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

Li Chen's expression remained unchanged.

What are you doing?

"Look at your order screenshot."

"I didn't take a screenshot."

Yan Xi looked at him for two seconds.

Then I put down my phone and continued eating my porridge.

When the porridge was almost empty, she placed the spoon on the rim of the bowl.

"You noted that you didn't want scallions."

It is not a question.

Li Chen did not deny it.

"The temperature was also noted."

Li Chen leaned back in his chair.

"You guessed."

"I don't need to guess."

Yan Xi pushed the bowl aside and pulled the documents back in front of her.

"Because you always do this."

The office was silent for a few seconds.

The air conditioner vents were buzzing overhead.

Li Chen watched as she lowered her head to look at the documents again.

Her right hand drew lines on the document, while her left hand unconsciously twirled the carbon pen.

He didn't speak.

She didn't have any either.

But Li Chen noticed that when she turned to the next page of the document, the curve of her lips was a fraction of a millimeter larger than before.

Six forty-seven.

Yan Xi closed the last document and signed the cover.

"Walk."

She stood up, picked up the phoenix hairpin from beside the pen holder, and tucked it into her hair. The carbon pen was tossed into the pen holder with a crisp clinking sound.

Li Chen helped her tidy up her desk, sorting the files by color and stacking them next to the cabinet.

Close the laptop, unplug the power cord and wind it up.

Yan Xi slung the canvas bag over her shoulder and walked to the door.

She turned around.

Li Chen was closing the window, his fingers pressing down evenly on the window frame.

The windows were closed tightly, keeping the cold air out.

He turned around.

Yan Xi stood at the door, her fingers resting on the doorknob.

"Li Chen".

"Um."

"You were in the lab just now, counting down the whole time."

Li Chen paused for a moment.

"What countdown?"

Yan Xi's gaze fell on his right hand.

He lightly rubbed his fingertips along the seam of his trousers, a small, unconscious gesture.

"From when you entered the lab at 3:58 until 6:30."

Yan Xi's voice was not loud.

"Nine thousand one hundred and twenty seconds."

The corridor lights went out at that moment.

Voice control timed out.

In the darkness, Li Chen could hear his own heartbeat.

He opened his mouth.

"How could you...?"

"Because I'm counting too."

The voice-activated light was triggered again by her voice, and the white light came on.

Yan Xi had already turned and walked out of the office.

Her footsteps rang crisply in the corridor, their rhythm steady.

Li Chen stood still.

Five seconds.

He followed.

There were only the two of them in the elevator.

Li Chen leaned against the elevator wall, with Yan Xi standing to his right.

The two people were half a step apart.

The elevator goes down from the fifth floor.

The sound of the numbers ticking was amplified twice as much in the enclosed space.

5, 4, 3.

"How do you know it's 9,120 seconds?"

Li Chen's voice echoed in the elevator.

Yan Xi didn't look at him.

"From 3:58 to 6:30, that's 152 minutes, multiplied by 60."

"You calculated it."

"Mental calculation, two seconds."

The elevator arrived at the first floor and the doors opened.

Yan Xi walked out first, her steps slow.

The officer on duty on the first floor looked up at them, then quickly looked down again.

Li Chen followed behind her.

Pushing open the glass doors of the building, a blast of cold air hits you.

He zipped up his jacket and glanced at Yan Xi's neck.

I wasn't wearing a scarf.

He took off his scarf.

"Lower your head."

Yan Xi stopped.

"I have a scarf..."

"Your scarf is in your bag; it will take twelve seconds to take it out."

"I have it in my hand, two seconds."

Yan Xi lowered her head slightly.

Li Chen wrapped the scarf around her neck.

It was wrapped one and a half times, with just the right tightness, not pressing on the chin.

His fingers touched the skin on the back of her neck as he tied the last loop.

It's cold.

His fingertip lingered in that spot for less than a second.

Yan Xi's shoulder blades tightened slightly.

"alright."

Li Chen withdrew his hand.

The two walked towards the school gate.

The night wind made the streetlights flicker.

The snow reflected shimmering light, spreading beneath their feet.

"That last sentence."

Li Chen spoke.

"What?"

"You said you were counting too."

Yan Xi put her hands into the pockets of her down jacket.

"Um."

Are you really counting?

What do you think?

Li Chen glanced at her.

Her profile was clearly defined under the streetlights, and the dark gray of her scarf accentuated her jawline.

"I think you have no sense of proportion."

Yan Xi slowed her pace by half a beat.

Why?

"Because you're not that kind of person."

Li Chen put his hands in his pockets.

"You don't count the seconds one by one."

"You'll glance at the time, then continue doing your work."

"Let's take another look at it at 6:29."

Yan Xi didn't say anything.

They walked a dozen or so steps.

The light from one street lamp shifted to another, and the shadows lengthened and shortened.

"But you are indeed waiting."

Li Chen's voice lowered by an octave.

"Is it right?"

Yan Xi pulled her right hand out of her pocket.

Her fingers twitched in the cold air.

Li Chen reached out and grabbed it.

Palm to palm.

Her fingers were thinner than his, with distinct knuckles, and the temperature of her fingertips was several degrees lower than her body temperature.

He put both of their hands into his coat pockets.

"right."

Yan Xi's voice was muffled slightly by the scarf.

"I'm waiting."

Li Chen gripped her hand tightly.

"Don't wait next time."

"What do you mean?"

"Message me as soon as you're done; you don't need to wait until the agreed-upon time."

Yan Xi turned her head to look at him.

The light from the streetlamp shone on his profile.

His expression was serious; he didn't smile.

"5:30 or 7:00, anytime is fine."

He said.

"I wasn't writing any code in the lab anyway."

Yan Xi's fingers curled slightly in his palm.

"So what are you doing?"

"Count those nine thousand one hundred and twenty seconds."

The two of them fell silent at the same time.

After walking about fifty meters, Yan Xi's shoulder twitched.

Li Chen turned his head to look over.

She was smiling.

Not the kind where the corners of the mouth are slightly curved.

It was a trembling laugh, a suppressed laugh.

The scarf covered most of her face, but he could see that her eyes were curved in a smile.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Laughing at you."

"What are you laughing at me for?"

Yan Xi's hand gripped his fingers from inside her pocket.

"I'm laughing at you for spending two hours counting seconds when you could have been coding."

"I've finished writing the code."

"You haven't finished writing."

"You should have reached line 53 today, but you've only written line 47."

Li Chen stopped in his tracks.

How did you know my progress?

Yan Xi continued walking forward and tugged at him.

"Professor Liu talked to me about your project in his office last week."

"He said your daily output is usually between fifty and sixty lines. Today it's less."

"You were talking about me with Professor Liu?"

He brought it up himself.

"He said that among the students he has mentored, your coding style is the cleanest, but your efficiency has been declining recently."

Li Chen followed in her footsteps.

"What did he say?"

He said, "Has your boyfriend recently become love-struck? He's started writing Chinese comments in his code."

Li Chen's Adam's apple bobbed.

He did start mixing Chinese into the footnotes last week.

Because the first expression that came to mind when he thought of the logic of some algorithms was not in English, but a way of saying that Yan Xi had used in a chat.

He included that statement in the footnotes.

It wasn't intentional.

"You didn't argue with him?"

"I said you've always been like this."

Yan Xi's tone was flat.