June 9, 1991, early morning.
When Satsuki groggily opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
The bedroom curtains were not fully drawn, and the sunlight of a June morning shone through the gap, leaving a narrow strip of light at the foot of the bed and on the carpet.
The room was very quiet, the sound of the air conditioner's airflow was almost inaudible, and the breathing of the person beside her was very steady.
Wait, why was there someone next to her?
Satsuki stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before remembering where this was.
Saionji, In'in, Hongo penthouse.
Emi's home.
She subconsciously wanted to get up, but her body only moved a little before being pulled back.
Looking down, she saw an arm across her waist, and another hand still clasping her wrist.
Emi pressed against her from behind, her face buried near her hair, and one leg pinning down both of her legs, as if she was afraid that the person in her arms would run away in her sleep, blocking even the last bit of gap tightly.
Satsuki lowered her head to look at the hand around her waist, then turned her face with difficulty.
Emi was close at hand.
She was sleeping soundly, her long black hair scattered on the pillow, and the corners of her mouth still carried a hint of extreme satisfaction.
Satsuki was silent for a moment.
Afterward, she remembered what happened a few days ago.
On the experimental line in Odaiba, Emi completed a system she called "Self-Calibrated Computational Lithography System."
It incorporated inverse lithography, phase-shift masks, optical proximity correction, and post-exposure measured data into the same calculation workflow.
The system first deduced the deviation produced after light passed through the mask, then corrected the mask pattern and exposure parameters according to actual results, to calculate and make up for the deficiency of equipment precision.
Relying on this system, Emi used only an existing 248-nanometre KrF experimental equipment to carve out 0.18-micron test lines, and subsequently manufactured a stable-operating 0.25-micron test chip.
0.18 microns was currently just a simple line test, the scale of the 0.25-micron chip was not large, and the yield was far from ideal.
But these two results had proven that existing equipment could be pushed far beyond its original limits.
For this reason, Shimomura and researchers in the lithography laboratory re-checked continuously for two whole days in Odaiba.
And this meant that Saionji could advance the manufacturing process that would otherwise take years to achieve ahead of time without waiting for the next-generation lithography machine to enter the factory.
The service life of existing equipment would be greatly extended, and the pilot production lines under construction could thereby skip a long catch-up process.
After reading the preliminary evaluation, Endo wrote only one sentence at the end of the report.
In the first phase alone, it was expected to save tens of billions of yen in equipment investment.
And this did not count the orders, patents, and industrial status brought by technological leadership.
A few days ago, Satsuki brought Chizuru to the Hongo apartment, originally just wanting to accompany Emi for dinner and celebrate the success of the experiment by the way.
The cake sent by the restaurant was still on the table, but Emi hugged the flowers sent by Satsuki and walked back and forth in the living room several times.
She first asked Satsuki how well the experiment was done, then asked if this achievement could be considered "a huge credit," and finally sat down beside Satsuki, dawdled for a long time, and then spoke softly.
"Satsuki-chan said before that if you make a very impressive achievement, you can make a request, right?"
Satsuki had already guessed what she was probably going to say.
"Speak."
Emi's fingers clutched her skirt hem, her ears turning red little by little.
"I want to... sleep holding Satsuki-chan for a night."
After she finished speaking, she immediately added another sentence.
"Just hold, will not do anything."
Satsuki looked at her for a long time.
Emi was originally full of expectation, but seeing her made her increasingly nervous, until finally she did not even dare to raise her gaze.
"You can."
Emi was stunned for several seconds.
"Really?"
"Only one night."
Satsuki agreed very calmly.
She even felt that this reward was ridiculously cheap.
The value Emi showed now had exceeded anyone in the Saionji Group — of course, this range did not include Satsuki herself.
Ordinary technicians could complete a study for the group, but Emi could directly shorten the time for technology to reach reality.
Such a person relying solely on salary and contracts to restrain was not stable enough.
Further consolidating loyalty was a necessary matter.
Satsuki told herself that at the time.
As for Emi's nearly morbid adoration, she had always known.
When she truly lay in this bed last night, she was even prepared to lose her virginity.
Now it seemed Emi was still quite well-behaved.
Satsuki lowered her head to check her pyjamas.
The collar and buttons maintained the state of falling asleep last night.
Except for her right hand going numb and her left leg losing most of its sensation, she had not temporarily lost other more important things.
Satsuki breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then, Emi suddenly leaned forward, burying her nose into her hair and taking a deep sniff.
"Satsuki-chan's scent..."
She laughed twice in her sleep, and the arm across Satsuki's waist tightened accordingly.
"Hehe..."
"Mmph!"
Satsuki's chest tightened, and she almost failed to draw breath.
Emi was a whole head taller than her, and her strength was much greater.
Satsuki struggled twice, but the person behind her hugged tighter instead, so she had to raise her still-movable left hand and grab a handful of tender flesh on the inside of Emi's arm.
"Suzuki Emi!"
"Ah!"
Emi opened her eyes in pain.
When she first woke up, she was still a bit dissatisfied, frowning at the person in her arms.
When she saw Satsuki's puffed-up face clearly, that dissatisfaction disappeared immediately, and her expression became intoxicated.
"Satsuki-chan, thank you..."
Satsuki immediately let go of her hand, and the disgust on her face was almost undisguised.
Emi rubbed the pinched red spot and looked at Satsuki's disgusted face.
"Thanks for the treat."
"..."
Satsuki covered her face and crawled out of her arms bit by bit.
"Good morning, Satsuki-chan!"
Emi also sat up with a grin, her spirits so good as if the person who had just been pinched was not her at all.
Satsuki ignored her and supported herself on the edge of the bed to get down to the floor.
As soon as her left foot touched the carpet, a tingling sensation rushed up from her ankle, and her body swayed along with it.
Emi hurriedly supported her from behind.
"Satsuki-chan, be careful."
"Let go."
"But you cannot stand steady."
"Why can I not stand steady?"
Emi thought for a moment and shut her mouth very honestly.
Satsuki sat by the bed for a while, slowly moving her left leg.
The soreness brought by the blood flowing again made her frown, and Emi immediately squatted in front of her, reaching out to massage it for her.
Satsuki pulled her leg back vigilantly.
"What else do you want to do?"
"Help Satsuki-chan recover."
"Stay away from me, I will recover faster."
Emi had no choice but to kneel and sit on the carpet, looking at her aggrievedly.
Being quiet for a few seconds, her gaze began to drift toward Satsuki's messy pyjamas and hair again, and the smile on the corners of her mouth emerged little by little.
After Satsuki noticed, she lowered her head and looked at herself again.
"Did you really do nothing last night?"
"I keep my promise, you know."
Emi immediately straightened her body.
"Satsuki-chan only agreed to let me sleep holding you, so I only held you. I will not secretly do things that are not permitted."
Satsuki looked at her for a moment.
This point, she did believe.
Emi would take secret photos, put her life-sized body pillow in the room, and try every means to find a gap from a sentence to get close to her.
But as long as Satsuki truly drew the line, she indeed never dared to cross it.
"Then what were you sniffing just now?"
Emi's expression stiffened for a moment.
"This..."
"Hmm?"
"Sniffing should not count, right?"
Her voice became smaller and smaller.
"Satsuki-chan did not say last night that I could not sniff."
Satsuki reached out and pinched her cheek.
"You still dare to explain to me?"
"Mmph... it hurts..."
"Did not you like it just now?"
"What Satsuki-chan gives is different from others."
Satsuki's hand movement stopped, and then, as if touching something strange, she immediately pushed her further away.
"Pervert."
Emi touched her pinched red face and smiled even more happily instead.
"Satsuki-chan, I was really happy last night."
When she said this, her voice slowly softened.
"I was always afraid that after waking up, I would find it was just a dream. So after falling asleep... maybe I hugged a little too tightly."
"You call that a little?"
Satsuki still showed disgust on her lips, but finally raised her hand and rubbed her head gently.
"I am still here now."
When Emi raised her head, Satsuki had already stood up and walked toward the bathroom.
"So let me wash up first."
"I will join too."
"You dare try coming in."
Emi pulled back the foot she had just stepped out.
Satsuki walked into the bathroom and opened the cabinet next to the washstand. Inside sat a neatly arranged set of unopened toothbrushes, towels, and skin care products, even the brand was identical to the one she used at the main residence.
Satsuki picked up the toothbrush and looked back toward the door.
"Emi."
"Hmm?"
"When were these things prepared?"
Emi poked half her face out from the edge of the door.
"When I moved in."
"You prepared them in March?"
"I figured Satsuki-chan would live here one day."
Satsuki did not know what to say for a moment, and could only close the cabinet door again.
"Get out."
"I can help you comb your hair."
"Get out."
Only then did Emi reluctantly back away.
Breakfast had been delivered to the small dining room near the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Chizuru lived in another guest room on the same floor last night. After waking up in the early morning, she contacted the main residence and had someone send over the clothes Satsuki was going to change into today.
Chizuru tidied Satsuki's hair and collar. When the two walked into the dining room, Emi was already sitting at the table.
In front of her were a fried egg, toasted toast, and fruit, alongside a small bowl of yoghurt mixed with nuts.
The kitchen was cleaned up very neatly, and the instant noodles and nutritional drinks that used to pile up in the corner could no longer be seen.
There were no disassembled circuit boards on the dining table either, and the oscilloscope and other instruments had been put away into the study, leaving only a few well-organised experimental materials on the shelf near the window.
Satsuki's gaze lingered in the room for a while.
"The room has been cleaned up?"
"Mm."
Emi forked a piece of fruit.
"Did not Satsuki-chan say last time that this place is for me to live in, not for piling up parts?"
"You actually listened."
"I have always listened carefully to what Satsuki-chan says."
Emi said it as a matter of course, and pointed to the breakfast on the table.
"I have been eating on time lately too. The restaurant downstairs sends the menu to the residential terminal every day, and I choose the next day's breakfast in advance at night."
Satsuki sat down opposite her and picked up a slightly charred piece of toast.
"What about when the experiment is busy?"
"When the time comes, I stop and eat first."
Emi thought for a moment and added:
"Working continuously for too long makes subsequent calculations even more prone to errors. Lack of sleep will also affect judgment, and in the end, extra time has to be spent re-checking."
When she said this, she straightened her body slightly.
"So now I sleep at least six hours a day and eat on time. Reasonable living habits allow me to work longer and with higher efficiency."
Satsuki looked at her look asking for praise.
Emi indeed had less of the obvious fatigue from the previous period under her eyes, and her complexion was much better than before.
She obviously did not take Satsuki's previous reminder as a temporary reprimand, but truly tried to change her own life.
"Not bad, there is progress."
Satsuki picked up the black tea, a hint of a smile on her lips.
Emi leaned closer immediately.
"Then is there a reward?"
"Maintain it for a month first before talking."
"A month is too long."
"If you think it is too long, it can be changed to three months."
"A month is very good!"
Emi lowered her head immediately and earnestly started eating breakfast.
Satsuki watched her eat most of the fruit on the plate before withdrawing her gaze.
"Shimomura and the others are still in Odaiba today?"
"Mm, the experimental line needs to be run another round."
Mentioning work, Emi quickly became serious.
"0.18 microns is currently just a set of lines, and the yield of the 0.25-micron chip is also very poor. Calculation can correct the exposure pattern, but photoresist, alignment, and etching will not automatically improve along with it."
"So, what is most suitable to advance now is 0.35 microns?"
"Right."
Emi nodded vigorously.
"The existing equipment still has margin. As long as the processes of several factories are unified, and Yuxia continues to correct, a stable small-batch production line can be made within half a year."
"Then what do you need?"
"New mask writing equipment, wafer inspection systems, and more photoresist samples. Tokyo Optical Precision also needs to modify one exposure equipment."
"List it out."
Satsuki picked up the milk.
"Equipment, personnel, and budget, hand them over to Endo before the afternoon. Buy what can be bought, and think of other ways for what cannot be bought."
Emi was stunned for a moment, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
"Satsuki-chan is so nice!"
"Do not celebrate yet."
Satsuki glanced at her.
"If the next tape-out still has this yield, you will go and live in the factory until it improves."
Emi nodded earnestly, then tentatively asked:
"Then if it improves, is there still a reward?"
Satsuki's right hand seemed to begin to go slightly numb again.
"Make it first before talking."
"Can I still sleep holding Satsuki-chan?"
"Learn not to strangle people to death first."
"I can practice!"
"Practice with what?"
"Body pillows."
Satsuki paused for a moment.
"... Fine."
"Mm!"
Emi agreed very quickly, and her expression became full of fighting spirit again.
Satsuki looked at her, suddenly feeling that she might have established a very dangerous reward system for the Saionji semiconductor department.