Ginkgo leaves
The Monday morning sunlight, with its unique softness of late autumn, shines through the glass windows of the classroom, casting tiny spots of light on the desks.
Just as Xu Yang put his schoolbag on the seat, he saw Lu Jinyu walking in quickly with a stack of history textbooks in his arms, and the pockets of his school uniform jacket were bulging.
When he reached his seat, before even putting down his textbook, he pulled a golden ginkgo leaf from his pocket and handed it to me: "Yesterday, when I passed by Chengdong Park, I saw several ginkgo trees that had turned completely yellow. I picked a complete leaf for you. Look at how clear the veins are. It will definitely look nice tucked between your history books."
Xu Yang took the ginkgo leaf and his fingertips touched the smooth texture of the leaf. The sunlight fell on it, making the curvature of the leaf edge look particularly gentle.
He lowered his head to glance at the fine lines on the leaf, and when he looked up, he met Lu Jinyu's expectant gaze. He couldn't help but curl his lips: "It really looks good, much more complete than the one I picked up before."
"Of course!" Lu Jinyu immediately raised his chin proudly and placed the history textbook on the table. "I spent a long time picking it out, looking for one without wormholes or creases, for fear you might dislike it. By the way, when we go to pick ginkgo leaves this weekend, we can bring a small notebook and flatten the ones that look particularly good. When we look at them in the book later, it will remind us of that day."
Xu Yang nodded and put the ginkgo leaf into the title page of the history book, placing it side by side with the light yellow leaf from last time. The two leaves, one dark and one light, seemed to freeze the autumn time in the pages of the book.
The bell for morning self-study rang, and the classroom quickly became quiet, with only the rustling sound of pens scratching across paper.
When Lu Jinyu was flipping through a history book, he accidentally knocked off the ginkgo leaf that Xu Yang had sandwiched between the leaves. He quickly bent down to pick it up. As his fingertips just touched the leaf, he saw Xu Yang also reaching out his hand. Their fingers accidentally touched each other, and they were both stunned for a moment.
Lu Jinyu's ears instantly turned red. He quickly handed the ginkgo leaf over, lowered his head and pretended to flip through a book. His voice was a little vague: "I accidentally knocked it over for you. Hurry and pick it up, don't let it fall again."
Xu Yang took the leaf and put it back into the book. He caught a glimpse of the redness on Lu Jinyu's ears from the corner of his eye. The corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously, and he lowered his head to continue doing the questions.
The first class was physics class. The teacher was talking about force analysis at the podium. Xu Yang listened very carefully and occasionally made a few notes in his notebook.
Lu Jinyu sat nearby, listening while secretly glancing at Xu Yang's notebook. Seeing that his force analysis diagram was even clearer than the one in the textbook, he couldn't help but nudge him gently with his elbow and whisper, "How did you draw such a good diagram? I always draw the direction of the force wrong. Do you have any tips?"
Xu Yang tilted his head and lowered his voice, "First, determine the research object, then find gravity, elasticity, and friction. The direction of each force must be determined in conjunction with the object's state of motion. For example, for a stationary object, the forces are balanced, while for a moving object, the direction of acceleration must be considered."
As he spoke, he pushed the notebook toward Lu Jinyu. "Look at this example. An object slides on an inclined plane. The direction of friction is opposite to the direction of motion. Gravity is decomposed into two components: one downward along the inclined plane and one perpendicular to the inclined plane. This way, it's not easy to make mistakes."
Lu Jinyu leaned over to take a look, his eyes lighting up. "I see! I always got the direction of friction wrong before, but now I see the diagram you drew, and I understand it all at once. Can you explain another problem to me after class? It's the supplementary question at the end of the last physics test. I looked at the answer but still didn't understand it."
"Okay," Xu Yang nodded. "Let's go to the corridor after class. It's quiet there."
Lu Jinyu immediately sat up straight with joy and listened to the class much more attentively than before. Occasionally, he even imitated Xu Yang to draw a force analysis diagram in his notebook. Although the drawing was a little crooked, it was much neater than before.
As soon as the bell rang, Lu Jinyu packed up his notebook and followed Xu Yang to the corridor. The corridor was empty, and sunlight streamed through the windows onto the ground, creating long, dark spots.
Xu Yang leaned against the window, took the physics paper from Lu Jinyu, and pointed to the last question. "The key to this question is to find the critical state. When the object is just about to slide, the static friction reaches its maximum value. At this time, the forces are balanced, and we can write an equation to solve it."
He pulled a pen from his pocket and drew a simple diagram on a blank space on the paper. "Look, an object is subject to tension, gravity, support, and static friction. The tension can be decomposed into two components: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal component equals static friction, and the vertical component plus the support equals gravity. Combining this with the formula for the maximum value of static friction, we can calculate the critical tension."
Lu Jinyu stared at the diagram for a long time, frowning. "What if the direction of the pulling force changes? Doesn't the decomposition method also change? For example, if the pulling force is diagonally downward, how do you calculate the vertical force?"
"Yes, the direction changes, and the decomposition method also changes," Xu Yang patiently explained. "If the pulling force is diagonally downward, the vertical component of the force will also be downward. At this time, the supporting force is equal to the gravity plus the vertical component of the pulling force. The maximum value of the static friction force will also increase, and the critical pulling force needs to be recalculated."
As he spoke, he drew a diagram next to him, comparing the two situations. "You see, the difference between the two situations lies in the direction of the vertical component of the pulling force. As long as you understand this, it's not easy to make a mistake."
Lu Jinyu looked at the comparison chart and suddenly realized: "I see! I didn't understand the effect of the pulling force direction on the vertical force before, so the results I calculated were always wrong. Now that I've heard you explain it, I finally understand. Thank you, Xu Yang."
"You're welcome," Xu Yang returned the pen to Lu Jinyu. "You can find a few similar questions to practice when you go back to consolidate your knowledge so that you won't make mistakes next time you encounter them."
"Okay!" Lu Jinyu nodded immediately and put away the test paper and notebook. "I'll find some questions to practice tonight and check the answers with you tomorrow. If there's still something you don't understand, please don't think I'm annoying."
Xu Yang looked at his serious expression and curled his lips: "No."
The bell rang and the two walked side by side to the classroom. Lu Jinyu walked a little slowly, glancing at Xu Yang from the corner of his eye from time to time, thinking about how many questions he should find to practice in the evening so that Xu Yang would feel that he had made progress.
The second class was history class. The teacher was talking about the "Xin Chou Treaty" at the podium. Lu Jinyu listened very carefully, occasionally taking notes on the key points in his notebook. He also used the method Xu Yang had mentioned before of "remembering the content of the treaty in combination with the historical background", and matched each article of the treaty with the social conditions at the time. As expected, he remembered it much faster.
The teacher suddenly called on Lu Jinyu's name and asked him to answer the question about the impact of the Boxer Protocol. Lu Jinyu stood up, thought for a moment, and answered fluently: "The signing of the Boxer Protocol completely reduced China to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The Qing government became a tool of imperialist rule over China, further increasing the burden on the Chinese people. It also accelerated the awakening of the Chinese people and laid the foundation for the subsequent Xinhai Revolution."
The teacher nodded with satisfaction: "The answer is very good, much better than before, it seems that you have been reviewing seriously recently."
When Lu Jinyu sat down, he secretly glanced at Xu Yang and found that Xu Yang was also looking at him and gave him a thumbs up. His heart instantly felt as sweet as if he had eaten honey, and he listened to the class more attentively.
At lunchtime, Lu Jinyu dragged Xu Yang to the second floor of the cafeteria, saying they had a new sweet and sour pork ribs dish that was especially delicious. While they were waiting in line, Lu Jinyu pulled out a small bag from his schoolbag containing a few candies. "My mom bought some orange-flavored fruit candies yesterday. Do you want some? Eat one after dinner to help you feel less greasy."
Xu Yang took one, peeled off the wrapper, and put it in his mouth. The sweetness of the orange spread in his mouth, very refreshing. "It's delicious," he said. "It's softer than the hard candy last time, and it won't stick to my teeth."
"My mom specially picked out soft candies, saying you might not like hard candies," Lu Jinyu said with a smile, "Next time I'll ask her to buy a few more flavors, like strawberry and apple. You can pick the ones you like."
The two of them bought food and found a seat by the window. The sweet and sour spareribs were very fragrant. Lu Jinyu picked up a piece and gave it to Xu Yang: "Try it quickly. The spareribs are stewed very well, and the sweet and sour sauce is just right, not too sour and not too sweet, it goes really well with rice."
Xu Yang took a bite and found the ribs were indeed tender. The sweet and sour sauce had just the right flavor, with a hint of meaty aroma. It was delicious. "It's really good," he said. "It's much better than the food usually served in the cafeteria."
"Of course!" Lu Jinyu said proudly, "I specifically asked the cafeteria auntie yesterday that she would make this dish for lunch today, and I specially invited you over to eat it. By the way, when we go to pick ginkgo leaves on the weekend, we can bring some snacks and eat them on the park bench at noon. Just thinking about it, basking in the sun and eating snacks is so relaxing."
Xu Yang nodded: "Okay, I'll bring some bread and milk, and you can just bring some fruit."
"Okay!" Lu Jinyu agreed immediately. "I'll bring apples and oranges. My mom bought them yesterday, so they're super fresh. Oh, and I can also bring a picnic mat and spread it on the ground so we can sit on it and eat instead of squeezing on the benches."
The two chatted while eating, from weekend plans to physics competitions. Lu Jinyu said that he had been practicing programming recently and wanted to improve the historical timeline applet, add a wrong question book function, and also wanted to add a knowledge point test function so that the questions can be automatically corrected after completion, so that review will be more convenient.
Xu Yang listened and occasionally gave him some suggestions, such as test questions could be divided into difficulty levels, and wrong question books could be classified by knowledge points for easy searching.
After dinner, on the way back to the classroom, Lu Jinyu suddenly remembered something and took out a small notebook from his schoolbag: "By the way, I wrote down everything I need to bring this weekend. See if you missed anything."
Xu Yang took the notebook. Written on it were: picnic mat, bread, milk, apples, oranges, small notebook (for pressing ginkgo leaves), history book (for inserting ginkgo leaves), physics notebook (for practicing on the road). The handwriting was crooked, but it was clear he'd written it with great care.
"I didn't miss anything," Xu Yang handed the notebook back. "You can bring a bottle of water. There might not be any place selling water in the park."
Lu Jinyu immediately took out a pen and added "mineral water" to the notebook, and even drew a small circle to mark it. "Okay, I'll write it down. I'll definitely bring it with me when the time comes, so I won't forget it."
The afternoon classes passed quickly, and when school was over, Lu Jinyu packed his bag much faster than usual, even waiting for Xu Yang to leave together. The two walked out of the school gate side by side, the setting sun stretching their shadows long, casting them on the sycamore trees by the roadside.
"I'll be waiting for you tomorrow morning under the old locust tree downstairs from your house," Lu Jinyu said. "My mom baked some cranberry cookies today. I'll bring some for you for breakfast. I'll also buy two cups of hot soy milk, the sugar-free kind you like."
"Don't bother with that," Xu Yang said. "I have bread at home. I can just make breakfast myself."
"It's no trouble!" Lu Jinyu said immediately, "My mom was going to bake some cookies anyway, so what if she made a few extra and brought some for you? And soy milk is convenient too, there's one at the convenience store downstairs, so I can just buy some on the way. Don't be polite to me, or I won't go with you next time."
Xu Yang looked at him pretending to be angry and couldn't help but smile: "Okay, thank you then."
"You're welcome!" Lu Jinyu immediately became happy. "Then I'll wait for you under the old locust tree at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. Don't be late."
"Yes," Xu Yang nodded, "I will be there on time."
When they reached a fork in the road, Lu Jinyu stopped and said, "I'm going this way. Be careful on the road. Send me a message when you get home."
"Okay," Xu Yang said, "Be careful too. Remember to send me a message when you get home."
Lu Jinyu waved his hand, turned around and walked towards home. After a few steps, he stopped and turned back to shout to Xu Yang: "See you tomorrow!"
Xu Yang watched his back disappear around the corner before turning back and heading home. When he got home, he placed his schoolbag on the table, took out his history book, and flipped open the title page. Two ginkgo leaves lay quietly inside, gleaming softly under the light.
He took out his cell phone and sent a message to Lu Jinyu: "I'm home, are you there?"
Soon, Lu Jinyu's message came back: "I'm home too! My mom is baking cookies, and the aroma is wafting into the living room. I'll bring you some more tomorrow and make sure you have enough. By the way, I'll find some physics problems to practice tonight and compare the answers with you tomorrow. Don't think I have too many problems."
Xu Yang looked at the message, his lips curled up, and replied: "Okay, see you tomorrow."
Putting down his phone, he walked to the window and watched the sky gradually darken outside. The street lights slowly lit up, and the warm yellow light sprinkled on the street, like a layer of gentle gauze.
He thought of the ginkgo leaves Lu Jinyu handed him in the morning, the way he secretly looked at his notebook during class, and the serious look on his face when he was lecturing. His heart seemed to be filled with something warm.
He returned to his desk, opened his physics error book, found the additional question that Lu Jinyu mentioned, wrote down the detailed steps and ideas for solving the problem next to it, and marked the places where mistakes are easy to make. He planned to give it to Lu Jinyu tomorrow so that he could understand it more easily.
After finishing writing, he opened the history book again and looked at the two ginkgo leaves on the title page. He couldn't help but touch them lightly with his fingertips. Thinking of the scene of picking ginkgo leaves on weekends, the smile on the corner of his mouth became even more intense.
The next morning, as Xu Yang came downstairs, he saw Lu Jinyu standing under the old locust tree, holding two hot drink bags and a paper bag. His school uniform jacket was unzipped, revealing his white T-shirt underneath. Seeing Xu Yang, Lu Jinyu immediately waved, "Here! I just arrived a short time ago. The soy milk is still hot, and the biscuits are still warm. Take them quickly."
Xu Yang walked over, took the soy milk and paper bag, his fingertips touched the warm paper bag, and he smelled the cranberry aroma wafting out of it.
"Thank you," he said. "Why don't you dress a little warmer? It's a little chilly this morning."
"It's not cold!" Lu Jinyu immediately straightened his chest.
"I ran here and I'm all hot. And my mom said the weather is nice today and it will get warmer by noon, so I don't need to wear too much."
As he spoke, he pulled the zipper, but not all the way, revealing a little bit of the white collar.
Xu Yang looked at him without saying anything. He inserted the straw into the soy milk and handed one to Lu Jinyu: "Let's drink together. Don't just give it to me."
Lu Jinyu took the straw, inserted it into the soy milk, and took a sip: "Well, sugar-free is still better, the sweet one is too greasy.
Oh, by the way, I found five physics problems last night, all about force analysis. I'll check the answers with you during break today. Don't think I have too many questions."
"No," Xu Yang took a sip of soy milk, the warm liquid sliding down his throat, feeling very comfortable. "Practice a few more questions to consolidate your knowledge. You are working hard, and I am so happy."
Lu Jinyu's eyes lit up instantly, and his steps became lighter. He walked towards the bus stop side by side with Xu Yang, still talking about the details of picking ginkgo leaves on the weekend, such as what size notebook to bring, what kind of tree to look for, and whether to bring a small shovel to dig some soil to grow the leaves.
Xu Yang listened to his chattering, occasionally nodding in response. The sunlight fell on them, stretching their shadows very long, as if stretching the future time as well, gentle and bright.
He looked down at the paper bag in his hand, smelled the cranberry scent inside, and thought of the ginkgo leaves on the title page. He thought quietly in his heart that this autumn seemed to be really different. With Lu Jinyu's company, even doing exercises and memorizing became interesting. And those unfinished questions, unpicked ginkgo leaves, and many unfulfilled promises were all waiting for them to complete together in the future.
The bus arrived, and the two of them boarded it together, finding a window seat. Lu Jinyu was still discussing weekend plans, while Xu Yang leaned against the window, listening to his voice and watching the street scene pass by. The sunlight shone through the window onto his face, making him feel warm and comfortable.
He lowered his head and touched the physics wrong-answer notebook in his pocket, which contained the problem-solving steps he had written last night. He thought to himself that he must explain this problem to Lu Jinyu during the break so that he would no longer be confused.
And those stories about autumn, about ginkgo leaves, and about unfinished questions will slowly be continued in the days to come and become the warmest memories of their youth.
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