The sound of rain outside the window was pitter-pattering, tapping on the glass like a soft accompaniment.
Shen Qingyue sat at her desk, her pen tip rustling across the draft paper as she wrote a string of complex formulas.
The phone screen suddenly lit up.
Shen Qingyue was a bit curious about who would message her at this time. She put down her pen and picked up her phone.
The screen showed a WeChat message from “The Prism That Understands Not Light,” containing a slightly blurry photo of a problem, followed by a line of text:
「Study Representative, save me! I’m stuck on the third method for this comprehensive Electromagnetic Induction problem. The answer says to use the Law of Conservation of Energy, but I always feel like a condition is missing.」
The corners of Shen Qingyue’s mouth curled upward almost imperceptibly.
She zoomed in on the photo and studied it for a moment. The problem was indeed a bit tricky, but the logic was clear. She took another sheet of clean draft paper and began to derive the solution step by step.
Holding the pen, her fingertips moved as she wrote down the clear steps. When she reached a key point, she paused, remembering a similar mistake Lin Mo had made last time. Thus, she added a note in red pen next to it: 「It is easy to overlook the work done by sliding friction here; the loss needs to be calculated separately.」
After finishing, she looked at her neat handwriting and clear diagrams, suddenly feeling as if something was missing.
Her gaze caught the orange cat, “Qiuqiu,” curled up and napping at the corner of the desk. Its round body was tucked into a ball, and the tip of its tail flickered occasionally.
(￣▽￣*) There.
She carefully took a photo of the completed steps, adjusting the angle so that Qiuqiu’s fluffy tail and half of its round body were just in the frame, occupying a small space in the bottom right corner of the photo.
She checked the photo. Hmm, the steps were clear, and the fat cat’s presence didn’t seem too forced.
She clicked send.
Almost immediately, a message came back:
「Received! Thanks, Study Representative! … Does Qiuqiu seem fatter again? Her tail takes up more space than the formulas I wrote 【laugh-cry】」
Shen Qingyue felt her cheeks heat up slightly as she looked at that 【laugh-cry】 emoji. She looked down at Qiuqiu, who was sleeping soundly by her feet, and whispered, “She’s not that fat…”
Her fingers tapped lightly on the screen: 「She’s just fluffy.」
Send.
After thinking for a moment, she added: 「Pay attention to the parts marked in red; you made a mistake here last time.」
「Understood! Your memory is great, Study Representative 【bowing】」
The conversation seemed like it should have ended there. Shen Qingyue put down her phone and picked up her pen again, but she found it a bit difficult to concentrate. Her gaze kept drifting involuntarily toward the darkened screen.
After about ten minutes, the phone vibrated again.
Lin Mo: 「All done! Following your hint, I added the work done by friction, and everything flowed smoothly after that. You’re the best, Study Representative!」
Attached was a photo of his rewritten work—dense with writing but logically organized.
Shen Qingyue opened the photo, zoomed in, and checked it carefully. His handwriting wasn’t as neat as hers; it was a bit flamboyant, but every step of the derivation was there, and the final answer was correct.
A strange sense of satisfaction gently flooded her heart.
It made her feel… happier than if she had solved a difficult problem herself.
She replied: 「Mm, the logic is correct. This problem has many variations; just master the core conversion relationships.」
This time, Lin Mo didn’t reply immediately.
Shen Qingyue waited for a while, assuming the conversation was over. Just as she was about to continue her work, the phone vibrated again.
It was a voice message.
Her finger hovered over the screen for a second before she tapped it gently.
Lin Mo’s voice came through the speaker, carrying a slight hoarseness unique to the night, and perhaps a hint of… embarrassment?
“Um… Study Representative, that Electromagnetics Special Notes you lent me last time… regarding the expanded application of Lenz’s Law, there’s a part I didn’t quite understand. It’s the third point of the case analysis for ‘Lai Ju Qu Liu’ energy judgment…”
His voice sounded very close, as if it were right next to her ear. The background was very quiet, save for the faint rustling of a pen tip moving across paper.
Shen Qingyue’s heart rate quickened slightly for some unknown reason.
She held down the voice message button, trying to keep her voice sounding calm:
“The third point discusses determining the direction of the induced current when the rate of change of the magnetic field is non-uniform. Which specific step are you confused about?”
Send.
A voice reply came back quickly: “It’s the model for rotating and cutting magnetic field lines. Why use ‘Zeng Fan Jian Tong’ for the local part, but use the Law of Conservation of Energy to verify the whole? It feels a bit disconnected to me…”
His question was very specific; it was indeed a point that was easily confused.
Shen Qingyue thought for a moment, realizing it might be difficult to explain clearly through text. She looked at the voice button, her fingertips tightening slightly.
(>﹏<) Speaking directly… it should be fine, right? It’s just explaining a problem.
She took a deep breath and pressed the voice message button.
“Because that model is dynamic, and the direction of the local magnetic field change is constantly shifting. ‘Zeng Fan Jian Tong’ is suitable for determining the instantaneous direction of the induced current, but it’s easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of the big picture. Verifying with the Law of Conservation of Energy is to ensure that the total effect of ‘hindering change’ across the entire system remains consistent. You can think of it as…”
She tried to explain using simple language. Halfway through, Qiuqiu, seemingly disturbed by her voice, let out a dissatisfied “meow” and rubbed against her ankle.
Shen Qingyue paused for a moment before finishing: “…So, by combining the two, you can grasp the microscopic instantaneous moments without forgetting the macroscopic patterns.”
Voice message sent.
She looked down, gently stroking Qiuqiu’s head, and whispered, “Don’t be naughty.”
Qiuqiu squinted her eyes, a purring sound vibrating in her throat.
This time, Lin Mo’s reply took a bit longer.
Another voice message.
She tapped it.
First came the sound of him seemingly letting out a sigh of relief: “Oh—I see now. It makes sense if you look at the instantaneous and the global parts separately. Thanks, Study Representative!”
Then, a faint sound like a chair being moved came from his background. Following that, his voice carried a faint trace of a smile:
“Your cat… seems to have an issue with me? She makes a sound every time we talk about problems.”
The tips of Shen Qingyue’s ears turned red instantly.
He noticed… he even noticed that tiny meow from Qiuqiu.
She bit her lower lip and held the voice button, her voice unintentionally softening with a tenderness she didn’t even notice:
“She’s just… a light sleeper. She doesn’t have an issue.”
After sending it, she immediately felt that her sentence was a bit silly.
Sure enough, Lin Mo replied with simple text: 「【Smile】 She’s quite carefree.」
Carefree…
Shen Qingyue looked at those four words, then at Qiuqiu, who was spread out like a cat pancake and truly had no worries. She couldn’t help but smile softly herself.
The rain outside had stopped at some point. A sliver of moonlight leaked through the gaps in the clouds, faintly reflecting on the window glass.
The light from the phone screen illuminated her delicate profile and the faint, lingering warmth in the corners of her eyes and brows.
Neither she nor he sent any more messages.
But a silent, peaceful understanding seemed to connect the two nights spent buried in books through the screen.
She knew he was on the other end, facing his lamp and exercises.
He knew she was on this end, accompanied by a fat cat that liked to interrupt.
That was enough.
For a night in Senior Year, and for her at this moment, this kind of companionship—focused on the same task across a screen—carried a slight, indescribable throb and warmth…
It was already very, very beautiful.
Shen Qingyue picked up her pen again and turned to the next page of exercises.
The light from the desk lamp enveloped her warmly.
And the phone screen, after she had completed a few more problems, quietly lit up again.
It was a final message from Lin Mo, sent a few minutes ago:
「It’s getting late. You should rest early too, Study Representative. WANAN.」
Shen Qingyue stared at that “WANAN” for several seconds.
‘Big Idiot, does he not know that “WANAN” shouldn’t be sent to the opposite sex so casually, or does he actually know?’ {Note: WANAN, the acronym of the Pinyin initials for ‘Wo Ai Ni Ai Ni’ (I Love You, I Love You).}
Then, she reached out her finger and very lightly, very slowly, tapped two words on the screen:
「WANAN.」
Click send.
Outside the window, the moonlight was gentle.
And on both sides of the screen, two young figures working hard for their futures each harbored a similar yet different, quietly growing sentiment, drifting into dreams on this night after the rain.