The two of them almost immediately stopped in their tracks.
Xiang Ran thought about turning back the way he came.
Unexpectedly, the school beauty directly tugged at the corner of his shirt.
The intermittent sounds from around the corner reached their ears, accompanied by the gentle rustling of the branches in the breeze.
Xiang Ran was puzzled by the school beauty's actions and silently mouthed, "What’s up?"
"Why?"
Then he noticed a flush spreading from her cheeks to the tips of her ears, her eyelashes trembling slightly. Her fingertips tightly gripped his shirt, rubbing against his skin through the thin fabric.
It felt like some urgent thought was trying to escape from her mind.
After a moment, she slowly began to walk outside.
...
After the earlier embarrassing incident, there was no way they could go back to Wenbei Building.
"Do you want me to walk you back?"
Xiang Ran glanced at the time.
"And you?"
Liu Shuyao didn’t rush to answer; instead, she asked about her boyfriend's plans.
"I haven’t finished writing my code."
Upon hearing this, the school beauty nodded.
"Then I’ll go back with you. I still have some things to grab."
Since that was the case, Xiang Ran said nothing more, and they headed towards the Computer Science Institute together.
But the mood was far from the lightheartedness of their arrival.
Liu Shuyao felt incredibly regretful.
Ah, she thought this was going to be a romantic date!
Chatting, taking a stroll.
At the very least, they could discuss bugs or something!
But now—
But now!
She hadn’t even brought up a single topic before everything fell apart!
Beside her, Xiang Ran noticed the school beauty’s expression as she walked, sometimes frowning, sometimes scrunching her little nose, and occasionally humming softly. Her expressions were quite vivid.
He recalled the strange scenarios she had imagined when they first met, and couldn’t help but chuckle.
They hadn’t walked far, so they returned quickly.
Xiang Ran assumed she would take her things and leave, but unexpectedly, she sat back down.
"Aren't you going back soon?"
"No need, I’ll stay with you."
Liu Shuyao planned to play on her phone; after all, there was nothing to do back at the dorm.
"I might be a bit late."
"It’s fine, I’ll wait for Zhao Ying. We’ll head back together."
Xiang Ran knew that Zhao Ying had gone to eat with Qi Dong, so he didn’t ask further.
He sat down to debug his work.
He glanced at the previous interfaces. Although it was functional, the response time was a bit slow, so he wanted to optimize it. After all, the art assets that would be integrated later would definitely take up more memory. If the program crashed on-site because it couldn’t load, that would be a disaster.
Currently, he didn’t have any particularly good solutions, so he decided to reach out to a senior who was already interning in their fourth year.
Internships at big companies were just as competitive as full-time positions.
It was already past nine, and when Xiang Ran called, his senior was still at work.
"Hey, Senior."
"Hey, Xiang Ran! I took a look at what you sent."
"What’s the estimated data volume for this follow-up?"
"......"
"First, check the database side, optimize the queries to avoid unnecessary JOIN operations and complex subqueries."
"Make sure the query columns on the database tables have appropriate indexes to improve query efficiency."
...
After hanging up, Xiang Ran quickly focused on modifying the code.
He started trying the steps his senior had mentioned, and if that didn’t work, he’d think of other solutions.
Outside, the night deepened.
The laboratory was filled with a faint electronic hum, the server fans buzzing softly, and various codes and data flickered across the computer screen.
Xiang Ran’s eyes were glued to the display, his brow slightly furrowed, fingers deftly tapping on the keyboard. His gaze was deep and focused, the sound of the keyboard blending with the gentle rustling of leaves outside, as if he completely ignored the world around him.
Liu Shuyao watched her boyfriend, fully engrossed, and secretly snapped several photos.
However, after waiting for a while, perhaps because she hadn’t slept during the day, the quiet lab, with the occasional breeze, began to lull her into sleepiness. Her eyelids felt heavy, and no amount of urging could stop them from wanting to close.
Unable to resist, she let out a small yawn, quickly closing her mouth again and patting her cheeks like a tired kitten.
...
After an unknown amount of time, Xiang Ran finally looked up and stretched his neck.
After a long time of leaning over, his neck felt a bit sore, so he slowly stretched, and a soft popping sound followed.
In the next moment, his gaze was drawn to the school beauty beside him.
The warm yellow light above her head cast a faint halo, and with her head resting, her hair was tousled to one side, revealing her delicate and fair neck.
Liu Shuyao, so small, was curled up on the chair.
Her thick eyelashes were drooping, her brow relaxed, and her lips slightly puckered.
She looked like she was sound asleep!
Xiang Ran stared at her for a while, an indescribable emotion flickering in his eyes.
Feeling the breeze coming in from the window, he got up to close it, then grabbed a blanket from behind Liu Shuyao and gently covered her.
As he finished this, he heard some faint sounds, and Fatty and Qi Dong were standing by the door without him noticing.
Qi Dong was firmly covering Fatty's mouth, trying to stop him from saying anything.
Xiang Ran felt as if he had been caught doing something wrong, feeling a bit self-conscious.
Then Qi Dong pointed towards a small meeting room.
As soon as Xiang Ran entered, Fatty immediately shut the door and jumped up, unable to articulate what he wanted to say.
"What are you two doing?"
"She fell asleep, and I covered her with a blanket." Xiang Ran raised an eyebrow, sounding quite serious.
"I obviously know you’re covering the school beauty with a blanket!"
"What I meant was, it’s late at night!"
"You two!"
"In the lab!"
"What are you doing?"
Fatty expressed his confusion, word by word.
"There were a few interface connections that timed out, so I wanted to improve them. Since it involved their project, I asked her about it. Then she brought me some food. After eating, we..."
Xiang Ran instinctively started to explain, then suddenly paused. The rest of the story! It didn’t seem necessary to mention!
"After eating, I modified the code, and then somehow she fell asleep."
He calmed his thoughts and quickly summarized.
"Any other questions?"
"But you two..."
Fatty struggled to describe the feeling. His vocabulary was failing him at that moment.
He could only gesture helplessly with his hands.
He hesitated, unable to articulate.
"That term, do you understand it?"
"It’s used to describe a situation that feels very..."
Fatty couldn’t express that feeling, wishing he could just act it out.
So he looked at Qi Dong for help, standing beside him.
"Ambiguous!"
"Fatty means your action was very ambiguous!"
"Yes! That’s exactly what I mean! You described it well; it’s very poetic!"
Fatty nodded in agreement.
Leaving Xiang Ran at a loss for how to respond, he remained unfazed.
His psychological resilience was clearly strong.
He wouldn’t casually admit to something he hadn’t even fully figured out!
So he replied:
"First: Warm-colored lighting typically refers to light sources with a lower color temperature, often considered to create a warm, comfortable, romantic atmosphere."
"Second: I don’t think it would have been a good choice to just toss a blanket on her head."
"What do you think?"
This counter-question effectively convinced the noncommittal Fatty.
He thought about the warm light source that had been replaced when the lab lights broke last time and, combined with the scene at that time, it indeed could have created a misunderstanding.
Moreover, how could there be anything between the school beauty and Xiang Ran?
They had been at odds just a week ago!
If not for Fatty constantly adjusting the team atmosphere, the school beauty would have already gone to their department to request a change!
But Qi Dong felt something was off; Fatty was missing the point!
The school beauty had previously told them she was going back to the dorm, so she took a detour to the cafeteria and specifically brought food for Xiang Ran?
Moreover!
Did she really need to come to the lab in the middle of the night just for something so trivial?
The school beauty couldn’t even code!
Couldn’t she just reply on WeChat?
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