Like light falling in

As autumn deepened, the sycamore leaves outside the window began to turn yellow, occasionally a few swirling and drifting down. Lin Xiyan had slowly grown accustomed to the rhythm of the university campus. Classrooms, labs, cafeterias, libraries, dormitories. It was monotonous, yet fulfilling.

After Introduction to Psychology, human anatomy and biochemistry followed. Medical students' schedules were packed, and thick textbooks and endless notetaking took up nearly all of their spare time. Sometimes, they would sit in the library for an entire afternoon, only to look up to see the lights outside the window already turning on.

He still didn't actively engage in conversation, but at least he wasn't as overwhelmed by the noise around him as he had been at the beginning of the school year. Lu Panji and He Yunling were indeed like two gate gods, or rather, two overactive alarms, always appearing at the last second before Lin Xiyan was about to be isolated.

"Xiyan! Let's go! Anatomy Building! If you're any late, all the good seats will be taken!" Lu Panji's loud voice rang out downstairs in the dormitory building, with great penetrating power.

Lin Xiyan closed the book she was reading, put on her backpack, and went downstairs. He Yunling was already waiting there, holding three cups of soy milk. "Here, no sugar," he handed over a cup.

"Thank you...thank you." Lin Xiyan took it, and the warm wall of the cup warmed her slightly cool fingertips.

On the way to the anatomy building, Lu Panji continued to chatter, complaining about nearly failing the specimen-handling exam the previous day and dreaming of where to go this weekend for better food. He Yunling would occasionally add a sharp tongue, and the two would argue all the way. Lin Xiyan walked quietly between them, listening to the noise that had nothing to do with her, but feeling strangely at peace. It was as if the presence of these two voices dispelled much of the chill of loneliness that lurked deep within her, sometimes surfacing.

The anatomy lab was filled with the distinctive, pungent, yet sobering smell of formalin. Lin Xiyan donned a white lab coat and gloves and stood at the operating table. Most of the students around him were gathered in study groups, whispering quietly. He remained alone, poring over the diagrams and specimens, but he didn't feel awkward. Silence was his most familiar state.

He picked up the tweezers and carefully peeled away the model of nerves and blood vessels, so focused that it seemed as if the entire world was reduced to the delicate structure before him. That was until the phone in his pocket began to vibrate gently, rhythmically—not a call, not a message, but a certain rhythm. One, two, a pause, then another.

It’s Jiang Yibai.

He hadn't known when this was a secret code, a code that belonged only to the two of them. It meant, "What are you doing?" or "Are you okay?" It was a way of acknowledging his presence without disturbing him.

Lin Xiyan paused his movements and exhaled lightly. He put down the tweezers, took off one glove, took out his phone, and quickly replied with two words:

Experiment.

After thinking about it, he added:

【smoothly. 】

He clicked send. Then he turned his phone to completely silent, put his gloves back on, and immersed himself in the "vascular jungle" before him. He knew that after Jiang Yibai received the message, he would not send another message to disturb him. This tacit understanding, silent and unspoken, firmly connected the two people who were separated by distance.

At lunch in the cafeteria, Lu Panji once again dominated the conversation. He was raptly recounting an embarrassing incident involving a senior student in the lab when Lin Xiyan's phone screen lit up. It was a photo sent by Jiang Yibai. There was no text. The photo showed a mottled, old wall, its paint peeling, revealing the varying shades of brick red beneath. Sunlight slanted in from the side, casting long, oddly shaped shadows across the wall, creating an intense contrast between light and shadow.

Lin Xiyan looked at the photo and put down his chopsticks. He didn't understand photography composition or technique, but he could sense a quiet yet powerful force in the photo. Just like Jiang Yibai, he appeared cold and hard on the outside, but within him was a keen eye for beauty and a persistent pursuit of beauty that others couldn't detect.

"Brother Jiang, are you handing out homework again?" Lu Panji leaned over to take a look, then retreated as if he was used to it. "You're shooting at walls and pillars every day, and you don't feel bored."

He Yunling ate his meal slowly and said calmly, "You don't understand the world of artists."

Lin Xiyan didn't say anything, saved the photo, and then replied with a simple emoticon, a small sun.

He had no classes in the afternoon, so he went to the library as usual. He found his usual seat by the window and spread out his biochemistry notes. Those complex metabolic pathways and molecular formulas were like a tangled ball of thread, requiring immense patience to untangle bit by bit.

He was frowning over a problem calculating the energy of the tricarboxylic acid cycle when his phone screen lit up again. This time it was a video call request.

Lin Xiyan looked around. The library was very quiet. He picked up his phone, hesitated for a moment, and finally answered the call. However, he quickly turned the volume down and put on his headphones.

The screen lit up, the image wobbling slightly before stabilizing. Jiang Yibai's face appeared on the screen, against a backdrop of what seemed to be a noisy exhibition hall or studio. In the distance, figures could be seen moving around, and large photographs hung on the wall. He looked a little tired, with a faint blue tinge under his eyes, but his gaze remained sharp.

He didn't say anything, just pointed the camera at himself, then tilted his head slightly and gestured to the surrounding environment.

Lin Xiyan understood that he was showing him his "world". He nodded slightly to show that he saw it.

The corners of Jiang Yibai's mouth seemed to curl slightly, and then the camera shifted and began to move slowly. He seemed to be strolling, the camera sweeping across a series of black and white and color photographs, some of which were magnificent natural scenery, some were tense city streets, and some were close-ups of people whose eyes hid stories.

Lin Xiyan watched quietly, following Jiang Yibai's gaze through the small screen as he explored this completely unfamiliar art field. He couldn't understand the technical aspects, but he could feel the emotions conveyed by the images—loneliness, passion, tranquility, and fragmentation.

The camera finally stopped in front of a work of art. It seemed to be a dilapidated wooden window, its glass half shattered and covered in thick dust. But through the broken gap, one could see a small patch of dazzling blue sky and a dead tree standing stubbornly against the wind.

The picture has a kind of incomplete beauty and a kind of vitality that breaks through constraints.

Jiang Yibai's camera lingered on the work for a long moment. Then, his deep voice came through the headphones, carrying a subtle hum of electricity and a subtle hint of... inquiry?

"How about this one?"

Lin Xiyan was stunned. He hadn't expected Jiang Yibai to ask for his opinion. He was a complete layman when it came to photography.

He looked at the broken window and the blue sky on the screen, and something in his heart was gently touched. He thought of his cold, shabby rental house, and the days when he could not see the light of day. This scene was a bit like the state he was in before he met Jiang Yibai: broken, gloomy, but with a hint of... hope?

He pursed his lips and said into the microphone in a very soft voice that only the two of them could hear:

"……nice."

After a pause, he added, his voice even softer, yet with a certainty that he himself was not aware of:

"Like... light fell in."

There was silence on the other end of the headset for a few seconds. Then, Jiang Yibai let out a very low, almost whispered laugh. It was so short, it was almost inaudible.

"Yeah." He only replied with one word.

The camera turned back to his face. He looked at her, his purple eyes appearing particularly deep in the dim light of the exhibition hall.

"Still in the library?" he asked.

"...Yeah." Lin Xiyan turned the camera slightly so that he could see his spread-out notes and the darkening sky outside the window.

"Go ahead and do your thing." Jiang Yibai said, "I'm hanging up."

"……good."

The video call ended. The screen went dark, revealing Lin Xiyan's bewildered face. Jiang Yibai's low laugh and the look he gave her at the end seemed to still echo in her ears.

An inexplicable emotion surged within him. It seemed as if... for the first time, he had truly, slightly, touched upon Jiang Yibai's unfamiliar world of "photography." And, it seemed... he had given him a satisfying answer?

This realization gave him a faint, strange sense of accomplishment.

He lowered his head again, looking at the daunting biochemistry problem. His pen moved unconsciously across the draft paper, and the photo of the broken window and blue sky flashed repeatedly in his mind.

The light fell in.

Just like Jiang Yibai, who fell into his dark life unexpectedly.

He picked up his pen and began to calculate again. His thoughts seemed a little clearer than before.

The sky outside the window had completely darkened, and the lights in the library lit up one by one, like stars scattered in the ocean of knowledge.

Lin Xiyan stretched his stiff neck, packed up his things, and walked out of the library.

The night wind, with its late autumn chill, blew against his face. He took out his phone and habitually opened the chat interface with Jiang Yibai, wanting to tell him, "I'm back to the dormitory."

His finger paused on the send button. He deleted the words he had typed, opened the camera, and took a blurry, haloed photo of his long shadow under the street light.

Then, he clicked on the special vibration mode that belonged only to one person and set it to send.

After doing all this, he put his phone back in his pocket, put his hands in his coat pockets, and slowly walked towards the dormitory building.

The pace is neither fast nor slow.

He knew that somewhere in another city, someone would receive this blurry photo.

Some people will know that he is on his way back to "home".

That's enough.