Lunch

After that PE class, some things quietly changed.

The change was subtle, not a dramatic, earth-shattering transformation, but rather like a plant slowly sprouting a new leaf where you can't see it.

By the time you notice it, the leaf has already unfurled, shining a vibrant green.

Asuka and Summer's End started chatting after class.

It wasn't arranged intentionally, and there wasn't a fixed time.

It's when the last class ends each afternoon, before the crowds in the corridor have completely dispersed.

Feiniao walked out of the classroom of Class 2, Grade 3, and Xiamo walked out of the classroom of Class 1, Grade 3. The two met in front of the window in the middle of the corridor.

Like two streams flowing into the same puddle, it happened naturally.

It was Xia Mo who spoke first.

"Have you finished your math homework today?"

The bird paused for a moment, then shook its head.

She wasn't very good at math, especially the clock problem about "what time and what minute". The minute and hour hands were like two disobedient kittens, and she just couldn't get them right no matter what she did.

Xia Mo glanced at both ends of the corridor and lowered her voice, saying, "I'll teach you a method, it's very simple, do you want to hear it?"

Asuka paused for a moment—not because of his question, but because of the way he spoke.

Unlike other classmates, he either didn't talk to her at all, or he spoke to her in a cautious tone, as if she were a fragile object.

He spoke in a very ordinary, everyday way, as if talking to birds was the most normal thing in the world.

She nodded.

Xia Mo took out a notebook from her schoolbag, spread it out on the windowsill, and drew a round clock with a pencil.

His handwriting is small and neat, like rows of students sitting quietly in a classroom.

Fei Niao leaned closer to take a look. The distance between the two suddenly closed, and she could smell the laundry detergent on his school uniform, faint, like the air after rain.

She quickly focused her attention on the notebook, and her ears started to burn again.

"Look, when the minute hand points to 6, it's half hour, and when it points to 12, it's the hour. If it's a specific hour and minute, first look at how many seconds the hour hand has passed, then look at how many small divisions the minute hand has moved..."

Xia Mo speaks very slowly, and will stop to ask her if she understands. If she doesn't understand, he will explain it again in a different way.

When it was the third time, Asuka finally exclaimed "Ah!" and her eyes lit up.

"Got it?"

"I think... I understand."

"Could you tell me what time it is on this clock face?"

Feiniao took the pen and scribbled the answer in the notebook, her handwriting crooked. Xia Mo looked at the line of writing, remained silent for two seconds, and then smiled softly—

It wasn't mockery, but the kind of laugh that comes from knowing the answer is correct even though it's poorly written.

"Oh, right."

The bird handed the pen back to him, lowered its head, looked at its own ugly handwriting on the notebook, and suddenly felt that math wasn't so bad after all.

From then on, those ten or so minutes after class each day became a kind of unspoken agreement.

Sometimes he would explain problems, and sometimes he would just stand by the window and watch the club activities on the playground.

There are no clubs for third graders yet, but the older students run around on the playground, which looks quite interesting.

"That one in the red clothes runs so slowly," Xia Mo said.

"That's a fourth grader," Asuka said. "I saw him in the hallway last time."

Xia Mo smiled.

"And you?" he asked. "Is your class's PE class...still the same?"

Asuka was silent for a few seconds. She leaned against the windowsill, her chin resting on the back of her hand, and said in a muffled voice, "I'm used to it. Anyway, I don't have to go to the playground for PE class anymore."

She didn't finish her sentence, but Xia Mo knew what she meant—not to go to the playground, not to be left behind, not to stand on the sidelines pretending to tie her shoelaces.

She can go to the music room, play the piano, and wait for him.

Xia Mo didn't ask any more questions. He changed the subject.

What do you usually eat for lunch?

"My mom made me this bento," Asuka said.

Which flavor?

"We have all kinds of flavors."

Xia Mo nodded, as if she had memorized something.

The change in lunchtime came more naturally.

On Wednesday at noon, Asuka, carrying a tuna mayonnaise rice ball and a small box of vegetable juice, hesitated for a long time in the corridor before finally walking to the door of the music classroom.

The door was half open, and Xia Mo was already sitting inside. His lunchbox was spread out on the piano lid, containing what looked like ordinary home-cooked dishes—stir-fried greens, omelets, a small handful of salted radishes, and a few black sesame seeds sprinkled on top of the rice.

He looked up and saw the birds, but didn't show any surprise. He simply moved aside, making room on the piano lid.

"Please sit down."

The bird sat down on the piano bench and placed the rice ball on the piano lid.

The two sat side by side, facing a silent old piano. Bento boxes and rice balls were spread out on the piano lid, making the scene look somewhat comical.

"Did your mother make this?" Asuka glanced at his lunchbox.

Xia Mo shook her head: "I made it myself. My mom has to work and doesn't have time. I prepare the ingredients for the next day's lunch every night and cook it in the morning."

Asuka looked at the neatly arranged vegetables in his bento box; the green of the vegetables was still very bright, and the egg rolls were cut into uniform thick slices.

She looked down at the rice ball in her hand and suddenly felt that the tuna mayonnaise seemed a bit unappetizing.

"You...can cook?" she asked softly.

"I know a little. Enough to eat."

She didn't say much, but Xia Mo sensed something from the brief pause in her voice.

He didn't ask any further questions, but simply picked up a piece of egg roll from his lunchbox and placed it next to Asuka's rice ball.

The bird stared in disbelief at the suddenly appearing egg roll.

"what?"

"Too much, we can't finish it." Xia Mo turned her head away and casually shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth.

The bird stared at the egg roll for three seconds, then picked it up with its fingers and took a small bite.

The egg rolls were cold, but had a subtle sweetness. They were cooked just right, with a slight char at the edges.

"...Delicious," she said, her voice so soft that only she could hear it.

Xia Mo didn't turn around, but he ate a little faster, as if someone was chasing him while he ate.

From that day on, the music room became their lunch spot. Sometimes Asuka brought rice balls, sometimes bread, and sometimes nothing at all—

In late summer, she would share half of the food from her lunchbox with her, saying, "I made too much again today." At first, Asuka would refuse, but she gradually got used to it.

Later, she started bringing some tamagoyaki she made herself occasionally—although the shapes were always strange, either crooked or broken, Xia Mo would always finish them all.

"Your tamagoyaki," he said seriously after finishing it once, "is not salted evenly; some parts are salty and some parts are bland."

Feiniao's face turned red instantly.

"Nobody told you to eat it!"

"Next time, use less salt, and mix the eggs well before beating them."

Xia Mo completely ignored her resistance and continued talking, as if she were discussing a math problem.

Asuka wanted to yell at him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. In the end, she just mumbled an "Oh."

The egg rolls she brought the next day had salt that was indeed much more evenly distributed.

Physical education class was the time the two of them looked forward to the most.

Once a week, during the second period in the afternoon, for fifty minutes.

While other students were running around on the playground, bouncing balls and jumping rope, Xia Mo and Fei Niao sat in the empty music classroom. The afternoon sun slanted in through the window, falling on the black and white piano keys, making them look like a row of shiny teeth.

"Here, you give it a try."

Summer ended as she stood up from the piano bench and gave her seat to Fei Niao.

Asuka hesitated for a moment before sitting down. The piano bench was a bit too high for her; her third-grader's legs weren't long enough, and her toes barely touched the ground. She looked like half of her body had been eaten away by the piano.

She raised her hand, hovering it above the piano keys, unsure of what to do with it.

"Look at my hand." Xia Mo stretched out her right hand and slowly placed it on the piano keys.

His fingers were naturally curved, with the fingertips resting steadily on the white keys, and his palm seemed to be holding an invisible little egg.

Asuka tried to imitate him, bending her fingers as she went. But her hands were too small; her five fingers resting on the piano keys looked less like holding an egg and more like pressing down on a turtle trying to escape.

Xia Mo suppressed a laugh and said very seriously, "It's okay, your fingers are still small, take your time. Let's get to know these piano keys first."

He pressed the white key in the middle of the piano keys with his left hand, and the piano produced a clear "dong".

"This is called 'Middle C'. 'C' is its name, and 'Middle' is because it sits right in the middle of the piano, just like the student who sits in the middle of the class."

The bird blinked, finding the idea rather amusing.

"What are the names of the students on the left and right?" she asked.

Xia Mo smiled and moved his finger to the right of a white key: "This is D, like the student sitting to the right of C." He moved it again, "This is E." He moved it again, "F, G, A, B—" He played all the way up, and the seven keys were like seven children raising their hands one by one.

"And then?" Asuka asked.

"Then it went back to C, but it was a higher and sharper C, like a C that had grown up a bit." Xia Mo played the high C, and the sound did indeed brighten up, like a little bird chirping.

The bird burst out laughing.

Xia Mo was a little embarrassed by her laughter, but she continued, "A piano has eighty-eight keys, with the black and white keys grouped together. Have you noticed the pattern of the black keys?"

The bird stared at the piano keys for a while, then suddenly said, "The black keys are... in groups of two, in groups of three, in groups of two, in groups of three."

"Yes!" Xia Mo's tone carried a hint of surprise, as if she hadn't expected her to figure it out so quickly. "The black keys in pairs, the white key next to the black key on the left, is middle C."

He pointed. Asuka pressed middle C again, and the piano made another "thump."

"Okay, now try using only your thumb to gently press the middle C, and then release."

The bird did as instructed. The sound came out, softer and quieter than what Xia Mo had pressed earlier, but clean and without any extraneous noise.

"Very good," Xia Mo said. "Your hands are small, but your fingertips are very strong. Now try pressing D with your index finger."

The bird moved a finger and pressed down. D rang.

"Now press C, D, E, C, D, E in turn, slowly, no rush."

The bird began pressing the keys one by one. Her movements were slow, and she would lower her head to check that her fingers were in the right place after each note. C—D—E—C—D—E—like a small string of crooked beads, each one fell onto the keys.

After listening for a while, Xia Mo suddenly reached out and gently tapped Fei Niao's wrist.

"Have you noticed that when you press down, your wrist sinks down along with it? That's not good. Your wrist should be steady, like a bridge, and your fingers should be the people walking on that bridge. The bridge shouldn't wobble."

Feiniao looked down at her wrist, then at Xiamo's hand.

His fingers rested quietly on the edge of the piano keys, his wrists flat and still, like a very stable little bridge.

She took a deep breath and repositioned her hand. This time, she tried to move only her fingers, without using her wrist. C—D—E—Although the speed was slower, her wrist did indeed wobble less.

"Yes, that's it." Xia Mo's voice was soft, as if afraid of scaring something away.

The bird played it again, then stopped and turned to look at him.

"What's wrong?" Xia Mo asked.

"Listen to me," Asuka said seriously. "The notes I just played sound like pebbles falling into water, one by one? Like the ones you mentioned last time."

Xia Mo paused for a moment, then gave a very faint smile.

"They look a little bit alike."

The bird lowered its head, looked at its fingers, and played the three notes again.

This time she played very slowly and attentively, her eyes fixed on the keys, as if she were looking at something very important.

From the playground outside the window, the PE teacher's whistle drifted in the distance, one long whistle followed by another. But those sounds no longer made her feel lonely as they used to.

Beside her was a piano with eighty-eight keys, and a patient boy in a very soft voice was teaching her how to make her fingers walk on the keys.

She pressed the last note, letting it slowly dissipate in the afternoon air. It dissipated very, very slowly, as if reluctant to leave.