Finished

At five in the morning, when the dim light filtered through the gauze curtains, Cheng Xiaorui was already busy on tiptoe in the kitchen. He held the handle of the frying pan with his left hand and gently rolled the edge of the egg skin with his right chopsticks. The oil formed tiny golden bubbles on the bottom of the pan.

The cookbook under the refrigerator magnet was turned to page 37, where a note in pencil said "Add milk to the egg liquid."

As he wrapped the last layer of egg wrapper around the fried rice, the ketchup trembled slightly on his fingertips. The bright red sauce slowly flowed from the plastic bottle, carving an irregular heart shape on the golden egg wrapper. A sudden morning breeze ripped the curtains, and he hurriedly shielded the stove with his body, fearing the wind would disturb the peaceful sleep in the bedroom.

"Cheng Cheng?"

Cheng Zhixu's voice was soft and tender, like someone who had just woken up. She stood at the kitchen door, her eyes falling on the steaming omelet rice on the dining table. She subconsciously covered her mouth, her eyelashes fluttering rapidly in the morning light.

"Mom, you're up." Cheng Xiaorui wiped the greasy spots on the back of his hands with his apron, "I set the alarm..."

"Why don't you sleep a little longer right after the exam?" Cheng Zhixu walked quickly forward and brushed the dark circles under his eyes with her fingertips. "Let me take care of these..." Her voice suddenly choked because she saw the red marks on her son's right hand caused by hot oil.

Cheng Xiaorui put the spoon in her hand: "Try it?"

The moment the egg skin cracked between his teeth, the aroma of milk mixed with the sweet and sour taste of tomatoes spread throughout his mouth. Cheng Zhixu suddenly remembered Cheng Xiaorui's first time frying an egg in elementary school, and how he cried in panic after puncturing the yolk. But the omelet rice before him was fluffy and soft, with a perfect lace-like sear around the edges.

"When did you learn this?" She scooped up a spoonful of rice mixed with the aroma of egg. "It tastes better than the ones sold at convenience stores."

"I learned it from a book." Cheng Xiaorui's ears turned red as he lowered his head to stir the miso soup. "From now on... every day..."

Cheng Zhixu suddenly reached out to wipe the remaining food from his cheek, his calloused palm rubbing against the boy's delicate skin. This action stunned both of them, and the dust floating in the morning light seemed to have been paused.

In the end, Cheng Xiaorui was the first to smile, revealing a faint dimple on his left cheek: "I'll go fry another egg..."

Cheng Zhixu stood at the door putting on her shoes, "Cheng Cheng, Mommy is going to work first..."

"Yeah, be careful!" Cheng Xiaorui watched her back disappear around the corner from the balcony.

In the laundry basket lay his mother's changed nightgown. He picked it up as if possessed, and smelled a faint scent of jasmine laundry detergent and an almost imperceptible hint of the smell of pain-relieving plaster.

"What should I do..." Cheng Xiaorui lay on the sofa, playing with his fingers boredly.

As the hustle and bustle of the commercial street washed over him, Cheng Xiaorui was counting the wildflowers growing in the cracks between the floor tiles. As he crushed the eleventh dandelion, he caught a glimpse of a figure reflected in the glass window.

Lu Ziyi was carrying three or four shopping bags in one hand, his other hand resting on Lin Wanqing's back. The girl's pink skirt brushed against his sneakers, like a petal falling on ink.

Cheng Xiaorui froze in place. He saw Lu Ziyi's lips curl up naturally, tiny smile lines forming at the corners of his eyes, and even his usually furrowed brows relaxed. When Lin Wanqing raised her phone to take a selfie, Lu Ziyi even lowered her head, letting her hair fall onto her shoulders.

"They're quite a match..." After saying this, Cheng Xiaorui suddenly shook his head and realized what he was saying.

"Brother Ziyi, what are you looking at?" Lin Wanqing's voice came with the wind.

Cheng Xiaorui saw Lu Ziyi's Adam's apple roll, and his gaze suddenly met his through the window. Those eyes, always filled with sarcasm, now shone startlingly brightly, and a nearly gentle smile played at the corners of his mouth: "I found a stray cat."

As he fled, a laughter rarely heard before erupted from behind him. It felt like broken glass piercing the soles of his feet. Cheng Xiaorui ran all the way to a park bench before daring to stop. Sweat streamed into his eyes, staining the world into a blur of color.

On a bench shrouded in swaying tree shadows, Cheng Xiaorui leaned back and raised his head. Unknown white flowers fell on his shoulders, and he thought of the failed love omelet he had made that morning.

The mist from the distant fountain drifted in with the wind, mixed with the scent of pine needles, causing him to gradually lower his eyes. Just before he fell asleep, he seemed to hear the crisp sound of branches breaking - as if someone had deliberately stepped on a dead branch.

Cheng Xiaorui's eyelashes trembled slightly in his sleep, like butterfly wings blown by the wind.

The crisp sound of dead branches snapping startled a few birds, but it failed to penetrate Cheng Xiaorui's dream. "I got you." Lu Ziyi's sneakers rolled over the fallen leaves, casting a long, narrow shadow in front of the bench.

When he lowered his eyes, he saw Cheng Xiaorui's collar rising and falling slightly with his breathing, and a small piece of sunlight was in the depression of his collarbone.

"You can even fall asleep here..." Lu Ziyi whispered, his fingertips hovering above Cheng Xiaorui's nose. He suddenly noticed a speck of ketchup on the fair skin of the other's right cheek, and his Adam's apple rolled.

When a sycamore leaf fell into Cheng Xiaorui's hair, Lu Zi leaned over. His index finger brushed through the soft black hair, his knuckles accidentally brushing against the warm earlobe. Cheng Xiaorui purred like a kitten in his sleep, unconsciously tilting his head towards the source of heat, the small mole disappearing into the shadow of his collar as he moved.

Lu Zi also sat up abruptly, his metal earrings casting a cold arc of light in the sunlight. When he pulled out his phone, the screen was still frozen on the lock screen photo he'd taken a few days prior, Cheng Xiaorui's peaceful, sleeping face superimposed on the frame.

Lu Ziyi stroked the faintly visible mole on his phone screen and suddenly chuckled. As he walked backwards, he deliberately stepped on more dead branches, as if this could mask his rapid heartbeat.

The park bench returned to silence, except for the sycamore leaf that had been taken away, which was now lying in Lu Ziyi's school uniform pocket.

------

Cheng Xiaorui was awakened by a sharp pain in his neck. The shadows of the sycamore leaves had stretched long, casting spiderweb-like patterns on the back of his hand. He rubbed the numbness on the back of his neck and sat up straight. The back of his shirt, soaked with sweat, felt cold against his spine.

"Why did I fall asleep..." He muttered as he moved his stiff shoulders, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the left side of his neck, which felt inexplicably hot, as if burned by someone's gaze.

The kitchen clock struck one in the afternoon. Cheng Xiaorui donned his mother's usual floral apron. While washing rice, he noticed greasy residue from scrambling eggs that morning still clinging to his fingers. He stared at his own reflection warping against the stainless steel lid, a film gradually forming on the surface of the simmering miso soup.

Lunch was simple. He chewed mechanically, his Adam's apple rolling several times before he could barely swallow a mouthful.

The sticky note left by Cheng Zhixu on the dining table was blown off by the wind. When he bent down to pick it up, his stomach suddenly twitched like a rag being twisted tightly.

Spring cleaning became a distraction. While kneeling on the floor wiping the baseboards, Cheng Xiaorui discovered a half-empty bottle of painkillers hidden under his mother's bed. The label had been torn off a corner of the prescription medication, leaving only three white pills at the bottom of the bottle.

He stared at the pills for a long time, then finally put them back where they were. The dirty water squeezed out of the rag spread a brown stain in the bucket, like the burning sensation in his stomach.

The sunlight at four in the afternoon suddenly became glaring. While rummaging through the medicine cabinet, Cheng Xiaorui knocked over a toothbrush cup. The sound of the plastic container bouncing on the tiles made his temples throb.

Five empty medicine boxes were piled up in the corner of the drawer like dried cicada shells, and the aluminum foil was torn into pieces.

With sweat soaking through his shirt, he finally stumbled out of the hallway. The midsummer heat, wrapped in exhaust fumes, assaulted his vision, and his vision began to blur into a chromatic noise. The screech of a black sedan's brakes echoed through the street, its tires leaving two scorch marks ten centimeters from his knees.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?!" The driver's roar seemed to come through a layer of frosted glass.

Cheng Xiaorui wanted to apologize, but when he opened his mouth, he vomited a mouthful of bitter water. He knelt on the scorching asphalt and saw his pale knuckles overlapped with the black tire marks.

The last thing he was aware of was someone walking quickly from the back seat of a car, and a pair of sneakers stopped in his blurry sight.