The biology lab at Saint Sakura Academy is always filled with the smell of formaldehyde in the early morning.
When Yu Jiuyuan pushed open the glass door, Yuan Xu was lying on the dissection table, holding a translucent butterfly pupa with tweezers in her hand, her movements as gentle as if she were protecting a fragile crystal.
"Waiting to pupate?" She walked over quietly, the hem of her white coat sweeping across the ground, stirring up fine dust.
On the dissection table, in the petri dish, the begonia seedlings stretched out their cotyledons, the edges of the leaves glowing with a strange fluorescence, the result of Yuan Xu's genetic modification of fireflies last week.
Yuan Xu suddenly looked up, his glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose, but he didn't bother to push them up: "President! Look at this!" He pointed to the silver thread at the end of the pupa's tail, "The clearwing moth's emergence time was three hours earlier than expected, and the gene sequence is indeed as you predicted!"
Yu Jiuyuan leaned closer to observe, her fingertip lightly touching the edge of the petri dish: "A temperature fluctuation of 0.5℃ will accelerate metabolism. Did you forget to calibrate the incubator last night?" Her tone was amused, but her eyes precisely caught Yuan Xu's ears turning red instantly.
“At three in the morning…” Yuan Xu’s voice lowered, “I saw the auction photos you posted on your WeChat Moments and forgot to adjust the settings.”
He suddenly took out a glass dome from the drawer, inside which was a specimen of a clearwing moth with its wings spread, the veins of its wings shimmering with iridescence in the morning light. "Here you are, more complete than the brooch from last time."
The glass base was engraved with a line of small characters: "October 17, 2023, observing the metamorphosis with Jiu Yuan." Yu Jiu Yuan's fingertips traced the characters, and the system panel quietly appeared: [Yuan Xu: Affection +3, currently 51 (triggering the "Shared Memory" bonus)].
“It’s even more exquisite than the collections in museums.” She placed the glass dome on the windowsill where the sunlight could reach. “Once the gene fusion experiment is successful, we can use the bioluminescent gene to cultivate bioluminescent butterflies. At that time, the specimens will no longer need to rely on lights.”
Yuan Xu's eyes shone brightly, and even his voice carried a hint of excitement: "I've already designed the vector plasmid! If you don't have classes this afternoon, would you like to come to the lab?" He suddenly realized something and quickly added, "If you're free..."
“Of course I’m free.” Yu Jiuyuan took off her white coat and naturally tidied up his scattered experimental records. “You can delegate the student council matters to Rong Shenghan this afternoon. He seems to be quite free lately.”
When Rong Shenghan was mentioned, Yuan Xu's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
Yu Jiuyuan pretended not to see and turned to walk towards the door: "By the way, Xie Zhecheng's astronomy club is having an observation activity today. It is said that you can see the Orion Nebula. Aren't you very interested in astrobiology? Maybe you can go and take a look."
Yuan Xu's attention was indeed diverted: "Really? Orion's stellar radiation affects genetic mutations, and I was just about to collect relevant data..."
He grabbed his notebook and rushed out, but turned back at the door, saying, "We'll do the afternoon's experiment together when I get back!"
As she watched the boy's figure disappear down the corridor, Yu Jiuyuan's smile faded slightly.
Yuan Xu's purity is like distilled water in a laboratory, so transparent that you can see right to the bottom, but it is also the most easily affected by external factors, such as her inexplicable aversion to Rong Shenghan.
She took out her phone and sent a message to Rong Shenghan: "You're in charge of the student council meeting this afternoon. I need to go to the biology club as a 'lab assistant'."
The moment the send button was pressed, the office intercom rang. It was Xie Zhecheng's voice, as cold as ice.
"The Astronomy Society's star chart software is malfunctioning; the algorithm you modified last time seems to have a flaw."
His speech was steady, but a barely perceptible tension could be detected: "The observation at 3 p.m. will be affected."
"A vulnerability?" Yu Jiuyuan leaned against the carved railing of the corridor, sunlight filtering through the stained glass and casting dappled patterns of light on her shoulders. "A perfectionist would actually admit that his program has a vulnerability?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by the sound of papers turning: "There's a problem with the variable parameters you added. In line 17, you used radians instead of degrees for the cosine function."
He paused, then said, "But this mistake is strange; you shouldn't make such a basic mistake."
Yu Jiuyuan chuckled softly. That "mistake" was something she deliberately left, just like the flaw Xie Zhecheng left in the evaluation report. Perfectionists need a "reasonable" reason to break the rule of "never asking for help".
"I probably made a mistake when I was working late revising the report." Her voice softened, with just the right amount of apology. "Should I come to the astronomy club to find you before the afternoon observation? I can return the copy of 'The History of Celestial Evolution' that I borrowed from you last week."
The person on the other end of the phone seemed to catch their breath. Xie Zhecheng only managed a "okay" in the end, but before hanging up, he added very softly, "You'll need to wear a thick coat for observation; it'll get colder in the afternoon."
[Xie Zhecheng: Emotional fluctuations - Positive +3 (currently 23), Negative -3 (currently 20) (triggered "implicit care")]
As Yu Jiuyuan put away her phone, she bumped into Rong Shenghan leaning against the stairwell, twirling a pen in his hand. A button on his white shirt collar was undone, and sunlight fell on his collarbone, outlining its smooth lines.
"The president certainly knows how to allocate time." He slowly walked forward, lightly tapping the back of her hand with the tip of his pen. "You spend the morning watching butterflies with Yuan Xu, and the afternoon stargazing with Xie Zhecheng. What about me?"
“Vice President, can you help me with a small problem?” Yu Jiuyuan pulled a document out of her handbag. “The Su family sent a lawyer’s letter last night, saying that our letter of intent for the land in the east of the city was ‘procedurally irregular.’ You have a wide network of connections, so you should know how to shut them up.”
Rong Shenghan's fingertips traced the Su family's official seal on the document, and he suddenly chuckled, "Is the chairman dumping the most troublesome matter on me?" He took a step closer, the scent of cedar mixed with the aroma of sunshine wafting over him, "Aren't you afraid I'll use this opportunity to reach an agreement with the Su family?"
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