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

Chapter 145 I'm listening!

I went out of the cafeteria.

After walking twenty meters, Yan Xi suddenly stopped.

She reached out and stopped Li Chen.

"Wait a moment."

"What's wrong?"

She looked down at his shirt collar.

Li Chen subconsciously touched his neck.

"Did it get stained with porridge?"

"No." Yan Xi's fingers touched his stand-up collar. "Your collar is crooked. The left side is two millimeters higher than the right."

She straightened his collar.

As my fingertips slid across my collar, they touched the skin below my Adam's apple.

Li Chen's breath hitched for a second.

"Alright." She withdrew her hand. "Let's go."

The two continued walking.

We arrived at the fork in the road.

Yan Xi stopped under a bare sycamore tree.

"2 PM, first floor storage room of the student union building."

"it is good."

Don't be late.

"Won't."

She turned and took a few steps.

Stopped.

There was no turning back.

"Oh, right."

"Um."

"A new steamed dish window opened on the third floor of the cafeteria at lunchtime. Could you check if they have steamed pork ribs with pumpkin while you're at it?"

"Do you want to eat?"

"Please confirm if they have it. If they do, please get me a serving; I'll come pick it up at noon. When you get the food, tell the lady to use less oil and that the ribs should be from the middle section."

Li Chen went through every detail she had said in his mind.

Less oil. Middle section of pork ribs. Steamed pork ribs with pumpkin.

"I've got it."

"Um."

This time she left. She didn't stop.

The tassels of her white scarf swayed gently behind her back.

Li Chen stood there for five seconds.

I confirmed that she had entered the teaching building.

Then he took out his phone.

There are already seventeen unread messages in group 302.

He started reading from the last one.

[Wang Qiang: I got my Jianbing Guozi! Two eggs. I declare today the happiest day of this semester!]

[Zhao Zixuan: Your threshold for happiness is too low.]

[Wang Qiang: You don't understand. The value of this jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe) isn't in the two eggs, it's in the fact that my sister-in-law approved the two eggs.]

[Chen Mo: He's right. The physical properties of the resource remain unchanged, but the social significance it carries has undergone a qualitative change. This egg has been upgraded from an ordinary chicken egg to an egg with Yan Xi's authorized attributes.]

[Wang Qiang: Yes! That's exactly what I mean! Chen Mo, you've finally spoken like a human being!]

Chen Mo: I've been speaking in plain language.

[Zhao Zixuan: Li Chen, where are you? I'm going to be late for class.]

Li Chen glanced at the time.

8:01.

He quickened his pace and turned into the teaching building.

The motion-activated lights in the corridor were turned on one by one by the sound of his footsteps.

When I pushed open the back door of the classroom, the professor on the podium had just opened the PowerPoint presentation.

He bent down and walked to the third row.

Wang Qiang, Zhao Zixuan, and Chen Mo were already seated.

On Wang Qiang's desk sat a two-thirds-eaten jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe). The paper bag was neatly folded and tucked under his textbooks.

"You can't bear to throw it away?" Li Chen sat down.

"This is a commemorative paper bag."

"What commemorative significance does the wrapper of a pancake have?"

"This is the first time my sister-in-law has requested supplies from me through you." Wang Qiang's expression was solemn. "It must be retained."

Zhao Zixuan handed over a tissue from the back row.

There's sauce on your lips.

Li Chen took it and wiped it—it wasn't for him. He habitually turned his head to glance to the side.

empty.

Yan Xi is not here.

She has classes in another building.

He folded the tissue and put it in his pocket.

Chen Mo observed this action from the side.

There was an extra line of text in the notebook.

[08:03—After receiving the tissue, Li Chen reflexively turns his head to the right, his target being Yan Xi. After failing to find her, he puts the tissue in his pocket instead of using it. Inference: The tissue is a substitute for Yan Xi; this act of collecting it is an unconscious comforting mechanism.]

Li Chen caught a glimpse of that line of text out of the corner of his eye.

"Chen Mo."

"Um."

"Deleted."

"This is an academic record."

"I am not your sample."

Chen Mo pushed up his glasses.

"You were like that until I submitted my term paper."

Li Chen was too lazy to bother with him anymore.

He opened his notebook.

A small photograph was pasted on the title page.

It was a cropped printout. The picture showed only two hands—his and Yan Xi's, fingers intertwined, against a backdrop of a small section of concrete pavement under a campus streetlamp.

Wang Qiang once secretly took a picture, posted it in a group chat, and then deleted it.

Li Chen took a screenshot. Printed it out. Cut it out. Pasted it onto the first page of his notebook.

no one knows.

He turned to a blank page and began listening to the lesson.

The pen tip glides across the paper.

Red-black tree, B+ tree, hash table.

Each line of handwriting is neat and legible.

Half an hour later, his finger bent a corner at the edge of the notebook.

It's not about marking.

It was an unconscious action.

Every time he thinks of her, he folds a corner of it.

He flipped back and counted.

He folded four during the first period this morning.

The phone screen lit up briefly.

News about Yan Xi.

[Yan Xi: Listen attentively in class.]

He glanced down at it.

How did she know he wasn't listening?

He typed.

[Li Chen: I'm listening.]

Five seconds later.

[Yan Xi: You don't fold the corners of your notebook when you're listening to the lecture.]

Li Chen's fingers froze.

He slowly raised his head.

He looked around the classroom.

She wasn't there.

He glanced down at the message again.

[Li Chen: How did you know I was folding a corner?]

ten seconds.

[Yan Xi: Just guessing.]

[Yan Xi: You guessed right?]

Li Chen stared at the screen.

His thumb hovered over the cursor in the dialog box for three seconds.

The first two parts have been removed.

Finally, four words were uttered.

[Li Chen: You win.]

The "read" status on the other end has been activated.

No reply.

But he knew she was smiling.

He could picture the scene—in a seat in another teaching building, she was looking down, her fingers tapping on her phone screen, a slight smile playing on her lips before she regained her composure and continued looking at the blackboard.

No one noticed the change in her expression just now.

Only he knows.

He turned his phone upside down and placed it face down on the table.

The pen tip returned to the paper.

He did not fold the corner again.

But between writing, his fingers unconsciously touched the edge of the photograph on the notebook's title page.

The one with fingers intertwined.

The paper was a little rough from his handling.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the first class.

He closed his notebook.

Wang Qiang came closer.

"Li Chen, what are we having for lunch?"

"Third floor of the cafeteria."

"The third floor? Didn't they just open a steamed dish counter on the third floor? How did you know—"

Wang Qiang paused in his sentence.

He watched as Li Chen opened the notes app on his phone.

The screen reads:

Steamed Pork Ribs with Pumpkin. Less oil. Use the middle section of the pork ribs.

Wang Qiang shut his mouth.

He turned and glanced at Zhao Zixuan.

Zhao Zixuan shook his head.

Chen Mo added the last line to his notebook.

[10:45—The material procurement list has been generated in advance. Execution priority: highest. Beneficiary: Yan Xi. Conclusion remains unchanged—The core operation of 302 has been migrated.]

He closed his notebook and adjusted his glasses.

Li Chen stood up and picked up his backpack.

"Let's go. Check ahead and see if there's a queue on the third floor."

Wang Qiang followed behind.

"Didn't I always volunteer to scout ahead? When did I start needing your orders?"

"It all started when you ate that jianbing guozi with two eggs."

Wang Qiang paused for half a second.

He looked down at the neatly folded pancake paper bag in his schoolbag.

"Alright."

He quickened his pace and caught up.

The classroom door closed behind me. The motion-activated lights in the corridor went out one by one.

Li Chen's phone screen lit up again.