Zhu Yun was on the verge of exploding.
The sheer volume of information coming at her from every direction lately had been overwhelming, and she felt she needed to carve out some time to properly process it all.
As for what Li Xun had said that day, Zhu Yun gave him the same polite, composed answer she would have given anyone —
“I’ll think it over. Thank you for the invitation.”
Upon hearing this, the top-ranking student let out a single dismissive snort and walked straight into the office.
The tightness in Zhu Yun’s chest deepened.
And yet the human mind is a genuinely strange thing — in the days that followed, Zhu Yun found herself replaying the whole incident often. That final laugh of Li Xun’s had absolutely deserved a smack, but on the whole, the positive feelings the episode had stirred in her far outweighed the negative ones.
Especially that line — you come, and I’ll cover it — set alongside the earlier you are so insufferably fake, and savored together, they produced in her a deep, spontaneous, welling-up sensation of pure triumph.
This, she thought, was one of the genuine pleasures of being alive.
After a few days of this quietly radiant mood, Zhu Yun more or less settled back down and began to think the matter over properly.
Li Xun’s base… did she want to go?
As she turned the question over in her mind, something Fang Shumiao had said kept drifting back to her unbidden.
“The base has stabilized at around a dozen people or so, but the real core team is only a few of them. Li Xun and Gao Jianhong are the center of it all.”
The core team…
Zhu Yun rested her chin on the library study room table and rocked it gently from side to side. She made up her mind.
---
In Old Man Lin’s class, Li Xun took his usual seat beside Zhu Yun. From the moment he entered the room, he was fiddling with his laptop; the only time he looked up was during the few minutes when there were in-class exercises to work through.
He never once brought up the matter of the base again.
Zhu Yun entirely understood. For someone of Li Xun’s standing to extend an invitation once was already a considerable condescension. Expecting him to come a second or third time would be like waiting for a cactus to bloom.
“About that…” She seized a moment while Old Man Lin was covering foundational material and spoke in a low voice.
Li Xun kept his eyes on his laptop screen, fingers still moving. He made a sound of acknowledgment.
“The thing from before…”
Li Xun slanted his eyes toward her.
Zhu Yun had noticed that whenever he was concentrating, Li Xun’s expression took on a particularly cold cast.
“Go on,” he said, prompting her.
Zhu Yun didn’t dance around it. “I’ve thought it over. I’d like to join your base. The projects seem genuinely challenging, and I want to develop my practical skills.”
In reality, Li Xun had already turned his head back to the screen by the time she’d finished the first half of the sentence. When she completed the whole thing, he gave a perfunctory sound of acknowledgment, signaling that he’d registered what she said.
Toward this prospective superior-of-sorts, Zhu Yun had decided that patience would be her strategy in all things. She asked: “What are the scheduled activity hours?”
“No scheduled hours. Come whenever you have time.” Li Xun tapped at his keyboard and said lightly: “I’m always there.”
Zhu Yun looked at him for a moment, then finally said:
“Alright.”
---
Back in the dormitory, the sight of Fang Shumiao reminded Zhu Yun she still hadn’t told her. Once she’d explained, Fang Shumiao stared straight at her.
“Why are you suddenly joining the base?”
Zhu Yun didn’t mention Li Xun’s invitation. She only cited Old Man Lin.
“He suggested I get some hands-on experience there.”
Fang Shumiao said ah, then quickly added: “So you told Li Xun that you were the one who helped me with that program?”
“No.”
Now Zhu Yun understood what she’d been worrying about. “Don’t worry,” she said reassuringly, “I won’t say a word. When I go, I’ll pick a different feature to work on.”
Fang Shumiao nodded.
---
That afternoon there were no classes. After lunch, Zhu Yun packed two freshly borrowed web design books and headed over to the base.
Li Xun’s base was on the ground floor of Experimental Building A. Though Zhu Yun had drifted past it any number of times, she had never actually gone inside.
The corridor was slightly cool and dim. She found Room 102 — the base entrance — and without knocking, pressed herself quietly against the outside wall and listened.
A faint, soft scratching sound, barely audible.
Zhu Yun’s heart hammered. She was a little nervous.
Just as she was about to take a steadying breath, the door swung open.
Wu Mengxing stood there with a broom in one hand and a rubbish bag in the other, dripping with sweat from the effort.
He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of her.
“Oh — what are you doing here?”