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

Li Chen's hand stopped on the action of zipping up the zipper.

"You'll take me?"

"What, you're allowed to pick me up, but I'm not allowed to drop you off?"

"no--"

"1:50. Don't be late."

Yan Xi is gone.

The hem of her coat swayed slightly in the wind. Her pace was 112 steps per minute. He counted them.

My phone vibrated. It was from group 302.

[Wang Qiang: Brother Chen, where did you go? Can I eat your osmanthus cake?]

[Chen Mo: He's at the Cainiao Post Station. He picked up a package sent from Beijing. Judging from the sender's address, it's an item he previously ordered from a silver workshop.]

[Wang Qiang: How did you know the return address?]

[Chen Mo: He mentioned it last night. I remembered.]

[Zhao Zixuan: Cup holders? Those silver cup holders?]

Li Chen replied in the group chat.

[Li Chen: We've arrived. Her name is engraved on the bottom of my phone. My name is engraved on the bottom of hers.]

The group was silent for fifteen seconds.

[Wang Qiang: Damn, this is so sweet!]

[Chen Mo: Records—the act of engraving names on items and exchanging them is essentially a symbolic transfer of ownership. Both parties embed their self-identification into each other's everyday objects through the act of engraving.]

[Wang Qiang: Can't you speak like a normal person?]

Chen Mo: It's very sweet.

Wang Qiang: That's more like it.

Li Chen locked the screen. He put the cup holder's cloth bag into the inside pocket of his coat.

It was placed in the same spot as Yan Xi.

It was pressed against my chest.

1:48 PM. At the entrance of the teaching building.

Yan Xi was already there when Li Chen arrived.

She leaned against a pillar in the porch.

Holding a cup of hot drink in my hand.

It wasn't for myself—a note on the lid read, "62 degrees. Sugar-free."

His water temperature.

"You're two minutes early." Li Chen took the cup.

"You're three minutes early." Yan Xi glanced at his shoes. "The laces were loose. Left shoe."

Li Chen lowered his head. Indeed.

He squatted down to tie his shoelaces. Yan Xi stood beside him.

"You walked around the playground after you came back from the post station today."

Li Chen paused, his hand still tying his shoelaces. "How did you know?"

"The rubber track granules on the soles of your shoes have more on the outside of your right foot than your left. When you run around the track counter-clockwise, your right foot is on the outer edge, so it has a larger contact area."

He stood up.

Why are you circling the playground?

"Thinking about things."

"What are you thinking about?"

He looked at her.

"Why did you arrive before me?"

Yan Xi's eyelashes fluttered.

"Because I want to see you walk towards me."

She turned around after she finished speaking.

"Go in. Don't be late."

Her hand brushed against his little finger as she turned around.

Then go.

Li Chen stood under the porch. The hot drink in the cup was barley tea. Sixty-two degrees Celsius.

She wrote the temperature on a sticky note.

But he knew after taking a sip—it wasn't 62 degrees. It was 60 degrees.

She deliberately wrote it two degrees higher. Because it takes him one and a half minutes to walk from the door to the classroom. A hot drink cools down by about 1.3 degrees Celsius per minute. After one and a half minutes, it will be exactly 60 degrees Celsius.

She calculated the time it took him to walk.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

[Yan Xi: How's the barley tea?]

[Li Chen: Sixty degrees. You wrote sixty-two.]

The typing prompts from the other side appeared. Then disappeared.

Finally, he sent a single word.

Yan Xi: Mm.

He knew. That "hmm" meant—

You guessed right. But I won't praise you.

He put his phone back in his pocket and walked into the teaching building.

The cup holder sits on my chest, swaying slightly with each step.

Her name was intertwined with his heartbeat.

……

Saturday.

Li Chen woke up at 6:10. Yan Xi sent the message at 6:08.

[Yan Xi: I'll cook for you in your dorm today. (06:08)]

He looked at it for three seconds.

[Li Chen: There is no kitchen in 302.]

[Yan Xi: You borrowed the kitchen in room 208 of the building next door last semester. The key is in the second compartment of your pen holder.]

He reached out and touched the pen holder. The second compartment.

The key is there.

[Li Chen: How did you know where the key was?]

[Yan Xi: Last time you took the key, your right hand was extended 15 degrees to the left of the table. Your pen holder was 12 degrees to the left of the table. The 3-degree difference is because you made a slight adjustment while extending your hand. The adjustment was downwards. This means the key is not on top of the pen holder, but in the second compartment.]

Li Chen pressed the phone against his face.

She conducted such a complete ballistic analysis just to locate a key.

[Yan Xi: 9 o'clock. 208. I'll buy the ingredients. You're in charge of preheating the stove.]

[Li Chen: What are you doing?]

[Yan Xi: You promised to cook for me every weekend. Today I'll cook with you. You teach me.]

She was referring to a promise he made after arriving in Nanxi Ancient Town.

I go to her place every weekend to cook.

However, her dormitory building is under renovation this semester, and the communal kitchen is closed.

So she changed the location to his place.

He got up, washed up, went to room 208, found the emergency spare key beforehand, and opened the door.

The kitchen wasn't big. There was a double stove and a sink. A thin layer of dust had accumulated on the spice rack.

He wiped the stove twice.

I wiped the spice rack three times.

The pool was scrubbed with a steel wool pad.

The gas pipeline was inspected.

I tested the fire. The left stove has a higher heat output. The right stove has a more even heat output.

He stood in front of the stove and thought for a moment.

Yan Xi likes to stand on the right when chopping vegetables.

Because she is right-handed, the control panel on her right, which is against the wall, is wider, so her elbow won't touch her.

He stands on the left. He uses the stove on the left.

He placed the two cutting boards side by side. Hers was on the right.

8:55.

My phone vibrated.

[Yan Xi: We've arrived. Where is 208?]

[Li Chen: Go into the building next door, turn right, and go all the way to the end.]

A minute later, there was a knock on the door.

Yan Xi stood at the door. She was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. Her hair was tied in a high ponytail. She was carrying a canvas bag in her left hand.

He was holding two aprons in his right hand.

He recognized the two aprons.

On the hook in the kitchen of his home in Beijing. That's where he put the label.

"Did you bring the apron back from the capital?"

"Your mom sent it." Yan Xi walked in and placed the canvas bag on the counter. "She slipped it in when she sent the package last week. She said the school aprons weren't clean."

She unfolded her apron. Two. One dark, one light. The dark one was his. The light one was the one she had used in the capital.

"You tie it first." Yan Xi handed over the dark apron.

Li Chen took it. He went around to his back and tied it.

Yan Xi glanced at it for a second.

"It's crooked."

She walked over and stood in front of him. She reached behind his waist, untied the belt, and re-fastened it. Her fingers lingered on his lower back for two seconds.

"You buttoned it the wrong way. At home, you button it with your right hand around your left. Just now, you were buttoning it with your left hand around your right."

"Maybe it's because of different habits—"

"When you cook at home, you face the south-facing stove. Here, the stove faces north. Your muscle memory follows that direction."

She fastened her belt and patted his lower back.

"alright."

Li Chen glanced down. The button was positioned two centimeters to the left of his waist, the same as in the capital.

"Your mom taught me how to tie it." Yan Xi picked up her light-colored apron. She put it over her head and wrapped her hands behind her back.

Li Chen reached out his hand.

"I'll do it."

Yan Xi stopped. She didn't turn around.

He walked behind her and took the apron strap from her hand. He then slipped his left hand through her right side, around to the front, and tied a slipknot.

"A slipknot?" Yan Xi looked down at it.

"You like to take off your apron quickly after cooking. A tight knot takes you ages to untie. A slipknot comes off with a single pull."

Yan Xi had a fine layer of downy hair on the back of his neck. His knuckles brushed against that spot when he tied his belt.

She didn't move.

"Where are the ingredients?" Li Chen took a step back.

Yan Xi took things out of the canvas bag. Eggs. Tomatoes. A block of tofu. A bunch of scallions. A box of fresh shrimp.

"Tomato and egg stir-fry. Shrimp and tofu." She arranged the ingredients in order: tomatoes on the left, eggs in the middle, and tofu on the right.

"Your arrangement is deliberate."