Porridge
The wind on Monday morning brought the coolness of late autumn, rustling the leaves of the old locust trees.
When Xu Yang walked downstairs, Lu Jinyu was already standing under the tree, holding two hot drink bags in his hands and a thermos at his feet. He hurried over to him when he saw him, with a few crumbs still on the collar of his school uniform. "My mom made pumpkin porridge today and asked me to bring you a thermos. It's still hot, come and try it."
Xu Yang took the thermos, and when his fingertips touched the warm body of the bucket, he opened the lid and the sweet aroma of pumpkin immediately wafted out. The porridge was very thick, and there was a soft-boiled egg in it, with a slightly orange yolk.
He said, lowering his head and taking a spoonful with a spoon. The sweet and sticky pumpkin was wrapped in the aroma of rice, and the temperature was just right to warm his stomach.
"My mom said you always eat bread in the morning, which is bad for your stomach." Lu Jinyu scratched his head and handed over the hot soy milk. "If the porridge is not enough, there are soy milk and cranberry biscuits. I put them in my schoolbag.
Oh, by the way, last night I put all the ginkgo leaves I picked up over the weekend into my history book. I'll show them to you later. I also wrote the place where I picked them up next to each leaf, so I can remember what happened that day when I flip through the book later."
The two walked towards the bus stop, Xu Yang holding the thermos in his hand, and Lu Jinyu chattering beside him about what happened last night - he found three more physics problems to practice, and got one wrong; the difficulty level of the test questions in the historical timeline applet was set, and all that was left was debugging; he also sorted the picked ginkgo leaves by color, putting the light yellow ones together, the dark yellow ones together, and the most special one with light red was clipped separately on the title page.
"I'll give you the history book during recess later," Lu Jinyu said. "Check to see if the leaves are neatly clipped. If not, help me clip them again. I'm always afraid of wrinkling them."
"Okay," Xu Yang nodded. Thinking of how Lu Jinyu carefully arranged the leaves last week, the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously. "You must have clipped them neatly. No need to do it again."
When the bus arrived, they had just finished their porridge. Lu Jinyu took the empty thermos, carefully closed the lid, and put it in his schoolbag. "My mom told me to bring this to you tomorrow. She's going to make millet porridge tomorrow. She says millet is good for the stomach and is more suitable for autumn than pumpkin porridge."
Xu Yang didn't refuse, but just said softly: "Don't bother your mother all the time, I can bring my own breakfast."
"It's not a bother!" Lu Jinyu immediately retorted, "My mom said she likes you to come to her house for dinner. She also said that next weekend you can come to my house and she will make you your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs. It's the same flavor that we had on the second floor of the cafeteria last time. It's definitely better than what they make in the cafeteria."
Xu Yang's heartbeat inexplicably quickened. He looked down at his toes and whispered "OK".
When he arrived at the classroom, there were still ten minutes before morning self-study. Lu Jinyu put down his schoolbag and took out his history book, carefully opening the cover - the light red ginkgo leaf was lying on it, and next to it was written in pencil, "Picked up by the lake in Chengdong Park on October 21st, Xu Yang said it looks good." The handwriting was crooked but very neat.
Turning the pages further, there are small words next to each leaf, such as "Picked up under the thickest ginkgo tree, bigger than the palm of your hand" and "Found in the grass, covered with dew."
"Look," Lu Jinyu handed the book over, his eyes full of anticipation, "I've written the location. When we flip through the book in the future, we'll be able to remember where we picked up this leaf that day. Isn't that interesting?"
Xu Yang took the book and gently brushed the leaves with his fingertips. The sunlight shone through the window onto the pages, making the veins on the leaves particularly clear.
"Very interesting," he said, looking up at Lu Jinyu, "You pick it up better than I do. You put a lot of effort into it."
Lu Jinyu's ears instantly turned red. He quickly looked away and pretended to rummage through his schoolbag: "I just think it's easier to remember this way. In the future, we can write down some of the day's events next to the leaves, such as what questions we did that day and what delicious food we ate. This way it will be like writing a diary."
The bell for morning self-study rang, and Lu Jinyu quickly sat down and took out his physics notebook. Next to the question he got wrong last night, he had written in red the detailed reason for his mistake, and also drawn a small crying face. Next to it was a note: "Next time you get it wrong, I'll punish you by making you do two more questions."
Xu Yang glanced at the question and remembered that Lu Jinyu sent a message last night saying "I calculated this question five times before I understood it. I will definitely not make mistakes next time." He couldn't help but smile in his heart.
The first class was math class. The teacher was talking about function graphs at the podium. Lu Jinyu listened very carefully and occasionally drew sketches in his notebook.
Xu Yang sat next to him and saw that the images he drew were much neater than before. Although he still occasionally marked the coordinate axes incorrectly, it was a great improvement compared to the beginning of the school year.
During the break, Lu Jinyu took out his physics notebook and pulled Xu Yang to the corridor. "Look at this question I got wrong last night. Is my thinking wrong? I always feel like something's wrong, but I can't put my finger on it."
Xu Yang took the notebook and looked at the steps to solve the problem. The problem was about analyzing the forces on an inclined plane. Lu Jinyu had mixed up the direction of the friction force, causing all the subsequent calculations to be wrong.
He pointed to the steps and said, "When an object moves upward along an inclined plane, the direction of friction should be downward along the inclined plane, opposite to the direction of movement. You wrote it upward, so the following results are wrong."
Lu Jinyu stared at the notebook for a long time, and suddenly realized: "I see! Last night I always felt that the direction of friction was wrong, but I was not sure. Now that I heard you explain it, I understand it all at once."
He took out a pen and wrote "The direction of friction is opposite to the direction of motion, remember this!" next to the wrong question, and drew a big exclamation mark. "Next time I make a mistake, I will punish myself by copying this knowledge point ten times."
Xu Yang looked at his serious expression, took out a small notebook from his pocket, and opened a piece of paper inside - it was the summary of the force analysis on the inclined plane that he had specially written last night. It was divided into three situations: the object was stationary, moving upward, and moving downward. A schematic diagram was drawn for each situation, and the direction of friction and the force balance equation were marked.
"Here you go," he handed the paper over. "Put this in your notebook. Next time you encounter a similar question, look at this summary first and you won't make mistakes easily."
Lu Jinyu took the paper and carefully put it into his wrong answer book. His fingertips touched the neat handwriting on the paper, and his heart felt warmed by something. "Thank you, Xu Yang, you always help me like this. If it weren't for you, I would definitely still fail physics."
"You're welcome," Xu Yang said, "You're very serious and making rapid progress. You'll definitely pass next time."
The second period was history class, and the teacher asked everyone to review freely and prepare for the quiz next week.
Lu Jinyu took out the history book, turned to the page with the ginkgo leaf, and reviewed the contents of the "Xin Chou Treaty" with Xu Yang.
"Last time you said to memorize the treaty contents in the context of history," he said. "I tried it, and it's much easier to remember. For example, if the Qing government paid 450 million taels of silver in compensation, just remember that China had a population of 450 million at the time, and each person paid one tael. That way I won't forget."
Xu Yang nodded. "That's a good method. You can use a similar method to remember other treaties. For example, for the treaty ports in the Treaty of Nanjing, you could write 'Guangxia Funing Shang'. It's easier to remember that way."
Lu Jinyu immediately pulled out his notebook, wrote down "Guangxia Funing Shang," and drew a smiley face next to it. "I've got it. I won't mix up the treaty ports next time." He looked up at Xu Yang, his eyes sparkling. "If I can pass this history quiz, my mom will be so happy. She also said that if I improve in history, she'll take me to buy a new programming book."
"You'll definitely pass," Xu Yang said. "You've been studying very hard lately, so there won't be any problems."
During lunch, Lu Jinyu took Xu Yang to the second floor of the cafeteria and said that there were sweet and sour pork ribs today. He had specifically asked the cafeteria aunt about it.
While the two of them were waiting in line, Lu Jinyu pulled out a small bag from his schoolbag. Inside was a few orange-flavored gummy candies. "My mom bought them yesterday. She said one would help you feel less greasy after a meal. Do you want some?"
Xu Yang took one, peeled off the wrapper, and put it in his mouth. The sweetness of the orange spread in his mouth, just as refreshing as last time. "It's delicious," he said. "It's softer than hard candy and doesn't stick to your 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."
After buying the food, the two found a seat by the window. The sweet and sour pork ribs were very fragrant. Lu Jinyu picked up a piece and gave it to Xu Yang: "Try it now. The ribs are stewed very well, and the sweet and sour sauce is just right. It's almost the same as my mom's."
Xu Yang took a bite. The ribs were indeed tender, and the sweet and sour sauce had just the right flavor, with a hint of meaty aroma. It was just as delicious as the one the cafeteria had made last time. "It's really good," he said. "Much better than the usual dishes."
"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, if you are free this weekend, come to my house for dinner. My mom said she would make you this sweet and sour pork ribs, which will definitely taste better than the one in the cafeteria."
Xu Yang hesitated for a moment, but still nodded: "Okay, I'll go over this weekend."
Lu Jinyu's eyes lit up instantly, and his hands picked up the food faster: "Great! I'll tell my mom and ask her to prepare it this weekend. She will definitely be very happy."
After dinner, on the way back to the classroom, Lu Jinyu kept talking about their weekend plans - go buy fresh spare ribs together in the morning, eat sweet and sour spare ribs at noon, debug the historical timeline applet together in the afternoon, and practice questions together in the evening.
"My mom told you to stay at my house. We have a clean guest room," he said. "If you don't want to stay, I can take you home. My house isn't far from yours anyway."
"I'll just stay at home," Xu Yang said. "Thank you, mom, for your kindness."
The first class in the afternoon was physics. The teacher was talking about buoyancy at the podium. Lu Jinyu listened very carefully and occasionally took notes on the key points in his notebook.
Xu Yang was sitting next to him. He saw him put the force analysis summary he had given him last night on the corner of the table. He picked it up and looked at it from time to time, and the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously.
When the teacher was asking questions, he suddenly called Lu Jinyu's name and asked him to answer the calculation formula and application scenarios of buoyancy.
Lu Jinyu stood up, thought for a moment, and answered fluently, "The formula for calculating buoyancy is Ffloat = ρLiquid gVdisplaced. Applications include ships floating, submarines ascending and sinking, and hot air balloons ascending. For example, ships use hollow cores to increase the volume of displaced water, thereby increasing buoyancy and allowing them to float on the water."
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.
After school, Lu Jinyu packed his bag much faster than usual and even waited for Xu Yang to leave together. The two walked out of the school gate side by side, the setting sun stretching their shadows long, falling on the sycamore trees by the roadside.
"I'll be waiting for you under the old locust tree tomorrow morning," Lu Jinyu said. "I'll bring the thermos. My mom made millet porridge and brought tea eggs, all your favorites."
"Okay," Xu Yang nodded, "I'll go down early tomorrow, so you don't have to wait too long."
"No need to go too early," Lu Jinyu said, "My mom told me to wait for you a little longer so you don't worry. By the way, come to my house this weekend and ask my mom to prepare whatever dishes you want. In addition to sweet and sour pork ribs, there are also cola chicken wings and scrambled eggs with tomatoes. My mom can make all of these and they are really delicious."
Xu Yang thought for a moment and said, "Tomato and eggs will do. I like tomato and eggs."
"Okay!" Lu Jinyu nodded immediately. "I'll tell my mom to make more scrambled eggs with tomatoes this weekend. I guarantee you'll have enough."
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! See you this weekend!"
Xu Yang watched his back disappear around the corner before turning around and walking home.
When he got home, he put his schoolbag on the table, took out his history book, and opened the page with the ginkgo leaf. The sunlight shone through the window onto the leaves, giving off a soft luster.
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! I told my mom you were coming to my house this weekend, and she was so happy. She said she'd buy fresh pork ribs and tomatoes in advance, and even made you cranberry cookies as snacks. Oh, by the way, I figured out all the physics problems from last night, and I answered all the questions the teacher asked in class today. Thank you, Xu Yang. If it weren't for you, I definitely wouldn't know anything."
Xu Yang looked at the message, his lips curled up, and replied: "You're welcome, you're very serious and making rapid progress. Keep it up. See you tomorrow and this weekend."
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 pumpkin porridge Lu Jinyu handed him in the morning, the force analysis summary he gave him during the break, and the expectant look in his eyes when he asked him to come to his house for dinner on the weekend. His heart felt filled with warmth.
He returned to his desk, opened the physics wrong answer book, found a few questions about buoyancy, wrote down detailed problem-solving steps and ideas next to them, and marked the places where mistakes are easy to make. He planned to give it to Lu Jinyu tomorrow to make it easier for him to understand.
After finishing writing, he opened the history book again and looked at the ginkgo leaf sandwiched inside. He couldn't help but touch it lightly with his fingertips. Thinking of the scene of going to Lu Jinyu's house on the weekend, the smile on the corner of his mouth became even more intense.
The next morning, Xu Yang had just come downstairs when he saw Lu Jinyu standing under the old locust tree, carrying a thermos and hot soy milk. The ginkgo leaf pendant hanging from his schoolbag swung non-stop. Seeing Xu Yang, Lu Jinyu immediately waved, "Here! The millet porridge is still hot, and the tea eggs are in there too. Come try some! My mom said they're cooked for a long time, so they're extra flavorful."
Xu Yang walked over, took the thermos, and when he opened the lid, the aroma of millet immediately wafted out - the porridge was very thick, and there was a tea egg inside, the eggshell had been peeled, revealing the dark brown egg white.
"Thank you," he said, lowering his head and scooping a spoonful of porridge with a spoon. The warm millet slid down his throat and warmed his stomach.
"Is it delicious?" Lu Jinyu looked at him expectantly. "My mom said that millet porridge needs to be cooked for forty minutes to become this thick. It is better for the stomach than pumpkin porridge. If you like it, my mom will cook it for you every day in the future."
Xu Yang nodded: "It's delicious. Thank you, mom."
"You're welcome!" Lu Jinyu laughed immediately. "My mom said that as long as you like it, we can cook it every day. By the way, come to my house this weekend and we'll go buy spare ribs together in the morning. My mom said that the spare ribs bought in the morning are the freshest, and the sweet and sour spare ribs stewed in it will be the most delicious."
Xu Yang hummed "hmm" and drank the millet porridge while listening to Lu Jinyu chattering about the details of the weekend. 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 thermos in his hand, smelled the fragrance of millet, and thought of the ginkgo leaves in the history book. He thought quietly in his heart that this autumn, because of Lu Jinyu's company, even doing exercises and memorizing became interesting, and those unfinished questions, the porridge that was not yet cooled, and many unfulfilled promises were all waiting for them to complete together in the future.
The bus arrived, and the two of them got on together and found a seat by the window.
Lu Jinyu was still talking about weekend plans. Xu Yang leaned against the window, listening to his voice and watching the street scenes passing by outside the window. The sunlight shone through the window onto his face, 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.
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