The afternoon sun slanted through the observation window of the astronomy club at three o'clock, casting narrow patches of light on the floor.
Xie Zhecheng was standing in front of the spectrometer calibrating the parameters, his fingertips turning the knob with the precision of a pre-programmed sequence.
Several star charts from observations of Changbai Mountain were spread out on the table, the pencil-marked trajectories sharp and sharp, bearing the marks of his consistent perfectionism.
"President Xie, has the application been approved?"
Yu Jiuyuan's voice was like silk soaked in warm water, gently brushing across the quiet laboratory.
When Xie Zhecheng looked up, he saw that she was wearing a beige cashmere coat, with a scarf loosely draped around her neck, and a few unmelted snowflakes stuck to the ends of her hair, like scattered diamonds.
He pointed to the folder on the corner of the table: "It's signed. The spectrometer can only be used from 2 pm to 4 pm on Wednesdays. Going beyond that will affect the Jupiter observations that night."
“That’s enough,” Yu Jiuyuan walked over, picked up the folder, and smiled as her fingertips traced his strong signature. “President Xie’s handwriting is just like him; his strokes have a cold, hard edge.”
Xie Zhecheng didn't reply, his gaze returning to the spectrometer's display screen, where the blue waveform was slowly pulsating.
His ears felt slightly hot; when she spoke, her breath gently brushed against his wrist, carrying a faint scent of cedar, like the wind that swept across the observation station in the dead of night in Changbai Mountain.
The system panel flashed in Yu Jiuyuan's mind: Xie Zhecheng's neutral sentiment value rose from 15 to 17, while the positive sentiment value remained at 100.
She tapped her fingertips lightly on the edge of the folder, then suddenly leaned closer.
The distance between the two instantly shortened, and he could clearly see the tiny specks of dust on his eyelashes, and a fleeting look of surprise in his usually indifferent eyes behind his glasses.
“Actually,” Yu Jiuyuan said in a low voice, as if she were hiding a secret, “that night in Changbai Mountain, I saw you adjusting equipment in the snow.”
Xie Zhecheng paused for a moment: "Hmm."
“It’s minus twenty degrees Celsius, and you’re only wearing a single layer of clothing.” Her gaze fell on his neck, where the skin was faintly visible beneath his turtleneck sweater.
"Later, Yuan Xu said that you stood in the blizzard for a full forty minutes to protect the spectrometer."
Xie Zhecheng's Adam's apple bobbed, as if he wanted to say "it's my duty," but he was interrupted by her next action.
Yu Jiuyuan suddenly tiptoed and gently kissed his cheek.
It was very light, like the touch of snowflakes on the skin, with a faint honey scent from her lips.
Xie Zhecheng froze, as if a pause button had been pressed.
The beeping of the spectrometer became muffled in his ears, but he could clearly hear his own heart pounding, like the pulsar signal he had captured during his observations at Changbai Mountain—regular yet deafening.
Yu Jiuyuan had already taken a half step back, her face still bearing that innocent and harmless smile, as if the sudden kiss just now was merely a harmless joke.
"President Xie, don't be angry," she said, shaking the folder in her hand. "Consider it... a token of my gratitude for lending us the equipment."
Xie Zhecheng snapped back to reality, raised his hand to cover his cheek where he had been touched, and felt a burning heat on his fingertips.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but saw Yu Jiuyuan had already turned and walked towards the door, the hem of her beige coat sweeping across the ground, stirring up a very light breeze.
"See you on Wednesday." She turned around and waved to him, her smile as bright as the sun after a snowfall.
The door was gently closed, and only the hum of the instruments remained in the laboratory.
Xie Zhecheng stood still, his fingertips still resting on his cheek.
The data on the system panel fluctuated wildly where he couldn't see it. Favorability jumped from 10 to 15, neutral sentiment plummeted to 5, while positive sentiment broke through the threshold of 100 and got stuck on a glaring red number.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, but his gaze involuntarily followed the receding figure outside the window.
At that moment, Rong Shenghan was standing under the camphor tree diagonally opposite the observation window.
Tang Nianzhi's voice was still chattering in my ear: "Brother Shenghan, look, that squirrel is so fat! Squirrels in England are all gray, they don't have such beautiful red fur..."
His gaze, however, seemed fixed on the window of the astronomy club.
The scene just now was so clear, like a slow-motion replay: the arc of Yu Jiuyuan's tiptoeing, Xie Zhecheng's shoulders stiffening instantly, and that abrupt yet burning kiss on her pale cheek.
The snow started falling again at some point, and large snowflakes landed on his black coat, quickly melting into a dark water stain.
The smile on his face remained the same, but the gentleness in his eyes was like a frozen lake, covered with an invisible layer of ice.
"Shenghan-ge? What's wrong?" Tang Nianzhi finally noticed his absent-mindedness and followed his gaze, only to see an empty observation window. "What are you looking at?"
Rong Shenghan looked away and reached out to brush the snowflakes from her hair, but the temperature of his fingertips was a few degrees lower than usual: "It's nothing, it's just windy. I'll take you to a coffee shop to sit for a while."
As he turned around, his gaze inadvertently swept towards the direction of the astronomy club.
Yu Jiuyuan had just walked out of the laboratory and was waving to Xie Zhecheng by the window. Sunlight fell on her face, and her smile was so pure that it seemed she had never had any ulterior motives.
The system panel exploded with dazzling data in Rong Shenghan's mind: next to the number 64 in favorability, the negative emotion value jumped out of 0 for the first time, slowly and steadily climbing to 3, while the positive value dropped from 90 to 87.
The snow fell heavier and heavier, quickly covering the spot where the two had just stood.
The branches of the camphor tree swayed gently in the wind, and snowflakes fell softly, as if concealing some secret.
When Yu Jiuyuan reached the intersection, she deliberately slowed down.
She knew Rong Shenghan was watching, and she also knew Xie Zhecheng was still standing by the window. Her fingertips caressed the warm folder, and she felt as if she could touch the subtly changing chessboard in this silent game.
Xie Zhecheng's 15 points of favorability were like a pebble thrown into an icy lake, while Rong Shenghan's 3 points of negative emotion were like cracks quietly spreading beneath the ice.
She looked up at the leaden sky, snowflakes landing on her tongue, carrying a crisp, sweet taste.
This game finally took its first real turn in the snowy December weather.
But she had already prepared her next move.
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