Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Ye Jishu was not surprised by this turn of events.

He paused briefly before heading straight down the stairs.

He’d already decided.

Today, he decided to just sleep in the dorm all day to avoid everything.

Since everything began on that rainy night.

The best way was to skip the evening study session entirely, nipping it in the bud.

As he left the teaching building, the heat hit him almost instantly. The cool air disappeared in an instant.

He looked along the usual route.

The campus bus was already at the stop, waiting for passengers.

Ye Jishu successfully boarded the bus.

The stuffy air spread through the narrow interior of the bus, as if entering a sealed, confined space.

The people around him were talking noisily.

He found a seat and sat down, waiting quietly for the bus to reach his dorm stop.

Soon enough, he was back in the dorm.

Ye Jishu instinctively glanced at the elevator—still out of order.

This reminded him once again that what he was seeing wasn’t an illusion.

He made his way to the end of the hallway.

Before entering the dormitory door again, he stopped and knocked a few times, following his old habit.

Soon, the sound of frantic cleaning came from inside, throwing the whole dorm into disarray. It seemed the other person was still trying hard to conceal their non-human identity, until after a series of rummaging noises, a faint voice said, "You can come in..."

Then, Ye Jishu took out his key and opened the door.

Entering the dormitory, he put down his backpack and began to change his clothes.

Even though he took the bus back, the time just before sunset was the most stifling. After staying in the bus for more than ten minutes, his shirt was already damp with sweat.

An eye peeked out from the bed curtain, still silently watching him.

"Why are you unpacking now... aren’t you going to class?" Noticing what he was doing, the roommate stammered, struggling to get the words out, "Uh, if I’m not mistaken, you have evening study tonight..."

"I’m not going," Ye Jishu said.

The roommate fell silent.

Probably because his behavior was so out of character.

After all, Ye Jishu never missed a class and cared deeply about his GPA, but now he was skipping. But his expression gave nothing away, which was strange.

Confused and bewildered looks were directed at Ye Jishu, but he ignored them.

Even if he wanted to explain, he wouldn’t know where to begin.

After setting down his bag, he headed to the shower.

After changing into clean clothes, he lay down on his bed, slowed his breathing, and got ready to sleep.

"It’s stuffy, but tolerable."

Since the dorm was shaded, it didn’t get too hot in the summer, so the AC stayed off.

Still, a faint, damp heat lingered in the room, like the musty, decaying smell of old wood in a rundown dorm under the blazing sun, making it pretty uncomfortable.

Ye Jishu figured it’d take him a while to fall asleep.

But actually,

Just by closing his eyes and clearing his mind, he quickly felt that familiar drowsiness.

Soon, he drifted into darkness.

...

"Swoosh—"

Outside, the sharp sound of heavy rain filled the air.

It felt like a thousand silver needles stabbed his eardrums at once, yanking his consciousness back from the void.

As his mind cleared, the rain’s sound grew sharper.

Ye Jishu lifted his fingers, his body feeling unusually heavy.

Maybe it was because he’d fallen asleep with wet hair, causing the throbbing pain in his temples.

"Probably caught a cold. What a pain."

Better take some medicine now to avoid feeling worse later.

As he sat up, he realized just how fierce the storm outside was.

It wasn’t just the rain pouring down.

The thunder roared, drowning out everything else.

Even through the thick dorm curtains, the blue-purple lightning lit up the wet floor under the incandescent lamp.

Ye Jishu woke up a little more.

But his throat was unbearably itchy, and he couldn’t seem to clear it.

He forced himself to sit up, despite the headache, and reached for the jacket draped nearby.

His phone screen lit up as he lifted it.

The time already showed "11:40 PM."

For a moment, his groggy mind didn’t register it.

But once it clicked, the thought hit him. "It’s way past."

"The time for my encounter with Yan Mei has passed."

...

No matter what was supposed to happen at that time. It should all be over now.

So, since that's the case.

Why haven’t I returned to reality yet?

Ye Jishu pulled back the bed curtain and looked down at the dormitory. His roommate’s spot was now empty, and he had no idea where his roommate went.

Yet, the dormitory lights were still on.

In the rain, the lights cast a dim, yellowish glow, making it hard to tell if this was reality.

What the hell is going on...

But the Bureau of Infection Management and Control never mentioned how to return after it's over.

But if they didn’t say anything, it usually means that missing the deadline should be enough, right? But there’s still no sign of it ending.

What is going on.

Puzzled, Ye Jishu got dressed and climbed out of bed.

Feeling chilly, he grabbed his jacket.

As he reached for the zipper, his phone, lying beside him, suddenly buzzed.

Drawn by the flickering screen, Ye Jishu reached out and picked up the phone.

The screen lit up and unlocked itself.

The messages and missed calls that had caused all this trouble popped up.

Since the numbers were unknown, all the messages were highlighted in bright red, glaringly obvious.

"Where are you."

"You're not there. Why."

"What’s wrong."

...

"Not in the study room, the teaching building, or the sports field. Where are you?"

"It’s fine."

"Jishu, I will find you."

...

The messages were crammed together.

A series of messages, too many to read in detail, so he could only skim through them.

"Who the hell is this?"

His finger had not yet moved.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door.

"Knock knock knock—"

The knocking was extremely loud.

At the same time, thunder exploded in the sky, equally deafening. The room seemed to drown in the overlapping noise. Before Ye Jishu could react, the door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

"Crash—"

The room lit up like daylight, revealing the figure at the door, soaked by the rain.

Ye Jishu whipped his head around.

When he saw the face, he was so shocked his eyes widened instinctively.

This was someone who had no business being here.

"I’ve looked everywhere, but you weren’t there..." He stood there, murmuring to himself, rain dripping from his tailored clothes, oblivious as he said, "Why wasn’t Jishu there? What went wrong..."

"It’s Yan Mei."

"Yan Mei is here."

The rain had soaked him through.

But he didn’t care, water pooling at his feet as if he’d just stepped out of a lake.

The oppressive darkness loomed behind him. A chill crept in.

Confused by his sudden appearance, Ye Jishu blurted out, "Why are you here? I never went to the corridor..."

His voice was not particularly loud.

But Yan Mei’s murmuring stopped abruptly.

He looked up sharply, staring straight at him.

"So Jishu was avoiding me? Did you skip that time on purpose? I thought I’d messed up somewhere," Yan Mei said, a chilling intensity in his eyes as he leaned toward Ye Jishu, "No. I won’t let you."

It’s fine. Leaving Him isn’t so simple.

The door clicked shut.

Yan Mei took a step toward him.

Rainwater dripped from him, leaving a winding trail on the floor.

But he was completely unaware, only walking toward Ye Jishu.

In the damp air, Yan Mei was now so close their breaths seemed to mingle.

In the cramped dorm room, two shadows blended together in the blue-purple flash of lightning.

"Didn’t I tell you already?"

His words were laced with either deep resentment or a frighteningly pure love.

Yan Mei was overwhelmed by his emotions.

In his turmoil, he moved closer to Ye Jishu’s face and caught his own hazy reflection in Ye Jishu’s eyes.

"I told you, we’re going to be together forever."

...

For Yan Mei.

Anything the Bureau of Infection Management and Control did was, in his eyes, something he could wipe away with a flick of his hand.

Like ants scurrying past a shoe.

Even in swarms, they were just ants.

No matter how absurd they acted, they couldn’t catch His attention or provoke any specific reaction from Him.

But when it came to Ye Jishu—everything changed.

He couldn’t just fix the mistake, afraid it might hurt Jishu.

So, even when he realized time had twisted, he held back his irritation.

First, he checked the time the Bureau was after.

"What time is it now?"

Yan Mei picked up his phone and glanced at it.

His calm shattered in an instant. It was the day he first met Ye Jishu.

He remembered that day, months ago.

It was at this time that those humans, so easily rattled by His presence, gathered around him.

Their chatter blended with the sticky summer heat, muffled, like sounds heard underwater.

"Yan Mei, have you finished your notes?"

"Let me carry your bag for you!"

"By the way, um, could we exchange contact information..."

"So damn noisy."

"So freaking annoying."

The urge to bolt was overwhelming.

Just to meet Jishu in the evening.

Even now, it should be okay to leave the group discussion without any issues.

Thinking this, Yan Mei got up and left the classroom.

But he didn’t expect that while he was daydreaming, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in the hallway ahead.

"It was Jishu."

Yan Mei stopped in his tracks.

They hadn’t met like this before.

At the other end of the hallway, Ye Jishu seemed to notice him too, looking up and giving him a puzzled glance.

The other guy still had that blank expression.

But Yan Mei couldn’t stop looking at him, as if he were seeing him from months ago.

But before Ye Jishu could notice him staring, Yan Mei quickly looked away, letting the earlier question pop back into his head.

...

He realized.

It was because he left early this time that they ended up meeting sooner.

If doing something like this would mess up the timeline—

He wouldn’t do anything different from before.

He wanted to hold him.

But he had to hold back.

If he scared Jishu, if he made him cautious, if he made him skip night study—

What if, what if.

...

When it came to Jishu, he always overthought things.

"Jishu doesn’t know me yet. I can’t do this."

Yan Mei forced himself not to call out, acting casual as he looked away and walked past him in the hallway.

Once he was sure Ye Jishu wouldn’t notice, he turned around and watched as Ye Jishu left the building without looking back.

"He didn’t even glance at me."

Anxiety suddenly hit him.

It’s fine. It’s fine.

Don’t rush. There’s still a few hours.

In a few hours, he could walk Jishu back to the dorm without any issues.

But then again. Yan Mei stood in the storage room, staring at the pouring rain outside.

Ye Jishu was nowhere to be seen here.

What had gone wrong? This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Did leaving early leave a bad impression? Or maybe Jishu took someone else’s umbrella?

The butterfly effect.

He couldn’t accept it—not at all!

Yan Mei only left the storage room late at night, certain Ye Jishu wouldn’t return.

He skipped the umbrella, trudging through the slick ground past the umbrella basket, and left the building.

Where would Jishu be?

The sports field? He recalled that when they first started dating, Jishu would often walk around the field, playing a game, before heading back to the dorm.

That’s where he went first. But Jishu wasn’t there.

Soaked from the rain, Yan Mei remembered another spot.

Maybe in the back of a classroom.

Sometimes Jishu would grab books and nap there if he got tired.

He still remembered the schedule from today.

After all, he’d been walking Jishu to and from class all semester.

The building had been closed for hours.

The building was dark when Yan Mei opened the last classroom door.

"No one."

He lingered for a moment.

After a pause, he calmed down, a strange laugh bubbling up.

"What an idiot."

"I’ve been pretending to be human so long, I forgot who I really am."

There were easier ways to find Jishu, but he’d gone searching like this instead.

It was always this way.

When it came to Jishu, he wasn’t himself.

Yan Mei lowered his eyes.

He looked into the eyes of the person right in front of him.

Even so.

He couldn’t guess what the other person was thinking.

The loss of control was tearing him apart.

Seeing someone who always had an expressionless face and rarely showed visible emotional fluctuations, now showing a flicker of surprise, confusion, and an unexpected tremor in their eyes because of his presence and words, Yan Mei felt a rush of vengeful pleasure and excitement.

...Mine. Only mine. No matter what happens, I will never let go.

He leaned in with desire.

First, he nuzzled his nose against the other's neck, then reached out and pulled the other tightly into his embrace.

Wet hair, grimy dirt.

All smeared onto Ye Jishu's exposed, fair neck.

Amidst the muffled thunder, he whispered into the other's ear.

"So cute. Really, so cute... Did Jishu really believe I only met you that night?"