The week leading up to Shen Qinghe's arrival was a study in controlled internal chaos for Lin Xiaoyang. It was as if his mind had become a dual-core processor: one core handling the familiar, post-fair routines of university life and project maintenance, while the other ran a continuous, low-level simulation titled "Qinghe_Integration.exe."
This simulation had no clear output. It was a loop of questions without answers. How would her quiet, profound intensity fit into the noisy ecosystem of his campus? How would he introduce her to… everyone? The very thought of explaining Chen Yuexi's dramatics, Tang Youyou's mysticism, or Su Yuning's binary gaze to someone who operated on a completely different wavelength of perception was enough to make his cache feel too small.
He found himself engaging in bizarre, preparatory behaviors. He took a different route to class, mentally noting which spots she might find interesting—the old gingko tree whose leaves turned a brilliant gold, the hidden courtyard with the trickling fountain. It was inefficient, this pre-scouting of locations, but he did it anyway.
The project meetings felt different now, too. He was present, he contributed, but a part of him was observing his teammates with a new, analytical distance, seeing them through the hypothetical lens of Shen Qinghe's perception.
During one such meeting, as Chen Yuexi passionately argued for a "Fated Encounter" animation to celebrate a high-compatibility match, Xiaoyang's mind automatically generated a commentary in Qinghe's voice: "She utilizes narrative archetypes as a cognitive framework to simplify complex social probabilities. The 'Fated Encounter' trope reduces the anxiety of stochastic outcomes."
When Tang Youyou suggested aligning the app's daily "match push notification" time with the user's astrological rising sign for "optimal receptivity," the internal voice noted: "She is attempting to map celestial mechanics onto neurochemical reward pathways. A flawed but creatively ambitious correlation."
And when Su Yuning dismantled both ideas with a barrage of data on user engagement metrics and statistical noise, the voice observed: "She prioritizes empirical evidence over heuristic models. Her rejection is not emotional but a defense of systemic integrity."
He was, in effect, pre-compiling his experiences for her. It was the most meta, and frankly, exhausting, form of energy expenditure he had ever undertaken.
The anomaly in his behavior did not go unnoticed.
"You are exhibiting signs of increased distractibility," Su Yuning stated bluntly after a meeting, her head tilted. "Your average response time to direct queries has increased by 0.7 seconds. Your Pupillary Oscillation Frequency (POF) suggests a background cognitive load of approximately 38%. Are you optimizing a new personal algorithm?"
"Something like that," Xiaoyang mumbled, avoiding her gaze.
Chen Yuexi was less clinical but more perceptive. "You have the look," she declared, peering at him intently. "The 'Quietly Tormented By a Deep and Meaningful Personal Crossroads' look. Is it… a new story arc? A mysterious, brooding past catching up with the present?"
"It's… a visitor from my hometown," he admitted, seeing no way out. "She's coming for a symposium next weekend."
The effect was instantaneous. Chen Yuexi's eyes widened, her dramatic instincts snapping to attention. "A visitor! From the past! This is huge! Is it… her? The one from the notebook? S.Q.H.?"
Xiaoyang's silence was confirmation enough.
"The 'Childhood Friend' heroine makes her move!" she gasped, clutching her hands to her chest. "The final contender enters the arena! The plot thickens!"
Later that day, a message popped up in the team's chat group, which was usually reserved for bug reports and meeting links.
Stargazer Youyou: @Xiaoyang Gege, I've been sensing a… convergence. A powerful, stable energy signature is moving into our local field from the northeast. Its frequency is very different. Very… detailed. Is this your visitor?
Xiaoyang sighed. He should have known. Youyou's spiritual radar was more accurate than GPS.
Xiaoyang: Yes, Youyou. That's her.
Dramaturge Queen (Yuexi): WE MUST PREPARE! We need a strategy! A welcome committee! We must show her the strength of the bonds forged in the fires of innovation!
Ning.Y: Query: What is the objective of this 'welcome committee'? To intimidate? To assess? The variable S.Q.H. represents an unknown. Gathering initial observational data is a logical first step.
Xiaoyang stared at his phone, a wave of sheer terror washing over him. This was worse than he had imagined. They were mobilizing. They were going to treat Shen Qinghe's arrival as a combined narrative, mystical, and scientific event. It would be a disaster. The energy required to manage that interaction would exceed the total power draw of the entire Innovation Fair.
He had to shut this down.
Xiaoyang: No committee. No assessment. No strategic plotting. She's just… coming to visit. It's a simple, personal data packet transfer. Low bandwidth. Minimal protocol.
The responses were a study in synchronized disappointment.
Dramaturge Queen (Yuexi): You're denying us a key character introduction scene! This is narratively irresponsible!
Stargazer Youyou: But… the energetic introduction ritual is crucial for harmonious field integration…
Ning.Y: A missed opportunity for baseline data collection. Illogical.
He put his phone down, his head in his hands. He was trying to firewall his personal life from his project life, but the two systems had become irrevocably intertwined. The "EfficientHeart" team wasn't just a project team anymore; they were a part of his social operating system, and they demanded read-access to any new, significant process.
The night before Qinghe's arrival, he lay in bed, the "Qinghe_Integration.exe" simulation running at full capacity, consuming all available mental resources. He imagined every possible scenario, from awkward silences to catastrophic misunderstandings involving his teammates.
His phone lit up on the nightstand. A message from Qinghe.
Qinghe: [11:11 PM] The train arrives at Platform 4 tomorrow at 3:14 PM. The average walking pace from the platform to the main terminal exit is 1.2 meters per second. Given typical crowd density, I estimate an arrival at the exit gates between 3:19 and 3:21 PM. You dislike waiting. Do not come before 3:18 PM.
A strange calm settled over him. The simulation halted. In the midst of all the chaos, the planning, the anxiety, and the external expectations, she was, as always, providing the most efficient, most considerate path. She wasn't asking for a fanfare or an analysis. She was giving him a simple, executable instruction.
She was cutting through the noise.
He typed his reply, a smile touching his lips for the first time all week.
Xiaoyang: [11:12 PM] Acknowledged. ETA 3:19 PM. The system will be ready.
The "Hometown Variable" was incoming. The firewall had been breached. And for once, Lin Xiaoyang wasn't trying to patch the leak. He was standing by the gate, ready to receive the packet, curious and unafraid of the system update it might bring.