The rain hasn't stopped.
She shakes the umbrella once, drops it into the bucket outside the building. Water clatters like a metronome.
Third floor, second door on the left.
Plaque: French Department – Teaching Assistant.
She knocks once.
"Come in."
The room is warmer than the corridor and smaller than expected. One desk, one orchid, one man.
Qi Si marks papers; his fountain pen draws thin, exact lines.
She closes the door. The click is soft.
"French class rep," she says, volume low.
"I remember."
He caps the pen, eyes flicking to her face for half a second.
"Phone."
He shows the QR code. She scans it, types: Prof Qi.
"Assignments and notices."
"Got it."
Thumb taps: Add Contact.
Three seconds of quiet.
The orchid's leaf trembles in the draft.
"Anything else?"
"Office hours Thursday, three-fifteen."
"I'll be there."
She turns. The door clicks again.
----
The rain has thinned to mist.
044 pings in her skull:
[Target Qi Si: four-star. Cool-down: 47 h 59 m.]
She doesn't go to the dorm.
A 24-hour laundromat hums like a heartbeat.
She buys black coffee—no sugar, coins clinking.
A hoodie-wearing boy sneaks glances; she stares back until he blushes.
Coffee finished, clothes dried.
She folds a black T-shirt, leaves.
----
Evening, campus gate.
A motorbike idles, rain sizzling on the exhaust.
Fei Ye sits helmetless, hair wet.
They look at each other. No one speaks first.
She walks past like he's scenery.
He reaches, fingers locking her wrist.
"Chen Yanxi, don't do this."
"It's done."
She twists free, keeps walking.
He hugs her from behind, arms steel.
"I don't accept the ending."
"Adults should be rational."
"I can't."
His face buries in her neck, voice rough.
"It hurts."
She exhales, as if to a child.
"Fei Ye, don't make a scene."
His grip loosens. She walks away.
He stays, cigarette unlit, dissolving in the rain.
----
Eleven p.m.
Taxi stops at the west gate.
She swipes in; streetlights stretch her shadow long.
The dorm corridor light is broken.
Key clicks, door opens.
Feng Yu scrolls under a desk lamp, looks up.
"You and Fei Ye—really over?"
"Mm."
"Are you insane?"
"Sanity checked out."
Feng Yu offers a candy; she declines, goes to the balcony for dry clothes.
Rain drums Morse code on the glass.
044 whispers:
[Countdown: 46 h 12 m.]
She draws the curtain.
Lights off.
End of Chapter 2