Was it the Mid-Autumn Festival already?
Zhang Zian was surprised at how fast time flew by, and then sorrow suddenly came to his heart. He almost cried.
The Mid-Autumn Festival was almost a month ago, before Old Time Tea arrived. Zhang Zian was too busy, so he forgot all about it. By the time he remembered, the festival had already passed.
He'd had no one to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with. His parents died a while ago and all his relatives lived somewhere else. He didn't really care. It was just another holiday.
"Mid-Autumn Festival?" Galaxy asked curiously, tilting her head.
"Ha-ha, the Mid-autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday. It is one of the most important holidays in a year, representing a time to celebrate the harvest and reunite families. People enjoy the beautiful view of a perfect full moon and eat moon cake. Although today is not the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon looks just as perfect. As long as it is a nice view, we can still enjoy it. However, it is much cooler now, so it is easy to catch a cold. How about we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival together tonight?" Old Time Tea laughed.
Lowering his head, Zhang Zian resumed a smile on his face as soon as he looked back up. He agreed, "That's a great idea. I bet Galaxy and Fina have never celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival before. Today, let's have some fun! Mid-Autumn Festival is the best time to enjoy the moon and Osmanthus tea. Grandma Tea, I will get you some Osmanthus tea."
Old Time Tea was thrilled. "Perfect. Thank you very much!"
"Wait. I will be right back," Zhang Zian left quickly.
Looking at him walking away, Old Time Tea smiled. It was getting old and there might not be many Mid-Autumn Festivals left in its lifetime.
"What the heck is the Mid-Autumn Festival? Don't tell me something I don't understand," Feeling ignored, Fina was grumpy.
"My Majesty, in a word, Mid-Autumn Festival is a day to celebrate with family," Old Time Tea said. "Even for people who live far away, they will try to get home on this day to see their family."
Fina thought for a second, "Zhang Zian's family all died."
"That's true. Isn't that what happened to us all?" Old Time Tea said with a bit of sadness, "All my friends and family died a long time ago. I don't even have someone to enjoy tea with. I am the only one left alive."
Old Time Tea started thinking about that hard-working young man, the person it had watched over for a long time. It saw him grow up and become a Kung Fu master. However, he finally died as well.
Fina was in deep thought. Its mind went back to thousands of years ago. It was as if it saw the person it missed the most. However, it was the same person who abandoned Fina for treasures and glory. Fina saw her beautiful lips saying, "Fina, wait for me. We will never be apart."
Yes. They both lost their most important tie. A person they thought would never leave them. A person that was closer than family and friends.
"We found a new family. That's great!" Galaxy said all of a sudden. Its mind was so simple and pure. Galaxy was best at finding the root cause of the problem.
Fina woke up from the memories. It looked at Galaxy and said, "No, she was an irreplaceable person to me."
"Irreplaceable, but there's also no need to replace," Old Time Tea smiled, "We don't have to replace them. Families are not lovers. We can have more than one."
Fina dropped its head. Both Cleopatra and Zhang Zian's faces appeared in its mind. They sometimes became one, butt sometimes went towards two different directions. It could not understand why, but it had more than enough time to figure it out.
Zhang Zian came back after a bit. There was a bag of tea in his left hand and some Osmanthus flowers in his right hand.
"I went to a few flower shops and eventually found some Osmanthus flowers. We don't have a Osmanthus tree here, so these flowers are better than nothing," As he spoke, he noticed that all three cats seemed sad.
"What's wrong?" He was surprised. He was only gone for a little bit. How come the atmosphere turned weird so quickly?
"Nothing. We were talking about how we hope the new Elfin is nice to us," Old Time Tea said.
Zhang Zian believed Old Time Tea. He waved the osmanthus flower and said, "I will get a vase for the flowers and then make some osmanthus tea. We can look at the moon from the roof."
There was a hidden door on the roof in the storage room. Zhang Zian opened the lock, and a beautiful bright moonlight come in.
He walked up the roof with a kettle in his hand and a towel on his shoulder.
There wasn't much stuff on the roof. In the middle, there was a card table. His parents put it there. They always came up to the roof to cool down on hot summer nights. A little plate was on the card table and in the middle of the plate there sat some small black stuff. It looked like it was some left-over mosquito coils soaked too long in the rain.
Even after he had left home for college, his parents still came up to the roof during hot summer nights. They would move the card table back down after Mid-Autumn Festival, but now the card table was still here even after his parents were gone.
Zhang Zian placed the kettle on the ground and used the towel on his shoulder to wipe clean the chair and table. The white towel soon turned black. He poured some water from the kettle to rinse off the dirt on the table. Once, twice… until the table and the chairs were clean.
He stood up and breathed in some crisp air.
The moon was so bright that there were barely any stars. Although there was no light on the roof, visibility was still great.
Zhang Zian walked over to the edge of the roof and saw that Aunt Li and her husband were busy. They packed up the BBQ skewers for their customers with a big smile. They'd smiled at customers before, but this time, their smiles were not only happy, but also peaceful and full of hope for the future.
He walked around the edge in a counterclockwise direction and arrived at the other side of the roof. Sun Xiaomeng's clinic was still open. He had heard that evenings were a busy time for her because people brought in their pets after work. 12-hour days were a norm for her. Most of the pets in the pet shop were transferred to the wards in the clinic. Wang Qian and Li Kun went over to clean up every day.
He continued walking and saw the green field. The moonlight covered the field, looking like a silver cover. The street lights by the field were mostly broken. A few working lights were exceptionally dimmed which added a mysterious feelings to the field. He could hear the noises of a few street cats fighting.
He then walked to the last edge of the roof. Looking at the intersection there, numerous cars were waiting to cross the street. An ambulance flew by with the siren on. Cars moved away to make way for the ambulance.
He went back to the door and yelled to the downstairs, "You guys may come up!"
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