Tan Yin leaned against the wall by herself for a long while, steadying her breathing, before she finally managed to calm down and return to the study table where Chu Hang sat. But this time, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t focus enough to keep memorizing exam points. Luckily, she’d already gotten most of the important material down earlier.
Thinking it over, Tan Yin decided she should quit while she was ahead and head out. But just as she stood up to leave, Chu Hang — who had been sitting there quietly reading through his reference books — also packed up his things and stood.
Tan Yin ended up walking out of the study room and toward the library’s front entrance right behind him. Outside, the storm was still raging. Invisible, she scanned the crowd of people opening umbrellas by the library door, looking for one big enough and convenient enough to duck under for the walk back.
It was, honestly, a little pathetic. While her invisibility came with certain perks — like being able to sneak a peek at Chu Hang’s exam notes — it also came with plenty of frustrations. On rainy days like this, she could only pick an umbrella based on what looked promising, with no guarantee the owner was even heading her way, and no guarantee they wouldn’t suddenly change direction, forcing her to abandon ship and scramble for another one. So inevitably, on stormy days when Tan Yin needed to move around outside, she ended up soaked like a drowned rat eight or nine times out of ten.
“Ooh, nice one!”
Just as Tan Yin was about to follow a guy who’d popped his umbrella open, he was bumped from behind and had to step aside. Tan Yin instinctively glanced back too — and saw an expressionless Chu Hang pulling out his own umbrella.
The moment she saw it, Tan Yin couldn’t look away. This umbrella of his — it was simply magnificent.
She’d never seen an umbrella with a canopy this big. The second Chu Hang popped it open, the students standing nearby all instinctively stepped back, staring in disbelief at the sheer size of it.
Tan Yin had never seen an umbrella so extravagant in any store — the canopy was easily big enough to fit three people underneath. Without a second thought, she abandoned the guy she’d picked earlier and hurried to catch up with Chu Hang instead.
Obviously — under that other guy’s umbrella, she’d have had to be careful not to bump into him, and she’d probably still end up with wet shoulders. But under Chu Hang’s, with a canopy that big, she could walk the whole way perfectly dry. Except—
Just as Tan Yin was about to duck under Chu Hang’s open umbrella and step into the rain, a sweet, coquettish voice rang out behind her—
“Chu Hang, gege!”
Who else but Duan Yingfei.
Duan Yingfei looked both surprised and delighted to see Chu Hang. “Perfect timing! I came to study today and didn’t bring an umbrella, and then it started storming out of nowhere — I was just wondering who I could share one with to get back.” At that, she cast Chu Hang a shy, bashful glance. “But I’m kind of a shy person, so sharing an umbrella with a stranger feels a bit awkward. Lucky I ran into you, Chu Hang gege — let’s go back together.”
Duan Yingfei added, “I’m just headed to the women’s dorm, you’d only need to walk a little bit further, not out of your way or anything.”
Chu Hang frowned, pressed his lips together, and said with unwavering conviction: “You can walk on your own.”
Not even Duan Yingfei believed her ears — and neither did Tan Yin.
As if that weren’t enough, Chu Hang added: “It’s not on my way.”
What on earth was going on?
Buddy, even if it wasn’t technically on your way, it’s just walking a girl back to her dorm in the rain — not asking you to march to the ends of the earth! Where did your usual gentlemanly manners go? Did a dog eat them?
Duan Yingfei was stunned speechless. “I’m sorry, Chu Hang gege, what did you just say? I think I misheard…”
But Chu Hang, ever the emotionless assassin, said coldly: “You heard right. I’m walking back alone.”
Duan Yingfei looked close to tears. “Why? There’s no one else under your umbrella, and it’s so big — the rain out here is heavy, can’t you just share it with me?”
The complaint was reasonable and well-argued — even Tan Yin couldn’t find a counterargument.
Chu Hang’s voice sounded a little unnatural, but his stance remained firm: “It’s raining. I want some time alone.” He then grabbed the arm of the guy Tan Yin had been about to follow earlier and pointed at Duan Yingfei. “Hi — she doesn’t have an umbrella. Could you walk her back?”
The confused guy nodded anyway. “Sure, no problem.”
Only after settling this did Chu Hang glance at Duan Yingfei. “There. Go with him.”
Ignoring her stricken, shocked expression, he opened that flamboyant giant umbrella of his and walked straight into the rain.
That whole sequence of moves was so outrageous even Tan Yin stood frozen for a moment. Was Chu Hang in a bad mood today? That didn’t add up — hadn’t he been smiling in the library just now?
And whether or not Chu Hang had suddenly realized how badly he’d behaved, the moment he stepped into the rain he paused, then deliberately slowed his pace.
Buddy, if you turned around right now and apologized, you could still win back your poor little sister Duan Yingfei!
He did turn back, his movements somewhat stiff, lips pressed tightly together as if reproaching something — but he wasn’t looking at Duan Yingfei at all. Instead, his gaze swept lightly across the library entrance before dropping away again.
Duan Yingfei’s face had gone red with humiliation, her eyes rimmed red with anger. Spoiled and pampered as she was, being treated this coldly by Chu Hang finally got under her skin too. She stomped her foot and, in a fit of pique, grabbed the innocent guy’s arm and ducked under his umbrella, storming off.
Tan Yin couldn’t help thinking: some people really did have good reasons for being single!
But there was no time to dwell on that. The students who’d been gathered at the library entrance had mostly dispersed by now, so Tan Yin quickly braved the rain and dashed under Chu Hang’s umbrella.
Chu Hang hadn’t wanted Duan Yingfei’s company today — how convenient for her, Tan Yin thought happily. Luckily, since Chu Hang had hesitated and walked slowly, he hadn’t gotten far from the library entrance, so she barely got wet before ducking under his umbrella.
“Chu Hang, where are you headed?” Tan Yin muttered as she walked alongside him. “I hope wherever you’re going isn’t too far from the women’s dorm.”
But the moment she said it, she realized her mistake — Chu Hang’s destination was probably nowhere near the women’s dorm at all. Hadn’t Duan Yingfei just wanted to head there too, and hadn’t he claimed it wasn’t on his way?
And yet — whether the situation had somehow changed, Chu Hang ended up walking the entire way toward the women’s dorm anyway, lips pressed together, walking with calm composure, tall and handsome. But under the same umbrella, Tan Yin noticed that the hand gripping the umbrella handle had gone slightly pale at the knuckles from tension. He looked… a little nervous, a little uneasy?
Was he still worked up over turning down Duan Yingfei?
A man’s heart truly was unfathomable — if he’d known he’d feel this conflicted, why act that way in the first place?
Tan Yin found her own attention drifting the whole way there. She’d ducked under Chu Hang’s umbrella plenty of times before, but this time, for some reason, she felt unaccountably anxious — that same fluttering unease from the library came creeping back. Without realizing it, she drifted slightly out from under the umbrella’s edge, but Chu Hang — also seemingly not quite himself today — shifted the umbrella slightly toward her side as well, so that by the time she noticed, she hadn’t gotten wet at all. Instead, it was Chu Hang whose shoulder had gotten lightly splashed with rain from the umbrella tilting so far off-center.
The two of them walked the rest of the way to the women’s dorm in silence. Except, of all the luck, Duan Yingfei had also just arrived at the dorm entrance, escorted by that same guy…
Their eyes met. Duan Yingfei bit her lip and glared at Chu Hang, saying nothing, clearly waiting for him to be the one to apologize first.
But Chu Hang didn’t even look at her — he simply pressed his lips together and turned to walk away.
“…”
Whatever was going on with Chu Hang, Tan Yin had at least successfully delivered the exam points to Jiang Yilu like a gift from the heavens, and her friend spent the entire evening grinning ear to ear.
Perhaps as a reward for their good mood, the storm took a brief break the next day. There was no sun, but it was at least an overcast day Tan Yin could go outside in.
Rainy season was coming soon, and worried the situation might change, Tan Yin took the opportunity of the cloudy weather to seek Chu Hang out right away.
“Weren’t you suspicious I cheated last time? Well, today you can come with me to Zhu Kangmei’s office, he can give me a new set of questions, and you can watch me solve them on the spot! That’ll convince you both once and for all!”
At times like this, Chu Hang’s usual response would be a cold, dismissive smile.
But today, Tan Yin had clearly guessed wrong. Chu Hang pressed his lips together and lowered his head. “I never thought you cheated.”
“…”
Tan Yin had come prepared with a whole arsenal of responses to whatever she predicted Chu Hang would say — but this line hadn’t been in her script at all.
She stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words.
“Tan Yin, I already told you, I never thought you cheated. I believe you.”
“Then why did you say that day…”
Chu Hang raised an eyebrow slightly. “What did I say that day?”
Tan Yin had nothing she could say to that — since she’d been invisible at the time, technically she shouldn’t have been there in Chu Hang’s eyes at all, and shouldn’t have heard his whole “she ran away” theory in the first place.
But she quickly thought of a workaround. “Jiang Yilu told me — you said I ran away because I was afraid to face the confrontation head-on!”
And once again, Chu Hang’s answer wasn’t what Tan Yin had predicted at all. Faced with that accusation, he admitted it outright, then apologized sincerely: “I’m sorry. I realized afterward that I’d been biased and had misjudged you, so I went and explained things to Professor Zhu. I convinced him he’d made the wrong call about you, and he’s agreed — next structural mechanics class, he’ll apologize to you in front of the whole class about this, and he’ll also publicly commend you for how much your grades have improved…”
Tan Yin was completely dumbfounded. She’d spent the past while psyching herself up by casting herself as the tragic protagonist of some inspirational underdog story, telling herself that the setbacks she was facing now were all part of building toward some grand eventual triumph. She’d carefully planned out exactly how she’d prove herself in front of her “enemy,” ready to give Zhu Kangmei a solid dose of humble pie. But now—
Now the thing she’d expected to be so difficult had just resolved itself, easy as that? So her whole underdog redemption arc was off the table?
“Then… what about facing a brand-new exam paper on the spot, to prove myself? Do I not need to do that anymore?”
Chu Hang glanced at her. “No need.”
Tan Yin instinctively felt suspicious. “That can’t be right. Zhu Kangmei is so sexist, how could he possibly just take your word for it and change his mind so easily? Chu Hang, are you lying to me?”
“Because I told him I’d stake my own grade and reputation on it,” Chu Hang said, letting out a soft laugh. “If you’re ever caught cheating, I’ll take full responsibility — this course’s credit gets invalidated for me too, and I’ll have to retake it next term. That’s what convinced Professor Zhu.”
“…”
Chu Hang looked at her and added, “I wrote up a formal statement, in black and white. Want to see it?”
Under his gaze, Tan Yin instinctively took a few steps back — that racing-heart feeling again. Damn it, could someone please explain why being trusted by someone made her this nervous? Chu Hang hadn’t even said anything particularly special. But when he’d said he believed her, his dark eyes had held nothing but her — that earnest look was, somehow, incredibly appealing.
“As an apology for misjudging you before, from now on, if you have any questions about architecture coursework, you can come to me.”
Tan Yin nodded, feigning composure. “Okay, if I have questions, I’ll definitely email you!”
“No need for email.”
“Huh?”
Chu Hang cleared his throat lightly, his voice a little unnatural. “I mean — I’ve got a lot of free time lately, you can just find me directly and I’ll explain things to you in person. It’s the least I can do, since misjudging you was my fault.”
That was even better! Tan Yin got a little excited. “You said it, don’t go back on it!”
“Mm.” Chu Hang paused, then turned his head slightly to add, “Also — if you have any other kinds of questions, not just about architecture, you can ask me those too.”
What other kinds of questions would she even have?
Seeing her look a bit puzzled, Chu Hang cleared his throat and offered a hint. “Like, say, if you had any legal questions — there’s really no need to go bother Xu Yu or anyone else about it. I’m not a law major, but because of my dad’s requirements for me to eventually manage the company, I’ve had someone tutoring me in law on the side. So if you ever have questions in that area, you could ask me too — no need to go out of your way to find Xu Yu when we’re already in the same major…”
Tan Yin nodded along, only half understanding. She thought to herself — what kind of legal questions would she even have? And besides, even if she did, she wouldn’t go to Xu Yu — she had Zhou Ming for that. Still, since Chu Hang was being so enthusiastic about offering to help, she figured she’d rather not discourage him.
And just as Chu Hang had promised, Zhu Kangmei really did apologize to her publicly during that afternoon’s structural mechanics class — though he couldn’t resist adding in another dig about how women had no future in architecture. Still, getting that public apology out of him was enough to make Tan Yin genuinely happy.
Meanwhile, after Chu Hang’s apology and offer to tutor her in person, Tan Yin wasted no time taking him up on it. That same day, she gathered up all the tricky problems she’d accumulated and spent an entire afternoon having Chu Hang walk her through them. By the end, not only had she cracked her original weak points, she’d even picked up some new insights along the way from him — leaving her in an excellent mood by the end of the day.
Unfortunately, Tan Yin’s good mood didn’t last long. Rainy season had arrived in the city again, and starting from the day she’d cleared her name and given Zhu Kangmei a well-deserved dose of humble pie, the week of storms that Jiang Yilu’s forecast had predicted really did roll in, on and off, for the entire week. Tan Yin ended up spending the whole week invisible, on and off.
By the end of that week, Tan Yin felt like her mental and physical health had both taken serious hits.
Even for an ordinary person, being ignored on a daily basis wasn’t exactly pleasant — and being outright isolated was even worse. Once invisible, people couldn’t see or hear her, and she basically lived like someone completely excluded and overlooked. An occasional day or two of that was manageable, but an entire week straight of it was enough to nearly drive an outgoing, sociable person like Tan Yin insane.
This time, the architectural sketching class she loved so much once again fell victim to the storm, forcing her to “miss” it yet again.
Just like before, Tan Yin technically was present — everyone just couldn’t see her. She wandered around the classroom, and though she itched to draw herself, being invisible meant she could only watch, not participate, and it wasn’t long before she got bored. Jiang Yilu’s seat had already been taken by someone else this time, so Tan Yin ended up circling around and sitting down near Chen Ziqiang instead, not far from her friend. After glancing at his sketch for a bit, she quickly grew bored of that too and ended up sprawled across the desk, taking a nap.
She hadn’t been asleep for long before a wad of paper hit the back of her head.
Startled awake, Tan Yin let out a confused sound. The paper ball had come from her upper right, so she turned to trace its path — and found Chu Hang sitting there, perfectly composed, diligently working on his drawing.
It wasn’t unusual, during sketching class, for people to toss failed drafts away, and the trash can happened to be to Tan Yin’s front left — so a discarded draft flying in that direction from Chu Hang made sense.
Except… wasn’t his aim a little off? Her seat was still a fair distance from the trash can!
Tan Yin scratched her head, didn’t think much of it, and turned to sprawl back over her desk to sleep again.
But barely a moment after she’d settled back down, another wad of paper came flying at her.
She turned around again. Chu Hang still looked completely composed, perfectly ordinary.
Come to think of it, right — he couldn’t even see her, so how could he be intentionally hitting her with paper balls? He’d probably just misjudged his throw again, missing the trash can.
…
But his aim really was terrible today! Tan Yin hadn’t been sprawled out for long before she got hit a third time, then a fourth.
Normally, when Chu Hang shot three-pointers on the basketball court from that far away, he made them look effortless — so how could he miss the trash can four times in a row from this close a distance? And his sketching usually flowed so smoothly too — why was he suddenly having such trouble today?
Chen Ziqiang, watching the steady stream of paper balls landing near him, looked puzzled too. He picked one up, tossed it into the trash can, then turned to Chu Hang and teased him with a raised eyebrow. “Chu Hang, what were you up to last night? Overdid it with your hand or something? Why’s it so weak and shaky today?”
Chu Hang shot him a lazy glance and answered, with zero sincerity: “Oh, just a bad throw.” He then looked up with a faint smile. “As for whether my hand’s got strength — want to arm wrestle and find out?”
“No thanks, no thanks!” Chen Ziqiang immediately shook his head like a rattle drum. “Last time I arm-wrestled you, I nearly broke my wrist!” He hurriedly turned back around, as if terrified Chu Hang might actually drag him into an arm-wrestling match.
Though it was a small distraction, Tan Yin, having been hit by four paper balls with no way to seek justice, decided the seat next to Chen Ziqiang must have bad feng shui, always catching Chu Hang’s stray throws. She got up and moved to sit next to Zhang Chen instead. His seat was well out of the line between the trash can and Chu Hang, and Tan Yin figured she’d be perfectly safe there — she settled back down to sleep once more.
Except…
Except was Chu Hang’s paper ball some kind of homing missile?!
Tan Yin had barely settled in next to Zhang Chen before another paper ball came sailing straight at her. Furious, she turned around, only to be met once again with Chu Hang’s innocent, composed profile. Following the trajectory of the paper ball, she noted — right, there were two trash cans in the classroom, and Chu Hang had apparently given up on the one he couldn’t seem to hit and switched to aiming at the other one instead…
Zhang Chen’s spot clearly wasn’t safe either — but then where could she possibly sit? Tan Yin stood up and did a lap around the room, realizing that since there were two trash cans, one on each side at the front of the classroom, and Chu Hang sat in the very back row, anywhere she sat in front of him theoretically put her at risk.
Well, in for a penny, in for a pound — the most dangerous place is often the safest, she thought cleverly.
Why not just sit right next to Chu Hang himself! There was no way he’d throw his discarded drafts at his own side!
Without hesitation, Tan Yin plopped down right beside him. Curious, she glanced at his sketchbook — and found he’d already nearly finished, and the drawing was quite good, too. So what had all those earlier “failed drafts” even been about? He seemed perfectly fine now.
But it wasn’t long before Chu Hang proved he wasn’t quite at his best after all. The moment Tan Yin leaned in to look at his sketch, his hand suddenly jerked and he drew a wrong line.
Tan Yin was even more upset than he was. “This drawing was so perfect, how could you mess up that line!”
Chu Hang seemed genuinely regretful too, his expression a touch unnatural, even his earlobes turning faintly red. He pressed his lips together and, with steady composure, added a few strokes, salvaging what had nearly been a ruined drawing.
Still — if he had that kind of save-the-drawing skill, why had he thrown away so many failed drafts earlier?
Tan Yin thought it over, couldn’t puzzle it out, and gave up trying. She simply leaned against Chu Hang’s side and dozed off. Outside, thunder rumbled and rain poured, and as she drifted off, she found the breeze from the open classroom window a little too cold. Just as she was about to figure out what to do about it, Chu Hang — apparently feeling the chill too — stood up, walked over, and shut the window.