Friendship Test

Friendship Test

The group was driven back to the city by police car and gave their statements. But with limited police resources, the authorities generally only went through the motions with minor cases like this that had caused no serious consequences, warning nearby tourists. Unless something similar happened again, they would not devote manpower to an investigation.

There was nothing to be done about that. Every officer had a backlog of cases, and prioritizing them was a basic skill for any cop.

The camping trip was naturally ruined. By the time everyone returned to school, it was almost midnight. After saying goodbye, they went back to their respective dormitories.

Chen Huadong had been pretty lucky. Thanks to his fearless performance when facing those young thugs, he had gotten Chen Jing's phone number. With him taking the lead, everyone simply exchanged contact information together.

Their butts had barely warmed their seats after returning to the dorm when those two had already started flirting. Shen Xixi also sent Zhang Heng a WeChat message, mainly reminding him to be careful for a while.

After thinking it over, Zhang Heng politely replied with a thank-you.

The moment he sent the message, the surroundings suddenly fell silent. More than a month had passed, and Zhang Heng was no stranger to this situation.

He set a seven-hour alarm on his phone, climbed into bed, and slept first.

When he opened his eyes again, it was still pitch-black outside. Zhang Heng turned off the alarm, got up, made himself a cup of oatmeal, and carried it downstairs.

This time, the dorm manager had acted relatively early. She had locked the front doors right at midnight.

Zhang Heng entered the duty room, found the keys with practiced ease, and opened the door.

He went to Wumart Supermarket first, took a pineapple bun from the shelf, and left some change at the register. In truth, Zhang Heng had not done this in a long time. Ever since the Legend of Midnight had scared an old lady so badly that she went home to hug her grandson, he had started buying food before bed and storing it away.

But this was an unexpected situation. If Cheng Cheng had not interrupted them, he should have still been camping outside right now. Zhang Heng finished the pineapple bun with his oatmeal, casually left his cup on a supermarket shelf, then strolled to the 24-hour gym. By then, the food in his stomach had just about been digested.

He started his workout on the water-resistance rowing machine. Three hours passed before he knew it. Afterward, Zhang Heng took a shower and moved on to the climbing club... Finally, holding his mirrorless camera, he began his usual aimless wandering around the city.

When he passed a small hotel, however, his attention was caught by the red BMW parked outside. Zhang Heng stopped his shared bike and checked the license plate again, finally confirming that it really was Cheng Cheng's car.

To be honest, Zhang Heng had not taken this rich young master too seriously. Just as he had told Shen Xixi, he rarely joined clubs or participated in group activities, and he had almost no dealings with the student council crowd. It would not be easy for Cheng Cheng to deal with him.

Although Cheng Cheng was usually surrounded by followers at school, no one was stupid. Everyone was after his money. They were happy to help him deceive naïve young girls, but if it meant risking their diplomas or even breaking the law for him, then sorry, no one would keep him company.

As for people outside the school, tonight's young thug was not really a gangster in the strict sense. After Shen Xixi's reminder, Zhang Heng had also realized that he was more like an idle second-generation rich kid, much like Cheng Cheng. This time, he had purely been helping a friend. But people like that could sometimes be even more troublesome than street punks. For the sake of saving face, they were capable of anything.

Since he had happened to run into him along the way, Zhang Heng thought it would be better to eliminate this hidden danger.

He parked the shared bike downstairs and entered the small hotel. Zhang Heng did not know which floor Cheng Cheng was on, but that was no problem. The computer at the front desk could easily provide the information of every guest.

Zhang Heng quickly found Cheng Cheng's name, memorized the room number, and borrowed a spare key. Two minutes later, he pushed open the door to room 305.

The bathroom's glass door was covered in steam, but there was no sound of running water. A woman's silhouette could vaguely be seen within. Zhang Heng had no intention of taking advantage of that sort of thing, so after one glance, he looked away. Entering the room, he saw clothes tossed everywhere.

There was even a bra hanging from the television.

Cheng Cheng lay on the bed bare-chested, wearing only underwear, smoking as he sent WeChat messages.

Zhang Heng took the phone from his hand and saw that he was chatting with someone named Wu Fan, whose profile picture was a tattoo. Zhang Heng thought back for a moment and realized he could not remember what tattoo that young thug had had. But it did not matter. He opened Wu Fan's Moments and scrolled down, quickly finding a photo.

It was the account owner posing with a closet full of shoes, captioned: "Too many shoes, nowhere to put them. What should I do?"

And the person in the photo was unmistakably the guy who had been playing with the folding knife earlier.

Zhang Heng returned to the chat screen and looked through their message history. It was just as he had suspected. Cheng Cheng had planned the whole thing. He had been nearby when it happened, ready to act once he received the signal, but Zhang Heng had ruined it in the end. Cheng Cheng had no choice but to drive back, and with nowhere to vent the frustration burning inside him, he had called over a younger schoolgirl he had recently hooked up with.

Wu Fan had asked Cheng Cheng whether they should find a way to teach that bow-wielding kid a lesson.

Cheng Cheng was not kindhearted, merely cautious. He replied that he would first look into Zhang Heng's background.

Further up were just the two of them chatting idly about which nightclub had the hottest girls, which limited-edition shoes were worth collecting, or which girl they had picked up and whose breasts were bigger. Besides that, Zhang Heng also discovered that Cheng Cheng had used soft drugs and had tricked girls he had been dating into taking them.

Zhang Heng shook his head. This guy really had harmed plenty of people. After reading everything, he casually created a group chat and pulled Wu Fan and several other people from his contacts who looked like second-generation rich kids into it.

Then he typed: "That idiot Wu Fan gets all worked up after a little talk about loyalty. I can make him do whatever I want. He listens to me like a dog I raised." He added a flirtatious sunglasses emoji at the end and casually hit send.

It was foreseeable that after midnight, a solid friendship would soon face a cruel test.

But that alone might not make Cheng Cheng behave himself, so Zhang Heng decided to give him a warning.

He did not do anything too inhumane. After all, he was not some devil. He merely treated Cheng Cheng to a little water.

After forcing down the two bottles of mineral water in the room, Zhang Heng worried that Cheng Cheng had not drunk enough, so he went to the front desk for two more. And to prevent Cheng Cheng from suffering water intoxication from excessive drinking, which could cause permanent nervous system damage or even death, he thoughtfully brought back three extra bottles of Pocari Sweat.

In the end, he discovered that Cheng Cheng could not swallow the remaining bottle of mineral water. Cheng Cheng's stomach had visibly swollen by a full circle, and when it was shaken, the sound of water sloshing inside could be heard.

Afterward, Zhang Heng deleted every app on Cheng Cheng's phone, downloaded a high-definition wallpaper from Bride of Chucky as the new home screen, and left an ambiguous sentence in the notes app:

—Think about what you've done.

After finishing all that, Zhang Heng rode the yellow shared bike away from the hotel and continued down his path of exploring art.