"The dinner invitation is currently in the assessment phase."
Lu Jia said, deadpan.
Chu Ge and Wang Dayong were stunned speechless on the spot.
Chu Ge glanced down at the notebook, his expression turning priceless.
"She praised me for knowing so much. That means she approves of my logical and analytical abilities."
"Then what is her core need?"
"What’s wrong with that? She presented a problem, and I provided a solution in the most rigorous way possible. That’s a responsible attitude toward communication."
Chen Zhuo said, a hint of teasing in his voice.
"Dayong, we’re just trying to eat. Can you not get all technical on us?"
Seeing Lu Jia’s stubbornly clueless expression, Chen Zhuo let out a soft sigh.
Chu Ge swallowed hard.
Chu Ge read aloud.
Lu Jia frowned, retorting with self-righteous indignation.
"She did. After two hours and four minutes. Seriously, you even wrote down the time?"
"See for yourselves. Personally, I believe our exchanges have been quite profound."
Wang Dayong asked eagerly.
Chen Zhuo picked up a freshly grilled skewer of meat.
Chu Ge stared at Lu Jia in disbelief.
Chen Zhuo placed his empty bamboo skewer on the edge of the table, lining it up neatly.
"Besides, stop bringing up age. In terms of mental maturity, the three of you combined would probably still need to take two of my elective courses."
Chen Zhuo paused after speaking.
Chu Ge snatched the notebook, and Wang Dayong leaned in to get a look.
Chu Ge buried his face in his hands in despair.
Wang Dayong pointed at the iron skewer in his hand.
Chu Ge, who had been listening on the side, was wide-eyed.
"Third Brother, if you really can’t find anything to talk about, you could teach her calculus. A Markov chain is a little too devastating for a girl who isn’t a math major."
"No, I’m serious."
"Last night, 9:30 PM. The senior messaged: ’The weather is so stuffy today. Feels like it’s going to rain tomorrow. I don’t even feel like going to the library.’"
"You just had to reply: ’Yeah, it is stuffy. I brought an umbrella. If it rains tomorrow, I’ll wait for you at the entrance of Classroom Building Two after class, and we can go get some sweet and sour pork ribs at the cafeteria.’"
"Lu Jia replied: ’According to the recent trajectory of the subtropical high-pressure system published by the China Meteorological Administration, and combining it with the historical precipitation probability distribution for the month of May, we can construct a weather prediction model based on a Markov chain. I just ran the simulation on my dorm computer, and the probability of rain tomorrow is 87.5%. I’ve attached my full derivation. Since the WhatsApp chat box isn’t good for displaying formulas, I’ve zipped it and sent it to your email.’"
Chu Ge was choked speechless. He could only raise his bottle and tap it on the table by himself.
"Emotional resonance."
Lu Jia hesitated, then pushed the small, densely-filled notebook across the table.
Chu Ge cleared his throat and began to read from the notebook.
"To review and analyze the senior’s semantic feedback, I’ve hand-copied our key conversations on WhatsApp, complete with precise timestamps, as a raw data record. Our current communications are primarily focused on the exchange of information and the collision of viewpoints."
"When she complains to you about the weather, about not wanting to go to the library, her core need isn’t to actually know if it’s going to rain tomorrow."
Chen Zhuo leaned back in his chair, watching the blue smoke rise from the charcoal brazier.
"Aren’t you only twelve? Where do you get all these moves? With your level of emotional intelligence, keeping you in our two dorms is a complete waste!"
Lu Jia pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment, and pulled a small notebook out of his pocket.
Wang Dayong nearly spat out the lamb in his mouth.
Wang Dayong, who had been quiet for a while, was now staring intently at the iron skewer of grilled lamb in his hand.
Chen Zhuo smiled faintly.
"In plain English."
He turned his head and stared at Chen Zhuo as if he were a monster.
Wang Dayong sighed and clapped Lu Jia on the shoulder.
"The senior replied: ’Oh. Thank you. You know so much.’"
"Lu Jia, my friend... back in my hometown, we call that killing the conversation. When someone says ’Oh,’ it means ’I don’t want to waste my breath on you anymore.’"
Chu Ge looked back down and continued reading Lu Jia’s reply data.
After reading the line, Chu Ge looked up at Lu Jia.
He shook his head and looked at Lu Jia.
He turned the skewer over and over, then looked at the grill over the charcoal brazier, which was spitting sparks.
"Or, even simpler, if she doesn’t have an umbrella, you go give her one. If she does have an umbrella..."
Chen Zhuo shot Chu Ge a cool glance.
When Chu Ge finished reading, the entire food stall seemed to fall silent for a second.
"You say you forgot yours."
Lu Jia asked humbly for guidance.
Chen Zhuo didn’t move. He sat where he was, sipping his Jianlibao through a straw, waiting to hear Lu Jia’s love story.
"It’s actually very simple."
"You fucking hand-copied your WhatsApp chat logs into a math notebook just to get a date???"
Chen Zhuo added coolly.
"These aren’t ’moves.’ This is the optimal solution in behavioral logic."
Lu Jia’s eyes lit up.
"Wait, Brother Zhuo."
"She’s complaining to you about the stuffy weather, and you send her a Markov chain??"
Sitting across from them, Chen Zhuo couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.
"So, did the senior ever reply?"
"That’s a pretty normal opener. What did you say back?"
"The thermal conductivity of this thing is too high. Look at this piece of meat—the outside is already charred and bitter, but the inside is just barely cooked through."
"What were you thinking?"
"Our current communications are primarily focused on the exchange of information and the collision of viewpoints."
Chu Ge rolled his eyes.
"’Fourth Brother’ just mentioned an optimal solution, and it made me think of something."
Chen Zhuo raised an eyebrow and put down the skewer of pork belly in his hand.
Chu Ge’s eyes went wide as he stared at Lu Jia like he was an alien.
"See?"
Wang Dayong perked up, suddenly energized.

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