See a movie
Saturday's rain fell suddenly in the early morning, hitting the window glass and dyeing the sky light gray.
The sycamore tree downstairs had already lost half of its leaves. The wet leaves stuck to the asphalt road, making a soft rustling sound when stepped on.
Xu Yang had just stuffed the competition materials and the history book with the ginkgo leaf inside into his schoolbag when his phone vibrated twice. Lu Jinyu's message was filled with a bit of excitement: "I brought two umbrellas! I also bought hot soy milk at the convenience store downstairs, the sugar-free kind you like. I'm waiting for you under the old locust tree downstairs from your house. I didn't dare get too close for fear of splashing you with mud~"
He grabbed a light grey thin jacket and hurried downstairs. From a distance, he saw Lu Jinyu standing under a locust tree, holding a dark umbrella firmly above his head and two hot drink bags with a convenience store logo printed on them in his other hand. There were light brown spots of mud on the legs of his school uniform pants - probably from splashing into a puddle on the roadside when he ran to buy soy milk and didn't pay attention.
Hearing footsteps, Lu Jinyu immediately raised his eyes. The corners of his mouth, which had been drooping, instantly lifted up, and his eyes were as bright as the light shining through the rain. "You're here so fast! I thought I had to wait for you for five minutes. The soy milk is still hot. Hurry and warm your hands. The autumn rain is too cold."
Xu Yang took the soy milk, and when his fingertips touched the warm packaging, the warmth slowly spread through his fingers to his heart. He glanced at Lu Jinyu's trouser legs and asked, "Why don't you walk around the puddle?"
Lu Jinyu scratched his head, the tips of his ears reddening. He handed over another folding umbrella. "I'm worried the soy milk will get cold if you're late. You don't like warm drinks, do you?" He added, "It's okay. Just wash your pants when you get home. My mom washed several pairs of school uniform pants for me yesterday."
The two walked side by side towards the bus stop, and the edges of their umbrellas would occasionally bump into each other, making a soft "tapping" sound.
Raindrops fell on the umbrella, gathering into small drops that trickled down along the ribs and onto his shoulders, leaving him feeling cool. Lu Jinyu said little, but whenever Xu Yang approached a puddle, he would quietly move closer to him, making way for a drier path.
Xu Yang saw this and quietly moved the umbrella towards Lu Jinyu. He didn't move it back to its original position until the other party looked up at him belatedly.
The bus arrived later than expected, and the benches at the platform were soaked by the rain, so the two could only stand and wait. Lu Jinyu suddenly remembered something and pulled out a small paper bag from his schoolbag: "I almost forgot about this. My mom baked some dried sweet potatoes yesterday. They're additive-free. You can eat them when you're hungry while doing your homework."
The bag is transparent, and you can see the orange-red dried sweet potatoes inside. They are neatly cut and have a caramel-colored sheen.
Xu Yang took it, his fingertips touching the bag of dried sweet potatoes, which were still warm. "Thank you, Auntie," he said, remembering the handmade cookies Lu Jinyu's mother had asked him to bring last time, also in a small paper bag. "The cookies were delicious last time, and I haven't said thank you yet, Auntie."
"I told her!" Lu Jinyu's eyes lit up even more. "My mom said if you like it, I'll bake it again next time. She also asked if you prefer chocolate or cranberry flavor. Oh, and she also asked me to bring this—" He fished out a thermos from the side pocket of his schoolbag. "It contains hot ginger tea. She said it's easy to catch a cold if you get caught in the rain in autumn, so she asked you to drink it at the cinema."
Xu Yang took the thermos cup, and felt the warmth on his fingertips. His heart felt like it was filled with something. He looked at the soy milk in Lu Jinyu's hand that he hadn't had time to drink yet, and handed the thermos cup back: "You drink it first, I'm not thirsty."
"No, I'll just drink soy milk!" Lu Jinyu pushed the thermos cup back. "This is specially filled for you. My mom added some brown sugar. It's not spicy. I'm sure you'll get used to it."
The bus finally arrived, and the two boarded and found a window seat. The rain hadn't stopped yet, and the windows were covered with a thin mist, blurring the shadows of the trees and buildings outside.
Lu Jinyu took out his history notebook from his schoolbag and turned to the page with a bookmark. "Look, I've reorganized the impact of the Treaty of Beijing and marked the key points. I should be able to do it right on the next quiz."
Xu Yang leaned over to take a look. The handwriting on the notebook was much neater than before. The key points were marked with an orange highlighter, and there was also a small mind map drawn next to it, linking the content of the treaty and its impact.
"It's much clearer than last time," he pointed to one of the key points. "You can add a time comparison here and memorize it together with the Treaty of Nanjing so it's not easily confused."
"Okay!" Lu Jinyu immediately took out a pen and wrote it down in the blank space next to it. The sound of the pen tip sliding across the paper was very light. "You are very thoughtful. I always remembered the dates of the two treaties wrong before. By comparing them this way, I should be able to remember them right."
As he spoke, he turned to the last page of the notebook. There was a simple picture of a kitten on it, with "Xu Xiaoyang and Pangju's meal time" written next to it, and the time to feed the cat food every day was also marked.
"When I went to feed them last week, I found that Fatty Orange seemed to have gained some weight," Lu Jinyu pointed at the kitten pattern. "Xu Xiaoyang is still very afraid of people, but when I touched him, he didn't hide and even rubbed against my hand."
Xu Yang looked at the crooked kitten pattern, and the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously: "Next time, let's go together and bring some freeze-dried food. They should like it more."
"Okay!" Lu Jinyu nodded immediately. "I'll go buy some this weekend. Do you know what flavor they like? Chicken or salmon?"
"It's all fine," Xu Yang said. "Last time I brought some freeze-dried chicken and they enjoyed it very much."
The two chatted and unknowingly arrived at the cinema. When they got off the car, the rain had lightened up a bit, turning into fine raindrops. Lu Jinyu held up an umbrella, sheltering Xu Yang under it, and slowly walked towards the cinema.
The poster board at the door displayed the science fiction film they were going to see. The cosmic scene on the poster was very spectacular. Lu Jinyu pointed at the poster and said, "I looked it up. There's a clip about celestial motion that's a bit similar to the knowledge in the physics textbook. We can discuss it together later."
"Okay." Xu Yang nodded and followed Lu Jinyu into the cinema.
After getting the tickets, there were still twenty minutes before the movie started. Lu Jinyu dragged Xu Yang to the nearby rest area and pulled out some dried sweet potatoes from his schoolbag. "Eat something first to fill your stomach. The movie's two hours long. Afterward, we'll go get some kebabs. I went there with my dad last time. The grilled lamb kebabs there are especially delicious, and they also have sweet roasted corn. I'm sure you'll like it."
Xu Yang picked up a piece of dried sweet potato and put it in his mouth. It was sweet, with the aroma of the sweet potato itself, and it was very chewy. "It's delicious," he said, "much better than the ones you buy outside."
"Of course!" Lu Jinyu raised his chin proudly. "My mom roasted them all afternoon. She even picked red-hearted sweet potatoes, saying they're sweeter than white-hearted ones. By the way, how's your physics competition preparation going? Last time you said the last question was a bit difficult, do you know how it works now?"
"Almost done," Xu Yang pulled out his competition notebook from his schoolbag and flipped to that question. "It's just that I need to sort out the idea of auxiliary lines a little more. But when I talked to you last time, I sorted out a lot of it myself."
"Really?" Lu Jinyu leaned over and looked at the force analysis diagram in the error book. "I thought about the step you talked about last time and finally understood it. It turns out that my mistake was that I didn't consider the direction of friction."
"Hmm," Xu Yang pointed to a force point in the diagram, "This needs to be judged based on the direction of the object's movement. You got the direction wrong before, so all the subsequent calculations are wrong."
"Right!" Lu Jinyu suddenly realized. "I later looked at the example questions in the textbook and realized that this was the problem. It's thanks to you that you reminded me in time. Otherwise, I would definitely make the same mistake next time I encounter this kind of question."
As the two were chatting, the cinema's entrance bell rang. Lu Jinyu quickly put away the dried sweet potatoes and picked up his schoolbag: "Let's go in, don't miss the opening."
When they walked into the theater, there were already quite a few people sitting inside. They found a seat and sat down. Lu Jinyu took out a thermos cup from his schoolbag and said, "You should drink some ginger tea first to warm yourself up. There's not much ginger in it, so it's not spicy."
Xu Yang unscrewed the thermos cup, and a faint scent of ginger and brown sugar wafted out. He took a sip, and the warm liquid slid down his throat, warming his whole body. He handed the thermos cup to Lu Jinyu: "Take a sip too, don't catch a cold."
Lu Jinyu hesitated for a moment, but still took the thermos and took a sip: "Hmm, it's quite delicious. The ginger tea my mom usually makes is very spicy, so she deliberately put less ginger this time because she was afraid you wouldn't be used to it."
The movie soon began, the lights dimmed, and a spectacular cosmic scene appeared on the screen. Lu Jinyu watched intently, occasionally leaning close to Xu Yang's ear to whisper a physics question or two. Xu Yang patiently explained, his voice soft enough for only the two of them to hear.
When Lu Jinyu saw the clips of celestial bodies moving, his eyes widened: "I didn't know the universe is so huge! The pictures in the textbooks are far from this."
"Yes," Xu Yang nodded. "The diagram in the textbook is a simplified version. The actual movement of celestial bodies is much more complicated than this, but the basic principles are the same."
Halfway through the movie, Lu Jinyu quietly took out some dried sweet potatoes from his schoolbag and handed one to Xu Yang. The two shared the dried sweet potatoes in the dark, occasionally exchanging glances and bursting into laughter.
By the time the movie was over, the rain had stopped and the sky had cleared, revealing a light blue. The two of them walked out of the theater, the evening breeze bringing the coolness after the rain, blowing comfortably on their faces.
Lu Jinyu pointed to a kebab shop not far away and said, "That's the one! My dad said their kebabs are all freshly made. They're super fresh."
The two walked into the kebab shop and found a seat by the window. Lu Jinyu picked up the menu and skillfully read out the names of the dishes: "Two skewers of grilled lamb, two skewers of grilled chicken wings, one grilled corn, and one grilled eggplant. By the way, would you like some soda? Ice or room temperature?"
"Room temperature is fine." Xu Yang said.
"Okay," Lu Jinyu handed the menu to the waiter, "two more bottles of room temperature soda, thank you."
While waiting for the skewers, Lu Jinyu pulled out a programming book from his schoolbag. "By the way, I tried the loop statement you helped me modify last time, and it finally worked! I also made a simple historical timeline app. Do you want to take a look?"
"Okay." Xu Yang nodded.
Lu Jinyu immediately pulled out his phone and opened the mini-program. A simple timeline appeared on the screen, highlighting important events from the Opium War to the Boxer Protocol. Clicking on each event revealed detailed information about its impact. "Look," he pointed at the screen, "I've added a search function. Just type in the event name to find the corresponding content. Next time you're memorizing history, just look at this."
"Well done," Xu Yang said, looking at the screen. "It's much better than I expected. The logic is very clear and the interface is very simple."
"Really?" Lu Jinyu's eyes lit up. "I'm worried that I didn't do it well. If you think there's anything that needs to be changed, I'll make changes."
"No need to change it," Xu Yang said, "It's already good this way. Next time, you can add a wrong question book function to write down the knowledge points that are easy to make mistakes, so it will be easier to review."
"Good idea!" Lu Jinyu immediately took out his notebook and wrote down the idea. "I'll do it when I get back and show it to you then."
The skewers arrived quickly, the aroma filling the air. Lu Jinyu pushed the grilled corn in front of Xu Yang and said, "You can have this first. It's sweet. I asked the boss to put more sugar in it."
Xu Yang took a bite of the roasted corn. It was sweet, with the aroma of charcoal, and delicious. "Thank you," he said. "You eat it too, don't just pick it for me."
"I'm eating!" Lu Jinyu picked up a skewer of grilled lamb and took a big bite. "Mm, it's still as delicious as last time. You should try these chicken wings. The boss grilled them very tender."
As they ate, they chatted, their conversation shifting from movies to physics competitions and then to next week's history quiz. Lu Jinyu explained that he'd recently been memorizing the Treaty of Shimonoseki, comparing its contents with treaties he'd previously studied, and found that this helped him memorize it much faster.
Xu Yang listened and occasionally gave him some suggestions, such as how to combine the content of the treaty with the historical background, and how to distinguish the similarities and differences between different treaties.
After finishing the skewers, it was already dark. The streetlights on the roadside came on, casting a warm yellow light on the two of them. Lu Jinyu paid the bill and walked to the bus stop with Xu Yang. The evening breeze, carrying the aroma of the skewers, was very comfortable on my face.
"I'm so happy today," Lu Jinyu said. "I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time. Usually I'm either doing exercises or memorizing knowledge points, but it's fun to hang out with you."
"Yeah," Xu Yang nodded, "The movie was great, and the skewers were delicious too."
"Then how about we go out and play together again next time?" Lu Jinyu looked at Xu Yang with anticipation in his eyes. "Next time we can go to the park to pick up ginkgo leaves. They should be turning yellow now. Didn't you say you wanted to pick some?"
"Okay." Xu Yang nodded, thinking of the ginkgo leaf stuck in the history book and the small words on the back of the note.
"Great!" Lu Jinyu smiled, dimples appearing on the corners of his mouth. "Then let's go this weekend. I checked and there are a lot of ginkgo trees in the park east of the city. We can pick up some and use them as bookmarks in our books."
The two walked to the bus stop and just caught the last bus. After getting on the bus, they found a seat by the window. Lu Jinyu took out a thermos from his schoolbag. There was still a little ginger tea left in it. He handed it to Xu Yang: "This is the last bit. Drink it, don't waste it."
Xu Yang took the thermos and took a sip. The warm liquid flowed down his cheeks, and his heart felt warm. He looked out the window at the street scene passing by. The light from the street lamps cast streaks of light and shadow on the car window, like a flowing galaxy.
When the bus arrived at Xu Yang's house, Lu Jinyu got off and said, "I'll take you downstairs. It's dark now and it's not safe."
"No need, my house is just in front, very close." Xu Yang said.
"It's okay, I'll take you there," Lu Jinyu insisted, "My mom told me to take you home safely, otherwise she'll scold me."
The two walked side by side towards the residential complex. The road was very quiet, with only the sound of footsteps and the occasional chirping of insects. When they reached the gate of the residential complex, Xu Yang stopped and said, "Let's stop here. Go back quickly, don't miss the last bus."
"Okay," Lu Jinyu nodded and took out a small paper bag from his schoolbag. "Here are some cranberry-flavored cookies baked by my mom. You can eat them while you do your homework tomorrow."
Xu Yang took the paper bag and said "thank you".
"You're welcome!" Lu Jinyu waved his hand. "Let's go pick up ginkgo leaves this weekend. Remember to bring books so we can put the leaves between them."
"Okay," Xu Yang nodded. "Be careful on your way and send me a message when you get home."
"Got it!" Lu Jinyu turned and ran towards the bus stop. After a few steps, he stopped and turned back to wave to Xu Yang. "Goodbye!"
Xu Yang watched his back disappear into the night before turning and walking back into the community. When he got home, he took the biscuits out of the paper bag and placed them on the desk. He also packed up the thermos and the bag of dried sweet potatoes.
Then, he opened the history book and found the page with the ginkgo leaf. The small words on the back of the note were still there, and the word "good" he wrote next to it was particularly clear 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! I had a lot of fun today. Let's go pick ginkgo leaves early on the weekend and try to pick up some nice ones.
By the way, if the cookies don’t taste good, tell me and I’ll ask my mom to bake a different flavor.”
Xu Yang looked at the message, his lips curled up, and replied: "It's delicious, thank you. See you this weekend."
Putting down his phone, he picked up a biscuit and put it in his mouth. The sour and sweet cranberry and the aroma of the biscuit spread in his mouth.
The moonlight outside the window shines through the window and falls on the desk, illuminating the history book with the ginkgo leaf between it, and also illuminating the tenderness that is quietly growing in the boy's heart.
This autumn seems to be warmer than previous years and more worth looking forward to.
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