The baking room in the teaching building's basement was the Cooking Club's base of operations. It was usually deserted, with only a few students trickling in around three or four in the afternoon to make snacks.
Zero stood at a work counter, a neat row of ingredients laid out before her.
Cake flour, unsalted butter, superfine sugar, eggs, pork floss.
She picked up the butter, cut off a piece with a knife, and placed it on the digital scale.
Then she put the butter in a mixing bowl and began beating it.
Her movements were neither fast nor slow, like a machine running a preset program. The whisk traced even circles in the bowl as the butter softened from a solid into a cream, its color shifting from pale yellow to milky white. She stopped at precisely the right moment, added sugar, and continued beating. Then she added the eggs and beat it again.
Several upper-year girls were gathered around the neighboring counter, their eyes constantly drifting her way. They whispered to one another, discussing her delicate features, criticizing her unapproachable demeanor, then speculating about how this transfer student had managed to latch onto the S-Rank.
"She actually knows how to bake cookies!" a round-faced girl whispered.
"They're for Lu Mingfei, right? They have to be!"
"I never would've guessed. Someone as cold as her, doing something so girly."
"That contrast is what makes her cute! Do you think Lu Mingfei's heart will melt when he eats those cookies?"
"And they're absolutely perfect... Look at the color of that dough, that sheen..."
"Could you stop praising her cookies? I'm trying to gossip here." The round-faced girl tapped the counter. "So is Zero actually Lu Mingfei's girlfriend?"
"Look at her. Does she seem like someone with a boyfriend?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know... the way she is." The round-faced girl struggled to put it into words. "She never talks to anyone, never takes an interest in anything, and comes and goes alone every day. How could someone like that be dating?"
"Not necessarily." Another girl shook her head. "The more of an icy beauty she is, the easier it is for the S-Rank to win her over. Haven't you ever read a romance novel?"
"Those are novels!"
"Lu Mingfei's life is practically a novel already. The only S-Rank since the school was founded, he wrapped up the Day of Freedom on his first day, and now he has two beauties circling him. Doesn't that sound like a novel to you?"
The girls all fell silent, then nodded in unison.
"Fair point."
Zero's attention was entirely focused on the dough in her hands. Beneath her palms, the butter and flour came together into a smooth ball. She put it in the refrigerator to chill and waited for it to firm up.
Then she took out the dough and rolled it into a thin sheet. She cut out shapes with a cutter, each one a perfect circle with smooth edges and not a single crack. She arranged the unbaked cookies neatly on the baking tray, evenly spaced and lined up.
She slid the tray into the oven. Set the temperature. Set the timer.
Then she stood before the oven, watching through the glass as the cookies slowly rose and turned golden.
The gossip beside her had already reached new heights.
"I heard that on the day of the 3E Exam, Zero and Lu Mingfei were the only two people who handed in their papers early."
"Right, right, and Professor Manstein personally told them to hand them in early."
"Don't you think Zero treats Lu Mingfei differently from everyone else?"
"How? Doesn't she have the same blank face with everyone?"
"That's exactly why the fact that she sits next to Lu Mingfei means something. Would she sit next to you? Would she sit next to me? No. She only sits next to Lu Mingfei."
"Ding-"
The oven timer rang.
Zero put on oven mitts and opened the oven door. A wave of heat washed over her, carrying the scent of butter and pork floss. She took out the tray and set it on a cooling rack.
The cookies were perfectly baked.
The savory aroma of pork floss mingled with the sweet scent of butter, spreading through the baking room.
Zero waited until the cookies had cooled to room temperature, then picked up a small pair of tongs and transferred them one by one into a kraft paper bag.
She folded the top of the bag closed, the creases straight and the edges aligned.
Then she began cleaning the counter.
She wiped away the traces of flour with a damp cloth, then dried the water marks with a dry one. She disassembled the whisk, put it in the sink, and washed it carefully with dish soap. Then she rinsed it with clean water, dried it with paper towels, reassembled it, and returned it to its place. The mixing bowl, the digital scale, the cutters, the tongs. Every tool went through the same process: wash, dry, put away.
The entire counter was restored to its original state. It was even cleaner than before.
Without realizing it, the girls around her had stopped talking. They hardly dared breathe loudly.
Zero picked up the paper bag and turned toward the door.
"Did she hear what we were saying?" the round-faced girl whispered.
"I don't know..."
"I think she did, but she doesn't seem to care at all."
Another girl sighed. "People like her are the scariest. You never know what she's thinking, or how much attention she's been paying to you."
"So is she Lu Mingfei's girlfriend or not?"
"I don't think so."
"Why?"
"Because if she were Lu Mingfei's girlfriend, she wouldn't be here baking cookies alone." The girl glanced in the direction Zero had disappeared. "She'd be with Lu Mingfei."
The baking room fell quiet, leaving only the oven's lingering warmth and the residual scent of butter.
The door was suddenly pushed open.
Nono wore a red hoodie and carried an empty food container. The Cooking Club produced plenty of snacks, and its refrigerator was always packed full. Anyone could help themselves without asking.
When she pushed the door open and came in, Zero was just about to leave.
Both stopped. Nono looked down at Zero, then lowered her gaze further to the paper bag in Zero's hand.
Zero's gaze, in turn, settled on the empty food container in Nono's hand.
Before the atmosphere could turn tense, both started walking again.
Nono entered the baking room, and Zero left it. The door swung between them, then slowly closed.
Inside the baking room, Nono opened the storage unit and found an untouched box of tiramisu. She put it into her food container and closed the lid. Then she gave the counter where Zero had stood a thoughtful glance. Its surface was spotless, without so much as a drop of water.
She looked away and left the baking room, cradling the food container.
Zero was already nowhere to be seen in the hallway.
"Long Legs, come look at this!"
In the luxurious suite, Su Enxi pointed at her computer screen, laughing so hard she slapped the desk.
Shadw came over and leaned down to look at the screen.
[The first signs of a battle for the S-Rank! The red-haired witch and the ice queen face off for the first time!]
The post contained a photo taken on a phone. In it, Nono and Zero stood face-to-face in the doorway, Zero's gaze resting on Nono's food container while Nono's eyes were fixed on Zero's paper bag.
"These students really know how to spin a story." Su Enxi scrolled with the mouse. "The original poster wrote this huge essay insisting that the bag contained cookies baked with love for Lu Mingfei, and that Nono was holding a declaration of war to sever their romantic ties. They've even started taking bets in the comments."
"Cookies baked with love?" Shadw sounded as though she had heard a joke. "Does that concept even exist in her head?"
"Who knows!" Su Enxi said. "What instructions did the boss send her in private, anyway? Making a girl with no expression, no words, and no feelings act out a campus romance?"
Shadw said, "Zero never does anything unnecessary. If she decided to bake a bag of cookies and then carry it around campus-"
"Then she did it on purpose," Su Enxi finished for her.
"The boss only told her to meet up with him. He never taught her any of this," Shadw said. "This is probably her own approach to solving the problem."
"Her approach is completely off!" Su Enxi pointed at Zero's face in the photo. "Even a shut-in like me knows you should at least smile when you're trying to win a guy over. Look at that expression. You could freeze to death."
"She probably flipped through some dating guide," Shadw said, "and figured the way to a man's heart was through his stomach."