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

When Zhou Yan arrived, Li Chen was labeling the condiment jars.

Yan Xi sat at the drawing table, testing the lights.

After adjusting the color temperature to 4000K, the light on the desk softened, and she stared at the handwritten note on the base of the lamp for a while.

Three even knocks came from outside.

Li Chen opened the door to welcome the guests, and Zhou Yan stood outside the door holding a flat kraft paper document bag with yellowed edges.

"They moved it pretty quickly."

Zhou Yan glanced at the sneakers and leather shoes placed side by side on the shoe cabinet in the entryway, with a fist's distance between the two pairs of shoes.

He walked straight into the house without offering any comment.

Yan Xi stood up from her chair to greet him.

"Teacher Zhou."

"Please sit down."

Zhou Yan placed the document bag on the coffee table in the living room. Instead of opening the package immediately, he first walked around the living room.

He walked to the drawing table by the window and pressed his palm against the surface.

"How tall?"

"Seventy-six."

Li Chen replied.

"Who made that decision?"

"I measured it."

Zhou Yan glanced back at him, then turned her gaze toward the kitchen, examining the height of the range hood baffle and the arrangement of the spice jars on the stove. Finally, her gaze returned to the drawing table.

He didn't press the matter further.

"Here you go."

Zhou Yan patted the file folder and explained its origin.

"My grandfather instructed me before he passed away that he would give it to you once you had your own place."

Li Chen and Yan Xi exchanged a glance.

Zhou Yan was already putting on her shoes in the entryway, preparing to leave.

"I'm not keeping it; you can dismantle it yourselves."

He opened the door and then stopped.

"Li Chen, the progress report for the Microlight project is due next Monday."

The security door was closed tightly.

Li Chen took the file bag to the drawing table, Yan Xi sat back in her chair, and he stood behind her to keep her company.

The kraft paper bag was sealed with wax, and the cracked edges of the wax seal revealed the paper inside.

Yan Xi pinched the seal and slowly peeled it open along the cracks in the wax seal.

Inside was a folded blueprint.

The yellowed and brittle paper had water stains on its edges and made a slight rubbing sound when unfolded.

Yan Xi pressed down on both sides of the drawing with her hands, and Li Chen helped her hold down the other end.

This is a hand-drawn product design sketch.

The pencil lines on the drawing are covered with densely packed traditional Chinese characters, indicating the dimensions, materials, and process requirements.

A blue circular seal is stamped in the lower right corner. The characters are blurry, but the words "Zhou's Handmade" can still be vaguely discerned.

This is the original design drawing of the music box.

Yan Xi's hand moved slowly across the drawing. Her gaze swept over the markings on the base, the movement chamber, the sound tube, and the spring hole, not even missing the curvature of the outer casing and the angle of the roof.

"Red roof".

She read it aloud.

The red-roofed house drawn on the blueprints was exactly the same as the actual house she later recreated herself.

Li Chen looked at her profile without making a sound to disturb her.

Yan Xi flipped the drawing over.

There are only two lines of text on the back.

The first line is a neatly written description of the process.

"The LED bulb model is warm yellow and 3mm thick, and the installation location is inside the roof ridge."

The second line is illegible and has a different ink color, clearly indicating that it was added later.

Mr. Yan said that his daughter is afraid of the dark, so the light bulb needs to be on all the time.

Yan Xi's hand stopped on that line of text.

She didn't move for a long time.

Li Chen saw that she was pressing the paper hard.

He didn't recognize the handwriting, but he figured it was from the hand of Zhou Yan's father, the craftsman who made the music boxes back then.

Mr. Yan is naturally Yan Zhen from eighteen years ago.

Twenty-five-year-old Yan Zhen stood in a handicraft workshop and told the craftsman that his daughter was afraid of the dark.

The LED bulbs should stay lit.

Yan Xi placed the blueprints flat on the table and then put her hands back on her knees.

She lowered her head, letting the stray hairs on her forehead cover most of her face.

Li Chen saw her shoulder twitch slightly.

He neither touched her nor said anything.

He turned and went into the kitchen, taking something out of the cupboard.

Those were the LED beads that Yan Xi had entrusted to him for safekeeping.

This small, warm yellow light bulb, preserved by Luo Yun for over a decade, still lights up.

The day before, Li Chen went to the electronics market and bought a miniature lamp holder with a magnetic base that could be directly attached to a metal surface.

He tested that a 3-volt button battery could keep the LED lit for more than 72 hours.

When he was decorating the house, he deliberately drilled a three-millimeter-diameter hole in the bottom of the dark gray stainless steel pen holder.

Li Chen inserted the LED into the lamp holder and threaded it through the bottom of the pen holder. The magnet clicked and stuck to the inner wall.

He connected the button battery.

Warm yellow light emanated from the pen holder; the light was not strong, but it was enough to illuminate half of the table.

Li Chen put the pen holder back next to the toolbox on the left side of the drawing table.

Yan Xi raised her head.

She looked at the light leaking from the pen holder, her eyes reflecting the bright, sparkling light.

"What is this?"

"Your light."

Yan Xi stared at the warm yellow light for a long time.

Li Chen noticed that her lips were moving.

She reached out and touched the wall of the pen holder.

"Color temperature 2700".

"The same as the one on the music box?"

"Same."

Yan Xi pulled her hand back from the pen holder, clenched it into a fist, and then relaxed it.

She turned to face Li Chen, her eyes red but she didn't shed a tear.

"He said back then that the LED bulbs should stay lit all the time."

She spoke very softly.

"As a result, the light remained out in the box for eighteen years."

Li Chen didn't reply.

"It's here now."

Yan Xi looked at the light on the table.

"On my own desk."

She took a short breath.

"When did you drill the hole?"

"When you went to class yesterday..."

"You've thought this through in advance."

"Um."

Yan Xi looked down at the design drawing, her hand gently pressing down on the line of text on the back.

"He was a bastard back then."

She uttered a comment.

"But he remembers that I'm afraid of the dark."

Li Chen walked behind her and placed his hand on the back of her chair.

Yan Xi leaned closer and rested the back of her head on his arm.

The two of them stayed there quietly for a while.

The warm light from the pen holder illuminated the desktop, casting a pale yellow hue over the drawings, toolbox, and extension cables.

Li Chen's phone vibrated.

There's a new message in group 302.

Wang Qiang messaged him asking if he needed help moving the refrigerator, and he volunteered to carry it.

Zhao Zixuan replied that a mini version of an 80-square-meter apartment would be fine.

Chen Mo posted a lengthy analysis of the relationship between the orientation of Yan Xi's drawing table and the angle of seasonal sunlight, ending with a meme of someone pushing up their glasses.

Li Chen did not reply after reading it.

Yan Xi straightened up from his arm and took out her phone.

She first sent a message to Yan Zhen.

"I saw it."

Yan Zhen responded in less than ten seconds.

"it is good."

Three seconds later, a second message came in.

"Is the light still on?"

Yan Xi looked at the screen.

She replied in text.

"It's lit up."

Yan Zhen did not reply to the message.

Yan Xi put down her phone, picked up the blueprint, folded it again, and stuffed it back into the kraft paper bag.

She put the file bag into the bottom drawer of the drawing table, along with the previous purchase record, repair order, and handwritten instructions.

"Don't touch this drawer anymore."

She set the rules.

"understood."

Yan Xi stood up and walked around the living room. When she passed the kitchen door, she stopped and glanced at the spice jars on the stove.

"Your label is crooked."

"Which one?"

"Salt."

Yan Xi provided specific data.

"It's two millimeters to the left."

Li Chen walked over and stared at the label on the salt container.

It's definitely crooked.

He tore off the label and reattached it correctly.

Yan Xi had already walked to the balcony, pulled back the curtains, and looked outside.

The bright sunlight fell on her profile.

She turned around.

"Li Chen".

"Um?"

"How long do the batteries in your pen holder last?"

"Seventy-two hours."

Li Chen reported the duration.

I bought a box of replacement batteries.

"Where did you put it?"

"The second compartment on the left of your toolbox."

Yan Xi looked at him.

"You've already started thinking about the future."

She stated the facts directly.

Li Chen did not deny it.

He has indeed been thinking about it, and not just about the battery.

Yan Xi's phone screen lit up.

Luo Yun sent a message asking if the house was ready and suggested sending two quilts over.

Yan Xi typed back that she didn't need it.

Li Chen walked back to the living room and looked at the pen holder on the drawing table, which was glowing with a warm light.

He opened his phone's notes app and flipped to the last page.

Article 48.

He wrote a line of text in the blank space and then locked the screen.

Yan Xi turned to look at him.

"Write what?"

"memorandum."

"About what?"

"About you."

Yan Xi did not press further.

She sat back down at her drawing table, opened her laptop, and the warm light from the desktop shone on her face.

Li Chen watched her start working, then quietly sat down on the sofa and took out his laptop.

His memo left a question unanswered on the last line.

How thick is her ring finger?