Amateur talent show? Top mentors are my students.

Over the next few days, Jiang Yanbai did indeed take him to eat at several different restaurants.

The owner of a barbecue restaurant in Koreatown, which had been open for twenty years, knew Jiang Yanbai and reserved the innermost private room for him.

A ramen shop hidden in a basement in Little Tokyo, with a broth so thick it can cling to chopsticks;

There was also a burger joint in the city center that was decorated like an underground bar. The menu was full of English dishes that He Xu didn't recognize. He stared at the menu for a long time, and finally pointed to "Double Smash" and said "this". Then a burger bigger than his face was served.

He Xu stared at the hamburger, paused for two seconds, and then said, "...How the hell am I supposed to finish this?"

"You don't have to finish it." Jiang Yanbai sat across from him, the same hamburger in front of him, already eating. "But you have to try a bite."

He Xu picked up the hamburger and took a bite.

The aroma of beef fat and cheese exploded in his mouth at the same time. He paused in his chewing for a moment, then looked down and took another bite.

"How is it?"

"...It's alright," He Xu said, but a very faint smile played on his lips. "It's delicious."

Besides food, Jiang Yanbai also took him to some other places.

A record store located in a converted old warehouse building, hidden on the third floor, without even a sign.

The boss was a white-haired foreigner who smiled and nodded when he saw Jiang Yanbai, then continued to wipe the vinyl record in his hand.

He Xu walked around the store, his fingers tracing the yellowed covers, finally stopping on a record with a completely black cover. He picked it up and looked at the back—

It's all in English, and I can't understand it very well.

He Xu: Illiterate face (눈_눈).

"You like this?" Jiang Yanbai walked over and glanced at it. "This is experimental electronics, more about atmosphere. You might feel sleepy after listening to it."

He Xu put the record back: "Then recommend one."

Jiang Yanbai raised an eyebrow, stood in front of the shelf for a while, then pulled out a record with a dark blue cover and handed it to him: "This one is more jazzy, but the arrangement is very clean. You should like it."

He Xu took it and glanced at the English title on the cover: "Okay, this is it."

On the way back, He Xu sat in the passenger seat, holding the record in his hand and looking at it over and over again.

The streetlights outside the window swept past one by one, their light and shadow flickering on his face.

He looked at the title on the cover, read it again, and then said, "...You seem to know a little bit about everything."

Jiang Yanbai turned his head and glanced at him: "What do you know?"

"You know Los Angeles well, you know the record market well, you know the food well." He Xu put down the record and spoke after a while, "You've been traveling between the two places since you were little, you should be quite used to it, right?"

Jiang Yanbai tapped his finger lightly on the steering wheel: "I've adapted. English is my mother tongue, and so is Chinese—I've spoken it since I was a child, so switching between them isn't a problem."

The car stopped at a red light, and he turned his head to look at He Xu: "But adapting and a sense of belonging are two different things."

"When I was in China, I felt I wasn't free enough. But after returning to the US, I felt it was too noisy and disorganized. Both places are home, but neither is truly home."

He Xu turned her gaze from the window to his profile: "And now?"

Jiang Yanbai was silent for a moment.

The red light turned green, he stepped on the gas, and the car glided back into traffic.

His voice was a little softer than before, with a subtle, earnest gentleness: "Now I feel... as long as someone is with me, it's the same wherever I am. I can stay anywhere."

He Xu's eyelashes twitched slightly, but he didn't say anything.

He turned his head back to look out the window, but the smile on his lips flashed by in the light of the streetlamp and did not escape Jiang Yanbai's peripheral vision.

-

Thursday was the day for the pre-operative examination.

Completely different from the relaxed mood of the previous days, He Xu woke up earlier than usual that morning.

He lay in bed staring at the ceiling for about ten minutes, then got up, washed, and changed his clothes, just like any other day.

When I came downstairs, Jiang Yanbai was already sitting at the dining table.

Unlike the past few days, he didn't joke or talk glib. He just quietly glanced at He Xu and then moved the soy milk and steamed buns in front of him closer to himself.

"I went to Chinatown specifically to buy it, but unfortunately you had an appointment on an empty stomach this morning, so you missed out."

He Xu sat down at the dining table and watched Jiang Yan eat.

Then he said, "...What if the test results are bad?"

Jiang Yanbai put down his chopsticks and looked at him: "What do you mean by 'bad outcome'?"

"It's just... I don't meet the criteria for surgery." He Xu's voice was even flatter than usual. "The doctor said that if certain indicators are found to be abnormal during the preoperative examination, the surgery may not be able to proceed as planned."

Jiang Yanbai was silent for two seconds: "If that's really the case, what will you do?"

He Xu's fingers curled on the table: "...I don't know."

"Then let's wait until the results are out before we think about it." Jiang Yanbai picked up his chopsticks again. "Thinking about it now is pointless."

He Xu watched as he stuffed the remaining half of the bun into his mouth.

After breakfast, they drove to the hospital.

This examination was more thorough and more tiring than the last one—blood tests, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, and lung function tests.

There was another examination that He Xu couldn't name, which required him to stay in a closed cabin for nearly twenty minutes. After coming out, he leaned against the wall of the corridor as if all his energy had been drained.

Jen stood to the side, holding the increasingly thick stack of test reports, and glanced down at them: "Just two more items. We can leave once they're done."

He Xu nodded and straightened up, leaning against the wall.

By the time the last check was completed, it was already 12:30 pm.

When He Xu walked out of the examination room, his pace was a little slower than in the morning, but he still looked normal overall.

Jiang Yanbai stood at the end of the corridor waiting for him. When he saw him come out, he didn't ask "How did it go?", but simply said, "Let's go back and have dinner."

He Xu walked up to him, paused for a moment, and asked, "...When will the results be released?"

"The doctor said two to three days." Jen came up from behind, put the test results into her bag, and said, "They'll call you when that time comes. There's no point in thinking about it now, go eat first."

He Xu didn't argue and followed the two people outside. As they pushed open the door, sunlight streamed in again, falling on his shoulders.

He narrowed his eyes, recalling the places Jiang Yanbai had taken him to a few days ago—the observatory, the beach, the burrito shop, the record store, and the dance studio hidden in the industrial area.

Those images swirled in his mind before settling down.

He lowered his head and quickened his pace to catch up with the backs of the two people in front of him.