Lantern Sister is still very capable.

On March 8, 2068, Chu Deng returned home with a bouquet of roses.

Today is Women's Day, and the school specially gave each student flowers to take home to express gratitude to the women in their families. Chu Deng simply followed the local custom.

Chu Deng rubbed her nose, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the scent of roses, perhaps due to a past life trauma.

In her previous life, during the apocalypse when food was scarce, she ate roasted roses. The flames brought out the aroma of the roses, mixed with the unique smell of the apocalypse where zombies roamed and rotting flesh grew. She ate roasted roses for a month, feeling dizzy, and ever since then, she has developed some PTSD about roses.

Unfortunately, she usually sat in the back row and wasn't very well-informed. By the time the news reached her, only roses were left; tulips and baby's breath had all been snatched up.

Thus, Chu Deng, who had a severe psychological aversion to roses, could only take a bouquet of roses home with her.

"Bang bang—"

The Chu lanterns were greeted with electronic cannons and colorful fireworks.

"Today is March 8, 2068, International Women's Day, the fifth day of the second lunar month. Welcome home, Dengdeng. Happy birthday, Dengdeng."

Her home's smart furniture illustrates the origin of the electronic cannons.

What followed was the love of her mother, Ms. Luo Xia, and her father, Mr. Chu Junhai.

Welcome home, Dengdeng!

"Happy birthday, Dengdeng! My little darling is turning 18 today. Daddy is both happy and sad! From now on, Dengdeng is an adult and doesn't need Daddy anymore... Waaah..."

"Ugh—Dad, you're so cheesy!" Chu Lin dodged his father's tears with disgust and offered his blessings, "Happy birthday, sis! The school gave you flowers, here they are."

Chu Deng relaxed her tense body. "Oh, okay, thank you." She said, taking the pale yellow baby's breath from her younger brother.

Chu Lin took the roses from her arms. "These are roses from your school? They're for your mother, right? Let me put them in a vase for you."

Luo Xia hugged Chu Deng, then took a birthday hat from the cabinet behind her and put it on Chu Deng's head. "Ta-da! When I was little, I always looked forward to my birthday hat. Today, Deng Deng is the queen of our family!"

Then Chu Junhai hugged Chu Deng, wiping away his tears, and said, "Dengdeng, when you grow up, don't forget your dad!"

Chu Deng offered a perfunctory reassurance, patting her father's back. "Dad, I'm an adult, not getting married."

Chu Deng didn't understand what made her father so emotional.

Her mother, Luo Xia, later secretly told her, "Your father has an older sister who ran away from home as soon as she came of age and has never been heard from since. Your father was young then and was frightened, which left him with psychological trauma. He kept talking about her to me when you were just born..."

Now her mother, Luo Xia, just smiled and said, "Don't cry on such a wonderful day. Come on, Deng Deng, blow out the candles, make a wish, and eat cake. I specially ordered a retro Chinese cake this time, the kind you liked best when you were little."

Chu Deng was pulled by Luo Xia to sit down at the dining table. Her younger brother, Chu Lin, was inserting candles representing their ages, one for 1 and one for 8. The workmanship was a bit rough, and the fuse on the candle for 8 was still a bit frayed.

“Nowadays, many candles are electronic. It took Mom a long time to find this kind of candle, because the previous one went out of business.” As she spoke, Chu Lin inserted the small plastic candle flower into the cake. “I remember when you were little, this would go off all day on your birthday until the battery ran out and the birthday song would stop.”

Of course! In her childhood memories from her past life, this little candle flower was her only memory. It had no switch, and once lit, it would keep singing the birthday song, which she would listen to while she slept.

"They even have these retro lighters, you can't find them anywhere else on the market. This cake shop has set up a special production line for them. They bragged about it for ages when we bought the cake, saying they only give them away, they don't sell them." Luo Xia told us the funny story, taking out the lighter that came with the cake and preparing to light the candle.

Chu Junhai was about to manually turn off all the lights in the house to make the candlelight more atmospheric.

"Crackling, crackling, crackling—" Luo Xia pressed the lighter a few times in a row. "Huh? Why isn't it lit?" After saying that, she pressed it a few more times, but the green lighter still didn't produce any sparks.

"Huh? Is it broken? I'll call the cake shop and have them send another one," Chu Junhai said, frowning. It was just a bit of a hassle.

"Let me see." Chu Lin took the lighter from Luo Xia's hand, pressed it a few times, and then carefully examined the small retro gadget.

Chu Deng smiled and said, "Let me do it. I'm the birthday girl today, so any wish can come true."

After speaking, Chu Deng grasped the green lighter, casually glanced at the empty interior, twitched his thumb slightly, and pressed the button.

"Crack!"

The tiny flame flickered in the air, reflecting in the eyes of the family gathered together.

"Wow--"

Chu Deng quickly lit the candles on the cake, and several more flames appeared instantly. As always, the little candle flowers bloomed with flames while singing the birthday song.

After finishing, Chu Deng put the lighter in his pocket and said to Chu Junhai, "Okay, Dad, turn off the light."

Chu Junhai quickly turned off the lights, and the family sang a birthday song for 18-year-old Chu Deng.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you—

"Dengdeng, quickly put your hands together and make a wish."

"Click—" Chu Lin recorded the moment with his camera.

Chu Deng closed her eyes, and a smile involuntarily crept onto her lips.

Actually, having such a happy family in this life, I can say I have no regrets.

However, it would be better if this kind of happiness could last longer.

Then...

I hope my parents and younger brother are healthy and that all their wishes come true.

After dinner, Chu Deng returned to her room and, as expected, saw the birthday gifts piled on her bed. Chu Junhai had given her a collector's edition of "Five Years of College Entrance Examination, Three Years of Simulation." Chu Deng politely declined the overwhelming weight of her father's love.

Her mother, Luo Xia, clearly understood her better, and gave her a set of keys. Chu Deng's heart skipped a beat. "Xiao 6, turn on the underground parking garage camera."

The smart device projected the underground parking garage surveillance footage onto the wall of Chu Deng's room, displaying a message: "Underground parking garage video feed is now available for you."

Sure enough, in addition to the couple's car, there was also a brand new U1S1 low-altitude motorcycle in the underground parking garage. The black body gleamed, with a sleek design and an oversized exhaust pipe at the rear!

What Chu Deng is most satisfied with is that she not only reborn and escaped the bloody apocalyptic world, but she was also reborn in the technologically advanced year of 2050, where electronic homes, artificial intelligence, and holographic online games have been realized, and transportation has also been developed.

The motorcycle that Luo Xia gave her can fly short distances at low altitudes.

That's so cool!

Although she needs to take a certification exam, and can only take it after she's an adult, she's just celebrated her birthday now!

Chu Deng quickly wrote down his goal for the year in the memo: to obtain a low-altitude motorcycle driving license.

The gift from Luo Xia was just what Chu Deng wanted, and she couldn't stop smiling for a while. Then she opened the gift from her younger brother, Chu Lin.

It is a holographic helmet.

Chu Deng glanced at the game loaded on the helmet, which was called "Star Travel World". It seemed to be a game that Jin Xiaoyue had mentioned wanting to play with her. She didn't expect Chu Lin to remember it.

As if on cue, her deskmate and best friend Jin Xiaoyue sent her a message.

Happy birthday, Dengdeng! I'll give you my gift tomorrow. Add me as a friend online soon, I know your brother bought you a helmet from "Star Travel World," hehe!

【Okay, coming right away.】 Chu Deng replied, examined the holographic helmet for a moment, found no problems, and put it on.