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

Li Chen took the phone and looked at it.

Seven items were listed on the screen.

Each item has a note attached.

3 tomatoes. Your dad likes to drink tomato and egg soup for lunch.

Choose the kind with high acidity, and avoid the pink one.

One bunch of leafy greens. Your mom usually stir-fries leafy greens with garlic, but she hasn't had an upset stomach these past few days, so I'm stir-frying them plain.

One box of soft tofu, which is easier to digest than firm tofu.

300g pork ribs, the main dish for tomorrow's lunch. Your dad's knife cuts are inconsistent, so I'll do it.

No need to buy rice, there's enough for two meals in the rice bin.

There are 6 eggs. There are 2 left on the refrigerator door. I'll add 6 more so that you can use them up by next week.

Take a small piece of ginger, cut it into thin strips. Your mom uses a small amount.

Li Chen looked at the last one.

He hadn't counted the number of eggs in the refrigerator. But Yan Xi had.

Moreover, she wasn't calculating "whether it's enough for tomorrow," but rather "how much Li Mohan and Shen Ruolan can finish eating by next week after they leave."

"What's wrong?" Yan Xi asked, noticing him staring at the screen without saying a word.

"No." Li Chen handed the phone back to her. "The one with the egg."

"Um?"

"It says six on it."

"right."

There are three on the refrigerator door. Not two.

Yan Xi was stunned for half a second.

"Did you count them?"

I glanced at it when I got the milk this morning.

Yan Xi was silent for two seconds. Then she lowered her head and changed the number.

Three. Add five more.

She finished revising in her memo and looked up at him. There was something very subtle in her eyes. Not surprise. Not admiration.

Yes, it's confirmed.

She was confirming that he and she were doing the same thing.

From the number of eggs in the refrigerator to the depth of the bowl to the temperature of the tap.

They are all observing this home in their own way.

Yan Xi put her phone away.

It's eleven o'clock. See you tomorrow.

She turned and walked towards the guest room.

I took two steps and then stopped.

"Your scarf."

"Um?"

"It's in the second drawer of your closet. I folded it and put it in there. You didn't notice."

Li Chen touched his neck. He hadn't noticed where he'd put his scarf after coming back today.

"When did you—"

"When you're changing your shoes," Yan Xi said, pushing open the guest room door, "three seconds."

The door closed.

Li Chen stood in the corridor, his hand still resting on the side of his neck.

My phone vibrated.

[Yan Xi: I'm getting up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Don't be earlier than me.]

[Yan Xi: You woke up forty minutes earlier than me both yesterday and today. It's my turn tomorrow.]

Li Chen looked at the message.

She was arguing about who would get up first.

It wasn't about competing to make breakfast. It was because the person who gets up first can get more done. And she didn't want to just be taken care of.

He replied with a single word.

[Li Chen: Okay.]

My phone vibrated again.

It's not Yan Xi.

Shen Ruolan.

[Shen Ruolan: She sent me the purchasing list. The item for eggs was revised twice.]

[Shen Ruolan: I initially wrote six additions, but later changed it to five.]

[Shen Ruolan: You told her there were three in the fridge, not two, right?]

Li Chen replied with an "Mm".

[Shen Ruolan: Your dad has been counting all afternoon, and he counted four.]

Shen Ruolan: You two are both better than him.

……

6:28.

Li Chen's alarm clock hadn't gone off yet.

But he was already awake.

Yan Xi said 6:30.

He set it at 6:35.

He got up early to wash up, and when she came out of the guest room, he should have been standing at the kitchen doorway—neither earlier than her nor making her wait.

He sat up in bed.

There was movement coming from the direction of the guest rooms.

It was very soft. But he heard it.

Water tap. The one on the left—cold water.

She remembered that hot and cold were opposites.

Li Chen glanced at his phone. 6:28.

She spoke two minutes earlier than she had said.

He didn't say anything. He quickly washed up, changed his clothes, folded the blankets, and smoothed out the dents in the pillowcases.

At 6:33, he opened the bedroom door.

The corridor was quiet.

The guest room door was ajar.

Li Chen went to the kitchen.

Yan Xi was already standing in front of the stove.

The apron was tied up. Her hair was tied back. There was a cutting board on the stove, with three eggs next to it.

It wasn't from the refrigerator. It's new.

"...When did you buy it?"

Yan Xi didn't even turn her head. "6:15. Convenience store downstairs."

"You only let me get up at 6:30."

I said, "Don't be ahead of me. I didn't say I can't be ahead of you."

Li Chen looked at the three eggs on the cutting board.

Including the three in the refrigerator, there are six in total.

She originally wrote six more. Later she changed it to five.

But she bought three. Adding that to the original three, that makes exactly six.

The extra one.

"What's the extra one for?"

Yan Xi cracked an egg into a bowl. The egg white and yolk were separated very cleanly.

"I'll fry you an egg. You said you were full after eating half a bowl of rice yesterday."

"I am indeed full."

There's still a layer of rice grains at the bottom of your bowl. When you're full, the bottom of the bowl is clean.

Li Chen shut up.

She watched him eat and noticed the distribution of rice grains at the bottom of his bowl.

Yan Xi opened the refrigerator and took out the leftovers from last night from the refrigerator compartment.

"Fried rice. Seven minutes. Go wipe the table."

Li Chen took a rag from the cabinet.

While wiping the table, he glanced at the kitchen. Yan Xi's egg-cracking technique was even more steady than yesterday. She cracked the shells with one hand, and the egg mixture entered the bowl at about a 35-degree angle. It didn't splatter.

He turned around and wiped the table.

[Shen Ruolan: Good morning. I heard noises in the kitchen. Is that her?]

Li Chen replied to the message.

[Li Chen: Hmm. Fried rice with egg.]

Shen Ruolan: I'll be out in ten minutes. You stay with her. Don't leave her alone in the kitchen.

Li Chen put his phone back in his pocket. He folded the rag and put it back in its place.

I entered the kitchen. I leaned against the side of the countertop. In a spot that wouldn't block my way.

Yan Xi was stirring the fried rice. The sound of the spatula clattering against the wok was rhythmic. The range of motion in her wrist was slightly less than the day before yesterday.

"What are you looking at?"

"Your wrist when you fried rice."

"What's so interesting about it?"

"Today is more stable than the day before yesterday."

Yan Xi flipped the pan over. "Do you remember the range of motion of my wrist the day before yesterday?"

"I vaguely remember."

"Approximately how much?"

"The day before yesterday, the wrist swing was about 40 degrees with the elbow joint as the axis. Today it's around 35 degrees."

Yan Xi paused for half a second with her spatula.

"Do you use angles to remember people's cooking movements?"

"I'll only remember yours."

Yan Xi turned off the stove and scooped out a plate of fried rice with eggs.

As she walked past him with the plate in her hand, she tapped the back of his hand with the back of the spatula.

The force wasn't great. The temperature was there.

"Have a meal."

There were two servings of fried rice on the table. Yan Xi's serving was noticeably smaller.

Li Chen didn't say anything. He knew that even if he did, she wouldn't be more upset.