorful and beautiful, Mo Fei and Xixi have no time to appreciate them.

“I’m afraid. Where’s Papa?” Xixi squeezed into her mother’s arms and asked.

Although Mo Fei wasn't too afraid, she was also looking forward to Yang Yi’s appearance. Xixi asked her where father went. Mo Fei didn't really know where Yang Yi would get the cake, so she could only wait now.

Suddenly, several candlelight flickered in the darkness ahead, and gradually, under the faint light of the colorful light, Mo Fei and Xixi both saw a big cake being pushed over by a cart.

___________

[1] Birthday: US pronunciation: IPA – bɝθˌdeɪ. That's where the theta [θ] came from. Also, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet

[2] Doggerel – Comic verse composed in irregular rhythm

TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: .