Friends Circle

Pfft!

Gao Feng sprayed the mouthful of beer he had just swallowed all over the floor, then coughed repeatedly until his face turned red.

He rubbed his throat and glared at Zuo Yi. "Have you been poisoned by online novels or something? Traveling to another world? Why don't you just fly into the sky? Damn it, are you messing with me?"

Zuo Yi chuckled.

He really could fly into the sky, and everything he had just said was true. Waves of heat surged through his chest—the Faith Power continuously flowing from the Mark of Honesty!

After a hundred years of trials, Zuo Yi had long mastered the proper trick to "farming" Faith Power.

Whether Gao Feng believed him was another matter entirely. He only needed to make sure he was telling the truth. The more astonishing the truth, the more corresponding Faith Power he received.

Of course, this method had its limits. For example, if he grabbed someone and repeated the same words, he would not gain even a trace of Faith Power. He might even lose some. The Sadea Knight faith system rooted in the Web of Laws had its own incomparably rigorous set of rules.

Although he believed Zuo Yi was messing with him, Gao Feng was not truly angry.

He had been out in the working world for five or six years, so his emotional intelligence was certainly not lacking. Rather than press Zuo Yi for the truth, he simply dragged him into downing several large glasses of beer before finally feeling satisfied.

Zuo Yi did not care about that now. There was no need for politeness between them, and they happily polished off several bottles of beer.

The dishes they ordered soon arrived: pickled cabbage fish, boiled pork slices, spicy blood curd stew, mapo tofu, kung pao chicken, fish-fragrant shredded pork...

They were all authentic Sichuan dishes the two of them loved. Zuo Yi also ordered a jar of the little tavern's homemade rice wine. His chopsticks flew as he ate with gusto, and in the blink of an eye, he had wiped out over half of a huge bowl of pickled cabbage fish.

Gao Feng had just been worried that Zuo Yi had ordered too much for them to finish. Now, his eyes widened in disbelief. "Damn, damn, damn! How much have you suffered these past three years? Have you never eaten pickled cabbage fish before or what? Hey, leave me a few pieces of fish!"

Zuo Yi did not waste breath bickering with him. There was no need to stand on ceremony with Gao Feng. He would eat his fill first.

Where in Sadea World could he have eaten such food? These were flavors he had missed for countless years!

By the time they were done, the table full of dishes had been nearly wiped clean. More than half of it had been devoured by Zuo Yi. There was an extra crate of empty beer bottles on the floor, and the jar of rice wine was empty as well.

Swept along by Zuo Yi's pace, Gao Feng rubbed his bloated stomach with a face full of alcohol fumes and smiled bitterly. "I'm stuffed."

He complained, "I don't go this hard even when I'm drinking with clients!"

Zuo Yi smiled as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Are you still working at that securities company?"

"No."

Gao Feng said, "After I broke up with Zhao Lili, I switched to another financial company. I'm currently an investment project manager."

Zuo Yi was surprised. "That's impressive."

Back then, Zuo Yi and Gao Feng had both studied finance at Hangcheng University. Gao Feng was from another province, and in order to stay together with Zhao Lili, he remained in Hang City after graduation and joined the same company as her.

It was perfectly normal for him to resign after breaking up with Zhao Lili. Moving to a financial company and becoming an investment manager was undoubtedly progress in his career.

"What's impressive about it?"

Gao Feng was rather frustrated. "It's a shitty company. There are more than a dozen investment managers like me. To put it bluntly, I'm basically like one of those business managers at insurance companies who recruit people for commission. I'm not worth much at all."

"Let's not talk about that..."

He waved his hand, then seemed to remember something. His expression suddenly brightened. "Right, I almost forgot something important!"

Zuo Yi asked, "What?"

Gao Feng scooted over with his stool and sat beside him, eagerly pulling out his phone. "You vanished for three years and came back after traveling to another world. That's such a huge deal—how can we not take a picture and post it on WeChat Moments to announce it to the world?"

"Come on, hurry up and give me a smile, Your Lordship!"

Zuo Yi raised his middle finger at the camera, but he still cooperatively took several selfie photos with Gao Feng.

Gao Feng said smugly, "I'll post them in the class group right now. Everyone's definitely going to be shocked. Hahaha!"

Only then did Zuo Yi remember that WeChat was not installed on his phone. While Gao Feng was composing the post, he hurriedly downloaded it.

He had not used a phone in so many years that he was a little rusty with it, but downloading and installing an app was no challenge. He quickly installed it and logged into his account, where countless notifications popped up!

Fortunately, the smartphone Zuo Yi had bought yesterday was the latest model and had powerful performance. Otherwise, it would have frozen to death.

Most of those messages were junk notifications. Some were greetings from classmates and friends, all from within the past year. Although he had been missing for over two years, people still cared about his whereabouts.

As for the earlier messages, the server probably had not retained them.

Then Zuo Yi saw the message Gao Feng had posted in the class group: @Everyone, all you lurkers online, get out here and see who I'm drinking with! Surprised? Thrilled?

Below it were two selfie photos Gao Feng had just taken with Zuo Yi.

The finance class Zuo Yi had attended back then had forty-seven students, all of whom were in the class group. It was impossible for everyone to appear at this moment, but Gao Feng's message immediately sparked an enthusiastic response.

"Zuo Yi!!!"

"Is this for real? I can't believe it!"

"Is Old Zuo doing well?"

"OMG, it's not April Fools' Day today, is it?"

"Old Zuo is still alive!"

"Holy crap, I seriously can't believe it. A missing person has returned!"

"Where's Zuo Yi? Say something!"

"Photoshopped, right?"

When Gao Feng saw someone claim the pictures were Photoshopped, he immediately got angry. "Hurry up, Old Zuo! Hurry up and shout a couple of words!"

Zuo Yi chuckled and sent a voice message directly. "Thank you all for your concern. I really am back, and everything is well."

The class group exploded completely. New messages kept flooding in one after another, making the group of several dozen people livelier than one with several hundred.

Quite a few classmates directly messaged Zuo Yi privately, making his phone beep nonstop.

Back in college, Zuo Yi deserved the "tall and handsome" parts of "tall, rich, and handsome." He was a little lacking in the "rich" department, but he was not poor either. His grades were also good, and he had a cheerful, generous personality, so he was well liked both in class and around the university.

Even after he had been missing for three years, many of his classmates had not forgotten him. Now that they knew he had returned safely, everyone was extremely happy.

The messages from those classmates also made Zuo Yi feel warm inside.

He replied to every private message one by one.

Gao Feng took the opportunity to suggest, "Let's pick a time for a class reunion. The theme can be celebrating Old Zuo's full-health revival. Everyone who can come should come. It's fine if you can't make it—we can still have some fun together."

His suggestion immediately won everyone's approval, but the date for the reunion was difficult to settle because many people wanted to come. Just because one person was free did not mean another could take time off, so they needed to discuss it further.

No matter what, Zuo Yi had announced his return in his social circle.

"Old Zuo..."

Gao Feng contentedly put down his scorching-hot phone and asked, "What are you planning to do now that you're back?"

Zuo Yi said, "I want to first..."

But he had only spoken three words when Gao Feng's phone suddenly rang.

Seeing the caller information on the screen, Gao Feng gave Zuo Yi an apologetic gesture, then quickly picked up. "Hello, honey. What is it?"

His voice was very gentle.

But the person on the other end was aggressive. "Where did you run off to? Why haven't you come to work yet?"

Gao Feng swallowed and explained, "My friend—my best friend—just came back from abroad. I'm having a meal with him right now. I'll go back to the company this afternoon. It won't delay anything."

"What time is it already, and you're still eating? Don't tell me you ran off to have fun again. Gao Feng, if you keep muddling through life like this..."

Her voice was loud. Even though Gao Feng covered the top of the phone, Zuo Yi, who was sitting across from him, could still hear every word clearly.

Noticing the embarrassed expression on Gao Feng's face, Zuo Yi stood and said, "I'm going to the restroom. I drank too much beer."

Gao Feng's new girlfriend was really something.

Zuo Yi thought to himself that, with Gao Feng's temperament, the fact that he could endure this was probably not merely because he had grown steadier with age.

But when it came to relationship matters, even as his best friend, Zuo Yi—who had only just returned—could not say much. After all, he did not understand the situation, so he found an excuse to step away.

When Zuo Yi returned, Gao Feng had already finished the call. He said apologetically, "Old Zuo, something came up at my company, so I have to head back. I'll find you tonight, and we'll go sing karaoke."

"Go take care of your business. Don't worry about me."

Zuo Yi smiled. "I've got something to do tonight too. Let's get together another time. We can keep in touch by phone anytime."

"Sounds good."

Gao Feng did not insist. He punched Zuo Yi's shoulder twice with his fist, then hurried off.

Zuo Yi called over a server to pay the bill, only to be told that it had already been settled.

That Fengzi!

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