Xie Shu and his friends had no classes for the entire day. Normally, he'd take the opportunity to sleep in, right?
But today, he had a heavy load of tasks and had to rise early.
After getting up and freshening up, he sat down and started to work busily.
He needed to get it done quickly.
He had woken up early and, following a video tutorial, managed to complete several pages of the book.
He didn't have classes this morning, but Ruan Nianxi did, so after getting up, he even sent her a message to meet at the cafeteria.
Before leaving, he called out to his 'dog sons' a few times, telling them to send him their breakfast orders via his phone before he headed out.
After leaving, he met up with Ruan Nianxi at the cafeteria as usual, had breakfast together, and then walked her to the teaching building.
Perhaps because he had stayed up late the night before, the signs of fatigue were evident on his face, which Ruan Nianxi noticed.
All the way, she was concerned about his condition, her eyes filled with worry, insisting he go back and not bother sending her off.
Her caring demeanor was quite endearing, making Xie Shu laugh a couple of times and even playfully ruffle her hair.
Then she became shy and didn't say much for the rest of the walk.
After dropping her off at the teaching building, Xie Shu went to the campus supermarket to buy some materials.
Since it was his first time making a pop-up book, some mistakes were inevitable, or he wasn't satisfied with some parts, so he had wasted quite a bit of material and needed to restock.
Next, he visited the print shop to print out all the photos of him and Ruan Nianxi from elementary to junior high school that he had saved in Penguin Space the night before.
If it was a photo of them together, he would ask for an extra copy.
After purchasing these items, he made another trip to the cafeteria to bring back food for his 'dog sons.'
But when he checked his phone at the cafeteria, there were no messages from them.
It seemed they had fallen back asleep after he left.
Fing Hell, what a bunch of 'dog sons'!
Always making their 'father' worry!
So Xie Shu called them up.
Li Da's name was at the top of the contact list, so he called him first.
But the call didn't go through.
Feeling puzzled, he then called Liu Ping.
This time, the call connected.
He asked what they wanted for breakfast since he was already at the cafeteria.
Liu Ping mumbled a few words before suddenly waking up, shouting "Father!" and then listed what he wanted to eat, not forgetting to call the other two.
Xie Shu heard him calling Li Da's name several times with no response and thought he might have gone out, but the next second he heard Li Da's voice: "What's up? Summoning spirits in the bathroom? Liu Ping, who are you calling so early?"
Liu Ping: "Your father."
Li Da: "How's that possible? You don't even know my dad, alright!"
Liu Ping: "How could I not? Try talking to him yourself."
A few seconds later, Li Da's voice came through the receiver: "Fing Hell, you're clearly on the phone with Xie Shu, spouting nonsense, are you asking for a beating?!"
Xie Shu didn't have time for their jokes and asked directly, "I'm at the cafeteria, what do you want to eat?"
Li Da: "Dad! Just the usual for me!"
***
When Xie Shu returned to the dorm, all three of his rebellious 'sons' were up.
He handed them their food and continued with his own work.
He had stayed up late the previous night working on the book cover and a few pages, and in the morning, he had done a few more. With a "frame" in place, it was time to add "content."
From the videos he had watched, some content creators used journal stickers to make the content look richer.
But since he had decided to do this on the fly, naturally, he didn't have any such stickers. He had checked the supermarket, which didn't sell them, and it was too late to order online, so he decided to draw everything himself.
With his foundational skills, he didn't think it would be difficult.
Drawing some simple characters was easy; it wasn't like a joint exam where he had to deal with complex shading.
Simple as it was, the workload was still substantial.
Moreover, he had to make these drawings stand up on the pages, which meant extra time cutting out the figures from the paper and then "installing" them.
Besides, each page had to have little mechanisms set up…
In short, it wasn't that simple.
All morning, he focused on drawing various patterns, and his 'sons' didn't dare disturb him.
At noon, he went out to pick up Ruan Nianxi from her class, and after a quick meal, he returned to his work.
Ruan Nianxi had no classes in the afternoon, so he chatted with her for a while, eventually lulling her to sleep before diving back into his craftwork.
He roughly estimated his progress and felt he could finish by tomorrow at the latest.
"Xie Shu, why don't you put aside what you're doing for now? Focus on your homework instead."
In the afternoon, at some point, the others, who had been entertaining themselves, were all now seated at their desks, working on CAD to finish their assignments. Zhao Lin, seeing how long it had been, couldn't help but remind Xie Shu.
"The public assignment is due tomorrow; maybe you should prioritize that."
Their major's assignments… simply couldn't be copied.
They were all good brothers; if they could help him copy, they would have said nothing and just done it, and even if he really couldn't make it, they would have helped him copy.
But with design work…
Copying would be almost like cut and paste, and the teacher would spot it immediately.
Moreover, their public assignments were in the final stages, and everyone's design style was different, so how could they copy? How could they help?
It was all up to the individual.
Considering their good brother, they still wanted him to finish his assignment first.
Xie Shu glanced at them, recalled his progress on the public assignment, and said nonchalantly, "Don't worry, I'll make it. You guys go ahead with your work."
The others were worried he wouldn't be able to submit his assignment on time and the teacher would fail him, but since they couldn't persuade him, they let Xie Shu do his own thing.
That entire day, Xie Shu's mind was entirely on the pop-up book. He hardly went out and barely rested, even suppressing his afternoon drowsiness.
Compared to his unfamiliarity yesterday, today his movements were much faster.
He worked overtime all day, and by midnight, he had completed several pages of "content."
At that time, Ruan Nianxi was still awake, chatting with Xie Shu over voice call.
It wasn't until later, when Xie Shu noticed it was getting late, that he told her to go to sleep, ending the call.
To keep up with the progress, he stayed up a bit longer.
Finally, when he could no longer keep his eyes open, he went to bed to sleep…
Proofreader & Editor:Peter Pan