Friendship's Test

Chapter 29: A Test of Friendship

The group was picked up by the police and taken back to the city. They gave their statements, but with limited resources, cases like this that didn't result in any severe consequences were usually just a formality for the police. They'd issue a warning to nearby tourists, but unless similar incidents occurred again, they wouldn't invest manpower into an investigation.

There was no other way; practically every police officer had a backlog of cases, and prioritizing them was a fundamental skill.

Camping was, of course, out of the question. They got back to school nearly midnight. After saying their goodbyes, they returned to their respective dorms.

Chen Huadong was lucky. Thanks to his brave refusal to back down when facing the young man earlier, he managed to get Chen Jing's phone number. With him breaking the ice, everyone else decided to exchange contact information as well.

Zhang Heng had barely settled into his dorm when the other two had already hit it off. Shen Xixi also sent Zhang Heng a WeChat message, mainly to remind him to be careful for a while.

Zhang Heng thought about it and replied with a polite "Thank you."

As soon as he sent the message, the surroundings suddenly fell silent. After more than a month, Zhang Heng was no longer unfamiliar with this situation.

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

When he opened his eyes again, it was still pitch black outside. Zhang Heng turned off the alarm, got out of bed, and poured himself some cereal. He took his cup downstairs.

This time, the dorm supervisor was more proactive. The main gate had already been locked at midnight.

Zhang Heng walked into the duty room, familiar with the routine, and found the keys. He unlocked the door.

He first went to the Wumei supermarket. He grabbed a pineapple bun from the shelf and left the change at the counter. Zhang Heng hadn't done this in a long time. Ever since the "12 o'clock legend" scared an old lady so much that she went home to hug her grandchild, he had started buying and storing food before going to bed.

However, this time was an exception. If Cheng Cheng hadn't interrupted, he would still be camping outside. Zhang Heng ate the pineapple bun with his cereal, casually left his cup on a supermarket shelf, and then walked to the 24-hour gym. His stomach was just about digested.

He started his workout with the water resistance rowing machine. Three hours passed quickly and unnoticed. Afterward, Zhang Heng took a shower and moved on to the rock climbing club... Finally, he held his mirrorless camera and began wandering aimlessly around the city.

As he passed a small hotel, he was drawn to a red BMW parked in front. Zhang Heng stopped his bike and glanced at the license plate, finally confirming it was indeed Cheng Cheng's ride.

To be honest, Zhang Heng hadn't paid much attention to this rich young master. As he had told Shen Xixi, he didn't participate much in clubs or group activities and had almost no interaction with the student council crowd. It would be quite difficult for Cheng Cheng to deal with him.

Although Cheng Cheng was usually surrounded by people at school, no one was foolish. Everyone was there for the money. They were happy to go along with him to trick naive young girls, but if it meant risking their graduation certificates or even breaking the law for him, then sorry, no one would oblige.

As for outside of school, the young man from tonight wasn't strictly speaking a "social person." After Shen Xixi's reminder, Zhang Heng also realized that the other party was more like a second-generation rich kid, similar to Cheng Cheng, who was idle. This time, he was purely helping a friend. However, these kinds of people could sometimes be more troublesome than petty thugs, as they were capable of anything for the sake of face.

Since he happened to run into him, Zhang Heng felt it was best to resolve this potential threat.

He parked the shared bicycle downstairs and walked into the small hotel. Zhang Heng didn't know which floor Cheng Cheng was on, but that wasn't a problem. The front desk computer could easily access all guest information.

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

The glass door of the bathroom was fogged up, but there was no sound of water. He could vaguely see a female figure inside. Zhang Heng wouldn't take advantage of such a situation, so he averted his gaze after a quick glance. He walked into the room and saw clothes strewn everywhere.

A bra was hanging on the TV.

Cheng Cheng was lying on the bed, shirtless, wearing only his underwear, smoking a cigarette and texting.

Zhang Heng took the phone from his hand and saw that the chat was with someone named Wu Fan, whose profile picture was a tattoo. Zhang Heng recalled slightly and realized he couldn't remember the specific tattoo on the young man from earlier. But it didn't matter. He clicked on the person's Moments feed and scrolled down, quickly finding a photo.

It was the owner of the WeChat account posing with a closet full of shoes, with the caption: "My shoes are too many to fit, what should I do?"

The person in the photo was none other than the guy who had been playing with the folding knife earlier.

Zhang Heng returned to the chat interface and flipped through their message history. It was pretty much as he had guessed. This whole thing was indeed planned by Cheng Cheng. He was nearby when it happened, ready to make his move once he received the signal. But he didn't expect Zhang Heng to foil the plan. He had to drive back, and with nowhere to vent his frustration, he hooked up with a junior schoolmate he had recently charmed.

Wu Fan asked Cheng Cheng if he wanted to find a way to deal with that kid with the bow.

Cheng Cheng wasn't kind-hearted; he was just cautious. He replied that he would check Zhang Heng's background first.

Scrolling further back, they were just chatting idly about things like which nightclub had good-looking girls, which limited-edition shoes were worth collecting, or the girls they had recently dated, and whose bust was bigger. Besides that, Zhang Heng also discovered that Cheng Cheng had dabbled in soft drugs and had lured the girls he was with into consuming them.

Zhang Heng shook his head. This guy was truly harmful. After reading through everything, he casually created a group chat and added Wu Fan and several other guys who looked like they were from wealthy families from his contacts.

Then he typed: "Wu Fan, that idiot, just needs a few words about loyalty and he's all fired up. Whatever I tell him to do, he does it. He's like my dog now, obedient. " He then added a sassy sunglasses-wearing emoji at the end and hit send.

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

However, this alone might not be enough to make Cheng Cheng behave, so Zhang Heng decided to give him a warning.

He didn't do anything too inhumane. After all, he wasn't a devil. He simply treated Cheng Cheng to some water.

After emptying the two bottles of mineral water in the room, Zhang Heng, fearing Cheng Cheng wouldn't drink enough, went to the front desk to get two more bottles. And to prevent Cheng Cheng from suffering permanent neurological damage or even death due to water intoxication from drinking too much, he thoughtfully grabbed three more bottles of Pocari Sweat.

He found that the remaining bottle of mineral water couldn't be poured down anymore. Cheng Cheng's stomach had visibly expanded, and he could hear the sloshing of water inside.

Afterward, Zhang Heng deleted all the apps on Cheng Cheng's phone, downloaded a high-definition wallpaper of "Bride of Chucky" as the new desktop, and left a cryptic message in the memo:

"Think about what you've done."

Having done all this, Zhang Heng rode his shared bike away from the hotel, continuing his artistic exploration.