At eight the next morning, Kitty's lecture stream connected without a greeting.
Her phone faced the projector. The pathology lecturer stood beside an image of a damaged glomerulus while students turned pages and whispered across the rows. Kitty did not show her face. She did not send a message asking whether I had eaten. She did not forgive me because one night had passed.
She still gave me the lecture.
I balanced my notebook beneath my wrapped right hand and wrote with my left. The letters leaned into one another like tired students on a bus. After five lines, my wrist cramped. I changed to voice notes and whispered the lecturer's explanation into my phone.
"Immune complex deposition," I repeated. "Granular pattern on immunofluorescence."
Outside my door, two residence assistants changed shifts. Student Affairs had placed my room under movement restriction, which meant I could walk to the bathroom, the residence office, and nowhere else without written permission.
Inside the lecture room, Mr. Kim asked a question.
"Why does the complement level fall?"
NS answered first.
His voice reached me through Kitty's phone, clear and irritatingly calm.
For half a second, the dormitory lobby returned. His back touched mine. We laughed beneath red emergency lights while too many people tried to hit us.
Then the pathology slide changed, and we became students again.
I answered the next question inside my empty room.
Nobody heard me.
Kitty's camera shifted slightly, as if she had.
NC called during the lecture break.
"We have twenty-nine hours before the panel closes additional submissions," she said. "Mr. Kim says exceptional mitigation must be new. Repeating that VT manipulated you will not be enough."
"Because I went after knowing he had manipulated me."
"Exactly."
The speed of her answer hurt more than disagreement would have.
"What do they want?"
"A plan that answers one question. Why should they believe you can remain without creating another emergency?"
"I answered that at the hearing."
"Then you disproved yourself forty-three minutes later. Write a new answer."
NC had divided the work before asking whether anybody wanted it. Anna was collecting faculty observations from labs and group assessments. Jihye was producing a technical report comparing the full dormitory stream with the shortened clips. Bunny and Cherry were compiling every report made against the false pregnancy post. TZ was writing his eyewitness statement about NS entering to stop the fight.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Building a timeline that includes your worst decisions."
"That sounds supportive."
"Support is not deleting the parts that make you look bad. That is how Mr. Joe ended up inside a police report for a nightclub he never entered."
She had a point.
I hated how often everyone had one.
"What should I write?"
"The truth, but with verbs. Not feelings. What will you do? Who checks it? What happens when you fail?"
The break ended. Voices quieted inside the lecture room.
Before NC disconnected, she lowered her own.
"For what it is worth, I am still angry with you."
"Everyone keeps telling me that."
"Good. Then you know we are not helping because you deserve comfort."
The call ended.
Kitty's lecture stream continued.
My first rehabilitation plan contained seventeen apologies and no mechanism.
I deleted it.
The second promised that I would never become violent again. It sounded impressive for three sentences and dishonest by the fourth.
I deleted that too.
The third began with the sentence I had avoided.
I have repeatedly mistaken anger for protection.
I continued.
If retained, I would accept conduct probation for the remainder of the academic year. I would attend weekly counseling and an external anger-management program approved by the university. I would have no direct contact with KM or his identified associates. I would enter academic buildings only for scheduled classes, labs, examinations, and supervised study. I would withdraw from combat sports, student nightlife events, and unsupervised extracurricular activities.
I proposed a written intervention plan.
If provoked, I would leave the location and call Mr. Kim, the counselor, or one peer chosen by Student Affairs. If I contacted an alleged aggressor after being told to disengage, my probation would be automatically reviewed. If I missed counseling, violated a no-contact order, or entered another prohibited location, the university could suspend me without another informal warning.
The rules looked severe.
They also looked like the first honest answer I had written.
At the bottom, I added one more paragraph.
June did not ask me to defend her. JP asked me not to avenge him. Kitty asked me to stay. Mr. Kim called before I entered. NS tried to stop me. I ignored the wishes of every person I later claimed as my reason. My conduct did not protect them. It replaced their choices with mine.
My wrapped hand rested beside the keyboard.
I submitted the plan before I could turn it back into an apology.
The group opened a video call at 1:10 p.m.
NC appeared from a library study room with the submission checklist taped to the wall behind her. Anna sat beside her surrounded by faculty-response forms. Jihye joined from a computer lab, wearing headphones and watching three copies of the same dormitory footage move across different screens.
Bunny and Cherry shared one phone in the cafeteria.
"Stop moving it," Cherry said.
"You keep leaving the camera."
"Maybe I want to leave the camera."
"Then people will think I did all the work."
"You reported the same post seventeen times."
Jihye looked up from her screen.
"Technically, she reported seventeen reposts using identical text. They are separate violations."
Bunny pointed toward Jihye as if she had won a court case.
TZ joined last from the hospital corridor.
"I finished my statement," he announced.
NC opened it.
Her eyes stopped moving after the first paragraph.
"You wrote that NS entered the dormitory and, quote, started kicking ass in defense of brotherhood."
"That is what happened."
"You are submitting this to a disciplinary panel, not narrating a sports highlight."
"Can I keep brotherhood?"
"No."
"Can I keep one ass?"
"TZ."
"Fine. Academic language destroys truth."
Anna slid four forms toward NC.
One lecturer had documented that I regularly stayed after practical sessions to restore equipment. Another mentioned my willingness to explain difficult chemistry concepts without claiming credit. A clinical instructor wrote that I had once reported my own procedural error before anybody else noticed it.
None of the observations transformed me into a harmless person. They established that the fight was not the only thing I had ever done.
"There is a fifth response," Anna said. "The lecturer wrote that XH is a good boy beneath all the drama."
"We are not submitting that," NC replied.
"I already thanked her politely."
Mr. Kim entered the call long enough to remind everyone that the panel was not holding a popularity contest.
"Do not collect signatures from students who did not witness relevant conduct," he said. "A thousand friends cannot disprove one video. Give the panel facts, supervision, and specific reasons rehabilitation may succeed."
"What if we have facts and a thousand friends?" Cherry asked.
"Then keep the friends ready for something more useful than a petition."
None of us understood how soon that advice would matter.
June and Kitty wrote their statement together.
They did not sit together while writing it.
Kitty occupied one end of a library table. June sat at the other. Bunny moved between them with printed pages until Cherry told her she looked like a nervous court messenger.
"I am being neutral," Bunny said.
"You are holding the paper like it can explode," Cherry replied.
"Have you read it?"
"Fair."
Their statement did not defend the dormitory fight. June insisted on that sentence remaining first.
We do not excuse XH's decision to use either of our names as justification for violence.
The next paragraph documented the anonymous pregnancy rumor, the coordinated reposts, and the invitation sent after June and Kitty publicly denied it. It asked the panel to recognize targeted manipulation as mitigation without treating it as coercion.
Kitty added the record of XH's compliance before the dormitory incident: counseling attendance, supervised study, recorded lectures, question-bank work, and the original hearing testimony.
June added a final paragraph.
Permanent expulsion may remove risk from the university, but removal is not evidence of rehabilitation. If the institution believes professional conduct can be taught, then it should consider whether strict supervision, treatment, and enforceable boundaries are more meaningful than sending an unstable student away without structure.
Kitty read it twice.
"Unstable sounds like a diagnosis," she said.
June changed it to a student who has demonstrated unsafe behavior.
"Better?"
"More accurate."
Their eyes met across the table.
"This does not make us okay," Kitty said.
"I know."
"And it does not mean I agree with everything you did."
"I know."
June closed the document.
"We only have to agree that he should live long enough to become less stupid."
Kitty almost smiled.
"That may require a longer degree."
It was not friendship restored.
It was enough to submit one statement with both names beneath it.
The electricity failed at 3:16 p.m.
This time, it did not return after thirty-nine seconds.
The city electrical workers had expanded their strike after negotiations ended without a safety agreement. Traffic signals went dark across three districts. The airport remained crowded with grounded passengers after pilots and ground crews refused emergency scheduling. Purified water deliveries arrived under police escort and disappeared from shops before sunset.
Campus 2 used its generators for the clinic, laboratories, server room, and emergency lighting. Dormitory fans stopped. Elevators locked at the nearest floor. Students opened windows and discovered that the rain had brought no cool air with it.
By evening, my room smelled of candle wax, damp concrete, and antiseptic cream.
A residence assistant knocked and announced one approved visitor.
NS entered carrying two battery lamps and a paper bag from the cafeteria.
"Kitty assigned you?" I asked.
"Kitty refuses to speak to me about you for the rest of today."
"June?"
"June said you would assume she sent me."
"So this was your idea?"
"Do not make it embarrassing."
He placed one lamp beside my notes and the other near the window. The paper bag contained rice, eggs, and a bottle of water.
"The cafeteria has no refrigeration," he said. "Eat before the eggs become an experiment."
I opened the bag with my left hand.
NS sat in the visitor's chair Kitty had used after the tournament.
For several minutes, the rain handled the conversation.
"Why did you come into the dormitory?" I asked.
"To stop you."
"You already said that."
"The answer did not improve overnight."
"You knew there were more than five."
"I saw the livestream. Jihye called. Kitty called. June told me to get you before somebody died. TZ followed because he does not trust either of us near a crowd."
"He was correct."
"Usually. It is annoying."
I broke one egg with the edge of the plastic spoon.
"Did you mean it?" I asked.
"Mean what?"
"Old times."
NS looked toward the battery lamp.
"For one minute."
"That is longer than our laugh by the lake."
"We are improving."
Thunder moved above the dormitory. The battery lamp flickered even though it had no connection to the grid.
NS leaned forward, resting both arms on his knees.
"VT showed me a video of you insulting my father and treating June like somebody you could keep beside Kitty. I believed it because part of me wanted permission to hate you."
"I saw the one with June. I wanted the same permission."
"We gave him a tournament."
"And a dormitory lobby."
"That part was mostly you."
"You joined."
"Someone punched me. I have standards."
The corner of my mouth moved before my swollen cheek stopped it.
NS became serious again.
"I sent VT one warning. He ignored it. If he contacts either of us again, we show each other before we answer. No pride. No girls carrying messages. No anonymous files."
"Agreed."
"This does not make us brothers again."
"I know."
"But I am tired of being your enemy for somebody else's entertainment."
I looked at the wrapped hand that had struck him below the belt and held the choke after the referee ordered me to release.
"I am tired too."
NS held out his fist.
My right hand could not close. I touched it with my left.
It was not forgiveness.
It was the first agreement we had made without an audience.
JP's statement arrived at 9:43 p.m.
His mother had not signed it. She had not opposed it either.
The video lasted forty-one seconds. JP spoke from his hospital bed while his little sister held the phone.
"XH failed to stop my fight when he should have," he said. "Then he failed me again by turning my injury into revenge after I asked him not to. I am angry with him. My family has the right to be angrier. But I do not want my injury used as proof that he can never learn. Punish him. Make him face what he did. Please do not erase every year he worked to reach this course because he became the worst version of himself in one season."
He paused for breath.
"Also, his pathology notes are better than mine. The university should preserve important academic resources."
His sister laughed behind the camera.
JP almost did too.
The panel accepted the video at 9:51.
At 10:00, the submission portal closed.
NC sent the final index to the group chat.
Jihye had attached the complete livestream and technical comparison. Anna had collected four faculty observations. Bunny and Cherry had recorded 186 reports against the false rumor. TZ submitted his statement. June and Kitty submitted theirs. NS submitted a second statement accepting his part in the wider brawl while confirming he had arrived to remove me.
Mr. Kim submitted the supervision plan.
I submitted the reason it was necessary.
There was nothing left to add.
At 11:30 p.m., the disciplinary office sent one message.
The final recommendation has been completed under seal. Release is scheduled for 9:00 a.m., subject to approval by the Acting Rector.
I placed the phone beside the candle.
Five percent had either survived or disappeared. Somewhere inside the Administration Building, the answer already existed without me.
The campus lake lay black beyond the window. Rain disturbed its surface, but the exposed stone boundary remained visible. Lightning opened the sky above Yandong and revealed no aircraft, no stars, and no lights beyond the southern district.
At 11:47, the national television channel interrupted its late broadcast.
The president's scheduled address did not begin.
The screen showed the national emblem for twelve silent seconds.
Then that disappeared too.