“You don’t.” Yu Jiuyuan met his probing gaze, her eyes like a calm lake.
"The Su family wants to win over the Yuan family's laboratory, and you need me to keep an eye on Yuan Xu for you. After all, your real target isn't the land in the east of the city, but the Yuan family's gene bank, right?"
Rong Shenghan's smile froze for a moment.
Yu Jiuyuan chuckled as she watched his pupils shrink slightly. "The vice president even got the security system diagram of the Yuan family's laboratory. Surely it's not just because he 'happens to know someone in the logistics industry'?"
As she turned to walk toward the astronomy club, Rong Shenghan's voice came from behind her, tinged with a helpless smile: "Is the president so sure that I won't make a move against Yuan Xu?"
“Because you need me to be your ‘shield’.” Yu Jiuyuan’s steps didn’t stop, her voice carried on the wind, “Just like I need Xie Zhecheng to help me deal with the Su family, we have a mutually beneficial relationship now, don’t we?”
Inside the dome-shaped observation room of the Astronomy Club, a star chart projector is projecting the entire Orion Nebula.
Xie Zhecheng squatted in front of the control panel, adjusting the equipment. The hood of his black windbreaker was pulled up, revealing only his well-defined jawline.
“The problem with radians is here.” He pointed to the code flashing on the screen, his fingertips hovering above the keyboard, but he didn’t immediately type. “Do you want me to change it, or will you do it yourself?”
Yu Jiuyuan went behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. Her weight was light, but it made Xie Zhecheng's body tense up instantly, like a fully drawn bowstring.
"Don't move." Her breath brushed against his ear, carrying a faint scent of gardenias. "It's more comfortable for a perfectionist to type on his own keyboard."
Her fingertips rested on the back of his hand, guiding him to press the delete key.
The warm touch penetrated the thin fabric of the windbreaker, and Xie Zhecheng's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, but his typing speed remained perfectly steady.
[Xie Zhecheng: Emotional fluctuations: Positive +3 (currently 26), Neutral -2 (currently 12) (Triggering "physical contact" tolerance increases)]
"Alright." When the nebula pattern on the screen became clear and stable, Yu Jiuyuan released her hand and took a half step back, as if the closeness just now was only for guiding the work. "The afternoon's observations will not be affected."
Xie Zhecheng took off his hat, his forehead damp with sweat.
He watched her place "The History of Celestial Evolution" on the console, with a dried ginkgo leaf tucked inside—the same one she had caught in front of the bulletin board the previous week.
"It's for you." Yu Jiuyuan noticed his gaze and smiled innocently. "You can use it as a bookmark; it's lighter than metal ones."
A commotion arose outside the observation room. Yuan Xu rushed in, clutching his notebook: "Xie Zhecheng! Can I borrow your spectrometer? I want to measure the intensity of starlight radiation..." His voice trailed off when he saw Yu Jiuyuan, and he nearly dropped his notebook.
Yu Jiuyuan smiled and waved to him: "Perfect timing, I'll help you set up the equipment. The data needed for the gene fusion experiment this afternoon can be measured using the spectrometer here."
Yuan Xu's eyes lit up instantly, and her previous unease vanished.
Xie Zhecheng watched the two of them huddled in front of the spectrometer discussing parameters. Suddenly, he picked up the ginkgo leaf and tucked it into his observation notebook. Page 17 was the page where he recorded the data for the Orion Nebula.
The afternoon sun shone through the dome of the observation room, casting dappled patterns of light on the floor.
Xie Zhecheng's star chart software was running, Yuan Xu's experimental data was fluctuating, and when Rong Shenghan sent the message about dealing with the Su family's lawyer's letter, Yu Jiuyuan was helping Yuan Xu calibrate the focus of the spectrometer.
Looking at the three intertwined spectral curves on the screen, she suddenly remembered Rong Shenghan's question from that morning, "What exactly do you want us to become?"
Perhaps, like these spectra, each with its own frequency, they resonate under the same starry sky under her guidance.
Xie Zhecheng's rules are loosening, Yuan Xu's purity is expanding, and Rong Shenghan's disguise is peeling away... All she has to do is stand in front of the control panel, gently turn the knob, and make these curves eventually fall on the frequency band she wants.
As for what kind of "spectrum" will eventually be formed, Yu Jiuyuan watched as Xie Zhecheng quietly tucked the ginkgo leaf bookmark inside even further, a smile playing on her lips that went unnoticed.
The game has only just begun, why rush to see the ending?
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