Chapter 44 - 41: The Last Song for Myself
Saturday morning. Not quite nine o’clock.
In dorm room 406, three faint snores rose and fell in succession.
Maybe it was because they had been studying so hard lately, but for whatever reason, Wang Tao, Fatty Zhao, and Li the Monkey had surprisingly called it a night after just three ARAM matches. They all claimed to be too tired to keep going.
The result was that the entire dorm, for the first time in ages, had lights out before midnight.
Chen Lin opened his eyes and blinked, feeling refreshed and clear-headed.
He carefully sat up in bed, trying not to make a single sound. He fumbled for his phone and glanced at the time: 8:42.
’Pretty good. Another morning awakened by a healthy sleep schedule.’
Chen Lin didn’t laze in bed. He had things planned for this morning.
He quietly got dressed, gathered his things for the day, and slipped out of the dorm room without a sound.
The moment he gently pulled the door shut, Chen Lin could even hear Fatty Zhao muttering from inside, "Don’t steal my cannon minion..."
He couldn’t help but chuckle, shook his head, and turned toward the washroom.
After buying a meat bun and a cup of soy milk, Chen Lin ate as he walked at an unhurried pace toward the library.
With the one-month countdown to final exams officially on, the academic atmosphere on campus had become palpably thicker. Even at nine on a weekend morning, the library was much more crowded than the previous week.
Chen Lin did a loop of the third floor and found that the single-person study rooms were, as expected, all full. So he found a relatively secluded empty seat by a window in the common area and sat down.
This morning, he planned to first finish the analysis of *Long Season* that he hadn’t completed last Sunday.
He opened his laptop, clicked on the Word document he had saved last Sunday, and first read through the eloquent thousand-plus words of the introduction from beginning to end, quickly reviewing his train of thought.
Then, he put on his headphones, opened the cached version of *Long Season* on a video site, and instead of watching from the beginning, he dragged the progress bar to jump between key scenes.
As the scenes flashed by one by one, all the feelings Chen Lin had while watching the show came rushing back to him.
His train of thought was completely sorted out.
He closed the video, placed his hands back on the keyboard, took a deep breath, and continued typing from where he had left off.
This time, he was faster than before, his thoughts flowed more smoothly, and he typed with almost no pauses.
...
「An hour later.」
"...The ending, where almost no one survives, is undeniably cruel. Yet, the ending where almost everyone reaps what they sow is also undeniably beautiful. This kind of karmic resolution will, of course, draw criticism from many ’cruelty enthusiasts,’ who argue that real life is far more brutal, leaving nothing but dust."
"But I will stand by my evaluation. If all persistence ends in futility, then what place is there for faith in this world? It is faith and persistence that allow all things to develop, that constitute this world which, while not perfect, is still vibrant and diverse. Therefore, this ending is just right. For although there is darkness in the world, at the end of the shadow, there must be light."
Chen Lin’s fingers typed the final period.
He let out a long sigh, leaned back in his chair, and read through the entire two-thousand-plus-word essay.
’Hmm, not bad. The logic is sound, the arguments are well-supported, and the ending even elevates the theme. It might not be some world-shaking masterpiece, but it should get a high score.’
Chen Lin nodded in satisfaction, carefully edited the formatting, then zipped the file and sent it directly to the teaching assistant for his elective course.
[Mission Completed This Semester +1]
Having taken care of a major task, he glanced at the time in high spirits. It wasn’t even ten-thirty yet. Re-energized, he took out his class notes and printed-out PowerPoints for *Modern Chinese Literature* from his backpack and continued the great undertaking of studying for finals.
...
...
At noon sharp, Chen Lin closed his books and left the library.
After eating a bowl of braised chicken and rice on the third floor of the cafeteria, he didn’t head back to his dorm, but walked straight out of the campus gates.
He was tutoring Yaoyao this afternoon, but he had left earlier than usual. He had promised the little girl that he would get all the photos they took during their trip to the Hai River last Saturday printed out for her.
Following the navigation on his phone’s map, Chen Lin easily found the photo studio he had looked up yesterday. The shop was a medium size, decorated with a rather artistic flair.
He transferred the photos from his phone to the owner’s computer and then sat in the shop’s waiting area for over half an hour. The photos were all printed and placed in a kraft paper envelope.
After leaving the photo studio, Chen Lin hailed a taxi on the street and headed straight for the residential complex where Yaoyao lived.
The taxi stopped at the entrance of the complex. He glanced at his phone; it was just past one-thirty in the afternoon.
He navigated the familiar paths to the right apartment building and knocked on the door, which was decorated with a red character for "Fortune."
As usual, it was Yaoyao’s mother, Liu, who opened the door.
"Teacher Chen, you’re here! Come in, come in!" Liu was as enthusiastic as ever.
Chen Lin walked into the living room and changed into slippers. Before he even had a chance to speak, Liu leaned in with a delighted expression, lowering her voice as if sharing some incredible news.
"Teacher Chen, your method is truly effective! Ever since you took Yaoyao to visit your campus at Yannan University, the girl is like a completely different person. I can’t even begin to tell you how seriously she’s taking her studies now! She must have been inspired by seeing all the outstanding students at your university and found role models to look up to!"