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

It took Li Chen three days to come up with a relatively reliable plan.

Asking directly won't work.

Yan Xi's radar is ten times more sensitive than the Weiguang project; any deliberate probing will be detected and countered within half a second.

He searched through all the online guides on how to secretly measure ring size, ruling out the low-level method of using the excuse of measuring hand temperature and wrapping the ring with thread.

Yan Xi was faster than him at converting coil number and circumference.

In the end, he chose a clumsy method.

Wait until she falls asleep.

At 11:40 p.m. on Thursday, Yan Xi couldn't stay awake any longer and fell asleep with her arms resting on her head at the drawing table.

Li Chen turned off her computer and took a thin blanket from the side and covered her shoulders.

He crouched down to observe her breathing rate.

At approximately fourteen beats per minute, this is the rhythm of deep sleep.

He took a piece of white cotton thread out of his pocket.

He cut the line three times before he was satisfied.

The thread shouldn't be too thick, otherwise it won't wind tightly and affect accuracy; nor should it be too thin, otherwise it will irritate her.

He pulled out Yan Xi's left hand.

Her fingers were long and slender with distinct joints, and her ring finger was clean and tidy.

Li Chen pinched one end of the cotton thread, and placed his thumb and forefinger at the base of her ring finger.

My hands are shaking.

He tried his best to keep his right hand steady and slowly wound the cotton thread around.

First lap.

Li Chen paused for a moment when the cotton thread touched her skin.

Yan Xi's finger twitched, and he froze on the spot, holding his breath.

False alarm.

She was just unconsciously curling her fingers in her dream.

Li Chen continued his actions.

He wrapped the cotton thread around his fingers, keeping it neither too loose nor too tight, and pinched a mark at the intersection with his fingernail.

carry out.

He pulled the thread off and removed his left hand.

When he stood up, his back was already soaked with sweat.

Li Chen went into the kitchen, spread the cotton thread flat on the cutting board, and took out a measuring tape to measure the distance between the intersections.

Fifty-one millimeters.

Divide by pi to calculate the inner diameter.

He frowned.

Fifty-one divided by three point one four equals sixteen point two four.

But he wasn't sure if the tightness was right when wrapping it.

If the fingers are too loose or slightly swollen while she sleeps, it could affect the results.

He glanced at the line again; the mark had shifted by half a millimeter.

Half a millimeter.

In Yan Xi's world, half a millimeter is two completely different sizes.

Li Chen put the thread in his pocket and turned off the kitchen light.

The next afternoon, while Yan Xi was at school meeting her professor, he went alone to a custom jewelry store in the city center.

The shop was small, and a middle-aged woman wearing a magnifying glass sat behind the counter.

Li Chen placed the cotton thread on the counter and made his request.

"I want to have a ring custom-made."

The designer picked up the cotton thread and measured it.

"Your measurement method is not accurate enough."

"How much difference?"

"Cotton thread is elastic."

The designer provided a professional explanation.

"The tightness of the band can cause an error of between plus or minus 0.5 and 1 millimeter, which translates to a difference of one or two ring sizes."

Li Chen fell silent.

"I suggest you bring yourself to have the measurement taken."

The designer provided alternative solutions.

"Or compare it to a ring she often wears."

Yan Xi doesn't wear rings at all.

After thanking him, Li Chen walked out of the store and stood in a daze at the entrance of the mall.

He opened his phone to check the 302 group chat, where Wang Qiang was posting photos of himself and Lin Duo shopping at the supermarket.

The video shows two people studying the ingredient list of yogurt in front of a shelf.

Lin Duo was holding a carton of sugar-free yogurt, while Wang Qiang was holding a carton of strawberry-flavored yogurt.

Zhao Zixuan sent a string of question marks, questioning Wang Qiang about whether he was showing off his affection.

Chen Mo replied that based on Lin Duo's product selection logic, she had already started controlling Wang Qiang's sugar intake, and the relationship was moving from the attraction phase to the management phase.

Wang Qiang angrily retorted with a single word: "Get lost."

Li Chen left the group chat and did not participate in the discussion.

When he got home, Yan Xi was already there.

She sat at the drawing table, sketching lines in her sketchbook with a pencil, the warm light from the pen holder shining through.

Li Chen changed his shoes and walked into the living room.

He noticed an open memo book on the coffee table.

This is not his memo, but Yan Xi's.

Yan Xi usually keeps that memo in the second drawer of her drawing table, and she never locks it.

Li Chen never went through her personal belongings.

It's now lying open in the middle of the coffee table.

The page I turned to had only one line of text.

The handwriting is beautiful and neat.

The inner diameter of your left ring finger is 16.5 millimeters. Don't bother measuring it; your hand was shaking badly last night.

Li Chen stared at that line of text for several seconds.

The sound of Yan Xi flipping through her sketchbook came from behind me.

"When did you wake up?"

He asked the question.

When you held my hand.

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"It depends on your measurement."

Li Chen turned around.

Yan Xi's gaze remained fixed on the sketchbook, her pencil never stopping.

"It took three laps to get the timing right."

Her tone was flat.

She continued her commentary.

"Moreover, the cotton thread you used is elastic, so the measured data is about 0.25 millimeters larger."

Li Chen opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.

"16.5 is a measurement I took myself last month when I went to the restroom using Leng Qingge's body measuring device."

Yan Xi turned a page.

"Accurate to 0.1".

Li Chen put his hands in his pockets.

The small ball of cotton thread in his pocket was digging into his fingers.

"When did you guess that?"

"When you're writing something on the last page of your memo."

Li Chen recalled the question he had written on the sofa that day.

"You saw it?"

"I didn't see it."

Yan Xi raised her head.

"But the screen locks 0.4 seconds faster than usual after you finish writing, which means you're hiding something."

She put down her pencil and pressed her finger on the sketchbook.

"And you've been looking at my left hand much more frequently these past three days."

She pointed out the flaws.

"When you look at my hands normally, your gaze falls on my wrist, but these past few days it's been focused on my ring finger."

Li Chen stood still.

He's completely used to it now.

When you're with this person, the meaning behind every little action will be interpreted and documented.

"So you measured it in advance."

"Um."

"Then I deliberately placed the memo on the coffee table."

"Um."

"When do you plan to release it?"

"Let's see how many more days you plan to struggle."

Yan Xi told the truth.

"Three days is already my limit. If you keep getting closer to me, I'm afraid I'll burst out laughing."

Li Chen shook his head, took the piece of cotton thread out of his pocket, and threw it into the trash can.

Yan Xi spoke up from behind him.

Don't throw away the cable.

Why?

"Keep it for later laughs."

Li Chen bent down and picked up the cotton thread again.

Yan Xi closed her sketchbook and took the memo back from the coffee table.

She turned to that page and added a parenthesis after 16.5 millimeters.

Write down the specific data and evaluation.

He measured approximately 51 millimeters, which translates to 16.24 millimeters, resulting in an error of 0.26 millimeters, thus failing the evaluation.

Li Chen leaned closer to read the contents.

"Is this a test evaluation?"

"almost."

She closed the memo, put it back in the drawer, and got up to go into the kitchen.

"I'm hungry, let's cook."

Li Chen stood in the living room watching her walk into the kitchen and open the refrigerator.

His heart was pounding, but not entirely because of embarrassment.

She had her measurements taken last month.

She knew he would go this far even before he wrote that line of memo.

Li Chen took out his phone and sent a message to the jewelry store.

Inner diameter 16.5 mm.

Yan Xi's voice came from the kitchen.

"Scrambled eggs with tomatoes or shrimp and tofu?"

"You choose."

Shrimp and tofu.

Yan Xi assigned tasks.

"You cut the tofu, my hand is sore from drawing today."

Li Chen locked his phone, walked into the kitchen, and took the kitchen knife from Yan Xi.

She stepped back and leaned against the refrigerator to watch him chop vegetables.

"Li Chen".

"Um?"

"If you don't like the ring you pick, I'll return it."

Li Chen paused for a moment before continuing to cut.

The cut was extremely precise.

His phone beeped in the living room.

It was a message from Yan Xi.

The design has been sent to your email. It's the third one; don't choose the wrong one.