The afternoon sun in Changbai Mountain filters through the gaps in the pine branches, casting dappled light spots on the snow.
When the convoy stopped at a rest stop, Yu Jiuyuan was applying lip balm in front of the car window. Yuan Xu had specifically told her that ultraviolet rays at altitudes above 3,000 meters would accelerate the loss of moisture from the lips.
"President, President Xie is checking the supplies list and wants you to come over."
Rong Shenghan's voice came from outside the car. He was carrying two bags of hot coffee, his fingertips slightly red from the heat, but he still smiled gently. "Officer Lin said he wanted to eat freshly roasted beef jerky. I'll go check out the convenience store next door."
Yu Jiuyuan opened the car door and took one of the bags of coffee. The warmth seeped through the aluminum foil packaging, just enough to warm her slightly cool fingertips.
The system panel floated in his mind. Rong Shenghan's favorability was 63, and his positive emotion value was stable at 80, like a flame ready to burst into flames, just a little bit away from spreading.
"What does President Xie want with me?" She took a sip of her coffee. The latte's milk foam was delicate, and the sweetness was just her usual 70% sugar. She knew without asking that Rong Shenghan had specifically instructed her to make this coffee.
"It seems there's a slight discrepancy in the observation data."
Rong Shenghan tilted his head towards the wooden cabin at the rest stop. "When I was organizing the star map this morning, I found that a set of aurora spectrum data was 0.3 nanometers different from the preset value. President Xie is frowning at the computer right now."
Yu Jiuyuan raised an eyebrow. Xie Zhecheng's perfectionism bordered on the obsessive. An error of 0.3 nanometers might seem insignificant to others, but in his eyes, it was enough to overturn the entire observation conclusion.
As she walked toward the wooden house, she saw Yuan Xu holding an incubator, squatting in the snow, drawing something with a twig and muttering to herself.
"What are you studying?" She walked over and kicked the snow at his feet.
Yuan Xu suddenly looked up, her glasses sliding down to the tip of her nose, revealing a pair of bright, sparkling eyes: "I'm marking the distribution of microorganisms in the permafrost! Look at the snow profile here, there are blue-green ice crystals, those are metabolic products of psychrophilic bacteria!"
He excitedly pulled Yu Jiuyuan's hand and pressed it into the snow. "Feel it, isn't it colder than other places?"
The snow that my fingertips touched was indeed chilling, like touching a block of ice that had stood for millennia.
Yu Jiuyuan looked at his nose, which was red from the cold, and suddenly remembered the 73 favorability rating on the system panel and the cheerfully jumping positive emotion value. She withdrew her hand, took out a hand warmer from her pocket, and handed it to him: "Stop playing in the snow, your hands are frozen."
Yuan Xu's ears turned bright red instantly. She chuckled as she held the hand warmer, hugging the incubator even tighter into her arms.
"When I get back, I'll culture the strain into a pure line. How about naming it after you? 'Jiuyuan Cryobacterium,' sounds pretty cool, right?"
"It sounds like some kind of germ that causes diarrhea."
Lin Yanran's voice cut in from behind. He was carrying a bag of fancy-packaged beef jerky, and a mocking smile played on his lips. "Yuan Xu, can't you have any normal hobbies? Is it interesting to date bacteria all day long?"
Yuan Xu's face immediately turned red, and she was about to argue while holding the incubator, but Yu Jiuyuan held her shoulder down.
She looked at Lin Yanran, her gaze calm and unwavering: "If you have nothing to do, you can help President Xie organize the data." She paused, her gaze falling on the beef jerky in his hand, "Or, would you rather taste the consequences of disobeying the president's orders right now?"
Lin Yanran's expression changed.
On the system panel, his negative emotion value jumped from 20 to 25, but he swallowed back the rebuttal that was on the tip of his tongue.
Finally, he glared at Yuan Xu fiercely, turned around and walked towards the wooden house, his footsteps so heavy they seemed to pound craters in the snow.
"Ignore him," Yuan Xu said angrily. "He's just jealous that my bacterial strain is more valuable than his beef jerky."
Yu Jiuyuan smiled but didn't reply.
Beneath Lin Yanran's arrogance lies an extreme desire for "recognition." Just now, he could have easily thrown away the beef jerky, but he insisted on carrying it around, simply to get attention for having found something "good."
This childish demeanor is easier to manipulate than Xie Zhecheng's perpetually icy face.
The cabin was well-heated, and Xie Zhecheng was facing the computer screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard.
Three star charts were laid out in front of him, each with different areas circled in red and timestamps accurate to the second marked on the edges.
“There’s a problem here.” Without looking up, he pointed to the spectral curve on the screen. “Theoretically, the hydrogen-alpha line of the aurora should be at 656.3 nanometers, but we measured 656.6, which exceeds the allowable range.”
Yu Jiuyuan leaned closer to look. The blue light from the screen reflected on Xie Zhecheng's face, making the sharp angles of his jawline appear even more cold and hard. His eyelashes were long, casting a faint shadow under his eyes as they fell, surprisingly revealing a touch of humanity.
“It’s possible that the observation equipment is affected by the low temperature.” She pointed to the corner of the screen, where there was a line of small print that read “Equipment compartment temperature -19℃”. “The instruction manual says that electronic components will lag below -15℃.”
Xie Zhecheng's fingers paused, clearly this was the first time someone had found the crux of the problem before he could point it out. He looked up at Yu Jiuyuan, his gaze scrutinizing: "Have you read the equipment manual?"
"I finished reviewing it overnight before we left." Yu Jiuyuan smiled frankly. "As the president of the student council, I can't be completely ignorant of the core equipment of the astronomy club."
This statement was perfectly worded, both praising Xie Zhecheng's expertise and subtly aligning with the speaker's own responsibilities.
On the system panel, Xie Zhecheng's positive emotion value rose from 57 to 59. Although his favorability remained at 10, it was like water flowing under the ice, quietly loosening slightly.
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