Two months had passed by the time the results for the City's Three-Good Student award were announced. Yue Zhishi was overjoyed when he saw the list on the bulletin board. For that entire day, two sentences looped endlessly in his mind: 'Brother won the award' and 'Of course Brother would win the award'.

Autumn here, like spring, lasted no more than two weeks. Sometimes, it would even feel like summer one day and winter the next. The only stubborn proof that autumn had ever existed was the fragrance of osmanthus that filled the entire city, lingering and spreading in the chilly autumn wind.

Two large osmanthus trees grew in the small courtyard of Yanghe Qizhe, one a bright golden osmanthus, the other a redder variety. When the monthly holiday came, Yue Zhishi and Song Yu were called over by Lin Rong to harvest the blossoms.

The two were woken up early in the morning, and coincidentally, they were both wearing the matching sweaters Lin Rong had bought last year. Song Yu's was black, while Yue Zhishi's was a creamy white.

Gathered around the osmanthus tree in the courtyard, Lin Rong spread a large, clean tablecloth on the ground. The two boys used thin bamboo poles to tap the branches, and golden fragments rained down amidst the rich fragrance. Yue Zhishi had loved doing this since he was a child. Other flowers were fragrant too, but osmanthus was different. Its scent carried a sweetness, as if it were connected to the sense of taste.

"That's enough, that's enough," Lin Rong said with a smile as she gathered a tablecloth full of osmanthus blossoms. "There aren't many left anyway. Let's leave some to enjoy the fragrance."

The two stopped. Song Yu put away the bamboo pole and turned his head to see Yue Zhishi's fluffy hair covered in osmanthus blossoms, a patch of bright yellow, like a soufflé topped with a layer of maple syrup. He silently reached out, bringing one end of the bamboo pole around from behind him, and tapped the back of Yue Zhishi's head.

Yue Zhishi clutched his head and spun around, the osmanthus blossoms on his hair scattering about, but he still saw the bamboo pole Song Yu was retracting. "You hit me."

Song Yu showed no intention of admitting it. He had already pulled the pole behind his back, holding his hands there, and said nothing.

"Auntie Rong, Brother hit my head." Yue Zhishi chased after him, dropping his bamboo pole to the ground and kicking up a cloud of osmanthus blossoms.

Lin Rong laughed helplessly, "Hey, hey, be careful not to step on the flowers!"

He didn't step on the flowers, but he did step on a corner of the tablecloth. Yue Zhishi slipped, stumbled, and fell forward, but luckily, he was caught by Song Yu.

He was met with a full embrace of sweet fragrance. The tiny petals hidden in the fibers of Song Yu's sweater were also knocked loose by Yue Zhishi's fall, like a splash of hidden thoughts, going unnoticed.

"Stop messing around." Song Yu gripped his elbow and helped him stand up straight.

"You started it," Yue Zhishi said, refusing to let it go.

Song Yu glanced at him. "I was trying to remind you that you have a lot of flowers on your head."

"So do you."

In the end, both of them bowed their heads and patted the osmanthus blossoms from their hair.

The harvested blossoms filled two large basins, mixed with many wilted flowers and stems. The mother and her two sons sat at a table in the empty dining room and began to sort them, chatting as they worked. The petals were only the size of a grain of rice, and the stems and calyxes were even smaller. Yue Zhishi picked until his eyes went blurry, but it felt like an endless task.

"I know why this tastes so good," Yue Zhishi said, rolling his neck. "It's not the flower that's delicious, it's the time."

"That's very well said." Lin Rong was a little surprised and moved. "The time you put in makes food more delicious. Actually, it's not just with making food; it's like that with everything."

Song Yu thought of The Little Prince, which he used to read to Yue Zhishi when they were little. Yue Zhishi himself had probably forgotten it, but the words from those bedtime stories were still preserved in his mind.

'It is the time you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important.'

Sometimes, he wondered if their relationship was the same. The time and companionship they had given had become a sunk cost that was now impossible to let go of.

The sorted osmanthus blossoms filled a large, glistening golden basin. After being washed and air-dried, they were beautiful and clean. Lin Rong sprinkled a little salt and mixed it with the osmanthus to remove the bitterness, while Song Yu and Yue Zhishi sterilized glass jars with boiling water. The prepared blossoms were divided in two: half for candied osmanthus, and half for osmanthus syrup.

The method for making candied osmanthus was simple: layer a thick layer of osmanthus in a glass jar, then a thick layer of white sugar, alternating like this. A little white wine was drizzled over the top layer of sugar to seal it. Then, it was sealed shut, ready to be taken home and refrigerated.

"That's a lot of sugar," Yue Zhishi said, staring at the glass jar, his face reflected on its surface.

"You all work so hard at school, you deserve to eat more sugar."

Yue Zhishi couldn't help but think of Senior Xu Qichen, whom he had eaten with last time.

He looked like someone who needed to eat more sugar.

The method for the osmanthus syrup was more Japanese-style. Equal parts by weight of white wine and fine sugar were mixed with three times their volume in water and boiled until slightly thickened. Lin Rong scooped up a spoonful for Yue Zhishi to taste. The sweetness was just right, so she poured all the osmanthus blossoms in at once.

"I want to give a jar to Senior Xu Qichen."

Hearing Yue Zhishi suddenly say this, Song Yu glanced at him, as if asking why.

Before Yue Zhishi could answer, Lin Rong, who was stirring the syrup, also remembered the speech and asked Song Yu, "Those two kids won the award too, right?"

"Mhm." Song Yu squeezed half a lemon and washed his hands again.

"From what you said last time, I feel that child, Little Xu, is quite pitiful." Lin Rong couldn't help but sigh. "For something like that to happen right before starting high school... any other kid would probably not have been able to go to school at all."

Song Yu, however, didn't reply. His first reaction was to give Lin Rong a meaningful look. Lin Rong seemed to realize something and steered the conversation back, "But he's a smart kid. He's definitely Peking University or Tsinghua University material for the future."

But this failed to divert Yue Zhishi's attention. Just as Song Yu had expected, he asked very directly, "What happened?"

"It's nothing." Song Yu helped his mother ladle out the osmanthus syrup, his tone flat. "He was in a car accident after his high school entrance exams and was seriously injured."

His parents passed away too.

"I see..." Yue Zhishi thought of Xu Qichen's quiet demeanor during their meal. At the time of the accident, he was about the same age as himself. But he couldn't bring himself to say the words 'how pitiful,' because he disliked hearing them and figured Xu Qichen certainly wouldn't want to hear them either.

Lin Rong changed the subject, pushing the lemon juice and a small cup in front of him. "Alright, Lele, the final touches are up to you. And with that, the last thing I needed to do before going on a business trip with your uncle is finished."

As instructed, Yue Zhishi drizzled three spoonfuls of lemon juice and two spoonfuls of orange liqueur into the cooked syrup, then divided it into individual jam jars. The task was complete.

The sun came out in the afternoon. Yue Zhishi and Song Yu sat at the stone table in the small courtyard, one silently reciting classical Chinese texts, the other working on problems. Lin Rong brought out a pot of hot black tea with lemon slices and osmanthus syrup. Yue Zhishi drank two large cups and ate a small plate of fried milk drizzled with the syrup, feeling utterly content.

The next morning, the first thing Yue Zhishi did after getting up was to check if his candied osmanthus had fused together. When he pulled open the refrigerator, the previously layered white sugar had indeed dissolved.

"Amazing," he muttered to himself, then, following Lin Rong's earlier instructions, he unscrewed the jars one by one and stirred the osmanthus inside.

From the blossoms a large tree had painstakingly produced over a year, they had toiled for a whole morning and only made six small jars.

The night before the couple left for their business trip, Yue Zhishi enthusiastically portioned out his gifts. "Of these two jars of candied osmanthus, one is for my senior, and one I'll give to my friend."

"What about your syrup?" Lin Rong asked.

"The syrup is for Brother Song Yu!" Yue Zhishi already had a plan. Song Yu's room also had a refrigerator. If he put all the syrup there, he could find an excuse to run to Song Yu's room for tea.

He was a man of action. No sooner had he said it than he was carrying the syrup upstairs, planning to stuff it all into Song Yu's fridge while he wasn't there.

When he pulled open the door, he was surprised to find that Song Yu's usually empty refrigerator now contained a row of yogurt.

Cheese-flavored, at that.

-

On Monday, Yue Zhishi brought the candied osmanthus to school. He was careful the entire way, terrified of breaking the glass jar, as he planned to give it to his best friend, Jiang Yufan.

After the monthly exam, their class had rearranged their seats. Yue Zhishi now sat in the fourth row by the window, while Jiang Yufan was in the first row, also by the window. Arriving early for the morning self-study session, he saw that the window by Jiang Yufan's seat was open, but he hadn't arrived yet. Yue Zhishi stood directly in the hallway, opened his school bag, and took out the jar.

The incandescent lights in the classroom made the candied osmanthus look crystal clear and translucent, especially tempting.

Jiang Yufan's deskmate saw it and his eyes lit up. "Wow, what's this? It looks delicious."

Just as Yue Zhishi was about to speak, he was suddenly shoved hard from behind, nearly dropping the glass jar in his hands. His back stinging with pain, Yue Zhishi set down the jar and turned around with a frown. He saw four boys surrounding a shorter male student, shoving him towards the restroom.

"Ignore them," Jiang Yufan's deskmate said to Yue Zhishi. "Wang Jie from the next class is a delinquent. That short one is a kid in their class who skipped a grade, I think his name is Cheng Mingming. He's always getting bullied."

"Why?" Yue Zhishi asked, his brows still furrowed.

"I heard his family is rich, and he's raised by his grandparents. I don't know how the bad blood started, but a few of the delinquents in their class are always extorting money from him."

Jiang Yufan's deskmate was very disdainful. "If they're so tough, they should go pick a fight with someone bigger. What kind of skill is it to bully a kid whose parents aren't around to manage him? Right?"

"You're right." Yue Zhishi took off his school bag, placed it on Jiang Yufan's desk, and turned to head for the restroom. Seeing this, Jiang Yufan's deskmate knew it was trouble. He leaned out the window, trying to call him back, "Hey, wait, Yue Zhishi!"

But he didn't turn back. Jiang Yufan's deskmate was puzzled. This was a famously good-tempered and well-behaved student; why was he being so heroic today? But he didn't dare to follow. If something really happened, he wouldn't be able to stay out of it.

The restroom was crowded with people, and there was even a lookout standing at the door. When Yue Zhishi went over, he was immediately blocked. "What are you doing?"

"Washing my hands," Yue Zhishi said.

"Wash them later." The other person recognized him; after all, he was a well-known figure in the Junior High Division, so he couldn't be too harsh. "Can't you see something's going on in there?"

Yue Zhishi asked with an innocent expression, "What's going on?"

The guy was clearly stumped by his question. He glanced back awkwardly, and Yue Zhishi seized the opportunity to push past his arm and enter. The guy hastily tried to pull him back but was shaken off. After all, Yue Zhishi's usual point of reference for height was Song Yu, which always made him feel like he was growing slowly, but compared to other boys in his grade, he actually had a height advantage.

"What are you doing?"

'The fierce-looking guy with the buzz cut in the middle is most likely the Wang Jie that Jiang Yufan's deskmate mentioned,' Yue Zhishi calculated in his mind. 'Calling him by name would seem a bit more respectful. After all, I don't want to fight, and I certainly don't want to cause trouble.'

"Classmate Wang Jie."

Just as he expected, the buzz-cut guy turned his head and sized him up. "What is it?"

Yue Zhishi nodded, like a human alarm clock. "Morning self-study starts in fifteen minutes."

"Do I fucking need you to remind me? Think you're the only good student?" Wang Jie spat out harsh words but turned away. "Mind your own business."

Seeing that his reminder didn't have the desired effect, Yue Zhishi sighed almost inaudibly and spoke more directly, "Don't bully your classmates."

"You think you're in some school drama?" Wang Jie scoffed disdainfully. "Don't think you're so great just because a few little girls worship you. What a joke." He then kicked the student cowering in the corner. "Are you good friends with him? He's helping you like this, probably just trying to use you to show off, huh?"

The few guys who followed him also gathered around, seemingly to block Yue Zhishi, but he pushed them aside. He stepped forward and directly helped the student on the ground up, noticing that the kid's pants pocket was turned inside out. He looked up at Wang Jie. "Give him back his money."

Wang Jie flew into a rage and shoved Yue Zhishi hard. "Who the hell do you think you are, meddling in my business!"

Yue Zhishi's shoulder blade slammed into the wall, and he winced in pain, frowning again. But he didn't want to get tangled up with people like this, especially since they had the numbers. If a real fight broke out, he would definitely be at a disadvantage.

Yue Zhishi had never done anything to stand out in his life; this was all very new to him. When faced with a situation he didn't know how to handle, his habit was to imitate, to imagine how Song Yu would deal with it.

The beaten kid was terrified, trembling as he stuck close behind Yue Zhishi. Yue Zhishi tried to appear calmer, just like Song Yu always was. "If you just hit him, that's one thing. In front of the teachers, it can be passed off as a small conflict between classmates. But if you don't return the money, that's robbery, and that's something we can report to the police."

After speaking in all seriousness, Yue Zhishi pointed outside. "Look, plenty of people in the hallway saw, and there's a security camera around the corner. If we really report it to the police, there will be a lot of evidence." After saying this, he blinked and asked Wang Jie, "Have you ever been to a police station?"

Wang Jie's expression changed instantly. Although everyone called him a delinquent, he was still just a third-year junior high student. He hadn't really been involved in the street scene, let alone a police station. Bluffed like this, he was a little panicked inside even if he didn't show it. "Fuck, I'd like to see if you dare to call the police!"

The bullied Cheng Mingming was so scared he hid behind Yue Zhishi. Yue Zhishi held his arm tightly. "Even if he doesn't dare, I can take him. All we have to do is give a statement, anyway."

In reality, he'd never been to a police station either and had no idea about the procedures; everything he knew about giving statements came from TV dramas. But he could see that this Wang Jie was just a paper tiger, so he decided to bluff first and worry later.

"You!" Wang Jie was completely stumped. He cursed, turned around, and barked at his "underling," "Give it to him. Fucking making a big deal over this little bit of money."

The underling threw the stolen two hundred-yuan bills and one fifty-yuan bill on the ground. Yue Zhishi bent down to pick them up for him, stacking them neatly. "Check if anything's missing."

"Missing my ass!"

Hearing Wang Jie curse, Yue Zhishi just frowned and ignored him. Seeing Cheng Mingming shake his head and whisper that nothing was missing, he figured the matter was more or less resolved. He helped the terrified kid head out. Wang Jie, feeling he had lost face, was still muttering profanities even after it was over. "Fucking bad luck..."

Yue Zhishi couldn't be bothered to respond and kept walking. As he reached the doorway, he heard another sentence.

"Your mom must be dead, that's why you're so eager to meddle in other people's business. Fuck."