Oh no! I've only been a freshman and I've already been targeted by a mean upperclassman.

Night fell, and the darkness deepened.

The noise downstairs at the entertainment center gradually subsided, and the entire building quieted down.

In office 501, only the crisp sound of keyboards clicking and the occasional rustling of papers being turned over could be heard.

Li Chen was completely immersed in the world of code.

The task Yan Xi gave him was much more complicated than he had imagined.

The data on the components of those ancient buildings are not only voluminous, but also come in a wide variety of formats, filled with all sorts of irregular manual markings.

To write a program to process this automatically, the first step is to clean and normalize this "dirty data".

This job is tedious, tedious, and extremely demanding in terms of patience and logical rigor.

Any ordinary student would probably have collapsed under the weight of this incomprehensible data.

But Li Chen did not.

His brain, comparable to a supercomputer, was working at high speed.

Algorithm models were built in his mind, only to be overturned one by one.

Lines of code flowed from his fingertips, building a sophisticated, automated data processing pipeline.

He even had the time to add a visual progress bar and a few fun Easter eggs to the program.

For example, after processing every thousand components, a pixelated little man will pop up on the screen and bow to the user.

He didn't know why he was doing this.

Perhaps, she just wanted the "supervisor" who was lounging on the sofa, leisurely reading a magazine, to glance at her.

Time slips away unnoticed.

Are you hungry?

Yan Xi's voice suddenly came from behind.

Li Chen then pulled himself out of the world of code and glanced at the time in the lower right corner of his computer screen.

It's 9:30 p.m.

More than three hours have passed.

"It's alright." Li Chen stretched his stiff neck.

"I ordered takeout, congee in a clay pot." Yan Xi put down the magazine in her hand.

Li Chen was stunned for a moment.

He remembered that on the second day after they met, she said she would take him to eat congee.

Surprisingly, she still remembered.

A warm feeling welled up from the bottom of my heart, washing away the fatigue from working for several hours straight.

"Thank you, senior."

"What did you call me?"

Yan Xi's eyes held a hint of danger.

"...Thank you, Xixi."

Li Chen readily changed his tune.

Yan Xi then gave a satisfied hum.

The food arrived quickly.

Yan Xi ordered two bowls of seafood porridge and several delicate side dishes.

She didn't let Li Chen do it; instead, she did it herself, placing the porridge and side dishes on the coffee table one by one.

"Come and eat," she called out.

Li Chen walked to the sofa and sat down. Just as he was about to serve himself some porridge, a bowl was handed to him.

Yan Xi had already served it to him.

The porridge in the bowl was steaming hot, with shrimp and dried scallops peeking out from the milky white porridge.

"Eat quickly, it'll get fishy when it gets cold."

"Okay."

Li Chen took the bowl, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and put it in his mouth.

The porridge was cooked to perfection, the rice grains were soft and melted in your mouth, and the fresh sweetness of the seafood was perfectly integrated into it. It slid warmly into your stomach, dispelling all fatigue and hunger.

"Is it delicious?" Yan Xi asked.

"It's delicious." Li Chen nodded.

The two remained silent, and the only sounds in the office were the soft clinking of spoons and bowls.

The atmosphere was peaceful and warm.

Li Chen secretly glanced at Yan Xi out of the corner of his eye.

She ate with great elegance.

He ate in small bites, chewing slowly and deliberately, without making a sound.

She was completely different from her usual strong and domineering queen-like demeanor.

After finishing the porridge, Yan Xi took the initiative to clean up the mess.

"How much longer?" she asked.

"The core algorithm is finished, and we're now doing final debugging and optimization," Li Chen replied. "It should take another hour."

"Okay, I'll wait for you."

Yan Xi didn't urge him, but simply sat back down on the sofa, picked up her phone, and looked at something.

Li Chen sat back down at his computer and continued his work.

But this time, he couldn't calm his mind.

He always felt that there was a gaze watching him from behind.

The office was unusually quiet; he could even hear Yan Xi's steady breathing and the soft scratching of her fingertips across her phone screen.

This feeling is wonderful.

It's like... having someone at home waiting for you to work overtime.

He composed himself and refocused his attention on the code.

The final debugging went exceptionally smoothly.

When the message "Task completed, 12457 components processed, error rate 0%" popped up on the screen, Li Chen breathed a long sigh of relief.

He leaned back in his chair, feeling as if all the bones in his body had been removed.

He turned his head, wanting to take credit from Yan Xi.

But they found that the person on the sofa had fallen asleep sometime earlier.

She leaned against the corner of the sofa, still holding the soft cushion in her arms.

Long eyelashes cast a quiet shadow under the eyelids.

His lips were slightly parted, and his breathing was steady and long.

He was only covered by a thin blue jacket, which was issued by the student council.

The office's central air conditioning was running at full blast, with the vents pointing directly at the sofa.

Li Chen frowned.

He stood up and tiptoed to the sofa.

He looked at her peaceful sleeping face.

Having shed all defenses and pretense, Yan Xi lost her aloofness and her playful cunning.

Her face, under the soft light, was as white and smooth as a piece of jade.

Between his brows and eyes, there was a hint of deep weariness that was barely perceptible.

For no apparent reason, Li Chen's heart softened.

He then realized that this seemingly omnipotent senior was actually just an ordinary girl who could get tired and weary.

He silently took off his hoodie.

His movements were very light and slow, as if he were afraid of waking her.

He bent down and carefully draped his coat, still warm from his body, over Yan Xi's body.

The coat was very large, completely covering her petite body.

A clean and refreshing aura belonging to Li Chen instantly enveloped her.

After doing all this, Li Chen did not leave immediately.

He squatted in front of the sofa and just quietly watched her.

Under the light, her skin was so smooth that not a single pore could be seen, and a few playful strands of hair clung to her cheeks.

As if possessed, Li Chen reached out his hand.

His fingertips trembled slightly in the air.

He thought of tucking those few strands of hair behind her ears.

His fingertips drew closer and closer.

He was so close that he could almost feel the warm air from her breath.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch her cheek.

Yan Xi's eyelashes suddenly trembled slightly.

Her brows furrowed slightly, as if she were having some unsettling dream.

Li Chen's heart skipped a beat.

His hand froze in mid-air.

Is she about to wake up?