Chapter 222 Nodding!
Noon the next day.
11:40. Second floor of the cafeteria.
Li Chen stood in front of the window. In front of him was a standard dish of stir-fried green peppers and pork, plus a bowl of rice.
Yan Xi's message arrived just as he entered the cafeteria.
[Yan Xi: Eat protein today. You studied until midnight last night, and your carbs aren't enough to sustain you through this afternoon's classes. Add a fried egg.]
He added a poached egg when he got his food.
Wang Qiang, carrying a tray, stood in front of the pork rib hot pot window. He chose a seat by the window. Li Chen and Zhao Zixuan sat three tables away from him.
Chen Mo was in a more distant corner. On the table lay a loose-leaf notebook and a bowl of wontons.
"Are they here yet?" Zhao Zixuan asked in a low voice.
Li Chen didn't turn around.
His peripheral vision swept across the cafeteria entrance.
11:43.
A light beige down jacket appeared at the second-floor stairwell.
Lin Duo and her tall female companion walked in together. They headed straight for the pork rib hot pot window.
Wang Qiang had his back to the entrance. He didn't know.
Li Chen took out his phone.
Group 302.
[Li Chen: She's here. Behind you to your right. Don't turn your head.]
Wang Qiang's body visibly stiffened for a moment.
He stirred the casserole with his chopsticks. He stirred it too vigorously, and a drop of soup splashed onto the table.
Li Chen did not send any more messages.
Lin Duo waited in line. She ordered a pork rib hot pot. She carried her tray and looked for a seat.
She glanced around.
His gaze lingered for half a second when it passed over Wang Qiang.
Then she chose a seat two tables away from Wang Qiang and sat down.
Not close. Not far.
Li Chen noticed a detail. There were still many empty seats in the cafeteria. There were seats closer to the window and quieter spots. But she chose this one.
"She saw him," Zhao Zixuan whispered.
Li Chen didn't respond. He was watching Lin Duo's hand holding the chopsticks.
Right hand. The index and middle fingers hold the chopsticks slightly above the middle section. The grip is standard. The chopstick tips do not cross.
Her eating order is to first drink a sip of soup, then pick up a piece of pork rib.
"Brother Chen, what are you looking at?" Zhao Zixuan followed his gaze.
"She dips the ribs in vinegar before eating them. Before drinking the soup, she uses chopsticks to separate the scallion segments."
Zhao Zixuan opened his mouth slightly.
"Isn't your observation range too broad?"
"I'm helping Wang Qiang build the data. He can't do it himself."
My phone vibrated.
[Yan Xi: How does she hold her chopsticks?]
Li Chen thought for a moment about how Yan Xi could possibly know he was observing this.
Then he gave up pursuing the matter. Because there's only one answer: she knows.
[Li Chen: Right hand. Upper-middle range. Standard grip.]
[Yan Xi: Good upbringing. A girl who pays attention to her table manners cares about how the person opposite her eats. She told Wang Qiang not to make a mess of the soup.]
Li Chen switched to the group chat.
[Li Chen: Eat slowly. Don't spill the soup.]
Wang Qiang executed the plan well this time. He slowed down his eating pace. Although he still seemed to eat twice as fast as a normal person, at least the table was clean.
Five minutes later.
Lin Duo was halfway through her meal when her companion got up to add more soup.
Lin Duo sat alone in her seat, eating with her head down.
Li Chen looked at Wang Qiang.
Wang Qiang did not move.
He is waiting.
Li Chen realized that this wasn't due to strategy. It was because Wang Qiang was genuinely too nervous to get up.
He tapped his chopsticks three times on the edge of the casserole. It was an unconscious movement he made when he was nervous. Chen Mo had noted it down on the first day.
Twenty seconds.
Wang Qiang stood up.
He carried his empty bowl toward the dish recycling station. The route to the recycling station happened to pass by Lin Duo's table.
He turned his head slightly as he passed by.
"classmate."
Lin Duo looked up.
"I checked that book. No one has returned it yet. The system will notify you when it arrives."
That's it.
He didn't stop. He didn't wait for her answer. He kept walking. He put the bowl in the recycling rack.
Li Chen observed Lin Duo's reaction from a distance.
She watched Wang Qiang's departing figure. Her mouth was slightly open, as if she wanted to say something but didn't have time.
Three seconds later, she lowered her head and poked at the ribs in her bowl with her chopsticks.
The corners of her mouth curved slightly.
The angle was the same as yesterday in the classroom. Very small. But it was definitely bending.
Wang Qiang put the bowl down and returned to his seat. He didn't look at Lin Duo again. He sat down and took out his phone.
Group 302.
[Wang Qiang: I'm done talking. She didn't reply. Did I mess up?]
Li Chen is typing.
[Li Chen: She smiled after you left.]
Wang Qiang's 200-pound weight jolted as he sat in the chair.
[Wang Qiang: Really???]
[Zhao Zixuan: Really. I saw it. (A slight upturn of the corners of his mouth.)]
[Chen Mo: Record—The target generated a positive emotional response after the participant left. Key trigger: The participant actively ended the conversation and left. This behavior broke the target's expected "approach-demand-clinginess" pattern. The participant's restraint generated a positive emotional evaluation.]
[Wang Qiang: Old Chen, can you speak like a human being?]
Chen Mo: She likes that you walk fast.
Li Chen locked his screen. He picked up his chopsticks and continued eating.
My phone vibrated again.
This is not a group message.
[Yan Xi: Have you eaten your fried egg?]
Li Chen glanced at the plate. The fried egg was still untouched.
He forked the fried egg and took a bite.
[Li Chen: I ate.]
[Yan Xi: Fully cooked. You don't like the yolk too hard. Next time, ask the auntie to cook it a little less firm.]
[Li Chen: The cafeteria doesn't offer customized options.]
Yan Xi: Then I'll make it for you next time.
Li Chen stopped biting into the fried egg.
He stared at those six words for three seconds.
Zhao Zixuan observed his changing expressions from across the table.
"Brother Chen, the corners of your mouth curve even wider than Lin Duo's just now."
Li Chen placed his phone face down on the table.
"Eat your food."
Zhao Zixuan shrank back.
Three tables away, Wang Qiang finally couldn't help but secretly turn around and glance at Lin Duo.
Lin Duo's companion had already returned after adding the soup. The two of them were talking to each other with their heads down.
Lin Duo held her phone and rummaged under the table.
She opened WeChat.
Wang Qiang's phone vibrated in his pocket.
He took it out.
A new message.
It was posted by Lin Duo.
An emoji of a kitten holding a book.
The following line of text:
"Thank you for helping me with the book, no rush."
Wang Qiang held his phone up to about five centimeters in front of his eyes.
I watched it four times.
Then he slowly turned his head and, across three tables, revealed a shockingly distorted smile to Li Chen.
Li Chen didn't look at him.
He was replying to Yan Xi's message.
[Li Chen: She messaged him first.]
There was a five-second silence on the other end.
Yan Xi: I know.
[Li Chen: How did you know?]
[Yan Xi: Because Wang Qiang just turned his head more than 90 degrees. There's only one explanation for that angle.]
Li Chen put down his phone.
He finished the fried egg. He saved the words "well-cooked" that Yan Xi had mentioned into his memo.
Next time, on a weekend.
He cooked it for her.
Tender.