Sunlight streamed through the stained glass windows of the St. Cherry Academy Library, casting dappled patterns of light on the floor.

Yu Jiuyuan held a silver-gray fountain pen between her fingers, her gaze fixed on the open student council annual summary report, but her peripheral vision inadvertently swept over the bookshelf diagonally behind her.

Rong Shenghan was standing there, his fingertips tracing a row of gold-embossed book spines, while Tang Nianzhi beside him was talking with her head tilted back. When her hair brushed against his sleeve, he slightly turned to avoid it.

This subtle movement, like a pebble thrown into a lake, created a faint ripple in Yu Jiuyuan's heart. On the system panel, Rong Shenghan's neutral emotion value jumped from 7 to 9, while his positive emotion value remained stable at 90.

"President Yu is here too?" Tang Nianzhi saw her first, waved and greeted her with a smile, her tone as intimate as if they had known each other for a long time.

"I'm asking Brother Shenghan to help me find a hardcover edition of 'A Brief History of Time,' because British libraries only have paperback versions."

Yu Jiuyuan closed the book and stood up, her gaze falling on the dark blue-covered book in Rong Shenghan's hand.

"A signed copy of Stephen Hawking's book? The Astronomy Society's archives have a more complete set, the first edition collected by President Xie, with a photo of him and Hawking on the title page."

Tang Nianzhi's eyes lit up: "Really? Can I go and take a look?"

“I’m afraid that won’t work,” Yu Jiuyuan said with a gentle smile. “President Xie never lends out his private collection. Even when I tried to borrow it for a club exhibition last time, he refused on the grounds that he was afraid of damaging it.”

She paused, then looked at Rong Shenghan, "But perhaps the vice president has a solution? After all, you're friends."

Rong Shenghan ran his fingertips along the spine of the book, his smile unchanged: "You know Xie Zhecheng's temper. Once he's made up his mind, no one can change it."

He handed the book to Tang Nianzhi, "Take a look at this one first? I have annotations in it."

When Tang Nianzhi took the book, she deliberately brushed her fingertips against his palm, a sweet blush spreading across her face: "Brother Shenghan is still the best to me."

As Yu Jiuyuan watched this scene, she suddenly recalled the scene she had seen in the biology club yesterday. The luminescent fungus cultivated by Yuan Xu shone with a faint blue hue under ultraviolet light, and the light in Tang Nianzhi's eyes at that time was exactly the same as it was now.

They are all delicate and pampered, yet they possess an unconscious aggressiveness.

“By the way,” Yu Jiuyuan said casually, “Yuan Xu said that the fluorescent fungus he cultivates needs to be irradiated by a light source of a specific wavelength. I asked President Xie to send over the spectrometer parameters this afternoon. Would you like to go and take a look together? It will be useful for calibrating the holographic projection.”

When Yuan Xu was mentioned, Tang Nianzhi's smile faded a little: "I don't know much about biological experiments and such."

“It’s very interesting,” Yu Jiuyuan said, her eyes crinkling. “Don’t you like the starry sky? The fluorescence spectrum of those fungi under the spectrometer looks just like the star trails of Orion. Yuan Xu said that he improved the strains he extracted from permafrost samples from Changbai Mountain.”

Sure enough, Tang Nianzhi's curiosity was piqued: "Does it really look like the starry sky?"

“Go and see for yourself.” Yu Jiuyuan turned and walked out of the library. She heard Rong Shenghan say to Tang Nianzhi behind her, “Don’t run around.” His tone was more indulgent than usual.

The laboratory of the biology club was filled with the sweet aroma of culture media.

Yuan Xu was leaning over the operating table, using a pipette to add reagents to a petri dish. A few specks of fluorescent green were stained on the cuffs of her white coat, like stray starlight.

Seeing them enter, he paused in his actions, adjusting his slipping glasses: "You're here?"

“Yuanxu, show Niannian your fluorescence spectrum?” Yu Jiuyuan walked to his side, her gaze falling on the colorful curves on the computer screen. “She said she really wants to know the connection between fungi and the starry sky.”

Yuan Xu's gaze lingered briefly on Tang Nianzhi before turning to the screen, his tone serious: "This is the fluorescence emission spectrum measured using Xie Zhecheng's spectrometer. The peak is at 480 nanometers, close to the blue-white wavelength of Beta Orionis." He pulled up another image, "This is star orbit data observed from Changbai Mountain, take a look..."

Pointing to two almost overlapping curves, his eyes gleamed with enthusiasm for scientific research: "Aren't they very similar? The spectral patterns in nature are always strikingly similar."

Tang Nianzhi leaned closer to the screen to take a look, but she was clearly not interested in the data. She just gave a perfunctory compliment, "Wow, that's amazing," and then turned to Rong Shenghan.

"Brother Shenghan, I want to go see the stage design for the New Year's Eve party that you mentioned. I just saw workers setting up scaffolding outside the stadium."

Rong Shenghan was about to respond when Yu Jiuyuan interrupted, "I'm going to check the stage dimensions anyway, shall we go together? Lin Yanran should be there too; he's in charge of volunteer assignments, so he might be able to save you the best viewing spot."

Mentioning Lin Yanran, Tang Nianzhi frowned: "Is that the rude boy from yesterday?"

“He’s just a bit straightforward,” Yu Jiuyuan said with a frank smile. “Actually, he’s not a bad person. During the last observation at Changbai Mountain, he volunteered to help the astronomy club carry the heaviest equipment box. Although he got scolded a couple of times for not arranging it according to President Xie’s instructions.”

The stadium was filled with the clanging sounds of metal clashing.

Lin Yanran was standing on a ladder pasting volunteer job lists. The red paper rustled in the wind. He held onto the ladder with one hand and pressed down on the paper with the other, his cursing voice could be heard from afar.

"What kind of lousy glue is this! It won't even stick..."

"Do you need any help?" Yu Jiuyuan asked loudly.

Lin Yanran looked down and saw her, her face immediately falling: "President, you've finally arrived, this mess..."

Before she could finish speaking, her gaze swept over Tang Nianzhi behind her, and her tone instantly turned sarcastic, "Oh, so the young lady from England is here to inspect the work?"

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