Reborn in 1977, I will no longer be my brother's blood bag.

Chapter 112 We Can't Wait Any Longer

She sat up, put on her coat, opened the drawer, and took out her notebook.

Qiming Project simulation model and training arrangements.

She picked up a pen and wrote three words on the blank page.

Zhou Zhiyuan.

The pen tip paused on the paper. After a while, she added another line below.

We can't wait any longer.

In the morning, at the Automation Building, the Qiming project team held an impromptu meeting.

Professor Chen placed a stack of documents on the table: "The research institute is pressing us hard; the first internal review will have to be moved up again."

A collective gasp filled the conference room. Zhao Guodong was the first to look up: "Again, ahead of schedule?"

Li Mingyuan opened the schedule, his brows furrowing: "At this rate, there are at most ten days left."

Professor Chen looked them over and said, "It's not ten days."

He raised his hand and tapped the table: "Seven days."

This time, even Zhao Guodong kept quiet.

Seven days.

From model refinement to on-site presentation, from the initial draft to a solution that can be shown to the research institute, every step must be pushed to the limit.

Lin Xiuhe sat at the table, her pen resting on the paper.

Seven days.

In my previous life, there wasn't this time; the Enlightenment Project shouldn't have been launched so early, and the research institute shouldn't have intervened so quickly.

She looked up and saw Zhou Zhiyuan sitting near the door; he had come to audit the class with the training center.

When Professor Chen announced that the review process would be moved up, everyone's expression changed.

He simply looked down, opened his notebook, drew a line across the original arrangement, and rewrote the date.

They moved very quickly. Too fast.

Lin Xiuhe looked at his pen. This time, she didn't look away.

Zhou Zhiyuan noticed something and looked up. The two men met each other's gazes across the entire conference room.

His pen stopped on the paper. Lin Xiuhe looked at him, and he closed the notebook first.

The meeting ended, and the students left one after another. Zhao Guodong walked out carrying the documents, still reciting the parameters. Li Mingyuan followed behind, already starting to rearrange the schedule.

Lin Xiuhe stayed until the end, carefully collecting the documents page by page and putting them into her schoolbag.

Zhou Zhiyuan didn't leave either.

Soon, only the two of them remained in the meeting room. Outside the window, the sky was grayish-white, and raindrops clung to the tree branches.

Lin Xiuhe zipped up her backpack: "Zhou Zhiyuan."

"Um."

"Seven days."

"Time is tight."

"Aren't you surprised?"

Zhou Zhiyuan closed the notebook: "An accident is useless."

"What I'm asking is, are you surprised?"

He looked at her. The clock on the wall was still ticking.

One moment, one moment.

Zhou Zhiyuan tucked the pen into his pocket: "Xiuhe, some things have come out ahead of schedule, and you've already discovered them. I have a question for you—"

Lin Xiuhe took a step forward: "How do you know?"

Zhou Zhiyuan looked at her. This time, he neither smiled nor said he was guessing.

He simply said, "Because I'm afraid it will be too late."

Lin Xiuhe's hand, which was resting on her schoolbag, stopped: "What do you mean, 'too late'?"

"Your project."

"My project?"

"This is also your opportunity."

Lin Xiuhe looked at him: "Just how much do you know?"

Zhou Zhiyuan picked up the documents on the table and walked over to her. He didn't answer, but simply handed her the documents: "Get the review approved first."

Lin Xiuhe didn't answer: "You've made me wait again."

"This time it's not about waiting for me," he said, looking at her and emphasizing each word, "it's about not letting anyone push you off this table."

Lin Xiuhe's gaze fell on the document. The cover read—【Preparation Form for the First Internal Review of the Qiming Project】.

Zhou Zhiyuan placed the documents in her arms: "The answer won't be lost, but the opportunity will."

After he finished speaking, he walked past her and headed out. Lin Xiuhe stood there, the documents in her arms weighing heavily on her.

As the door opened, she suddenly spoke up: "What if I pass the review?"

Zhou Zhiyuan stopped in his tracks. Lin Xiuhe looked at his retreating figure: "If I get first place, if I hold my ground, will you still make me wait?"

Zhou Zhiyuan leaned against the doorframe. A drop of water fell from a tree branch outside the window, landing on the windowsill with a soft thud.

He turned around and said, "Back then, whatever you wanted to ask, I would listen."

Lin Xiuhe stared at him: "Listening doesn't mean answering."

Zhou Zhiyuan's lips twitched slightly: "You're getting harder and harder to fool."

"You knew all along."

"Um."

"How long do you know?"

Zhou Zhiyuan looked at her. The light from the hallway outside fell on his shoulder. He didn't give an answer, only saying, "Win first."

The door closed. Lin Xiuhe was now alone in the conference room.

She looked down at the documents in her arms. Okay. Win first. After winning, she personally tore open the piece of paper Zhou Zhiyuan had hidden.

For the next few days, Lin Xiuhe hardly left the Automation Building. She attended classes in the morning, meetings at noon, modified models in the afternoon, and spent her evenings in the library.

After the dormitory lights were turned off, she would still lie under the covers and use a flashlight to read English materials. Gu Xiaolan poked her head out of bed for the umpteenth time: "Xiuhe, if you keep going like this, you'll collapse before the judging even starts."

Lin Xiuhe turned a page of the document: "No."

Liu Xue muttered to herself, "Every time you say no, I think you will."

Su Qing closed her English dictionary: "She doesn't look like she's preparing for a review right now."

Gu Xiaolan asked, "What does it look like?"

Su Qing looked at Lin Xiuhe: "Like preparing to go to war."

Lin Xiuhe turned off the flashlight. The dormitory fell dark. She lay on her bed, her eyes open.

She was given a second chance at life, not to stand at the Lin family's dinner table again.

It's not about clinging to past grievances and repeatedly asking why.

She wanted to move forward.

Get to a high enough place.

Zhou Zhiyuan could no longer use "wait a little longer" to stop her.

So high that all the answers she wanted to know had to be laid out before her.

The day before the review, the wind picked up again in Beijing.

The windows of the automation building rattled softly in the breeze. Lin Xiuhe was finalizing the plan. Li Mingyuan sat beside her, calculating the basic model. Zhao Guodong was hunched over the blackboard, revising and optimizing the structure, his sleeve covered in chalk dust.

The three of them have been arguing and revising for three days.

Zhao Guodong threw the chalk into the trough: "I still think the backup logic is too conservative."

Li Mingyuan didn't even look up: "Your approach is too easy to backfire."

"It's better to crash than to spin in place."

"What research institutes need is functionality, not aesthetics."

The two were about to clash again. Lin Xiuhe pushed the draft paper over: "Don't argue."

She picked up a pen and drew a line in the middle: "Basic model protects Li Mingyuan."

Zhao Guodong opened his mouth. Lin Xiuhe looked up at him: "The optimized entry point is yours."

Zhao Guodong swallowed his words. Li Mingyuan looked at the diagram and slowly sat up straight: "Can this line be connected?"

"able."

"What about the risks?"

"I'll take responsibility."

Zhao Guodong stared at her: "You're eating three portions by yourself?"

Lin Xiuhe put down her pen: "It's not about eating three portions, it's about combining both of your things together."

The only sound in the conference room was the soft rustling of the windows in the wind. After a moment, Li Mingyuan suddenly smiled: "Okay."

Zhao Guodong picked up the chalk: "Then I won't sleep tonight."

Lin Xiuhe looked at him and said, "No."

Why?

"If you yawn on stage during the judging tomorrow, people will think our group is empty."

Li Mingyuan laughed out loud. Zhao Guodong's face darkened: "Lin Xiuhe, you have a sharp tongue too."

Lin Xiuhe carefully put the documents away: "Thank you."

Outside the door, Professor Chen stood for a few seconds, holding a teacup. He glanced at the spread-out blueprints in the conference room, a slight smile playing on his lips, before turning and leaving.

At nine o'clock in the evening, Lin Xiuhe came out of the Automation Building.

A person was standing downstairs. Zhou Zhiyuan. He was carrying a brown paper bag, steam rising from its opening.

Lin Xiuhe walked down the steps: "Passing by again?"

Zhou Zhiyuan handed her the paper bag: "Not this time."

"What is that?"

"Wait for you."

Lin Xiuhe took the paper bag. Inside were roasted chestnuts, their heat emanating from the bag.

She suddenly remembered her past life.

In the winter near the supply and marketing cooperative, she was sitting on the steps eating a cold steamed bun when suddenly a bag of hot chestnuts appeared next to her.

It has no name, and no one acknowledges it.

The wind was strong that day, but the chestnuts were hot.

It was so hot that she remembered it for many years.

Lin Xiuhe pinched open a chestnut and slowly peeled off the shell: "Zhou Zhiyuan."

"Um?"

Do you like chestnuts?

Zhou Zhiyuan looked at her and said, "She's alright."

Lin Xiuhe put the peeled chestnuts back into the paper bag: "You're lying."

Zhou Zhiyuan's eyebrows twitched slightly: "Why do you say that?"

Lin Xiuhe looked up: "You don't like sweet things at all."

A breeze blew past the building. The paper bag rustled softly. Zhou Zhiyuan looked at her, and after a long while, he smiled: "How did you know?"

The same words. He used to ask her.