Jiang Yubai's reply made Lin Zhixia's heart bloom with joy.
Putting away her phone, Lin Zhixia turned on her desktop computer and devoted herself to work with single-minded concentration.
She quickly browsed through the arXiv (preprint server) pages to confirm her research direction hadn't been explored by others. Then she directly used LaTeX (document preparation system) to write the abstract, background, and framework of a paper.
Novel derivations occupied her thoughts completely. Immersed in the virtual world of "Quantum Computing," she didn't even turn her head when someone occasionally passed by her office door. It wasn't until 6:30 PM when most classmates in her research group had gone home that Lin Zhixia finally packed her things and hurriedly began her journey back.
On her way home, Lin Zhixia bought a small bag of vegetables and fruits at the supermarket. Around 7 PM, she cooked herself a bowl of tomato and egg noodles in the dormitory kitchen - the first time in her life she had cooked for herself.
Lin Zhixia didn't perform very well.
She used too much water, the noodles turned mushy, and even the eggs stuck to the bottom of the pot. The meal wasn't tasty, leaving her feeling somewhat defeated. She opened a pack of Fuling pickled vegetables brought from China, mixed it into her bowl, barely improving the taste a little.
After dinner, while missing her undergraduate university's cafeteria, she reflected on today's research progress.
The sky had long turned dark, and a rain shower had passed. The raindrops, blown by the wind, splashed against a glass window, creating light "pitter-patter" sounds.
Lin Zhixia walked over to close the window. The air was filled with moist vapor, as if the entire dormitory building had been relocated beside a pond. The mist entered her trachea through her nose, making her shiver as a sudden chill arose. The room remained utterly silent, and in her daze, she remembered her undergraduate roommate again.
The feeling of loss and melancholy lasted less than two seconds before Lin Zhixia rallied her spirits to organize her resume and research introduction, sending them to the relevant school officials. She had already planned - she must become a teaching assistant.
Being a teaching assistant had many benefits.
First, Lin Zhixia had just turned eighteen, making her a legal adult qualified to serve as a teaching assistant and receive school compensation. Second, her goal was to become a university professor - guiding students, delving into academic research, applying for funding projects... Becoming a teaching assistant now was precisely preparing for her future career development.
After completing these miscellaneous tasks, Lin Zhixia took a shower, wrapped herself in a bath towel, lay on her bed and called Jiang Yubai. Hearing his voice immediately brightened her mood, and she asked him softly: "Jiang Yubai, what are you doing?"
She heard a faint, fleeting swallowing sound and thought he had taken a sip of water. He responded: "I'm reading."
Lin Zhixia pointed out a coincidence: "I just finished reading too."
Jiang Yubai set aside his political economics paper and asked: "How was your day?"
"Not bad," Lin Zhixia summarized, "I finalized my research direction, submitted my teaching assistant application, cooked dinner for the first time..."
"What dinner?"
"Burnt tomato and egg noodles."
How pitiful, Jiang Yubai thought.
Lin Zhixia bypassed the dinner topic and directly asked him: "By the way, you have no classes tomorrow afternoon. Do you want to come to my office and study together?"Lin Zhixia treated the office as a private space. In her view, that desk was long and wide, no different from the tables in the library.
Jiang Yubai simply asked, "What time do you usually go to the office?"
"Eight in the morning," Lin Zhixia replied.
Jiang Yubai said, "Tomorrow at 7:30 AM, I'll wait for you downstairs at your dorm."
Lin Zhixia belatedly realized, "Do you need something from me?"
The voice coming through the phone was unusually deep and magnetic. She heard him admit, "I want to see you."
Every word felt like a bewitching spell, leaving her left ear slightly numb where it pressed against the phone. Struggling to maintain composure, she responded, "See you tomorrow." After hanging up, she hugged her pillow tightly while lying in bed, tossing and turning as she thought of him—and every word he had spoken from the heart.
On this chilly, damp rainy night, her extraordinary memory helped her relive every moment they had shared. Present emotions intertwined with past memories, making her helplessly and deeply immersed in them.
The rain from last night hadn't stopped. Mist hung like smoke, the dawn light was hazy, and the weather had turned even colder.
At 7:20 in the morning, Jiang Yubai stepped out of a car, holding two bags. Lin Zhixia spotted him through the window. Slipping on her sandals, she dashed downstairs, joyfully rushing to greet him.
His bags contained insulated lunch boxes along with various snacks, pastries, and frozen foods. He went to Lin Zhixia's shared kitchen and asked, "How many of you share one refrigerator?"
Lin Zhixia opened the refrigerator door and gestured, "This section is mine."
Jiang Yubai took out several containers from his bags and filled that space. He also tucked in a layer of frozen dumplings. Lin Zhixia couldn't help asking, "Are these dumplings from the Chinese supermarket?"
"Shrimp and corn dumplings," Jiang Yubai introduced, "Made by my family's chef. They're your favorite flavor."
Jiang Yubai carefully followed the chef's instructions. Using Lin Zhixia's small pot, he boiled half a pot of water, added a bowl of dumplings, cooked them, then scooped them out, drained the hot water, and sprinkled two spoonfuls of vinegar over them.
This morning, Lin Zhixia had only eaten a slice of bread. She was too weak-willed to resist the allure of the shrimp dumplings. She stuck close to Jiang Yubai, following him into her dorm room.
Jiang Yubai placed the bowl and chopsticks on the table.
Lin Zhixia circled around behind him. "You came all this way just to bring me food. I'm a bit embarrassed."
Jiang Yubai turned to look into her eyes. "I'm visiting your home, so it's normal to bring some food. Even if I weren't your boyfriend, just your ordinary friend..."
Lin Zhixia softly corrected him, "I felt you were my best friend within a week of knowing you."
He casually wrapped an arm around her waist. "For the sake of our friendship, eat up."
Lin Zhixia leaned into his embrace, her left hand brushing against his shirt buttons. The buttons were made of a unique material that felt cool to the touch. Curious, she played with them for a while until Jiang Yubai grabbed her hand, preventing any further exploration.
Lin Zhixia couldn't decipher the thoughts running through his mind.Jiang Yubai now stood at 188 centimeters tall, considerably taller than Lin Zhixia. She simply placed her hands on his shoulders, stood on her tiptoes, and planted a kiss directly on his cheek. She watched with satisfaction as he stood frozen in place, dazed and speechless—after all these years, her "Human Observation Diary" had found fresh and intriguing material again.
Since she couldn't figure out his thoughts, she decided to use random sampling to collect data on Jiang Yubai's reaction patterns. His responses contained a degree of randomness, so she could infer his behavioral patterns through multiple experiments and statistical sampling.
This was a simple application model of the Monte Carlo algorithm.
Of course, one kiss wasn't enough.
From the perspective of refining her model, Lin Zhixia gave another quick "mwah" on his cheek. Tilting her head, her rosy lips brushed against his ear as her unsteady tiptoe stance made her wobble. Unexpectedly, Jiang Yubai caught both her wrists, pinned them behind her back, and leaned down to lightly kiss the corner of her lips—a fleeting, dragonfly-touch-like touch.
This time, it was her turn to be stunned.
Jiang Yubai released her, but within two seconds, he wrapped his arms around her waist, using her to calm himself while avoiding direct eye contact. His fantasies about her had spiraled beyond his self-control. He would never voice his inner thoughts, only softly reminding her, "Breakfast is getting cold. You still need to be at the office by eight."
Lin Zhixia murmured in agreement, "Yes."
Picking up her bowl, she devoured two shrimp dumplings in succession. They were so delicious they reminded her of home.
When Jiang Yubai placed a bottle of orange juice before her, her eyes suddenly glistened with moisture. Noticing his paused movement, she immediately explained, "I just think you're really too good."
Jiang Yubai recalled how on her tenth birthday, he had gifted her a set of physics problems that moved her to tears. Eight years had passed in the blink of an eye, yet her essence seemed largely unchanged.
With Jiang Yubai's support, Lin Zhixia abandoned fast food and Western meals at noon that day, returning to the warm embrace of traditional Chinese cuisine. Carrying her backpack and a lunch box, she headed to the laboratory building. After a busy morning, she joined a group of doctoral students for lunch in the building's lounge.
Her Indian senior had bought a Japanese bento from a fast-food chain called itsu. With every bite, she would chat with Lin Zhixia, who found her senior to be cheerful, talkative, and unreservedly honest—a genuinely kind person. So why had she received complaints from undergraduates?
Lin Zhixia decided to build a good relationship with her Indian senior first. When the time was right, she would ask directly.
The senior revealed that their supervisor had exceptionally high standards. Without meeting his paper requirements, graduation was nearly impossible. Their supervisor always smiled, never argued, never used harsh words, and rarely criticized students. However, once he determined a student showed no progress, he would directly fail them, terminate their studies, remove them from the research group, and absolutely refuse any appeal opportunities.
That harsh?
Lin Zhixia was taken aback by this revelation.Nearly all the doctoral students in the entire group were gathered here for dinner, sitting in small groups and conversing quietly. Lin Zhixia glanced around and noted that the team included Chinese, Germans, Russians, Koreans... all from hardworking nations. Particularly the young Russian guy, whose hairline was already concerning—barely in his twenties, yet the golden hair at the crown of his head faintly revealed signs of thinning.
Lin Zhixia comforted herself with the thought that baldness didn’t run in her family, so she probably wouldn’t go bald.
There was also a Korean student named Yin Xiu'en in the group. Yin Xiu'en sat down beside Lin Zhixia and asked about her research paper. It turned out she had read the papers Lin Zhixia published during her undergraduate years.
After chatting with Yin Xiu'en for a while, Lin Zhixia noticed Wen Qi approaching as well. Among the many students in their research group, only Lin Zhixia and Wen Qi were Chinese. Lin Zhixia treated Wen Qi quite kindly—after all, they were fellow countrymen, and when far from home, one should help whenever possible.
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