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

When Li Chen ran to Yan Xi's side, she had already stopped at the foot of the lighthouse.

The concrete surface is rougher than that of the one in Shitang.

The weathering lines are deep, and fragments of shell ash fall out from the seams.

The fence was made of welded iron pipes, rusted so badly that only the skeleton remained.

Yan Xi pressed her fingers on the concrete column surface, her fingertips sliding two centimeters along the crack.

"C15 is a low grade. But that was common for island lighthouses of that era. The compressive strength was approximately—"

"15 megapascals".

Yan Xi turned to look at him.

"Were you looking at your thesis again last night?"

"You'll have more time once you're asleep."

"You owe me six hours of sleep."

Li Chen didn't respond to that sentence.

He went around to the entrance of the lighthouse. The iron gate was half open, and one of the hinges was broken.

He kicked the bottom of the door frame to test its structural stability.

"You can get in."

Yan Xi walked in from beside him.

The interior of the lighthouse is similar to that of the one in Shitang, with a cast iron spiral staircase and a central load-bearing column.

But it's narrower. Two people can't walk side by side.

Li Chen walked ahead.

With each step he takes, his foot applies pressure to the edge of the step for half a second.

Yan Xi noticed this action when they were in Shitang; he was testing the weight-bearing capacity of each step for her.

"Level 7 is loose. Step on the inside."

Yan Xi did as instructed.

The spiral staircase has a total of forty-two levels.

Li Chen counted them in his mind.

Yan Xi was probably counting too, because she said something when she stepped onto the platform at level forty-two.

"Eleven levels lower than Shitang."

The lighthouse at the top is smaller than the one at Stone Pond. The Fresnel lens is older, with white spots of salt spray corrosion on the glass edges. However, the overall structure remains intact.

Yan Xi walked to the lens. Her hand didn't touch it, hovering about five centimeters away.

"Third-order lens. Focal length approximately... 500 millimeters."

"Four hundred and ninety."

Yan Xi glanced at him.

When did you take your measurements?

"Visually, there are conversion formulas for the radius of curvature and focal length of a prism."

"You're a computer science major."

"You analyze the dog's hip joint."

Yan Xi's lips twitched slightly. She turned towards the viewing window of the lighthouse.

The curvature of the sea is more pronounced from this height than it is from the shore.

The grey-blue water stretched all the way to the horizon, the clouds hung low, and sunlight cut through the gaps at an angle, drawing a golden band of light across the sea.

The wind was strong. It was blowing in through the missing pane of glass in the viewing window.

A few strands of Yan Xi's hair were blown loose. The phoenix hairpin trembled slightly in the wind.

Li Chen took out one of her spare hair ties from the side pocket of her backpack.

"Turn around."

Yan Xi turned halfway around.

Li Chen tucked the few stray strands of hair behind his ears and pressed them back under the phoenix hairpin, then tightened the hair tie around the base of the ponytail.

When did you start having my hair tie in your bag?

"It started when you dropped one during your last morning run."

That was three weeks ago.

"Yeah. I've been wearing it for three weeks. I haven't used it."

Yan Xi didn't speak. Her gaze returned to the sea.

Li Chen stood beside her, about ten centimeters apart. The room was small, and the wind blew between them.

Yan Xi hooked her little finger over.

Li Chen caught it with his little finger.

The two of them stood there, looking at the sea, their little fingers intertwined.

About two minutes later.

"Li Chen".

"Um."

"Your forty-seven-page strategy guide."

"Um."

How long did you hesitate in the "pending" column?

Li Chen thought for a moment.

"Writing the guide takes about twenty minutes."

Why hesitate?

"I'm afraid you'll think I'm making some assumptions."

Yan Xi tightened her little finger slightly.

"Did you make any assumptions?"

"no."

"So you've booked a hilltop villa on the ferry. Did you make that assumption?"

Li Chen turned to look at her.

Yan Xi's expression remained unchanged.

Chin slightly raised, eyes looking straight ahead.

A standard aloof demeanor.

But she hooked his little finger with twice the force she had before.

"I'm assuming you want to live somewhere with a sea view."

"That's it?"

"This is it."

Yan Xi pursed her lips.

"Let's go see the room you booked."

She loosened her little finger, turned, and went downstairs.

Li Chen followed behind. On the seventh step, she automatically stepped on the inside.

They exited the lighthouse. Yan Xi's pace quickened compared to when she arrived. It wasn't because she was hungry. It was a different rhythm.

Li Chen followed. The two of them took a side road and circled back onto the island highway, heading up the mountain.

The slope wasn't steep, but the road surface changed from asphalt to gravel.

Yan Xi's canvas shoes slipped on the gravel.

Li Chen placed his hand under her elbow.

"It's my turn to go first."

"Need not."

She said no, but her hand didn't leave his elbow. Instead, it slid down his forearm and took his hand in hers.

Palm to palm.

It took fifteen minutes to walk uphill.

At the end of the road stood a gray-white stone house.

Two layers.

A detached house.

Facing the sea to the southeast.

The courtyard wasn't large, with a crooked pine tree and a stone table.

The courtyard wall is made of dry-laid stone blocks, consistent with the other buildings on the island.

A wooden sign hangs at the entrance. It's handwritten. "Haifeng Residence".

Li Chen pushed open the courtyard gate.

Inside, a man in his fifties was repairing fishing nets in the yard.

When you see them, stand up.

"Are you making a reservation?"

"Li Chen. I booked it on the ship this afternoon."

"Oh, the one on the second floor." The owner pulled a key from his pocket and tossed it over. Li Chen caught it with one hand. "Turn on the water heater half an hour in advance. The kitchen is available. There's fish in the fridge."

Yan Xi glanced around the courtyard. Her gaze lingered on the stone table for a second before shifting to the outer wall of the house.

"The load-bearing walls of this house—"

Li Chen pulled her upstairs.

"We'll analyze it when we get there."

There was only one room on the second floor. I pushed the door open and went inside.

It's not big. A bed, a table, a chair. Wooden floors, white walls. The window faces the sea. There's no balcony, but the windowsill is wide enough to sit on.

Yan Xi walked to the window.

Open the window.

The sea breeze rushed in, carrying the salty taste and the scent of pine trees.

The sea in the distance began to change color in the afterglow, turning from grayish-blue to deep cyan, with a bright orange-red band on the horizon.

The outline of the lighthouse emerges from the headland, standing silently above the sea.

Yan Xi sat on the windowsill, her legs dangling over the side of the room, her back against the window frame.

"Pass."

Li Chen put down the two backpacks. He then pulled out the gray-blue scarf from the side pocket of her backpack.

"You're really keeping this?"

"It's a waste to throw away something that costs thirty yuan."

Li Chen folded the scarf and put it back. His fingers touched something else in the side pocket. Hard. Small.

He didn't flip it.

Yan Xi watched him from the windowsill.

"You want to see it?"

"In no mood."

"Liar. Your finger stayed there for 0.8 seconds."

Li Chen withdrew his hand from his backpack.

Yan Xi climbed down from the windowsill and walked up to him. She unzipped the side pocket of her backpack and took something out.

A tube of hand cream.

It wasn't the same tube she'd used to apply it for him before. This one was smaller. A travel size. There was a handwritten label on the bottle.

Li Chen leaned closer to take a look at the words on the label.

"Right hand. Once in the morning and once in the evening."

Yan Xi stuffed the hand cream into his hand.

"You hit someone earlier."

"I have abrasions on my hands. Use this after disinfecting with iodine."

When did you buy it?

"When you leave the Shek Tong Noodles restaurant, go pay the bill. I took it from the miscellaneous goods shelf by the door."

Li Chen looked at the hand cream in his hand. The bottle was small; it could fit in a pocket.

"I was paying when you took it."

"Um."

"It took about forty seconds to check out."

"Thirty-seven seconds. Enough time for me to grab a tube of hand cream and pay."

Li Chen clutched the hand cream in his hand.