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

Yan Xi sat on the sofa for a while.

He pressed his finger against the red envelope in the inner pocket through his coat.

The stiffness of the paper strips was transmitted through the fabric.

Li Chen handed her the sketchbook from the balcony.

"Continue drawing?"

"I'm not drawing anymore." Yan Xi closed her sketchbook. "Your mom's osmanthus cake. Get me two pieces."

"it is good."

Li Chen walked into the kitchen.

Shen Ruolan is arranging osmanthus cakes in a food storage container.

She didn't even look up when he came in.

"Is it for Xiaoxi?"

"Hmm. She said to pack two pieces. The other two are for Leng Qingge."

Shen Ruolan picked out four pieces.

Put it into a small sealed bag.

"Is Leng Qingge her roommate?"

"Um."

"Let her come over for dinner next time."

Li Chen took the bag.

Just as he turned around, Shen Ruolan called out to him.

"Chenchen".

"Um."

"When she was accepting the red envelope just now, her shoulder twitched. Did you see it?"

Li Chen stopped.

He saw it.

She's not sad.

Shen Ruolan wrung out the rag.

She rested it on the faucet. "She's not used to it."

Li Chen didn't speak.

"She's very open around you, but she still knows how to behave appropriately around elders, which shows that she's serious."

Shen Ruolan glanced at him.

"Don't rush her."

"I didn't rush you."

"Your reply to her message, 'No rush,' was very good."

Li Chen wanted to ask her how she knew what she had replied.

But after thinking about it, I decided against it.

His mother's information gathering ability is no worse than Yan Xi's.

I walked back to the living room.

Yan Xi is looking at her phone.

I saw him coming over.

Lock screen.

"Is it installed?"

"Hmm, four pieces, two for you and two for Leng Qingge."

Yan Xi took the bag.

I pinched it.

"Your mother's mold. The pattern is orchids."

"Um."

"Her name contains the character 'orchid'."

Li Chen was taken aback. He had never noticed this before.

Yan Xi put the bag into her own bag. She didn't say anything more.

My phone vibrated on the coffee table. It was Li Chen's.

He picked it up and looked at it. It wasn't group 302.

It was a number he had saved for twenty years.

Grandpa: Are you home?

Li Chen's fingers paused.

His grandfather.

Li Qingcang.

The last time I received a WeChat message from the old man was two months ago.

The content consisted of a photo of fishing and the caption, "The fish is smarter than your dad."

[Li Chen: Yes.]

Grandpa: Your mom said you brought people back.

Li Chen turned his head and glanced in the direction of the kitchen.

Shen Ruolan.

He is now 100% certain.

His mother spread the word before they even got home.

[Li Chen: Mm.]

three seconds.

Grandpa: I'll go check on things tomorrow.

Li Chen held his phone.

I quickly went through it in my mind.

The old man lives in his old house on the outskirts of Beijing.

I don't usually go into the city.

They say the air in the city hurts your throat.

The last time I went to the city was last Mid-Autumn Festival.

I stayed inside for half a day.

They rearranged all the tea set and furnishings in Li Mohan's study.

Then go.

Now they say they're coming.

This shows how the old man viewed the matter.

It is important enough.

Yan Xi watched his expression from the side.

"Whose message?"

"My grandfather."

Yan Xi's fingers paused on her knee for a moment.

"What did he say?"

"Come over tomorrow."

Yan Xi turned her head and glanced at him.

His gaze lingered for half a second longer than usual.

"Come see me?"

"Come and see."

Is there a difference between "seeing" and "meeting"?

Li Chen thought for a moment.

"See what he says, and see what he means."

Yan Xi didn't ask any more questions.

He reached his hand to the sofa.

Pick up your sketchbook.

Turn to a blank page.

What kind of tea does your grandfather drink?

"Aged white tea. Shoumei from 2012. Nothing added. Discard the first brew. Start drinking from the second brew. Water temperature: 93 degrees Celsius."

Yan Xi glanced at him.

"Your report is more accurate than a memo."

"I grew up with him."

Yan Xi drew a horizontal line on the paper. Then she stopped.

"Are you nervous?" she asked.

Li Chen wanted to say he wasn't nervous.

But he glanced at his right hand.

My thumb is rubbing the edge of the phone case.

His movements were exactly the same as his father's when he rubbed a teacup.

"A little."

"Is your grandfather fierce?"

"Not fierce."

Li Chen paused.

"But he's a good judge of character, ten times better than my dad's interviewing methods."

"He doesn't ask, he just observes, and once he's done, he knows what he's doing."

Yan Xi touched the paper with the tip of her pen.

"Then I don't need to prepare anything."

Li Chen looked at her.

Aren't you nervous?

Yan Xi put down her sketchbook and leaned back on the sofa.

"Nervous," she said. "But your grandfather taught you to cook. He taught you to pass chopsticks. He taught you to test rocks. He taught you Jeet Kune Do."

Her gaze fell on Li Chen's hands.

"Most of the things I like, he taught me."

Li Chen's Adam's apple bobbed.

"So what I'm nervous about isn't him interrogating me," Yan Xi said calmly. "What I'm nervous about is—I'm afraid he'll think I'm not good enough for someone he's trained."

The living room was silent for three seconds.

Li Chen reached out and took her hand in his.

It's not about interlocking your fingers. It's about covering your entire palm with your hand. With force.

He will like you.

Yan Xi looked down at the two people's hands.

"What's your basis?"

"There's no basis for it," Li Chen said. "I just know."

Yan Xi's lips curved slightly. She withdrew her hand and picked up her sketchbook.

"Go and prepare the tea that your grandfather likes."

"My dad has it in his study."

"Then go and look it up."

Li Chen stood up. He took two steps. Then he turned around.

"What you just said—"

"What did you say?"

"It doesn't live up to that statement."

Yan Xi didn't look up. The pen traced an arc on the paper.

"I forgot."

"You can't say those words and then say you forgot."

Yan Xi stopped writing. She looked up. Her gaze was unwavering.

"Then just remember it."

Li Chen glanced at her for two seconds, then turned and went into the study.

Li Mohan was sitting at his desk.

He was rummaging through something in his hands.

He saw Li Chen come in.

He quickly stuffed a red box back into the drawer.

"What are you doing here?"

"Take Grandpa's tea leaves."

Li Mohan's fingers paused on the drawer handle for a moment.

"Is your grandfather coming?"

"tomorrow."

Li Mohan stood up.

I walked to the bookshelf.

Take a packet of aged white tea from the tin can on the third layer.

Hand it over.

"He brought this jar over last year to store it himself. He said the temperature in the city wasn't right. He insisted on putting it in this spot in my study, saying it's cool and shady facing north."

Li Chen took it.

"dad."

"Um."

"The box you just hid—"

"Nothing." Li Mohan's speech quickened. "Get out."

Li Chen glanced at the drawer.

"I didn't ask anything."

"Then what are you still standing there for?"

Li Chen walked out of the study with the tea leaves.

In the living room, Yan Xi's sketchbook had a few more lines drawn. It was the profile of a person, angled very similar to when he had leaned against the balcony doorframe earlier.

My phone vibrated again. It was from group 302.

[Wang Qiang: Li Chen!! Are you still in Beijing tomorrow?!]

[Zhao Zixuan: You've owed me jianbing guozi three times now]

[Chen Mo: His current social priorities are: Yan Xi > elders from the Li family > roommates in room 302. We're in the third tier. I suggest accepting reality.]

Li Chen did not reply.

Put your phone on the coffee table.

Yan Xi glanced at the displayed group chat messages.

"Does Wang Qiang miss you?"

"He misses his pancakes."

Yan Xi paused for a moment.

"Bring him some osmanthus cake when you get back. Just say I asked him to bring it."

"You brought him pancakes. You also brought him osmanthus cake. You're trying to bribe my roommate."

Yan Xi turned a page.

"It's not bribery. It's management."

Li Chen sat back down next to her.

Watching her draw.

The light outside the window has shifted at an angle.

It landed on the fingers of her hand that held the pen.

The ink mark on my ring finger is still there.

tomorrow.

Her grandfather is about to meet her.