Afternoons at St. Cherry Academy are always bathed in a honey-colored glow. The spire of the Gothic clock tower pierces the clouds, and white doves flit across the neatly trimmed velvet lawn, leaving behind a few leisurely cooing sounds.
Yu Jiuyuan, carrying the sketchbook she had just borrowed from the art studio, walked along the stone path leading to her dormitory. Her ivory-white skirt swept past the blooming hydrangeas by the roadside, carrying a faint fragrance.
She walked very slowly, the pearl hair chain at the end of her hair swaying gently with each step. The lines of her profile were as soft as if kissed by moonlight, and a faint smile hung at the corner of her lips. This was the "standard portrait" tailor-made for her Saint Sakura Academy.
The boys walking towards her hurriedly stopped their playful antics, and she nodded in response, her eyes slightly upturned, her smile just the right amount of gentleness without appearing frivolous, perfectly embodying the demeanor expected of a lady from a distinguished family.
[System Notification: New romanceable character detected – Yuan Xu. Identity: Top special admission student in the Department of Biological Sciences, Saint Sakura Academy, specializing in plant neural signal research. Initial Affection: 0.]
The mechanical voice in her mind rang out without warning just as Yu Jiuyuan was catching a falling sycamore leaf.
The moment her fingertips touched the veins of the leaf, she even gave Xie Zhecheng, who was waving from not far away, a playful wink, the movement as natural as breathing.
Yuan Xu. This name briefly lingered in her memory.
At the opening ceremony, he spoke as a representative of the specially admitted students, but skipped all the school leaders during the thank-you speech, only saying to a certain direction in the audience: "Thank you for the soil that nurtured the 'Moonlight Grass'."
The entire room erupted in uproar. Rong Shenghan, sitting diagonally behind her, chuckled and said, "These days, there are still people who treat plants like ancestors."
At this moment, the system marked him as a new target, adding a bit of uncertainty to this "strategy game".
Yu Jiuyuan changed direction and headed towards the laboratory building. She remembered that the biology department's specimen library was on the top floor, where the lights were always on, and it was said that there was always a figure spending time there.
As you push open the wooden door of the herbarium, a scent mixed with formalin and dried flower petals wafts out.
Huge glass cases stand along the wall, displaying a variety of plant specimens, from prehistoric ferns to rare tropical orchids, with labels written in neat, printed characters.
Sure enough, there was a person sitting behind the long table by the window.
Yuan Xu wasn't wearing the iconic velvet uniform of Saint Sakura Academy, but rather a light gray hoodie with a few dark brown stains on the cuffs, like dried soil.
He was bending down, using a dissecting needle to part the stamen of a white lily of the valley, his movements as light as if he were disassembling a precision instrument. His black-rimmed glasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose, but he didn't raise his hand to push them up; his gaze remained fixed on the flower, his eyelashes casting a small shadow beneath his eyes.
Yu Jiuyuan walked over quietly, and when she was three meters away, she deliberately let one of the picture books in her arms slip off.
With a soft "click," Yuan Xu finally stopped moving. He looked up, his gaze from behind his glasses sweeping over us, devoid of warmth, as if he were observing bacteria that had intruded into a petri dish.
"Sorry," Yu Jiuyuan quickly bent down to pick up the books, her voice as soft as cotton, "I was walking too fast and didn't see anyone here."
She stood up straight, holding the picture book, her face displaying just the right amount of apology, but her gaze "inadvertently" fell on the long table.
Besides the dissection tools, there was a row of small glass vials containing a clear liquid labeled "Lily of the Valley Neurotransmitter Extract," next to which was a hand-drawn waveform diagram with peak values marked with time points accurate to milliseconds.
Yuan Xu didn't speak, but simply lowered her head again and continued to separate the flower's stamens with a dissecting needle. The metal needle tip collided with the glass petri dish, making a soft "ting" sound, as if shooing away uninvited guests.
Yu Jiuyuan didn't leave. She stared at the row of small bottles, then suddenly exclaimed "Oh!" with surprise in her voice: "Is this lily of the valley? I have a lot of them in my garden, but I've never seen this kind of white one before. The edges of the petals seem to have a fine silver shimmer."
Yuan Xu paused, her dissecting needle still.
He turned his head, his gaze finally settling on her face for the first time: "It's a genetically modified variety. The phosphorus content in its petal cells is 3.7 times that of ordinary lily of the valley, and it fluoresces under ultraviolet light." His voice was flat, as if he were reading a lab report. "The 'fine shimmer' you mentioned is the result of light reflection."
Yu Jiuyuan's expression suddenly dawned on her, her eyes widening: "So that's how it is! I thought it had mutated."
She leaned in half a step and pointed to a trough on the waveform. "Does this mean its nerve signals have weakened? Last week in biology class, the teacher talked about how plants also have stress responses, like this?"
Her fingertips hovered two centimeters from the drawing, not daring to touch it, her eyes filled with a childlike curiosity.
Yuan Xu's gaze fell on the trough next to her fingertip, and her Adam's apple bobbed: "It's a signal fluctuation after being eaten by aphids. Lily of the valley releases volatile substances to notify surrounding plants, and this trough is the interval of signal transmission, lasting 0.8 seconds."
He suddenly looked up at her, "Did you understand?"
“I only understood a little bit,” Yu Jiuyuan stuck out her tongue and gave an embarrassed smile. “My biology grades are terrible; I almost failed the last test.”
She hugged the picture book in her arms closer to her, revealing the cover of "Illustrated Guide to European Garden Plants". "Actually, I came here to do some research. I want to plant some new flowers in my garden. I heard that the herbarium here has the most complete plant archives?"
This statement was half true and half false. The plants in the Yu family garden were all taken care of by professionals, but she did have the housekeeper check before she came that Yuan Xu would be here every Wednesday afternoon to study plant nerve signals.
Yuan Xu's gaze swept over the illustrated guide in her arms, then fell back on the lily of the valley on the table: "The herbarium's archives are on the second floor. You can search by entering the scientific name. However, if you want to plant it in the garden, you need to consider the soil pH and the duration of sunlight."
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