Chen Ying couldn't remember the content of the first dinner. The only thing that remains remembered is that their staple food is no longer rice steamed buns, but instead boiled potatoes with peels. The three of them ate together around the white table, as if they had made some side dish for her, and in the end the taste of the dish was obscured by the drizzling sauce. For the first time, she knew that people can lose their sense of taste due to exhaustion. After the meal, she wanted to force herself to tidy up the box, but the moment she collapsed on the mattress, she lost consciousness. It was early in the morning when she opened her eyes again, and she hurriedly sat up and replied to the inquiries on her phone one by one, telling those who cared about her that everything was fine.

She walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of the living room and pulled up the white roving curtains. A magpie pecking breadcrumbs in a yard bird pavilion flew to the treetops in surprise. She noticed that the magpie was the same color as its Chinese counterpart, but it was significantly larger. She hid behind the curtain and watched it until it had finished eating and flew away.

John goes to the supermarket, and Yona is the only one at home. When she saw Chen Ying coming to the living room, she pressed the switch of the electric kettle. After a while, the water boiled. She expertly took out a funnel from the cupboard, took out a filter paper and padd it inside, and took out a handful of black tea from a tea can and sprinkled it in the funnel. Then she asked Chen Ying to help hold the funnel and pour the hot water from the kettle just to the edge of the filter paper. When the water was almost gone, she poured water into the funnel a second time, stopping just before reaching the edge of the filter. They repeat this several times until the kettle is completely empty. Yona lifted the filter paper and threw it into the trash with the tea leaves inside.

"We can have tea." She excitedly said as she pulled out two mugs.

Chen Ying was surprised to see her pick up the sugar jar, put several spoonfuls of tea into it, stirred well, opened a bottle of milk and poured some into the cup.

"Don't be so nervous, sugar or milk?" Yona asked.

"Not at all." Chen Ying picked up the teacup in front of her and took a hot sip.

"I know you like tea, but it's actually better to add some flavor." Yona turns on the TV and sits on the couch watching the morning news. Chen Ying sat down at her place at the table and began to eat a greasy black bread with melon seeds and oats. The bread didn't smell strange, but it was so rough that she drank a lot of tea before she put it into her stomach. Then she went back to her room to pack her belongings and free the vacuumed clothes from the box. She folded the clothes into stacks and stuffed them into the closet.

By the time she had hung up the last few coats, John had just returned. He brought greens and bags of potatoes. Yona made him a cup of that cloudy tea, and they sat side by side on the couch watching a movie.

""The Love of People and Ghosts"? Chen Ying said as she looked at the TV screen as she passed by the living room.

"yes, let's take a look." Yona invites her.

She joined them with beef jerky she had brought with her from China. They tried eating a few pieces of jerky and stopped eating, complaining that the meat tasted too sweet.

"I still like to eat salty." John took another long sip of tea.

While watching the movie, Yona took the trouble to tell Chen Ying about the religious implications of the film. She insists that this is not just a love movie, but also karma and the cycle of life and death.

"Religious beliefs have little to do with this film." John retorted to her.

"But I like people who are religious." Yona continued, "The Jordanian student who came last year, he taught me how to worship on the carpet. He prayed five times a day. ”

"Do you pray?" John turned around and asked Chen Ying.

"No, I won't." She said honestly.

"There was an Indian student in our house before." John recalled, "He was about your age, probably a few years older than you. He was a very devout Buddhist. After coming to our house, he would chant sutras on time every day and never eat meat. He talks to us about how we can live happier lives. He left us with a book when he left. ”

John stood up and walked over to an old wooden table by the living room window. Directly above the wooden table hangs a half-meter-long African mask.

"This is it—The Religion of Man." He strode over to Chen Ying with the book in hand. He put on his reading glasses, looked at the page with the corners folded, and quickly flipped back. Chen Ying saw from the cover that the author of the book was Rabindranath Tagore, and remembered that she had only read the famous poet's "Birds".

"He'd always mentioned this paragraph to me before — where it went — oh, here. You listen—" John pronounced in less proficient English, "'The Buddha's idea of the 'infinite,' the meaning of which lies in the idea of the infinite of the positive ideal of goodness and love, which can only be related to human beings. And it means—' It means that the ego is sublimated in the truth of love, and it takes into its breast all those of us who should be sympathetic and serving. ’”

"I don't get it." Chen Ying said.

"I didn't understand it at first." John closed the book and looked at her through the frames of his reading glasses, "These philosophies are sometimes too winding for the average person to understand. But this Indian student told me that the attitude of being happy in life is to be compassionate and not caring for the faults of others. That's something I'll never forget. ”