After Meng Jingnian passed his thesis pre-defense, he didn't get a chance to relax.
From March to May, on weekdays, he basically spent all his time in the department building.
Dean Jiang was the academic leader of the university's Key Laboratory for Mesoscale Severe Weather, holding national-level key research projects. Much of the data observation, collection, and organization work was delegated to Meng Jingnian.
Additionally, an international summer workshop themed "Tropical Convection, Tropical Cyclones, and Related Multiscale Processes" was scheduled for mid-June, with plans to invite senior experts from the United States, Norway, the UK, Japan, and other countries to deliver a series of lectures and tutorials. Part of the preparatory work was also handed to him.
Because he had been in the department since his undergraduate years, the faculty had watched him grow up and knew him well. They were aware that he was easygoing and reliable, so whenever they needed extra hands on short notice, they would call on him to fill in.
A series of tasks kept Meng Jingnian running in circles.
After finishing the day's work on communicating with some of the international experts for the summer workshop and initially finalizing the participant list, he detoured to the Basic Laboratory Building and went to the campus weather station to find Xie Heng for dinner together.
The two weren't picky about food—a couple of stir-fried dishes on the second floor of the Third Canteen would do.
Xie Heng had always felt that Meng Jingnian had a certain "ethereal air" about him. Even in a rushed place like the canteen, he ate at a leisurely pace.
"You're having your official defense in a few days, right? How's the thesis revision going?" Xie Heng asked.
Meng Jingnian paused with his chopsticks mid-air. "…What's the date today?"
"Lost track of the days? It's the 20th."
Meng Jingnian set down his chopsticks, took out his phone, and searched the news.
The provincial competition for the Computer Design Contest was today. It was already six in the evening—the competition had long since ended.
He tapped into his Moments, scrolled down a few times, then exited and swiped down directly to find Lin Qin's profile. The last time they'd chatted was after the May Day holiday, when Lin Qin had thanked him and said Ji Wenxi had already returned to Beicheng.
More than two weeks had passed, and their conversation had long since sunk too deep to scroll back to, so he went straight to his contacts and searched for "Lin Yiyi."
He tapped the apple avatar with a skeleton embedded in it and entered her Moments—only a "visible for three days" notice appeared.
He had too many WeChat friends. Scrolling through Moments, he lost interest within moments, and he couldn't recall ever seeing a post from Lin Qin.
He opened the chat input box and sent her a message: Yiyi, is the competition over?
Xie Heng asked at that moment, "What? Forgot a date you had with someone?"
Meng Jingnian didn't answer him.
After waiting a while with no reply on WeChat, he set his phone aside and picked up his chopsticks again.
"It's 520 today?!" Xie Heng shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of rice, then suddenly realized, "…Old Meng, are you seeing someone?"
"…"
This was getting hard to explain.
Meng Jingnian said, "The person I see most every day is you. Seeing you?"
Xie Heng grinned. "I wouldn't mind if you didn't mind."
Meng Jingnian said, "Get lost."
His phone suddenly vibrated.
Meng Jingnian picked it up, looked at it, and set down his chopsticks.
Lin Qin had replied with a photo—a selfie of the four-person team holding their first-place provincial certificate. The other three were all smiling so hard their eyes were squeezed shut, but she alone wore only a slight smile.
He didn't know when they'd ordered team uniforms—white T-shirts printed with a unified logo. Looking closely, it was the word "Plexy."
Meng Jingnian replied: Congratulations.
After sending that, there was no immediate response.
Across from him, Xie Heng stared at him with burning intensity.
Meng Jingnian couldn't take it anymore. "…Do you know how smug your expression looks?"
Xie Heng said, "Come clean, will you? Who's your girlfriend?"
"There really isn't one. A friend had a competition today. I'd planned to go watch but got too busy and forgot."
"Really?" Xie Heng clearly didn't believe him.
"What status are you to me? Would I need to lie to you?"
Just as he finished speaking, his phone vibrated again.
Lin Yiyi: Sorry, I'm eating crayfish with them, not really convenient to keep holding my phone.
mjn: No worries, eat first.
The "typing…" indicator flickered for a moment, then nothing more.
Meng Jingnian put his phone down.
Xie Heng was convinced something was up with Meng Jingnian. "She's definitely not just a regular friend. A stickler for table manners like you—you'd leave me hanging to keep texting someone else?"
"Even with you, I wouldn't stoop to something as refined as table manners."
"…" Xie Heng was sharp-tongued, but he rarely got the better of Meng Jingnian in verbal sparring.
After dinner, Xie Heng hurriedly left campus—he was probably the one who'd actually forgotten a date with some lady today.
Meng Jingnian, meanwhile, headed to the department lab to organize the data on the South China severe storm system from May that had been received during the day.
He was alone in the lab. Perhaps because it was Friday, and also the so-called "520."
Having spent the past two years in Germany, he'd lost touch with these homophone-based dates—over there, they only celebrated Valentine's Day on February 14th.
Though holidays like this had never had anything to do with him anyway.
The laboratory was quiet, with only the hum of the computer mainframe breaking the silence. He wore Bluetooth earphones, playing a classical music playlist, processing tedious data while listening to the music.
Hamburg had a philharmonic orchestra that often performed at the Elbphilharmonie, which had been one of his few pastimes during his time in Germany.
His phone suddenly vibrated.
He picked it up quickly—it was a message from the international seminar preparation group. A teacher had assigned work to collect guest information based on the attendee list.
A classmate replied "Received," followed by several specific questions that went on for a while.
Meng Jingnian found it annoying and set the group to Do Not Disturb.
After that, a few more WeChat messages came in, none particularly urgent. He glanced at them, planning to reply tomorrow or Monday when he had time.
The clock struck eight.
His phone vibrated again.
Meng Jingnian glanced over and immediately picked it up.
Lin Yiyi: I've finished eating.
Then she quoted his "Congratulations" message and replied: Thank you.
Meng Jingnian quickly responded: When is the national competition?
Lin Yiyi: Seems like early August. In Beicheng.
mjn: You can meet up with your friends.
Lin Yiyi: Yeah. Otherwise I'd be a bit lazy to go.
Meng Jingnian's fingers hovered over the virtual keyboard on the screen. He typed two characters, then deleted them.
He didn't know what else to reply.
It suddenly struck him that if she didn't ask him for help, the two of them actually lived parallel lives that didn't intersect.
It was quite different from before she went to university.
Back then, he would go to Meng Yingnian's place for dinner about every two weeks, and since Lin Qin happened to have weekends off, he would take the two kids to see a movie or play video games in the evening at Meng Yingnian's request. When Lin Qin encountered any troubles at school, she would naturally confide in him.
He had dutifully fulfilled the role of "best friend."
He hadn't felt it right after returning to the country, but now he truly realized—she had other, better friends now. Besides her studies, she had developed a busy hobby and met many new companions.
Nearly two years of not communicating had left them knowing very little about each other's current lives.
Meng Jingnian tossed his phone back onto the table, leaned back, and silently sank into the dimness.
Actually, it wasn't so bad.
A so-called "elder" should be someone you contact occasionally and ask for help when needed.
/
Summer had arrived in Nancheng earlier than usual. From mid-June onward, the heat was already hard to bear.
Meng Jingnian completed his formal thesis defense in late May, after which he spent nearly all day in the laboratory, simply waiting for the graduation ceremony to officially graduate.
In the meantime, he went to his sister and brother-in-law's place for dinner twice. Lin Qin was there both times. They exchanged a few pleasantries but didn't say anything extra. He knew she was attending classes, taking photos, living a normal life—nothing out of the ordinary.
The international seminar lasted a week, with over 200 participants from more than 30 institutions including universities, meteorological operations, and research departments both domestic and international. It concluded with great success.
Meng Jingnian finally had a chance to catch his breath. For once, he didn't turn down Xie Heng's invitation—after a late-night meal, they went to a nearby bar for drinks.
It was a quiet bar. They ran into a group of friends from other schools and sat together chatting for a while.
As the gathering was winding down, he went to the restroom. On his way out, he bumped into a girl from that group of friends in the corridor.
She smiled and said the drinks at this bar were too watered down and had no flavor. She knew a better bar and asked if he'd be interested in going for a drink with her alone later.
Meng Jingnian was no stranger to such subtle invitations. He smiled and said he already had plans for the evening, politely declining.
The girl wasn't embarrassed. She smiled and said she had his WeChat—if he was ever interested, he could reach out.
He smiled and said okay.
In truth, he didn't even remember the girl's name.
Past midnight, drowsiness crept over Meng Jingnian. He said goodbye to Xie Heng and left on his own. Xie Heng was having too much fun to leave anytime soon. Neither forced the other—they agreed to disagree.
The bar wasn't far from his residence, so Meng Jingnian chose to walk.
At the end of the street was a 24-hour convenience store. He walked over, intending to buy a bottle of cold water.
Passing by the store's glass window, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked back, then retraced his steps two paces.
The convenience store was fairly large. By the window, there was a long table where people could sit and eat bento boxes or instant noodles.
At that moment, a girl was lying there, face down.
Her fluffy black hair slid over her shoulders, framing a face no bigger than a palm. Her cheek was pressed against her arm, slightly squished.
Under the cold white light, her complexion was pale, with faint dark circles under her eyes, looking tired and fragile.
The early summer breeze carried a hint of refreshing coolness.
Meng Jingnian stood watching for a long while before walking toward the convenience store entrance.
He pushed open the glass door and walked straight to the long table.
Pausing for a moment, he reached out and gently shook her shoulder. "Yiyi."
Lin Qin woke almost immediately, sitting up with a start and looking around in confusion.
She froze for a second. "Meng… Uncle."
"Why are you sleeping here?"
Lin Qin's voice was still a bit hoarse. "I stayed too long in the study room and missed the dormitory curfew. I got a bit hungry, so I came out to find something to eat."
"Usually the dorm manager should still open the door for late returns."
"Yeah. But one of my roommates has rhinitis and snores at night. Normally I'm fine with it, but during exam week I can't sleep well and it's hard to handle. I was planning to read a bit more and then find a hotel nearby to sleep at."
Meng Jingnian lowered his gaze and saw that the textbook on the desk was Discrete Mathematics.
"Exam tomorrow morning?"
"At nine-thirty." As she spoke, Lin Qin yawned again.
Meng Jingnian looked at her dark circles and said calmly, "Go rest at my place."