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

Li Chen locked the screen.

Yan Xi pointed at his phone with her chopsticks. "Wang Qiang?"

"Strengthened analytical skills."

"I saw his photo of himself without noodles on his WeChat Moments."

Do you follow his WeChat Moments?

"I monitor all channels that could potentially leak your whereabouts."

Li Chen's chopsticks paused for a moment in mid-air.

Yan Xi lowered her head and ate razor clams. Her expression was innocent.

After finishing his meal, Li Chen paid the bill. Three dishes and two drinks cost sixty-eight yuan. He left ten yuan extra.

The two people stepped out of the food stall. The sun was blazing, shining on the stone pavement.

Yan Xi stopped by the roadside, facing him.

"Turn around."

Li Chen turned 180 degrees, his back to her.

Yan Xi placed her hand on the back of his neck. Her thumb pressed precisely on the spot she had massaged yesterday, pushing three times along the muscle lines. The pressure was a little stronger than in the morning.

"Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt."

"Liar. You just swallowed."

She pushed him twice more. Li Chen's neck cracked.

"alright."

Li Chen turned back. Her hand was still on his shoulder. The distance between them was less than twenty centimeters.

Yan Xi's gaze moved from his eyes to his lips, and then back to his eyes.

"Your strategy guide is forty-seven pages long."

"Um."

"The weather, tides, road conditions, the limited number of bowls of noodles at the noodle shop, the frequency of the lighthouse's flashes, and the ratings of the seafood stalls—all of these were written down."

"Um."

"Something is missing."

"What?"

Yan Xi withdrew her hand from his shoulder. She took a step forward, and as she passed him, her lips came close to his ear.

"You didn't write where you're staying tonight."

Li Chen stood still.

Yan Xi had already walked to the car. She opened the driver's side door.

"Get in the car. It's my turn to drive."

Li Chen's brain searched pages eighteen to twenty-two of the strategy guide PDF within three seconds.

It wasn't written down.

It wasn't that he forgot. He simply typed three words in that column: "Pending."

He took a deep breath of the sea breeze and walked towards the passenger seat.

Get in the car. Fasten your seatbelt. Yan Xi starts the engine.

"Where's the navigation?"

"Where do you want to go?"

Yan Xi increased the car's speed to eighty. The provincial highway stretched along the coastline.

"Let's go to the ferry terminal first."

Her right hand moved off the steering wheel and rested on the center console.

Palms facing up.

Li Chen fastened his fingers. Their ten fingers intertwined.

She drew a circle in his palm with her thumb. Slowly.

"Where to stay?" she asked softly. "You decide."

The ferry terminal is located 12 kilometers east of Shitang Town.

A two-lane highway curves along the coastline, with white patches of salt erosion on the asphalt surface.

Yan Xi parked her car in the dock parking lot.

Li Chen got out of the car, walked around to the driver's side, and opened the door. Yan Xi got out and glanced at the dock.

It wasn't large. A concrete pier stretched out into the sea. At the end, a white, medium-sized passenger ship was moored. Rust dripped from the drainpipe on the hull, like dried tear stains.

How big is that ship?

"800-ton class. Passenger capacity of 200 people."

"You even checked the ship's tonnage."

"You liked a photo of an island on your WeChat Moments last time. There was a similar ferry in the photo. I looked up the route based on the model."

Yan Xi turned to look at him.

"You deduce the flight route information from my likes history."

"Habit."

"Your habits should be co-opted by the National Security Bureau."

Li Chen took two backpacks out of the trunk.

His was heavy, while hers had been reorganized by him—the water bottle was placed in the side pocket for easy access, snacks were on the top layer, the power bank was in the front pocket, and iodine and band-aids were in the bottom interlayer.

"You went through my bag?"

"You rewrote it after you fell asleep last night. Your power bank was on top of the snacks, and the seaweed will crumble."

Yan Xi pursed her lips.

"So you saw what was in the lower layer?"

Li Chen's hand paused on the backpack strap.

"I saw it."

"explain."

"Iodine solution, cotton swabs, band-aids, elastic bandages. And a tube of liniment for bruises and sprains."

Yan Xi took the backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

"So you know I didn't just start wearing iodine solution yesterday."

Li Chen looked at her. The sea breeze blew her hair to the left.

The phoenix hairpin gleamed in the sunlight.

"You've always carried it with you."

"Starting from the last time you injured your knee playing basketball."

Li Chen's Adam's apple bobbed.

There was only one person queuing at the ticket window at the pier. Li Chen bought two tickets. The ship would depart in forty minutes.

The waiting area consists of a row of blue plastic chairs.

There are faded life jacket instruction stickers on the seat.

Yan Xi sat down and crossed her legs.

Li Chen sat to her left.

His gaze swept around the waiting area—ventilated on three sides and against a wall on one side.

There was a notice board on the wall with a faded flight route map and a complaint hotline.

"You're looking at the escape routes."

"Two exits. One leads to the parking lot, and the other leads to the pier."

"When you arrive at a new place, the first thing you look for is the exit."

Li Chen did not deny it.

"How many times has this happened?" she asked.

"What?"

"I asked you what you were looking at, and you answered the emergency exit. You looked at the noodle shop. You looked at the food stall. You even looked at the lighthouse."

"Um."

"Did your grandfather teach you that?"

Li Chen smiled. "That's really true."

Yan Xi removed her hand from her knee. Her little finger hooked around his little finger.

"Did your grandfather ever teach you—" Her gaze shifted to the sea, "What do you do if you get seasick?"

Li Chen turned to look at her.

Yan Xi's expression remained unchanged. She stared straight ahead, chin slightly raised, maintaining her standard aloof demeanor.

But the hand that was hooked around his little finger tightened.

"Are you seasick?"

"I don't know. I've never ridden in one."

"You've never been on a boat before?"

"I've always traveled by car and plane since I was a child."

Li Chen quickly flipped through his forty-seven-page travel guide in his mind. Ferry. Forty-minute journey. In this section, he noted the journey time, schedule, ticket price, and viewing location on the deck.

No seasickness medication was noted.

"You won't tell me."

"I'm not sure if I'm dizzy."

"You're unsure, but you're nervous."

Yan Xi tightened her little finger even more.

Li Chen stood up. "Wait for me."

He walked out of the waiting area and quickly crossed the parking lot.

Next to the pier, there is a row of small shops with signs on their glass doors that read "Fishing Gear, Snacks and Daily Necessities".

He pushed the door open and went in.

The shelves are small, with three rows.

He found the seasickness patch in the corner of the last row.

Then I took a bottle of water, a pack of soda crackers, and a bag of preserved plums.

When he was paying, his eyes fell on a plastic storage bag hanging behind the counter.

There were several scarves and disposable raincoats inside.

"How much is that scarf?"

"thirty."

"Give me one."

The boss took it down.

Grayish blue.

The material is rough.

It can't compare to the one around Yan Xi's neck.

Li Chen took it in his hand and looked at it. He folded it neatly and put it in his pocket.

When he walked back to the waiting area, Yan Xi was still sitting there.

She held her phone in her hand, the screen lit up, as if she were looking at something.

He approached, and she locked her screen.

too fast.