Discover

The teacher slightly extended the last class before school ended. When Xu Feifei walked out of the classroom, the stairs were crowded with students, noisy and the crowd moved at a snail's pace.

After leaving the classroom, Xu Feifei hurriedly rushed to the library.

Before she even reached the library, she could see Su Huan waiting for her at the entrance.

Xu Feifei jogged over, "Wow, you're so fast! Tell me what new discovery you made!"

"Come with me, I've made a new discovery in a book."

Su Huan led her to a relatively secluded corner, sat down, and handed her the novel, saying, "This book has a bookmark with a string of numbers on it, and the handwriting looks like mine."

Xu Feifei opened the book, glanced at the bookmark, and it read:

3 8 18、58 6 23、34 2 10、......

Completely baffled, digital decryption was never her forte. Xu Feifei frowned, a memory from a spy movie she'd watched earlier flashing through her mind: "Could it be Morse code?"

Su Huan shook her head and said, "It shouldn't be. Isn't Morse code all dots and numbers? This is pure numbers."

Xu Feifei pondered, "Could it be latitude and longitude?"

Su Huan suddenly laughed and said, "Don't overthink it. I'm not that smart. Think of it simply."

"Could it be a correspondence to the alphabet?"

"How could that be? Some of them are over 26."

After repeated guesses were rejected, Xu Feifei sighed in frustration and said, "I don't know how to decipher this kind of thing. Didn't you write this? Have you forgotten everything?"

Su Huan rested her chin on her hand and said helplessly, "If I had guessed it, I would have just told you the answer. We wouldn't be sitting here like this."

Xu Feifei fiddled with the bookmarks in her hands, shining the light through the window, trying to glimpse the secrets hidden within. After looking for a long time, her eyes ached, but she still couldn't figure it out.

"Let me see too." Su Huan watched her fiddling with it in the light and couldn't resist coming closer to look.

"Here you go." Xu Feifei handed over the bookmark. She had inadvertently noticed the school's brochure on the table, picked it up, and casually flipped through it. Most of the brochures introduced the school's excellent buildings and facilities.

When Xu Feifei saw the overall layout of East Lake, she immediately felt that it looked familiar; it seemed to be the logo of Julouge.

So he pointed to a picture of East Lake and said to Su Huan, "Look, doesn't this look like the logo of Julouge?"

Su Huan shook her head and said, "I haven't paid attention to what Julouge's logo looks like."

Xu Feifei flipped through the brochures but couldn't find any information about the restaurant. So she opened her phone, searched the school's official website, found the restaurant's introduction, and showed it to Su Huan.

"Look, doesn't it look just like it?"

Su Huan carefully compared the two and exclaimed in surprise, "It really is! But what's the connection?"

"Let me think. Jupinge and Donghu only appeared because of my arrival. Now, Jupinge's logo has the same layout as Donghu's. Could it be a subtle hint that Donghu is the key to our return?"

"Possibly."

The two were immediately delighted by this new discovery; they had made a small breakthrough. Xu Feifei flipped through the brochure in her hand again, but found nothing new.

Su Huan then held the bookmark up to the window and looked at it again.

Xu Feifei abandoned the promotional brochure and instead flipped through the book. Seeing the corner of the page, she had a flash of inspiration and grabbed the bookmark.

Su Huan looked at the bookmark that had been snatched away and said, "Hey, I haven't finished reading it yet!"

Xu Feifei excitedly said to the book, "I've discovered what the numbers on this bookmark represent."

"What is it?" Su Huan leaned closer to look.

"Look, there are three numbers in a group. The first number represents the page number, the second number represents the line number, and the third number represents the specific word. Judging from the first group of numbers, this should be high."

Su Huan watched as she opened the book and matched the items one by one, her eyes lighting up as she said, "It really is true, I used to be so smart."

After writing down all the characters corresponding to the numbers, they can be put together to form "golf course, sky, whisper".

"Golf course, sky, whispers? Do you know what these mean?" Xu Feifei looked at the bookmark with a puzzled expression. Did they mean she was going to a golf course to watch the sky?

Su Huan tried hard to recall, then shook her head in confusion and said, "I don't know!"

"Does our school have a golf course? Are we allowed to go there to watch the sky change?"

"Golf course? I remember the golf course is gone. After you came, the golf course became East Lake."

“East Lake? That must be the sky over East Lake.” Based on the evidence currently available, Xu Feifei concluded that it all pointed to East Lake.

Su Huan glanced at her watch and said, "Should we go to East Lake now? Maybe we can still see the sunset then!"

Xu Feifei looked out the window. The sky was still bright and not yet dark; she could vaguely see the sun about to set in the distance. She checked her phone and saw it was already 6:45. More than an hour had passed in the library without her realizing it.

Xu Feifei said somewhat anxiously, "Tomorrow, please. I have an appointment tonight, and I'm about to leave now."

Su Huan asked curiously, "Who are you meeting?"

Seeing that they were from the same world, Xu Feifei didn't hide anything and said, "Zhang Jiayi."

"Something's up! I heard from others that Zhang Jiayi likes you and is pursuing you now!" Su Huan teased.

Xu Feifei smiled helplessly, "No, everyone's overthinking it. I'm a bit pressed for time, I'll be going now!"

Su Huan wasn't particularly gossipy and could tell that Xu Feifei didn't have any feelings for Zhang Jiayi, so she said, "Okay, then I'll go over to East Lake first and see if there are any new clues."

As Xu Feifei walked out of the library, she sent a message to Zhang Jiayi: "I've taken care of things here and I'm on my way to the restaurant. You can go now."

The message had just been sent when I received a reply from Zhang Jiayi a short while later.

Zhang Jiayi: No rush, take your time. I'll be waiting for you in the small pavilion private room.

Upon seeing this message, Xu Feifei knew that Zhang Jiayi was waiting for her at the restaurant, so she quickened her pace and headed towards the restaurant.

Unlike outside, students at school eat dinner earlier, so there weren't many people at Julouge at 7 PM. The first floor had just started selling late-night snacks, and since it was still early, the selection wasn't complete yet.

Xu Feifei arrived at the small pavilion and saw Zhang Jiayi sitting in a chair with a plate of snacks on the table. She apologized and said, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

When Zhang Jiayi saw her arrive, his eyes lit up and he said, "It's alright, it's enough that you're here."

"Are you hungry? Have some osmanthus cake to tide you over. What would you like to eat?"

Xu Feifei took the tablet. "Do you have any dietary restrictions? Or is there anything you'd like to eat?"

"No, you can decide. I can eat anything."

Xu Feifei skillfully added several of her favorite dishes to the shopping cart, then showed them to him, "Do you think these are okay?"

Zhang Jiayi glanced at the table and said, "Three dishes seem a bit few?"

"If it's not enough, you can order some more. But don't order too much, it'll be a waste if we can't finish it." Xu Feifei took a piece of osmanthus cake and pushed the plate back between the two of them.

"Can you eat the lobster baked in broth if I add another dish?"

"Can."

After placing the order, the tablet was placed aside, and a brief silence ensued.

Zhang Jiayi found it adorable to watch Xu Feifei's slightly puffed-out cheeks as she ate osmanthus cake.

"How about osmanthus cake? I saw you really liked it last time, so I ordered it this time too."

Last time? Thinking back to the time I went to eat at a private kitchen with Zhang Jiayi, Grandma Xu's osmanthus cake was indeed quite delicious. This time, the osmanthus cake was also good, but it just wasn't quite the same.

"That's right, you should have a piece too."

After Xu Feifei finished eating a piece of osmanthus cake, she looked at Zhang Jiayi, who was hesitating about how to ask him what happened last week, but he just didn't know how to start.

Seeing Xu Feifei staring intently at him, Zhang Jiayi nervously touched his face and asked, "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

"No, did something happen to you last week? You seem to have something on your mind. If you need my help, I will do my best to help you."

Zhang Jia is a lively and cheerful person. When she is unhappy or has something on her mind, it will be written all over her face. She doesn't know how to hide her emotions.

Zhang Jiayi paused in eating the osmanthus cake, stuffed all the cake into her mouth, took a sip of tea, and swallowed it.

He gave a wry smile for a moment, "You noticed? Things were a bit tricky at home last week, so I took a week off."

"Has that matter been resolved?"

Zhang Jiayi shook her head, her eyes dimming slightly, and said, "Not yet, but I can't stay away for too long. My dad told me to come back to school first."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Can we talk about this after we finish eating?" Zhang Jiayi said this with a pleading look in her eyes, clearly not wanting to continue the topic.

Seeing his troubled expression, Xu Feifei quickly said, "Then let's talk about it after we finish eating. I'm not in a hurry."

Just then, the waiter brought the dishes to the table.

Zhang Jiayi's initial forced composure crumbled in an instant. She slumped down, head drooping, eyes vacant as she stared at the bottom of the table.

Seeing that things were not going well, Xu Feifei quickly comforted her, "It's okay, everything will pass. Let's eat first, and then think about how to solve the problem."

"

After saying that, Xu Feifei placed a few pieces of lobster meat on Zhang Jiayi's bowl, "Don't be upset, let's eat first!"

Zhang Jiayi's mood improved a bit when he saw the lobster meat Xu Feifei had put on his plate. He tried a piece, and after more than a week, the food finally started to taste a little better.

To keep him from becoming discouraged, Xu Feifei kept the conversation lively by chatting about this and that.

When she brought up the basketball game, Zhang Jiayi became noticeably more talkative, and her expression visibly brightened.

After they had almost finished eating, Zhang Jiayi finally spoke up, "Feifei, thank you. I really enjoyed chatting with you. Before you came, I was worried that I might pass on my bad mood to you. It seems that it did have an effect."

"It's nothing, just a small favor," Xu Feifei said with a smile.

Zhang Jiayi's smile slowly faded, replaced by nervousness. She stared at her without speaking, her mind racing, trying to figure out how to bring up the matter. She had prepared countless responses in her mind, but simply didn't know how to begin.

Xu Feifei noticed his nervousness and knew he was hesitant. If what Zeng Hao said was true, she would do everything she could to help.

Zhang Jiayi stood up and took out a bouquet of roses from a hidden corner, saying, "Feifei, I like you!"

With a "thud," a piece of osmanthus cake slipped from Xu Feifei's hand and fell onto the table, scattering crumbs everywhere.