Xu Mei stood in front of Pearl Palace's gates for a while with her phone in hand. She was thinking whether to write a message to Lin Longwei to ask him if he was home or to turn around and go back at the dormitory unnoticed.

It was Wednesday evening, past dinner time. She hadn't seen him for two days already.

She finally made the decision and got closer to the gates, but then again changed her mind. Before she could go back, however, the small gate opened.

Xu Mei sighed and passed through. She had been discovered.

The girl reached the last residence and knocked on the door.

The butler opened to her. The man raised his eyebrows, surprised, and let her in.

«Good evening, miss. I didn't know master was expecting guests.»

«It's a surprise.»

«I see. Please, wait in the living room for a minute. I'll call for the master.»

Xu Mei sat on the couch, lost in her thoughts.

The butler was surprised by her visit, which meant that he didn't open the gate. Lin Longwei wasn't waiting for her, so he didn't open it either. Was she among the people with permission to pass through the Pearl Palace's gates?

She recalled the words Lin Longwei said to her the previous time they saw each other: «you already are free to come and go from here as you wish.»

Could it be that Lin Longwei had actually granted her permission to cross the gates at all times?

Finally, Lin Longwei appeared.

«Good evening, Mei.»

Xu Mei raised her gaze and noticed the dark circles around Lin Longwei's eyes. The man was wearing a simple t-shirt and sweatpants, and his hair was messy, making him look younger than when wearing a shirt and tie.

«Good evening. Are you busy these days?»

«Yes. One of the projects I'm overseeing is behind schedule, and it will be time to start campaigning soon. And you?»

«Are you eating regularly? Are you sleeping enough?»

«You seem worried.»

«You look awful.»

«Thank you.»

Xu Mei got up from the couch and approached him.

«I'm here to ask you if you have looked at the results of my program.»

«Yes, I did. But the numbers are not exactly intelligible.»

«How come? I even used the colours!»

«The report is a sheet full of numbers. Yes, some of them are coloured, but it doesn't help very much.»

«I'll explain anything you don't understand,» she offered.

«Come to the study. I was just trying to make a sense out of it.»

In the study, Lin Longwei sat in front of the computer and opened the files generated by Xu Mei's program. The girl stood by his side until he pulled her by hand to sit on his lap.

«For example, this one is blue. What does it mean?»

«This is the partial sum of the records until this point.»

«And those red and green?»

«They are probabilities. Green means high, red low. They denote how much precise is the algorithm on test data.»

«There are only low numbers here!»

«Ah, yes. I should have thought about it: you businessmen are used to percentages. I'll fix it in a moment, wait,» she said and started to type on the keyboard.

Lin Longwei patiently waited while caressing her forearm absent-mindedly. Xu Mei stopped his hand after a while.

«You're distracting me.»

«Oh, sorry» he apologised and moved the hand to her waist. The girl didn't complain, so he left it there.

«Done,» she finally spoke.

On the screen, there were now percentages where before were unadorned numbers between zero and one.

«I didn't think about it because we don't use percentages in this form. They are easy to understand and remember, but they are a bother for calculations.»

«Now everything makes kind of sense. Thank you.»

Lin Lingwei turned to her and got closer slowly. She straightened her back surprised but didn't move, unsure what was happening. When their faces were inches apart, he reached out his hand to pick the phone from the desk.

«Tomorrow, I'll show the report to the marketing office of the party.»

Xu Mei returned to examine the numbers. She didn't understand why she felt so disappointed.

«Are the results so interesting?» he asked then.

«I'm just checking if they're all right.»

«And?»

«Everything seems fine.»

«Good. I didn't ask you if you needed anything. I was quite surprised to see you.»

«Oh, not really. I have a test tomorrow, and someone told me that you are my lucky charm, so I wanted to check if seeing you helps or not.»

«Have you studied?»

«Not yet. I have all night for that.»

«Now I'm afraid you'll be angry if I don't bring you luck.»

«Don't worry, I won't be angry at you.»

«Who is it that told you that, by the way?»

«It's a secret.»

She started to get up, but he held her back.

«You have your books with you, right?»

She nodded. «Yes, I came directly from classes.»

«Why don't you stay here? Going back to the university takes a lot of time, and the room you used in the past is still available. I have work to do, too. We can keep each other company.»

«Okay,» she agreed. That way, she could make sure he slept early.

Lin Longwei's expression lightened, while his smile made Xu Mei skip a few heartbeats. She was still sitting on his lap and didn't want to part yet, but she forced herself to get up.

«On one condition: if you feel tired, you'll go to bed. Sleeping on the couch isn't good for your health,» the girl ordered him.

«So you were worried, deep in your heart.»

She rolled her eyes but didn't deny.