Ribs
In the blink of an eye, it’s the weekend.
The morning light on Saturday was softer than usual, falling through the gaps in the curtains onto Xu Yang's desk, illuminating the history book filled with ginkgo leaves.
He woke up just after seven o'clock. He reached for the phone beside his pillow and saw the message Lu Jinyu had sent half an hour ago: "I'm awake! My mom said to buy some spare ribs when we get there. They're fresh!" It was followed by a jumping emoticon.
Xu Yang replied with a smile, "I'll be there soon." When he got out of bed, he did not forget to put the notebook he had prepared in advance into his schoolbag. It contained several physics problems that Lu Jinyu didn't understand. He had specially written down the detailed steps to solve the problems and also drew a schematic diagram.
Just as I picked up my schoolbag and walked to the door, I heard a familiar shout coming from downstairs. I leaned on the window and looked down. Sure enough, it was Lu Jinyu standing under the old locust tree. He was wearing a light blue jacket, holding a cloth bag in his hand, and looking up at the upstairs.
"Why are you so fast?" Xu Yang ran downstairs. As soon as he stood firm, Lu Jinyu stuffed something hot into his mouth - a sugar cake wrapped in a plastic bag, still steaming. "This is something my mom fried this morning. It's sweet. You can fill your stomach first. The place where you can buy spare ribs is a bit far. We have to walk for ten minutes."
Xu Yang took a bite of the cake. The crust was so crispy that it crumbled, and the red bean paste inside was sweet but not greasy, and warmth spread in his mouth.
"Delicious," he said vaguely. Seeing some sugar residue on the corner of Lu Jinyu's mouth, he reached out to wipe it off for him. "You eat it too, don't just give it to me."
Lu Jinyu's ears instantly turned red. He quickly turned his face away, took out another sugar cake from the cloth bag and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling, "My mom fried a big plate of it. I can eat it when I get home after buying spareribs. Oh, by the way, my mom asked me to bring the cloth bag. She said it's not environmentally friendly to use plastic bags when buying spareribs. This bag is breathable."
The two walked towards the vegetable market. The morning light shone on the ginkgo trees on the roadside, dyeing the leaves a bright golden color.
Lu Jinyu walked briskly, stopping from time to time to point out to Xu Yang: "Look at the leaves on that tree, they are even yellower than the ones we picked last time! When we come back from buying ribs, shall we pick a few?"
"Okay," Xu Yang nodded, watching him jumping around, and remembered last week's history test - Lu Jinyu scored 72 points, which was his best score since the start of the school year. When he ran over with the test paper, the light in his eyes was brighter than the sun now.
The entrance to the vegetable market was bustling with activity, with vendors shouting and fresh vegetables neatly displayed. Lu Jinyu walked in with familiarity, turning back to remind Xu Yang, "Follow me, don't get lost, there are a lot of people here."
Lu Jinyu stopped in front of a butcher's shop. The owner smiled and greeted him when he saw him: "Xiaoyu, are you here? How many ribs do you want today?"
"Auntie, two pounds," Lu Jinyu said, standing on tiptoe to look at the ribs on the chopping board. "I want the kind with crispy bones. My mom says stewed sweet and sour ribs are the best."
The boss smiled as he cut the ribs and gave an extra piece when weighing them: "I brought this for your classmate. It will be delicious when stewed."
Lu Jinyu took the ribs, put them in a cloth bag, and walked out with Xu Yang: "The auntie here has the best ribs. My mom always comes here to buy them. The meat is especially tender when stewed. I'm sure you'll like it later."
On their way back, the two stopped under a ginkgo tree on the side of the road.
Lu Jinyu squatted on the ground, carefully selecting leaves. From time to time, he would hold up a leaf and ask Xu Yang, "Is this one good looking? There are no chips on the edges, and the color is bright."
Xu Yang squatted down and picked up a leaf that fell at his feet - it was bigger than his palm, golden in color with a hint of light orange, and the veins were so clear that they looked like they were painted.
"This is a good one," he handed it over. "It's perfect as a bookmark in a history book."
Lu Jinyu took the leaf and carefully placed it in a cloth bag, even putting a tissue under it: "Don't crush the leaf. When we get home, we'll put it in the book with the last one."
When they returned to Lu Jinyu's house, his mother was already busy in the kitchen. Seeing them come in, she greeted them with a smile: "Yanyan, you're here? Come and sit down. I just steamed the rice, and the ribs will be ready for stewing after washing them."
Xu Yang said "Thank you, Auntie" and just as he sat down, Lu Jinyu pulled him into the room: "Look at the history notes I sorted out. I used all the methods you told me last time, and I remember them much faster."
Lu Jinyu's desk is very tidy, with history books on the left and notebooks on the right. The notebooks are marked with key points in different colored pens - red is the content of the treaty, blue is the historical background, and black is the impact.
"Look at this Treaty of Shimonoseki," he pointed to his notes. "I wrote it down as 'ceding three territories, paying 200 million in compensation, opening four ports, and establishing factories.' It's much easier to remember that way. I got it right on my last quiz."
Xu Yang looked at his notes and nodded, "This method is very good, much better than rote memorization."
He pulled out his notebook from his schoolbag and said, "These are the physics questions you didn't understand last time. I've written down the steps. Take a look. If you don't understand anything, we'll go over it together later."
Lu Jinyu took the notebook and looked at the neat handwriting and clear diagrams on it. His eyes lit up. "Did you write this specially? Thank you so much, Xu Yang. I was still thinking about these questions last night and I always felt that something was wrong."
"We'll talk about it after dinner," Xu Yang said. He heard Lu's mother's voice coming from the kitchen. "Auntie seems to be calling us. Let's go and see."
The aroma of pork ribs wafted from the kitchen. Mother Lu was blanching them in a pot. Seeing them come in, she smiled and said, "Yanyang, do you want to try making sugar color? I'll teach you. Xiaoyu has tried many times but can't learn it. He always burns the sugar."
Xu Yang was stunned for a moment, and before he could say anything, Lu Jinyu pushed him to the stove: "You try it, my mom makes the best sugar color, and you can make it yourself after you learn it."
Mother Lu put the rock sugar into the pot and taught Xu Yang how to stir it. "Stir-fry slowly over low heat until the rock sugar melts and turns dark brown. Don't rush it, or it will become mushy."
Xu Yang stirred along, watching the rock sugar slowly melt and turn into a translucent dark brown, with a sweet burnt aroma floating in the air.
"Yes, that's right," said Mrs. Lu with a smile. "It's much better than Xiaoyu's first time. Last time, he fried the sugar until it turned black and said it looked like chocolate."
Lu Jinyu said unconvincedly, "That was just my carelessness. I'm sure I can do it well this time."
After frying the sugar color, add the blanched ribs and stir-fry, then add soy sauce, cooking wine and hot water, cover the pot and simmer.
Mother Lu wiped her hands and said, "Just stew it for forty minutes. Go play in your room for a while. I'll call you when I'm done."
Back in the room, Lu Jinyu took out the historical timeline applet and showed it to Xu Yang: "Look, the test questions are divided into three difficulty levels: easy, medium, and difficult. It can also be automatically corrected, and if you make a mistake, it will prompt you with the knowledge points." He clicked on a simple question and answered it quickly. A prompt popped up on the screen: "Correct! Great!" and a small smiley face.
"It's very useful," Xu Yang nodded. "It's much more complete than before. Can the error book function be used as well?"
"It works!" Lu Jinyu immediately opened the wrong answer book. "Missed questions are automatically saved and categorized by knowledge points, such as 'treaties' and 'wars', making it very easy to find." He looked up at Xu Yang, his eyes full of anticipation. "Do you think there's anything else you need to correct?"
"You can add a reminder to 'redo wrong questions,'" Xu Yang said. "For example, if you missed a question, you can be reminded to do it again every three days. This way you can remember it better."
Lu Jinyu immediately took out his phone and wrote it down: "Okay! I'll add it this afternoon, so it will be more complete."
The two of them looked at a physics problem together again. Xu Yang patiently explained the steps to solve the problem. Lu Jinyu listened very carefully, asking questions from time to time: "In this force analysis diagram, why do we draw gravity first?"
"Gravity is the most basic force. It exists no matter what state an object is in," Xu Yang said, drawing a diagram on paper. "Draw gravity first, then elasticity and friction. This way, you won't miss any forces."
Lu Jinyu nodded and wrote down the details in his notebook: "I remember. Next time, I'll draw gravity first, then the other forces."
Mother Lu's voice came from the kitchen: "The ribs are ready! Let's eat!"
The two hurried to the kitchen and were greeted by the rich aroma of sweet and sour food as soon as they entered.
The table was set with three dishes and a soup—sweet and sour pork ribs, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, and a bowl of egg drop soup. "Have a seat," Mother Lu said, handing them chopsticks. "Try the ribs. Yanyan fried them in sugar color, they're sure to be delicious."
Xu Yang picked up a piece of pork ribs. The meat was stewed so well that it fell off the bone with a light bite. The sweet and sour sauce was just right, sweet with a hint of sourness, but not greasy at all. "Delicious," he said. Seeing Lu Jinyu looking at him eagerly, he picked up another piece and put it in his bowl. "You eat too, don't just look at me."
Lu Jinyu immediately took a big bite and said vaguely, "It's much better than the ones in the cafeteria. My mom's stewed spareribs are the best."
Mother Lu smiled and said, "If you like it, eat more. There's more in the pot, so you can have more. Yanyan, have some more scrambled eggs with tomatoes. I know you like it, so I put more tomatoes in it."
After dinner, Lu Jinyu took the initiative to clean up the dishes. Xu Yang wanted to help, but he pushed her into the living room: "Just sit there, I'll clean up. My mom said boys should do more housework."
Xu Yang sat on the sofa, watching Lu Jinyu busying around between the kitchen and the living room. The sunlight shone on him through the window, as warm as a painting.
He thought of the sweet cake Lu Jinyu had stuffed into his pocket in the morning, and the time they had just spent discussing the questions together, and his heart seemed to be filled with something.
After Lu Jinyu finished cleaning up, he came over with a plate of fruit: "Eat some fruit, my mother cut the apples and oranges, they are all your favorites."
He took out a small bag containing a few orange-flavored gummies. "Here are some for you too. Eat one after dinner to help you feel better. My mom bought this for you."
Xu Yang took the candy, peeled one and put it in his mouth. The sweetness of the orange spread in his mouth, 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 said you might not like hard candy, so she picked out soft candy," 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 sat on the sofa and debugged the historical timeline applet together. Lu Jinyu added a "redo wrong questions" reminder function as Xu Yang said, and even set a cute reminder sound.
"Listen," he clicked on the reminder, and a voice came from his phone: "Time to redo the wrong questions! Come on!" "I found this reminder sound. Isn't it cute?"
Xu Yang nodded: "Cute, this way you won't forget to redo the wrong questions."
Before he knew it, it was four o'clock in the afternoon. Xu Yang remembered that it was time to go home. Just as he stood up, Lu Jinyu pulled him back: "Sit for a while. My mom asked you to bring some spare ribs back. She just filled a bowl and it's still hot."
Mother Lu came out of the kitchen, holding a thermos box in her hand: "Yanyang, take some ribs back to eat, they are freshly stewed and are still hot.
I packed a few of these candies for you to take home as snacks."
Xu Yang took the thermal box, and when his fingertips touched the warm box, his heart warmed: "Thank you, Auntie. It's so troublesome for you."
"It's not a big deal," said Mrs. Lu with a smile. "Come over often. Xiaoyu would be bored at home alone. It would be great if you could study and play together."
Lu Jinyu sent Xu Yang downstairs, holding a cloth bag in his hand, which contained the ginkgo leaves he picked today and the candies he brought for Xu Yang.
"Here are some of the best looking ginkgo leaves I picked up today. Put them between your history books. There are also some sweet cakes. You can heat them up and eat them later. They're better when they're cold."
Xu Yang took the cloth bag and said "thank you"
"You're welcome!" Lu Jinyu waved his hand. "How about we study together next week? I still have a few physics questions I don't understand, and I want to go over them with you."
"Okay," Xu Yang nodded, "We'll meet under the old locust tree next week and go to school together."
Lu Jinyu's eyes lit up instantly: "Great! Then I'll wait for you under the old locust tree tomorrow morning and bring you hot soy milk and sugar cakes, all of which you like."
Xu Yang nodded: "Okay, see you tomorrow."
Lu Jinyu watched Xu Yang walk into the community and only turned back home when he could no longer see him.
Xu Yang walked to the door of his house and opened the cloth bag - the ginkgo leaves inside were padded with paper towels, each one more beautiful than the last; the sugar cakes were still a little warm and exuded a faint fragrance.
He took out his cell phone and sent a message to Lu Jinyu: "I'm home. Thank you and Auntie. The spare ribs and sugar cakes are delicious."
Soon, Lu Jinyu's message came back: "That's great! My mom said that if you like it, she will do it for you next time. We will study physics problems together next week. I have found the questions and I guarantee they are not difficult! By the way, I will wait for you under the old locust tree at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. Don't be late!" followed by a smiley face.
Xu Yang looked at the message, his lips curled up, and replied: "Okay, see you tomorrow, see you next week."
He walked into the house, put the thermal box on the table, opened the cloth bag, carefully flattened the ginkgo leaves one by one, and put them into the history book - together with the previous leaves, each one was more golden than the other, as if the whole autumn was contained in it.
He picked up a leaf and felt the clear veins on it with his fingertips. He felt warm in his heart when he thought of the time he had spent with Lu Jinyu today buying ribs, discussing questions, and picking leaves together.
Xu Yang walked to the window, watching the sky gradually darken outside. The streetlights slowly lit up, casting a warm, yellow glow across the street like a gentle veil. He remembered Lu Jinyu's words, "Let's study together next week," the spareribs in the insulated box, the candied cakes in the cloth bag, and quietly thought to himself, this autumn, thanks to Lu Jinyu's company, even studying had become more interesting. Perhaps he had always been craving the time he had with Lu Jinyu. This was a heartfelt thought.
I seem to... fall in love with Lu Jinyu...
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