Moments

Pfft!

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

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

Zuo Yi chuckled.

He really could fly, and everything he had just said was true. Waves of heat surged through his chest—the power of faith continuously pouring forth from the Mark of Honesty!

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

Whether Gao Feng believed him was another matter entirely. Zuo Yi only needed to make sure he was telling the truth. The more astonishing the truth, the more corresponding power of faith he received.

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

Although he thought Zuo Yi was pulling his leg, Gao Feng was not actually angry.

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

Zuo Yi did not care about that now. There was no need for him to stand on ceremony with Gao Feng either. They raised their glasses and drank, happily finishing several bottles of beer between them.

The dishes they had 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 added a jar of the tavern's homemade rice wine, then moved his chopsticks at lightning speed and dug in heartily. In the blink of an eye, he had wiped out more than half of a huge bowl of pickled cabbage fish.

Gao Feng had been worried that Zuo Yi had ordered too much for them to finish, but now his eyes went wide 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 could not be bothered to banter with him. There was no need to be polite with Gao Feng. He would eat his fill first.

Where in the Sadea World could he have eaten such delicacies? These were flavors he had missed for so many years!

By the end of the meal, the tableful of dishes was nearly gone. More than half had been devoured by Zuo Yi. There was an extra crate of empty beer bottles on the floor, and the jar of rice wine had been drained as well.

Swept along by Zuo Yi's pace, Gao Feng rubbed his bloated stomach with a beer-scented face and smiled bitterly. "I'm stuffed."

He complained, "I've never gone this hard even when entertaining clients!"

Zuo Yi wiped his mouth with a napkin and asked with a smile, "Are you still working at the securities company?"

"No."

Gao Feng said, "After breaking up with Zhao Lili, I switched to another finance 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 with Zhao Lili, he remained in Hangcheng 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 finance company and becoming an investment manager was undoubtedly progress in his career.

"What's impressive about it?"

Gao Feng looked frustrated. "It's a crappy company. There are more than a dozen investment managers like me. To put it bluntly, we're basically business managers who recruit people for insurance companies to earn commissions. We're not worth much at all."

"Forget it..."

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 his chair over and sat beside him, eagerly pulling out his phone. "You disappeared for three years and came back after traveling to another world. With something this huge, how can we not take a photo and post it on Moments to announce it to the world?"

"Come on, give me a smile!"

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

Gao Feng said smugly, "I'm posting these 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 yet. While Gao Feng was composing his post, he quickly downloaded it.

He had not used a phone in so many years that he was a little rusty, but installing a client was no challenge. He soon logged into his account, and countless notifications popped up!

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

Most of the messages were junk. Some were greetings from classmates and friends, all from within the past year. Although he had been missing for more than two years, there were still people concerned about where he was.

As for messages from even earlier, the server probably had not kept 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? Excited?

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

There had been forty-seven students in Zuo Yi's finance class back then, and all of them were in the class group. Though it was impossible for everyone to appear at this moment, Gao Feng's message immediately sparked an enthusiastic response.

"Zuo Yi!!!"

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

"Is Old Zuo doing okay?"

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

"Old Zuo is alive!"

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

"Where's Zuo Yi? Come out and say something!"

"Photoshopped, right?"

Seeing someone in the group say the photos were Photoshopped, Gao Feng immediately got angry. "Hurry up, Old Zuo! Roar a couple of words for them!"

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

That completely set the class group ablaze. New messages kept flooding in, and the group of several dozen people was livelier than one with several hundred.

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

Back in university, 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 good, and he was cheerful and generous, so he had been well-liked in both his class and the university.

After three years of disappearance, many of his classmates had not forgotten him. Now that they knew he had returned safely, everyone was overjoyed.

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

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 resurrection. Whoever can come, comes. It's fine if they can't. Let's all have some fun together."

His proposal immediately won everyone's approval, but it was difficult to settle on a date. Many people wanted to come, but when one person was free, another might not be able to take leave, so they needed to discuss it further.

In any case, Zuo Yi had announced his return to his social circle.

"Old Zuo..."

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

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

But he had only said 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 the call. "Hello, honey. What is it?"

His voice was remarkably gentle.

But the voice 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 got back from abroad. I'm having a meal with him right now. I'll return to the office 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 play again. I'm telling you, Gao Feng, if you keep muddling through life like this..."

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

Noticing the awkward 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 quite formidable.

Zuo Yi thought to himself that with Gao Feng's temper, if he could endure this, it was probably not merely because he had become more mature.

But when it came to relationship matters, even as his best friend, Zuo Yi had only just returned and could not say much. After all, he did not understand the situation, so he used an excuse to give Gao Feng some privacy.

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

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

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

"Works for me."

Gao Feng did not insist. He punched Zuo Yi twice on the shoulder, then hurried away.

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

That Fengzi!

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