[Good student, don’t you know that the transaction is completed only after you receive the money?] [:)] …The transaction is completed, that’s right.

Shi Yan hovered his finger above the screen, and after a moment, he clicked to confirm the payment.

Then, a system prompt pops up automatically.

[You have received 300,000.] After Shi Yan collected the money, he waited quietly for new information to pop up in the dialog box.

But one minute, two minutes, and even five minutes passed, and the person who had just replied immediately did not send another message.

The beautiful white long-haired cat was full and had its fill. It raised its tail and lazily rubbed Shi Yan's calf, then went to the cat scratching board next to the balcony glass door and began to sharpen its claws.

Shi Yan glanced at it, locked the screen and put away his phone, then walked to the switch, turned off the lights in the living room, and walked into his room.

Shi Yan's bedroom was not big. There was a bed on the right hand side of the door and a whole wall of bookshelves on the left hand side. In addition to books, the bookshelves displayed some test certificates and trophies. There was a desk next to the window opposite the door. The desk was very tidy, with the books and test papers neatly stacked. The only other things were a desk lamp and a pen holder.

Shi Yan turned on the desk lamp, sat down, unzipped his schoolbag from behind the chair, and took out a thick exercise book from it.

His habit was to come home from evening self-study every day, wash up, and then continue doing exercises until ten o'clock before going to bed. He didn't have to attend evening self-study today but he still did the same. He put his mobile phone on the table, took out a ballpoint pen from the pen holder, and spread out the exercise book.

Shi Yan is always very focused when doing his homework.

Time passed by minute by minute, and before I knew it, an hour had passed.

It's nine o'clock.

Shi Yan turned over a page of exercises when suddenly, the cell phone in front of him lit up, followed by a buzzing sound.

Shi Yan looked up and was stunned.

It was a voice call.

The person who called was the one who transferred him 300,000 yuan an hour ago.

“…”

Shi Yan took the phone, lowered his eyes and looked at the screen for a while, unable to guess why she would call him.

The ringing sounded as if urging him to do so, and he hesitantly pressed the green button.

"Why did you answer it just now?" The girl's clear voice came through the screen.

Shi Yan didn't say anything, he didn't know what to say.

She clicked her tongue over there: "Can you make a sound?"

"..." Shi Yan was silent for a while: "Is there something wrong?"

She reminded him in a tone of "Are you talking nonsense?" "Our deal has officially begun."

Shi Yan: “Yeah.”

Seeing that he knew, she responded in a good mood on the other end of the phone, and then suddenly said without warning: "You put me to sleep now."

“?!”

Shi Yan's pupils trembled, and he almost thought he had heard it wrong, and was stunned: "...What?"

"Put me to sleep," she repeated clearly, word by word, "Don't you know how to put me to sleep?"

Shi Yan: “…”

Should he, should he? He wondered, "Is this within the scope of 'playing with you'?"

She raised her voice as a matter of course: "I repeat, playing with me means you have to do whatever I tell you to do."

But Shi Yan never expected that the first thing she asked him to do was... to coax her to sleep.

She urged—

"..." The young man, who usually did not show his emotions, sat at his desk, his expression blank for a moment, and said stiffly: "I can't.

The atmosphere was quiet for two seconds, and Sheng Yuan said, "Okay."

Hearing these two words, Shi Yan thought she had given up the idea. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he heard her ask, "What are you doing now?"

"Do the test."

She said "oh", and Shi Yan suddenly had a bad feeling. Sure enough, the next second, the girl's brisk voice came through the receiver: "Then read the questions to me while you do them, just as if it were to coax me to sleep."

“…”

Shi Yan raised his gaze and subconsciously looked at the Chinese exercise book spread out in front of him.

He just happened to get the "Modern Chinese Reading" part. This type of question usually tests the examinee's ability to understand, analyze and summarize. It always gives several long paragraphs of reading materials such as news reports, essays or papers at the beginning.

Compared with math problems, these exercises are very convenient to recite.

But.

But Shi Yan had to read this to someone specifically, even though this person was separated from him by a mobile phone screen, but just thinking about it made him... feel at a loss. Was it too late for him to return the money to her now?

She urged again: "Hurry up."

"..." Shi Yan lowered his eyes and looked at the words in front of him. After a moment, as if he had made up his mind, he opened his mouth and said, "Quantum technology has entered a new historical stage of deepening development and rapid breakthroughs."

The young man's low voice sounded slowly, word by word.

After he finished reading a sentence, his eyelashes twitched slightly. The person on the other end of the phone didn't speak - he guessed that she should be satisfied.

After reciting the first sentence, it becomes much easier to recite the second sentence.

Shi Yan pursed his lips slightly, and spoke more fluently again. He continued: "...There is an urgent need for close cross-disciplinary integration and systematic integration of various key technologies. It has become a broad consensus among major developed countries to integrate scientific and technological resources and concentrate efforts on breakthroughs in the field of quantum technology."

At nine o'clock in the evening, the time on the mobile phone call was ticking second by second. The room was quiet with only a desk lamp on. Only the boy's clean and clear voice was clear.

Sometimes it feels like the texture of being rubbed on matte paper, and sometimes it feels like the cool feeling of striking jade.

Ten minutes later, Shi Yan finished reading the materials for the two reading questions. He stopped and suddenly asked, "How long do I have to finish reading?"

The person on the other end of the phone answered: "About ten o'clock."

I don’t know if it was Shi Yan’s illusion, but the girl’s originally clear voice became soft, with a sleepy feeling, and she seemed to be really... sleeping.

So, what she said about lulling me to sleep was real? She wasn't just kidding.

When she heard him stop, she said, "Go on."

Shi Yan began to read the questions, "Which of the following understandings and analyses of the relevant content of Material 1 is correct? -"

"A, the entire innovation chain of quantum technology includes basic research, applied research, technological research and industrialization. Currently..."

Shi Yan was thinking about the questions as he recited, and in the end he even started to get used to reciting and doing the questions. He read carefully and did the questions carefully, and unknowingly he gradually ignored the unnatural feeling that someone on the other end of the phone was listening to his recitation, and he became more and more fluent.

Before you know it, time has passed.

Shi Yan picked up the pen and selected an option, then looked up and saw that it was already nine fifty-five.

He looked at his phone, and the small floating window of the voice call showed the duration of 00:59:36.

It was quiet on the other end of the line.

Shi Yan continued to read out a few more options and watched the clock point to ten o'clock after a few seconds.

There was still no sound from the other end of the phone, as if he had fallen asleep.