Chapter 220 Go to the Library!
1:40 PM.
Dormitory 302.
Wang Qiang stood in front of the mirror and zipped up and unzipped the black jacket for the sixth time.
"Is wearing a jacket too deliberate?"
"If you just change back into that sweatshirt with three lint balls, she can smell the scent you left from playing basketball yesterday from three meters away in the library." Li Chen sat at his desk, his fingers flying across his phone.
He was sending a message to Yan Xi.
[Li Chen: Let's go. He asked what I should wear.]
Yan Xi: Make him wear a hoodie.
Li Chen stopped.
[Li Chen: Didn't you say the jacket was nice?]
[Yan Xi: Yesterday was our first meeting. We needed to create a visual contrast. Today is our second. If he's dressed as formally as yesterday, the target will assume it's intentional. Defense level maxed out.]
[Yan Xi: Return to her normal state. This will make her realize that the clumsy boy from yesterday wasn't pretending. He really is like that.]
Li Chen locked the screen.
"Take it off. Change into a hoodie."
Wang Qiang was stunned. "Brother Chen, didn't you just say—"
"That's what Yan Xi said."
Wang Qiang immediately went to rummage through the cabinets.
Chen Mo quickly wrote a line in his notebook: Top of the behavioral decision-making chain of the test group—Yan Xi. No one questioned it.
At 1:55, the four of them arrived at the library.
Li Chen stopped in the lobby on the first floor.
"Go up alone. Second floor, humanities section, third row of bookshelves on the left, the one with call numbers starting with H0."
Wang Qiang's face was already turning red. He rubbed his hands together.
"and then?"
"Find that book, *Modern Linguistics Theory*. You can't find it. Because it's genuinely missing." Li Chen looked at him. "Stand in front of that row of bookshelves and flip through the adjacent books. Don't sit down. When you stand, the bookshelves will obscure a third of your figure, reducing the feeling of oppression."
"What if she comes?"
"If she comes, just pretend you've just noticed her. Greet her naturally. Don't mention yesterday's pen. Let her remember it herself."
"What if she doesn't come?"
Li Chen took out his phone and glanced at it.
[Yan Xi: She entered the library at 1:40. She sat in the study area on the third floor for fifteen minutes. Based on her usual book-borrowing habits, she should come down between 2:00 and 2:15.]
"She'll come." Li Chen put his phone back in his pocket. "Go."
Wang Qiang took a deep breath. His 200-pound body strode heavily up the stairs.
Zhao Zixuan suddenly appeared from the side. "Aren't we going to follow them?"
"No. If three grown men are gathered around the bookshelves in the arts section, Lin Duo's roommates will think we're harassing her." Li Chen walked to the sofa in the reading area on the first floor and sat down.
Chen Mo sat down as well and opened the loose-leaf notebook.
Two minutes later, my phone vibrated.
Group 302.
[Wang Qiang: I'm here. H0 row. Damn, this side is full of linguistics books; I can't understand a single one.]
[Wang Qiang: I'll just randomly pick one to pretend. Which one should I pick?]
Li Chen is typing.
[Li Chen: On the second shelf to your right, there's a blue-covered book called *Language and Logic*. It's related to my paper for my general education course. It's reasonable for you to read it.]
[Wang Qiang: Found it. I opened it and looked. It's all text. Not a single formula. Brother Chen, I'm really going to be killed by these liberal arts textbooks.]
[Zhao Zixuan: Just treat it like reading a novel. Just flip through it.]
Li Chen didn't reply. He leaned back on the sofa, his gaze sweeping over the crowd in the lobby on the first floor.
My phone vibrated again. It wasn't a group message.
[Yan Xi: She's come down.]
Li Chen's fingers tightened.
[Li Chen: How did you know?]
[Yan Xi: You can see the projection of the atrium staircase from the window in the west study area on the third floor of the library. I asked Leng Qingge to confirm it for me. She just passed the corner on the second floor.]
Li Chen closed his eyes briefly.
Yan Xi wasn't present. But her intelligence network covered the entire building.
There was a 30-second silence in group 302.
Then news about Wang Qiang broke out.
[Wang Qiang: She's here!!! She's walking this way!!!]
[Wang Qiang: What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? My hands are shaking!]
[Li Chen: Put your phone away. Don't look down at the screen. Read a book.]
After the message was sent, the group went completely silent.
Li Chen stared at the screen. One minute. Two minutes.
Chen Mo said in a very low voice, "His message sending frequency suddenly dropped to zero, which means that the target has entered his physical interaction range."
three minutes.
Four minutes.
At the fifth minute, Wang Qiang posted a message.
Wang Qiang: She spoke to me.
Zhao Zixuan slapped his thigh with a "smack".
[Zhao Zixuan: What did you say??]
[Wang Qiang: She asked me if I was also looking for that book, *Modern Linguistic Theory*.]
Li Chen's lips twitched slightly.
She took the initiative to speak.
The image of Wang Qiang standing in front of that bookshelf, flipping through books, overlapped with that of the clumsy boy in the classroom yesterday. She recognized him. And curiosity drove her to come closer to confirm.
Yan Xi's deduction was completely correct.
[Li Chen: What did you reply?]
[Wang Qiang: I told him I was looking for it for my roommate, who needs it for his thesis. Then she said she'd been looking for the book for days, but it kept getting borrowed.]
[Wang Qiang: Then I told her I could set up an arrival reminder in the system for her. She asked, "Really?" I said, "Really." And then... she took out her phone. Brother Chen.]
[Wang Qiang: She opened WeChat.]
Li Chen placed his phone on his lap.
He didn't type.
wait.
Ten seconds later.
[Wang Qiang: I've added her on WeChat.]
Zhao Zixuan jumped up from the sofa.
Chen Mo said in an extremely calm tone, "Social media channels have been established. The phased goal has been achieved."
Li Chen picked up his phone, left group 302, and switched to Yan Xi's chat window.
[Li Chen: Success. We've added each other on WeChat.]
The typing notification on the other end flashed twice.
[Yan Xi: Did he come up with the arrival reminder himself?]
Li Chen: Yes.
[Yan Xi: It's alright.]
Li Chen looked at the two words.
"good".
This is a very high score in Yan Xi's evaluation system.
[Yan Xi: Phase one is over. Buy me a cup of hot milk when you get back. Full milk. No sugar. And bring an extra cup sleeve.]
Li Chen stood up.
"Let's go. Mission accomplished."
Zhao Zixuan was still immersed in excitement. "Aren't we waiting for Qiangzi to come down?"
"Let him stay a little longer. Let him chat for as long as he can. We'll interrupt their conversation when we're there."
Li Chen walked towards the library entrance. He stopped as he passed the coffee bar.
"A glass of hot milk. Whole milk. No sugar."
When he took the cup, he took an extra cup sleeve.
Chen Mo wrote at the end: The accuracy of subject Li Chen's execution of Yan Xi's instructions - including the number of cup sleeves.
My phone vibrated.
[Yan Xi: The milk temperature shouldn't exceed 63 degrees Celsius. You've been here for about seven minutes. Ask the staff to keep the temperature at 70 degrees Celsius when serving.]
Li Chen glanced at the cup in his hand.
He turned and went back to the bar.
"Please set the serving temperature to 70 degrees Celsius."
The shop assistant looked up at him.
"We'll assume it's 75."
"seventy."
The clerk made another cup.
Li Chen took it. The temperature of the cup was just right. Seven minutes later, it reached Yan Xi, having cooled to around 63 degrees Celsius.
She even factored in his walking speed.
He walked out of the library. Sunlight shone on his face.
The phone vibrated one last time.
[Yan Xi: Don't tell Wang Qiang too much about strategy beforehand. His strength is his authenticity. Teaching him too much will distort his true nature.]
[Yan Xi: Let him make his own mistake. I'll cover for him.]
Li Chen put his phone back in his pocket.
The warmth of the milk travels through the cup walls into your palm.
He quickened his pace.