Fireworks Display, let's go see it together as a group of three.

The title of "Mop God of War" spread throughout the entire school in just one hour.

As Xia Mo and Fei Niao walked out of the teaching building side by side, the setting sun had already dyed half the sky red.

Students were walking home in twos and threes near the school gate. When someone saw Xia Mo, he immediately nudged the classmate next to him with his elbow, and the two of them looked over at him together, whispering something.

"That's him, the Chinese student in Class 1, Grade 4, the one with the mop—"

"I heard that Watanabe was so frightened that he knelt down and begged for mercy!"

"He didn't kneel down and beg for mercy; he ran away crying! My friend saw it with his own eyes!"

"Really? Is that mop really that smelly?"

"They say they fished it out of the toilet, can you believe how smelly it is?"

Summer's end is approaching a bit faster.

As the bird followed beside him, listening to the whispers, its lips twitched slightly, but it tried to suppress them.

"Why are you walking so fast?" she whispered.

"We didn't walk fast enough."

"You're almost out of the afterimage."

Summer slowed down a bit, but the color on her face could no longer be suppressed; it was almost red to white in the setting sun.

Asuka looked at his red ears, wanting to say something to comfort him, but in the end she said nothing and just silently followed in his footsteps.

As I walked out of the school gate and across the traffic light, the number of classmates around me gradually decreased.

The cherry blossom trees on the slope are now covered with green leaves, and they rustle in the wind, as if someone is whispering among the leaves.

The bird suddenly stopped.

She pulled something out of the side pocket of her backpack. When Xia Mo turned to look at her, she saw that she was holding a pink band-aid with a small strawberry pattern on it.

Their eyes fell on the band-aid at the same time.

There was a moment of silence.

"No," Xia Mo said.

"Your mouth is bleeding again," Asuka said.

"I'll put them on myself when I get back. I'll use regular ones."

"This is normal."

"It has strawberries on it."

"What's wrong with strawberries? Strawberries are delicious."

"Just because strawberries taste good doesn't mean I should stick them on my face." Xia Mo took a step back, like a cat instinctively shrinking back when faced with danger. "Besides, this is for girls."

Fei Niao's eyebrows twitched: "Band-Aids come in male and female versions? Can it even read?"

"I can't read, but I recognize strawberries."

"Don't be unreasonable."

"You're being unreasonable—ugh!"

While he was speaking, the bird reached out and grabbed his sleeve.

Xia Mo was pulled forward and stumbled a step. Before he could regain his balance, Fei Niao tiptoed and ripped open the adhesive tape with lightning speed, sticking it to the corner of his mouth.

The pink one with a strawberry pattern was neatly placed next to the corner of his chapped mouth, like a little flower adorning his face.

Xia Mo froze.

Asuka took a step back, tilted her head to look at her "work," and nodded in satisfaction: "Alright, it's done. This way it won't get infected."

"I said no—"

"It's already on. Do you want to peel it off? It will hurt a lot if you do. And peeling it off would be a waste, and waste is shameful. You don't want to be a shameful person, do you?"

Xia Mo opened her mouth, only to find that she couldn't refute this logic.

He reached out and touched the strawberry-patterned band-aid on the corner of his mouth. It felt soft and still carried the warmth of the bird's fingers.

He lowered his hand and turned his face away.

"...I went back." His voice was muffled.

The bird walked beside him and secretly glanced at him several times.

The pink band-aid on his face looked out of place yet perfectly so, like a very serious person wearing a very cute hat; it was hilarious no matter how you looked at it.

She held back for three seconds, but couldn't help bursting out laughing.

"Don't laugh," Xia Mo said.

"I wasn't laughing." Asuka covered her mouth with her hand, but laughter leaked out through her fingers like a leaky faucet.

You are laughing.

"I really didn't... Pfft—"

Summer quickened its pace as summer drew to a close, and the birds caught up.

The two walked one after the other on the slope in the sunset, their shadows stretched long. One pretended to be angry in front, while the other was genuinely laughing behind.

When I reached the intersection, the red light came on.

The two stood side by side in front of the zebra crossing, looking at the sky above the building across the street.

The setting sun had dyed the clouds orange and purple, like a large canvas that had been randomly painted, beautiful beyond reason.

The bird looked at the sky and remained silent for a long time before turning to look at the end of summer.

I looked at the band-aid on his face.

"Late summer."

"Um?"

"That...fireworks festival thing you mentioned before."

My heart skipped a beat at the end of summer.

He turned his head to look at her, but the bird didn't look at him anymore; its eyes were fixed on the cloud in front of it.

The light of the setting sun fell on her face, making her uniquely colored eyes look like melted amber.

"That senior of yours," Asuka's voice was very soft, as if she were talking to the wind, "does she... really want to get to know me?"

“Really,” Xia Mo said, “she’s been bothering me for weeks. Every time she asks, ‘Did you ask? Did you ask?’ like a megaphone that never runs out of power.”

The bird's lips curved slightly, then quickly straightened.

"Three people?" she asked.

"Three people."

"You're here too?"

Xia Mo paused for a moment, then said, "Of course I'm here."

The bird fell silent again.

The red light is still counting down, the numbers jumping from twenty to nineteen, and from nineteen to eighteen.

The evening breeze blew by, lifting the stray hairs on her forehead and revealing her smooth forehead.

"My mom said the fireworks in Katsushika Ward are really beautiful," she said, her voice a little louder than before, as if she were talking to a red light, or as if she were confirming something with herself. "I watch them every year, I've seen them many times already."

"Um."

"But..." She paused, took a breath, as if finally making up her mind to retrieve something from the bottom of the water, "but it should be different if I go with my senior."

Xia Mo looked at her. His heart was pounding, but he tried his best to keep his expression calm—

If you disregard the pink strawberry band-aid, he did look quite calm.

"So?" he asked, his voice unconsciously softening.

The bird finally turned to look at him.

The setting sun shone into her eyes, making her amber eyes sparkle, as if two small lamps lived inside.

"So," she said, "I'll go. The three of us will go see the fireworks."

The red light turned green.

The beeping sound rang in my ears, like some kind of cheerful, celebratory music.

Xia Mo stood in front of the zebra crossing, stunned for two seconds, as if she didn't understand the meaning of the sentence.

Then the corners of his mouth curved up.

The smile aggravated the wound under the band-aid, and he hissed in pain, but the smile didn't fade—it remained on his face, half happy and half in pain, making him look both blissful and funny.

The bird glanced at him, then quickly turned its head away and stepped onto the zebra crossing.

"Let's go, what are you spacing out for?"

Xia Mo snapped out of her daze and followed. The two walked side by side across the zebra crossing, with a half-step between them, and neither of them spoke.

When they reached the opposite sidewalk, the bird stopped and turned to face him.

"Let's split up here," she said. "My house is to the left, and yours is to the right."

Xia Mo nodded. He looked at Fei Niao's face, wanting to say something—

Thank you? That's too formal.

Are you happy? That sounds like an acceptance speech.

He thought and thought, and finally said—

"Should I tell Ikuta-senpai?"

"Um."

I'll let you know when the time is set.

"Um."

"Shall I pick you up from your house then?"

Upon hearing this, Feibiao blushed instantly: "Who, who asked you to pick me up! I can walk by myself! Just wait for me at the station!"

As Xia Mo looked at her face, which was as red as a boiled octopus, the smile on her lips, a mixture of pain and happiness, widened a little more.

"See you at the station then."

The bird turned around, took two steps, and then stopped. She didn't look back; her voice was broken by the evening breeze, but every word was clear.

"Late summer."

"Um?"

"...Thank you for today."

After saying that, she ran away as fast as a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

The schoolbag rattled and clattered on her back, and her pink little leather shoes tapped out a series of rapid notes on the asphalt road.

Xia Mo stood still, watching her figure grow smaller and smaller, farther and farther away, until it became a tiny dot and disappeared at the end of the slope.

He reached up and touched the strawberry-shaped bandage on the corner of his mouth, his fingertips brushing against the soft gauze and the wound beneath it that was healing.

pain.

But it didn't seem to hurt that much.

He turned around and walked towards his home. The setting sun slowly sank behind him, bathing the entire road in a golden glow.

His shadow stretched long in front of him, like a quiet, walking river.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly stopped, took out his phone from his pocket, opened his contacts, found the words "Ikuta-senpai", and typed a message.

"She said she'd go. Three people. July."

send.

Three seconds later, my phone vibrated. It wasn't a message, it was a call.

The screen flashed the words "Ikuta-senpai" and the caller ID picture was a funny selfie of Erika herself, laughing like a cat that had stolen a fish.

Xia Mo looked at the profile picture, sighed, and pressed the answer button.

A scream, loud enough to shatter a phone speaker, came from the other end of the line.

"Aaaaaaah! She said yes!!! Xia Jun, you're amazing!!! I'm going to buy her strawberry milk!!! I'm going to buy her a goldfish scoop!!!"

"Calm down—"

"I can't calm down!!! Why isn't it July yet!!!"

Xia Mo held the phone a little further away and said helplessly into the receiver, "Stop shouting, your eardrums are going to burst."

But he was smiling.

Standing at the crossroads in the setting sun, a fourth-grade boy with a pink strawberry band-aid on his lip smiled very softly at the excited senior on the other end of the phone, as if it were a secret that had not yet been fully revealed.

The evening breeze blew by, scattering that smile and carrying it towards the direction where July was about to arrive.