Studying brought Shuxin joy, and time quickly advanced to August. During this period, Mary's son Jason came back a few times. Upon learning that Shuxin was currently using his old schoolbooks, he blushed with embarrassment.
When he returned later on, he even brought Shuxin a gift and told her that she could always talk to her older brother if anything came up.
It was also at this time that Shuxin learned the Field family's surname was Field. Translated into Chinese, it meant "field," with connotations of vision and horizons.
Today was Shuxin's former birthday. When she woke up in the morning, she even wished herself a happy birthday—even though her self across the ocean had not yet been born.
Birthdays were relatively important to children, but to adults, they were optional. Once busy with work, people would suddenly snap to attention several days later, wondering if that day had been their birthday.
Shuxin did not tell Mary and the others. She just playfully asked Mary for a bowl of noodles with a fried egg, making sure the yolk was fully cooked this time.
Coming up on four months now, Shuxin still disliked runny soft-boiled eggs that spilled everywhere at the slightest touch. Or rather, she disliked a lot of foods, apart from barbecue.
Mary's barbecue was peerless, especially her grilled steak. On the very first day she arrived, Mary had asked about grilled steak, though Shuxin had only understood the word "beef."
"Hoo-hoo-hoo."
It was ten o'clock in the morning, and there were no customers. As usual, Shuxin was strolling in the courtyard, trying to memorize some things, when a bird's call interrupted her. It was a rather uncommon bird, quite large in size.
Mary was a very compassionate woman, as could be seen from her adoption of Shuxin. Perhaps because it was a restaurant, small birds and cats often visited the courtyard.
Shuxin was accustomed to it and went as usual to grab some grain used specifically for feeding the birds—mostly broken corn or wheat fragments that weren't of very good quality.
The large bird did not leave after eating, but kept hooting. "Still hungry? You sure have an appetite," Shuxin muttered, even though she had deliberately grabbed extra.
Shuxin prepared to go grab some more, but the large bird suddenly flew onto her shoulder, giving her a huge fright. At that moment, Shuxin noticed an envelope had appeared on the table.
"To Ms. Luna Field, Field Restaurant, 18 Dering Road, Little Whinging, Surrey."
"How very strange. Who is Luna?" Shuxin did not open the envelope, but carried it inside to find Mary.
"Mary, there's a letter here for a Luna. Who on earth is Luna? Luna Field."
There were no customers in the restaurant, and Mary and Tom were sitting at the storefront reading the newspaper. This was their daily routine; apart from a period not long ago when it was forced to interrupt because they were teaching someone to study, this habit had continued for over twenty years.
"Luna? We don't have anyone by that name in our family," Tom said, taking the letter. "Where did this come from?"
"On the table, I just saw it. Her last name is Field, your family name. Mary, a very unusual bird just came by, and it could really eat."
"It doesn't look like it belongs to any of the neighbors. The delivery address is our little courtyard—how did it get pinpointed down to our yard? Who brought it inside? We've been sitting right here, and no mail carrier came in?" Uncle Tom thought it was extremely astonishing.
"There's something on the back." Mary took the letter and flipped it over.
On the back was a crest, like a badge, where one could clearly see a lion, a snake, and an eagle.
"Boom." Shuxin's mind went off like a string of firecrackers. Even the dimwitted knew what this meant.
Her birthday, an owl, a precise recipient address, a lion and a snake.
This was a Hogwarts acceptance letter!
Did this count as a delayed acceptance letter she had waited over twenty years for?
"Whoa, this is an admission letter. How cool," Tom exclaimed from the bottom of his heart. Magic and all that sort of thing was simply fantastic.
"Cool my foot. This must be a prank. Pay no attention to it, Shuxin." Mary handed the opened letter and envelope back to Shuxin.
"Oh." Holding the letter, Shuxin felt dazed. By the time she came to her senses, it was already lunchtime.
"Did you just sit here with this letter for two hours?" Mary only noticed Shuxin sitting at the dining table with the letter still in her hand when she came to call her for lunch.
"Oh, right, coming right now." Shuxin completely snapped out of it and put the letter back into the drawer in her room.
"That bird is really strange. It won't eat what I feed it, and it just refuses to leave. That's an owl, isn't it?" Tom asked.
"Is it? Don't owls only come out to forage at night? Maybe it's not hungry? Or maybe it doesn't like the food. I'll get it some breadcrumbs later," Mary replied.
Shuxin glanced over, and the owl was looking right back at her.
"Shuxin, she's been staring at you. Ever since you came out of your room, she's been watching you. She must really like you. My, my, even birds love pretty girls," Tom teased.
Tom was always an optimistic fellow, even though he was nearly fifty years old.
After clearing the dining table and the kitchen, Shuxin returned to her room to take her "afternoon nap." Mary and Tom didn't find it strange; Shuxin was always like this, claiming that sleeping with a full stomach helped her absorb nutrients better and grow faster.
Shuxin didn't sleep at all. Instead, she picked up the letter. It was just as she remembered from her memories—mentioning Hogwarts, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and wands.
Shuxin picked up the envelope. Why was it addressed to Luna Field? Did the original owner of this body have that name? If so, that was quite a coincidence that she happened to end up living in a Field family.
Turned out she and Tom shared ancestors five hundred years ago?
Luna meant "moon," symbolizing mystery, beauty, and tranquility. It was a pretty name, but it wasn't her name.
Though thrilled, Shuxin still wrote a letter of refusal.
Watching the owl fly off with the letter in its beak, Shuxin tried to take a nap, but tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
That was the world of Harry Potter! That was magic! That was simply too cool!
Shuxin rolled over and went to the mirror. The four moles on her face hadn't changed a bit. In fact, if you connected them in order from top to bottom, they could also form a distorted, inverted letter "N."
Yet the magical world was far too dangerous. And this year happened to be 1991—this very year, Voldemort was going to return to school, followed by a giant basilisk next year that killed anyone who looked at it.
Forget it. She was just an ordinary person. Having been in this world for four months, she hadn't discovered anything unusual about herself. Perhaps she only had a tiny bit of magical genetics? Close to a Squib?
An ordinary person's world was pretty nice.