Oh no! I've only been a freshman and I've already been targeted by a mean upperclassman.

Yan Xi was the one who first suggested moving.

On Wednesday evening at the library, she pushed a set of postgraduate entrance exam materials in front of Li Chen and turned to the page with the sticky note.

"The dormitory lights go out at 11 p.m., and my drawing table can't fit a second monitor. Plus, Leng Qingge snores when she sleeps."

Li Chen looked at her.

"This semester I'm going to start a field surveying project for heritage conservation with my advisor, and the data is just too much to handle."

She spoke calmly, simply stating something perfectly normal.

"I'm planning to rent a place off-campus."

Li Chen thought for two seconds.

"Shall we go together?"

Yan Xi did not answer. She looked down and flipped through a page of documents without looking at it, her finger hovering over the paper.

"You can't keep writing code in the dorm; Chen Mo and Wang Qiang's keyboard noise will disturb you."

Li Chen's heart raced instantly. He tried his best to hide his emotions and picked up the pen beside him to draw a line on the draft paper.

"What's the budget?"

I'll pay the rent.

"Let's release them together."

"Where did you get the money, you're just a freshman?"

"The 'Micro Light' project offers bonuses."

Yan Xi glanced at him, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

"Okay, then we'll each contribute half."

The news reached Yan Zhen's ears that very evening.

The next day at noon, Li Chen received a call from Yan Zhen.

"Kid, I have a 320-square-meter apartment in Dongcheng, fully furnished and with an art studio. I'll have someone deliver the keys to you tomorrow."

"Uncle Yan~"

"Call me Dad."

Li Chen opened his mouth, but swallowed the word "uncle" that was about to come out.

"Dad, no need to trouble yourself, she said she wants to decorate it herself."

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Yan Zhen's voice was tinged with helplessness.

"That kid's always been incredibly stubborn. Fine, do whatever you want, but~"

"Huh? But what?"

"Don't choose a no-name brand for the kitchen exhaust hood; she has a sensitive nose and can't stand the smell of cooking fumes."

"understood."

After hanging up the phone, Li Chen opened his phone's memo app.

There were already forty-seven items listed on it.

Yan Xi's drawing table needs to be 76 centimeters high and 50 centimeters deep so that she can spread out A1 drawings and place her laptop at the same time. At least 15 centimeters of space should be left on the left side of the table to put her tool box, because she draws with her right hand and is used to keeping her tools on her left side for easy access.

The sink should be installed on the left side of the countertop, as she is used to turning on the faucet with her left hand when washing things.

The color temperature of the desk lamp should not be higher than 4000K, otherwise her eyes will get dry after drawing for a long time. 4000K is the critical value for eye protection and color reproduction.

The seat depth of the chair is no more than 42 centimeters. When she sits, her back is not against the backrest; if it's too deep, she will slide forward.

Choose curtains with an 85% blackout rate, not completely blackout, as she needs natural light to wake up in the morning.

The two spent a week looking at houses.

Yan Xi listed three strict conditions: it must be within a ten-minute bike ride from the school, face south, and be no higher than the sixth floor. Li Chen carried her on his back and added two more: the window cannot face the road, and there cannot be barbecue stalls downstairs.

The final choice was an old residential area outside the east gate of the school, on the fifth floor, with two bedrooms and one living room.

The apartment is small, only 80 square meters, but the living room has great natural light, and you can get sunlight at 3 pm.

After signing the contract, Yan Xi said she would move her things over the weekend and then went to class.

Li Chen skipped two advanced mathematics classes.

He stood alone in the empty living room and took a measuring tape out of his pocket.

He measured the area near the window in the living room three times. It was 3.6 meters long and 2.1 meters wide, just enough to fit Yan Xi's drawing table and a small bookshelf.

He squatted down and measured the height of the socket from the ground. It was thirty centimeters. When Yan Xi was drawing, he had a habit of hanging the charging cable down from the right rear of the table. This height was just not enough to reach the charger, so he needed to add an extension cable. He noted in his memo that he needed to buy a 1.5-meter white flat plug extension cable.

The kitchen was small but functional. He turned on the tap to test it, and the hot and cold water flow was normal, unlike the one in his house where the hot and cold water were reversed.

With the stove facing east, he mentally went through Yan Xi's cooking process: placing the cutting board against the wall, buying a wall-mounted spice rack, and choosing a narrow-mouthed trash can to fit into the gap.

He stood in front of the stove and gestured to Yan Xi's position when she was chopping vegetables. Her elbow's radius of motion was about 40 centimeters, and the range hood baffle could not be lower than 1.65 meters, otherwise she would bump her forehead when she looked up.

He measured it again: 1.68 meters.

enough.

Over the next two days, Li Chen skipped one general education class and one physical education class to get all the furniture sorted out.

The drawing table was custom-made. He sent the dimensions to the manufacturer with millimeter precision, but the manufacturer only responded with a question mark and he didn't explain.

The bookshelf was chosen to have adjustable shelf height, making it convenient to place Yan Xi's professional books, which are of varying sizes.

He tested seven color temperature settings for the table lamp and finally settled on 4,000 K. He then attached an instruction sheet to the bottom of the lamp base, indicating the appropriate color temperature for painting watercolors and reading academic papers.

The cutting board in the kitchen stood against the wall, at a height that allowed her to pull it out without bending over. The spice jars were arranged from front to back according to their frequency of use.

He deliberately left a 15-centimeter space on the right side of the cutting board to place a knife holder, so that Yan Xi could easily place the knife on the right.

At nine o'clock on Saturday morning, Yan Xi stood at the door carrying two cardboard boxes.

She didn't ring the doorbell; instead, she looked down at the gray short-pile doormat laid out by the door.

"You even measured the width of my shoe soles?"

"Seven centimeters, and the tread pattern of this mat is eight millimeters apart, so it definitely won't get your heels stuck."

Yan Xi looked at him for two seconds without saying anything, then changed her shoes and went inside.

She went to the living room first.

The drawing table was placed by the window, its light wood surface almost the same color as the window frame. She walked over and placed her palm flat on the table to test its height.

She did not speak.

Then she sat down in the chair, rested her elbow on the edge of the table to test the depth of the tabletop, and subconsciously reached to her left, where there was just enough space to put her toolbox.

Her fingers stopped at the edge of the table.

She glanced at the bookshelf; each shelf was a different height. She scanned it, her lips moving slightly as she mentally calculated the match between the ceiling height of each shelf and the height of the books.

She didn't speak, but as she withdrew her hand from the edge of the bookshelf, her fingertips lightly brushed against the shelf.

She turned and went into the kitchen.

I turned on the tap to test the temperature, glanced at the cutting board, and reached for the spice jar, but my elbow didn't touch the wall at all.

Her gaze fell on the 15-centimeter-wide empty space on the right side of the cutting board.

She looked up at the range hood baffle and reached out to test it. Her fingertips just touched the bottom edge of the baffle, and her forehead was perfectly safe.

Li Chen leaned against the kitchen door frame and watched her quietly.

Yan Xi turned around.

Her eyes were slightly red, but her expression remained the calm that Li Chen knew best.

What is the color temperature of the table lamp?

"4000K, detailed instructions are attached to the base."

Yan Xi walked back to the living room and bent down to look at the note on the base of the lamp.

She straightened up and took a deep breath.

"Li Chen".

"I am here."

"When exactly did you measure all this stuff?"

"Just normally."

"When usually?"

Li Chen thought for a moment.

"I watch you draw from the side, and I watch you cook from behind. The more I watch, the more I naturally remember."

Yan Xi stared at him for a long time.

She walked over and reached out her hand, gently hooking her index finger around Li Chen's little finger.

The force was very light, yet it never loosened.

Li Chen looked down at her hand.

Are you satisfied?

I won't tell you.

She let go of her hand and walked to the window, pulled back the curtains and glanced at the outside environment. It faced south, with no road and no barbecue stalls downstairs.

Li Chen's phone suddenly vibrated.

It was a message from Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan asked them if they had moved in and asked them to send her the address, saying that she had something related to Li Chen's grandfather to deliver.

Li Chen stared at the words "Grandpa" on the screen, his thumb hovering in mid-air.

Yan Xi leaned over and took a look.

When did he find out we were moving?

"I don't know either."

The two stared at each other for a second.

Yan Xi spoke first.

"Have him send it over."

Li Chen sent the address over.

Zhou Yan replied to the message instantly.

Zhou Yanding will deliver it at 3 PM tomorrow, and he also instructed that the item is not big, but they must open it themselves.