Chapter Text
"What a studious boy," remarked Xiaobai's mother.
She was looking down the street at a small crowd that had gathered on the corner. The market was moderately busy. Xiaobai's father, enamoured by the scuffed saucepan he was lifting speculatively in the air, only hummed absently, but Xiaobai was bored of the pots and pans. She turned to look at what her mother had pointed out and felt her jaw drop.
"Are you… are you okay?" she asked aloud, once they had finally left the kitchenware stall behind and broke through the crowd. The reason for the mass of people turned out to be a bonsai stand—though it could hardly have been called a stand. It was more a work of art, the table made of intertwined branches and the overhead cover an archway of lush green leaves. There was even moss for extra flair!
Xiaobai's father had wanted to peruse the bonsai, so Xiaobai's mother went with him to stop him from any impulse purchases. That left Xiaobai standing awkwardly near the counter, trying her best not to be jostled around. She clung desperately to the smooth bark of a pole supporting the overhead and looked around at the plants on sale.
They were shockingly diverse, all in perfect condition, as far as Xiaobai could tell with her admittedly limited knowledge, and so beautiful that it was evident how much love and care had been put into them, and how much skill. There were some oddities though, like the absurd shapes they had been somehow contorted into (Xiaobai had not known it was possible for a plant to spiral in on itself that much), and the way some pots boasted leaves in the shape of snarling animal faces, as well as words that Xiaobai's mother had expressly said were never to be uttered in polite company.
Despite these marvels the adults were so taken by, Xiaobai couldn't take her eyes away from the boy poring over his business textbook, one of a stack that the students living next door had weekly public crying sessions over.
It was a mindless question, and she'd nearly forgotten that she had let it slip when the boy responded. Shee hadn't thought he would hear her.
"...you ask?" he said. His voice was still really high, so he had to have been in secondary school at the most, like Xiaobai was. And he was already at such advanced material. Seriously, what a good student! Xiaobai hoped fervently that her mother wouldn't want her to aspire for the same.
She rubbed the back of her head, feeling a little awkward at having to repeat herself, but she'd already been caught anyway.
"I just wanted to ask if you were okay," she said, smiling bashfully. "That looks like really difficult stuff to study. I know if it was me, I would be dying of a headache right now. And you still have your stall to take care of as well!"
He did. Even as he pored over the book with his eyes, his hands worked like lightning, packaging bonsai and juggling a cash till and manning a phone all at once. Xiaobai panicked a little as his eyes began to well up.
"Sorry if that was rude," she said quickly. "Um, of course you're really capable. I didn't mean to suggest you weren't or anything."
The boy didn't notice, too busy rubbing the back of his arm over his eyes.
"No one's asked me that since I started," he said tearfully. "Thank you. Thank you. No, I'm not okay. Please save me."
"Fengxi is… he's really protective," Xiaohei said sheepishly when Xiaobai asked if he wanted to study at her apartment. They'd exchanged phone numbers after Xiaobai's father came over and starting crying about the bonsai plant that looked like a precise replica of his favourite rooster he'd had as a child, though Xiaohei had winced as he input his, saying "I share my phone with my family and they're kind of nosy, so if you get weird replies, please ignore them."
He was very worried about his older brothers making a bad impression, but Xiaobai had found, after meeting them, that they were actually really nice! Though she'd only met Luozhu and Fengxi so far.
Luozhu was super friendly and cool, the kind of older brother all the girls at her school wished they had. He recently learned about mobile payments and QR codes and was having trouble with them, so Xiaobai even got the privilege of teaching him, and he said that she was a really patient and considerate teacher! She offered to teach Fengxi, too, but when she said that, both Xiaohei and Luozhu shook their heads and shivered like Xiaobai's father when Shanxin challenged him to racing games.
Apparently Fengxi wasn't allowed to use the phone anymore.
Xiaobai didn't know adults could be banned from their phones.
"It's not exactly like that," Xiaohei said, sighing at whatever memory he was recalling. "Fengxi just needs some supervision. If we leave him with it too long he goes onto online maps and starts cross-referencing what areas of land looked like fifty years ago compared to now or watches twenty forest-clearing videos in a row."
"Oh, I see," Xiaobai nodded. "My mama gets like that too." Last night she was cooing over Nicholas Tse.
"I don't really think it's the same," Xiaohei said, smiling strangely.
They continued with their homework.
Even though he didn't go to school ("Not even primary school?" "No…") whatever homeschooling routine Xiaohei's brothers were putting him through was super intense.
Studying at the park was okay on most days, especially since Luozhu, who usually dropped Xiaohei off before going away to do other things, was really good at finding secret picnic benches that were always empty for them to use. On windy days, though, it became kind of difficult because the papers flew away in the wind, but one day Xiaohei showed up with a piece of paper that he said would keep the wind from touching their little bubble, and after that, as long as they were sitting at the picnic table, they could keep studying no matter what the weather was like outside.
Xiaobai had only ever seen A-Gen do that cool trick before, but it turned out her cousin wasn't the only one who liked his peace and quiet.
"If you want to take advantage of our VIP spot, uncle, then you have to make a donation," she said cheerfully as both she and Xiaohei watched the man in robes step into their bubble. The weather outside was really crazy and it looked like he was struggling a lot to eat his ice cream in the high-speed winds.
His long hair was blowing in all directions, and even though his face looked really composed and calm, Xiaobai was sure he was annoyed on the inside. If that was her, she would definitely be.
She leaned over, reaching for Xiaohei's baseball cap so she could use it as a prop like when she and Shanxin played house and she had to pretend to be a beggar and Shanxin was the haughty wealthy CEO who monologued at her mockingly. Unexpectedly, Xiaohei jerked away, his eyes going wide and his hands flying to his hat to hold it fast to his head.
He laughed, waving it off. "Sorry, I was a bit surprised."
Xiaobai waved her hands too. "No, no, it's okay! Sorry for surprising you!"
A larger, longer hand joined in, waving in the air between them as the long-haired man settled next to Xiaohei at the picnic table. Now that his ice cream wasn't at risk of fusing with his hair, he looked much more relaxed.
"Sorry I didn't prepare a donation," he said. "You can have this."
A coin dropped onto Xiaohei's three-inch worksheet pile. It was russet brown with a square hole through the middle. It looked kind of familiar. When Xiaobai wracked her memory, she decided she was pretty sure she'd seen it in a museum somewhere.
"Wow mister," she said. "Are you an antique collector?"
The man blinked.
"Perhaps," he said. "Am I allowed to stay?"
Xiaobai tapped her chin in contemplation. She turned to look at Xiaohei, so they could have a wordless conversation where they came to a conclusion using just their eyes, but found him uncharacteristically tense, his brow so furrowed with confusion that the wrinkles were developing their own wrinkles.
"Your barrier seal is very well done," the man said to Xiaohei blandly.
What's a barrier seal? Xiaobai thought.
She waited patiently for Xiaohei's response.
At last, he said decisively, "No. I won't be able to concentrate with a stranger around. But," he amended reluctantly, picking up the rusty coin so that he could sniff it, eyes narrowing in scrutiny, "I guess you can come by again if you leave us another donation. And you can stay until you finish your ice cream."
Xiaobai gave the stranger a sympathetic look as he got up again. He did finish his ice cream very quickly, without even a hint of brain freeze, which Xiaobai found very impressive. The last time she and Shanxin had an ice cream eating competition, they both ended up curled up on the ground filled with regret.
She gave him a thumbs-up and waved him farewell as he stepped back out of the bubble. Immediately, the wind tossed up his hair again, covering his face.
"I think I've been meeting a lot of historical cosplayers recently," she said to Xiaohei thoughtfully. Fengxi and Luozhu liked wearing robes too, though theirs were purple and brown-and-green as opposed to the man's blue-and-white. Shanxin mentioned something about a convention centre in the city one time, so maybe that's why.
She squinted at Xiaohei, one hand still holding his hat firmly to his scalp to hide his cat ears.
Xiaobai wasn't sure why he was so embarrassed. Plenty of people wore cat ears, even if they weren't quite so dedicated to wearing them daily as Xiaohei was.
"When you go to your cosplay convention, you'll invite me too, right? I want to wear cat ears too."
"What?" said Xiaohei.